Hour of Devastation

Hour of Devastation

 

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Hour of Devastation
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	Nicol Bolas' horns
Design	Shawn Main (lead) Ken Nagle Jackie Lee Jules Robins Sam Stoddard Mel Li Mark Rosewater
Development	Dave Humpherys (lead) Bryan Hawley Ian Duke Eric Lauer Jackie Lee Ari Levitch Kimberly J. Kreines Tim Aten Mons Johnson
Release date	July 14, 2017
Plane	Amonkhet
Themes and mechanics	Nicol Bolas, Deserts, Curses, Brick counters, -1/-1 counters, Split cards
Keywords/​ability words	Afflict, Eternalize, Exert, Cycling, Aftermath
Set size	199 cards +10 Planeswalker deck exclusives
Expansion code	HOU
Development codename	Laughs
Amonkhet block
Amonkhet Hour of Devastation N/A
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Archenemy: Nicol Bolas Hour of Devastation Commander 2017

Hour of Devastation is the 75th Magic expansion, and the second in the Amonkhet block. It was released on July 14, 2017, and is a small expansion.

Set details

Hour of Devastation contains 199 cards (15 basic lands, 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).

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. Starting with Hour of Devastation R&D pulled back significantly on how often Gatewatch planeswalkers appear as cards. The non-full art basic lands were previewed in Archenemy: Nicol Bolas.

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, Hour of Promise, Hour of Eternity, Hour of Devastation.

Magic Story

Title	Author	Release Date	Setting (plane)	Featuring
The Hour of Revelation	Alison Luhrs	2017-06-07	Amonkhet	Nicol Bolas, Gods of Amonkhet, Samut, Djeru
Feast	Alison Luhrs	2017-06-14	Amonkhet	Razaketh and the Gatewatch
Hour of Glory	Michael Yichao	2017-06-21	Amonkhet	Rhonas, Oketra, Kefnet, Hazoret, Bontu
The Hour of Promise	Alison Luhrs	2017-06-28	Amonkhet	Hapatra, Kefnet, Oketra, Samut, Djeru, Gideon
Favor	Michael Yichao	2017-07-05	Amonkhet	Hazoret, Bontu, Nicol Bolas, Samut, Djeru
Hour of Eternity	Ken Troop	2017-07-12	Amonkhet	Nylah, the Scarab God, Asenue, Genub, Makare, Kawit, Nicol Bolas, Amenakhte
Endure	Michael Yichao	2017-07-19	Amonkhet, Theros	Samut, Djeru, Hazoret, the Scorpion God, Haq, Neheb, the Eternal, Hapatra, the Gatewatch, Masikah, Nicol Bolas
Hour of Devastation	Ken Troop	2017-07-26	Amonkhet	the Gatewatch, Nicol Bolas

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 Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, Samut, the Tested, Fame (Claim/Fame), The Scarab God and Angel of Condemnation. Like Magic 2013 before, the packaging is mostly Bolas-flavored.

Amonkhet Invocations

Hour of Devastation booster

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. 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.

Events

• Prerelease Events took place on July 8, 2017.

Promotional Cards

• Magic Open House: full-art Hour of Devastation basic land
• Prerelease: a stamped card that can be any rare or mythic rare from the set.
• Draft Weekend: Ramunap Excavator
• Game Day: full-art Abrade
• Game Day (Top 8): full-art Adorned Pouncer
• Buy-a-Box: Wildfire Eternal

Tokens

Punch card

There are 12 tokens for Hour of Devastation. Every creature spell with Eternalize has a unique matching token.

1. 4/4 Eternalized Adorned Pouncer
2. 4/4 Eternalized Champion of Wits
3. 4/4 Eternalized Dreamstealer
4. 4/4 Eternalized Earthshaker Khenra
5. 4/4 Eternalized Proven Combatant
6. 4/4 Eternalized Resilient Khenra
7. 4/4 Eternalized Sinuous Striker
8. 4/4 Eternalized Steadfast Sentinel
9. 4/4 Eternalized Sunscourge Champion
10. 5/5 Horse for Crested Sunmare
11. 5/4 Snake for Rhonas's Last Stand
12. 1/1 Insect with flying and haste for The Locust God

The following tokens printed in Amonkhet are also used for cards in Hour of Devastation:

• 1/1 Cat with lifelink for Pride Sovereign
• 1/1 Warrior with vigilance for Steward of Solidarity
• 2/2 Zombie for Dunes of the Dead and Hour of Promise

In addition some boosters feature a punch card with markers for exerted and eternal, brick counters and -1/-1 counters.

Themes and mechanics

-1/-1 counters, Exert, Cycling and Aftermath split cards are carried over from the previous set. Exert now shows up as an activated ability.

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:

• 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 triggered 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. There are cards throughout the set that reward you for either controlling a Desert or having a Desert card in your graveyard.

Cycles

Hour of Devastation has at thirteen cycles, two of which are partial and one other vertical:

Cycle name
Cycling Deserts	Desert of the True	Desert of the Mindful	Desert of the Glorified	Desert of the Fervent	Desert of the Indomitable
	Five common cycling lands with the Desert subtype, which artistically are degraded versions of the Monument cycle in the previous set.
Spell Deserts	Shefet Dunes	Ipnu Rivulet	Ifnir Deadlands	Ramunap Ruins	Hashep Oasis
	Five uncommon pain lands with the Desert subtype, which tap for both colorless and colored mana, and allow the controller to sacrifice a Desert to get an effect.
Deserts matter	Solitary Camel	Unquenchable Thirst	Wretched Camel	Gilded Cerodon	Sidewinder Naga
	Five common spells that improve if a Desert is under your control or in your graveyard.
Defeats	Gideon's Defeat	Jace's Defeat	Liliana's Defeat	Chandra's Defeat	Nissa's Defeat
	Five uncommon same-color hoser spells, which gain strength if used against a specific planeswalker of the Gatewatch. Each has art by Kieran Yanner.
"Power matters" eternalizers	Sunscourge Champion	Champion of Wits	Dreamstealer	Earthshaker Khenra	Resilient Khenra
	Five creatures featuring the eternalize mechanic, with effects that scale with the power of the creature.
God's last actions	Oketra's Last Mercy	Kefnet's Last Word	Bontu's Last Reckoning	Hazoret's Undying Fury	Rhonas's Last Stand
	Five under-costed rare spells flavored to match the Gods that cause your lands to not untap on your next turn, inspired by exert.
Hours	Hour of Revelation	Hour of Eternity	Hour of Glory	Hour of Devastation	Hour of Promise
	Five rare spells named after the Hours, which serve as the Story Spotlight cards of the set and have mechanics that twist the Hours' flavor.
Cycle name
Allied colored uncommons	Farm // Market	Consign // Oblivion	Claim // Fame	Struggle // Survive	Appeal // Authority
	Five split cards taking the place usually reserved to draft-guiding multicolor and featuring the aftermath mechanic.
Cycle name
Reversed enemy colored rares	Grind // Dust	Refuse // Cooperate	Driven // Despair	Leave // Chance	Reason // Believe
	Split cards featuring the aftermath mechanic.
Draft archetypes	Unraveling Mummy (Zombies)	Bloodwater Entity (instants and sorceries)	Obelisk Spider (-1/-1 counters)	Resolute Survivors (Exert)	River Hoopoe (Ramp)
	Five uncommon cards in the enemy color pairs which each represent a two-colored draft archetype

Partial cycles

• Forgotten Gods: The three mythic rare gods that Bolas corrupted, with each god having two of the Grixis colors — The Scarab God (), The Scorpion God (), and The Locust God ().
• Modal uncommon spells: Three uncommon spells, also in the Grixis colors, that have a choice of two complementary options — Supreme Will (), Doomfall (), Abrade ().

Vertical cycle

Cycle name
Torments	Torment of Venom	Torment of Scarabs	Torment of Hailfire
	Three black punisher spells with the choice of losing three life, discarding a card in hand, or sacrificing a nonland permanent.

Reprinted cards

• Kindled Fury, first printed in Morningtide, last seen in Dragons of Tarkir.
• Manalith, first printed in Magic 2012.
• Sandblast, first printed in Fate Reforged.
• Strategic Planning, first printed in Portal Three Kingdoms, last seen in Commander 2013 and for the first time in an expert-level expansion.
• Traveler's Amulet, first printed in Innistrad, last seen in Theros.
• Unsummon, first printed in Alpha, last seen in Magic 2013.

Functional reprints

• Aven Reedstalker is a functional reprint of Nephalia Seakite and Sentinels of Glen Elendra, except for creature types.
• Aven of Enduring Hope is a functional reprint of Angel of Mercy, except for creature types.
• Defiant Khenra is a functional reprint of Falkenrath Reaver, except for creature types.
• Harrier Naga is a functional reprint of Nessian Courser and Centaur Courser, except for creature types.
• Survivors' Encampment is a functional reprint of Holdout Settlement, except for land types.

Preconstructed decks

Hour of Devastation has two planeswalker decks:

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.
• God-Pharaoh's Gift is mentioned by Gate to the Afterlife, which was released in Amonkhet before.
• Crested Sunmare is a Horse Lord.

Banned and Restricted cards

• Ramunap Ruins is part of the utility Desert cycle, and the only real one to see regular competitive play. With all the top-end power of Red Mythic Rares released in the last year, the free 4-6 damage from the Ruins made it difficult for any deck to stabilize, given how much reach the deck already had in its spells. It was banned alongside Rampaging Ferocidon, and given how the deck was still dominant up until rotation, the concerns was well founded.