Kamigawa Neon Dynasty was a fantastic card set. A return to a plane that didn't really work when it had the whole 2004-2005 release year and three different sets (blown away by the perhaps overpowered Mirrodin block and the absolutely beloved introduction of Ravnica in the subsequent year,) KND was exciting and fun, and it also bent Magic: the Gathering's genre more than it had ever before - for the first time, we saw futuristic technology that wasn't some vaguely-defined magitek, and showed the the fantasy genre can easily blend with other genres, such as Cyberpunk.
But, as a popular set, it also brought some popular cards that are... well, perhaps a little overpowered.
Maybe the biggest offender, as in, it's the card you basically are going to put in every single deck you have that uses red mana, is Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, one of the call-back Sagas that refer to a legendary creature from the original Kamigawa run.
The thing is, I don't actually mind this so much. It can become very powerful if left to its own devices, eventually copying creatures with powerful ETB effects or death effects. But it takes four turns to actually hit that point (or three if you have a way to get its flip side haste) and there are ample opportunities to deal with it.
No, the card from KND I can't stand is Farewell.
Farewell wipes the board. It wipes the graveyard. Selectively, it has the potential to wipe out everything the opponent has built up to this point in the game other than planeswalkers.
Basically, you build around using this, and on turn six, your opponent is set back almost to turn 1.
Board wipes are a healthy part of the game, mind you - they're a useful tool for control decks to get some good asymmetrical card advantage and stall things out to let them build to their finishers. But this one, which does not destroy but exiles, and wipes the graveyard, and artifacts, and enchantments, on top of creatures...
If this existed before Lorwyn block it would let you clear every single thing out of the game other than lands and cards in hand, and libraries.
So, I was, with some bittersweet joy (I love, for example, the Innistrad dual lands) looking forward to its rotating out with the Wilds of Eldraine.
But it seems we will not so easily be rid of Farewell.
That's because Standard, which has for as long as I can remember (and I think I was first aware of formats when I was playing MTGO back in 2005-2007) been composed of sets from the past two years, rotating out the older "block" (even if we don't use blocks anymore) in September, is now going to have three years' worth of card sets.
In other words, for this year only, there will be no set rotation. Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, Innistrad: Crimson Vow, Kamigawa Neon Dynasty, and Streets of New Capenna will all remain in Standard until fall of 2024.
When they rotate out with the as-yet unannounced (I think) set that comes then, we'll still have another full year of the Phyrexia Arc sets, meaning Dominaria United, The Brother's War, Phyrexia All Will Be One, March of the Machine, and March of the Machine: The Aftermath.
So, the good news is that if you're still playing that werewolf deck you made in the fall of 2021, you're going to be able to keep playing it for a good long while in Standard. But if you are sick and tired of losing attacking creatures to a flashed-out Wandering Emperor any time your white-deck opponent has four mana open, well... you're going to have to deal with that for a bit longer.
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