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

Storyline
Rise Among the Worthy 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.

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</c> and Curator of Mysteries</c>. The bundle now includes a token pack containing 25 double-faced 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. There are 30 Invocation cards appearing with Amonkhet and 24 more cards appear 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</c>
 * Game Day: full-art Trueheart Duelist</c>
 * Game Day (Top 8): full-art Glorybringer</c>
 * Buy-a-Box: Archfiend of Ifnir</c>

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


 * 1)  1/1 Cat with lifelink for Regal Caracal</c>
 * 2)  1/1 Warrior with vigilance for Cartouche of Solidarity</c>, Oketra the True</c>, Oketra's Monument</c>, Start</c>, Supply Caravan</c>
 * 3)  2/2 Drake with flying for Drake Haven</c>
 * 4)  1/1 Insect for Nest of Scarabs</c>
 * 5)  2/2 Zombie for Cradle of the Accursed</c>, Liliana, Death's Majesty</c>, <c>Liliana's Mastery</c>, <c>Doomed Dissenter</c>, <c>Stir the Sands</c>
 * 6)  4/2 Beast for <c>Trial of Strength</c>
 * 7)  3/3 Hippo for <c>Mouth</c>
 * 8)  1/1 Snake with deathtouch for <c>Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons</c>
 * 9)  5/5 Wurm for <c>Sandwurm Convergence</c>
 * 1)  1/1 Cat with lifelink for <c>Regal Caracal</c>
 * 2)  1/1 Warrior with vigilance for <c>Cartouche of Solidarity</c>, <c>Oketra the True</c>, <c>Oketra's Monument</c>, <c>Start</c>, <c>Supply Caravan</c>
 * 3)  2/2 Drake with flying for <c>Drake Haven</c>
 * 4)  1/1 Insect for <c>Nest of Scarabs</c>
 * 5)  2/2 Zombie for <c>Cradle of the Accursed</c>, <c>Liliana, Death's Majesty</c>, <c>Liliana's Mastery</c>, <c>Doomed Dissenter</c>, <c>Stir the Sands</c>
 * 6)  4/2 Beast for <c>Trial of Strength</c>
 * 7)  3/3 Hippo for <c>Mouth</c>
 * 8)  1/1 Snake with deathtouch for <c>Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons</c>
 * 9)  5/5 Wurm for <c>Sandwurm Convergence</c>
 * 1)  1/1 Insect for <c>Nest of Scarabs</c>
 * 2)  2/2 Zombie for <c>Cradle of the Accursed</c>, <c>Liliana, Death's Majesty</c>, <c>Liliana's Mastery</c>, <c>Doomed Dissenter</c>, <c>Stir the Sands</c>
 * 3)  4/2 Beast for <c>Trial of Strength</c>
 * 4)  3/3 Hippo for <c>Mouth</c>
 * 5)  1/1 Snake with deathtouch for <c>Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons</c>
 * 6)  5/5 Wurm for <c>Sandwurm Convergence</c>

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 make the decision 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, <c>Angel of Sanctions</c> is the first zombie angel.
 * Deserts the first cards using the subtype since the original <c>Desert</c> appeared as timeshfted card in Time Spiral.

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

Reprinted cards

 * <c>Ancient Crab</c>, first printed in Oath of the Gatewatch.
 * <c>Aven Mindcensor</c>, first printed in Future Sight.
 * <c>Brute Strength</c>, first printed in Oath of the Gatewatch.
 * <c>Cancel</c>, first printed in Time Spiral, last seen in Khans of Tarkir.
 * <c>Essence Scatter</c>, first printed in Magic 2010, last seen in Magic 2014 and for the first time in an expert-level expansion.
 * <c>Evolving Wilds</c>, first printed in Rise of the Eldrazi, last seen in Commander 2016.
 * <c>Fling</c>, first printed in Stronghold, last seen in Planechase Anthology.
 * <c>Giant Spider</c>, first printed in Alpha, last seen in Magic 2014 and for the first time in an expert-level expansion.
 * <c>Gravedigger</c>, first printed in Portal, last seen in Eternal Masters.
 * <c>Impeccable Timing</c>, first printed in Kaladesh.
 * <c>Mighty Leap</c>, first printed in Magic 2011, last seen in Oath of the Gatewatch.
 * <c>Magma Spray</c>, first printed in Shards of Alara, last seen in Journey into Nyx.
 * <c>Renewed Faith</c>, first printed in Onslaught.
 * <c>Spidery Grasp</c>, first printed in Innistrad.
 * <c>Tormenting Voice</c>, first printed in Khans of Tarkir, last seen in Conspiracy: Take the Crown.
 * <c>Unburden</c>, 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

 * <c>Graceful Cat</c> (Planeswalker Deck) is a functional reprint of <c>Benalish Veteran</c> (except for creature type).
 * <c>Honed Khopesh</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Leonin Scimitar</c>.
 * <c>Hyena Pack</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Highland Giant</c> (except for creature type).
 * <c>Illusory Wrappings</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Reduce in Stature</c>.
 * <c>Nimble-Blade Khenra</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Sanguinary Mage</c> (except for creature type).
 * <c>Painted Bluffs</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Shimmering Grotto</c> / <c>Unknown Shores</c> (with added subtype).

Preconstructed decks
Amonkhet features two planeswalker decks:

Notable cards

 * <c>Approach of the Second Sun</c> is an alternate-win card.
 * <c>Glorious End</c> is an alternate-loss card.
 * Because of the change in Standard rotation, <c>Gideon of the Trials</c> inadvertently became the third Gideon planeswalker card in Standard.
 * <c>Gate to the Afterlife</c> mentions the card <c>God-Pharaoh's Gift</c>, 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.
 * <c>Nissa, Steward of Elements</c> is the first planeswalker card with X in its mana cost.