Amonkhet Block 2017 - Nicol Bolas Confirmed
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Aug. 31, 2016, 11:04 a.m. by OmegaAura113
So yeah, and Egyptian mythology-based plane's now a thing, and supposedly ruled by Nicol Bolas himself. Apparently the denizens fight for glory for their own afterlives, which leads to set two of the block - Hour of Devastation.
Full spoiler link here:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/announcement-day-2016-08-31
This leads me to some speculation, which I had posted about several months ago, in which the Theros God Heliod was really a planeswalker/human appointed to his status by Bolas. Apparently, there are five main gods on Amonkhet as well, and if Nicol Bolas controls them...well, then the gods are just manifestations of his power in a sense. This also leads me to believe that a return to Theros may occur after Amonkhet is finished, since we have a chance to both find out what really happened with the Gods of Theros and resolve Gideon's own backstory.
00xtremeninja says... #5
Camel tribal!!!!!!!!
actually, mummies could be a fun addition to zombies if done right
August 31, 2016 11:41 a.m.
This is gonna be amazing. Unfortunately Nicol Bolas will be some nerfed, diluted bitch.
August 31, 2016 11:50 a.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #8
After reading that article sounds like were getting reprints of Snappy, Lilly, & Abrupt Decay.
August 31, 2016 11:50 a.m.
EpicFreddi says... #9
Finally Lilly. I got my legacy jund deck ready, I'm only missing lilly.
August 31, 2016 11:54 a.m.
APPLE01DOJ That's exactly what I took away from that too. It makes sense.
August 31, 2016 11:56 a.m.
snappy, lili, decay, and goyf is what people want.
they also promised a damnation reprint ages ago that didnt appear.
in not featuring threads until cards are spoiled.
August 31, 2016 12:01 p.m.
MADMatt7777 says... #13
EpicFreddi we wont see shock lands in MM3 because they take up too many slots in the rare level.
August 31, 2016 12:01 p.m.
I swear to every magic God and Eldrazi out there, if Wizards use Nicol Bolas as one of the planeswalkers in the planeswalker decks...
August 31, 2016 12:14 p.m.
DarkLaw, I bet so. For example: there are 2 walkers confirmed in Kaladesh, and there are also PW decks per large set....
August 31, 2016 12:34 p.m.
I rescend my above comment. There are now 3 confirmed walkers in Kaladesh!
August 31, 2016 12:45 p.m. Edited.
DarksteelBadger says... #18
The Plane of Amonkhet seems to be strongly influenced by the planet/book Dune and Ancient Egypt. Also, in the set summary for the second set in the block it mentions an Endgame... any ideas what that is?
August 31, 2016 2:53 p.m.
00xtremeninja says... #19
Endgame...........Enders Game.............next set will be in space?
August 31, 2016 3:13 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #21
Wow, there finally will be an ancient Egypt-themed set! Many players have been waiting years for this, and the fact that Nicol Bolas is returning to the story is also very awesome; I am very excited! I now believe that it is safe to presume that there shall eventually be a Norse mythology-themed block, in the future, as well.
I hope that WotC does not kill off Bolas in this block, as he is an excellent antagonist, and I also shall speculate that one of Liliana's demons shall be on this plane, since the demon had a vaguely pharaoh-like appearance, and this plane is modeled after ancient Egypt.
I hope that the gods of this plane are different mechanically from the gods of Theros, to make them more unique and distinct, and, since Theros had both mono-colored gods and two-colored gods, I hope that the gods of Amonkhet are tri-colored (either the shards or wedges).
It is too early for any further speculation, but I am very excited about this block, and will be very eager for any further information about it.
August 31, 2016 3:35 p.m.
OmegaAura113 says... #22
It makes sense that one of Liliana's demons would be in one of the coming sets, especially one Bolas has influence on, being he introduced her to them in the first place
August 31, 2016 5:25 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #23
Since the second set of this block is named Hour of Devastation, is it safe to presume that the story shall not have a happy ending?
August 31, 2016 6:03 p.m.
DemonDragonJ
Yeah, hopefully Bolas dissembowels the whole gatewatch.
August 31, 2016 6:18 p.m. Edited.
I'll say this now. Bolas back? I'm hyped. He's one of my favorite characters in the game.
August 31, 2016 6:19 p.m.
Please, Wizards, don't hand Bolas another BS loss like in Alara or FRF. They don't make any sense.
September 1, 2016 2:37 a.m.
Nicol Bolas, a giant golden dragon, rules over an Egyptian-themed plane... guys, Nicol Bolas is the Winged Dragon of Ra! (sorry, not sorry for the Yu-Gi-Oh reference)
September 1, 2016 3:29 a.m.
Sweet! An Egyptian block ruled by The Mega Ultra Chicken...wait, I mean The Winged Dragon of Ra...WAIT! I clearly meant Bolas.
Oh, and look at the artwork. The HORNS! They're EVERYWHERE! Cannot Unsee!
September 1, 2016 10:03 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #30
Given that the ancient Egyptians placed a great emphasis on death and the afterlife, I shall predict that this block shall have a large focus on cards that have effects that trigger when creatures die and using the graveyard as a resource.
September 1, 2016 2:38 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #31
I am very displeased with how it seems that more members of the Gatewatch beyond Chandra shall be involved in the story of the Kaladesh block, so I really hope that either none or only one of them appear in this block, although, given that more than one of them are involved in the Kaladesh block, I worry that multiple members shall be involved in the Amonkhet block, as well.
September 1, 2016 3:46 p.m.
Punderstorm says... #32
Well the reason they made the Jacetice League was to create a story centered around a main cast of characters in addition to juggling the usual important people on the plane. I'm not a fan of it either. It seems childish to mensure. Especially since none of the members of the gateway are relatable enough to resonate with the players.
September 1, 2016 4:27 p.m.
OmegaAura113 says... #33
I do feel like there's going to be a new Oath in Kaladesh though, and right now I'm definitely thinking it may be Saheeli - but more likely than not it'll be in the second set of the block, and only after the whole "Aether Revolt" thing succeeds/is recognized and solved.
September 1, 2016 6:06 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #34
MADMatt7777: what is wrong with that? The lands cannot be decreased to uncommon, and there is no way to know when there shall be another set in which to print them (although I myself would like to hope that they might appear in either Kaladesh or Amonkhet).
September 2, 2016 10:02 a.m.
bennybubbles says... #35
While I agree that having a full Jacetice League team up every block is a bad thing, I fully support the decision to focus on a central cast of characters. The ends of blocks would always pissed me off because all the characters that I had become emotionally invested in were suddenly on the other side of the multiverse. That kind of 'anthology' story might sit well with others, but I never enjoyed it. I want to see characters grow and develop over long periods of time through a continued story, producing much more depth to their character than the old story model. Most of the complaints I have heard about Jace, for example, is that he doesn't have enough depth to him and often shows up in a Deus ex machina type ending. This new form of storytelling fixes the depth issue as I said above because it lets us see more of the characters than we used to. I know there are lots of people who would disagree with this, but according to WOTC's market research the story awareness is more than its ever been. Everyone that I know personally that plays magic likes the new story better, and I agree. There are more than just the people on the forums, and forums are usually biased towards a particular kind of player (I see more spikes here than anything else).
Now to the actual topic of this post. I'm super excited for Nicol Bolas, he will probably become a long term foe of the Gideon's Regulars, which is a great thing. As other people have mentioned, Liliana will probably go after Belzenlok, who is probably some kind of lord on Amonkhet (great name too). I doubt Chandra or Nissa will make appearances, due to Chandra having some fallout from Aether Revolt and Nissa because she can't stant Lili. I could see Jace possibly showing up, but I think Gideon is more likely. It's clear he doesn't trust Lili, having spies follow her on Ravnica and since most spies can't planeswalk, he will probably go there to keep an eye on her.
As for Gods, I am torn. Part of me wants the gods to be similar to the Theros ones because of shared domains (Sun, Death, Wisdom, Afterlife etc) with some new ones added in the mix (Magic, Purification, Love, Earth, Justice, Funerals). For me the overlap between some Gods of Theros and Amonkhet is fine because of flavour, though I understand that some people would be opposed to having two white Gods of the sun, but not me. I would not however be opposed to having Gods with similar domains with different colours (Ra being red because of his connection to creation as well as the sun). The other side of me thinks that it would be cool to have three coloured gods, but I feel like that would fit better in a shard or wedge based world because of deck archetypes. Overall I am leaning more towards 5 main monocoloured gods, even though there would be some flavour (though probably not mechanical) overlap between them.
In terms of mechanics I am hoping for: graveyard and death related effects, mummies and pharaohs (or both at the same time, Vengeful Pharaoh), the return of devotion (though I doubt it because WOTC would want to keep similarities with Theros low) and all of the animals and paraphernalia the have become synonymous with Ancient Egypt (jackals, cats, scorpions, falcons and of course, SCARABS)
Sorry for the huge post Show
September 2, 2016 7:55 p.m.
I am FULLY convinced that ENEMY FETCHLANDS will be reprinted during April in the Amonkhet set. Here is my reasoning
Both Tarkir and Amonkhet are desert planes.
Tarkir is home to Ugin while Amonkhet is home to his archenemy, Nicol Bolas.
With the other half of the tango-land cycle being reprinted in Kaladesh, it is almost a given that they will get the support they need through the fetchlands.
Thoughts?
September 4, 2016 12:34 a.m. Edited.
WOTC has said that they made a mistake with having fetch lands and tango lands in standard at the same time. It made 4 and 5 color decks too powerful and consistent. I don't think they'll be doing anything like that any time soon.
Where has it been said that the enemy tango lands are coming out in Kaladesh? The lands spoiled don't have the basic land types.
September 4, 2016 1 a.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #38
Yeah, no way we see fetches, shocks or battle-lands in here.
EpicFreddi says... #2
Usually gods are not born in the universe they rule, so this would make sense when it comes to the Theros-Gods.
I wonder how strong/weak Nicol Bolas is at the moment. Havent heard anything in years from him.
August 31, 2016 11:21 a.m.