Amonkhet

Amonkhet
[[File:{{#setmainimage:AKH set logo.png}}|250px]]
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	A pyramid
Design	Mark Rosewater (co-lead) Ethan Fleischer (co-lead) Yoni Skolnik Shawn Main Jackie Lee Kimberley J. Kreines James Hata Sam Stoddard Ben Hayes
Development	Dave Humpherys (co-lead) Bryan Hawley (co-lead) Ian Duke Eric Lauer Jackie Lee Ari Levitch Kimberley J. Kreines Tim Aten and Mons Johnson
Art direction	Mark Winters
Release date	April 28, 2017
Plane	Amonkhet
Themes and mechanics	Graveyard matters, Cartouche, Curse, Discard, Brick counters, -1/-1 counters, Split cards
Keywords/​ability words	Aftermath, Cycling, Embalm, Exert
Set size	269 (+ 10 + 8)
Expansion code	AKH
Development codename	Barrel
Amonkhet block
[[Amonkhet]] [[Hour of Devastation]] N/A
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
[[Welcome Deck 2017]] Amonkhet [[Amonkhet Invocations]]

Amonkhet is the 74^th Magic expansion, and the first in the Amonkhet block. It was released on April 28, 2017, and is a large expansion. It is set on the plane of the same name.

Set details

Amonkhet is a top-down-designed Magic set, meaning that it was designed and developed with flavor in mind first. The set is inspired by Ancient Egypt mixed with imagery referencing Nicol Bolas.

Amonkhet contains 269 cards (20 basic lands, 101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares) and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. The expansion symbol is a pyramid. 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 #270/269 to #279/269). The other 8 dual taplands appear in the Deck Builder's Toolkit (#280/269 to #287/269) Full-art basic lands appear in approximately one out of every four boosters and are available in other products as well. The set introduces punch cards with markers and counters to the game.

The goal of this set was to try to create a sense of dissonance, of unease. R&D wanted the players to feel like the Gatewatch felt - that there's something wrong with this world that you can't quite put your finger on. To capture this, they made the mechanics feel one way while having the creative elements go another. The names and art tell you that this is a glorious world where the inhabitants are content, but the play is ruthless.

Storyline

“

Rise Among the Worthy

”

Amonkhet is a plane ruled by Nicol Bolas. The desert oasis forges warriors. They train their entire life for a chance to face the Trials of the Five Gods and join the elite ranks of the Worthy and to claim an honored place in the Afterlife. They prepare for the great God-Pharaoh's return. When The Gatewatch arrives to take out Bolas, they meet with fierce resistance in the desert, and in the city a society centered around death.

The cards that represent the Story Spotlights in Amonkhet are: Renewed Faith, Cruel Reality, Anointed Procession, By Force, and Gideon's Intervention.

Title	Author	Release Date	Setting (plane)	Featuring
Impact	Michael Yichao	2017-03-29	Kaladesh, Amonkhet	The Gatewatch
Trust	James Wyatt	2017-04-05	Amonkhet	The Gatewatch, Temmet, Oketra‎
The Writing on the Wall	Alison Luhrs	2017-04-12	Amonkhet	The Gatewatch
Servants	Kelly Digges	2017-04-19	Amonkhet	Liliana, Raven Man, Jace, Temmet
The Hand That Move	Ken Troop	2017-04-26	Amonkhet	Nissa, Kefnet
Brazen	Michael Yichao	2017-05-03	Amonkhet	Gideon, Oketra, Djeru
Tresspass	Michael Yichao	2017-05-10	Amonkhet	Samut, Nakht, Djeru
Judgment	Doug Beyer and Alison Luhrs	2017-05-17	Amonkhet	Samut, Djeru, Hazoret, the Gatewatch

Marketing

Amonkhet is sold in 16-card boosters (one card being a marketing card), two planeswalker decks, the Amonkhet bundle, Booster Battle Packs and the Deck Builder's Toolkit. An early announced spring Gift Box was apparently cancelled. The boosters feature artwork from Combat Celebrant, Battlefield Scavenger, Oketra the True, Honored Crop-Captain and Curator of Mysteries. The bundle now includes a token pack containing 25 double-faced tokens (including all embalmed tokens).

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. 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. There are 30 Invocation cards appearing with Amonkhet and 24 more cards appear in Hour of Devastation.

Events

Trials of the Gods

Four-sided "lazotep" counter

• Magic Open House took place on April 15, 2017. It is an event-filled day where players can stop by their local store for fun, casual play that includes learn-to-play Magic events, free 2017 Welcome Decks for new players, and premium foil full-art lands for particpating.
• Prerelease Events took place on April 22, 2017. Players were encouraged to complete the "Five Trials of the Gods". Players who attended Prerelease received a Trials Activity Card in their Prerelease pack. They were rewarded pyramid-shaped (four-sided) "lazotep" counters for each trial they completed. The counters could be used to keep track of -1/-1 counters on their cards.
• Release on Magic Online was Monday, April 24, 2017. This was even earlier than the paper release.
• Starting with Amonkhet, the Launch Party was extended to a Draft Weekend (April 29–30, 2017)
• Standard Showdown started May 6, 2017.
  • Prize boosters contained four cards: 2 rares or mythic rares from a currently legal Standard set, 1 Amonkhet full-art land, 1 premium card of any rarity from a currently legal Standard set.

Promotional cards

• Magic Open House: full-art Amonkhet basic land
• Prerelease card: a stamped card that can be any rare or mythic rare from the set.
• Release card: Oracle's Vault
• Game Day: full-art Trueheart Duelist
• Game Day (Top 8): full-art Glorybringer
• Buy-a-Box: Archfiend of Ifnir

Tokens and emblems

Punch card

There are 24 tokens and 1 emblem for Amonkhet. Every creature spell with Embalm has a unique matching token.

1. Embalmed Angel of Sanctions
2. Embalmed Anointer Priest
3. Embalmed Aven Initiate
4. Embalmed Aven Wind Guide
5. Embalmed Glyph Keeper
6. Embalmed Heart-Piercer Manticore
7. Embalmed Honored Hydra
8. Embalmed Labyrinth Guardian
9. Embalmed Oketra's Attendant
10. Embalmed Sacred Cat
11. Embalmed Tah-Crop Skirmisher
12. Embalmed Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun
13. Embalmed Trueheart Duelist
14. Embalmed Unwavering Initiate
15. Embalmed Vizier of Many Faces
16. 1/1 Cat with Lifelink for Regal Caracal
17. 1/1 Warrior with Vigilance for Cartouche of Solidarity, Oketra the True, Oketra's Monument, Start (Start/Finish), Supply Caravan
18. 2/2 Drake with Flying for Drake Haven
19. 1/1 Insect for Nest of Scarabs
20. 2/2 Zombie for Cradle of the Accursed, Liliana, Death's Majesty, Liliana's Mastery, Doomed Dissenter, Stir the Sands
21. 4/2 Beast for Trial of Strength
22. 3/3 Hippo for Mouth (Mouth/Feed)
23. 1/1 Snake with Deathtouch for Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons
24. 5/5 Wurm for Sandwurm Convergence
25. Emblem for Gideon of the Trials

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

Themes and mechanics

The bottom half of Amonkhet split cards is turned sideways for easy use out of the graveyard

Amonkhet has a strong graveyard component. Unlike Shadows over Innistrad, this uses the graveyard mainly as a resource.

Several cards in the set have abilities that care about you discarding other cards. They'll benefit you if an opponent makes you discard your cards, or if you discard them yourself.

The set makes use of brick counters and -1/-1 counters.

Amonkhet has three new named mechanics.

• Embalm — The embalm ability 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 embalmed creature, except that it is a zombie in addition to its other creature types and monocolored white.
• Exert — When you declare an attacker with this ability, you make the decision whether to exert it. If you choose to exert, the creature gains a bonus. If you did, the creature won't untap as normal during your next untap phase.
• Aftermath — Split cardhalves with aftermath may only be cast from your graveyard. They are exiled after casting.
  • While regular split cards were named with an ”A and B“ convention, Aftermath cards use an ”A to B“ convention.

The set has one returning named mechanic:

• Cycling

A black-red mini-theme, an unnamed mechanic R&D likes to call "heckbent", is a riff off of hellbent. Heckbent cares about you having one or fewer cards in your hand (as opposed to hellbent, which requires your hand to be empty). If you do, your creature gains an ability that makes either itself or others better.

Card types

• Cartouche — An enchantment subtype exclusive to auras. Other cards interact with cartouches.
• Gods — Return from the Theros block.
• Curses — make a return, fittingly for an Egyptian themed block.
• Jackals — Reintroduced as a creature type.
• Zombies — Amonkhet features the first-ever monocolored white zombies.
  • Some tokens created by the embalm mechanic feature the type line "Human Zombie", which is a first in Magic history. Similarly, Angel of Sanctions is the first zombie angel.
• Deserts — the first cards using the subtype since the original Desert appeared as timeshfted card in Time Spiral.

Cycles

Amonkhet has twelve cycles, two of which are double cycles and one is a vertical cycle:

• Allied-colored cycling duals: A set of rare allied colored cycling lands — Irrigated Farmland (), Fetid Pools (), Canyon Slough (), Sheltered Thicket (), and Scattered Groves ().
• Gods: The mythic rare gods of Amonkhet — Oketra the True (), Kefnet the Mindful (), Bontu the Glorified (), Hazoret the Fervent (), and Rhonas the Indomitable ().
• Cartouches: Common aura enchantments with the additional subtype cartouche — Cartouche of Solidarity (), Cartouche of Knowledge (), Cartouche of Ambition (), Cartouche of Zeal (), and Cartouche of Strength ().
• Trials: Uncommon enchantments which interact with cartouches — Trial of Solidarity (), Trial of Knowledge (), Trial of Ambition (), Trial of Zeal (), and Trial of Strength ().
• Monuments: Uncommon legendary artifacts associated with one god, costing mana and reducing the cost of creature spells associated with its gods color by — Oketra's Monument (), Kefnet's Monument (), Bontu's Monument (), Hazoret's Monument (), and Rhonas's Monument ().
• Cycle effect uncommons: These card all have an ability which triggers when the card is cycled — Renewed Faith (), Vizier of Tumbling Sands (), Stir the Sands (), Deem Worthy (), and Shefet Monitor ().
• Two-colored draft archetypes: Ten uncommon cards which each represent a two-colored draft archetype — Aven Wind Guide (), Shadowstorm Vizier (), Merciless Javelineer (), Khenra Charioteer (), Ahn-Crop Champion (), Wayward Servant (), Decimator Beetle (), Weaver of Currents (), Enigma Drake (), and Honored Crop-Captain ().
• Three cycles of split cards featuring the aftermath mechanic —
  • Enemy colored uncommons — Start // Finish (), Reduce // Rubble (), Destined // Lead (), Onward // Victory (), and Spring // Mind ().
  • Reversed allied colored rares — Prepare // Fight (), Failure // Comply (), Rags // Riches (), Cut // Ribbons (), and Heaven // Earth ().
  • Monocolored rares — Dusk // Dawn (), Commit // Memory (), Never // Return (), Insult // Injury (), and Mouth // Feed ().
• Reprinted dual taplands: Ten common dual lands that enter the battlefield tapped. This cycle cannot be found in booster packs, and were printed for use in supplementary products and as to be kept in Standard — Meandering River (), Submerged Boneyard (), Cinder Barrens (), Timber Gorge (), Tranquil Expanse (), Forsaken Sanctuary (), Foul Orchard (), Woodland Stream (), Highland Lake (), and Stone Quarry ().

Vertical cycle

• Build-a-Monument: four artifacts making use of brick counters — Luxa River Shrine (), Edifice of Authority () and Pyramid of the Pantheon/Oracle's Vault ().

Reprinted cards

• Ancient Crab, first printed in Oath of the Gatewatch.
• Aven Mindcensor, first printed in Future Sight.
• Brute Strength, first printed in Oath of the Gatewatch.
• Cancel, first printed in Time Spiral, last seen in Khans of Tarkir.
• Essence Scatter, first printed in Magic 2010, last seen in Magic 2014 and for the first time in an expert-level expansion.
• Evolving Wilds, first printed in Rise of the Eldrazi, last seen in Commander 2016.
• Fling, first printed in Stronghold, last seen in Planechase Anthology.
• Giant Spider, first printed in Alpha, last seen in Magic 2014 and for the first time in an expert-level expansion.
• Gravedigger, first printed in Portal, last seen in Eternal Masters.
• Impeccable Timing, first printed in Kaladesh.
• Mighty Leap, first printed in Magic 2011, last seen in Oath of the Gatewatch.
• Magma Spray, first printed in Shards of Alara, last seen in Journey into Nyx.
• Renewed Faith, first printed in Onslaught.
• Spidery Grasp, first printed in Innistrad.
• Tormenting Voice, first printed in Khans of Tarkir, last seen in Conspiracy: Take the Crown.
• Unburden, first printed in Scourge.
• The five allied colored dual taplands, first printed in Oath of the Gatewatch, as functional reprints of the Invasion-cycle.
• The five enemy colored dual taplands, first printed in Shadows over Innistrad.

Functional reprints

• Graceful Cat (Planeswalker Deck) is a functional reprint of Benalish Veteran (except for creature type).
• Honed Khopesh is a functional reprint of Leonin Scimitar.
• Hyena Pack is a functional reprint of Highland Giant (except for creature type).
• Illusory Wrappings is a functional reprint of Reduce in Stature.
• Nimble-Blade Khenra is a functional reprint of Sanguinary Mage (except for creature type).
• Painted Bluffs is a functional reprint of Shimmering Grotto / Unknown Shores (with added subtype).

Preconstructed decks

Amonkhet will have two planeswalker decks:

Planeswalker deck name	Colors Included					Planeswalker
Gideon	W			R		Gideon, Martial Paragon
Liliana			B		G	Liliana, Death Wielder

Notable cards

• Approach of the Second Sun is an alternate-win card.
• Glorious End is an alternate-loss card.
• Because of the change in Standard rotation, Gideon of the Trials inadvertently became the third Gideon planeswalker card in Standard.
• Gate to the Afterlife mentions the card God-Pharaoh's Gift, which wasn't released until Hour of Devastation.
• The dual taplands were reprinted to keep them in Standard.
  • The eight dual taplands only appearing in the Deck Builder's Toolkit are printed with the Amonkhet expansion symbol, but without new art that reflects the plane.
• Nissa, Steward of Elements is the first planeswalker card with X in its mana cost.