Betrayers of Kamigawa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Betrayers of Kamigawa | ||
|---|---|---|
| Expansion symbol |  |
|
| Release date | February 4, 2005 | |
| Mechanics | Ninja, Ki counters | |
| Keywords | Ninjutsu, Offerings | |
| Cycles | Patron Kami, Genjus, Baku, Shoals, Flip creatures | |
| Size | 165 (55 rares, 55 uncommons, 55 commons) | |
| Expansion code | BOK | |
| Development codename | Wind | |
| Sets in Kamigawa Block | ||
| Champions of Kamigawa | Betrayers of Kamigawa | Saviors of Kamigawa |
| Magic: The Gathering Chronology |
||
| Unhinged | Betrayers of Kamigawa | Saviors of Kamigawa |
Betrayers of Kamigawa (or BoK) is the name of the Magic: The Gathering expansion set which came out in February of 2005. It contains 165 cards. The set's story is inspired by Japanese medieval myths and revolves around the battle between spirits (kami) and living beings. Most of the cards have Japanese-flavored names. The set's expansion symbol is a shuriken, or ninja throwing star.
[edit] Mechanics
Betrayers of Kamigawa introduces several new mechanics to the game.
- Ninjutsu allows you to put a creature card from your hand into play tapped and attacking by paying a ninjutsu cost and returning an attacking, unblocked creature to its owner's hand.
- Offering allows you to partially pay for a spell by sacrificing a creature of a certain creature type, and lets the spell be played as an instant. This ability is used on five spirit creatures, the Patron spirits of five non-human species in Kamigawa.
- Heroes are creatures that, after playing enough Spirits or Arcanes, flip over and become an entirely new creature.
- New costs for Splice onto Arcane - Splice onto Arcane abilities now have nonmana costs. Also, one card, Minamo's Meddling, counters a spell and whatever is spliced onto it is discarded.
Betrayers also features the first non-Wall creatures with defender.
[edit] Notable Cards
- The Genjus -- Neat land enchantments that can animate a basic land and comes back from the graveyard if the enchanted land is destroyed. These were slightly inspired by the Urza's Legacy lands which allowed you to make these lands a creature till the end of turn.
- Umezawa's Jitte-- This card is incredibly powerful, and was present in most of the notable Kamigawa Block Constructed decks (though notably the most prominent deck, 'Gifts', used either 1 copy or none). There have been calls for this card to be banned from the standard format (or at least Block Constructed) because of its influence on the game, but the DCI has decided that its influence has not been enough to justify such a move. However, the DCI later banned the use of the card in the tribal format.
- Yukora, The Prisoner-- one of the many 'tweaked' versions of the Arabian Nights card Juzam Djinn. So far, this oni has the least penalizing drawback.
- Sway of The Stars -- A card which resets the entire gamestate by shuffling all cards into their owner's libraries and then having each player reset their life total(to 7) and redraw their hand(7 cards). This card has been used in a handful of relatively low-profile decks which float large amounts of mana so that they can have an advantage when the card resolves.
- Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni -- the most popular ninja in the set, has made the biggest impact of all Ninjas in tournament play, thanks to her ability to sneak into play as an unblocked attacker (thanks to her ninjutsu ability) and revive your opponents creatures when she deals damage to a player.
- Ninja of the Deep Hours - An efficient card drawing creature, that has effectively replaced the similar Ophidian in older format control decks.
