How to Win Your Hour of Devastation Prerelease

The Hour of Devastation is upon us and Nicol Bolas is wreaking havoc on Amonkhet in some truly glorious ways. The final three gods have emerged and, just as Bolas planned long ago, they have torn down the Hekma barrier holding back the desert and the horrors it hides. Truly this set has upended the peaceful, if death-centric, community of Amonkhet. What this means for us Magic players is that we got a bunch of sweet new cards, many of which focus on destruction or removal. Our first taste of this set will come between July 8th and 9th and I'm hoping to win at least one of the prereleases that I attend. Here are some of my initial impressions of the strongest cards and archetypes and some strategies that I will be using going into the prerelease. Thanks for reading and please enjoy!

1. Gods Are Insane, Gods' 'Last' Cycle is Mixed, Hour Cycle is Goodd

First off, if you open one of the new gods from Hour of Devastation, you should pretty much force whatever colors it happens to be in. The fact that these monsters have no drawback when it comes to attacking or blocking elevates them far past the initial Amonkhet gods in Limited play. They're beefy, their abilities are game winning, and they don't die. Honestly, I'm not sure how anyone beats any of them if a player is allowed to untap with them. 

As for the 'Last' Cycle, I think they range from excellent to down right unplayable. Oketra's Last Mercy has a best case scenario of gaining you 19 life at the cost of not untapping your lands during your next turn. Honestly, that's not good enough for a mainboard effect. Perhaps slotting it in against a hyper aggro deck just to make it to late game may be the correct play but it still doesn't feel that good. 

Kefnet's Last Word, on the other hand, seems excellent, even with the drawback. Stealing your opponent's best creature on the battlefield is immediately a two for one, with you gaining a great creature and them losing one. They can't even destroy the enchantment like Control Magic and get it back. The downside is real with lands not untapping but if stealing a creature doesn't net you at least a turn then you were probably already dead. 

Bontu's Last Reckoning is a powerful effect to be certain and wraths in limited are generally excellent provided you can set them up. The downside of not untapping is less of a debilitating effect as Bontu's Last Reckoning only costs 3 allowing you to sandbag a two-drop and cast this on turn 5 with at least another card to play. I pretty sure that this always makes the cut in every black deck. 

Moving way back down the list, we come to easily the worst of the cycle with Hazoret's Undying Fury. Cast two and half cards (based on land count) that must cost less than five for 12 mana (since your mana doesn't untap) is simply a terrible deal. I can't imagine a world where I'm okay putting this in a limited deck. Avoid at all costs. 

Finally, we reach the swingy-est of the group with Rhonas's Last Stand. First off, making a 5/4 on turn two is absurd. If an opponent doesn't have a fast removal spell and you were on the play, this basically wins the game on the spot. However, if you cast this on turn two and they immediatly Unsummon it, you're in deep trouble as you will probably be unable to play another spell on the third turn of the game. I think it's worth the risk to run this but make sure to adjust based on your opponents play style. 

For the Hour cycle, let me rapid-fire my impressions: Hour of Revelation works in hard control but not outside of it; Hour of Eternity works with grindy decks especially with relevant ETB effects but, again, not unless it's a deliberately slow deck; Hour of Glory is great in every deck ever; Hour of Devastation is a monster-bomb that should be built around and will win almost every game that it's cast in; and Hour of Promise is only good in a ramp deck but great in a deck with 5+ deserts. Boom. Rapid fire impressions completed.

2. Eternalize Makes Any Creature Playable But Cycling Doesn't...

That's right folks, if the creature has the keyword 'Eternalize' on it, then you should be playing it unless it completely clashes with some sort of synergy deck like zombies or cycling. Seriously, there's not one eternalize creature that I would actively take out of my deck. A 4/4 body is highly relevant in the format with many creatures just getting completely stonewalled by it. What about the 1/1 for one man, you ask? I repeat, every one of the eternalize creatures should be played. Chumping an attack for a turn and then getting a 4/4 for six mana later in the game is absolutely worth a card provided you don't have a flatly better card to put in it's place.

However, a lesson learned from Amonkhet is that not every creature with cycling is worth playing just because it cycles. Obviously, if you're building a dedicated cycling deck, that is different but if you're not, you shouldn't be putting creatures like Lurching Rotbeast or Granitic Titan into your deck unless you need the actual filler. This a lesson hard learned from Amonkhet considering how good it feels to cycle but, as an example, Desert Ceradon more often than not simply didn't do enough when it was played to consider it a worthwhile investment. Cylcling is a valuable ability but it doesn't magically turn trash into treasure. If a creature is bad, then it's still bad with Cycling, it just lets you draw a card instead of playing a bad creature.

3. Hour of Devastation Will Be Slower Than Amonkhet

There are three factors that will contribute to Hour of Devastation considerably slowing down the limited metagame. The first of which is the widespread removal found within Hour of Devastation. From temporary tempo plays like Unsummon to hard removal like Torment of Venom, people are going to be killing, exiling, bouncing and tapping a bunch of creatures in Hour of Devastion. Add the fact that there are three different board wipes at rare and you're going to see a lot of death in this set. 

Secondly, the aggressive creatures in Hour of Devastation aren't as powerful as those in Amonkhet. Gust Walker single-handedly won thousands of games of limited in Amonkhet, being able to use early evasion to quickly knock down life totals. However, the aggressive decks really aren't getting many aggressive creatures at common that are on par with the Gust Walkers and Nef-Crop Entanglers of Amonkhet. The only solid pick ups really are Oketra's Avenger and Vizier of the True. However, with the new Afflict mechanic, blocking still doesn't feel great so don't think that piling in Ancient Crabs will be a recipe for success.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the creatures for the non-aggressive decks have gotten so much better. There is a two-mana Deathtouch rat, a number of early, creatures with lifelink or lifegain built in, and a whole smorgasbord of value creatures entering the fray. The Harrier Naga, the Feral Prowler, the Wretched Camel, and even the Proven Combatant are all creatures that will provide additional value at common. 

4. Desert Synergies are Good in ANY Deck

You don't need a dedicated Desert deck to play deserts and get value. Creatures like the Sand Strangler and Ranumap Hydra encourage you to play deserts and you should since, much of the time. They will not be a true hinderance on your mana base to begin with. There are two cycles of colored deserts and they are all good enough to main deck even you only have a borderline synergy with them. Don't be afraid to slide a few into your deck even if the card that you're trying to get value with is not the best card in the world. A Solitary Camel is a perfectly good enough reason to stuff two or three Deserts into your deck. 

Furthermore, it doesn't appear to me that there is or should be a dedicated Desert deck. I don't believe that, in Sealed or Draft, you should try and make a 'Desert matters' deck. They appear to simply be supplementary to the main design of each colors usual game plan. Forcing an archetype is something we all do sometimes but there isn't enough support for a full deck with this particular game plan. 

5. Bombs Win Games... But Support Cards Win More Sealed Games

Opening a Glorybringer in Sealed is fairly large sign that you should try and play red. But if the only other red cards you have are a pair of Tormented Voices and a Hyena Pack, then, no matter how good Glorybringer is, you shouldn't be playing red. Reliably casting spells on curve is far more valuable than destroying your mana base or playing numerous sub-par cards just to occasionally cast a great rare. For starters, sometimes your bomb rare just gets killed or countered, in which case, you basically just lost the game because you were relying too heavily on that card. If you want to win, inspect your cards, create a reliable curve out of two colors with at least a couple of ways to win the game and then optimize from there. Do not try and force a color that makes you play a bunch of worse cards, no matter how good your rares are. More often than not, your on-curve Colossapede will win as many games as the janky, forced Glorybringer on turn 10. Your first duty as a Sealed player is to build the best deck you can with the cards you opened. 

6. Here Are a Bunch  of Trap Cards to Avoid

Razaketh, the Foulblooded costs 8 mana. That's too much, particularly for an ability that requires you to have other creatures to sacrifice. Sure, this guys a beast all on his own but for eight mana, he'll need to survive until you untap for you to enjoy his power. Perhaps in a dedicated ramp deck with another, better finisher (Sandwurm Convergence) then you can fit this guy in but otherwise, avoid it.

Overwhelming Splendor, again, costs 8 mana and doesn't instantly win you the game. In fact, if you cast Overwhelming Splendor against an aggressive deck, you're probably just going to die to beats from 1/1s. There's truly no reason that this should see play in limited.

Imminent Doom has a powerful effect. Popping something for whatever mana you used to cast that something is great. However, the sheer number of 1 mana cards that you need to be playing to even get it going is completely ridiculous, especially if your holding them back and not casting spells so you can trigger this. The card doesn't lie though because your doom will be imminent if you cast it.

Torment of Hailfire is such a cool card. The art is incredible, the effect stacks and if you cast it for ten mana, you'll probably win on the spot. Regardless, this is a punisher effect and those effects are never good enough since your opponent will always pick the least damaging mode for them and move on.

Fraying Sanity is the latest attempt to appease the Johnny mill deck player and I guarantee that a few of you out there really want to make this work. All I'll say is... don't...

7. Here Are a Bunch of Hidden Gems That Are Secretly Limited All-Stars

Imaginary Threats is a really, really serious threat. Forcing an entire team to attack, letting you pick off the smaller creatures while tapping everything down for a massive counter attack the next turn. Considering the slightly aggressive tilt to the blue cards in Hour of Devastation, this is going to end a lot of games.

Unconventional Tactics gives the zombie deck exactly what it needs: game-ending card advantage. Late game, this turns every zombie draw into, at minimum, a 5 point swing in the air which is a huge tempo swing. If you're planning on having six or more zombies in your deck, then this should be an auto-include. Don't be fooled by sorcery speed, you're not trying to ambush creatures in the zombies deck, you're trying to push through the final points of damage.

Hopefully, its pretty obvious that Sand Strangler is incredible. Reminiscent of Flametongue Kavu, it's going to be easy to get enough deserts to trigger this ability. Seriously, find a way to play this card, it's amazing.

Overcome is going to win a lot of games by itself. I mean I'm not breaking any new ground by saying that Overrun is one of the most powerful limited cards of all time and Overcome is really close to its power level. It doesn't matter if you only have two or three creatures on the board when it's cast, it forces your opponent into the uncomfortable position of making a bunch of chump blocks and you're still going to nug them for a bunch.

Dagger of the Worthy is basically Bonesplitter. Okay, maybe not, but it's still powerful and worth running if you need to put some pants on some smaller creatures. It feels like it originally read 'Afflict 2' but that was considered too powerful so it was taken down a notch. Getting in one damage no matter what is something but only play this if your interested in the power boost.

8. Wrapping Up and Explaining How Exactly to Win

Let's end this by throwing out a gauntlet of dos and don'ts when you're deck building this weekend.

Do: Always identify which cards will be winning you the game. It's great to have a bunch of removal and low-curve value creatures but what's going to reduce your opponent's life total to 0? This can range from obvious bombs such as one of the gods to something like Trial of Solidarity or Overcome. Just know what the gameplan is going in.

Don't: Don't force a color that you don't have the support in. If you open a sick bomb rare but don't have the support to either splash for it or enough playables in it's colors then, sad as it is, you're going to have move on.

Do: Play removal. Killing things in Sealed is super important. From fighting to bouncing to exiling to destroying to tapping to stealing, figure out how you're going to stop your opponent's best creatures.

Don't: Rush. Take your time. Examine the battlefield before passing priority. Check your graveyard for aftermath and eternalize cards. Then check your opponents. While most people playing at a prerelease will generally be loose, you may run into that douche who thinks he's God's gift to Magic and will call you on going back on a step. Take your time and don't let give them the chance.

Do: Use your sideboard! Did you see a sick enchantment that slaughtered you in Game 1. Check your sideboard for an answer. Did your opponent pump out a bunch of tokens with Oketra's Monument? Slot in a Blazing Volley and Dissenter's Deliverance. 

Finally, it's important to note that, while Magic has a lot of skill involved, sometimes you're just not going to open a strong bunch of cards and you're going to lose to someone who did. That's okay. Sometimes, you're going to draw ten lands and five spells and flood out of a game. That's okay. Don't forget that you're playing a card game for FUN. Don't psyche yourself out about it and don't let anyone else do it either. Sure, I like winning just as much as the next guy but at the end of the day, it's just a card game. 

Thanks for Reading and Good Luck!