Promised Kannushi MTG Card

Promised Kannushi excels at utilizing graveyard cards to maintain a steady flow of play options. Invoking this card accelerates your gameplay by allowing quicker access to more Spirits. Instant speed invocation enhances strategy with surprise plays and counters during opponent’s turns.

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Human Druid
Abilities	Soulshift
Released	2005-06-03
Set symbol
Set name	Saviors of Kamigawa
Set code	SOK
Power	1
Toughness	1
Number	141
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Matt Thompson

Text of card

Soulshift 7 (When this is put into a graveyard from play, you may return target Spirit card with converted mana cost 7 or less from your graveyard to your hand.)

Cards like Promised Kannushi

Promised Kannushi is a unique creature card in Magic: The Gathering with the Renown mechanic, offering a way to make your creatures more powerful after dealing combat damage to a player. When surveying the landscape of similar MTG cards, one might draw comparisons to cards like Ainok Bond-Kin, which also leverages counters to enhance its capabilities. However, Promised Kannushi has the added versatility of being able to use counters from any source, rather than just the Renown counters.

Another analog is the growth-enabled Servant of the Scale. Although the functionality differs slightly, as Servant of the Scale adds +1/+1 counters to other creatures upon its death, it shares the same spirit of incremental advantage through counters as Promised Kannushi. Favored Hoplite also plays in this ballpark, providing benefits via Heroic when you cast a spell that targets it, this not only increases its size but also prevents all damage that would be dealt to it that turn.

Moving through this grouping, Promised Kannushi offers a fresh take on utilizing counters to strengthen your board presence. It’s a card that can quietly but significantly swing the balance in your favor if played strategically within the MTG realm.

Servant of the Scale - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Promised Kannushi by color, type and mana cost

Card Pros

Card Advantage: The Promised Kannushi card proves its worth by effectively utilizing cards in your graveyard. With its ability to return Spirit cards back to your hand, this card ensures that you sustain a steady flow of options, bolstering your ability to outmaneuver opponents.

Resource Acceleration: This card helps ramp up your game by permitting the reuse of Spirit cards. The acceleration it provides isn’t just in the form of card recycling, but also in the strategic edge gained by having more Spirits to cast sooner than usual, setting the pace of the match in your favor.

Instant Speed: The versatility of Promised Kannushi is on full display with its instant-speed capabilities. This allows you to respond to threats or optimize your plays during the opponent’s turns, weaving your strategy with more flexibility and adding an element of surprise to your game plan.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Promised Kannushi demands a card be exiled from your graveyard as part of its invoke cost. In games where your graveyard is a precious resource, this could potentially strip you of a valuable asset that you would rather keep for other synergies or recursion opportunities.

Specific Mana Cost: With Promised Kannushi, you’re locked into a specific color identity—green. This can make it a less flexible choice for decks that are not heavily invested in that color, potentially leading to mana issues if the deck’s base is not properly tuned to accommodate green spells.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Despite being a one-drop creature, its invoke ability comes at the steep price of four mana, including three generic and one green. This investment might be considered high, especially when looking at the current meta where efficiency is key, and there may be alternate creatures or spells that offer similar or greater value for the same or less mana investment.

Reasons to Include Promised Kannushi in Your Collection

Versatility: Promised Kannushi is a card that easily adapts to various deck builds, particularly those utilizing the Soulshift mechanic or requiring Spirit creature types for synergistic effects.

Combo Potential: With its ability to bring other Spirits back from the graveyard, Promised Kannushi can be a linchpin in combos that capitalize on recurring enter-the-battlefield triggers or sacrifice engines.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where graveyard strategies and creature-based synergies are common, Promised Kannushi’s Soulshift feature allows it to maintain board presence and offers enduring value throughout the match.

How to beat Promised Kannushi

The challenge of facing Promised Kannushi lies in its ability to exploit the soulshift mechanic efficiently, enabling a persistent presence on the battlefield by returning spirit cards from the graveyard back to the hand. This persistence can make it seem daunting to overcome, especially in decks that capitalize on spirits. Yet, the key resides in hindering this recursion.

One reliable strategy to beat Promised Kannushi is through exile effects. Cards like Path to Exile remove the Kannushi without triggering its soulshift, cutting off the chance for it to bring another spirit back into play. Graveyard disruption with cards such as Relic of Progenitus or Tormod’s Crypt can also be highly effective, removing the targets for soulshift before Kannushi can utilize the ability, thus neutralizing its advantages.

Another angle can be focusing on hand disruption to prevent your opponent from utilizing the cards brought back by soulshift. Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek are prime examples of this approach, snatching spirits before they can be replayed. Overall, to beat Promised Kannushi, concentrating on interrupting the synergistic cycle of spirit cards is your path to victory.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Promised Kannushi MTG card by a specific set like Saviors of Kamigawa, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Promised Kannushi and other MTG cards:

BUY NOW
BurnMana is an official partner of TCGPlayer

Continue exploring other sealed products in Amazon
See MTG Products

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Promised Kannushi has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Promised Kannushi card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2005-06-01	Yes, Soulshift 7. Promised Kannushi can return any Spirit with converted mana cost of 7 or less. However, Promised Kannushi is a Human Druid, not a Spirit.