Douglysium

Intro

Welcome to the fourth part of this series covering Red and how it appears in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and the respective faction that aligns with said color. In this case that is the rebellious Asari Uprisers. As always if you haven’t read the previous parts covering the Imperial Court, Saiba Futurists, and Reckoners respectively you can read those here(https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/679785148245573632/the-taste-of-kamigawa-neon-dynastys-imperial), here(https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/683590210069626880/the-taste-of-kamigawa-neon-dynasty-blue), and here(https://douglysium.tumblr.com/tagged/TheTasteOfMagicTheGathering) respectively.

Red

With that, we can start with Red and the more general aspects it has on Kamigawa. As I’ve mentioned, and heavily emphasized, in all the previous parts the major theme of Kamigawa NEO is that of tradition vs modernity. This conflict is represented in two ways. First, through enchantments and artifacts, with enchantments acting as a metaphor for tradition and artifacts symbolizing modernity. The second way is through the Color Pie, with each color leaning toward one side of this conflict and away from the other to different degrees. The colors that act as the main markers for this conflict are Green, which is the color that leans towards tradition the most, and Blue, which is the color that embraces modernity over tradition the most. From there other colors fall in between this scale of Green and Blue’s tradition vs modernity. In order from most traditional to most modern the colors are Green, White, Black, Red, and Blue. Now with that basic premise established for those who didn’t read or don’t remember the previous articles, we can move on to Red specifically, and if you find this description of the conflict unsatisfactory you can view my previous articles to find out more.

So Red, as mentioned above, is a color that leans heavily towards modernity and artifacts, only being beaten out by Blue. When you think about it, Red’s place in this conflict is actually kind of weird.

See, if you look at Red’s placement on the Color Pie you will notice that it is actually allied with Green and enemies with Blue. So shouldn’t it be closer to Green in this conflict? Well for this we are going to have to look at specifically WHY Green and Red are even allies in the first place and some major key philosophical differences and disagreements, because at the end of the day if ally colors agreed on literally everything there would be no point in categorizing them as separate color philosophies. The key difference between Red and Green is that Red prioritizes its emotions above any sort of natural order. While Green and Red both have a “follow your instincts” bent to them Red’s take on it is ultimately more selfish as it believes in following your emotions and doing what you want but Green follows its instincts because it believes that you must accept the world, and your body, for as it is and thus it prioritizes the natural state. In essence, Green is encouraged to look at the bigger picture and while following your instincts is important to Green it should not come at the expense of nature or not accepting things for as they are. 

Green says that if you are born without wings and four lungs you should be satisfied with that and learn to embrace it but Red says “If I feel like flying on a jetpack with a cybernetic arm today then I’m going to get those cybernetic upgrades.”

Red’s philosophy is often summarized as “Freedom through Action” while Green’s way of thought is often summarized as “Growth through Acceptance.” Red is all about doing what you feel like doing and living free by following your heart and acting on your emotions while Green is about making peace with yourself and the world around you and accepting it for what it is for all you need to be truly happy already exists within the world. With this in mind, it makes sense that a Red faction on Kamigawa would see technology as a liberating force. Something that can allow you to do more of the things you want. Green may say that if you can’t fly you should just accept that but Red argues that if you like flying and want to fly more you should try to fly more. This also would of course mean that the card that reduces the cost of artifacts is Blue and Red as those are the two most modernity focused colors.

This is also a good time to touch upon one of the agreements that Red and Blue philosophies have because, yes, even enemy colors agree on at least one thing. One of the major points that these two philosophies agree on is basically “creativity,” or more accurately “new things,” and thus it prioritizes those things. This color combination sees unnecessary traditions as annoying and sees the seeking out of new things as good due to Red’s emphasis on freedom and action being combined with Blue’s emphasis on progress and improvement. This agreement can also be seen on the color pie with Red, and Blue’s shared ally color being Black making their enemy color combination Green and White, a color combination that tends to agree heavily on the importance of tradition and the status quo in many respects. 

Meanwhile, the Red and Blue ally color, Black, is one that does whatever it takes to get what it needs whether or not tradition is involved.

THE ASARI UPRISERS

This finally brings us to the Red faction of NEO, the Asari Uprisers. In “PLANESWALKERS GUIDE TO KAMIGAWA: NEON DYNASTY” the Asari Upriser’s goal is stated to be to overthrow what they see as oppressive and authoritarian rule. They believe in the idea that power and technology should be shared rather than hoarded and that the Imperials are outdated and regressive. Somewhat similar to the Reckoners, the Uprisers honor fealty and loyalty, and disloyalty/betrayal is something that is punished. Fights between Imperial enforcers and Uprisers in the middle of the streets is a frequent occurrence, especially in Sokenzanshi, a city located in the Sokenzan mountains that seems to be where a large number of Uprisers hang out. Sokenzanshi is a mountain city of artisans and artificers that had dealt with the full brunt of the Imperial Court’s various restrictive edicts and because of this, the Uprisers began preparing for a large-scale rebellion after Kamigawa’s emperor disappeared.

The Uprisers are made up of flat and decentralized ranks of various samurai, soldiers, and artillerists that are supported by their community’s artisans and inventors.

The Uprisers also have no official or even consistent headquarters having temporary meeting rooms sprinkled throughout Sokenzanshi instead. Unlike the Reckoners, they seem to have an official leader(rather than just being a collective of different groups) and, unlike the Futurists, their leader is known to be a former Imperial by the name of Risona, who resigned and protests against the current leaderless/emporerless regime. 

Risona is a charismatic commander who goes out of her way to form a personal connection with everyone who follows her.

Going back to the Uprisers as a whole, they are stated to focus more on practical and physical solutions rather than abstract theories. They have limited resources which means most have to make do with whatever materials they can scrape together, resulting in much of their equipment being pieced together, and they take in caring for and fixing their own gear. It has gotten to the point where some artisan’s pride themselves on never using “new” material and apparently no member’s gear is the same as any others.

With that summary out of the way, we can begin to highlight some of the specific connections the Uprisers have with Red philosophy. The first and most obvious thing to point out is that their major enemies with the Imperial Court, and if you are someone who has read even half my articles or even MTG related tweets you should know that this is notable because White and Red are enemy colors, meaning they are colors that are opposite of each other on the color pie(each color has two “ally” colors and two “enemy” colors).

So I guess I should touch on why Red and White are even considered “enemy” or opposing philosophies. Well the conflict between the colors is a classic chaos vs order. White’s a color that believes you shouldn’t just act on your instinct and you should use morals, codes, rules, and laws to guide you while Red argues you should basically just be able to do whatever you want. From Red’s perspective White is trying to force conformity and from White’s perspective Red being spontaneous and emotional can end up hurting itself or other people. Another major conflict is White believes everyone can have what they need if everyone puts the greater good first and is willing to make sacrifices or give up things they might want. The major emphasis here is White is focused on NEEDS, meanwhile Red is literally about doing and partaking in whatever you want, and is thus a more selfish or self concerned philosophy. Red’s conflict with White can be compared with Black’s conflict with White in the fact that both Black and Red are about putting yourself first for the most part. Although, it’s not like Red is incapable of putting others first, remember Red is all about emotions so it can be very loyal or passionate. However, White is more about using your head and Red is about following your heart. If Red helps someone it’s because it feels like it and if White helps someone it’s because it knows it’s the right thing to do. Likewise, this also means that if Red wants to punch a random person it would argue it should follow those emotions while White would probably say you shouldn’t punch random people/bystanders. In the end it’s a battle of White arguing that order, peace and the greater good should be put before one’s own selfish desires or emotions and Red arguing that you should live your life to the fullest by doing what you want, following spontaneous emotions, and listening to your instincts. Unfortunately, there’s a limit for how much I can get into specifics because I don’t want this to be too long but rest assured I am writing stuff on White and Red philosophy specifically and I will cover the conflict in more depth from each color’s perspective there if you still have a hard time understanding.

For now, I think this does a decent job of explaining part of the major conflict between the Uprisers and Imperial Court from a generic color pie philosophy perspective, so let’s get a little more specific. Once again, the fact that Red philosophy is all about freedom and doing whatever you want is where the conflict between the Uprisers and Imperials comes from and there’s also the fact that the Uprisers are closer to the Saiba Futurists in terms of how they view technology, specifically that everyone should have it and there should be little to no restrictions on technology. The Imperials wish to restrict and slow down technology to make sure no one gets hurt while the Uprisers think everyone would be better off just having equal access to technology at a much faster rate, and they may view the Imperial’s technological restrictions as something that contributes to technology being hoarded or not shared equally. This explains another reason why they would come into conflict with the Imperials. There is also the situation with the emperor. The emperor of Kamigawa has mysteriously disappeared and how the Imperials and Uprisers react and deal with that disappearance highlights their differing philosophies and acts as another example of tradition vs modernity. As the Uprisers wish to move on without that emperor and don’t want to wait around while the Imperials are trying to keep things running the same way until the emperor either returns or a new emperor is somehow chosen. You could even argue that the Imperials are stuck in the past or refuse to change in this regard while the Uprisers want to move on and this probably contributes to the Uprisers’ viewing the Imperials as outdated and regressive. This aspect of the conflict could be somewhat likened to the clash between Red and Green as Red elevates doing what you want above tradition and status quo. The fact that the Uprisers see the Imperialist as authoritarian also ties into how Red philosophy views White philosophy as needlessly oppressive, conformist, or restrictive.

Despite being so Red the Uprisers do honor fealty and loyalty while punishing disloyalty. Similar to the Reckoners, this is interesting to look at when you consider the fact that the Uprisers are mainly Red and Red is all about doing what you want and is enemies with White, a color that is often considered the definitive color of honor and loyalty. Well, Red can actually be incredibly loyal, it’s just that who/what it is loyal to and why is a bit different than that of White. It’s important to remember that Red is about following and embracing all emotions/instincts like that of love, and not just anger and rage(anger and rage just so happen to be the ones we see the most in the context of Magic because Magic is a game that’s supposed to emulate fighting and combat and those are the most common emotions involved in such a thing). Red could definitely be considered a “romantic” color but the point is Red’s emotionally driven nature can make it a loyal friend or ally. Especially, when compared to color philosophies like say Black. Black aligned characters are definitely capable of making friends but obviously a personal philosophy that involves always putting yourself first means that you’re probably less likely to want to take unnecessary falls for someone if they feel like they can help it. Ultimately the Red and White are probably the two “loyalty” colors but Red is usually loyal just out of emotion or instinct while White is usually loyal because of morals and it’s the right thing to do.

The frequent fights between Imperials and Uprisers can also be seen as a possible result of the Uprisers’ Red values. White philosophy typically wants to avoid what they may see as unnecessary fighting if possible because it wants to foster peace but since Red is all about acting on emotions or instinct its way more likely to do things like run away…

OR fight if it feels like fighting for whatever reason. 

What I’m basically saying is when White resorts to fighting or killing it philosophically argues for a moral justification to do so and fighting at the wrong times or for the wrong reasons can be immoral and bad, not to mention that White wants as many people as possible to prosper and it puts other people first so it does not want to do things at the expense of other people for its own selfish gains. But Red’s philosophy just says if you feel like fighting then you should fight, if you feel like acting then act, simple as that.

Suffice to say White philosophy puts more emphasis on using your head, and thus even if you feel like doing something you should put others and the greater good first, and Red is more about doing what you feel like doing and is in theory less likely to shy away from action.

The prevalence of artificers connects Red and Uprisers to modernity and technology on Kamigawa. Plus, artisans make sense in the Red faction since Red has the most consistent artsy streak out of all the mono-colors and this can be contributed to the fact that Red is a color all about expressing yourself and your emotions and while acting in Magic is often represented through fighting and abilities there are countless different ways to act and express your emotions and feelings that don’t involve punching.

It should also be mentioned that since Red is more concerned with the self and what the self wants it inevitably tends to value forms of freedom like self expression. 

This aspect of Red can be seen in how the Uprisers personalize their equipment and gear, especially when compared to the more uniform and uptight Imperials.

Plus, the fact that apparently no Upriser has gear that looks exactly the same means that there is more of an emphasis on personalization and uniqueness over strict uniformity. This is a fact that is even further strengthened by the Uprisers having to rely on scraps and reusing materials most of the time which means that it is even more likely that whatever they choose to build will look different in some way since it would depend on the materials and objects used. Also the fact that they focus more on practical and physical solutions rather than abstract theories is a reflection of both the fact that they are simply forced to make do with what scraps and materials they have on hand most of the time and the fact that Red in MTG tends to have an emphasis on physicality and the body due to it championing the following of your bodily instincts and emotions, unlike a color philosophy like Blue which argues you should always think before you act(this is also why flavor-wise Red has trouble dealing with enchantments).

The Uprisers consisting of specifically flat decentralized ranks of various samurai, soldiers, and artillerists is something that reflects the desires for freedom and equal access to things like technology within the Uprisers, as there is very little hierarchy meaning most of their members would be about on the same playing field unlike the members of the Imperial Court. They also have no official or consistent headquarters which helps highlight Red’s more spontaneous and by the seat of its pants nature and how the Uprisers have less restrictions than the Imperials.

Since I touched on some of the flavor regarding this faction’s artificers I should probably also touch on their samurai. Samurai mainly appear in two colors on Kamigawa, Red and White. I have already covered the White aligned samurai in my writing about the Imperial Court so I will only be recapping the parts necessary to understanding what I’m talking about. The White aligned samurai definitely represent the stereotypical honorable samurai with strict morals and codes on conduct(such as bushido).

On the other hand, I would assume the Red aligned samurai are based more around Ronin(浪人) or a wandering samurai that lack a master/lord. 

The exact real world political and historical reasons for why Ronin became so prevalent and a part of pop culture is for another time and for someone with more historical knowledge about Japan than me but on Kamigawa the Usari having more Ronin makes sense considering that they split off from the Imperial Court. Also, their flat and decentralized structure would probably mean you’re less likely to have an official lord or boss. The fact that Ronin are specifically wandering samurai is also fitting for the faction with no consistent/stationary meeting place. Plus, Ronin were often considered to be less honorable than samurais with lords, so having them mainly be Red, a color that just does what it wants and is often less honor bound than White, makes sense.

Despite being largely flat and decentralized, the Uprisers do still have an official leader in the form of Risona though, which I think is interesting considering Risona is Red AND White and I think that’s an important thing to cover.

It is important to always remember that even ally colors have things they disagree on and, by extension, even so called “enemy” colors have things they can agree on. Now, unfortunately, I am going to restrict myself to talking about Red and White’s philosophical agreements in regards to Risona since this is an article covering the Asari Uprisers and Red as it appears in NEO as opposed to the entirety of White and Red’s relationship in the entirety of Magic. So there will be some agreements or details I will leave out(and this logic applies to basically all the articles I write in regards to specific factions or characters).

One thing that I have mentioned in my article about the angels on Innistrad is how MTG often gives Red-White a military/army style ideology and/or group. This is because you are combining Red’s use of action and passion with that of White’s larger organization and emphasis on putting aside things to work together for the greater good or good of the team. Red and White both understand and like to use tactics that involve masses of people. In Red’s case it tends to manifest as a giant rioting emotional mob, which definitely ties into the Uprisers’ propensity for rebellion and sudden fights in some ways, while White usually leans towards disciplined fighters and soldiers that strategically work together, which can be seen in how Risona’s occupation and samurai status and how the Asari are actually a group that split off from the Imperials.

Both colors also understand how emotions can be useful and this is something that can be seen in how Risona goes out of her way to form a personal connection with everyone who follows her, a mix of Red’s desire for personal connection and White genuinely caring about people(basically combining Red’s empathy and emotional understanding with White’s morality). While White doesn’t like how Red will just follow its emotions without regard to what it should or shouldn’t be doing it does value passion in its organizations and it does genuinely want to show its comrades and the people it is trying to help and/or protect that it honestly does care about their well-being, and that White isn’t just a dispassionate robot. White and Red can also be extremely loyal characters a lot of the time. Red’s loyalty is emotion based but it is capable of being extremely loyal to its friends, family, and/or groups it is a part of. 

This emotional connection and loyalty can even be strong enough to lead a Red-aligned character to be willing to sacrifice itself for the people it cares about. However, it is important to note that Red usually needs a strong enough emotional connection to do this and it will not just die for a bunch of people it doesn’t know or care about. White is also extremely loyal to the causes it believes to be righteous and is willing to sacrifice itself in order to help others or for the greater good. While White definitely has emotions, it is more willing to sacrifice itself for people outside of its emotional circle. Think of a hero sacrificing themselves to save a bunch of innocent people, like a city or something, even if their friends and family are not involved. Both colors also idealize being willing to fight to protect those they care about, and White at the very least understands that striking before the enemy can react, like Red often does, can be a valid form of self-defense. This is all to say that when Red and White are combined they can manifest in a way that creates a very loyal group of people who are willing, and unafraid, to fight for what they believe is right. There is also the fact that the Asari Uprisers are fighting for freedom and a form of equality so in the case of Risona you have Red’s love of freedom and White’s love of equality, fairness, and balance combining to form an ideology/motivation that prioritizes giving everyone equal freedom and protecting it through an institution, in this case that happens to equal the access to, and freedom to use, technology. Risona is also apparently an artificer or at least was one at some point, which ties into the previous themes of art and creativity that the Uprisers have.

Apparently, Risona started her career making weapons and armor for the Imperial Court but the disappearance of Kamigawa’s Emperor caused the Court to enter a state of chaos. A state that led to some political jockeying/struggles that left Sokenzanshi too short on food during a deadly winter. This event is what would lead to Risona losing faith in the Imperial Court and many of her fellow artisans and warriors joining her to form the Asari Uprisers. That explains why the Uprisers don’t trust the Imperial Court and part of why the Asari Uprisers basically want to move on past the Emperor during the Emperor’s said disappearance.

Oh yeah, and the fact that their main base of operation, Sokenzanshi, is in the mountains ties into their connection to Red mana and how the basic land associated with, and tapped for, said mana color is the Mountain.

Mechanics

Considering how much I’ve talked about her I might as well touch on Risona’s card too.

Risonsa, Asari Commander, is a Legendary Creature – Human Samurai that costs 3 mana(1 generic, 1 Red, and 1 White) with Haste and “Whenever Risona, Asari Commander deals combat damage to a player, if it doesn’t have an indestructible counter on it, put an indestructible counter on it. Whenever combat damage is dealt to you, remove an indestructible counter from Risona.” Her Haste shows the part of her personality shaped by the previously mentioned Red and White philosophy of “people who are all willing, and unafraid, to fight for what they believe is right” and the fact that the Uprisers will break out into fights with the Imperial Court almost anywhere, as opposed to avoiding it. Something that her combat damage based ability also reflects. The indestructible counter is something that encourages you to keep on the offensive and if you are acting too defensively you will probably lose its benefits.

Okay, now for the general Asari mechanics themselves. First off, they care about artifacts more often than they care about enchantments. It is important to mention though that since Red isn’t as far on the artifacts side as Blue is it still has a noticeable amount of enchantments, more enchantments and enchantment creatures than Blue but fewer enchantments than Green, White and Black, it’s about a 65/35 artifact to enchantment ratio according to Mark in his “KAMIGAWA: NEON DYNASTY VISION DESIGN HANDOFF, PART 1” article.

There are a few specific mechanics I notice Red tends to use in this set. 

There are the obvious artifact creatures but, more importantly, is the Reconfigure mechanic.

For those who do not, Reconfigure is a keyword that goes on artifact creatures and for a cost allows you to “Attach to target creature you control; or unattach from a creature. Reconfigure only as a sorcery. While attached this isn’t a creature.” The massive presence of this keyword in Red is obviously because of the previously mentioned artifact and modernity themes of Red as well as the fact that Reconfigure allows for more artifact creatures to be in the set so it makes sense that colors that fall on the modern side of NEO’s conflict would get them a lot.

In this set Red also has a decent number of effects that involve sacrificing and/or recurring(bring back from the graveyard) artifacts which just ties into the fact that the Uprisers are all about taking existing material and scraps and using them to build new things, reuse them, or turn them into something different.

Also, Red does get a noticeable amount of creature and artifact sacrifice in general due to its philosophy encouraging doing what you want and shortsighted in the moment decisions. This means that flavorwise Red may end up sacrificing things because it didn’t think through all the long-term ramifications or simply because it wants to do what it wants and its interest/care for the thing it’s sacrificing has left it(i.e. it wants something else more). 

Red is a color that strives to live in the moment so if you suddenly prefer something else or don’t like something else, so be it.

Another archetype that falls under Red in this set is the fact that it cares greatly about modified creatures and rewards you for having modified creatures in various ways. For those who don’t know a modified creature is one with an equipment, aura and/or counter on it, and by proxy equipment, auras and counters themselves count as modifications.

I would argue that the reason for this is probably because of the things I mentioned earlier in regards to Red doing whatever it wants and thus, by extension, Red is willing to augment or enhance itself with natural or unnatural means in order to get what it wants. Also, considering how many Uprisers have mechanical body parts or modifications in their art it makes sense that such a faction would want to reward you for altering or upgrading your creatures.

Finally, there’s the samurais and warriors. I’ve already touched on the flavor reasons for why a bunch of samurai are Red and/or White so I’m not going to go over that. Interestingly, the samurai in this set care a lot about attacking one at a time.

In “KAMIGAWA: NEON DYNASTY VISION DESIGN HANDOFF, PART 2” Mark himself has stated that part of this mechanic’s intended design is that it is designed to play well with the Bushido mechanic from the previous Kamigawa sets while also being combat oriented since they didn’t want to bring back Bushido as a keyword due to both thematic complications and the fact that they did not want a bunch of creatures in the set running around with the ability. For those who don’t know Bushido is a mechanic that went on a considerable number of samurai and reads “Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +N/+N until end of turn.”

The synergy of having an ability that activates when you have a single attacker and then punishing the opponent if they choose to block said attacker goes without saying. It’s also probably extremely helpful and lowers the chances of just having your opponent endlessly chump block without you gaining some sort of upside. I should also mention that Bushido is referenced in Neon Dynasty with the card Jukai Trainee.

I think flavor-wise, even with the Red samurai, the emphasis on attacking one at a time is still invoking the idea of an “honorable samurai” by having a fair fight via attacking one at a time. Even if that specifically is not the case I would still argue that it’s probably going for the idea of a samurai duel of some sort.

(Image from the movie Harakiri (1962))

Even still, as mentioned in my article covering the Imperial Court(https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/679785148245573632/the-taste-of-kamigawa-neon-dynastys-imperial) the mechanic could also simply reference how samurai are stereotyped as having a more straightforward and “fair” fighting style when in comparison to things like the underhanded tactics of ninja(although I should make it clear that underhanded samurai definitely existed and that real samurai obviously aren’t one to one with their romanticized and pop culture counterparts).

One thing that I neglected to mention in my Imperial Court article is that this creature attacking one at a time mechanic has been used to represent honorable duels or fighting in MTG’s past. Specifically with the Green, White, and Blue aligned shard of Alara, Bant. On Bant, the priority of all their fights is to find a resolution as opposed to actually just fighting. So when two or more factions disagree they engage in structured combat in order to resolve the issue and, in order to not risk the health of entire armies and keep the casualties to a minimum, each side will pick one champion and send them to fight in their stead. This is something that is represented in Bant’s keyword Exalted, which reads “Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.” So the vibe of “honor” or a “fair fight” is definitely potentially there when it comes to mechanics that reward you for attacking one at a time.

I would love to continue to talk about the flavor of Bant and all the Alaran shards but that is for another time.

Although, as pointed out in Gaijin Goomba’s video “How “Samurai” is Magic the Gathering Kamigawa!?(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfap0ade9nQ&ab_channel=GaijinGoombah)” there is a chance that this one at a time warrior/samurai attack mechanic could be a reference to an extremely old method of fighting samurai had back when they were still mercenaries as opposed to government backed soldiers which, on the day of battle, would involve both commanders exchanging words and then when they returned to their armies a whistling or flaming arrow called a kaburaya would signal the start of an all-out charge. At this point samurai and retainers would search the battlefield for other high-ranking samurai to fight because of the fact that in order to rank up or even get paid they would have to present the head to one’s lord or general. When two samurai and their retainers met on the field of open combat during which they would shout their name, rank, and sometimes even personal exploits to each other and begin fighting.

However, no matter how you slice it or which interpretation you think is right the bottom-line is that 1v1 samurai fights or duels are extremely famous in regards to samurai.

Land

I feel like Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance, is a card that doesn’t need that much explanation. Sokenzan was picked for Red’s land card in the set because the reason the Uprisers even exist is because the Imperial Court’s internal power struggles led to the city residing there, Sokenzanshi, suffering a famine during a deadly winter. Plus, the city is just where the Uprisers are the most active and often fight against the Imperials. Even their meeting rooms, while random and scattered, always take place in Sokenzanshi. Sokenzanshi also uses the heat, fire and magma from the mountains themselves to heat up their foundries and ironworks. As we all know fire, heat and earth are all something Red is often heavily associated with in Magic. Fire and heat because of how they are often used to symbolize emotion and passion, think phrases like “my blood is boiling” or “my heart is aflame” and earth because within the western four classical elements of water, earth, fire and air earth is associated with the body and more bodily desires(the same sort of goes for fire).

Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance, is a land card that can be tapped to add one Red mana to your mana pool and has a Channel ability that for four mana(3 generic and 1 Red) reads “Discard Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance: Create two 1/1 colorless Spirit creature tokens. They gain haste until the end of turn. This ability costs 1 generic mana less to activate for each legendary creature you control.”

The ability to tap for Red mana is because Sokenzanshi is most important to the heavily Red aligned Uprisers and the city itself is in a mountain range. Its channel ability creating two 1/1 colorless spirit tokens with haste could be due to the various akki and Yamabushi(the name for shamans on Kamigawa) have always lived in there and some of them seem to have some sort of relationship or connection to spirits and the like. Plus, spirits are literally everywhere on Kamigawa and the Sokenzan mountains are no exception. So this could be as simple as “this land can create spirits because making spirit tokens is flavorful for Kamigawa.”

As always, the fact that the Channel ability gets cheaper to cast the more legendary creatures you control is probably just meant to reference how the previous Kamigawa sets had a lot of legendary creatures.

Bonus

Because I didn’t have anywhere else to put this I think Raiyuu might be a reference to Yasuke. A samurai and retainer who served Nobunaga, the first “Great Unifier” of Japan, and is famous for being a Black African and being quite close to the lord. 

(Art that possible depicts Yasuke is by an unknown artist from around 1605)

I bring this up because I made a Fate fanservant design based on Yasuke and thus had to do a lot of research on him. So if you’re a Fate fan who wants to see my take on that sort of thing you can view the art here(https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/668465559996858369/demon-saber-yasuke-%E9%AD%94%E4%BA%BA%E3%82%BB%E3%82%A4%E3%83%90%E3%83%BC-%E5%BC%A5%E5%8A%A9%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%83%B3%E3%81%AE%E8%A8%AD%E8%A8%88-sable-de) and read the full profile here(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M7V-XS0S_hePGtpLHY3abI-rU8_ek889uqcYnq0cvb0/edit) as well as all the design inspirations here(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pt-paxkKpp7jrJv05aqC4luS-4LRpjTv3M2r_3SzUKA/edit). I guess Eiganjo Exemplar’s art could also be a potential reference to Yasuke or something.

Also, if you ever hear someone saying that it doesn’t make any sense for black people to be in anime because black people weren’t/aren’t in Japan or something just remember Yasuke, or like any black person that lives in Japan really(https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBlackExperienceJapan/videos).

However, a title like “Storm’s Edge” also points to Tachibana Dōsetsu as a potential inspiration. Dōsetsu is famous for a story where, as a young man, he was taking shelter under a tree as it rained when a bolt of lightning suddenly struck him. However, he used his sword named Chidori(千鳥), or “A Thousand Birds”) to cut the thunder god inside the lightning bolt in order to allow him to survive. After which he would rename his famous sword Chidori to Raikiri(雷切) or “Lightning Cutter.”

(Painting of Tachibana Dosetsu from the 1500s by an unknown artist)

I imagine intercepting a lightning bolt would take a lot of speed and this speed is reflected in the fact that Raiyuu has First Strike. His ability to give you an additional combat phase could also reflect his great speed since hitting multiple times in Magic the Gathering through abilities like Double Strike can be used to reflect great speed.

Oh an I’m pretty sure Isshin, Two Heavens as One, is based on Miyamoto Musashi because of the fact that the epithet “Two Heavens as One” sounds suspiciously similar to Niten Ichi-ryū(二天一流), which can be translated as “the school of the strategy of two heavens as one”, a school of swordsmanship founded by the legendary swordsman, philosopher, strategist, writer and rōnin Miyamoto Musashi. The fact that the card has “If a creature attacking causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time” is probably a nod to the fact that the style has an emphasis on using two swords, a katana, and wakizashi, with kenjutsu techniques(something that is also reflected on the card art). So when Isshin causes abilities to trigger twice instead of once, i.e. he is basically getting your creatures to hit twice instead of once.

Closing

Well, that’s it for now. The next article will be covering not only the Jukai Naturalist and Green as it appears in Kamigawa NEO but also Green philosophy’s relationship with technology and a major misconception I feel like people have with Green. The question I will leave you with is who is your favorite Asari Upriser or which Red card from NEO is your favorite and why? Also, do you think the Uprisers are right, wrong or somewhere in the middle when it comes to their decision to rebel against the Imperials?