Yesterday, Wizards of the Coast showed off cards from the newest set, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. This set features a return to the Kamigawa block of old, but with a new cyberpunk twist. The landscape is changed, there are evil creatures known as Phyrexians attacking, and yet, we’re back to some old locales. In this case, it’s Boseiju. The original card, “Boseiju, Who Shelters All” is an important land for combo decks and other players trying to save their spells from counters. This time around, Boseiju has a massive upgrade.
This new version of the land, “Boseiju, Who Endures” is likely one of the most warping cards that Wizards of the Coast has printed in a long time. In Standard, Historic, and Alchemy, this might not see the play that you’d think. You can throw one into your deck for basically a free way to destroy an artifact, enchantment, or land, that’s pretty simple. However, when you reach back into the older formats of Magic and get into the places where powerful enchantments, artifacts, and lands live, alongside even more powerful decks that are shut out by these cards, you get the problem zone.
Formats like Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, EDH, and Cube draft are all targets for this card now. With powerful spells like “Wrenn and Six“, “Life From The Loam“, “Seismic Assault“, and others that involve pitching or bringing back lands to your hand, you can lock your opponents out of lands at a certain point. That’s not really the best-case scenario for this card though. It’s just the easiest fit to think of.
Primeval Titan’s Best Friend, Any Other Artifact/Enchantment’s Worst Nightmare
In the Modern format, “Primeval Titan” decks have a big problem with the card “Blood Moon”. Now, especially the “Amulet of Vigor” decks, have an easy, tutorable way to destroy “Blood Moon” or any other card that’s causing issues. The inverse is also true. Amulet Titan plays “Amulet of Vigor“, “Urza’s Saga“, and “Dryad of the Ilysian Grove“, which all get tagged by this card. So one deck’s new best friend is also its enemy.
Other decks like the powerful “Crashing Footfalls” Cascade decks, don’t have the deck-space to play cards like “Naturalize” and three mana options are too costly in Modern. This card slots right into their decks and gives them outs to problematic cards like “Chalice of the Void” and “Void Mirror“.
This card doesn’t seem problematic on the face of things, but it could warp the colors that see play in Modern now. Green has long waxed and waned as the best or worst color among the older Magic formats. In Modern, this means that to compete on a given weekend, you need to play green.
The most powerful aspect of “Boseiju, Who Endures” is the flexibility it brings. Any random nonsense that you run into playing powerful lands, artifacts, or enchantments, can easily be answered by two mana and this land. It’s a catch-all that most decks don’t normally get access to.
We’ll Have To See What Else Is In Store With Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
It seems like Wizards of the Coast really want Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty to be a hit. From the looks of several preview cards, we’re in store for a hell of a story and power level. It remains to be seen whether “Boseiju, Who Endures” takes over the older formats of Magic or not, but it’s definitely got a new place near the top.
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