In light of the lead up to and release of the new Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, Magic players were given glimpse into a set that was markedly unlike any other. The fact that the game is returning to Kamigawa at all proved quite a shock as Wizards had long said they were reluctant to go back to a plane that was very hit-or-miss with audiences, didn’t sell comparatively well as some of the other sets of its time period, and it had a lot of mechanical parasiticism that made them difficult to adapt or resurrect without major headaches. There was a lot of challenge in the idea of going back there. On top of all that, the original Kamigawa block took place centuries before the contemporary storyline, which meant that lore-wise either another set would need to be set in the past as well or they’d need to jump massively forward to bring it to the modern timeline.

Which, as it turns out, is precisely what they did. And it definitely caught some people by surprise.

As the name implies, Neon Dynasty is not quite the same visit as the last trip to the plane. Not only is the war between humans and kami long over, but so too has their civilization advanced substantially over the last millennia. So much so, in fact, that something something handwavey explanation about magic on the plane, Kamigawa moved from a feudal Japan inspired theme to out right cyberpunk. Like Android: Netrunner level cyberpunk. Sure, some of the lasting culture is still there, and the set puts forth an interesting dichotomy between factions favoring the more traditional elements (i.e. the parts of Kamigawa we remember with samurai, kami, and allusions to past characters) and the drive of progress (i.e. shiny futuristic tech!). Not only is a tension that is reflective of the real-world culture for which it’s alluding to, it also sets up a decent contrast within the set itself mechanically.

However, Phyrexian presence aside (they spoiled that super early), a debate quickly emerged online about whether the cyberpunk vibe maybe went a little too far aesthetically for the Magic brand. Magic, after all, is a fantasy-laden enterprise full of arcane spells and mystical creatures. Some in the community were a little put off just how deep into cyberpunk flavor it goes, full of gadgets, tech lingo, mechs, bio-augmentation, and more. To them, this felt antithetical to a game called Magic. Others countered with what is best summed up by the now iconic 3rd law from sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke: any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. They point out that like Kaladesh’s aether machines, Kamigawa is still magically powered. It’s just gotten a bit advanced in how that magic has manifested is all – which is what you may expect from a thousand or more years of coexistence with the plane’s spiritual inhabitants.

Personally, I come down more in the middle on this argument. On the one hand, I do think there are limits to which one can conceivably stretch the boundaries of “acceptable” concepts for a game rooted in Western fantasy tropes, and Neon Dynasty does feel like it edges things closer in the direction. If nothing else than because the more you push in that direction the more you have to start worrying about the proliferation of such tech onto other planes and how in many cases such things would be clearly superior against other forces in other realms. It’s the old axiom about even a few guns could have single-handedly changed the trajectory of some ancient battles. And that is about the only reason I accept their (other) handwavey explanation of the set about how Kamigawa tech apparently doesn’t work off-world.

On the other hand, no, that Rubicon hasn’t been breached quite yet. I think the Universes Beyond model of non-Magic IP has more disruptive potential than what Kamigawa is presenting here, even if it does stretch the classic vision of the Magic ‘look’. For all the flash and, well, neon, Kamigawa isn’t offering anything wildly divergent than what’s already possible in the game, so it’s not like you can suddenly do things in the game that weren’t possible before. Quite the contrary: many of the things in Kamigawa that seemed to perturb people somewhat has already been done before.

Mechanized battle suits? Done that. Advanced arcane projectile weaponry? Check. Artificial AI constructs capable of thought indistinguishable from normal living things? Hi, one of them is a planeswalker.

Heck, one of the game’s original villains is a bio-mechanoid race that literally fuses machine and biological components.

So, no, I am not one who feels like Kamigawa has pushed things past that point where ‘Magic has stopped being Magic’. Far from it. Is it a bit out of place by comparison? Sure. But that’s more perceptual than anything else.

All of this got me thinking about an old card that incidentally hammers home this central point. A card that also happens to also live in memory for being a wildly useful multiplayer card that largely still holds up.

Today we have: Void

Name: Void

Edition: Invasion / Timeshifted / Eternal Masters

Rarity: Rare

Focus: Mass Removal / Card Discard

Highlights: Here you go. Giant battlefield mech suit unleashed during the battle against Yawgmoth during the Invasion block – complete with energy weapons and everything. They did table such concepts and depictions for years afterwards due to similar complaints as today, but so too was the explanation – at the time it was argued it worked given that Urza spent thousands of years working on such war efforts. Reviving their presence in the game in small quantities is not the end of the world. If it worked within the confines of that era of the game, Kamigawa is fine. What’s old is new again.

That also speaks to the usefulness of Void itself.

Setting aside the slight oddity of the name compared to said illustration (presumably focusing on an ‘into the void’ battle allusion), Void has the potential to be incredibly useful at causing some refined and pointed pain both on and off the battlefield.

For five mana, this Black / Red sorcery essentially has two separate effects linked to the same choice. The first is arguably its more useful component: a targeted board wipe. When Void resolves, you choose a number. Then, any creature or artifact on the board with that stated mana value is destroyed. This allows you to target some (albiet not all) of whatever you deem to be the most pressing problems on the board at that time and destroy them without necessarily resorting to destroying everything in your path. Such a move can be highly advantageous in multiplayer such as Commander as it allows table politics to come into play, for instance, by potentially decimating one opponent while sparing another. Cost-wise it’s also pretty affordable for a selective board wipe, as five mana or more is pretty standard nowadays for many forms of mass board removal.

Moreover, it’s a pretty malleable card in the sense that the number you choose isn’t stated until the card resolved. Which means that any responses to Void must be done before you even state which number is going to be culled; there is no time for opponents to react once the number is stated. In theory such a timing distinction is minor, but as someone who has leveraged it successfully over the years, I can attest this little fact has a real habit of playing mind games with people (similar to, say Oblivion Ring).

Secondly, Void acts as a targeted discard card. When you cast Void you choose an opponent (99.5% of the time anyway). Upon resolution of the card, that player must also reveal their hand and discard any cards matching the mana value of that number. While less potent in situations when you’re staring down 3-5 enemy players versus a single one, this can still be a highly useful maneuver against a player sitting with a lot of cards in their hand or someone you’re worried about having responses to your next move. Doubly so if you think they’re sitting on a bunch of cards of a certain value. The only caveat to this is that it’s also entirely possible to completely whiff on the discard portion and not have them discard anything.

As a result, as discard cards go Void is a gamble that doesn’t always pay off. Instead, it’s better to think of that part as a free kicker effect more than something to rely on. As a board wipe goes though, it’s hard to argue with how useful it can be to pick a specific subset of cards on the battlefield and have them, well, voided out.

The efficacy of those futuristic energy weapons and all that.

Keep an eye out for us to be regularly featuring other more accessible-but-worth-it Commander cards going forward. In the meantime, we’ll keep the light on for you.

You can discuss this article over on our social media!