Krenko’s Guide to Creature Types: Moonfolk
What is a Moonfolk (flavorfully)?
Moonfolk live in the clouds, not on the moon, and their proper name, Soratami, actually means Skyfolk. They do claim to be descended from the Moon Myojin, though.
Moonfolk are slender humanoids with pale skin and hair and big, floppy bunny ears. Moonfolk fly through unspecified means, either through the magic of Kami ancestry or because they’re actually just that lightweight. They appear to be more intelligent than humans, but there hasn’t been a study.
Moonfolk are exclusively native to Kamigawa.
What is a Moonfolk (mechanically)?
Moonfolk are Blue creatures, most of which have Flying. Size varies between 1/1 and 4/4. A significant number of Moonfolk have abilities that require returning lands you control to your hand to activate. Modern Moonfolk are frequently interested in Kamigawa’s technology, either interacting with artifacts or using cybernetics to become artifact creatures themselves.
Can I make a Moonfolk deck?
Due to so many Moonfolk requiring the same limited cost to play in returning lands, playing a deck with multiple Moonfolk can be extremely difficult. Without some method of playing extra lands, which they don’t provide, a Moonfolk heavy deck will rapidly find that it can’t afford to continue paying for their abilities.
The other Moonfolk, while a bit more synergistic in their Artifacts Matter themes, simply don’t exist in high enough numbers. While there are a number of effective Legendary Moonfolk to use as Commanders (and I myself have a Kotori deck I quite enjoy), the synergy to build a Moonfolk deck simply doesn’t exist. Tameshi, Reality Architect rewards you for returning your lands to your hand, but White/Blue simply don’t give you enough good ways to put the lands back down other than Ghirapur Orrery. Of course, then you still run into the issue of not having enough decent Moonfolk to make a deck to begin with.
If you really wanted to force the issue, I’d suggest using Green as a secondary color. There are no Moonfolk in Green, but Ramp spells and anything that allows you to play additional lands in a turn are serious boons for a Moonfolk deck.
Is Moonfolk a good creature type?
Kamigawa’s original Moonfolk have a very clear and perfect identity, and though Neon Dynasty strongly redefined most Moonfolk, they gave a new identity to work with, and Tameshi that rewards the old one.
Moonfolk are held back by only existing on Kamigawa, but their issue is just their small size right now. There’s plenty of room to grow for them while still maintaining what makes them unique, and given a few more visits to Kamigawa, or a second plane with Moonfolk on it, they could easily turn into a truly great creature type.
