The return to Kamigawa, Neon Dynasty, continues to be an active and vigorous point of discussion among Magic fans, with all sides offering some kind of input. Early sales indications are that the set is poised to do particularly well as a product, though audiences remain somewhat split as to precisely what they do – or do not – enjoy about everything the set offers. From transforming Sagas to Licid-like augmenting Equipment ,to Phyrexianized moonfolk, Neon Dynasty runs a wide gamut of mechanics that have players agog with its Limited and Constructed potential. That part seems (generally) accepted as largely positive. Where players remain split is on the notion of to what degree this return “feels” like Kamigawa, and indeed to some whether it’s much of a return at all.
Such debates are, of course, highly subjective. Everyone has different thresholds for how much change they’re willing to tolerate within the vantage of a particular game setting whilst having it seem like the place they remember it as. Yet there is no single litmus test that can be applied equally to all players. Many within the community either overtly hated the quirkiness and more esoteric ideas of original Kamigawa block and generally steered clear – as evidenced by poor sales and general reception at the time. Others were largely indifferent, cherry-picking some elements of the story and mechanics they liked while dispassionately discarding the rest. To them Neon Dynasty is a positive change. So it is far from a hegemonic response – as is almost always the case with sudden and extensive change.
Then there exists the enfranchisement gap, which is hardly inconsequential either. Given that we haven’t been to Kamigawa in 15 years there is an entire new generation of Magic players that weren’t around for the original releases. They don’t have the emotional attachment to the source material that others do, thereby pegging their reactions to something less of a ‘return’ and more of simply enjoying the world for the first time, in spite of all the notable changes.
Arguably then, aside from the cacophony of bandwagon fans to adore whatever the latest shiny object is Wizards puts in front of them, the most vocal voices in the Neon Dynasty debate come from those who do have emotional attachment to the original series. Perhaps it was because it was the first sets they started playing Magic with, or they enjoyed the more Eastern-inspired themes and concepts of the block, or they just remember fondly games full of Bushido-fueled samurai facing down otherworldly spirits. The Myojin. Flip cards. Arcane-infused spells. A plane with a White-aligned antagonist. The list goes on. Whatever the reasons may be, many Magic fans came into Neon Dynasty with a lot of expectation and anticipation with the hope of rekindling those cherished experiences, and the sizable gear shift of the 1,000+ year evolution of Kamigawa was jarring to a not-insignificant portion of that particular audience. They’ve also made their opinions on that known, often fervently. This is the power of nostalgia.
Nostalgia, especially for those who grew up alongside the internet, is a highly powerful and motivating force. With the ability to find similar communities over everything from old 80s TV shows to recycled fashion trends, the internet fostered our ability to mingle with like-minded fans over elements of our collective past. This is especially true for anyone whose formative childhood years predate the modern forms of communication and content sharing we all take for granted now. Nostalgia by itself isn’t inherently negative, though there are plenty of folks out there that take it to almost obsessive levels of adoration. Indeed, if taken too far nostalgia can be problematic along a host of axes, if nothing else than for its propensity to apply a rose-covered glaze to the particular topic or time period from whence it was created originally.
More than anything else, though, nostalgia has proven to be massively powerful in the world of consumerism. Few things can motivate people to buy up non-essential goods like a nostalgic marketing campaign done well. Look around your dwelling and I almost guarantee you can find something you bought because of nostalgia alone. I know I have.
Magic: the Gathering is no different. Bringing back old cards, concepts, and settings is an incredibly useful tool to sell cards, and they’ve done it on numerous occasions before Neon Dynasty. Heck, it’s not even the only set doing it in 2022 what with The Brothers War coming up in Q4. Modern Horizons and numerous callback characters in Commander sets have tapped into this space pretty successfully. But none of their sets have been as saturated with nostalgic-laden goodness than that of the Time Spiral block. Whether it was its litany of homages, callbacks, and “what ifs”, the Time Spiral block was a clear love letter to fans of the game over its first decade or so. And it worked. Even if it wasn’t the best selling block of all time due to its complexity and sheer volume of nostalgic flavoring being lost on those unfamiliar to the material, it proves that both that facet – alongside complex mechanics – were a lucrative vein to mine going forward. So much so that nostalgia for the nostalgia set warranted a compilation reprint set of its own last year.
That all being said, Time Spiral was pretty fun. It offered a lot of different ideas, concepts, and compilations that are still remembered even now. And it also provided a bunch of excellent choices for casual multiplayer formats like Commander. Including this week’s card.
Today we have: Stuffy Doll
Name: Stuffy Doll
Edition: Time Spiral / Magic 2013 / Time Spiral Remastered
Rarity: Rare
Focus: Damage Redirection
Highlights: As all the callbacks in the Time Spiral block go, Stuffy Doll is admittedly a little bit of a strange one, if only because of what it’s based on. Stuffy Doll borrows its genesis from a trio of early era artifacts, being The Rack, Black Vise, and Cursed Rack, each of which acting as a voodoo doll of sorts representing other players. (Seriously, that poor doll.) In all those cases though, those cards manipulated and punished someone based on a player’s hand size. Although clearly harking back to the older cards, Stuffy Doll takes a markedly different approach by going after someone else entirely…at its own expense.
When Stuffy Doll first came out it proved to be a decent draft option and a rather so-so card for Constructed purposes, but it quickly became a darling among casual players for its quirkiness and ability to really hamper an opponent on the battlefield. Part of that was due to the oddity of the card itself, and part of it was a byproduct of the game still adjusting to Indestructible as a mechanic. Yet even as the number of cards to deal with Indestructible permanents has increased over the years, Stuffy Doll’s appeal has not really waned. And with good reason.
At its absolute most basic function, Stuffy Doll is a 0/1 Indestructible creature for five generic mana, making it the kind of artifact creature that can make its way into all sorts of decks. If nothing else, an Indestructible blocker can be quite handy against a sizable chunk of creatures one may find on the battlefield.
Of course, this fact is merely a byproduct necessity of its true function. Which is to cause pain to your opponent just like its predecessors.
It just does it in the most ridiculously amazing way possible: hurting itself.
Yes, Stuffy Doll comes with a pair of abilities that flesh…stuff…out its usefulness. The first is a triggered ability which states that whenever Stuffy Doll is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to an opponent that you choose when it enters the battlefield. While this means you must single out a particular opponent, this can be strategically useful all the same. This could, for instance, serve as a deterrent for a particular opponent to not attack you for fear of taking reciprocal damage. Alternatively, this could be targeted at the player who is currently the largest threat on the board as a means of indirectly being able to damage that player through your actions – or through incentivizing other players to attack you with the intention of intentionally blocking to redirect the damage. There is certainly room for error in these calculations, surely, and it can be a little roundabout in the process. But it can also be particularly effective so long as it remains alive.
Additionally, Stuffy Doll has an activated ability that ties directly into the first. With it you can tap it to deal 1 damage to itself. This of course will not kill the doll due to its protected nature but it will forward that 1 damage on to said opponent all the same. Which means at its absolute worst case scenario, you have an Indestructible blocker that can deal an opponent 1 damage each round. Sometimes EDH players will balk at that basic fact, but that is the bare bottom scenario. If utilized correctly it’s possible to leverage even more damage than that.
And if nothing else, Stuffy Doll offers something almost as important for Commander: some levity. Sometimes Commander can get rather intense, and it’s nice to have memorable cards with wonky ideas that can work to your advantage – both in terms of strategic importance and the ability to remember the fun side of the game as well.
Keep an eye out for us to be regularly featuring other more accessible-but-worth-it Commander cards going forward. In the meantime, we’ll keep the light on for you.
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