[MtG] [HOU] Hour of Devastation Spoilers - Week 1

[bury the year]

Keranos is good in other formats because its an indestructible source of card advantage that occasionally throws bolts. Locust could potentially be a win condition for U/R decks in standard and the already mentioned skullclamp syngergies.Other than that hes not that appealing.

 

I'm not so optimistic. The Locust God will be directly competing with Torrential Gearhulk for the duration of its tenure in Standard, and I think I know which one will win out. Again, a 6-drop that doesn't protect itself or generate immediate value is a hard sell.

[bury the year]

Double post, but oh well.

 

 

Hostile Dunes

Land - Desert

T: Add C to your mana pool.

2, Exile a land card from your graveyard: ~ becomes a 3/4 Elemental creature until end of turn. It's still a land.

 

Not sure this has enough legs. The body is powerful enough, but the activation cost is a real downside in Standard, and I don't know if Modern would actually want this.

[Flame Dragon]

Double post, but oh well.

 

 

Hostile Dunes

Land - Desert

T: Add C to your mana pool.

2, Exile a land card from your graveyard: ~ becomes a 3/4 Elemental creature until end of turn. It's still a land.

 

Not sure this has enough legs. The body is powerful enough, but the activation cost is a real downside in Standard, and I don't know if Modern would actually want this.

I can totally see this having legs (hehe) in modern. Not sure if its good enough, but I can see it getting there.

[NeoRWBY65]

Lots of the deserts go to the graveyard, so that should have at least some fuel as long as you built the deck knowing you want to play it.

 

Solemnity really poos on lots of my pet projects.I became infamous in my playgroup for my Animar deck, and really got some hate for my Meren deck, which both get shut down by an early Solemnity. Even my tactics in some of my commander decks running white are shut down by this since some of them are built around Cathar's Crusade lifting up the team.

[Flame Dragon]

Solemnity really poos on lots of my pet projects.I became infamous in my playgroup for my Animar deck, and really got some hate for my Meren deck, which both get shut down by an early Solemnity. Even my tactics in some of my commander decks running white are shut down by this since some of them are built around Cathar's Crusade lifting up the team.

It does a lot of work against a number of deck. In terms of lists I've made that are reall hurt by it I have

Animar

Rith (to some degree)

Ezuri

Atraxa

 

This also super hurts the Karlov and Ishai decks my two friends have.

[Poc]

this thing is competing with mutavault and ink moth. Both outclass this thing by miles. Not to mention all the colored manlands too. In standard it could see some play depending on how mana hungry the decks turn out to be and how easy it will be to get lands into the yard. The cost of exiling a land also causes issues since it's taking away resources from DRS and delve cards (not that this matters much in modern anymore)

[Flame Dragon]

 

First card of the day. With today being a story day we are likely going to see a pretty major story thing spoiled.

 

this thing is competing with mutavault and ink moth. Both outclass this thing by miles. Not to mention all the colored manlands too. In standard it could see some play depending on how mana hungry the decks turn out to be and how easy it will be to get lands into the yard. The cost of exiling a land also causes issues since it's taking away resources from DRS and delve cards (not that this matters much in modern anymore)

I don't think I've ever seen DRS, what exactly is that?

[Poc]

deathrite shaman.

 

All these split cards have really just felt like limited fodder. None of them have really interested me in any way. This one is pretty win more in limited but this whole limited format is about who can resolve their bomb first.

[bury the year]

Driven // Despair seems really solid for Limited, but I wonder if it's actually overkill for Standard or if it could see some play. The Despair half is primarily what attracts me, as you can potentially strip the wrath out of your opponent's hand. It has potential, at least. I'd say it's the single most pushed aftermath card we've seen so far.

 

 

Wasn't expecting Sphinx tribal. 0-0

[Tesability Black]

Seeing the sphinx has me scheming, indeedies...

 

EDIT: I just read today's story, which revealed...

 

Considering what happened, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the cards is called something along the lines of "Rhonas' Last Declaration"

[bury the year]

It stands to the quality of this set's writing over previous sets' that we feel so bad for characters we haven't seen too much of before. Although it looks like to me that the scorpion god is giving Rhonas a back massage, instead of just killing him... 0_o

 

 

 

Reason U

Sorcery {R}

Scry 3.

//

Live 4G

Sorcery

Aftermath (Cast this spell only from your graveyard. Then exile it.)

Look at the top card of your library. If it’s a creature card, you may reveal it and put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, put that card into your hand.

 

[spoiler=And these cards are only available through the Planeswalker Intro Decks. They're not in packs.]

 

Angel of Condemnation excites me for Ephara. Lets me flicker my own creatures or O-Ring my opponents'. Only concern is that the activation cost for each is pretty steep.

 

Hour of Glory seems good. Not good enough for Standard, though, as long as we have Cast Out or Anguished Unmaking.

 

And Reason // Live is just bad. There are cheaper ways in Standard to cheat in creatures, ex. Champion of Rhonas.

[Sixty]

the sphinx lord is pretty rad. going into isperia for sure

[Poc]

Angel is pretty bonkers in limited, Its looking like the best bomb spoiled so far. I might even try to fit it into my cube.

 

Scry 3 on a rare... I know its stapled to another spell but come on, this is the closest we've had to a playable 1 cmc cantrip in some time and its a rare. Lmao.

[Delibirb]

Driven // Despair seems really solid for Limited, but I wonder if it's actually overkill for Standard or if it could see some play. The Despair half is primarily what attracts me, as you can potentially strip the wrath out of your opponent's hand. It has potential, at least. I'd say it's the single most pushed aftermath card we've seen so far.

 

 

Wasn't expecting Sphinx tribal. 0-0

 

the sphinx lord is pretty rad. going into isperia for sure

Frankly I'm considering dropping the white in mine. Not for sure yet, because Isperia's searching is really nice, but it's a very real consideration given Unesh mini-FoFs for potentially more Sphinxes. I'll be toying with it, for sure.

[Flame Dragon]

 

Wasn't expecting Sphinx tribal. 0-0

 

Turns all sphinx into Sphinx of Uthuun more or less. Seems pretty powerful. Don't think mono-blue alone has enough, but I'm sure it will get there at some point.

 

It stands to the quality of this set's writing over previous sets' that we feel so bad for characters we haven't seen too much of before. Although it looks like to me that the scorpion god is giving Rhonas a back massage, instead of just killing him... 0_o

 

 

 

Reason U

Sorcery {R}

Scry 3.

//

Live 4G

Sorcery

Aftermath (Cast this spell only from your graveyard. Then exile it.)

Look at the top card of your library. If it’s a creature card, you may reveal it and put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, put that card into your hand.

My friend made that same joke. Hour of Back Massage. The art is certainly a little odd, but my main take away is just how ripped The Scorpion God is.

 

Angel seems really solid. Though I was reading Exert as Exile, not helped by the card actually exiling things.

 

Reason to Live is ok. I feel like Live is easier to set up with the various green "reveal the top of your deck" creatures than with Reason.

[NeoRWBY65]

I know it isn't what it is intended for, but my "Changeling Tribal" might be able to use Unesh

[bury the year]

Turns all sphinx into Sphinx of Uthuun more or less. Seems pretty powerful. Don't think mono-blue alone has enough, but I'm sure it will get there at some point.

There are 28 sphinxes in mono-blue, not counting Adaptive Automaton or Metallic Mimic. That's more than enough to make tribal work.

 

The problem is that most of the mono-blue sphinxes are intensely mediocre. The best one is probably Sphinx of the Final Word or Windreader Sphinx, and that's not saying much. Meanwhile, we get 11 more sphinxes by moving into WUB, and those include both Isperias, Enigma Sphinx, Magister Sphinx, Sharuum, Sphinx of the Steel Wind... Yeah, you're missing a lot.

 

Truth be told, if I'm building sphinx tribal, I'd rather run Sharuum as commander and have enough tutors in the deck to reliably fetch Unesh out of the 99. He's good, but the colors (or lack therein, in this case) just hurts too badly.

[bury the year]

 

Scarab god is a house.

[Forest Fire]

why does he make zombies? why does he not fill in the gap that would have made the 3 gods have synergy with each other."Whenever you discard a card, destroy target creature with a -1/-1 counter." or even "Whenever you discard a card, target creature gets a -1/-1 counter" either one would have made them so cool bc of the synergies.

but nope. just out of no where we care about zombies again.

i mean, it's really really cool and i want to break it to hell and back

 

but i wanted a combo out the three of the gods.

oh well. locust and scorpion still have synergies.

 

this will be super fun in commander.

[NeoRWBY65]

I was hoping for something to tie with the others as well, but I'll take this mega monster instead

 

If your opponent somehow survives the life drain you are getting I think the biggest scry I have ever seen for this little effort

[evilfusion]

Actually, it kind of makes sense, considering what the "roles" of the corrupted gods seem to be, in Bolas' plan.

 

The Scorpion God is to kill the Amonkhet Gods. It has an effect with -1 counters, the mechanics by which can kill Indestructible creatures in addition to normal creatures.

 

The Locust God is to break the barrier with its insect swarm. The cards you draw from the Scorpion Gods' kills turn into a swarm.

 

The Scarab God seems to be to awaken/transform the Eternals. That's why its basic effect is about the size of your...shall I say, Zombie army? And its second effect turns dead creatures into Eternalized zombies? (Eternalize makes Black 4/4 zombies out of a creature, after all)

 

It all begins by things DYING. The things the Scorpion God kills generate resources, drawing cards. The cards drawn fuel the swarm of the Locust God. The things that died become Eternals via the Scarab God. And the number of Eternals let you manipulate the future while hurting the opponent.

[Flame Dragon]

why does he make zombies? why does he not fill in the gap that would have made the 3 gods have synergy with each other."Whenever you discard a card, destroy target creature with a -1/-1 counter." or even "Whenever you discard a card, target creature gets a -1/-1 counter" either one would have made them so cool bc of the synergies.

but nope. just out of no where we care about zombies again.

i mean, it's really really cool and i want to break it to hell and back

 

but i wanted a combo out the three of the gods.

oh well. locust and scorpion still have synergies.

 

this will be super fun in commander.

The Scarab would need to have had an ability that triggers when a creatures comes into play.

Scorpion: Input: -1/-1 counter, Output: card draw

Locust: Input: card draw, Output: creatures

Scarab: Input: creatures, Output -1/-1 counters

 

I too am sad that they don't have that synergy, but is ok. Personally I kind of don't like that the Scarab makes creatures since the Locust basically also makes creatures. That being said the Scarab is a REALLY sweet design and it should have been obvious he'd do stuff with zombies. As Evil said each card is in charge of their own "hour" and with his being the Hour of Eternity and the zombies being The Eternals it makes too much sense. I also like how the Scarab has what looks to be a blue tint to go along with the blue of the eternals.

 

Anyway, some other new cards

 

Djeru the Purified

3WW

Legendary Creature - Human Warrior

Vigilance

When Djeru the Purified enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a Planeswalker card, reveal it and put it into your hand. Shuffle your library.

If a source would damage to a Planeswalker you control, prevent 1 of that damage.

4/3

 

The untapper seems pretty solid all things considered. The pinger however seems pretty bad. I am REALLY disappointed with Djeru. For such a story central character his card has zero flavor. Like, I get it, he's friends with Samut and she becomes a planeswalker, but this is such a nothing ability (even though it is pretty powerful).

[evilfusion]

I don't really understand why the untapper costs 1 mana to untap 1 land. Like...I really am struggling to think of a practical situation where you would want to do this, other than as mana fixing akin to Prophetic Prism and such, but that seems like a really stupid reason to run it, when you could just as easily run a green creature that actually produces mana itself.

 

I mean, it's not like there's a shortage of these sort of cards. Servant of the Conduit. Druid of the Cowl. Naga Vitalist, etc.

 

And yeah, I get the pay 1, tap and Exert, in order to untap 2 lands, but nothing about this inspires me to ever consider RUNNING the card. Only thing I can think of is to re-use non-basic land effects that require tapping...but nothing immediately comes to mind as "This is totally worth running to get more mileage out of this land".

[Poc]

I don't really understand why the untapper costs 1 mana to untap 1 land. Like...I really am struggling to think of a practical situation where you would want to do this, other than as mana fixing akin to Prophetic Prism and such, but that seems like a really stupid reason to run it, when you could just as easily run a green creature that actually produces mana itself.

 

.

these cards work well with any land that produces more than one mana. In standard or limited it's just bad color filtering most of the time.

[Delibirb]

The Scarab would need to have had an ability that triggers when a creatures comes into play.

Scorpion: Input: -1/-1 counter, Output: card draw

Locust: Input: card draw, Output: creatures

Scarab: Input: creatures, Output -1/-1 counters

 

I too am sad that they don't have that synergy, but is ok. Personally I kind of don't like that the Scarab makes creatures since the Locust basically also makes creatures. That being said the Scarab is a REALLY sweet design and it should have been obvious he'd do stuff with zombies. As Evil said each card is in charge of their own "hour" and with his being the Hour of Eternity and the zombies being The Eternals it makes too much sense. I also like how the Scarab has what looks to be a blue tint to go along with the blue of the eternals.

 

Anyway, some other new cards

 

Djeru the Purified

3WW

Legendary Creature - Human Warrior

Vigilance

When Djeru the Purified enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a Planeswalker card, reveal it and put it into your hand. Shuffle your library.

If a source would damage to a Planeswalker you control, prevent 1 of that damage.

4/3

 

The untapper seems pretty solid all things considered. The pinger however seems pretty bad. I am REALLY disappointed with Djeru. For such a story central character his card has zero flavor. Like, I get it, he's friends with Samut and she becomes a planeswalker, but this is such a nothing ability (even though it is pretty powerful).

While he's not great, I may still find a way to slide Djeru in Superfriends. Another tutor is never bad, and the five mana is justified for a bit of protection for the 'walkers, even if it is marginal.