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Latest Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Leaks Reveals the Complete New Dragon Cycle

With another passing week, we’ve got yet another leak revealing cards from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, the upcoming MTG set slated for release roughly a month from now on February 18. This is just another in a series of leaks around the set, and strangely, the last several leaked images have appeared in nearly exact one-week intervals. You can check out any of the leaks from Neon Dynasty by following these links:

Nobody knows who has been leaking these cards, but at this point it seems strangely systematic, and the images themselves seem to suggest that they may all be coming from the same source – purely speculation, of course, but the quality of the images has been quite consistent.

Regardless, we’ve got two new cards to look at today – although one of them is so blurry it can’t really be properly read. The one that is legible, Junji, the Midnight Sky, is a clear callback to the original cycle of legendary dragons from Kamigawa.

However, Junji isn’t a returning character from Kamigawa (the original black dragon in the cycle was Kokusho), suggesting that we might get an entirely new cycle of dragon spirits this time around. Let’s take a look at the card:

The Full Legendary Dragon Cycle

Update January 25, 2022: The complete cycle of the Legendary Dragons have now been leaked – in much better resolution!

Junji, the Midnight Sky

  • Card Name: Junji, the Midnight Sky
  • Mana Cost: {3}{B}{B}
  • Card Type: Legendary Creature – Dragon Spirit
  • Rarity: Mythic
  • Card Text:
    Flying, menace
    When Junji, the Midnight Sky dies, choose one –
    • Each opponent discards two cards and loses 2 life.
    • Put target non-Dragon creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. You lose 2 life.
  • Power/Toughness: 5/5

Junji follows the same basic format as the original Kamigawa dragons: it’s a 5/5 Legendary Dragon Spirit with a powerful ability that triggers when it’s put into the graveyard from play. Notably, it differs from the original dragons not only in that its death trigger has two modal options, but also because it costs only five mana whereas the original cycle all costed six.

In discussions about the return to the Kamigawa setting, it has been said by many that the original dragons were likely too steeply costed at six mana to be impactful in Standard (or Alchemy). The change to five mana is welcome, but not a big surprise, and was likely made in an attempt to ensure that the new dragons would be playable in the Arena formats.

Dragon tribal is already a powerful archetype in Alchemy and has been a player in Standard as well, so another powerful cycle of dragons could be highly impactful on either or both formats. In Alchemy, where Dragons is one of the most popular archetypes, the decks are usually either mono red or Boros; perhaps adding a powerful new dragon in each color will give deckbuilders more of a reason to branch out into other colors.

Now let’s check out the second card that was revealed, although fair warning: you probably won’t be able to see much.

Risona, Asari Commander

The only typeline that’s clearly visible on this washed out, blurry photo is the card’s title. We can gather that the card seems to be a rare legendary creature with a casting cost of {1}{R}{W}, and if you squint at the text box, it seems it deals with indestructible counters in some way. It also appears that the first combat ability is Haste, but it’s unclear.

Even on Reddit where a post showing off the image has over 600 upvotes, nobody has been able to decipher the text or put together anything legible from the card. We’ll probably have to wait until the card is officially spoiled to really know what Risona actually does, but it goes without saying that a hasty Boros legend that can gain indestructible could be a boon for aggro decks.

EDIT: One Reddit post has appeared that claims to have deciphered most of the text on Risona:

There are a few details missing, and it’s possible that u/Skaarl_Marx didn’t get everything right, so take it with a healthy bit of skepticism. However, this does give us a clearer picture of what the card actually says:

  • Card Name: Risona, Asari Commander
  • Mana Cost: {1}{R}{W}
  • Card Type: Legendary Creature – ???
  • Rarity: Mythic
  • Card Text:
    Haste
    Whenever Risona, Asari Commander deals combat damage to a player, if she doesn’t have an indestructible counter, put an indestructible counter on her.
    Whenever combat damage is dealt to you, remove an indestructible counter from her.
  • Power/Toughness: ???/3

We’re now just a few short weeks from the start of the official Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty previews. We’ll be there to provide spoilers and full coverage of the new set. In the meantime, we’ll be sure to keep you posted on all other news coming from the upcoming set release and other happenings on MTG Arena.

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Paul
Paul

Dude from Vermont who likes to play Magic and Escape from Tarkov. Musician, writer, and gamer. Submit feedback or corrections to @Paul on the Discord.

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