-- snapshot version before NEO inclusions --

This summary doesn't cover lore. You could try e.g. here, or here.

1. Design Overview.
2. Sample of Tribes and Mechanics in Kamigawa Block.
3. Sample of Offplane Inclusions.

Design Overview

Welcome to the environment where a vanilla 1/1 is playable: Champions of Kamigawa.

The focus is on CHK-style gameplay that is more replayable than the original block. It has extensive paper playtesting in 6-player booster draft and 2-player triple sealed. We use a 4-2-1 duplicate ratio locked to the printed rarity on the cards.

Some cards are off-plane inclusions, interpreted as 'reprints' onto the plane from other sets. They obey the following rules:

• They were released after Champions of Kamigawa, but prior to Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.
• They shouldn't take center stage without good reason. Examples of exceptions that take center stage include Gluttonous Slug serving as a foe for samurai to battle, Gaze of Justice providing a build-around archetype for small creatures in white, and Arc Blade mimicking the Kamigawa mechanic Epic, especially as suspend was originally designed for SOK.
• They should add gameplay complexity, especially lenticular, without raising comprehension complexity too much.
• They have requirements on flavour and art such that you can interpret them as being set on Kamigawa.
• They normally follow the same overall frame styling as cards from 2005. (So no post-2020 Legendary frame.)
• They aren't double-faced.

Almost all CHK-BOK-SOK horizontal cycles appear as partial cycles of 2-4 cards. Deprecated mechanics, such as Fear and Regenerate, are removed.

Artifact removal is completely missing — a cool option limited-only environments allow for — which has the effect of making some of the more questionable Kamigawa artifacts quite playable. Equipment, a very recent innovation in 2004, and often overpowered in CHK block, is toned down.

We skip various sets of cards from SOK, such as those with frequent graveyard checking, but large pieces of SOK are kept, which is currently fairly unusual for a CHK cube. SOK's 'all hell breaks loose' theme made many players quit Magic, but here some mild hell breaks loose.

We used the original Kamigawa lands for a while, but found players were punished too hard for running more than two colors, so we moved to stronger duals. This is an example of the difference in philosophy between this cube and cubes more representational of OG Kamigawa: we opt for 'fixes' that improve gameplay.

The overall speed of play is slow; creature-based aggro strategies that shaped the CHK limited meta have been dialed back. Kamigawa was also famous for its board stalls, which we actually encourage, just adding some extra ways to help games end, in addition to those in the original block.

The defining feature of deck construction in CHK limited is polarisation. Spirits and arcane encourage you to play more of themselves and each other. Everything pushes towards the spirit-world. Only the quality of your other cards might hold you back, so how far to play along is the player's dilemma. Playing up this dynamic, we eschew the hate cards that aren't really needed in limited.

We avoid most hate on hand-size or Legendary-matters, too, but with different rationale: these mechanical themes are already only just supportable with the tools available.

Over the last decade Wizards R&D has used a ‘signpost uncommon’ philosophy for multicolor uncommons. We make some use of this, but also use multicolor slots to extend the color pair's behaviour, or work optimally with cards outside their color identity. We're hamstrung by the constraints of Modern's card pool anyway, but both signposts and mechanical diversity are important, because we (ideally) aim for both approachability and replayability.

We avoid draft traps. For example, as of 2021, samurai are hard to support in any format; this cube doesn't attempt to support samurai outside of white, and foregoes nonwhite samurai that might be taken as a signal of samurai being a broader draft archetype. (Warriors — the 'dark samurai' tribe, just as common in CHK — add to their single tribal card in CHK with two extras.) The aim is only to be kind to the uninitiated; certain cards are challenging on their face — others, though possible, aren't fooling anyone.

Originally this cube was pure intended-as-Kamigawa designs, until my playgroup felt the gaps in the block's gameplay too painfully. The offplane choices are original — excepting, I think, the Vivid lands (which I saw on other cubes and play great in this block), and the genius in a Discord channel who suggested Zuran Orb.

This cubecobra URL's development ceased upon the release of NEO spoilers, as a natural stopping place and as a snapshot of Kamigawa gameplay before that block. If I were to make another similar cube, I'd use custom card designs, even though Wizards cards have the advantage of being simpler to play with other Magic players.

If you’ve read this far, please follow the cube :)

Themes and mechanics in CHK block

To aid as an introduction to draft, only cards appearing in this cube are listed.

Kami/Mortals Conflict

Samurai | Bushido

Soratami

Ninjas | Ninjutsu

Ogres & Oni

Akki

Orochi

Flip Cards

Soulshift

Arcane | Splice onto Arcane

Channel

Wisdom (hand size) Matters

Sweep | Hand-size Changing

Spirit Multi-Sac

Legendary Theme

Legendary Shrines

Legendary Spirits

Big Mana Costs

Sample of 'reprints' onto the plane