#Ahmonkhet

[oni-gary]

Wow I can't believe Ahmonkhet had two snake gods 🐊

[mediocremagicman]

Thursday night draft!

7 person Hour of Devastation draft (2x HOU, 1x AKH)

This R/B deck is one of the most aggressive decks I’ve built in this format. It’s the first 16 land deck I’ve played that has no ramp, although there is some cycling to make up for that. Fast decks with strong synergy like this are my kind of fun. Getting the trigger on Wretched Camel and reanimating it with Claim//Fame is simply exquisite; the satisfaction amplified even more so when you killed it the first time yourself with Lethal Sting. Ultimately the aggressive nature of the deck was it’s own undoing when I drew insufficient lands round 2. Extended breakdown after the jump.

The Draft (Each pick in order from top to bottom, then left to right)

Pack 1 started off with a difficult decision. Hour of Devastation is a powerful card but the pack also contained Burning-Fist Minotaur. Board wipes like the Hour are great when you are behind, decent when you are at parity, and just dead if you ahead. While on the other hand the Minotaur is not as good when you are behind it’s potential to eat larger things than itself is much more valuable in the other scenarios and can still push you back in the right direction from a bad spot. I actually think the Minotaur would have been a better choice but the Hour is a $5 card I think I might want to play in a deck so in the end I went with that. Sometimes you do what you gotta do. The next few decisions went much easier. Ifnir Deadlands is one of the most powerful uncommons in the set. It does only gets smaller things but it is still removal and you can almost never have too much removal. Plus the fact that it is a land means you don’t have to sacrifice playing another card to get it into your deck; it’s total upside. Under that principle I spent the next few picks grabbing things that kill stuff which quickly settled me into black. I was still unsure about red by the time the green desert came. The pack has a few playable green cards but didn’t have anything worth playing in black or red. I’d seen some decent green go by so I took this on the speculation that the if the green continued to flow I could drop red. It was favorable over the other green cards because it synergized with the Deadlands. The decisions started to get quicker and easier at this point as the pack started to thin of good cards. When the Claim//Fame came around I was feeling pretty good about red/black. I was thin on red but I knew if I was getting cut on red from the right then everyone to my left was even less likely to be in red and I could snap up all the red I needed pack 2. 

Pack 2 I started to get fancy. The pack itself contained a Claim//Fame and the Wretched Camel. I felt it was likely the Claim//Fame would wheel given it made it’s way around in the first pack and took the Camel over the other cards as it was a valid target for Claim. Pick 2 I took the only playable card in red or black and pick 3 I was confronted with the same Camel-Claim conundrum as pack 1. I stuck with my logic and took the Camel again. Then came another tricky decision of choosing between a Lethal Sting and the Torment of Scarabs. I ended up with the Torment because while targeted removal is great I already have some decent pieces of it and the Torment has the potential to kill a bunch of creatures or just win the game. Slammed another Deadlands and tried not the drool in excitement. I was disappointed when the first Claim//Fame didn’t wheel but when the second one did I started to feel like the deck was getting really solid. I thought there was a possibility of splashing Striped Riverwinder so I started favoring the blue deserts for the splash mana that also synergizes with the Deadlands.

Pack 3 started off with a pick that had the potential blue splash in mind. Pick 2 I debated with myself for a very long time between Ahn-Crop Crasher and Bone Picker. I went with the Crasher as it’s ability to stop a blocker can end a game on the spot. The Cartouche is not a creature but it is the best common in Amonkhet so I took it over the black Trial that was in the same pack. I can kill something sometimes and that lifelink is just too good at driving your board position up. Final Reward gets rid of anything and is maybe the second best black common. By this point I was really hurting for creatures and was happy to see a creature that trades up followed by more potential reanimation. Wander in Death was a very good pick at this juncture because it allowed me to squeeze the most value out of the few creatures I did have. I started to realize my curve was dropping and was favored the Painful Lesson because when you are aggressive in limited you are likely empty out your hand and suddenly have nothing to do. The next picks I was in creature heaven taking up powerful low cost creatures and even snagging that Bone Picker I’d lamented passing the first time. This final string of creatures really pulled it together. Once the playable cards in the pool were laid out the deck was mostly built. The only cuts I made were the Scrounger of Souls which seemed to expensive compared to the rest of the deck and Vile Manifestation.  While the Manifestation can get big, it won’t quickly which didn’t exactly jive with what the rest of the deck was trying to do.

Round 1 (2-0) I played against a mono white deck. They started off strong getting in with Dauntless Aven but I got a desert just in time and was able to use the Camel into Lethal Sting into Claim//Fame to put a stop to that and empty his hand. I also had the other Camel and due to the small nature of his creatures they were able to trade and they were quickly out of things do it while I continued to play cards. Game 2 looked really bad for me but managed to get lucky with a timely Hour of Devastation while I had creatures left in hand and my opponent had none.

Round 2 (1-2) was against a 4 color good stuff deck. Game 1 I only had 1 mountain which stifled me the whole game. I was unable to play more than one creature a turn. Keeping the creatures in my hand wouldn’t have been so bad if I had not also been unable to cast my Hour of Devastation. Game 2 was stupid close with more close calls that I can remember. I played Torment of Scarabs a few turns late after I missed a couple of land drops but ultimately it got the job done. The final game deciding play was when from and empty hand I top decked Thorned Molock, cast the Fame my opponent forgot was in my graveyard, forced them to block with their one untapped creature to avoid dying and making their swing back less than lethal. Game 3 I drew 4 mountains and had 6 black spells and Hour of Devastation in hand when I died.

Round 3 I got that that bye. I know it’s weird to win a get a bye but we had two people drop which made this the only option. Oh well at least it’s a free win.

[thetunnelingcat]

I went to a sealed PPTQ today at Face To Face games in toronto. Opened a pretty good pool, started off 2-0, was doing pretty good, but then lost 2 rounds in a row, I considered dropping, but I had to be there anyways, so stayed in for the last 2 rounds. I ended up actually winning those last 2 rounds, and barely scraped into top 8 on tiebreakers. In the top 8 draft, I first picked an insult to injury, was passed a Naheb , and second picked that, basically locking myself into RB, ended up also picking up a liliana's mastery, a cut to ribbons, a bontu, and a second Naheb. Won quarters, won semis, and on the last draw step of game 3 in the finals, I top deck Insult to Injury and win the event. This was my first sealed PPTQ, first time winning a PPTQ. Was a long day, but I'm happy with how I did, definately got lucky more thab once today.

[baldore-of-the-boros]

No Story Doodle This Week

Unfortunately, no story doodle this week. (Though, I do plan to do one once I have time.) BUT, all is not lost!I still did an art thing!

Behold, @hirfael’s Reiri on Amonkeht!!

(Yes, I did reuse my Amonkeht speed draw as the background)

[samaniblog]

So my Open house day was good to me :D

[mishras-mistakes]

Confirm Chandra as bi you tepid cowards, you fools

[gaygatsbyy]

I didn't give Ahmonket enough credit. I thought it was over hyped, and there is so many cards I'm looking forward to testing with and I'm actually hyped. Harsh Mentor is absurd in almost every format that I can think of.

[spyrechild]

Please tell me I am not the only one that see’s the connection between he three missing gods of Ahmonket and the three eldrazi titans. Twisted by Bolas and cast adrift from there home, cursed to wander the blind eternities, consumed by an insatiable hunger.

What if the planes consumed by the eldrazi are recycled in such a way that Bolas ends up receiving all the mana.

[kiddblack]

I gotta say, as a twice ex-YGO player It always weirds me out to not see bans on the top decks of the meta. Konami was vehement over it’s bannings, albeit to sell new packs. Some were necessary of course, as it often lead to degenerative play (FTK DragonExodia, anyone? That took four years to ban)

But I was much deeper into the YGO scene than I have ever been since I picked Magic up. And while never having the deep pockets to be a “““good player”““ (Seriously Tier 1 decks would put Modern and legacy to shame) I had a firm grasp of the company’s workings and the state of the game. Infinite combos will always be degenerative no matter the game. Leaving it up and running in a format that WOTC is pushing hard for attendance gives me war flashbacks to what basically kicked me out of MTG back in my first run of it: CAWBlade.

Now, CAWBlade wasn’t as one-two punch like Copycat and obviously needed a good pilot to get it running and make good shots called (shotcalls?), but the deck was still overwhelming to anyone who couldn’t afford the deck. Mardu vehicles is also ever imposing, Heart of Kiran a major asset that makes the banning of Copter almost negligible. But from what I’ve seen overall, it has clear weaknesses, and needs a good pilot as well.

I’m a nobody, so my opinions don’t mean much, but I’d love to hear other insight into the state of standard. My fear is that the new cards in Ahmonket will not be enough to dethrone the Cat, possibly even strengthen it. That being said I never cared for Legacy too much to bother worrying over it’s bans and decks, and a Vintage deck cost more than both my car and my partner’s car combined, so I’m not phased by it’s list either. Will Copycat maintain it’s commanding lead of the meta through Ahmonket, and if so, will WOTC have the wherewithal to act in the better interest of the format that sells packs? Only time will tell.

[coolflashyname]

I didn’t think it was real when I saw it a few years back but I guess this Ahmonkeht Masterpiece was legit. Can’t wait to see what else they print.

[catherine-is-a-lemon]

Amonkhet standard is looking great

[aureliathememeleader]

Ahmonkhet is my favourite set

[markrosewater]

Will we see what happened to Ahmonkhet after Nicol Bolas and the gods all left?

If we ever return to Amonkhet we will.

[butttaco7]

How far is too far to traumatize your players?

I’m currently running my players through hell (literally) as a lead up to the finale. It’s mostly just been boss fight versions of the characters that died or got abandoned along the way, and everyone seems to be enjoying it. However, one player actually gave me a decent hunk of backstory and stuck with the same character throughout, and I want their experience to be a pinch more character-driven.

Those of you familiar with magic lore might know of Ahmonkhets Trail of Ambition? If you don’t, Ahmonkhet is a plane where five gods, each representing an ideal, put their people through a series of rigorous tests as the worlds coming of age process. Ambition is an extremely deadly gauntlet of challenges, meant to kill off as many participants as possible, and you’re meant to push others down to make your way to the end. At the end, edh survivor must claim the heart of another and present it to the god to pass.

The character in question had a twin sister, and they were tight as hell, agreed that they’d work through the trials together, helping cover each other’s weaknesses. They make their way through the other trials with spectacular teamwork, but the twin died during ambition, caused by the players character getting too cocky and rushing into something. That’s the barebones of what the player gave me. Would it be too much to have the twin have waited until the end, then attempted to kill the players character to complete the challenge, with a twisted sense of “we’re doing what we said, finishing it together”, and the player killing their twin out of self defense and repressing the memory, or is that both too edgy and overriding the players input on their backstory?

[bontu-the-fabulous-side]

Mars the Maw

(The image in the middle doesn’t belong to me, the artist is Quihnn, and I merely thought the image was the closest reference to my character. I don’t have an official ref) Basically, Mars is a Crocolisk, an Ahmonket born race that feel like they’re blessed by Bontu. She’s a fighter at heart, and she restores her own strength by consuming those she kills. She’s Green Black, with a focus on gaining life and destroying creatures and graveyards. 

Personality; Confident, ambitious, surprisingly kind

Backstory under the cut! Please give it a read and let me know what you think of her!

Mars the Maw, or her real name, Mars Teufel was born on Ahmonkhet. She is a Crocolisk, a race of humanoid crocodiles believed to have been blessed by Bontu herself for their appearance. They generally live outside of towns and cities, and are a relatively small race of people and were constantly at war with one another, due to disagreements over which clan represented Bontu the most. (Yes, I made them up, vorthos please don’t kill me) Mars Teufel grew up as the daughter of the strongest warrior of her clan, called the Valiant, spending her days training to be as strong as her parents. With practice, she eventually took over as the leader of the fighters, and the clan grew in power as the merciless warrior fought. 

Though Mars was a warrior, she was a kind individual. She enjoyed her life and it made her soft, even though she was a warrior at heart. She loved her mate, and expressed respect to those she fought. Ferocious on the battlefield, but more like a good friend to everyone else in the town. 

Her personal battalion was only a mere 10 warriors, but each and every one of her fighters were masterful in their own craft. Mars lead them into battle day after day with brilliant success, and she grew to be famous in her tribe. She returned at night to her favorite thing- A warm bed, her mate, and a plate of pastries bought from the nearest town. She had quite the sweet tooth, and she craved something sweet at nearly all times. It was hard to find her around the village without some of the food nearby.

However, for how powerful she thought their clan was, there was another clan that rivaled them. The clan was infamous, and those who battled them were never even buried. After swords and fangs had met each other, the clan would take the bodies for a feast. The grotesque action was frowned upon by Crocolisks, but the clan didn’t care in the slightest- They wanted food and glory. They were called the Hunger.

On the break of down, the Valiant clan was attacked. Many perished before they were even able to reach their weapons, but Mars fought back. She held them back without her weapon, using only her tough skin and her rugged fangs. It was a losing battle, and Mars was beaten to her knees. She watched as her clan was torn to shreds by her enemies, tears streaming down her face as she watched her mate get slaughtered. As the lead warrior, she was forced to watch-- Some of the first tears she’d ever produced started to stream down her face.  Something changed in Mars.

With a roar, she felt her very soul surge with a defiance against those around her, as her inner planeswalker spark was unleashed. An aura of malice and vengeance surrounded her, as the Hunger’s warriors were suddenly unable to stop her rage. She didn’t need a weapon. With her claws she tore them apart, before tearing them apart with her fangs. As the numbers dwindled, she wanted them to see the pain she experienced... And she began consuming those she fell. Others watched as their army was consumed, and eventually, the battlefield was empty. She felt... Powerful. By consuming, she was gaining more life for herself. 

But she was alone. All alone. Her friends and family were on the ground, motionless, and she gave all of them a proper burial. It took weeks to bury every body in the village... With the last body buried, Mars sat in her empty room, and ate her last, old sweet. She didn’t understand what was happening- She was consumed by grief. She was disgusted by herself... But she recognized the power of what she obtained.  The only survivors on that day called her the Maw. After a while, she had seemed to vanish from Ahmonkhet completely. Though... Every so often, a few pastries went missing from the nearby town. 

[mishras-mistakes]

Also, just to make it clear where I stand here, I think worlds like Kaladesh and Ahmonkhet That don’t functionally exist beyond a single city Are lazy wordlbuilding and boring design. Dominaria is special because it actually had multiple nations, which allows for more interesting politics and cultures, not to mention the possibility of a story existing beyond what we’ve seen in the set.