Amonkhet

Amonkhet is the 74th 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 to another. The names and art tell you that this is a glorious world where the inhabitants are content, but the play is ruthless.

Storyline

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.

^* This story was mistakenly published featuring an exchange between Chandra and Nissa that was revised to make its romantic nature more subtle. The original line was "'So... friendship is about the limit of what you feel comfortable with right now?'" The current version reads simply "'So... friendship?'"

Marketing

Amonkhet is sold in 16-card boosters (one card being a marketing card), two planeswalker decks, the Amonkhet bundle, Booster Battle Packs, the Deck Builder's Toolkit and a Land Station. 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-sided 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. 30 Invocation cards are appearing with Amonkhet and 24 more cards appearing in Hour of Devastation.

Events

• 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 participating.
• 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

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

1. 3/4 Embalmed Angel of Sanctions
2. 1/3 Embalmed Anointer Priest
3. 3/2 Embalmed Aven Initiate
4. 2/3 Embalmed Aven Wind Guide
5. 5/3 Embalmed Glyph Keeper
6. 4/3 Embalmed Heart-Piercer Manticore
7. 6/6 Embalmed Honored Hydra
8. 2/3 Embalmed Labyrinth Guardian
9. 3/3 Embalmed Oketra's Attendant
10. 1/1 Embalmed Sacred Cat
11. 2/1 Embalmed Tah-Crop Skirmisher
12. 2/2 Embalmed Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun
13. 2/2 Embalmed Trueheart Duelist
14. 3/2 Embalmed Unwavering Initiate
15. 0/0 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, 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
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

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. Embalm appears most commonly in blue and white, with a green and red rare.
• Exert — When you declare an attacker with this ability, you decide 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. Exert appears in red, green, and white.
• Aftermath — Split card halves 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. Another unnamed mechanic is nicknamed "Ruthless" (“When ~ enters the battlefield, put ... -1/-1 counters on target creature you control.”). It is featured in black and green and is often paired with a second ability, often interacting with -1/-1 counters.

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 timeshifted card in Time Spiral.

Cycles

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

Vertical cycle

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).

Card comparisons

Preconstructed decks

Amonkhet features two planeswalker decks:

Notable cards

• The rare cycling dual land cycle (like Irrigated Farmland) has seen significant play in control decks in Standard and Pioneer.
• Approach of the Second Sun is an alternate-win card.
• Glorious End is an alternate-loss card and red extra turn spell.
• Because of the change in Standard rotation, Gideon of the Trials inadvertently became the third Gideon planeswalker card in Standard. The card's powerful emblem that it can create immediately and its ability to pressure the opponent has combined to make it seem consistent play in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, and even Legacy.
• 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.
• Vizier of Remedies is among the best cards to combo with Devoted Druid to create infinite mana and has seen play in Modern decks built around the combo.
• Nissa, Steward of Elements is the first planeswalker card with X in its mana cost.
• Anointed Procession is the first white card to have an ability that doubles the production of tokens and is a staple in casual Commander decks.
• The cycle of monuments (like Bontu's Monument) are staples in the casual Commander format, particularly in monocolored creature-focused decks.
• Pull from Tomorrow was frequently played in Standard control decks, especially as a way to find Approach of the Second Sun.
• Cascading Cataracts is frequently played alongside Golos, Tireless Pilgrim, as it can be fetched by Golos and then used to easily produce the five colors of mana for its ability.
• Manglehorn was a strong sideboard card for green aggro decks in Standard and has even seen limited success in Vintage, a format filled with problematic artifacts.
• Lord of the Accursed is a strong lord for black aggro decks in Pioneer and Historic.
• Liliana, Death's Majesty was a heavily played value engine for black control decks in Standard and has transitioned to success in Pioneer.
• Commit // Memory was a control deck staple Standard and Pioneer, especially for control-combo decks that can use its wheel effect to find their pieces.
• As Foretold is the key card in the eponymous Modern deck that used it to cast costless suspend spells like Ancestral Visions.
• Harsh Mentor was infamously hyped as a sideboard card for Modern and eternal formats, especially in burn decks, but went on to limited success.
• Trespasser's Curse sees play in a variety of aggressive decks in Pauper that can bring it out of the sideboard against creature-based decks to pressure their life total.
• Cast Out and Censor were heavily played in Standard control decks as versatile answers with cycling and continue to see play in Pioneer.
• New Perspectives has a unique effect and was used in a short-lived Standard combo deck alongside cycling cards such as Vizier of Tumbling Sands to win the game in a single turn.
• Glorybringer was a staple in Standard red decks, becoming the face of the format and Red Deck Wins in specific.
• Sweltering Suns is a versatile boardwipe that has seen consistent play in red sideboards from Standard to Modern.
• Rhonas the Indomitable and Hazoret the Fervent were staples in green and red aggro decks, respectively, in Standard, where their conditions were easy to fulfill.
• Soul-Scar Mage is a powerful staple in Burn decks and Red Deck Wins in Pioneer and Modern, where it is reminiscent of Monastery Swiftspear with graveyard hate attached.

Banned and restricted cards

• Gideon's Intervention was banned in Historic Brawl in 2020 due to its ability to prevent the opponent from ever casting their commander. This concern is less relevant in multiplayer formats like Commander and Oathbreaker.

Trivia