Of all the posts I make here on Steemit, these Magic: The Gathering blogs take the most time, effort and resources to create, by far! It’s also true that they probably get the least eyeballs, simply because one out of every 30 here on Steemit are avid MTG players. During my last post MTG post, “Magic: The Gathering: Aether Revolt and Amonkhet review!”, I had a few comments in the vein of “I’m not even in to this, but I’m going to upvote you just because I can tell you put a ton of work in to this post!”. Those kind of comments are my favorite and truly are an endorsement of the hours that go in to a post like this, from writing it, to building decks, to taking the photos. Regardless of views or votes, I like doing them and I’m passionate about MTG, so here it is. A first look at the new expansion set, “Hour Of Devastation”.

https://youtu.be/5eHx-tBtgYs

One of my favorite parts about Magic: The Gathering is the story lines. “Amonkhet” […the previous expansion] introduced us to the Egyptian pharaoh like world and the god’s that inhabit it. “Hour Of Devastation” surrounds the return of the all powerful, omnipotent god-pharoah king, Nicol Bolas; a badass dragon. The zombie servants of Amonkhet worked diligently to bring Nicol Bolas back with promises of a utopian afterlife. Upon his return, the servants and existing god’s saw darkness and peril, hence the name “The Deceiver”. He’s a real dickhead.

I loved Kaladesh! What a great set. It brought us all the gearhulks, energy, spells like Fumigate and huge artifacts and vehicles like the Fleetwheel Cruiser […one of my favorites]. Aether Revolt was a little “Eh.” for me. Amonkhet snapped things back in to place, banning cards like The Felidar Guardian […in Standard only, of course], breaking the ridiculous Saheeli Rai combo, and promoting new [actually, old] decks and mechanics to the forefront. Zombies had a massive resurgence with all of the Amonkhet mummies. Again, all the gearhulks went way, way up in value as did many planewalkers. The introduction to the god’s, Hazoret, Khefnet, Bontu, Rhonas and Oketra, also made for complex game play giving us the potential for dominating indestructible creatures at low mana costs, but with very specific conditions of use.

“Hour Of Devastation” introduces three more god’s, in addition to Nicol Bolas. The insect gods are cornerstones to the new set […of which I’m yet to pull even one out of an entire booster box and fat back, even though @vermillionfox has two]. The Scarab God, Scorpion God and Locust God all create awful battlefield conditions with trigger abilities as simply as “…every time you draw a card, create a 1/1 blue and red insect creature token with flying and haste! I’m already clasping my hands in a maniacal way at the thought of The Scarab God in my Amonkhet zombies deck!

https://youtu.be/hNLBorG4cJU

I’m going to have to wait a couple of weeks before I do a deck list and a more in depth look at new mechanics like Afflict, a horrible ability that spills damage to opponents or planes walkers even IF their attacks are blocked! Myself, @tarotbyfergus and @vermillionfox had a few rounds with all “Hour Of Devastation” decks, a point that @tarotbyfergus was firm on, then set up a kill shot with an Eldritch Moon card, and pushed through with 3 points of Afflict damage. What a cheating asshole, right? More on “Hour Of Devastation” after we get a few dozen games in the bank, but so far, I love it!

I post daily! For more nerdy game shit, photography, art, illustration and thoughts on life, follow me here at @kommienezuspadt.