Boseiju, Who Endures – Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
Date Reviewed: December 29, 2022
Ratings:
Constructed: 5.00
Casual: 4.00
Limited: 3.50
Multiplayer: 4.17
Commander [EDH]: 4.75
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale: 1 is bad; 3 is average; 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
David
Fanany
Player
since
1995
If you just go by basic characteristics, Boseiju, Who Endures seems to have surprisingly much against it: legendary lands have been somewhat out of fashion ever since Mark Rosewater described legendary as a “downside mechanic”; lands that enter untapped and produce colored mana are even more out of fashion; the channel ability only previously appeared in the notorious Saviors of Kamigawa expansion. But praise Odin, the rule of cool prevailed, and Kamigawa has not just been redeemed – it’s been proven to actually have been cool all along. Boseiju is perhaps the most powerful member of a cycle where all the members are at least decent, not least because of its low channel cost and ability to hit such a wide range of targets. While in bigger formats (or, er, Dominaria United) you can give the opponent a dual land, that’s very likely less threatening than whatever they lost; and let’s not beat around the bush here, and just acknowledge that it comes from a limited format where it can even kill some creatures, soon after a set full of other creatures it can kill. This is not the kind of staple card that makes a deck archetype all on its own, but the kind of staple that makes most decks just a little better. Be prepared.
Constructed: 5
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4.5
Commander: 4.5
This card was no.1 on my Top 10 Cards of 2022 list.
As a bit of a spoiler, the no.1 card on the morrow was my no.2 on the list, so I’m not too sad that Boseiju ultimately came in second. I do think that Boseiju, Who Endures is not a terribly surprising inclusion, though its impact was mostly felt in every format besides Standard, racking up impressive results in Pioneer, Modern, and Legacy (and not being completely dead in Vintage).
Flexibility in a card is always valuable, and Boseiju is certainly a flexible bit of removal if you’re willing to let an opponent fish out a land in response. But with as threatening as some various cards can be, popping them at instant speed for two (or one) mana is powerful in ways that aren’t particularly subtle. Swapping their Gaea’s Cradle for a dual land is an acceptable trade much of the time, all in all.
And, of course, Boseiju is a green land; it’s not as readily searched as it’d be if there were multiple types on it, but there’s rarely drawback to running it, and running multiples is honestly perfectly tenable as a function of its channel ability making it rarely a dead card in hand. I do think Boseiju is going to continue being played in multiple formats for many years down the line, all in all; it’s a powerful removal spell with modality and flexibility, and cards with those attributes are rarely left lacking for homes.
Constructed: 5
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.5 (probably not worth drafting above all else, but it hits a lot of cards in its Limited format with a muted downside)
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander: 5 (if you’re in green, there’s no reason not to run a copy)
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