Amonkhet Artifacts and Lands

Bontu's Monument

We start out look at the artifacts with one of the Monuments. Each god has a Monument devoted to them and each of the Monuments are legendary and for good reason. They cheapen the cost of creatures that share a colour with that god, so for example; Bontu is black, so black creature spells cost one less to cast, in multiples, having these artifacts not be legendary would be insane as it would give you access to essentially free mana. Aside from that first effect, the Monuments have another effect that triggers whenever you cast a creature spell, in this case draining your opponent for one life. Two things about this ability, one; it's not whenever you cast a black creature spell, just a creature spell in general and this is true for all of the Monuments. Two; the creature spell you cast to trigger it doesn't even have to resolve, just the fact that your paid mana for it will cause Bontu's Monument to drain one life from your opponent. Bontu's Monument is fine in limited, it will keep up the tempo into addition to you making another creature will and, if it's on colour with some of your creatures, you can get a nice mana reduction that essentially brings you a turn ahead. Probably not for constructed but as it's colourless and therefore can be cast in any deck, this is one of the five I would like to try.

Edifice Of Authority

The first card were going to look at involving Brick counters, Edifice Of Authority is great card to have in your slower decks in limited. It can come down on turn three, only takes one mana to activate and it's colourless. Being able to keep just one creature from attacking can extend the game for a long time in limited and, after you've kept a creature at bay three time, you can stop a creature from doing pretty much anything with Edifice Of Authority's second ability. If you could find a way to untap Edifice Of Authority, being able to halt most of your opponents army could be brutal.

Embalmer's Tools

Another artifact that offers a mana reduction, Embalmer's Tools isn't legendary though so you can have multiples in play at once. Obviously, Embalmer's Tools plays really well with Embalm, allowing you to pay less for the Embalm cost and get value out of the zombie token as soon as it comes into play. As for outside of Amonkhet limited though, you can also use Embalmer's Tools for other creatures activate abilities like Dreadwalker and Scrapheap Scrounger, although I don't think Embalmer's Tools will see constructed play, but it could end up in a fringe deck.

Gate To The Afterlife

This artifact isn't as big of a fan of Embalm as Embalmer's Tools, in fact it would prefer you keep your creatures in your graveyard. Each time a non token creature dies, another reason Gate To The Afterlife doesn't like Embalm creatures, you get to gain a life and then have to option of Looting, drawing and then discarding a card. When you have six or more creatures in your graveyard, you can sacrifice Gate To The Afterlife and search for a card that we haven't seen yet called God-Pharoah's Gift and put it onto the battlefield. That to me seems like God-Pharoah's Gift is a permanent, probably enchantment, and the God-Pharoah in question I think is Nicol Bolas. Other than that I have no more speculation on God-Pharoah's Gift, but as for Gate To The Afterlife as a way to gain life and sculpt your hand, it's fine, it's not going to break the limited format and definitely won't see constructed play at least until we know what God-Pharoah's Gift is.

Hazoret's Monument

The red god's Monument allows you to Rummage, which is similar to Looting but instead of drawing and then discarding, you discard first and then draw a card. Hazoret's Monument is alright, I can see arguments for playing it in limited, maybe if you have a lot of Embalm creatures and you don't want them all to clog your hand up, but apart from that I don't think it's going to see much play out of limited.

Honed Khopesh

Simple Equipment; it costs one mana to cast, one mana to equip and gives the equipped creature +1/+1. It's nothing spectacular but it will do work in limited as you will be able to move it from creature to creature to maximise your attack or block.

Kefnet's Monument

Kefnet's Monument is going to be very good on limited as it works nicely on a tempo deck and a slower controlling deck. Being able to tap your opponent biggest creature and not have to worry about it for another couple of turns is good value and can allow you to play multiple guys in a turn to clear the path for an alpha strike. It's a by slow for constructed play though even if it does reduce the cost of your blue creatures.

Luxa River Shrine

More Brock counters. Luxa River Shrine fits into any deck just because every deck likes to gain life, the problem I have with it though is paying one mana to gain one life fine just to get the Brick counters but I would have liked more than two life when you have the three Brick counters on it. Maybe it would have been too powerful if it let you gain three life but two life just doesn't seem like much and especially when you've spent three turns to turn that effect on.

Oketra' Monument

This is the other Monument I would like to see in constructed. I love tokens and token decks tend to create speed bumps for your opponent in constructed because it's a fringe deck that won't have much hate devoted to it. Each creature you play is two creatures and I think that is powerful enough to play but the problem is you usually spend your turn three doing more impactful things. In limited this is obviously great even if your not playing white as you can overwhelm your opponent with a load of small guys and just outnumber their creatures.

Oracle's Vault

Who likes free spells? If you do then this is the artifact for you. For two mana you can exile the top card of you library and play that card until the end of your turn. When you get three Brick counters on Oracle's Vault however, you get to just tap it and play a free spell off the top of your library. I think three turns is a pretty good wait for free spells and if left unchecked, Oracle's Vault can take over a game by giving you so much value and card advantage; if you can somehow look at the top X cards of your library, you could suddenly have flash blockers or end of turn creatures. As it stands, I think constructed has more going on right now with free Ulamogs on turn four which makes Oracle's Vault slow in comparison. Obviously stupid good in limited as you can always play it because it's colourless and just gives you value.


Pyramid Of The Pantheon

Pyramid Of The Pantheon looks pretty powerful, when it has three Brick counters on it, it becomes Gilded Lotus. The route to get to that stage though is awkward, you can play Pyramid Of The Pantheon on turn one and then on turn two, if you want the Brick counter, can still only cast a one mana spell. It kind of sets you back a turn for the near future. However, it does fix your mana and when you get to three Brick counters, hopefully by turn turn four to use on turn five, it puts you really far ahead and will be a significant card if your opponent stumbles on mana at any point. Pyramid Of The Pantheon may see constructed play as it's easier to gear your curve towards it for maximum value, but it would probably be a control deck to make it easier for them to cast all the spells.

Rhonas's Monument

Probably the most aggressive or the Monuments, Rhonas's Monument is the one that you love in limited when you get the aggro deck. If it was just the power/toughness boost it would still be playable but it gives a creature trample as well and all for free. This artifact will do work for you in limited but is too slow for constructed.

Throne Of The God-Pharoah

A legendary artifact that's linked to the God-Pharoah, obviously because in multiples this would just be nuts. Throne Of The God-Pharoah loves creatures attacking and especially the Exert creature, getting almost two guaranteed triggers with one Exerted creature in play. It also works well with creatures with tap activated abilities, if you need to use them in your turn. Dropping Throne Of The God-Pharoah on turn two and then attacking with creatures will very quickly snowball and that's probably what it's going to be played as most in limited, I could see it in constructed, again in a very aggressive deck, but right now I think there are better things you can do.

Watchers Of The Dead

This is a card that is made just in case graveyard strategies, I.e. Embalm, get out of hand in constructed. Other than that it could see play in modern for Dredge or the kind. It's a colourless Grizzly Bear and it comes with an effect, granted it won't be especially good because your opponent gets to choose the cards they keep, but it could still come up.

Lands

Cycling Lands

We'll start with the Cycling lands as even though they will appear in different decks, they all play the same. They all come into play tapped and Cycle for two colourless mana but they are both land types of the colours they produce leading me to think Fetch Lands might come back. These are very versatile in constructed as you can just trade them in when you're getting flooded giving you a small opportunity to draw out of your land abundance. In limited they're good to play almost all the time, they could help your mana and at worst, like in constructed, they just Cycle when you don't need them.

Deserts

Next up are all the Desert cards and, because it didn't show up here, this also lead me to think that actual Desert might show up in Hour Of Devastation. Anyway, all the Desert land cards are type Desert, meaning they can be found why you Cycle Shefnet Monitor and may have some relevance with cards in Hour Of Devastation, and they all add colourless to your mana pool.

Cradle Of The Accursed

Cradle Of The Accursed allows you to pay three mana, tap and sacrifice Cradle Of The Accursed for a 2/2 zombie token. Always good in limited just because it acts as an additional creature whenever you need it. The ability can only be used at sorcery speed though.

Grasping Dunes

Grasping Dunes let's you pay one mana, tap and sacrifice Grasping Dunes to put a -1/-1 counter on target creature, again great in limited to mess with numbers on the opposing side. Only at sorcery speed again.

Painted Bluffs

Painted Bluffs is a good mana fixer for limited as it just filters a mana, meaning for one mana you can tap Painted Bluffs to add one mana of any colour to your mana pool.

Sunscorched Desert

Sunscorched Desert pings your appointed for one. It's probably the weakest of the Cycle but it's still good in limited, and there might be those very rare times your opponent is on one life and it can win you the game.

Evolving Wilds

Standard mana fixer in most sets as a staple. You will probably always play Evolving Wilds in limited all the time just to make sure you don't stumble on your colours and you play it in constructed as it's the only Fetch Land we have at the moment.

Lastly, Cascading Cataracts

This indestructible land has lovely art, very colourful and pristine looking that seems right at home in the Amonkhet environment. The effect is fine, it adds colourless for the early game, but if you need it and can pay the five mana for it in the late game, Cascading Cataracts becomes the best mana fixer you could want in limited. It gives you five coloured mana of any combination, which if you're playing three or more colours can be a life saver for those times you just get the wrongs lands in the wrong order. It does take five mana to get there though so it is still kinda clunky. Constructed probably won't see Cascading Cataracts because you don't need it, you have access to plenty of Dual Lands that are a lot smoother.

So that concludes our look at the Amonkhet cards, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and maybe picked up a few deck ideas for the future. We'll be back taking a look at all the cards in Hour Of Devastation come July but until then, keep checking back to Game Changers for more news and updates.