Hour of Devastation

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
Development codename	Laughs

Hour of Devastation is the 75^th Magic expansion, and the second in the Amonkhet block. It will be 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, 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 Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, Samu, the Tested, Fame (Claim/Fame), The Scarab God and Angel of Condemnation

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 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
• 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.

1. Eternalized Adorned Pouncer
2. Eternalized Champion of Wits
3. Eternalized Dreamstealer
4. Eternalized Earthshaker Khenra
5. Eternalized Proven Combatant
6. Eternalized Resilient Khenra
7. Eternalized Sinuous Striker
8. Eternalized Steadfast Sentinel
11. 5/4 Snake for Rhonas's Last Stand
12. 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. 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 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. 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 least nine 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 ().
• 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 ().
• Rare Eternalizers: Five rare creatures with the Eternalize mechanic {{-]} : Adorned Pouncer (), Champion of Wits (), Dreamstealer (), Earthshaker Khenra (), and Resilient Khenra ()
• 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 (), ??? (), and Rhonas's Last Stand ().
• Two cycles of split cards featuring the aftermath mechanic—
  • Allied colored uncommons — Farm//Market (/), ??? (/), Claim//Fame (/), Struggle//Survive (/), and Appeal//Authority (/).
  • Enemy colored rares — ??? (/), Reason//Believe (/), Grind//Dust (/), Refuse//Cooperate (/), and Driven//Despair (/).
• Enemy colored draft archetypes: Five uncommon cards in the enemy color pairs which each represent a two-colored draft archetype — Unraveling Mummy (), ??? (), River Hoopoe (), ??? (), and Resolute Survivors ().

Partial cycle

• 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 (), The Locust God ().

Vertical cycle

• Torments: Three black punisher spells with the choice of losing three life, discarding a card in hand, or sacrificing a nonland permanent — Torment of Venom (), Torment of Scarabs (), Torment of Hailfire ().

Preconstructed decks

Hour of Devastation will have 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.