We’ve seen some incredible previews for Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty over the past few days. There’s a lot of powerful cards but one of the big stand out ones is Mirror Box. This card is a buffed up call back to an original Betrayer’s of Kamigawa card, Mirror Gallery and is one of the most unique effects in the game. But how can we leverage this powerful artifact in Magic: Arena? Let’s take a look at a few applications of the card and a couple deck ideas that we can try when the set launches.
Mirror Box
Mirror Box is a 3 mana artifact that states that the “Legend Rule” doesn’t apply to permanents we control. Well, what exactly is the Legend Rule? The Legend Rule is a state based action that says if a player controls multiple legendary permanents with the same name, that player puts all but 1 of those permanents into the graveyard.
The Legend Rule applies to all legendary permanents, but mostly this will come up with creatures and planeswalkers. The card doesn’t stop there, though. Each Legendary Creature gets +1/+1, and each nontoken creature we control gets +1/+1 for each other creature we control with the same name. Essentially this means that if we have multiple copies of creatures in play, legendary or not, they will get a buff.
That being said, what decks could we leverage this card in? Let’s take a look at a few archetypes.
Shrines
Ok so we may not actually play 5 color Shrines, but it’s possible. There’s some 3 color Shrine decks that have some potential to be great, but really what holds them back is the fact that we can only play 1 copy of each Shrine at a time.
On Magic Arena we have the original Honden cycle, and the Sanctum cycle all of which are Legendary. We also know that we’re getting another cycle of Shrines in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, so this deck is gaining support.
What’s awesome here is that these new Shrines are also creatures, so with these cards, we get the full benefit of Mirror Box.
Super Friends
The next place we could take advantage of Mirror Box is with a Super Friends, or Planeswalker, deck. 9 Times out of 10, we’re going to be playing a control deck, with Planeswalkers as our win condition. While we will won’t gain benefit from the 2nd and 3rd abilities, we can play multiple of the same Planeswalker.
What Planeswalkers would we want to play? Well that definitely depends on what colors you’re playing. One thing that I’d consider is going into Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider, and playing Planeswalkers that can ultimate right away. This may seem like a pipedream, but it’s definitely doable in the right situations.
READ MORE: MTG Arena Standard Deck Tier List 2022
Bard Class
The last place that I’d look to play Mirror Box, and one of the first decks I’m going to test out is going to be Bard Class in Historic. I’ve written about this deck in the past, and it’s been one of my favorite Historic decks that I’ve hit Mythic with on Arena.
This list looks to flood the board very quickly with reduced casting cost Legendary Units, and one of the issues the deck faces is that our board can only get so big due to the Legend Rule. If we run into a stalled board state, it’s hard to push through the damage needed. With the Mirror Box, we can build our board as wide as we need and punch through in 1 fell swoop.
READ MORE: Everything Covered in the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty MTG Stream
What decks would you want to play Mirror Box in? Let us know in the comments! Also be sure to stay tuned to our Preview Gallery for all the new preview cards coming out over the next week!
