[Monday Musings] Champions of Kamigawa: Breakdown
Welcome back to TwistedSpoon Studio! Every other Monday, we discuss thoughts on game design, ranging from ideas and advice to analysis of published games. With Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty on the horizon, this week is going to be the latter. We're going all the way back to 2004 to break down Champions of Kamigawa, the first entry into one of the worst-received Magic sets of all time. But was Kamigawa really so bad? And if it was, why is Wizards returning? We're going to analyze the set's themes and mechanics to see if we can answer that question. Themes Kamigawa is a top-down plane of Japanese folklore. In order to capture that flavor, Wizards focused on two main themes: Legendary and Spirits. Legendary: 1.33 per pack ASFAN 10 uncommon, 60 rare Every creature at rare was Legendary, as well as a cycle of lands, a handful of artifacts, and two cycles at uncommon. On average, that's a Legendary card in every pack! So ...