Amonkhet, Amonkhet, Amonkhet! I don’t know about you but I’m excited for Amonkhet! I’m so ready to be on the plane that is ruled by Nicol Bolas. Of course, it’s not just that, I’m really looking forward to new cards, some more than others. Today I want to talk about some cards from Amonkhet and what possible new homes they might have. While some cards will just slip into existing decks, others beg to be built around. The ones asking us to build around them are the ones that have got me the most excited. So, all aboard the Ali hype train! Here are some of the cards I can’t wait to get my hands on and start playing with!

As Foretold

This card gained some hype when it was spoiled and for good reason. The thing people asked about immediately was, “Does this work with suspend cards?” For example, can I play As Foretold and then cast Ancestral Vision? The answer was yes! Now, you’re limited to casting only one spell each turn (yours and your opponents) so you can’t chain suspend cards, but casting cards that are supposed to be suspended with As Foretold is big game. Sure, we all think of Ancestral Visions first but powerful cards like Living End, Lotus Bloom, Restore Balance, and Wheel of Fate can all be cast as soon as this enchantment enters the battlefield. Those are all cards legal in Modern as well.

I know this card has the most potential in Modern but I’m excited for it as well for Standard. I know it’s going to be slow and takes time to get going, but once it does it can do a lot of work. You just must have the right mix of spells you can cast at instant and sorcery speed along with the right amount of card draw. It’s also plays very well with Rashmi, Eternities Crafter. I’m ready to try and find the right mix cards for this deck.

The Bi-cycle Lands

These lands are great in general but they reward midrange and control decks the most. You can now play an extra land or two in your control deck since you can just cycle these if you start to flood out. This prevents you from getting mana screwed early and helps ease mana flood later in the game. I can see control decks running twenty-seven to twenty-nine lands because of this cycle and it’s great! These lands also have subtypes on them so you can fetch them out with fetchlands in older formats. Currently we can’t abuse this really well in Standard but keep a look out for future sets that care about the amount type of lands you have like Engulf the Shore.

Approach of the Second Sun

Seven mana, seventh card from the top, seven life, sorcery has seven letters in it, artist’s last name has seven letters in it, this card was spoiled on April 7th, Amonkhet comes out on April 28th which is a number that is divisible by seven, the year is 2017, and better yet, Hour of Devastation comes out in July, the seventh month of the year. Do you know what else costs seven mana? Cruel Ultimatum. When you ultimate Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker your opponent takes seven damage, discards seven cards, and then sacrifices seven permanents. Nicol Bolas, the creature, is a 7/7 that makes the opponent discard their hand when he connects, conveniently the max hand size is seven. I bet when Nicol Bolas is spoiled in Hour of Devastation that he will cost 7 mana. Seven has a lot of religious relevance as well.

Coincidence?

Okay, enough conspiracy! What about the card? Well, it’s certainly powerful. I mean, how much better can you get then, “You win the game”? It’s important to note that this card says, “when you cast . . . ” So even if they are both countered, you’ll still win the game when you cast the second one. It costs a lot of mana so you’ll need to play this card in either a ramp deck or a control deck that slows the game down and then casts a couple of these. This one is on my radar to brew with for sure, especially since I love ramp strategies.

Pull from Tomorrow

This card competes with Glimmer of Genius and Torrential Gearhulk. Glimmer is stronger on four while Torrential Gearhulk into Glimmer is better on six. So, when do you want this card? When you’re a devoted control deck, have a reanimator theme (Liliana, Death's Majesty), want a good draw spell that enables Madness, or it’s a payoff spell in your ramp deck like a big Mind Spring. This will still see play in Gearhulk decks but just as a couple of copies. It’s a great tool for a Blue mage to have access to. Just don’t compare it to Sphinx's Revelation. Sphinx's Revelation was one of the best card draw spells we’ve ever had in Standard and the life gain attached to it was a big part of the draw. You can have ten or more cards in hand but it’s not going to matter if you don’t have the time to cast them because you’re at four life. Again, the biggest draw for me is the ramp aspect of this card in a ramp shell.

Bounty of the Luxa

Speaking of cards that ramp in Blue and Green . . .  I’m in love with this card, it does everything I want to be doing. The only problem is, will I have time? It doesn’t do anything the turn you play it but starts doing things the turn after. It also might come back and bite you since you don’t get to pick if you want the mana or the card draw, it just happens. It’ll be important to try and offset that when you play your second Bounty of the Luxa. You’ll want to have mana and card draw every turn to fully abuse it. Speaking of abusing this card you’re not going to be able to abuse it without life gain and/or a way to deal with the battlefield. We could play Bant for the White splash so we can play Fumigate, Sultai for Black so we can remove creatures or Planeswalkers, or even Temur so we gain access to Radiant Flames. We just need to find the right home for it!

Drake Haven

All the cards aren’t fully spoiled and I can already tell their will be a deck around this card. It’s going to be at least . Those two colors have such amazing cards that cycle already. We have the new Force Spike, Cast Out, Curator of Mysteries, Renewed Faith, and the new cycle of lands! Hopefully we get another enchantment like Drake Haven that does things when we cycle cards, that would really make the archetype start ticking. As of right now all these cards can slide easily into a control deck with Gearhulk, Glimmer of Genius, Pull from Tomorrow, and some removal like Immolating Glares, Blessed Alliance, or Declaration in Stone. We even have access to Fumigate if the battlefield gets a little too crazy.

The hardest thing for control decks as of late has been Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. A resolved Gideon is nearly impossible to beat. You have to hope your opponent made it into a creature and allowed you to Stasis Snare it. Now thankfully, we can just play Cast Out if Gideon slips through our countermagic. Cast Out is going to be amazing. Not only does it deal with Gideon but it will also keep Scrapheap Scrounger down and out! A nice finisher for this deck outside of Drake Haven could be Kefnet the Mindful. Kefnet is a great draw engine and a solid finisher. It’s pretty cool that you can return your lands to turn him into a creature quicker or to just cycle one of your bi-cycle lands! New Perspectives is another cool card that could fit in here as a one or two off. New Perspectives plays very well with Felidar Guardian. Maybe it’s time to dust off Jeskai Saheeli? Probably not, I have a feeling Drake Haven, Torrential Gearhulk, and Kefnet will be more than enough.

Magma Spray

Yes, I’m excited for a common and I’m sure you are too. I’ve had enough of Scrapheap Scrounger and having no effective way to really deal with it. Now we have a solid answer in Magma Spray. Not only does Magma Spray exile Scrapheap Scrounger but even if we have to use it earlier on something like Toolcraft Exemplar it’s not the end of the world since Toolcraft will get exiled and won’t be able to feed Scrapheap Scrounger in the future. I expect to see this card in many a main deck and plenty of sideboards. Heck, even the Mardu decks will now play this to combat Scrapheap Scrounger.

Dissenter’s Deliverance

Yes, another common. Why? Because it’s another wonderful way to deal with artifacts and Mardu, especially since you can play a couple in your main deck. At worst, you just pay a Green mana and cycle it away. I’m all about options, especially when they help combat the strongest deck in the format.

Never to Return

The last card I want to talk about today is Never // Return. Yea, we need something like Hero's Downfall to deal with Gideon, Ally of Zendikar but I personally think Hero's Downfall is pushing it too much. After Gideon rotates out of Standard then we would be stuck with a very powerful removal spells that makes people not want to play Planeswalkers, that’s not where I want to be. Ruinous Path wasn’t good enough against Mardu since it was so slow. Never is also slow, but at least you can Aftermath it to get rid of Scrapheap Scrounger if your opponent ever taps out. It’s a slight upgrade from Ruinous Path, nothing crazy, but I’ll take more and more cards that help me beat Mardu. While this isn’t good enough, it is a step in the right direction and I’m happy about that!

All right ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to get off the locomotive. This is the last stop for Ali’s Hype Train. Amonkhet is just around the corner. We’ve gotten some great tools to combat Saheeli / Felidar Guardian and Mardu. I’m hopeful that it’s good enough because I have some exciting new brews I want to try out once the full spoiler is out. So, make sure to tune in next time for some brews!

See you all next time!

Much love,

Ali Aintrazi

@AliEldrazi on Twitter