Welcome to my Kamigawa cube! I have now expanded this cube to 450 cards. You can find the larger version here.. I didn't want to remove this list, however, so here you'll find cards from every Kamigawa set and a sprinkling of flavorful additions. This primer will help you see what's possible and get an edge on the draft.

About Kamigawa

Kamigawa is a unique plane within the multiverse. One half is the spirit realm (known as the Kakuriyo or Reikai), where the immortal kami dwell. The other half is the Utsushiyo, where mortals such as humans, foxes, rats, and moonfolk spend their lives.

In the feudal era thousands of years ago, the human daimyo, Lord Konda, secretly stole a piece of O-Kagachi, the supreme kami. This led to a terrible, decades-long war between the two halves of the plane.

After twenty years, fate would have it that Konda's daughter, Michiko, would discover the truth about her father's crime. Follwing this, she, alongside Kyodai (That Which Was Taken) and Toshiro Umezawa, would ultimately defeat her father in battle and restore peace to the realm.

Much has happened since then.

Technology has continued to advance. The societies in Utsushiyo have grown more complex, their inhabitant's lives more complicated--yet the mortals still remember their ancestors and the legend of The Kami War.

Introduction & Drafting the Cube

This is a combat-focused cube, with at least a dozen well-supported archetypes to explore. Drafters can safely rely on the skills they use when drafting a normal Standard set to see them through deck-building.

On Kamigawa, most spells are mono-colored, so most players should aim to build two-color decks. The modest color-fixing does allow three- and five-color decks on occassion, but these tend to be draft/seat specific.

There are several synergy-based decks to draft, such as ninjas or samurai, but you should always prioitize bombs and removal if you hope to stand a chance against opposing spirit dragons.

Rules reminders

• Equip is a targeted ability. This means Kodama of the North Tree can't be the target of an equip ability, and Horobi, Death's Wail will kill any creature attempts to equip.
• Modified is...
• Soulshift is...
• Creatures that change controllers have summoning sickness. This means they can't attack or activate their abilities on the same turn that they change controllers unless they have Haste.
• Some cards have abilities that trigger "when ~ comes into play". This wording has been updated to trigger when the card enters the battlefield.
• Some cards have abilities that trigger "whenever you play a Spirit or Arcane spell". This wording has been updated to trigger on-cast.
• Spells on the stack are not in your hand. Only Behold the Unspeakable cares about this now, but it was important to know in the original block.
• Genju of the Fields' ability can be activated multiple times. Doing so will essentially give it multiple instances of lifelink.
• Shrine is not a creature subtype, it is an Enchantment subtype. Don't draft Secluded Courtyard if you're on the Shrine deck.

How to Splice

Splice to Arcane is a complicated mechanic, so it deserves special attention. To Splice a card, reveal it from your hand when you cast an Arcane spell, then pay the spell's cost and the additional Splice cost. The Spliced card does not go on the stack, it remains in your hand. Splice cannot be countered or responded to, however the Arcane spell can be. If the spell resolves, the Splice effect will be added to the bottom of the Arcane spell's text box.

Arcane House Rule

Errata all instances of "Arcane" to "Spirit".

How does it work?
With this rule, players can splice onto arcane spells and spirit creatures. Splicing onto a spirit creature is just like splicing onto an instant or sorcery, the only difference being that when the spirit creature resolves, the spliced ability will trigger when it enters the battlefield.

For example, if Julie has a Lantern Kami she wants to splice Spiritual Visit onto, she would first announce casting Lantern Kami and simultaneously reveal Spiritual Visit from her hand. Julie then pays for Lantern Kami and for Spiritual Visit's splice cost. Lantern Kami goes on the stack with "When ~ enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 Spirit creature token." at the bottom of its text box.

Once the spell and ability resolve, Julie will control a Lantern Kami, a 1/1 Spirit token, and her Spiritual Visit remains in her hand.

Why make this change?
Splice to Arcane is one of Kamigawa's biggest misses. It’s flavourful, but parasitic to the point of irrelevancy. Wizards of the Coast has since sought less-narrow versions of Splice, such as Splice to Instant or Sorcery. This house rule is an attempt to accomplish something similar.

How does it play?
The biggest change is that this rule helps Arcane and Soulshift to be more relevant. Kodama's Might is the card that seems to benefit most, but anything that points drafters to the spirit deck is a net positive. Importantly, this rule is elegant and easy to apply during the draft potion and overall I believe it's worth adding to the draft environment.

Draft Archetypes

WX Legendary Matters
UX Flyers
BX Control
RX Aggro
GX Spirits
UBr Ninjas
GWb Enchantments
URb Artifacts
WRb Samurai
RGx Modified
UGx Ramp
5C Shrines

Cycles & Minicycles

The Genjus
The Marches
The Secret Lair Legends (Michiko, Kira, Toshiro, Hidetsugu, Reki)
Spiritcraft Flip Creatures
The Mystical Archives
The Legendary Lands x2
The Legendary Dragons x2
The Legendary Shrines x3
Ghost-Lit
Kagemaro and Soramaro
Brothers Yamazaki

White Samurai and Black Samurai

Cloudhoof Kirin and Infernal Kirin

Achievements (easiest to hardest/most costly/luck dependant)

• Flip any creature
• Gain control of a Legendary creature with Threads of Disloyalty
  ** Beat an opponent after they cast Umezawa's Jitte
  ** Resolve a 5C spell
  ** Use Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter to tap Mowu for G
  ** Equip Takeno with Oathkeeper
  *** Attack with Tetsuo equipped with Tastsumasa
  *** Exile Konda, Lord of Eiganjo with The Fall of Lord Konda

Tags

Coming Soon

Cards not from Kamigawa block

Currently, this cube features 41 cards which were in Kamigawa block originally. This section tracks those cards and explains their inclusion.

Kamigawan Cards Printed Outside Kamigawa Block: 11

These cards are, to my mind, legitimate Kamigawa cards. Unfortunately for Kaseto fans, not every Kamigawan card can make the cut here. I specifically chose those that support this cube's archetypes. The Sanctums and O-Kagachi provide a nice payoff for 5-colour decks. Yuriko, Silent-Blade Oni and Moonblade Shinobi add more ninjas to the pool. Tamiyo and Umezawa's Charm add support for control decks and play well across many archetypes.

Cards Reprinted with Kamigawa Art/Flavor Text: 2

Two of these cards were printed in 10th Edition with flavour text that quotes characters from Kamigawa. Pariah is mostly a removal/fog spell that happens to be a sweet combo piece sometimes, whereas Spitting Earth is strong removal for red-centric decks that can kill most creatures with just two or three Mountains in play. The third card, Sylvan Library, was printed with art showing Reki, from Kamigawa, making this officially a Kamigawa card now, and it seems worse than Sensei’s Divining Top in limited.

Non-Kamigawan Cards with Japanese Motifs: 17

Most of these cards come to the cube by way of the Japanese Mystical Archives printed in Strixhaven Collector Boosters. Many of these cards are powerful, fun and iconic cards from Magic's history, and I jumped at the chance to include them. Most of these cards are removal spells or combat tricks and will naturally help disrupt boardstalls (a common occurrence in this cube). I think it's also a feature, not a bug, that many of the best spells are enemy-coloured. Drafters will now have more important decisions to make during the draft portion. Finally, why is Kiora is standing in front of The Great Wave off Kanagawa on Theros? No idea, but it’s fittingly Japanese and supports an underserved archetype.

Non-Kamigawa Cards: 5

The final group of cards are distinctly not Kamigawa cards. There are no Azras or Nagas on Kamigawa, but there are ninjas, which most of these are. In the case of Jiang Yanggu, he makes a Legendary token, which is relevant for another draft archetype. This group of cards comes the closest to breaking my own personal thoughts on immersion, and they potentially cutable, should Wizards of the Coast ever decide to print more actual Kamigawa cards that can fill in these gaps.