Fantastic Commander Decks To Go Big With Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

Rolling up our sleeves to brew with the pulse-pounding Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty continues! This set is so chock-full of exciting cards and spicy commanders that I just can’t help myself.  I built two versions of Isshin, Two Heavens as One last time, one targeted at playing well within my own group and one quite a bit spicier. 

The Samurai Commander: Building With Isshin, Two Heavens As One

I’m going to port that model of building to each new set.  I’ll take the commander I like the most and build one to play with the rest of the RC (or my locals, when we get to post-COVID times) and one for higher-powered play. 

That piece also debuted the concept of Pepper Tiers.  I’ll tag each new deck I build with a spice level to demonstrate what kind of group it might play in.  It’s not a definitive rating system, just something to give an idea of where the deck stands.  The Pepper Tier List looks like this:

Red Bell:  A little sweet, a Red Bell deck is easily digestible by nearly everyone.

Jalapeno: Just a small amount of heat, but something that lots of people can take without too much trouble.

Habanero:  You’ll need a fair amount of heat tolerance for a Habanero Tier deck.  It will come at you fast with lots of flavor, but then pack a back-end flamethrower.  This one is where you start warning people.

Ghost:  Not for the faint of heart.  A Ghost Tier deck makes no apologies for what it does.  It has immediate heat that does not subside.

Carolina Reaper:  This will straight-up kill you, even if you think you have heat tolerance.  Better have some interaction handy (probably in the form of a glass of milk). 

The Pepper Tiers now established, I’ll do three things this time.  First, I’ll provide some updates to the Satoru Umezawa deck I crafted when the card was first premiered.  Then I’ll build two new decks with Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty commanders.  Let’s get diving right in. 

Satoru Umezawa Updates

When we first saw Satoru Umezawa, I rushed to brew a deck.  Now that we’ve seen the whole Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty list, I’ll make a few changes before final assembly.

In:  Nashi, Moon Sage’s Scion

Out:  Sheoldred Whispering One

In keeping with the deck’s theme of using other players’ stuff, Nashi does the double duty of also exiling cards.  A little life loss isn’t going to hurt all that much in exchange for having access to cards.  Sheoldred goes out since it was intended as a position-holder anyway.  I knew that some new card from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty would fill its place.  The same will go for the next two removals.

In:  Silver-Fur Master

Out: Sepulchral Primordial

I don’t expect I’ll ninjutsu in this one all that often, instead choosing an early hard-cast so that other abilities get cheaper and the creatures get bigger.

In:  Moon-Circuit Hacker

Out:  Skullsnatcher

I like the fact that you’re not looting on the first try, what with the cheap ninjutsu ability.  Taking out some larger creatures in favor of smaller Ninjas means that I can hold back lands to pitch when looting. 

In:  Vela the Night-Clad

Out:  Wandering Archaic

With all the bouncing around, I figured it’d be nice to have a way of reducing life totals. Intimidate will lead to less blocking, which in turn leads to more Ninja-ing.  Vela also makes battlefield sweepers awkward. Wandering Archaic goes out because it’s a card I’ve started to squeeze into every new deck I build.  I don’t want it to become a staple of any sort, despite loving what it does. 

In:  Invoke Despair

Out:  Arcane Adaptation

Decks without white or green sometimes need to get rid of an annoying enchantment.  Enter Invoke Despair, which does quite a bit for its mana value (the four black pips notwithstanding).  Putting more Ninjas into the deck means less need for Arcane Adaptation. 

Even tightening up the mana curve some, Satoru’s Ninja Clones still warrants only Jalapeno-tier spice.  It’ll be fun to pilot without wrecking anyone’s day.

Hinata, Dawn-Crowned

My goal here was to build a Hinata, Dawn-Crowned deck in a fashion that’s not oppressive.  It doesn’t have any Stax elements, and it doesn’t rely too much on having a suite of spells that take over.  It enjoys certain obvious Hinata spells, but stays away from just piling on in droves.  Instead, it takes a Voltron direction via Auras, which Hinata makes one cheaper to cast.  Its own ability of making targeted spells slightly more expensive means that it’s going to eat a little less removal. 

The deck is all about getting Hinata onto the battlefield, slapping some Auras onto it, and going to town on faces.  It has a fair amount of interaction, but doesn’t try to amplify it with a card like Talrand, Sky Summoner.  It does contain one favorite combo:  Sovereigns of Lost Alara and Eldrazi Conscription.  My eternal regret is that the deck can’t also play Colossification.  I’m nostalgic enough to build a Bant deck just to make it happen. 

The deck makes use of the totem armor mechanic, one which I’d like to see resurrected a little more often.  I like Auras, but the opportunity of getting two-for-one’d (or worse) if the creature gets destroyed needs to be mitigated.  It can happen when the enchantment saves the creature or, in the case of enchantments like Unquenchable Fury, the enchantment returns itself to your hand.

Although Clone strategies can be sometimes overdone, I like them for their ability to scale to the other decks in the pod.  There are a few in here that will let us copy Hinata, which might lead to some very silly battlefield states, especially in casting stuff for less.  Remember that when we figure out what a spell costs, we start with what’s written in the upper right-hand corner.  If there’s X in it, we’ve declared the value on announcement.  We tack on any additions (like Thorn of Amethyst) first, and then subtract any reductions (like Hinata).  This can sometimes lead to announcing a value of X larger than what it seems like you can actually pay for the spell.   

The deck has enough early-, mid-, and late-game play to hang with most other decks.  It can also catch things right and dominate the battlefield for a few turns.  One way or another, I hope it’ll be fun to play without taking away too much from my friends. 

Junji, the Midnight Sky

Back when I did the Chromatic Project, I used the Theros Gods for the mono-colored designs.  The problem is that the only one I actually built and played (and still have together) was Thassa, God of the Sea.  I had an Erebos, God of the Dead deck built, but I found I kept parting out its components to build other ones.  This one seems like it’ll be a little more fun to play.

This was partially inspired by Carlos’s deck when I played on the Kingdoms TV stream last week.  It’s a post-Modern era throwback to when Commander was all about just plopping huge creatures onto the battlefield and wrecking with them.  I wanted to capture that same kind of feeling. 

That game, by the way, was tons of fun.  AliasV was the other guest, and they asked me to play my Durdling with Muldrotha deck.  Early in the game, we had to deal with her Vampires.  Eventually we did and Carlos had drained Jon enough for Maga, Traitor to Mortals to get him into the kill range as well.  That left me facing Carlos, who had a metric ton of mana and a pile of creatures.  I was dead to either a swing or him simply re-casting his commander. 

Fortunately, his life total was in the teens.  I realized that I could Demonic Tutor for Pernicious Deed.  I had enough mana to cast it, wipe the battlefield clean, and then cast Puppeteer Clique and sacrifice it to High Market in order to get his two biggest Demons and send them in for the win.  It was a fitting end to a wild game.  Carlos and Jon are good beats, so if you get a chance to play with them, go for it. 

The game plan for this Junji deck is pretty simple.  It involves setting up the mana farm and casting huge things.  There are sweepers in order to get creatures that could put a crimp on our style.  The large amount of mana will allow us to cast Junji multiple times in order to either lay some beats or get back a huge creature.  If things go right, a big Exsanguinate will be a finisher.

One of my favorite things to do is to reanimate creatures from other players’ graveyards.  Sepulchral Primordial does it on entering the battlefield.  Rakshasa Debaser does it as a nice attack trigger.  The encore ability of Rakshasa Debaser is intended as a finisher. 

There’s also the low-life plan involving Repay in Kind.  We could get there the traditional way or via Necropotence, which is honestly more about filling up our hand a few cards at a time than a combo.  I’d prefer to keep my life total high.  There are a number of creatures that have lifelink for this very purpose.  Then there’s Mask of Griselbrand and Basilisk Collar to equip and give anyone lifelink.

I’ve jammed in a few old-school cards as well.  One of them is a sweeper, Kagemaro, First to Suffer.  Being a Maro-Sorcerer (well, technically Demon Spirit), it can get buffed up by Necropotence in order to be a big sweeper.  The other is Thrashing Wumpus, which is the OG Pestilence Demon.  Attaching Basilisk Collar or Mask of Griselbrand to either will result in considerable lifegain.  It was like the ancient days, when Crypt Rats was a more popular card.   

The deck isn’t a threat to win the game on an early turn.  Left to its own devices, it’ll do something huge, but not anytime soon.  It’s definitely a mid- to late-game deck.  The reason I bumped it up to Barely Jalapeno level is the presence of Jeweled Lotus and the possibility of casting Junji as early as Turn 2.  Junji that early is going to deal out some damage, but it’s not going to take over the game.  If left unchecked, that could kill someone (it still needs five hits), but our tendency to be a “spread the love” table will likely keep that from happening. 

I suppose that if someone is building an early machine that threatens the table, we could make the commander damage threat.  Junji is there mostly for the trigger, though, not the beats.  And yes, I realize that it can’t get Kokusho, the Evening Star, but I think you don’t need to reanimate Kokopuffs in order for it to be good.  Plus, there’s always Volrath’s Stronghold.

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty continues to be the set that keeps on giving.  While the legendary creatures aren’t the main focus, it nonetheless offers brewers and builders plenty of choice in finding the commanders for something new.  I’ve found mine; I suspect you’ll have a good time with yours.

As always, if you’d like to discuss any of the details of this piece, pop on over to the Commander RC Discord server.  There’s a channel dedicated to doing just that. Hope to see you there.