Hour of Devastation

Hour of Devastation is the 75th Magic expansion, and the second in the Amonkhet block. It was released on July 14, 2017, and is a small expansion.

Set details
Hour of Devastation contains 199 cards (15 basic lands, 70 commons, 60 uncommons, 42 rares, 12 mythic rares) and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. The expansion symbol represents the horns of Nicol Bolas. 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 #200/199 to #209/199). Five of basic lands are full-art (different art from the Amonkhet ones).

While the previous set mostly was top-down design inspired by Egypt with some top-down Bolas, Hour of Devastation is mostly top-down Bolas with some top-down Egypt. Starting with Hour of Devastation R&D pulled back significantly on how often Gatewatch planeswalkers appear as cards. The non-full art basic lands were previewed in Archenemy: Nicol Bolas.

Storyline
Unleash your Endgame As promised, the God-Pharaoh has returned. Unfortunately, the promise of a glorious afterlife wasn't quite what everyone thought it was. Nicol Bolas has come to claim his perfect Zombie army, the Eternals. The Gatewatch is easily defeated. Samut's planeswalker's spark is ignited.

The cards that represent the Story Spotlights in Hour of Devastation are: Hour of Revelation, Hour of Glory, Hour of Promise, Hour of Eternity, Hour of Devastation.

Marketing
Hour of Devastation is sold in 16-card boosters (one card being a marketing card), two planeswalker decks and the Hour of Devastation bundle. The boosters feature artwork from Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, Samut, the Tested, Fame (Claim/Fame), The Scarab God</c> and Angel of Condemnation</c>. Like Magic 2013 before, the packaging is mostly Bolas-flavored.

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 previously appeared with Amonkhet and 24 more cards appear in Hour of Devastation.

Events

 * Prerelease Events took place on July 8, 2017.

Promotional Cards

 * Magic Open House: full-art Hour of Devastation basic land
 * Prerelease: a stamped card that can be any rare or mythic rare from the set.
 * Draft Weekend: Ramunap Excavator</c>
 * Game Day: full-art Abrade</c>
 * Game Day (Top 8): full-art Adorned Pouncer</c>
 * Buy-a-Box: Wildfire Eternal</c>

Tokens
There are 12 tokens for Hour of Devastation. Every creature spell with Eternalize has a unique matching token. The following tokens printed in Amonkhet are also used for cards in Hour of Devastation:
 * 1) 5/5 Horse for Crested Sunmare</c>
 * 2) 5/4 Snake for Rhonas's Last Stand</c>
 * 3) 1/1 Insect with flying and haste for The Locust God</c>
 * 1) 5/5 Horse for Crested Sunmare</c>
 * 2) 5/4 Snake for Rhonas's Last Stand</c>
 * 3) 1/1 Insect with flying and haste for The Locust God</c>
 * 1) 5/5 Horse for Crested Sunmare</c>
 * 2) 5/4 Snake for Rhonas's Last Stand</c>
 * 3) 1/1 Insect with flying and haste for The Locust God</c>
 * 1) 5/5 Horse for Crested Sunmare</c>
 * 2) 5/4 Snake for <c>Rhonas's Last Stand</c>
 * 3) 1/1 Insect with flying and haste for <c>The Locust God</c>
 * 1/1 Cat with lifelink for <c>Pride Sovereign</c>
 * 1/1 Warrior with vigilance for <c>Steward of Solidarity</c>
 * 2/2 Zombie for <c>Dunes of the Dead</c> and <c>Hour of Promise</c>

In addition some boosters feature a punch card with markers for exerted and eternal, brick counters and -1/-1 counters.

Themes and mechanics
-1/-1 counters, Exert, Cycling and Aftermath split cards are carried over from the previous set. Exert now shows up as an activated ability.

Brick counters are used again as well, only this time they represent the dismantling of the monuments (cards start with 3 counters; removing one creates an effect).

There are two new named mechanics:
 * Eternalize a keyword ability which is an evolved Embalm. Eternalize 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 eternalized creature, except that it is a zombie in addition to its other creature types and monocolored black. Its power/toughness becomes 4/4. Many creatures with eternalize have abilities that get better because of their increased power.
 * Afflict a triggered ability with a variable value. Whenever a creature with this ability becomes blocked, defending player loses life equal to the Afflict value.

Card types
This set adds the three forgotten Gods from Amonkhet.

The desert theme of Amonkhet is expanded on. There are cards throughout the set that reward you for either controlling a Desert or having a Desert card in your graveyard.

Cycles
Hour of Devastation has at thirteen cycles, two of which are partial and one other vertical:

Partial cycles

 * Forgotten Gods: The three mythic rare gods that Bolas corrupted, with each god having two of the Grixis colors <c>The Scarab God</c>, <c>The Scorpion God</c> , and <c>The Locust God</c>.
 * Modal uncommon spells: Three uncommon spells, also in the Grixis colors, that have a choice of two complementary options <c>Supreme Will</c>, <c>Doomfall</c> , <c>Abrade</c>.

Reprinted cards

 * <c>Kindled Fury</c>, first printed in Morningtide, last seen in Dragons of Tarkir.
 * <c>Manalith</c>, first printed in Magic 2012.
 * <c>Sandblast</c>, first printed in Fate Reforged.
 * <c>Strategic Planning</c>, first printed in Portal Three Kingdoms, last seen in Commander 2013 and for the first time in an expert-level expansion.
 * <c>Traveler's Amulet</c>, first printed in Innistrad, last seen in Theros.
 * <c>Unsummon</c>, first printed in Alpha, last seen in Magic 2013.

Functional reprints

 * <c>Aven Reedstalker</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Nephalia Seakite</c> and <c>Sentinels of Glen Elendra</c>, except for creature types.
 * <c>Aven of Enduring Hope</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Angel of Mercy</c>, except for creature types.
 * <c>Defiant Khenra</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Falkenrath Reaver</c>, except for creature types.
 * <c>Harrier Naga</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Nessian Courser</c> and <c>Centaur Courser</c>, except for creature types.
 * <c>Survivors' Encampment</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Holdout Settlement</c>, except for land types.

Preconstructed decks
Hour of Devastation has two planeswalker decks:

Notable cards

 * <c>Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh</c> is a four-loyalty-ability planeswalker. It was printed eight years after the first planeswalker card for Nicol Bolas.
 * <c>God-Pharaoh's Gift</c> is mentioned by <c>Gate to the Afterlife</c>, which was released in Amonkhet before.
 * <c>Crested Sunmare</c> is a Horse Lord.
 * <c>The Scarab God</c> was the premier midrange power card for most of its Standard life span despite being originally overlooked at spoiler season. At a reasonable cost for its' size, the ability to generate a stream of 4/4s was extremely relevant in the creature-dominated Standard season. Additionally, the removal was notoriously weak during this time, making its recursion and reanimation doubly relevant, and its closing power was unmatched, considering the upkeep draining ability.

Banned and Restricted cards

 * <c>Ramunap Ruins</c> is part of the utility Desert cycle, and the only real one to see regular competitive play. With all the top-end power of Red Mythic Rares released in the last year, the free 4-6 damage from the Ruins made it difficult for any deck to stabilize, given how much reach the deck already had in its spells. It was banned alongside <c>Rampaging Ferocidon</c>, and given how the deck was still dominant up until rotation, the concerns were well founded.