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First Impressions - Kamigawa .
Craig Giblett .

Whether there was a general feeling of anticipation amongst the greater Magic The Gathering fan base for the release of Champions of Kamigawa (CHK) is hard to quantify as it seems the set was ushered in with little fanfare or celebration like previous sets over the past several years (At one point in late 2000 it was near impossible to get a box of Invasion in Australia as many stores had run out of supply. Mirrodin was hugely popular as well, perhaps only because its release meant the demise of the much hated Psychatog and Wake decks in Type 2). The prerelease was suddenly upon us and with the usual coverage on Magicthegathering.com and spoilers appearing on various other sites there did not appear to great excitement. Although, numbers were very strong in Sydney for this one.

Despite this (And most likely the author has the wrong impression and CHK is the most anticipated set since time began), there are 300 odd new cards to sift through with States only a mere 4 weeks away. This article is not intended to be an authoritive analysis on the worthiness of CHK in tournament play, rather, as the title suggests, the brief first impressions of the author of the new set both in limited and T2, with a little prediction or two just to keep things even.

The first thing one is most likely to notice about the set, is the bleeding obvious, the Japanese mythical theme that runs right through it, barely leaving a card untouched. This, is a good thing and is a distinct break from previous sets where their themes have been heavily influenced on a mechanical basis and not a thematical one. This can make the set initially more exciting as one does not feel the guiding hand of Wizards R&D pointing deck builders in a particular direction, which can lead to disastrous results (remember UG madness anyone? Oh and we wont be forgetting Affinity anytime soon will we?). This will hopefully result in more options for deck building and innovation. There are strong mechanical trends in the set such as Soulshift, Arcane and Bushido, but they do not point so blatantly at a new deck as we have seen in the past.

That is not to say that the mechanics are inherently weak at all, it is the cards that they are printed on that are generally mediocre for constructed tournament play. Of course there are exceptions to this, take for example Samurai Of The Pale Curtain. It is far from a bomb card and will not be breaking any metagames, neither is it the card that White Weenie has been searching for for all these years. Rather, it is a solid 2/2 for 2 white mana that will be hard to block in the early game, as it will grow with it's Bushido 1, and probably the best early defensive creature a white beats deck will have against the juggernaut that is Affinity.

Instead, and for a nice change of pace, it is the non mechanically themed cards that stand out as the ones more likely to be seeing a good deal of play come states. At the prerelease here in Sydney all the talk was about Cranial Extraction, one cannot remember the amount of times people had asked whether you had any of these for trade or sale or were talking about it in such high esteem. Another in this category is Time Stop. A powerful card no doubt, but maybe not in the same category as the Extraction. As Osyp Lebedowicz said in an article on magicthegathering.com: "Boseiju, Who Shelters All seems very good in Tooth and Nail against control decks - so much so that I have to believe a permission deck would need to board in Time Stop in order to deal with it."

Quite a situational use for a card that has so much buzz surrounding it. There is no doubt, however, that Time Stop is not merely limited like so, as the more inventive players will surely be able to put Time Stop to more varied and better use than the author has been able to portray thus far. Regardless, there is no doubt that Cranial Extraction is a top card and will find itself in many a deck sporting black. Another powerful card that has generated some talk is Ghostly Prison, a pure control players dream. It is shaping up to be a good card vs the land light Affinity and excellent against any other beat down/creature deck that may emerge in the format.

Limited, however, appears to be a different kettle of fish (Where did that saying come from? It is probably a saying from an ancient civilisation in the mediterranean somewhere. I can just imagine it now, a bunch of ancient Summerians standing around a huge kettle full of fish saying "This is a different kettle of fish to yesterdays catch" or something like that). The one thing that has stood out in the set so far is the lack of medium sized creatures. It appears that there is an oversupply of weenies in CHK. Most creatures, especially at common level, have a toughness of two or less. This makes a lot of them disturbingly vulnerable to Frostwielder. Viridian Longbow would have been nothing short of abusive in this format (not that it wasn't great in Mirrodin Block limited). Despite this, there is a lot of fun to be had in CHK limited. The colours, at such an early glance, appear to be more balanced than limited formats of the past, except maybe blue, but blue always gets the short end of the stick in limited.

Contiunuing with limited, there is one potential problem with one aspect of the set design: all rare creatures being legendary and costed aggressively to be, in many cases, viable tournament staples. Azusa could be potentially powerful when applied as an early to midgame mana accelerator and the prerelease foil, Ryusei, the Falling Star, could be a staple for red control decks in the new T2. The downside though is that these and many other solid legendary creatures can create, what I like to call "Onslaught Syndrome" (Ah ha! I finally coined a phrase in print! Surely, in esteemed, intellectual circles many years from now, they will be referring to this and many other brillant things I have thought in great regard!). The Onslaught Syndrome is the type of limited environment that is overloaded with too many rare bombs. Onslaught was infamous for this, especially in the pre-Legions format, and, sadly, it looks as though this may also be the case, only time will tell.

On the flip side, having so many good rare creatures can make for some interesting descisions in deck design, especially for the red and green mages, who get an excellent selection of tournament worthy rares. One that should be mentioned is Boseiju, Who Shelters All. How potent a card it is will be determined how much blue is seen in the format. With a pair of good counterspells and some great search cards like Peer Through Depths and Gifts Ungiven, blue may see some serious tournament play this spring. If blue is prominent in the metagame, especially in the form of a tier 1 control deck, then Boseiju may be sneeking in to many a deck or two to protect crucial spells like Deathcloud or even to win counter wars. How many Boseiju would you play in your deck if you needed to use it?

In no way is CHK a bad set at all, it has a lot of interesting cards and excellent tournament worthy bombs and maybe just a little too many rare limited bombs - for this writer's liking (Kumano, Master Yamabushi is insane! I pray that I will get one in my cardpool come this sunday!). It has an excellent theme and the artwork is beautiful to boot, no more ugly grey, robot looking things for us, no siree! I am looking forward to competing in states this year, it is in no small part to the fact that CHK is out as there are so many cards to like and I am looking forward to playing with many of them. It would be interesting to see if a viable R/G beatdown deck could re-emerge this year, although that may be a hard task! No doubt there will be talk this year around the boards that maybe, just maybe white weenie could finally make it to "playable" status.
And pigs might fly!