Two new Neon Dynasty: A22 spoilers, Forgeborn Phoenix and Inchblade Companion, have the potential to drastically improve Magic: The Gathering Boros Equipment decks within the Alchemy and Historic formats.Â
The new Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty mechanic Reconfigure has forever changed how Magic players can use Equipped creatures within their decks. And WotC is doubling down on the new mechanic via the latest Alchemy spoilers Inchblade Companion, revealed by Andrea Mengucci, and Forgeborn Phoenix. Both cards have the potential to improve Boros Equipment decks within the Alchemy and Historic formats while providing utility in other Magic builds as well.
Forgeborn Phoenix
- CMC: 1RR
- Type: Artifact creature—Equipment Phoenix
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 2/2
- Keyword: Flying
- Equipped ability: The equipped creature has Flying
- Reconfigure cost: R
- Ability: Whenever Forgeborn Phoenix or Equipped creature dies, it Perpetually gains “Whenever an Equipped creature you control deals combat damage to a player or planeswalker, return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.”
Reconfigure cards that are Equipped to a creature return to the battlefield as a creature if the Equipped creature dies via removal or combat. Forgborn Phoenix takes this interaction a step further by allowing the Equipped creature that died to return, or for the phoenix itself to return directly to the battlefield upon combat damage applied to an opponent or an opponent’s planeswalker.
Inchblade Companion
- CMC: W
- Type: Artifact creature—Equipped Insect
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 1/1
- Equipped ability: The Equipped creature gets +1/+1
- Reconfigure cost: Two mana of any color
- Ability: Whenever Inchblade Companion becomes attached to a creature, create a token that’s a copy of Inchblade Companion, except it doesn’t have this ability. This ability triggers only once per turn.
Inchblade Companion can slot into Boros Equipment builds, but it has the potential to thrive within token and sacrifice decks as well. Creating a token once per turn is nice during the mid-game and has explosive potential to pop off during matches that run long. The only downside to Inchblade Companion is that its reconfigure cost is two, which is slightly high in an aggressive build that runs less than 24 lands.
Players can test out both Inchblade Companion and Forgeborn Phoenix when the Neon Dynasty: A22 set releases on MTG Arena on March 17.
