Neon Dynasty Commander 7point Highlander set review

Yuck, what an ugly blog post name.

I took a writing hiatus to go deep on Pioneer for the ANZ super series final last year. Unfortunately the approach I take to Highlander is not applicable in the real world of competitive Magic the Gathering and I finished 4-4. But let's face it, my approach to 7PH doesn't work in the world of 7PH...

I wrote my Neon Dynasty and New Capenna set reviews as a way of checking for any sleeper cards for Pioneer, but I skipped their respective commander expansions because they aren't legal in Pioneer, obviously. So I'm coming back to them now.

Writing these set reviews is part of my process for identifying which cards I want to buy. Falling behind  has cost me a lot of money, having to buy new cards after they become popular, so it's time to catch up!

Very interesting card. Quite unique. Not super powerful but very cheap.

I can see this working well in an aggressive Lurrus companion deck. Such a deck would create many opportunities for ~ to shine:

The best scenario is the opponent pointing a creature removal spell at Lurrus and you respond by turning Lurrus into a vehicle. She retains her powerful ability and you don't care if she can't attack or block easily because you don't want her dying in combat anyway.

Having an aggressive creature strategy in this deck also let's you utilise ~ as a psuedo Pacifism.

Further more, if you run the equipment package in your deck, there's a chance your opponents sideboard cards which destroy all artifacts. If they cast one of these, you could enchant one of their creatures in response to destroy it.

If you're running the equipment package you may also be interested in Open the Armory, which can also find ~ because it's an aura.

~ can effectively give a creature haste if all you're interested in is the creature's tap ability and not attacking/blocking.

~ does have it's weaknesses of course; Ephemerate and Boseiju, Who Endures are popular, so you might get ambushed in combat. Also the opponent may simply crew the enchanted card if they land a big creature.

I read the flavour text and teared up thinking about that Futurama episode... Oh god T_T

~ is a 1drop that can win the game by himself without any further mana investment. He is more than just a good boy.

~ triggers off all of your legendary permanents. More and more legendary lands are getting printed, further increasing ~'s strength.

Mox Amber will win the game in a deck built for it. 1drop legends turbocharge Mox Amber. However, playable 1drop legends are few and far between, and the ones which have been printed are gradually getting worse thanks to power creep. ~ is the 2nd best 1drop legend ever printed. Ragavan is 1st.

All blue decks which can support Tolarian Academy should be running ~.

~ typically gets cast turn3, which makes the ward4 very difficult for the opponent to pay.

Weirdly, ~'s triggered ability triggers off ~ itself entering. 

Artifact-heavy decks often deploy multiple artifacts on their turn; ~ is roughly a 7/7 hexproof unblockable creature attacking on turn 4. Ridiculous power level, killing in 3 hits. Plus it doesn't care about Null Rod.

Good for animating cheap vehicles with huge crew costs, a little bit like using Sigarda's Aid to equip a Colossal Hammer early.

You really need the vehicles to be <3 mana, i.e. cheaper than ~, so that you can curve and attack immediately. You want to cast the vehicle first, then ~, otherwise ~ could die beforhand and you won't be able to crew. Vehicles which are suitable are:

Consulate Dreadnought

Colossal Plow

Heart of Kiran

Reckoner Bankbuster

Smuggler's Copter

Unlicensed Hearse

Other creatures you can use to crew these vehicles are:

Giant Ox

Relic Golem

Shambling Suit

Nettlecyst

Urza's Saga

Master of Etherium

Special mention to Weatherlight Compleated, which is good with ~ but bad otherwise.

If we splash black we also have:

Rotting Regisaur

Shakedown Heavy

Or if we splash green we get:

Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath

Lovestruck Beast

Three colours is pretty hard to do in artifact decks cause you want all the colourless and off-colour artifact lands. I would much prefer the green plash though because you get land tutors which find Tolarian Academy and Urza's Saga. 

There's also a bunch of 4drops but we really want to be attacking turn 3 with our Colossal Plow and Consulate Dreadnought.

Realistically there currently aren't enough payoff vehicles to make Giant Ox, Relic Golem and ~ worth it. If they print more high power cheap vehicles in the future then we can revisit. Having said that, I think the best build of artifacts is one which can win through Null Rod, and vehicles aren't that.

Wow, that's the end of the set review. Short and sweet.

Yoshimaru and Kappa Canoneer are huge additions to Mox Amber and Artifact decks respectively.

Arigato gozaimasu