Abandoned Sarcophagus
I love the look and feel of this card. It's flavourful, cheap (ish) and has a lot of potential. Abandoned Sarcophagus is a build around me through and through and if you can snap this up in limited and grab all the Cycling cards you can, you could get so much value out of it being able to turn all of you spells into card draw in addition to what they normally do. I am excited to try this in constructed but you do have to be a little careful not to throw away any spells you may need in the moment and lose them forever. It's just so much value to pass up in my opinion to not at least try it out.
Crook Of Condemnation
First things first, Relic Of Progenitus has nothing to worry about in modern as it's cheaper and it gives you a card, it does give your opponent the choice of what card gets exiled but it's a small price to pay. Crook Of Condemnation plays really well in limited against all the Embalm and Eternalise creatures so your opponent doesn't get the extra value out of them, it could backfire a little with the second ability but hopefully you can play around your own card well enough for that to be negligible. Constructed might like this card but as it stands, not many decks really rely on their graveyards, with the exception of Zombies, so I think it will sit in sideboards.
Dagger Of The Worthy
Equipment are good in limited and I think the Afflict will be great in limited as well. Two mana isn't much to cast and t is colourless meaning you'll probably play it in all of your decks, and only two to equip isn't asking for much either when it's giving you +2/+0 and Afflict.
God-Pharaoh's Gift
Gate To The Afterlife gave us a glimpse of a card from Hour Of Devastation and here it is, and it's very powerful. Both cards work nice in tandem, not only because On allows you find the other and put it into play but because you have to have at least six creature cards in your graveyard to activate Gate To The Afterlife and thus giving God-Pharoah's Gift a lot of gas to work with. The best part about God-Pharaoh's Gift is that it gives the creature token Haste, adding more things for your opponent to worry about, and makes it a base 4/4, sometimes you might trade down with the original creature but most of the time it will be adding so much value to them. It plays well in limited because it's more aggressive so you're more likely to be playing more creatures, and it's a bit too much for constructed.
Graven Abomination
An aggressive, but fragile, creature that can deal very nicely with any graveyard shenanigans your opponents might have. It will die but could trade up and you'll play it in every limited deck as it's colourless.
Hollow One
Hollow One is a good creature to pair with Abandoned Sarcophagus because it becomes cheaper for each card you Cycle, so you can have a free creature and then you can play the Cycles cards again for extra value. Other than that it plays well in limited as Cycling is a big part of the limited meta game that having a colourless, possibly free creature, is always good especially when just Cycling one card makes Hollow One a three mana 4/4.
Manalith
It's colourless and it fixes and ramps mana, every deck plays this in limited and no deck play it in constructed. That's about it really.
Mirage Mirror
This is an interesting one, it's colourless and therefore easy to play in any deck and it can become your opponents best threat on the board or an additional copy of a threat you have. In the right deck it could be very good but most of the time I think it's going to be a bit slow in limited and the fact that you have to pay for it every turn won't help.
Sunset Pyramid
Some of the artifacts from Amonkhet and Hour Of Devastation gain brick counters, Sunset Pyramid removes them. Two mana to draw a card is a good trade off and when all of those brick counters have gone you can still pay two mana to Scry 1 which is still very good. It will only see play in limited as it's way too slow for constructed but it could get you some nice card advantage in limited.
Traveler's Amulet
It's back, it fixes mana making it easier to play three or more colours in limited and it's cheap.
Wall Of Forgotten Pharaohs
This is nice little blocker that's great for limited mainly because it's colourless but also because it gets some extra damage in each turn, slowly chipping away. You do have to have a Desert but as we've established, you will probably have one. Worst case scenario, it blocks almost everything and lives.
Visage Of Bolas
Lastly, an Artifact appearing in the Bolas intro deck, one that lets you find Nicol Bolas, The Deceiver and helps you cast it as well. You will have another couple of turns waiting to get to eight mana but in the mean time it will fix your mana nicely.
Onto the lands
Crypt Of The Eternals
Other than the basic lands, this is the only land in Hour Of Devastation that isn't a Desert. What it is is good mana fixing, it does gain you a life and it doesn't come into play tapped meaning you can use it straight away. You'll play this in limited when you're in either at least two of these colours or maybe all three helping you curve out in all your colours nicely.
Desert Of The Fervent, Glorified, Indomitable, Mindful and True
All of these lands make up the cycle of Cycling Deserts in Hour Of Devastation. They all come into play tapped, tap to add a colour and if you don't need them you can pay two to Cycle it. It's going to help massively in limited when you need a Desert in your graveyard to help your other cards with power or effect boosts, but other than that they are useful all the time as they can thin your deck out, possibly giving you better options when you need them. I could see some of these lands making it into constructed but I think right now they might be a bit under powered when compared against both the mana base we currently have and the card draw spells.
Dunes Of The Dead
Dunes Of The Dead is a fine land, it doesn't fix your mana or ramp you, but if you can find a way to destroy it it will give you a 2/2 zombie for your troubles. It will then also give you a Desert in your graveyard which can result in bonuses and additional effects for other cards. You play it in limited especially when you're in one or two colours as it won't hinder you as much.
Endless Sands
Endless Sands is a bit of a weird land, you can use it to protect your creatures, maybe after they've blocked to save yourself some damage, but you then are a creature down and you can only do it once per turn. The good thing is, if you have a lot of enter the battlefield triggers you can get a lot of value out of Endless Sands when you bring them all back. The set up might be a bit too much for constructed and maybe even limited but even exiling two of your creatures with it and bringing them back whenever you want for four mana, you've gotten a nice bit of value out of a land.
Hashep Oasis
I love lands that are also spells and in Hashep Oasis you get a Giant Growth on a stick, granted at three times the cost (four if you include itself) and at the loss of a Desert, but being able to reuse it will be invaluable. It's an on board trick so your opponent has more chance of being able to play around it but it's still a big power/toughness boost that's hard to deal with and could easily give your creature enough power to close out a game. Sacrificing a Desert won't be too hard as you will have a couple in limited and it counts itself so you could always sacrifice it in a pinch.
Hostile Desert
Manlands in the past, and present, have been very good, giving you a creature that hides from removal very well and is always an on board threat turns out to be quite powerful. Now we have Hostile Desert, a colourless 3/4 manland that only takes two mana to activate which sounds insanely good, you do have to exile a land from your graveyard which is the downside, but in limited you're going to have picked up a couple of Cycling lands or maybe even spell lands to fuel Hostile Desert. I could see this being a player in constructed as most of the manlands before have but you do have a couple more hoops to jump through to get your worth out of it.
Ifnir Dreadlands
I think this will be the most played of the spells lands purely because it has a permanent effect on the board. Four mana, five if you include itself, may sound a lot but it reduces an opposing creature's power and toughness by two which is a big deal in combat. It plays fantastically in limited and I think could see some constructed play as well being a good utility land.
Ipnu Rivulet
Unfortunately, in a cycle of these kinds of cards the blue one usually turns out to be the weakest, nothing's changed. It is cheapest to activate which is a plus but milling just isn't always that's good, except when you point it at yourself as opposed to your opponent. If you can abuse your graveyard as a resource then Ipnu Rivulet could be a viable card, being able to fill your graveyard with Embalm, Eternalise, Flashback and so on, I just think it might be a bit weak and there are other cards that do this better.
Ramunap Ruins
Ramunap Ruins is a good land for getting the last couple of points through, it's a lot of mana for two damage but being reusable will make it worth while. I could see it seeing some constructed play as it's direct damage but I think it may cost a little too much, as for limited it's a slam dunk and another problem for your opponent to have to deal with especially in the late game when it becomes a very real threat.
Scavenger Grounds
Thematically, Scavenger Grounds will play well in limited with all the Embalm and Eternalise cards running around but be careful because it does get your graveyard as well. This is a card that will see more play in modern as it just reads "2 mana, sacrifice: Exile Graveyards." which is great against decks like Dredge.
Shefet Dunes
I love this land for limited, it encourages you to go wide instead of tall and play more creatures just making it harder for your opponent to deal with them, and a temporary Anthem effect every turn is brilliant. Again a virtual five mana might be a bit much but even using this once can get you so much value in limited.
Survivor's Encampment
It's Springleaf Drum in land form and will do a lot of work for you in limited when you need to fix your mana. It can even get you to the Aftermath side of a card that you didn't expect to need to play just for a creature. Play this always in limited as even if you don't need the coloured mana it's still a land that comes into play untapped.
And finally,
Woodland Stream and Cinder Barrens
These two lands are going to appear in the intro decks and well give them some good colour fixing as they are both dual lands. They both enter tapped but do give either blue/green or red/black respectively and is just what they need.
So that brings us to the end of our look through all the Hour Of Devastation cards, I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have and we'll be doing it all again soon with the release of Ixalan; Prereleases on the 23rd and 24th of September with the release the following week.
Until then however, keep checking back to Game Changers for more gaming news and updates.
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