MTG CHAMPIONS OF KAMIGAWA REGULAR MOL FACTORY SET

Champions of Kamigawa contained 306 black-bordered cards (88 rare, 88 uncommon, 110 common, and 20 basic lands). The card Brothers Yamazaki appeared with two different pictures, while the art of the basic lands of each type formed murals. The story takes place on the plane of Kamigawa, which is thematically based on feudal Japan and related legends and myths.

The Legendary supertype replaced the creature type "Legend" with this set. Every rare creature in the set, plus several uncommons, are Legendary. The set also made minor rules adjustments for targeting, and introduced the evergreen keyword "Defender", which was retroactively applied to all previously printed cards with the type Wall and formally detached the creature type from its rules baggage. The expansion symbol of the set is a torii gate (a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the profane to the sacred). Champions of Kamigawa restored colored mana symbols in the text box, which had been missing since Eighth Edition.

Champions of Kamigawa introduced the keywords Bushido, Soulshift, and Splice, the first sorcery and instant subtype Arcane, and the visually striking flip cards. Of these mechanics, the Arcane subtype, Splice, and Soulshift represented spirit-world magic. The flip cards contributed to another major mechanic throughout the block: legendary creatures (and permanents). The set also featured the first legendary enchantments, the Honden Shrines.

• Arcane spells - some instant or sorcery spells have the Arcane subtype, which represent spells or abilities used by the kami. It does nothing by itself, but other cards may interact with it.
  • Splice onto Arcane - spells having this keyword can be "attached" to another Arcane spell for additional mana investment. The "spliced" spell remains in the player's hand able to be reused another time.
• Spirits - due to the nature of Kamigawa, this block contains a large proportion of creatures with the subtype Spirit. These spirits represent the kami themselves, and numerous cards in the block interact with them in special ways to provide synergy.
  • Soulshift - a keyword that appears on Spirit creatures and allows them to return another Spirit creature from the graveyard to its owner's hand when they perish.
  • "Spiritcraft" - many Spirits have abilities that trigger when another Spirit or an Arcane spell is played.
• Bushido, or "way of the warrior", increases a creature's power and toughness by the Bushido number when it combats another creature. (This is usually compared to flanking, which weakens (-1/-1) the blockers of the creature.)
• Flip cards - flip cards have a special Card frame with the top and the bottom halves of the cards holding text boxes, the bottom being upside-down, and the art of the card in the middle. If certain conditions specific to the card were met, the card could be "flipped" (the card was turned 180 degrees), changing into a different card permanently.

Notable cards

In the tournament scene, Champions of Kamigawa contributed with a large number of finishers, like Kokusho, the Evening Star, Keiga, the Tide Star, Yosei, the Morning Star and Meloku the Clouded Mirror. It also provided excellent green mana fixing, like Sakura-Tribe Elder and Kodama's Reach, and an arsenal of cards that fueled multiple colored control decks, such as Gifts Ungiven. A notable sideboard card was also found in Cranial Extraction.

• Sensei's Divining Top — A card that saw widespread tournament play due to the ability to set up advantageous draws repeatedly and function as an emergency card-draw. The card was later banned in Extended and Modern, not due to power concerns but because the card tended to slow the game down immensely and was thus detrimental to tournament play. It is also a key piece in the lock with Counterbalance (printed later in Coldsnap) due to its ability to change the card Counterbalance would reveal at instant-speed. Divining Top could also place itself on top of the library, making any spell with a converted mana cost of 1 impossible to resolve.
• Time Stop — Rules had to be added to the Comprehensive Rules for ending the turn thanks to this card.
• Glimpse of Nature — A powerful card-drawing engine in conjunction with cheap or zero-cost creatures. Eventually banned in Modern.
• Azusa, Lost but Seeking — While not highly prized during Kamigawa block itself, her popularity soared alongside that of the Commander format, where she fueled powerful mana-ramping strategies.
• Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker — A cornerstone for many combo decks abusing enters-the-battlefield triggers.
• Lava Spike — One of the staples of burn decks in every format in which it is legal.
• Takeno, Samurai General has the distinction of being a keyword lord of a keyword that has an associated number, referring to this as the "points" of that keyword. No other card in the history of the game refers to a keyword in this way.
• Hideous Laughter, at sixteen characters, is the longest card name that is entirely encapsulated within another unrelated card name (Tasha's Hideous Laughter). However, multiple newer cards encapsulate longer original spell names verbatim in reference.
• Mindblaze is the only card that refers to the number of cards contained in an opponent's library, and also the only card that reveals a library.