Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Conclusions and Additions

I managed to get this review done in about 2/3rds the normal words. Partly this is down to the set having a little less power than some of the more recent offerings but mostly it is down to me making an effort to be more concise and spend less time on the more niche cards. 

I am also unsure how I feel about the aesthetic of the set. It certainly fits in and feels like a magic set despite the futuristic setting which is an impressive achievement. Even so it somehow doesn't sit quite right for me. As I have been a little disenfranchised with magic in general over the last few years this set would mark a good place to actually stop if I felt so inclined. I have often thought about having a cube that is pre Modern Horizons as that would solve a lot of the issues surrounding some of the most obnoxious cards. The issue with that is that I love a lot of the new cards and feel like they add to the cube experience. For every oppressive Plague Engineer and Fury such a move would cull we would lose delights such as Abundant Harvest, Jwari Disruption, You Find Some Prisoners, and my long awaited Ignoble Hierarch! I don't plan on stopping but I am certainly slowing down and if that continues alongside too many cards being released, too many samey things, too many obnoxious cards, too much price gouging things, then I might well retrospectively limit my cube to things 2021 and earlier. At least there appears to be nothing actually broken from this set which is a good start.

With there being relatively little needed as it were for cubes these days I am mostly looking for cards that will make magic better. This is good support cards, things that reduce RNG, and things that provide options. This set has some of these things, most notably in the channel lands which are like better versions of the MDFCs. I also rather like the design of the March cycle and look forward to seeing how they play. Lastly I am a fan of the flash and phasing planeswalkers that add a little twist to the means such things obtain survivability. 

Overall the power of this set seems to be about where it should be. A good amount of interesting stuff, some things that will be making an impact and nothing too obnoxious. The best cards from the set are good due to being incredibly playable rather than having high power and that is also no bad thing. There is also somewhat of a colour imbalance favouring white from this set which is probably no bad thing, if not the weakest cube colour it is certainly still the dullest and will take all the help it can get.  

I am less of a fan of the various alternate arts than I usually am (except for the full art lands which I am excited to play with) but this is no problem as I will just get normal versions of cards and avoid the garish and bitty nature of the alternate stuff. 

* commander set cards

Additions (best to worst)

Boseiju, Who Endures

Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire 

Otawara, the Soaring City

March of Otherworldly Light

Spirited Companion

The Wandering Emperor

Reckoner Bankbuster

Kaito Shizuki

Seismic Wave

To Test with High Expectations

The Kami War // O-Kagachi Made Manifest

Kyodai, Soul of Kamigawa

The Modern Age

Biting-Palm Ninja

Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

Lion Sash

Moon-Circuit Hacker

March of Reckless Joy

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker

Reflection of Kiki-Jiki

Gravelighter 

Reinforced Ronin

Jugan Defends the Temple // Remnent of the Rising Star

To Test with Low Expectations

Goro-Gor, Disciple of Ryusei

Kiari, the Swirling Sky

Junji, the Midnight Sky

Selfless Samurai

Inventive Iteration // Living Breakthrough 

The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architech of Restoration 

Tribure to Horobi // Echo of Death's Wail 

Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion

Okiba Reckoner Raid // Nezumi Road Captain

March of Wretched Sorrow

Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

Touch of the Spirit Realm 

Blade of the Oni

Farewell

Dockside Chef

Ogre-Head Helm

Rabbit Battery 

Tamiyo's Safekeeping 

Eater of Virtue 

Invoke the Ancients 

Kumano Faces Kakkazan .. Etchings of Kumano

Swift Reconfiguration*

For the Constructed Reserves

Satoru Umezawa

Silver-Fur Master

Thousand-Faced Shadow

Michoko's Reign of Truth // Portrait of Michiko 

Simian Sling

Secluded Courtyard

Scrap Welder

Moonsnare Prototype

Hotshot Mechanic 

Lizard Blades 

Circuit Mender 

Reality Heist 

Discover the Impossible 

Hinata, Dawn-Crowned 

Sky-Blessed Samurai 

Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice

Weaver of Harmony 

Roadside Reliquary

Isshin, Two Heavens as One

Patchwork Automaton 

Containment Construct 

Mnemonic Sphere 

Virus Beetle 

Experimental Synthesizer 

Commune with Spirits 

Ecologist's Terrarium

Iron Apprentice 

Kappa Cannoneer*

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Commander Preliminary Review

 

 0 - unplayable in 40 card singleton

1 - effectively unplayable

2 - has low tier constructed decks it might go in

3 - has mid tier constructed decks it does go in

4 - pretty powerful stuff with several potential homes, able to perform well in lower powered cubes

5 - powerful stuff that is either just too narrow or has too many superior alternatives

6 - fringe cube worthy

7 - cube worthy

8 - cube staple

9 - unpowered cube bomb

10 - powered cube bomb 

Chishiro, the Shattered Blade 1

Reasonable power level but pretty narrow and clunky. Am I playing this in a counters deck? An auras deck? Or an equipment deck? Likely none of the above. You kind of want both token making and pumping effects to be triggering to make this good and that will be pretty hard to do. Arguably too narrow even as a build around card. 

Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful 3

I can see this making the cut in Mox Amber and historic lists. It might even creep into tribal doggos should they have enough legends and few enough one drops.  

Go-Shintai of Life's Origin 2

Cool commander for those shrine decks. Probably just about playable in a 40 card shrine deck too although such things will be pretty low power, low tier and limited to constructed settings. 

Myojin of Description Thing 1

The classic format of paying 8 or more mana for an indestructible dork which you can make mortal for a one time big effect. Since the original cycle near two decades have passed and the value of an indestructible creature has diminished while the power of what you can do with 8 or more mana has rather increased. These new offerings do not do a great job of making up for these changes. Certainly none possess what it takes to perform in all but the most depowered drafting cubes. All have rather more going for them in EDH where they are intended to be used. The black one likely has the highest ceiling but really needs you to support it in order to get anywhere near it. The red is likely the cleanest and most useful while the blue has the greatest combo potential. Not that it really matters as you can't cheat these out and abuse them rendering them rather neutered. It is a bit of a shame as of all the things I wish to proliferate - the indestructible counters on Myojin has to rank the most powerful. 

Silkguard 2

Lovely synergic way to protect stuff but high cost and frills are not really want in reactive protection things, you just want it to be as playable as often as possible. As such this is just not competing with Herioc Intervention, likely even in a counters theme deck. Perhaps EDH wants lots of these effects but in cube you can rarely afford even one and so being anything other than the best is a pretty bad place to be. 

Rampant Rejuvenator 1

I like a lot about this card, the value, the scaling, the synergy etc. Sadly without dedicated support it isn't powerful enough which in turn makes it too narrow. 

Kosei, Penitent Warlord 2

Too needing of support for drafting cubes but a potential build around in some cases. The scaling here is appealing even if it is a little silly of a card. It goes from do nothing to obscene pretty quickly. A humble Bonesplitter or Rancor make this quite the beast. Beyond that it gets pretty stupid. 

One with the Kami 1

Just a bit pricy and conditional. The power is there and the card is relatively safe as far as four mana aura buffs go. Mostly I want my four drops to reliably do things and this does not. 

Akki Battle Squad 1

Only a consideration due to being a goblin where cost reductions and haste buffs are easy to come by. Sadly goblins isn't a tribe that modifies much at all and so until there are some good gobbos that work with this I can't see it getting any cube love. 

Swift Reconfiguration 6.5

Lovely design on this one. Effectively a one mana Pacifism with flash. Halving the cost of a spell and making it instant do a whole lot of work in terms of making it good. My main concern here is that a lot of creatures have ongoing abilities that you want to answer rather more than the body itself. The 2/4 of Torbran is not the issue etc. Crew five is pretty unattainable in most cases and a very steep cost even if you can get there. You will not find many cases where you can crew for five and not suffer diminished attack or defensive efficacy. On Thin Ice feels better than this and may well keep it out of contention but Swift Reconfiguration is a fine and playable card. White just has quite the good selection of removal at present keeping the bar for entry rather high. 

Drumbellower 1

Interesting effect in the wrong colour and on an overly flimsy body. If my stuff isn't tapping to do much this isn't of much interest and white is not a colour with all that many things you want to tap for value. It is some pseudo vigilance as well but so what? I wouldn't play a two drop 2/1 flier than gave my stuff vigilance... I might consider this in a green deck with a bunch of mana dorks but it seems like overkill. 

Aerial Surveyor 1

I think this just misses the mark. I need either the crew of the casting cost to be 1 less and then I would be all over this. At it is I am wary that it is a bit slow and fair and demanding. 

Accesss Denied 5

With answers you tend to just want them to be cheap and direct. This is powerful, likely more so than Spell Swindle, which could be utterly devastating, however, this is also clunky and unreliable. You are going to fire it off on things you wouldn't normally counter simply to get the dorks. Sometimes you will have to fire it off on cheap things and not get much value. This can easily win games and has plenty of power but I am generally going to play actual threats or lower cost counterspells. This is quite easily played around by the savvy player ensuring a fairly low thopter count gained on average while opportunities are lost. The best thing about this is that it is kind of a flash threat that lets you have a big swing in the game which are the counterspell wielders favourite sort of thing.

 

Cyberdrive Awakener 2

As a dork I am unimpressed however as an Overrun effect this has some legs. This can be relatively easily cheated in or simply hard cast to then turn a pile of clues, treasure, rocks, and baubles into flying beaters to easily end the game. Narrow but punchy. 

Kappa Cannoneer 3.5

Improvise is a long way from affinity for artifacts however this is a long way from a Myr Enforcer or Somber Hovergaurd. Broadly this is a very very large Invisible Stalker (or just a pretty large Etched Champion) that is going to end the game fairly quickly. Worth playing in most aggressive artifact decks able to power it out consistently by around turn three. 

Organic Extinction 2

Lots of power here but a very narrow card. You do not find that many heavy artifact decks that are slow enough to be after Wrath effects. This is also very mana intense even with the improvise. Certainly a card with some game but I am not sure how or where this is getting played outside of commander currently. 

Research Thief 2

The flash is lovely here and gives this a bit of a chance, Sadly the cost is quite high and the body somewhat limp. This is exactly the sort of card removal finds easy to answer. With the cost of this being so high I can see this dragging you behind in the game even if it manages to get in one hit and become a two for one. Being a card up is nice but being down 3 or 4 mana is typically worse these days. 

Release to Memory 0

Too expensive for a yard removal tool and too unreliable as a token generator. 

Shorikai, Genesis Engine 3

Well this is all very cool but I can't see it working out in 1v1 play. A single mana to make a 1(3)/1 token and Sift Through Sands/Chart a Course is all vey impressive however playing a 4 mana do nothing in the first place is a bit of a tall order. This will churn through a 40 deck fairly fast making it somewhat unsuitable to play in the slowest of control decks. The threat level here is also quite low, 1/1 tokens hold the fort but they rarely close a game. An 8/8 fat boy also gets less work done than you might expect what with having no evasion or protection. This is a long long way from a Hall of the Storm Giants! I think you need at least 3 activations from this for it to be worth the investment which makes it a bit too slow for my liking. The colours make it narrow too. Certainly not a bad card but fairly well trumped in most metrics by the likes of Mazemind Tome Search for Azcanta, and utility lands. 

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Preliminary Reviews Part IX

 0 - unplayable in 40 card singleton

1 - effectively unplayable

2 - has low tier constructed decks it might go in

3 - has mid tier constructed decks it does go in

4 - pretty powerful stuff with several potential homes, able to perform well in lower powered cubes

5 - powerful stuff that is either just too narrow or has too many superior alternatives

6 - fringe cube worthy

7 - cube worthy

8 - cube staple

9 - unpowered cube bomb

10 - powered cube bomb 

Jugan Defends the Temple // Remnant of the Rising Star 7

Much as I find the first parts of this saga wildly unimpressive it is quite a threat on the back end that really needs answering. Remnant will come to dominate a game pretty effectively. It will make all your dorks into rather more serious threats while acting as a partial mana sink and generally helping to provide good mana efficiency. It will give green some nice and generally unheard of action in the skies holding off those spirits and thopters and faeries! It will dominate the board whenever it is a 7/7 as well. I think for green Remnant is worth the wait and that has quite the drastic effect on the value of the saga. It means you are not leaning on the front half, you don't need it to do reliable, powerful, or appropriate things. Paying three mana for a Llanowar Elf would be a stretch to say the least if it was a significant contributor to the playability of the card. As soon as it is a free-be then it goes from being underwhelming to great. It starts to compare rather well to Llanowar Visionary. Phase 1 and 2 roughly add up to the body of Visionary and phase III the EtB card draw. Rather than just a card however you ensure you not only draw in to gas but you also cast it. This card helps set you up early and close out late. It is full of synergy, diversity, and power. I am somewhat expecting this to sit slightly above Nissa, Vastwood Seer and the Visionary in the cube. Not a bomb but a good rounded card that does a selection of desirable things. 

Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etchings of Kumano 7

Much as I poo-pooed the black saga that is remarkably similar (and likely has more power) I would say this has more of a chance in cube. This is largely down to how red likes to close out games with damage and how strong and prevalent aggro red decks are. This starts out as a bit of a ping which is direct damage and will help it to have some immediate relevance off the top late. It is low power but at least on-theme. Phase two can be devastating if you play something like a Kari Zev into it. It is conditional but it is high tempo and offers good synergy and scaling. Luckily it is also not a disaster should you wiff with it. Certainly you want to avoid that but you are getting just about enough card for your investment most of the time without it. The ultimate body is obviously pretty so-so but it applies pressure and works towards your goals. The static effect it has is what really pushes this card from unimpressive to playable. Exiling things is really powerful and shuts down loads of stuff. This can happily just sit in play and be a high priority to answer for your opponent adding to an already large number of important things to answer than only cost 1 mana like Lavamancer, Soul-Scar Mage, and Bomat Currier. 

Invoke the Ancients 6

Much as I do not love investing overly in large tokens this is a pretty scary card. These will hold the fort or apply a lot of pressure as required. 8/10 of stats over 2 bodies with the ability to tailor them to the situation at hand seems all round good. You might lose one of them to a free bounce or flicker but that should still leave you in an OK position. I think the actual problem here is the quad green in the cost making this pretty much a mono coloured card and thus too narrow. If it were one or two green mana I suspect it would wind up in a number of the multicoloured green decks that are popular and high tier at present in cube. 

March of Swirling Mists 2

Versatile but a bit aimless. Being neither a threat, value, or an answer, this stands little chance in cubes. Despite that I think this is a reasonable little spell and could well see it cropping in small numbers in places like standard. 

Ninja's Kunai 3

A Lightning Bolt in colourless for three times the mana cost and needing a dork to equip then tap down. Power is not what we have here. Much as I mock this is cheap and direct. I can see this getting run in pauper cubes and being decent. Equally I can see it as a role filling support card in an equipment themed deck. It might not be good in most cubes but it would certainly be playable which is impressive in and of itself. 

Iron Apprentice 3

More of these kinds of thing is nice, it is giving some real redundancy at the ideal CMC. To narrow and low power for drafting cubes but ideal to help the synergy decks interested in this sort of thing. 

Ecologist's Terrarium 2

Cool support card but low power. I am more likely to play this as a Lay of the Land that puts an artifact into play than I am for the +1/+1 counter. 

Eater of Virtue 7

This is a hard one to call as it is one of those side-grades on a card that has both an upside and a downside to it. This is mostly a Bonesplitter and that is a fine card, not exciting but pretty decent and playable. Eater can start to buff keywords as a game goes long. A Bonesplitter that gives any of those keywords is very good, and either one of the good ones or a couple of the less good ones and you have a pretty broken card. This is obviously something that often won't happen as your dorks don't die, or don't have the keywords, or are tokens, etc. The drawback however of exiling your dorks that do die while equipped with this is rather tedious in cube. It not only removes any on death triggers you might have but it also diminishes the power of the many cards that use stuff in the yard to delve or escape things as well as those that can recur stuff. I am wary of a cheap support card that has negative synergies, and not the low relevance kind. Power wise this offers a lot for rather little and so is likely worth some concessions. I imagine this is good enough for cube but might not play all that well and get cut on those grounds. It might also occupy too much of the same space Shadowspear does and not quite have enough demand to support both in which case Shadowspear is going to win out for being a more reliable and versatile card that makes games better. 

Automated Artificer 2

Low low power but a cheap rock on legs might be the support card you are after in the odd exotic brew. 

Tamiyo's Safekeeping 6

Keep a thing alive! This protects against most removal in cube but not all. Black has a number of things that give -X/-X that do not target and white always has Council's Judgement and exile based mass removal. It is also useful in some combats with the life being a nice little perk that helps push the power of the card that little bit. I like this and think it has a shot but I fear people are just not going to able to squeeze a card like this into many lists as it is not a threat, value, or an answer to a threat. 

Commune with the Spirits 4

Premium card quality support card for any deck with a high enough enchantment count and not much good elsewhere. It might get a spot of play in decks with a few key enchantments as a way of increasing your odds on finding them and just having an extra land when you miss. 

Careful Cultivation 3

The channel mode here is pretty interesting as it is instant speed and uncounterable ramp. The aura mode doesn't add much to the card sadly and it kind of needed to. Much as instant speed ramp is interesting it is not powerful enough in this case being a token and a two mana version of an abundant one drop card.  

Voltage Surge 2

Efficient and even with some synergies. This will get a spot of play in the odd place but mostly Unholy Heat and Galvanic Blast will keep this out of lists. 

Kami's Flare 4

This is pretty powerful and surprisingly close to the mark however red is getting overly full on non-face burn. The perk of this is face damage, and it is an overly conditional perk making this oddly unsuited and awkward. Certainly isn't threatening Searing Blaze! 

Experimental Synthesizer 3

Sadly this isn't great without support. This isn't a cheap card to play ideally as you want to have sufficient mana left over to play the majority of things you might hit off the top with it. To use it a second time needs even more mana if you want good odds on a hit. If we are using this on turns five and seven it is starting to sounds pretty limp. I do love this card and want to play it for that Thoughtcast feeling! For that you need free ways to sac an artifact which are pretty abundant. Even so, it is then competing with the likes of Ichor Wellspring...

Virus Beetle 4

Cool, another Ravenous Rats, this one with artifact synergy. Playable but very fair.

Reckoner's Bargain 3

A number of better versions of this effect now on offer but nice to have the variation in perks. Black does like access to lifegain giving this a chance at some play. 

Mnemonic Sphere 5

An artifact version of Hieroglyphic Illumination. Hard to fault useful cards with cheap cycling but this is probably too low tempo for most cubes. As soon as you start packing artifact synergies this jumps in power level but I have more than enough blue cantrip cards to want this just at face value, good though it is. 

Mirrorshell Crab 2

Uncounterable Mana Leak with Stifle mode and big dumb dork mode. Nothing here is powerful at all but the card has a pretty extreme amount of modality! Doubt I am ever playing this but for a common this card packs a lot of action. 

Disruption Protocol 2

Another Stoic Rebuttal kind of card, not as good as Metallic Rebuke but playable enough in the right place. More of a standard card than a cube or older format card where there are enough stand alone counters to fill out the ranks without having to lean on these narrower iterations. 

Mothrider Patrol 2

Bad tapper but good Suntail Hawk...

Imperial Recovery Unit 2

If this were crew 1 it might have a shot. As it is there isn't quite enough power for the conditional nature of the card. White value is always nice to see though. 

 

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Preliminary Reviews Part VIII

 0 - unplayable in 40 card singleton

1 - effectively unplayable

2 - has low tier constructed decks it might go in

3 - has mid tier constructed decks it does go in

4 - pretty powerful stuff with several potential homes, able to perform well in lower powered cubes

5 - powerful stuff that is either just too narrow or has too many superior alternatives

6 - fringe cube worthy

7 - cube worthy

8 - cube staple

9 - unpowered cube bomb

10 - powered cube bomb 

Dokuchi Silencer 2

This isn't value nor is it reliable removal. You need abuses for this to start to look good like ways of making it unblockable and things that you want to discard. There are certainly multiple different builds in which I would want to play a card like this but they are all synergy decks. In a draft setting this is never doing enough. 

Invigorating Hot Spring 1

Cool take on Fervor but sadly not something you can scale up quite so well. With Fervor, nor cards like it, not exactly being any sort of impressive in cubes this is also not going to do much of much. 

 

Rabbit Battery 6

Cool utility but mostly a Raging Goblin. Haste givers with mana costs have surprisingly low utility in cube. Viewed as a Leonin Scimitar that you can get some free damage and mana efficiency with in the early game makes me like this a bit more. It is less likely to get freely killed by pings being red itself as that means you will face fewer red opponents and will have picked a lot of the things that efficiently answer it yourself! This I feel is worth a test and will perform quite well but not be exciting or powerful enough to last. 

Ogre-Head Helm 6

Interesting utility, a Bear to beat with, a Vulshock Morning Star to break stalemates with and be relevant in the midgame, and a cash in mode to draw cards. Much as the latter sounds great needing to connect makes it really suspect. A 2/2 isn't getting through easily and if equipped you are adding lots if conditionality and risk to the card while removing much of the tempo. I suspect this will underperform and is quite possibly just less useful than Rabbit Battery!

Containment Construct 4

Seems like this has loop and thus combo potential. Being a colourless two drop means that combo potential has a chance to be a strong one. This is also fine outside of combo. Just in some kind of madness deck the ability to discard things and effectively draw a card is strong. Pitch my land to a looter, play it from the bin etc. Not a bomb but interesting and useful filler. Too narrow for drafting cubes where it often just going to be an overcost Savannah Lions. 

Seismic Wave 7.5

This is quite potent and can be seen as a super Arc Trail or perhaps a spell based Chain-Whirler. This can Bolt one dork and clear out the one toughness things. Sadly for this a number of those are artifacts. Not killing thopter tokens is a shame but it will handle a Lingering Souls very well! Seismic wave is easy to cast, nicely instant, and pleasantly versatile. The power level is variable but typically quite tame however the potential and versatility of the card will likely have it performing well in cube. This will crush decks packing lots of weenies and it will help make non-aggro red strategies better while still being a fine enough inclusion in the aggressive lists. 

Dragonspark Reactor 1

A kind of artifact based Shrine of Burning Rage. This is all a bit narrow and slow and needy to get much work done. It might crop up as a combo finisher but I doubt it. I am certainly not playing this anywhere else. 

Explosive Singularity 5

A big big big old Stoke the Flames. Not exactly convoke as you cannot reduce the red component of the cost but given the total cost of this one I can't see that being an issue. Ten is a lot of damage in one card and is likely to close a lot of games all by itself. Red is also decent at chucking out tokens. All told this is going to be playable even if it isn't great. You probably wind up getting more mileage out of Inferno Titan or Emissary of Grudges as a top end card. It is not like you are using this as spot removal very often so it is primarily a finisher. Likely just not getting enough play to merit a cube spot but relatively powerful and playable none the less. 

Dockside Chef 6

I always get excited about this kind of card and they always underperform. Being a one drop unlike most others of this nature I feel like this has to be good enough but then it could be too narrow. It is a pretty slow card and hard to use as a finisher in aristocrats. It has low impact on the board and is trying to make up for these issues with high utility and synergy. I want this to last but I am not full of hope for it.

Farewell 6

Updated Austere Command. Exile added, ability to choose all modes given, graveyard removal added, and yet this still seems too slow and clunky these days. You don't have the option to half Wrath and keep all your small or big dorks while killing off the lions share of the opponents stuff. Mostly though it is just that six mana is a whole lot to get to. You just want a Wrath at four mana and don't care about the other perks. I'll give this a test but I fear cubes are simply too fast and powerful nowadays. 

Patchwork Automaton 3

A nice cheap threat that scales up as the game goes on assuming you are playing it in artifact decks. Great with cards like The Ozolith. Quite the poor late game top deck but cheap and powerful enough not to be too worried by such things. Probably making the cut in most aggressive artifact decks although being more of a rank and file card in such a list and not any kind of bomb. 

Kami of Transience 2

Powerful but another non-enchantment beater that you want to play in an enchantment deck. It is a support leech rather than a support provider and the bar for those kinds of cards is a whole lot higher. Likely too high for the power level this is offering.

Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire 8

Creature removal on a land, what is not to love? The removal mode is mediocre (at 3 mana) and not all that well suited to aggressive decks but they will all play it regardless as it is a free inclusion so why would you not? Solid card, likely the 2nd best in cycle after the green one, and likely quite close in power to the blue. I can see this being the most commonly reduced in cost with white having a good chunk of cheap and stickier legends to assist with such things.