Descendant of Kiyomaro

Descendant of Kiyomaro was released in 2005 as part of the Saviors of Kamigawa set for the Magic: The Gathering trading card game. It represents a creature from the Japanese-inspired Kamigawa plane, designed to showcase the set's central 'hand size matters' mechanic, which rewards players for maintaining a high number of cards in their hand. The design intent was to create a white creature that scales in power and toughness based on the player's resources, reflecting the orderly and strategic nature often associated with white-aligned cards in the game.

The card was illustrated by Japanese artist Terese Nielsen, who was a prolific contributor to Magic: The Gathering during this era. Her aesthetic for the piece captures the ethereal, mythic quality of the Kamigawa spirits, or Kami, utilizing a distinctively painterly style that helped define the visual identity of the block. Upon its release, the card was viewed as a situational but potent threat in limited formats, though it saw limited competitive play in constructed formats due to the difficulty of consistently maintaining a large hand size.