Saviors of Kamigawa
From MTG Salvation Wiki
- For the accompanying novel to Saviors of Kamigawa, see Guardian: Saviors of Kamigawa.
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| Symbol | 
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| Design Team | Brian Tinsman (lead) Brian Schneider Brandon Bozzi Devin Low | |
| Development Team | Randy Buehler (lead) Brain Schneider Worth Wollpert Mons Johnson Justin Webb | |
| Release Date | June 3, 2005 | |
| Mechanics | Flip cards, Wisdom | |
| Keywords/ Ability words | Channel, Epic, Sweep | |
| Size | 165 (55 Common 55 Uncommon 55 Rare) | |
| Expansion Code | SOK | |
| Development Codename | Fire | |
| Sets in Kamigawa block | ||
| Champions of Kamigawa | Betrayers of Kamigawa | Saviors of Kamigawa |
| Magic: The Gathering Chronology | ||
| Betrayers of Kamigawa | Saviors of Kamigawa | 9th Edition |
Saviors of Kamigawa is the thirty-sixth Magic expansion and was released in 2005 as the third set in the Kamigawa block.
Contents |
[edit] Set details
Saviors of Kamigawa expands on the Kamigawa block themes, featuring cards with spiritcraft, Soulshift, Spirits, Arcane instants and sorceries, cards with Splice onto Arcane, and a high number of legendary creatures. It introduced flip cards that change their permanent type when flipped.
[edit] Mechanics
Saviors of Kamigawa introduced the abilty words Sweep and Channel, the keyword Epic. It also introduced the wisdom mechanic, cards that get better depending on your and sometimes your opponents' hand size. Several cards altered your or your opponent's maximum hand size.
[edit] Cycles
- Ascendants: Each of these rare legendary Monk creatures flip to legendary enchantments — Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant, Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, Kuon, Ogre Ascendant, Homura, Human Ascendant and Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant.
- Bouncers: Each of these uncommon creatures requires another creature of its color to be returned to your hand during each of your upkeeps, keeping your hand full and fitting with the wisdom mechanic — Eiganjo Free-Riders, Oni of Wild Places, Skull Collector, Stampeding Serow, and Trusted Advisor.
- Epic: Each of these rare sorceries restrict you from playing any more spells for the rest of the game, but the epic spell is copied during each of your upkeeps until the game ends — Enduring Ideal, Eternal Dominion, Neverending Torment, Undying Flames, and Endless Swarm.
- Ghost-Lit: Each of these uncommon Spirit creatures has an activated ability and can be be discarded from your hand using the channel ability for twice the effect — Ghost-Lit Redeemer, Ghost-Lit Warder, Ghost-Lit Stalker, Ghost-Lit Raider and Ghost-Lit Nourisher.
- Kirin: Each of these rare legendary Spirit creatures has flying and a spiritcraft ability related to the casting cost of the spell cast — Celestial Kirin, Cloudhoof Kirin, Infernal Kirin, Skyfire Kirin, and Bounteous Kirin.
- Maros: Each of these legendary Spirit creatures, fashioned after the card Maro from Mirage, have power and toughness dependent on the number of cards in a player's hand — Kiyomaro, First to Stand, Soramaro, First to Dream, Kagemaro, First to Suffer, Adamaro, First to Desire, and Masumaro, First to Live.
- Onna: Each of these uncommon Spirit creatures have comes-into-play abilities can be returned to your hand whenever you play a Spirit or Arcane spell — Haru-Onna, Kemuri-Onna, Kiri-Onna, Nikko-Onna, and Yuki-Onna.
- Shinen: Each of these common Spirit creatures has a static ability and can be be discarded from your hand using channel to give this ability to another creature — Shinen of Stars' Light, Shinen of Flight's Wings, Shinen of Fear's Chill, Shinen of Fury's Fire, and Shinen of Life's Roar.
[edit] Mirrored pairs
Saviors of Kamigawa has three mirrored pairs.
- Arashi, the Sky Asunder (green) and Jiwari, the Earth Aflame (red) are both rare legendary Spirit creatures for 3CC with an activated ability to deal damage to a (non-) flying creature and can both be discarded using channel to deal damage to all (non-) flying creatures.
- Burning-Eye Zubera (red) and Rushing-Tide Zubera (blue) are both 3/3 uncommon Zubera Spirit creatures for 2CC with an ability that triggers if they go to the graveyard from play after being dealt four damage or more that turn.
- Hand of Cruelty (black) and Hand of Honor (white) are both 2/2 Human Samurai for CC, both with protection from the opposing color and Bushido 1.
[edit] Functional reprints
Saviors of Kamigawa has three functional reprints:
- Molting Skin is a functional reprint of Broken Fall from Tempest.
- Presence of the Wise is a functional reprint of Gerrard's Wisdom from 7th Edition.
- Stampeding Serow is a functional reprint of Stampeding Wildebeests from Visions, save for creature type.
[edit] Theme decks
The preconstructed theme decks are:
| Theme deck name | |||||
| White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | |
| Critical Mass | ■ | ■ | |||
| Soratami's Wisdom | □ | ■ | |||
| Spirit Flames | ■ | ■ | |||
| Truth Seekers | □ | ■ | |||
[edit] Notable cards
- Evermind was the first spell in Magic without a casting cost.
- Following the steps of the rest of the block, Saviors of Kamigawa contributed to the tournament scene with strong finishers and "fatties" like Kagemaro, First to Suffer, Maga, Traitor to Mortals and Arashi, the Sky Asunder, as well as strong sideboard cards, like Pithing Needle, Manriki-Gusari and Kataki, War's Wage. It also featured a good amount of quality weenies like Hand of Honor, Hand of Cruelty that helped aggro decks battle the mostly control environment of Kamigawa Block Constructed.
