Early leaks that spoil cards from upcoming sets have been fairly commonplace in the Magic: The Gathering community for years, but over the past months, Wizards of the Coast has been keeping a pretty tight lid on their upcoming releases. Recently, however, leaks have once again been surfacing depicting cards and art that appear to be from the February 2022 set Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.
Earlier in December, Wizards gave us an official teaser for the set, which included official card previews and seemed to confirm the authenticity of the set symbol from the earlier leak:
Today, a new unverified leak appeared, featuring two images that seem to show four more cards from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. It’s a strange leak: three of the four cards are in English with just one of them in Italian, and one of the cards appears to have significant damage on both sides. Some of the other cards seem to also have some bend and damage, perhaps implying that they were smuggled from somewhere.
With that being said, the set symbols and templating seems correct, and these appear to be legitimate. Of course, with no official confirmation, these cards come with the same caveats as any leaks that appear online: it’s possible that they could have been faked or otherwise manipulated in some way, so take them with a grain of salt. The leak first appeared on Reddit’s r/MTGRumors:
If they do turn out to be real, there are some interesting things to be learned from these cards, including a double-faced Enchantment that’s a Saga reminiscent of The Eldest Reborn on one side and a powerful Enchantment Dragon on the other. The Italian card, a red instant damage spell, also references a new keyword: “modified.” According to the explainer text, a creature that is equipped, enchanted, or has counters is considered modified.
The modified keyword seems to mesh well with Neon Dynasty’s cyberpunk styling and core conflict between tradition and progress. The original poster of the MTGRumors thread, u/ArizonaSalad, also pointed out that one of the Commander deck titles that had previously been leaked by Amazon was “Upgrades Unleashed” – a theme that falls right in line with the idea of “modified” creatures.
And now, on to the actual card images! Transcriptions for each and a rough translation for the card shown in Italian are included below:
The Leak
Jukai Trainee
- Card Name: Jukai Trainee
- Mana Cost: {1}{G}
- Card Type: Creature – Human Samurai
- Rarity: Common
- Card Text:
Whenever Jukai Trainee blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn. - Power/Toughness: 2/2
Nezumi Prowler
- Card Name: Nezumi Prowler
- Mana Cost: {1}{B}
- Card Type: Creature – Rat Ninja
- Rarity: Common
- Card Text:
Ninjutsu {1}{B}
When Nezumi Prowler enters the battlefield, target creature you control gains deathtouch and lifelink until end of turn. - Power/Toughness: 3/1
“Flame Discharge”
- Card Name: “Flame Discharge”
- Mana Cost: {X}{R}
- Card Type: Instant
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Card Text:
“Flame Discharge” deals X damage to target creature or planeswalker. If you control a modified creature, deal X plus 2 damage instead. (Creatures that are equipped, enchanted, or have counters are modified.)
The Kami War / O-Kagachi Made Manifest
- Card Name: The Kami War
- Mana Cost: {1}{W}{U}{B}{R}{G}
- Card Type: Enchantment – Saga
- Rarity: Mythic
- Card Text:
{I}: Exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls.
{II}: Return up to one other target nonland permanent to its owner’s hand. Then each opponent discards a card.
{III}: Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control.
- Card Name: O-Kagachi Made Manifest
- Card Type: Enchantment Creature – Dragon Spirit
- Rarity: Mythic
- Card Text:
O-Kagachi Made Manifest is all colors.
Flying, trample
Whenever O-Kagachi Made Manifest attacks, defending player chooses a nonland card in your graveyard. Return that card to your hand. O-Kagachi Made Manifest gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the mana value of that card. - Power/Toughness: 6/6
Despite the leaks and the official teaser, we’re still about a month away from official Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty previews. It remains to be seen if the leaks will continue, but we’ll continue keeping you posted on anything that comes to the surface regarding Neon Dynasty and other MTG products.
