Takenuma, Abandoned Mire – Kamigawa: Neon Destiny
Date Reviewed: February 15, 2022
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.58
Casual: 3.67
Limited: 4.00
Multiplayer: 3.50
Commander [EDH]: 3.67
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Apart from their gameplay functions, the lands with channel abilities are cool because they suggest that a lot of the places from the first Kamigawa block are still around, in one form or another. And apparently, Takenuma still does graveyard stuff (although, to be fair, that tends to be consistent across a lot of black-aligned places). As we’ve discussed before, one of the most notable characteristics of channel abilities is that they’re activated abilities and thus can’t be affected by most counterspells; while I don’t know how many decks normally make a habit of countering Raise Dead effects, they will if your gameplan clearly revolves around them (or if your planeswalkers are powerful enough). Notably, it’s also instant-speed and has the possibility of cost reduction, which is something you can’t always say about similar effects.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 4/5 (you thought you’d seen the last of that bomb card? Think again)
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander [EDH]: 3/5
We already touched on the first four lands, so the fifth of the legendary cycle makes sense here, right? The effect of Takenuma is rather simple, but useful: set up your graveyard, and maybe even fish back something to use later. Considering that this can also function just fine as a land, there’s a lot of versatility baked into this card, and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire is a good way to try to swing a game back. It doesn’t immediately impact a board like the other members of its cycle do, but being able to reuse a fallen planeswalker is quite potent, to be sure, and it’s a nice side tool for the enterprising black deck to be able to grind out a game.
Constructed: 3.75
Casual: 4
Limited: 4 (being able to recur a permanent can be a big deal if you’re reliant on specific bombs)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
Not the best land of the cycle, but this certainly is really good if you need to get that win card back from your graveyard. I run a Nicol Bolas “Superfriends” in commander and I’m certainly going to be putting this card in that deck, how could you not? It is a little expensive to activate but in the right deck it could easily be down one or two mana.
I’m really curious if Dredge players see this as useful in Dredge decks. When I first read it, it just screamed “Play me in Dredge” (albeit I was a bad dredge player) but look at it! Milling yourself to bring a creature back to your hand is Dredge! I think this will see some play along with Bosiju in not only standard but in eternal formats as well.
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
Commander [EDH]: 4/5
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