 | This article documents an upcoming release. |
| Hour of Devastation | |
|---|---|
| Set Information | |
| Set symbol | |
| Themes and mechanics | Nicol Bolas, Deserts, Brick counters |
| Keywords/ability words | Afflict, Eternalize, Exert, Cycling, Aftermath |
| Set size | 199 + 10 |
| Expansion code | HOU[2] |
| Development codename | Laughs |
Hour of Devastation is the 75th Magic expansion, and the second in the Amonkhet block. It will be released on July 14, 2017,[3] and is a small expansion.
Set details
Hour of Devastation contains 199 cards (15 basic lands[4], 70 commons, 60 uncommons, 42 rares, 12 mythic rares) and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. The expansion symbol represents the horns of Nicol Bolas. The Planeswalker decks contain 10 additional cards that are considered to be part of the set (2 mythic planeswalkers, 2 rares, 2 uncommons, 2 commons and 2 common dual taplands). These are numbered #200/199 to #209/199). Five of basic lands are full-art (different art from the Amonkhet ones).[5]
While the previous set mostly was top-down design inspired by Egypt with some top-down Bolas, Hour of Devastation is mostly top-down Bolas with some top-down Egypt.[6][7] Starting with Hour of Devastation R&D pulled back significantly on how often Gatewatch planeswalkers appear as cards.[8] The non-full art basic lands were previewed in Archenemy: Nicol Bolas.[9]
Storyline
| “ | Unleash your Endgame | ” |
As promised, the God-Pharaoh has returned. Unfortunately, the promise of a glorious afterlife wasn't quite what everyone thought it was. Nicol Bolas has come to claim his perfect Zombie army, the Eternals. The Gatewatch is easily defeated. Samut's planeswalker's spark is ignited.
The cards that represent the Story Spotlights in Hour of Devastation are: Hour of Revelation, Hour of Glory, Spotlight 3, Spotlight 4, Spotlight 5.
Marketing
Hour of Devastation is sold in 16-card boosters (one card being a marketing card), two planeswalker decks and the Hour of Devastation bundle. The boosters feature artwork from TBA.
Amonkhet Invocations
The Masterpiece Series for Amonkhet block are called Amonkhet Invocations. These are all premium foil cards with a special Amonkhet card frame and a separate expansion symbol (). Thus, they are not part of the sets. Amonkhet Invocations are all about the Amonkhet gods, their magic and their servants.[10] They include all new art, a card frame inspired by Egyptian steles without flavor text. They appear slightly more often than premium mythic rares. These cards are playable in limited and formats where they're already legal. 30 Invocation cards previously appeared with Amonkhet and 24 more cards appear in Hour of Devastation.[11]
Events
- Prerelease Events take place on July 8, 2017
Promotional Cards
- Prerelease: a stamped card that can be any rare or mythic rare from the set.
- Draft Weekend: Ramunap Excavator [12]
- Game Day: full-art Abrade
- Game Day (Top 8): full-art Adorned Pouncer
- Buy-a-Box: Wildfire Eternal
Tokens
There are 12 tokens for Hour of Devastation. Every creature spell with Eternalize has a unique matching token.
- Eternalized Adorned Pouncer
- Eternalized Dreamstealer
- Eternalized Earthshaker Khenra
- Eternalized
- Eternalized Proven Combatant
- Eternalized Reshaper Khenra
- Eternalized Sinuous Striker
- Eternalized Steadfast Sentinel
5/4 Snake for Rhonas's Last Stand
1/1 Insect with flying and haste for The Locust God
Themes and mechanics
Exert, Cycling and Aftermath split cards are carried over from the previous set.[13] Exert now shows up as an activated ability.[5]
Brick counters are used again as well, only this time they represent the dismantling of the monuments (cards start with 3 counters; removing one creates an effect).
There are two new named mechanics:[13]
- Eternalize — a keyword ability which is an evolved Embalm. Eternalize can only be activated if the creature is in the graveyard. When activated, the card is exiled and creates a token copy of itself. This creature token is a copy of the eternalized creature, except that it is a zombie in addition to its other creature types and monocolored black. Its power/toughness becomes 4/4. Many creatures with eternalize have abilities that get better because of their increased power.
- Afflict — a static ability with a variable value. Whenever a creature with this ability becomes blocked, defending player loses life equal to the Afflict value.
Card types
This set adds the three forgotten Gods from Amonkhet.
The desert theme of Amonkhet is expanded on.[14] There are cards throughout the set that reward you for either controlling a Desert or having a Desert card in your graveyard.[13]
Cycles
Hour of Devastation has at least eight cycles:
- Cycling Deserts: Five common cycling lands with the Desert subtype, which artistically are degraded version of the Monument cycle in the previous set — Desert of the True (
), Desert of the Mindful (), Desert of the Glorified (), Desert of the Fervent () and Desert of the Indomitable ().[5] - Defeats: Five uncommon same-color hoser spells, which gain strength if used against a specific planeswalker of the Gatewatch — Gideon's Defeat (), Jace's Defeat (), Liliana's Defeat (), Chandra's Defeat () and Nissa's Defeat ().[5]
- God's last actions: Five under-costed rare spells flavored to match the Gods that cause your lands to not untap on your next turn, inspired by exert — Oketra's Last Mercy (), Bontu's Last Reckoning (), Rhonas's Last Stand ().[5]
- Two cycles of split cards featuring the aftermath mechanic —
- Allied colored uncommons — Farm//Market (/), ??? (/), Claim//Fame (/), Struggle//Survive (/), and ??? (/).
- Enemy colored rares — ??? (/), Reason//Believe (/), Grind//Dust (/), ??? (/), and Driven//Despair (/).
- Allied colored uncommons — Farm//Market (
- Enemy colored two-colored draft archetypes: Five uncommon cards in the enemy color pairs which each represent a two-colored draft archetype — ??? (), ??? (), River Hoopoe (), ??? (), and Resolute Survivors ().
Partial cycle
- Forgotten Gods: The three mythic rare gods that Bolas corrupted — The Scorpion God (), The Scarab God (), The Locust God ().
Vertical cycle
- Torments: Three black punisher spells with similar naming convention — Torment of Venom (), Torment of Scarabs (), Torment of Hailfire ().
Reprinted cards
Functional reprints
Card comparisons
Preconstructed decks
Hour of Devastation will have two planeswalker decks:[12]
| Planeswalker deck name |
Colors Included | Planeswalker | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
| ||
| Nissa | U | G | Nissa, Genesis Mage | |||
| Nicol Bolas | U | B | R | Nicol Bolas, The Deceiver | ||
Notable cards
- Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh is a four-loyalty-ability planeswalker. It was printed eight years after the first planeswalker card for Nicol Bolas.[5]
- God-Pharaoh's Gift is mentioned by Gate to the Afterlife, which was released in Amonkhet before.[15]
References
- ↑ Product information
- ↑ [1]
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- ↑ Error on call to {{WebRef}}: Parameters url and title must be specifiedMark Rosewater (June 06, 2017). "". Tumblr.
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- ↑ Error on call to {{WebRef}}: Parameters url and title must be specifiedMark Rosewater (April 07, 2017). "". Tumblr.
- ↑ Basic lands from Archenemy: Nicol Bolas spoiled
- ↑ Error on call to {{WebRef}}: Parameters url and title must be specifiedMark Rosewater (March 30, 2017). "". Tumblr.
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