Magic Untapped takes a look back at Aether Revolt, the first half of the two-set KLD block.
Check it out:
Video Transcript:
On April 28, 2017, the 74th expansion for Magic: The Gathering, the Egyptian-themed Amonkhet, released bringing with it more than 269 cards and continuing the Gatewatch storyline from the previous set, Aether Revolt.
Set on the plane of Amonkhet, the set includes many references to Ancient Egypt including mummies, pyramids, and gods – all with hints of the planeswalker Nicol Bolas somewhere in the background.
<MARO LL AMONKHET, 6:31-7:06 “One of the points…establish that.”>
The idea for a top-down Egyptian-inspired world wasn’t new for Wizards of the Coast. In fact, it dates back to when they were planning for what would wind up becoming the original Kamigawa block.
<MARO AMONKHET 1, 1:22-2:09- “So, Bill Rose…spin to it.”>
We’ll get to the Magic part of it in a bit, but as for what happens in the story of Amonkhet, you’re in luck as we have a summary prepared for you.
<STORY SUMMARY>
Having just left the plane of Kaladesh in search of the mastermind planeswalker, Nicol Bolas, the Gatewatch: Chandra, Gideon, Jace, Liliana, and Nissa, travel to a new plane, Amonkhet. Once there, they’re greeted by a vast, empty desert and a searing windstorm.
Chandra uses her heat magic to melt the sand into a protective glass dome and the group get to work figuring out where they are and what they should do next. After some deliberation, the group notice a large monument of sorts out in the horizon noticeable even through the sandstorm. Once the winds died down, they decided to make their way towards it.
That’s when the dunes around them seemed to come alive.
Dozens of decrepit zombies unburied themselves from the sand. Gideon, Chandra, and Nissa attack these zombies, but it was to little avail as for each one they struck down it seemed like to more would arise. Liliana took this as an opportunity and used her powers of necromancy to take control of as many of the zombies as she could, which was quite the help to the rest of the group.
Things were now going well… that is until Liliana was suddenly swallowed whole by a sand wurm. One of many sand wurms, the remaining Gatewatch members would quickly discover.
Despite Liliana’s apparent death by being eaten alive, the group go into action against the sand wurms with Chandra incinerating one and Jace luring another away by means of an illusion.
As for the wurm that swallowed Liliana, it began to convulse and writhe. It’s chest burst open and out walked a bloodied Liliana, both the Chain Veil and her etched tattoos glowing eerily. She them promptly collapsed onto the sand.
Moments later, the sand wurm rose again. Now zombified thanks to the plane’s “Curse of Wandering,” it once again went in for an attack. The members of the Gatewatch were outmatched.
Just then, a glowing arrow flew in from seemingly out of nowhere, piercing the undead wurm, turning it into ash.
This, of course, gets the attention of the Gatewatch and everyone looks around to see where their supposed savior had come from. What they find are two enormous beings dressed rather ceremonially. They are, as the Gatewatch would find out, two of Amonkhet’s gods – Hazoret and Oketra – and they’ve come to save the day.
They made quick work of the remaining wurms and zombies. Gideon, whom was accustomed to gods being vindictive and superior to mortals from his time growing up on Theros, was amazed.
Now, the members of the Gatewatch were allowed a reprieve, before they continued their trek to the horn-shaped monument in the distance – an obvious sign, the group believes, of Nicol Bolas’ influence.
Once they get there, they find it the most prominent feature of a city there.
The city, known as Naktamun, is protected by a barrier that keeps the outside out and the inside in. Liliana and Jace work together to create a small hole in the barrier to allow the group in. It’s an action that quickly got the attention of a rather annoyed vizier.
Jace, using his telepathic abilities, quickly read the mind of that vizier, then instructed them that they’ve come to see his superior, a man called Temmet.
In his audience, the Gatewatch inquired about the God-Pharaoh, to which Temmet would reply “May his return come quickly,” expecting the response “and may we be found worthy” to come from the Gatewatch members. It was quite plain to the Gatewatch that the people of Naktamun (and perhaps all of Amonkhet) have no clue as to who their God-Pharaoh really is.
Temmet then brought the Gatewatch to his patron, Oketra, thinking she would know how to deal with this strange group of outsiders.
Now in a face-to-face with this god of Amonkhet, Gideon is awe-struck.
Feeling the worship, Oketra calls Gideon to be one of her own – even calling him by his original pre-Planeswalker name, Kytheon Iora.
Afterwards, Oketra permitted the Gatewatch to remain in Naktamun and were even provided with a place to stay while there along with a number of mummy servants.
A little while later, while out in the city, Gideon and Chandra notice a woman running through the street screaming “The gods are a lie! The hours are a lie! Free yourselves! The return will bring only ruin and devastation!”
Chandra, still on a bit of her emotional high from the revolution on Kaladesh, assumed the woman to be a freedom fighter of sorts and wanted to help her in some way. Gideon, reminding the pyromancer that they weren’t on Kaladesh anymore prevented her from acting.
Within moments, the woman was silenced and taken away by viziers. She was labeled a “dissenter” and, thus, is unworthy of living among everyone else.
A little while later, and after a little more digging, the Gatewatch find that Nicol Bolas was not on Amonkhet. He was, however, coming. The group split up, each with different tasks to complete in the meantime.
<NISSA & CHANDRA>
One night, Nissa awoke from a nightmare in which the souls of Amonkhet communed with her. The souls were in pain and expressed guilt and anguish, begging Nissa for help.
She goes on a walk to clear her mind. Chandra, whom was also awake, tagged along to help comfort her close friend. Looking for some answers, the pair venture to the Temple of Rhonas and met with Hapatra, one of Rhonas’ top viziers.
The vizier explained to the pair that the God-Pharaoh was expected to return in mere days, saying that the hours were definite. She then recommended the duo meet with Kefnet, another of Amonkhet’s gods if they seek more information.
After departing from Rhonas’ temple, Chandra pondered what Hapatra said about the hours, recalling the woman she witnessed on the street a day before and how she was yelling that the hours are a lie. The pair think it might be helpful to speak with the woman and Nissa attempts to locate her presence via Amonkhet’s mana leylines and while she wasn’t able to exactly pinpoint her location, she was able to confirm that she was still alive and not too far away from where they were currently.
They walk around to the rear side of the temple and discover an alleyway with a number of out-of-place sarcophagi propped up against the wall, but that wasn’t what ultimately caught the ladies’ eyes – it was the hieroglyphics etched into the wall that depicted a generations of families with the eight animal-headed gods above them.
Wait… eight gods. But they’re only aware of five: Bontu, Hazoret, Kefnet, Oketra, and Rhonas.
Also, the etchings of Bolas’ horns above it all seemed newer. Ancient, still, but less so that the rest of the iconography.
Nissa then has a disturbing revelation: Amonkhet wasn’t created by the God-Pharaoh, Nicol Bolas. Rather, he had taken it over and perverted it to suit his own grand schemes.
With this new realization in mind, Nissa ventered to Kefnet’s temple, leaving Chandra behind at the Gatewatch’s gifted apartment. She strong-armed her way past one of Kefnet’s viziers and entered the temple and unknowingly began the Trial of Knowledge – one of Amonkhet’s five trials employed by the gods to find the most worthy champions amongst the plane’s populace.
All at once, she was surrounded by visions and nightmares. Disoriented at first, she centered herself and allowed herself to simply think logically. Noticing that it’s all nothing but illusions, she breaks through it all. Now understanding, she allows the magical illusions to show her all that it can in a more controlled, focused manner and saw cryptic visions of what might be the story of Amonkhet’s ancient past, including more specific scenes of teams of zombie slaves creating Naktamun’s various grand monuments and structures, a vision of a strange relic that reminded her of the sun overlaid with a tablet of sigils that crumbled into nothing.
She saw a vision of an extinguished torch, a broken clock, a mummy with its head twisted backwards, a tree split in twine, and a shattered shield. She saw the felling of a great dragon, blue, metal-like armies marching through urban streets, and a city gone in but a flash.
The next vision she had was of an angel that told her to take hold of her own destiny, but it was cut short as Kefnet yanked Nissa out of it all. Furious that someone would make such a mockery of his sacred trial by breaking her way through it rather than completing it the way one should, he informed her that he had all of the answers she sought, but wasn’t worthy of any of it.
The god then willed Nissa’s destruction, the elven planeswalker’s own being beginning to dissolve from existence. Desperate as her entire being began to unravel, she tapped into the plane’s leylines – the very same the gods use for their own powers and existence – and slightly tainted the mana that fueled Kefnet’s magic. The god then suddenly stopped unmaking the planeswalker, restoring her and allowing her to leave unaccosted. As far as Kefnet was concerned, Nissa had passed his trial.
<JACE & LILIANA>
While the rest of the Gatewatch was concerned with Nicol Bolas’ return to Amonkhet, Liliana had her own demon to deal with (literally).
Thanks to information gathered while on Kaladesh, she learned that Razaketh, the third of the four demons who held her contract, resides on Amonkhet and she plans to take him out just as she had done with the first two such demons: Griselbrand and Kothophed.
In fact, she had already sent out a few shades into the world to act as scouts of sorts. And one of these shades found something of interest.
With Jace in tow, Liliana was led by the shade to an odd building that was off-limits to Naktamun’s general public. There she noticed Razaketh’s name etched into the walls and, once inside, the pair found where the freshly dead were being transformed into wrapped zombies with cartouches placed onto the wrappings to keep them under control. As they ventured further into the building, they found an etched carving of the demon complete with a foreboding inscription underneath.
It’s then that Jace realized what – or, rather whom – Liliana was searching for. He’s annoyed, but was able to quickly come to terms with it, but warned her that the rest of the Gatewatch would probably not be so understanding about it.
Just then, Razaketh’s eyes in the wall etching began to glow and the worker zombies around the duo stop what they’re doing and focused their attention on Liliana and Jace, whispering Liliana’s name.
The necromantic planeswalker attempted to take control of the zombies surrounding them, but (perhaps due to their cartouches) found she was unable to do so. About to be overcome by the zombie horde, Liliana was about to tap into the power of the Chain Veil when the undead ceased their advance and parted to allow for somebody else to approach.
It was Temmet, Oketra’s head vizier. He had checked city records and confirmed that none of the Gatewatch were native to Naktamun. Now, he wanted answers.
Liliana, in her own demeaning way, responded to the vizier by blaspheming Amonkhet’s gods directly to his face with a specific emphasis on Nicol Bolas, Amonkhet’s God-Pharaoh and went on to say (truthfully) that she had met him personally.
In response, Temmet commanded the anointed zombies to tighten their grasp on Liliana. Then, suddenly, they stop. Jace, now having another living being in the vicinity, had tapped into the vizier’s mind and, through the connection, was able to issue new orders to the zombies.
He held control for just long enough for he and Liliana to make their escape, but not quite long enough for him to wipe Temmet’s mind of the experience.
<GIDEON>
Accepted by Oketra into her fold, the god invited Gideon to undertake the trials of Amonkhet and prove himself. He joined her group, called the “Tah Crop,” as they recently gained an opening.
The Tah Crop had already made it through three of the trials without losing any members, save for the one – a woman named Samut – whom had been ejected from the crop for dissension.
The next morning, the Tah Crop began Bontu’s Trial of Ambition. To complete it, all one must do, according to Bontu’s viziers, was to make it to the top of Bontu’s monument where the god herself will be waiting.
Of course, it wouldn’t be simple.
In each room, danger awaited in the form of fatal puzzles and traps – each designed so that one member of the crop would have to be sacrificed in order for the rest of the group to make it through to the next area.
Each death bothered Gideon as they progressed and he repeatedly tried to go back to save the culled cropmates, but Djeru, the crop’s defacto leader, wouldn’t hear of it as they had to press on.
By the time they made it up to where Bontu was waiting, eleven of the crop’s 20 members had perished. There, they were given the final challenge of the trial: to present to the god with a humanoid heart.
Gideon stood in disgusted amazement as each member of the closely-knit Tah Crop begin attacking one another, intent on carving out the other’s heart to provide to the god.
In the end, the invulnerable Gideon was left alone along with the remaining four other cropmates who were able to produce a heart for the god. He was horrified.
He yelled at Bontu, telling her to take his own heart as tribute if it meant so much to her.
Instead, Bontu banished him from the temple for his hubris, narrow sense of justice, and naiveté towards their customs. As he was being escorted out, he witnessed his fallen cropmates being carried off by anointed zombies.
It’s then that Gideon came to the realization the anointed must all be fallen devotees as well and they were just feeding the cycle all along.
<THE FINAL TRIAL>
The final trial on the horizon, Djeru sought out his dismissed former cropmate, the dissenter, Samut, for advice.
The pair met in secret and Samut, whom saw Djeru as a brother, pleaded with him not to go through with the final trial as, in the end, his reward will be nothing but an over-glorified death.
Djeru argued back, stating that a glorified death is all he ever wanted as, ultimately, he’ll rise again eternal.
Seeing no way to convince her friend, Samut snuck into the temple of Hazoret and gained an audience with the god.
Despite her blasphemy, the god saw the fire of truth in her heart and allowed her to speak.
Samut tried to convince her to see the entire truth and remember back to the time before the God-Pharaoh.
Hazoret’s patience, though, ran thin and she had Samut seized and removed. The god’s anointed placed her into a sarcophagus where she would await her fate with the plan being that those who undertake Hazoret’s trial, the Trial of Zeal, would slay the dissenters, culling them before the return of the God-Pharaoh.
Instead, she found herself and the other dissenters unexpectedly rescued by the Gatewatch whom had found her thanks to Nissa’s attunement with the plane’s leylines.
The members of the Gatewatch, now having a better idea of what’s going on, felt they could use the help of someone such as Samut with all they might find themselves up against. They all caught one another up with what they’ve discovered and even clued in Samut to the fact that Amonkhet’s God-Pharaoh was little more than a conniving, scheming dragon planeswalker.
Samut tells the group that they must somehow get to the Trial of Zeal and save Djeru as, in her mind, he’s the only one who might be able to convince the gods of the truth.
Then, suddenly, they all fall asleep. Hazoret had appeared during their conversations and put a sleep spell on the whole lot of them.
They later awoke in an arena with each of them wearing a cartouche of control around their necks. On the far end of the arena is Hazoret along with Amonkhet’s four other gods.
The Trial of Zeal had begun and the initiates were tasked with slaying the dissenters, which now included the five member of the Gatewatch.
At the trial’s onset, Hazoret cast a spell on the entire arena that made everyone thirst for battle and glory. The Gatewatch responded by using their own magic. Well, at least they tried to. The cartouches they now wear dampened their power and found they couldn’t cast anything at all. While this proved to be a bit of a handicap for the planeswalkers, it mattered none to Samut who was solely focused on keeping Djeru alive.
As the two fought side-by-side despite him being an initiate and her a dissenter, Djeru began to pray aloud, begging Hazoret to forgive Samut for her transgressions. The prayer did not fall onto deaf ears.
In the end, Djeru was the only of the initiates left alive. The Gatewatch members, too, survived, their magic beginning to come back to them at this point.
Hazoret’s bloodlust enchantment faded and she invited both Djeru and Samut to approach, gifting each of them with a glorified death as is the custom.
Samut refused, but Djeru welcomed the gift, insisting that it’s all he ever wanted.
Samut wasn’t going to allow that to happen, nor was Gideon.
Obediently, Djeru kneeled.
As Hazoret was about to strike down with her spear, Samut tackled the initiate, knocking him to safety as Gideon ran interference, blocking the blow with his invulnerability abilities.
Djeru felt shattered. Furious and lost after being denied what he saw as a divine gift, but it ultimately didn’t matter.
The hours had come. The God-Pharaoh’s approach was nigh.
And that does it for the story of Amonkhet up to this point, though there’s still quite a bit to say in terms of the actual set itself.
Design was co-led by Mark Rosewater and Ethan Fleischer. Development was co-led by Dave Humpherys and Bryan Hawley. Mark Winters was in charge of art direction.
It was sold in traditional booster packs, a bundle, a two-player Booster Battle Pack, and a Deckbuilder’s Toolkit for novice players. The set also had two planeswalker decks that featured the cards Gideon, Martial Paragon and Liliana, Death Wielder as the face card of each respective deck.
The set has a heavy graveyard emphasis and uses it largely as a resource. As such, there are a number of cards in the set that have the ability to put cards into one’s graveyard to make it easier for players to take advantage of this such as the returning mechanic Cycling.
Furthermore, and in addition to the use of -1/-1 counters and the new brick counters used for, well, counting, Amonkhet has three new named mechanics starting with Aftermath, which was a riff of sorts on split cards.
<MARO AMONKHET 2, 24:06-26 “I think it’s a…a bit stronger.”>
Then there’s Embalm, a mechanic that ties into mummification.
<MARO LL AMONKHET, 11:47-57 “So embalm…token of them.” 15:32-41 “In general…feel for the world.”>
And, finally, Exert. It’s a creature ability that can give you quite the temporary advantage, but at the cost of not being able to untap that creature the next turn.
<MARO AMONKHET 2, 11:59-12:35 “Exert is one of…got to exert.”>
To help with these mechanics, Wizards of the Coast included a punch-out token card to help players keep track of things.
Amonkhet also has an unnamed mechanic known to Wizards R&D as “Heckbent,” which is a spin on the Hellbent mechanic from Dissension. Where as the latter cares about you having no cards in your hand, the former cares about you having one or fewer cards in your hand.
In terms of cycles, Amonkhet has twelve. And that includes (among others):
- Gods, a cycle of mono-colored mythic rares that represent the five known gods of the plane. Each has a keyword ability, a combat restriction, and an activated ability to help you surpass that restriction.
- Cartouches, a cycle of creature enchantments that have an enter-the-battle triggered ability as well as providing the creature they attach to a +1/+1 buff along with an additional keyword ability;
- Trials, uncommon enchantments with an enter-the-battlefield ability that also returns a cartouche to your hand when they enter;
- Monuments, uncommon legendary artifacts – one for each god – that reduce the cost of creature spells for their respective colors and also have their own triggered ability when creatures of that color are cast, and;
- Allied-colored cycling dual lands. Nicknamed “bicycle lands” due to them all having cycling, these non-basic lands each tap for an allied combination of colors.
As for notable cards found in Amonkhet, the set has a good number of them:
- Anointed Procession, a Commander staple that doubles the production of tokens;
- Approach of the Second Sun, an alternate win card;
- As Foretold, a key card in Modern that sees play in a handful of different decks;
- Cascading Cataracts, a five-color generating nonbasic land that pairs well with the card Golos, Tireless Pilgrim;
- Glorious End, an extra turn card in red that is also an alternate way to lose the game if you’re not careful;
- Glorybringer, a big bad dragon card with exert that was a key component in the very strong “Red Deck Wins” decks of the time;
- Harsh Mentor, a sideboard card in red that punished decks that rely heavily on activated abilities;
- Hazoret the Fervent, a staple in “Red Deck Wins” decks;
- Liliana, Death’s Majesty, a planeswalker card that was heavily played in Standard and has remained rather strong in Pioneer;
- Lord of the Accursed, a strong lord card for zombie theme decks;
- Manglehorn, a strong sideboard card against artifacts;
- Nissa, Steward of Elements, which is Magic’s first planeswalker card to have an “X” in its casting cost;
- Pull from Tomorrow, a card drawing card that was popular in Standard and helped players dig for Approach of the Second Sun;
- Rhonas the Indomitable, another of Amonkhet’s gods that saw heavy play in green aggro decks;
- Soul-Scar Mage, a powerful one-drop in red burn decks, and;
- Vizier of Remedies, which combos with the card Devoted Druid to create infinite mana.
Amonkhet also featured the following promotional cards:
- A foil, date-stamped rare or mythic rare for prerelease participants;
- Oracle’s Vault was the set’s release promo;
- Game Day participants received a full-art Trueheart Duelist with top-eight finishers also being given a full-art, foil Glorybringer;
- Archfiend of Ifnir was the game’s buy-a-box promo, and;
- Participants of the brand-new Magic Open House event were given a foil, full-art Amonkhet basic land.
Beyond the promos, there’s one other type of special card released in Amonkhet: Invocations.
Part of the Masterpiece Series found previously in the Battle for Zendikar and Kaladesh blocks, Amonkhet Invocations were extremely rare premium foil cards with a special card frame that symbolized the plane’s five gods along with their spells and servants. Amonkhet featured 30 such cards and featured the likes of Oketra the True, Force of Will, and Entomb.
The cards, however, did not go over very well with players thanks, in part, to their aesthetics – especially with the pseudo-hieroglyph card names that many found extremely difficult to read.
As for any final thoughts on Amonkhet as a set, again, here’s Magic: The Gathering head designer, Mark Rosewater:
< MARO LL AMONKHET 40:19-41:21 “I’m genuinely…a success.”>
So what are your thoughts about Amonkhet? Were you a fan? Let us know in the comment section.
Also, please remember to click on those like and subscribe buttons if you haven’t already and feel free to pop a buck in our Patreon tip jar to help support the channel.
Thanks for watching.