Blade of the Oni – Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
Date Reviewed: March 14, 2022
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.50
Casual: 3.67
Limited: 4.25
Multiplayer: 3.42
Commander [EDH]: 3.75
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
You can think of Blade of the Oni as an efficient attacker with later upside – and perhaps a little more powerful than you often get on either part. Having said that, getting the 5/5 demon requires you to have a creature to equip and you may not be able to guarantee that in every deck. That’s not necessarily a huge deal, as Magic has become more about creature combat in recent years and there are plenty of ways to increase those odds when building a deck, but it is worth keeping in mind, particularly since it’ll make both this card and your other creatures into lightning magnets once your opponent realizes what you’re doing. In Standard, more of the equipment payoffs are in white, which is also worth keeping in mind, although there are plenty of ways around this in the bigger formats.
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
Commander [EDH]: 4/5
Given the proclivity of Demons towards hard bargains, I’m surprised that Blade of the Oni doesn’t have that. All the same, this is a pretty solid creature that can empower a creature in the late game; an evasive 3/1 is a good deal for 2 mana, and giving another creature evasion and a potential power buff is quite nice at four mana. While nothing this card does reads as amazing in a vacuum, this adds up to a bit more than the sum of its parts, offering a decent rate of return early that can make for quite a menace later in the game. I’m not calling this a star, by any stretch, but it’s quite unpleasant to face in Limited and more than functional in deeper formats, even if your main expectation is to have this as an evasive creature.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 4.75
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander [EDH]: 3.25 (main issue is that there are stronger equipments in Commander, and this is usually a bit too weak for the investment)
A pretty solid creature for two mana by itself because you get a 3/1 with menace but immediately what comes into my mind is throwing this into a vampire based deck that likes to generate 1/1 tokens which would make this a late game contender to push you towards the win. The reconfigure cost is pretty low too so this shouldn’t be difficult to cast and it would make your 1/1’s that much better.
I’m a big fan of this in limited, it is a well versatile card that can be of use to you early or late and it makes drawing that 1/1 for 1 not upsetting. This doesn’t scream “build around me” despite being a mythic but if you happen to open it in a pack it is absolutely worth splashing black just to play it, it’s that good.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander [EDH]: 4/5
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Magic the Gathering Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
Click here to read over 4,000 more MTG Cards of the Day! Daily Since 2001.
