MTG Top 10: Betrayers of Kamigawa | Magic: the Gathering | Episode 434 

The fact that Umezawa's Jitte, by itself, makes this set better than a handful of other sets combined says a heck of a lot about the preferred sidearm of Shogunate era police. They definitely knew how to keep the Shogun's peace.

I remember when I first started playing magic, which was from Champions of Kamigawa and saw Betrayers, and was losing my mind because it was Ninja themed. Today I still have all my kamigawa cards and more, so now so excited to see a new Kamigawa set after so many years!

The art of Sickening Shoal is just horrific. MTG art has depicted many brutal kill spells over the years involving blood and gore. Flaying, gutting, needling, etc. But imagine waves of spirits spewing endless putrid bile over you so rank that you choke to death just from the smell.

The funny thing about the Jitte was that it was included in a rat precon. You could buy the precon and flip the Jitte for 10 dollar profit.

Worth noting with Tendo Ice Bridge is that it has been basically powercrept by Aether Hub, which works with Energy instead of charge counters on the land itself, which is a bit better against stuff like land destruction. There are some outlier situations where the Bridge will be better (there are situations where shock lands are better than og duals), but on balance it's going to be a bit worse, especially in modern which doesn't have wasteland. I wouldn't expect it to receive many more points outside of a standard reprint.

I hope you all enjoy the video! If you're hungry for more Kamigawa, here's a playlist for each Kamigawa set Top 10: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Wci7VAT3gqM.html

The jitte looks very unassuming, but the value it creates led many, myself included, to underestimate it.

I love ninjutsu'ing a ink eyes, oddly one of my favorite things to do.

Tendo Ice Bridge in Standard interacted favorably with the Ravnica bounce lands. Most of the decks that could profitably run bounce lands (risky when there was a Magnivore LD deck running around) ran Tendo with bounce lands. Jitte was so format defining that Jitte supremacy was a good portion of the format it was legal in. Luckily it was available enough that the price didn't get too crazy (it was in the Rat's Nest preconstructed decks that sold for 10 dollars and you could find at Walmart).

Jitte was so bonkers back when Modern came out, that I remember people joking that it was “Magic’s actual first Planeswalker” with all its abilities

Oh, Damage using the Stack contributed a lot to Jitte's early points... but it would catch up the first spot anyways :P

The rat nest deck was the funnest to play.

I'm actually shocked that Blazing Shoal wasn't on the list, despite (because of?) having been banned for almost all of Modern's existence. Has it not done anything in Standard or Legacy?

All the ninjitsu effects made me think, maybe there could be a ninja bogles deck. I don't know how it would work but as some sort of commander deck perhaps? Just a fun thought

Very nice to see goryo's vengeance in here, Obzedat Vengeance has always been a pet deck of mine in modern, even though it is tier 2 at best

Umezawa's Jite is the card that made me almost quit magic. People with money in my local game store back in the day were buying all the rat precon decks because the deck had a Jite in it and they were abusing it in standard back in the day. For me it was horrible

I think the Kamigawa block had a low power level if you looked at the entire card pool, but with a couple of outliers like jitte and divining top

In my opinion, easily one of the best things about Kamigawa (not that I can be nostalgic for a block that came out when I was 3) is the art. Hokori, Dusk Drinker is an example of something so abstract yet amazing. Almost as amazing as the glorious and elusive "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)"! But still, definitely up there.

I was actually surprised that Jitte didn’t have more points, but I had forgotten it was banned in Modern.

In all 3 sets the top card is an artifact

I would be interested in seeing a video on the Top 10 Most Successful tournament played cards. Think that would be as fun list.

When Kamigawa was released, I think people at the time thought it was an under powered set. But the farther away we've gotten from it versus cards that exist now, Kamigawa has some extremely potent cards and interactions.

@Nizz i've got to say...I'm getting tired of lists with Umezawa's Jitte as the #1 card :)

Speaking of Betrayers: Have you ever thought of making a Top 10 about cards that were hyped up to no end during spoiler season, but then severely underperformed when the set actually came out? I think we have a couple of those every set lol

I wonder if there will ever be a format that to replace blocks maybe a format where only the cards from the same plane are legal? Seems unlikely in organized play but could be fun as casual event

Neon Dynasty’s approach is causing Ninja cards to spike like crazy. Sakashima’s Student is over $100!

I feel like final judgement’s point mainly came from being used to get rid of miojins but I was 9 at the time so idk 🥸

I'd like to posit that the SET is weak, but that there are a select few busted cards from the set which are unbalanced. How many of the cards on this list don't have points outside block or constructed?

Top 10 betrayers: N.1 Nizzahon when he picks a mediocre combat trick

Keep up the good work holmes!

engage algorithm!

Kamigawa block despite being relatively weak overall consistently had amazing cards

Suprised Blazing Shoal wasn't on here

Can’t wait for the new ninja support!

Regarding the Shoals: I thought discarding a card will always just pay for the X Mana, but you will always have to pay the two black mana. Am I just confused by his wording or am I misunderstadning the card? Because if you would have to pay the two black mana, the card would seem really bad to me.

hydreate yourselfs everyone!

As much as I wish Genju of the realm was gonna make the list, I find that it isn't as leJITTE as some of the others printed in the set

I guessed the wrong set last time confusing the two sets, so THIS week, Goryo’s Vengeance Edit: Hm, expected it to be higher, also I forgot Jitte.

What was weird in my journey through Magic the past 20 years is everyone tries to offer me "Damnation" from their "trades binder" for my cards. Especially my Jitte and Sensei's Diving Top. What is it about Damnation and why does everyone I meet have 4-6+ in a trades binder trying to dump them on me lol.

Fun facts: burning shoals, another of the Shoal cycle is banned in modern because of cheeky infect combo decks. You can argue it can be unbanned nowadays but personally i say fuck infect.

hmm seems you forgot to count kamigawa block pauper tiny leaders events :/

"Provided you knew it came from this set." Me forgetting and calling it for betrayers...

Kamigawa really was just a delivery mechanism for busted artifacts, right after the busted artifacts block...

I've always wondered why Kamigawa Block was considered "weak"... they have lots of good cards for competitive and casual. While I agree that there ARE some cards where I question the sobriety of the designer of the card like Shimatsu the Blood Soaked and Numai Outcast, I remember more good cards than bad. Some good ones outside the ones listed in Nizzahon's 3 videos about this block that I can think of are: The 5 "Star" dragons are all decent to good, the shoals give free spells so its good for an ambush, Meloku turns your lands in to 1/1 flyers. It also sports a couple of cards that are fun to use in casual games like Arashi, the Sky Asunder, Sakashima the Impostor, the Kirin cycle, Reiki (when you play a legendary spell, draw a card), and the original "flip cards" (which can be annoying to read but whatever). These aren't strong, but continually flipping creature's P/T, killing them with their own power and constantly coming in as a different creature are all fun things to pull off! Really, the ONLY thing I can say I hate about the sets is the set's naming convention. It sounds like it's trying too hard to be Japanese and overly dramatic. It just annoys me to read names like: Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Yomiji, Who Bars the Way, Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo (cant you say bodyguard???) and "That which was taken". It's purely aesthetic and just my personal taste, which is why I dont even consider it an actual strike towards the set.

When magic was a game for players…

This block has literally the worst card ever in it... One with Nothing, or something like that wich is a black spell that you cast, pay mana...aaaannnd discard your whole hand. Thats it, nothing else. Oh and i forgot to mention its a rare.

To anyone wondering how standard playable this whole block was: turn 1 you play land. Pass. Opponent plays land. Ornithopther. Mox. Frogmite. Pass. Turn 2 you play land and pass or any other crappy 2 mana legendary shitstain on card board. Opponent plays land cranial plating... you concede. The whole block... every single card was shit in comparisson to any card from Mirrodin. And afterwards when Ravnica came around it was immediately snuffed out of every competitive deck... damn Ravnica pre constructed deck would steamroll any "kamigawa block" deck.

"rat ninja" - that is extremely lame idea :)

Spoilers eh. A warning would have been nice