Quick Links
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic The Gathering's Kamigawa may well be a super-advanced cyberpunk plane of cyborgs, robots, and mechs, but it's also a world where the mortal plane is pressed right up against the world of the gods, known as the Kami. Some mortals can even harness the power of the spirits and Kami that live on the other s🅰ide.
This intertw𓆉ining of the mortal and Kami realms is represented in Magic's Channel mechanic, which is returning in a big way in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. As you'd expect from using the power of a god, Channel can be a frightfully powerful ability when used at the right time. Here is everything you need to know about Channel.
What Is Channel
Channel is an ability found on cards that you can activate while they're in your hand. There are a huge range of Channel effects; they can do anything from direct damage and ramp, to counters🎉pells and hand destruction.
Every card with Channel has its Channel 🅘cost listed on it, with the one constant between all of them being there is both a mana cost and a requirement to discard the card from your hand. For example, if you wanted to channel Mnemonic Sphere to draw a card, you would pay one blue mana and discard Mnemonic Sphe🤡re first.
Channel is virtually identical to a lot of other abilities in Magic, such as cycling (disca🐷rding the card to draw a card), transmute (discarding to tutor for a card of the same mana value), or evoke (discarding to summon a creature that is sacrificed as soon as it enters the battlefield). You'll even see a lot of overlap between them – for instance, Mnemonic Sphere is literally jꦡust cycling under a different name.
How To Use Channel
When Channel was introduced in the original Kamigawa sets, it was closely linked to the Spirit creature type, and there was a lot of symmetry between what the Spirit would do if cast normally, and what the Channel effect was. For example, Ghost-Lit Stalker could force an oppone💟nt to discard two cards with its normal activated ability, or you could Channel it to force them to discard four in🗹stead.
In Neon Dynasty, Spirits aren't as much of a focus of the set (possibly due to the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Spirit-heavy Innistrad sets that came before it), and so Channel is 𓂃a bit more general in its capabilities. It's now found on all kinds of cards, and in particular artifact and enchantment creatures.
Some of the most powerful Channel cards are the new legendary lands in Neon Dynasty. Putting lands into your graveyard can be great in a ꦗlot of decks, and with effects like dealing four damage to an attacking or blocking creature with Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire, or artifact destruction with Boseiju, Who Endures added on top, it can get pretty silly.
The real beauty of Channel is that you're not casting a spell, you're 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:activating an ability from your hand. That means two things: first, you can do it at instant speed like any other activated ability, unle♐ss the card explicitly says you ca♓n't, such as Ghost-Like Stalker.
Second, they're very hard to counter. Counterspells don't work against them, instead your opponent would have to use something like Stifle or Tale's End to counter an activated or triggered ability. These are a lot less common, especially in forma♌ts with smaller card pools like Standard.
How Many Channel Cards Are There?
As of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, there are 36 cards with Channel. It's spread across every colour, though it's most prevalent in the Temur colours or blue, red, and🎃 g♛reen.
Out of the mono-coloured cards, there are ten green, seven blue, seven red, five white, and just two black Channel cards. There are also five colourless cards, each of them being one of the Legendary Land cycle from Neon Dynasty.
There is only one multicolour Channel card, and that is the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Simic (blue/green) Colossal Skyturtle.