Today is going to be a doozy! We’ll be covering all the Green, multicolored, artifact, and land cards so strap yourselves in. Again, in this set review I will not be going over the cards I believe won’t see Standard play. My review is for Standard and not older formats. This is also my grading scale for the cards:

RATING — Explanation — Standard Examples

0 — Will never see play in Standard. (0 ratings are not listed).

1 — Unlikely to see play.(Hedron Alignment)

2 — Could see fringe play, or occasional sideboard card.(Negate, Duress.)

3 — Commonly played, staple in a single deck, or frequent play in several decks. (Tireless Tracker, Hedron Archive, Oketra's Monument)

4 — Format staple, sees play in multiple decks, one of the best cards in the format. (Torrential Gearhulk, Glimmer of Genius, Traverse the Ulvenwald)

5 — Standard all-star. When building a deck, you keep this card in mind. If you’re playing this color you have this card in your main deck or at the very least, in your sideboard. (Gideon, Ally of Zendikar)

All right! With that out of the way, let’s get to work!

	2 — I miss Rampant Growth and apparently those days are long gone. Land count will matter once again because of Hour of Promise and Shrine of the Forsaken Gods. Beneath the Sands allows you to ramp early while allowing you to cycle it late. Nothing amazing but a ramp spell to consider if you're trying to cast big spells.
	3 — This seems so straight forward but isn’t. To fully abuse it, you'll need the right number of Deserts in your deck. You don't want to many, otherwise you'll be a turn behind the entire game. Too few and you might be forced to fetch out deserts with Hour of Promise. There is a sweet spot and finding it will show how powerful this spell can really be. Getting two Shrine of the Forsaken Gods is essentially netting you 4 mana, with the help of Hour of Promise you'll be casting Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger in no time.
	2 — Solid life gain spell for the sideboard. If burn or Fevered Visions looks to make a comeback then you should look to this card.
	2 — Strictly sideboard like the whole defeat cycle, but again it's a powerful hate card. If ramp decks become a thing I can see them playing this card in their sideboard to combat the mirror. It will help keep the opponent off activating Shrine of the Forsaken Gods for two.
	2 — Slides into token strategies easily. If left unchecked, you'll have a hairy situation. Lifelink makes sure you survive long enough to activate Pride Sovereign again.
	2.5 — Competes with Tireless Tracker for the 3-drop slot but a Crucible on legs is powerful, especially alongside Tireless Tracker. I expect this card to see some play in Standard as a singleton while making splashes in Modern and maybe even Legacy.
	1.5 — Remember Woodland Wanderer? Well that card is still in Standard and sees no play in a world of Aether Hubs. This snake won't be slithering into Standard, it will remain silent beneath the sands.
	2 — An option for G/x energy or delirium decks, nothing crazy but being able to mill it over and re-buy it later in the game has value.
	2 — Not impressed by this card. If your token ever gets Fatal Pushed just pack it in. A card that's only good on turn two and then loses a ton of value as the match goes on isn't appealing. Advent of the Wurm saw very little play and that was mostly because it was an instant. I don't expect this one to do much.
	2 — Sifter Wurm is great at gaining you life in your ramp decks while also digging for your bombs. Pelakka Wurm saw play in sideboards and this fills a very similar role.
	2 — Building around this card is hard and very restricting. It's a strange one-sided Weird Harvest that isn't great and doesn't affect the battlefield. It does have potential to see Sideboard play against other grindy G/x decks.

Top 3 Green Cards

1. Hour of Promise
2. Ramunap Excavator
3. Pride Sovereign

Hour of Promise is the clear winner here for Standard. This is one of the strongest ramp spells we’ve ever seen and any ramp deck trying to cast Ulamog will play it. Ramunap Excavator and Pride Sovereign are excellent build around me cards or solid Sideboard cards. I don’t expect to see too many of them but I’m sure I’ll see a few.

Mulitcolored

	1.5 — At first glance, this doesn't seem to be too great. Wish it put it into your hand. That being said, if you have 8 mana you can continuously loop Crush of Tentacles over and over again. Some decks can't beat that lock.
	2.5 — Doesn't do anything when it comes into play but if you untap with it, you should win the game. I'm skeptical of how much this card will see play when Torrential Gearhulk is around, that is its biggest downfall.
	3 — Nicol Bolas can't deal with a battlefield full of things very well; but, luckily, we have Hour of Devastation to clear the way for our dragon overlord. Nicol Bolas is a very solid finish in a control deck. control can easily splash one off Aether Hubs and a couple other Black producing lands but I'm more excited to see a dedicated Grixis deck with him as the centerpiece!
	1.5 — A 1/4 is a respectable body. If we get a dedicated counters deck this should see play there. Outside of that, I like this spider as a sideboard option against spirits or other decks with a lot of flyers or X/1 creatures, like against Oketra's Monument.
	1.5 — We've seen this before in Hellrider and other similar cards. While this is no Hellrider with enough good exert creatures, I could see this in a aggressive deck, probably alongside Always Watching and Glory-Bound Initiate.
	2 — My second favorite card in the set, right behind Swarm Intelligence. It's basically a Azure Mage and if we get a Temur Midrange, Ramp, or even a control deck, expect to see this little bird chilling in the Sideboard.
	2 — Extremely weak Planeswalker, 4-mana for Forked Bolt isn't very impressive and leaves a lot to be desired. However, her plus ability will kill opponents real quick if those creatures go unblocked. I could see it in a midrange strategy but I'm not holding my breath.
	2.5 — Arguably the best God, but you must do work to get it going. With The Locust God, you just have to untap and draw a card and you're already getting value. This costs one less and is a 5/5 so it dodges Grasp of Darkness. I'm content just Eternalizing my Champion of Wits for . I could see this in a Sultai delirum deck.
	2 — This gets my vote for the weakest God in the set. Great against creatures with 1 toughness, but outside of that, it's just a big body. I don't really see this getting play outside of Sideboards.
	2.5 — Cyclonic Rift and even Disperse have seen play in the past, and this one has another half to it. It can be pretty nasty to do this at the end of your opponent's draw step with Torrential Gearhulk, especially if it's the last two cards in their hand.
	2.5 — Miles better in older formats but could see play in some sort of aggro deck in Standard. Mardu could even pack one or two copies if they wanted, bringing back a Veteran Motorist for 1 mana isn't too shabby.
	2 — This could be good enough for Red control decks to play, maybe even in a Temur Control shell. Competing with Abrade and Harnessed Lightning is tough though. Good to keep on the backburner if graveyards become a thing.
	2 — This card screams combo to me. Alongside Aetherflux Reservoir and Sram, Senior Edificer it seems very strong. I'm sure someone will break this in older formats.
	2.5 — This card is so close! In my eyes, Scry 4 is worth a card. Having Believe tacked on could make it playable in some sort of UG/x deck. Either with big creatures or alongside Vizier of the Menagerie.
	2 — Solid in a aggressive shell, especially against big mana decks like ramp where you could potentially make casting Ulamog a death sentence. This card won't see main deck play but it has a real shot in the Sideboard.
	2.5 — Can zombies splash this card? Connecting just once with Driven or Despair will put the game away, if you manage to do both on turn four, make sure to apologize to your opponent afterwards. This card is extremely powerful in the right shell. Also, a good sideboard option for grindier matchups, as long as they aren't kill your creatures. I like this alongside Ishkanah, Grafwidow as well.

Top 3 Multicolored Cards

1. Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
2. Claim // Fame
3. Consign // Oblivion

The Gods are close, especially the Locust and Scarab, but the split cards are easier to put into decks and it is a lot easier to play them. Bolas easily stands above the rest of the multicolored cards and I look forward to seeing him close out many games to come.

Artifacts and Lands

	2 —If you could play lands with this card then it would get my seal of approval. Outside of that you don't want to cast too many cards with cycle since they cost so much. If a dedicated cycle deck becomes Tier 1 then I could see this as a small part of their engine, but right now we don't have a cycling deck in sight.
	2 — Wish we had this a lot earlier, glad we at least have it now. I like this in the Sideboard of decks for Delirium decks and even Zombies. can struggle with zombies, especially ones that recur and having this in the Sideboard can help after you clear the board.
	2.5 — Free things are always powerful and this artifact is giving you free creatures every turn. If you can get it to work consistently I could really see this being a role player in Standard.
	2.5 — Again, free spells are great! It's a nice creature for cycling decks, it lets you go through your deck then get a 4/4 body to buy you some time so you can be doing your thing.
	2.5 — This gets my vote for sleeper of the set. Mirage Mirror reminds me a lot of Mimic Vat, it doesn't seem like it can do much but in fact, it does a lot. You don't even have to tap this artifact to get use out of the ability. It can also dodge removal like Abrade by becoming a copy of a creature.
	2 — Control can splash this card if it wants to cast Nicol Bolas. Alongside Aether Hub it shouldn't have any problem. Decks ran Radiant Fountain in the past just of the life gain. While one life isn't the same as two it does also help fix your mana.
	3 — Mono colored decks could use these or a deck that wants deserts. Decks playing multiple colors can just play the duals from Amonkhet. These do trigger some spells and creatures, the most important one being Hour of Promise.
	2 — Very similar to a creature land. Using other deserts to sacrifice this will get you a sweet ability and a 2/2. Not too shabby!
	2 — Great in decks with come into play creatures. This could be played in Panharmonicon or aggressive decks to combat board wipes. You can also do some tricky things with Endless Sands and Spell Queller. If nothing else Commander players will love it.
	1.5 — Deserts that come into play untapped seem strong, they also help enable Eldrazis like Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher. The ability here isn't great, especially since you can't save a creature from Hour of Devastation or other removal spells.
	3 — This is enough reason to playing cycling lands. 2 mana for a 3/4 creature is powerful, this will find a home in Standard. It will just take some time.
	3 — Ifnir Deadlands has a powerful ability on it, especially since the counters stay on the creature. I can see Midrange, Control, and even Eldrazi decks running one to two of these.
	3 — Gives reach to aggressive strategies like Mono-Red or Prowess. Two damage might not seem like a lot but the control decks in this format are glacially slow, Ramunap Ruins can easily close out a game if you've gotten your opponent low enough.
	2.5 — Fantastic Sideboard option for all decks that also helps you cast your spells. This could replace Bojuka Bog in older formats since you can activate the ability at instant speed and it doesn't enter the battlefield tapped. I really like this one, I expect it to see a good amount of play in Modern.

Top 3 Artifacts / Lands

1. All the cycling lands
2. Mono colored pain deserts with abilities
3. Hostile Desert

Even lumped together the deserts take the cake this time. They are most likely to see play in Standard since they are lands with abilities and you can easily slot them into your decks. Lands with abilities are always strong because they essentially don’t take up any slots in your deck since they add mana. You may slow yourself down or take some damage for playing them but you add value to your deck by running them.

Hour of Devastation may not be the strongest set of all time but it adds some strategies to Standard alongside some powerful answers. Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation are my favorite sets of all time. I love the flavor and lore of the cards. The story behind this set is a great one and one that will go down in history.

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed my set review for Hour of Devastation. I’ve been considering doing a vlog review of future sets. Let me know in the comments if that’s something that interests you or if you’d rather just have it all written down instead of a video of it.

Thanks for reading!

Ali Aintrazi

Follow me @AliEldrazi