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Welcome to Amonkhet, a world of mummies, pyramids and gods! The full spoiler is now released, and we get to dive into one of the coolest sets in years. Make sure you check out my first two articles on this set, Amonkhet First Look and Amonkhet Powerhouse Cards. Today, I’m going to focus on the cards I think will be impacting our Constructed formats.
First up, let’s finish out the god cycle for this plane of existence.
Rhonas the Indomitable
I know I included Rhonas the Indomitable in last week's article, but at that time we didn’t have the sweet Masterpiece artwork and I felt it needed to be included. One reason in particular that I want to point this new Masterpiece out is because it’s the only mono-green card in the cycle. I find that to be very interesting. Additionally, I wonder if it will impact the price in a positive way that he is the only green card. Take a look at the color break down of the Invocations.
White – 7
Blue – 11
Black – 6
Red – 3
Green – 1
Multicolored – 2
For a minorly OCD person such as myself, Wizards creating bizarre patterns of seemingly unrelated cycles like this drives me nuts. If the colors were slightly unbalanced, I’d even be fine with that, but for there to be only one green card and three red cards is strange. It’s possible that in order to find cards that fit the theme of the plane, these were the cards deemed most applicable, but I think we could have balanced it a bit more for players who enjoy red and green cards. Going forward, Wizards has stated that there won’t be an overarching theme (like with the lands from Battle for Zendikar or artifacts from Kaladesh), but rather they would print cards that fit the block, like we see here on Amonkhet.
Bontu the Glorified
Alright, maybe I’m supposed to break down this card and say that although the 4/6 for three mana seems great, especially with menace and the indestructibility, the sacrifice requirement to allow it to attack or block is too harsh and will prevent it from seeing play. Maybe I’m supposed to say that, but honestly I don’t want to.
I’ll admit, I’m drawn to engine cards like this more than most players. So, my desire for this card to be good may be shifting my perspective, but I think Bontu the Glorified is much better than he seems.
The reason why I like cards like Bontu, Blood-Chin Fanatic, or even Cabal Archon from back when I started playing, is because they give you a great end-game plan. When the game goes long, these cards can provide a way to actually win. Basically, if you put these types of cards in aggressive strategies, they act as multiple burn spells to finish off your opponent.
They also pair well with other cards that let you sacrifice creatures for effects, like Nantuko Husk or Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim. We can combine all these types of cards together to form great strategies like Aristocrats, one of my favorite Standard decks of all time. They have synergy and power as well as being super fun to play. With all that being said, I hope that Bontu will fit into this type of strategy in the new Standard environment, and I’ll be working to find his spot in this archetype.
Zombies!
Speaking of Aristocrats and decks of that nature, Zombie Tribal is looking extremely playable. We’ll have to see what happens with the banned list update coming soon, because Vehicles may be strictly better than a tribal aggressive deck even with some new sweet cards. Let’s look at some of the cards that stand out from this tribe.
Lord of the Accursed
When was the last time we had a lord like this in Standard? I think it's several years ago with Stromkirk Captain and Mayor of Avabruk in Innistrad block and then Elvish Archdruid in M13. Thalia's Lieutenant is sort of like a lord, I guess, but not in the way these other cards are. The point is though, it’s been a while since Wizards gave us a traditional type of lord like Lord of the Accursed. Not only does it give the standard +1/+1 to the tribe, but he also can grant menace to your army as well. That’s potent, for sure.
Dread Wanderer
We are also getting a one-mana 2/1 with a recursive ability. This iteration of Gravecrawler has more limitations, though. Not only does it cost three mana to bring him back, but you can only do so on your turn and if you have one or zero cards in hand. Even with these restrictions, I expect Dread Wanderer to be highly played. We could even see it paired with Prized Amalgam too.
Wayward Servant
One of the best parts about the Zombie tribe from Amonkhet has to be Wayward Servant. I’m totally smitten with this card right now. It’s like Wayward Servant was made just for Diregraf Colossus and all these other zombie cards like Relentless Dead and Cryptbreaker that have been sitting around collecting dust. With these cards I’ve mentioned, we have an obvious tribal aggro strategy that’s possible in the format. I hope so much this deck is playable, because I want to swarm with some zombies!
We could even include cards like From Under the Floorboards or Dark Salvation in this deck. Zombies might not be the most supported tribe in Standard, but the tools are there to build something. We may still be missing some creatures to fill out our curve, but the shell is there.
Financially, Relentless Dead has already bumped up in price, and if this deck gains some traction in the community, I think other cards from the tribe will pop up as well. I think the gem we need to focus on is Diregraf Colossus. It’s barely more than bulk right now, but if players start building BW Zombies, this card will break out of its previous price model quickly.
As Foretold
Is As Foretold bonkers busted or are my friends and I living in Magical Xmasland? My PayPal account definitely thinks it could be real, because I just bought a couple play sets of Wheel of Fate. That card is spiking, by the way, so pick some copies up if you can still find a good price. This combo deck might not pan out, but the internet is selling out of this suspend spell pretty quickly.
In Modern, I can picture Birds of Paradise turn one and As Foretold turn two. Once that happens, we can cast Wheel of Fate, Lotus Bloom or Ancestral Vision for free. There is even Restore Balance or [/Card]Living End[/Card] if you want to go either of those routes.
With the free mana from Simian Spirit Guide and Desperate Ritual, it’s easy to picture a turn where you combo off using a bunch of free spells. Maybe the combo is too hard to assemble, but it seems as easy as having As Foretold and a card to cast for zero.
At first I was worried about the window being limited since you only have one turn with zero counters, but then I remembered time counters used to be a thing back in Time Spiral. There was Timecrafting and Clockspinning as well as Rift Elemental and Timebender. These cards would allow us to revert the enchantment back to zero and continue to cheat our suspend spells into play for free.
Cryptic Serpent
Is this giant blue sea creature the blue Goyf? Five instants or sorceries doesn’t seem like that much to ask in order to make this guy cost a mere double blue. I see Standard, Modern, and maybe even Legacy potential here. For Standard, pairing Serpent with a Thing in the Ice strategy seems synergistic, but it could easily fit into another type of controlling strategy as well as a finisher alongside Torrential Gearhulk. Maybe this creature will be enough to bring back UR Delver in Modern? We already have Delver of Secrets and Young Pyromancer. If we add another threat like this, that deck could come back. It's possible that black mana in that deck for Tasigur, the Golden Fang and some removal spells is just better, though. I’d still track down foils whenever possible, because they should be cheap to start and there's a lot of upside.
Samut, Voice of Dissent
Wow! I know I said the gods have a lot of abilities, but man what a pile of insane abilities. Talk about blowout potential. Even with how incredible these abilities are, the card still costs five mana. I wonder if it will actually see play. I hope so, because this red-green human is crazy. If red-green aggro emerges as an actual archetype, we could realistically see Samut as a finisher for that deck. Without that happening, I still like foil copies for the Commander players.
There are a bunch of other great cards in the set like Weaver of Currents, Vizier of the Menagerie, Harsh Mentor, Shadow of the Grave, and Anointed Procession, just to name a few. This set really has some interesting effects and abilities appearing in new colors. I hope Standard will grow and bloom into something much better than Saheeli vs. Vehicles vs. GB. There are so many cool things in Amonkhet, I can’t wait to start brewing!
Don’t miss next week as I try to boil down this amazing set into a top 10!
Until next time,
Unleash the Force!
Mike Lanigan
MtgJedi on Twitter
What made this test different is that I controlled the starting hands. With only time for a single game with each deck I wanted to ensure that I actually tested the right cards. Therefore, I purposefully began with either Gideon or Unlife in my hand, then drew six cards. As this hand was keepable, I used it for both games against a given deck. I used the same seven-card hand each game for the test decks. The rest of the deck was randomized normally. Burn and DSJ were going to fetch turn one anyway, and it would have been too much work to put the decks back into the exact same order each time. Things ultimately work out this way, as knowledge is a tremendous weapon for a combo deck and I would have adjusted my play accordingly.
Ad Nauseam did not win a game. This was not really the point of the test, but I was still expecting to get at least one against Burn. Alas, it wasn't to be. Being on the draw was certainly a problem, but my draws against Burn were uninspiring, and I also never drew Ad Nauseam (I hear it's a pretty important card in this deck). My draws were okay against DSJ, but I never had both Ad Nauseam and enough mana to cast it. In the Unlife game it was Thoughtseized after my Prism was K-Commanded, while in the Gideon game, DSJ drew a lot of Inquisitions into Liliana and I only had four mana sources when I died.
I thought I curved out fairly well with a scryland for a Plains into Prism, then Unlife and Serum Visions. Had I found Ad Nauseam off Visions or a Temple I would have won. As it was, my opponent dealt a whopping 14 damage on turn three thanks to two resolving Rift Bolts and Atarka's Command. On turn four, I went to zero, and then to two poison thanks to Boros Charm and Goblin Guide. Had Burn drawn a spell instead of a land turn five, I would have died, but I was afforded an extra meaningless turn. I can see why Ad Naus players like Unlife in this matchup; most of the time it will gain you over than 10 life. The math this time just favored my opponent. Interestingly, I drew an Angel's Grace on my last turn but it doesn't actually prevent damage so I would have died during cleanup had I tried to save myself.
My opponent's first four plays were two Inquisitons, Traverse, and a Thoughtseize. Variance. However, I had the mana to play the Gideon I topdecked turn four, and used him to get Liliana off the board. My opponent finally got delirium on turn five and found Death's Shadow, then drew another two thanks to Bauble, and killed Gideon and me. The Shadows were 8/8s, so Gideon definitely bought extra time, but I lacked the mana to win. I hadn't considered Gideon's use against other planeswalkers, but I think this might be his actual purpose in the deck. Liliana of the Veil is a beating and Ad Naus doesn't have a maindeck way to answer her. I don't know that it necessarily needs one, but if it does, I think Gideon does an excellent job. Being weak to Abrupt Decay and blockers is annoying, but Death's Shadow doesn't always have threats early, and Decay is seeing less and less play these days. It is definitely worth exploring.
For one, there's no limit to the amount of creatures we can play per turn, so Vizier can possibly draw us more than one card on the same turn. Courser caps out at one extra card per turn, barring the presence of some goofy effect like Azusa, Lost but Seeking's. Creature-heavy decks in the market for some card advantage, like Bant Eldrazi or any Genesis Wave-style deck, might be able to employ Vizier profitably.
Weird colors, weird abilities, weird casting cost. Fortunately for Nissa, Modern is a weird format. Her ability to scale in long games makes Nissa very interesting, despite her inability to protect herself. The decks that will try her out are ones that tend to have lots of lands in the mid-game and struggle with consistency issues—again, Bant Eldrazi springs to mind. It helps that her 0 ability works best in decks full of lands and creatures, but light on noncreature spells. I could see Nissa working in some ramp-happy creature deck that also wants Vizier.
Ribbons domes opponents for X, only costing pilots an extra BB. That's exactly the kind of mode Removal.dec wants on its binned cards. Grixis Control has all but inherited UR Twin's title as Bolt-Snap-Bolt deck of the format, and Ribbons meshes perfectly with that gameplan.
Here's the most boring of the spoiled cards covered today, but Cast Out nevertheless deserves a mention. The main reason to play Cast Out over Oblivion Ring (or, alternatively, Detention Sphere) is its flash keyword.
Second, Leak shines when it trades up on mana with enemy spells. In other words, it needs to counter spells that cost three or more to put casters ahead on tempo. Since Modern is so full of aggressive and linear decks, it's rare that Leak properly executes this function. If it's just going to hit Goblin Guide or Tarmogoyf, it might as well be a one-mana spell like Fatal Push.
Pull is probably the worst of this bunch. This card would have been awesome for UR Twin, but with that deck 
A beautifully designed card with plenty of unintuitive interactions. Time Stop has never been a competitive staple due to its steep mana cost, but Glorious End might be cheap enough to actually make some waves in Modern. If it does, we'll finally learn how to properly cast this kind of card!
Rhonas the Indomitable
Regal Caracal's whopping converted mana cost of 5 forces us into lots of lands, which luckily also supports two of Modern's most aggressively-costed cats, Steppe Lynx and Scythe Tiger. Another blessing in disguise is Tarmogoyf's Lhurgoyf creature type. Later, pal—let's run Rest in Peace instead!
It’s hard to look at Amonkhet's Gods without comparing them to the Theros Five. While none of the old cycle made a significant impact in Modern, Thassa, God of the Sea did show up in a few Merfolk lists here and there before eventually being dropped for stronger, more powerful options. I have seen a few tokens lists try and make Purphoros work, but for the most part the Gods lorded over Standard without doing much in Modern.
but only if you intend on using Foretold for anything other than Restore Balance. Getting an Ancestral Vision immediately isn't as "free" as it sounds when you consider the three-mana upfront investment. But I’m imagining the extra value that comes from being able to essentially tack on an extra spell to all of your turns past the first turn this comes down. It’s not that great, seeing as those extra cards we're casting don't appear out of thin air, but still, spending more mana than our opponent is one of the best ways to ensure victory in Modern.
The comparison here is Nahiri, the Harbinger, except that Champion is probably worse. Yes, we can put Emrakul into play, but why are we playing Emrakul in our probably-aggressive green deck? 3/3 stats are unfortunate as well, especially when we have to pay four mana. If Champion were a 3/2 that cost 3, or even a 3/1, I’d be excited, as RG Breach decks could play it alongside Tarmogoyf and Lightning Bolt to just beat down opponents loading up on counterspells, discard, and Stone Rain. Still, the math works out right that this thing is coming down on turn three in that deck anyways, so maybe it can still be considered a three-drop.
