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Main » Articles » Hours of Amonkhet

Hours of Amonkhet

Ali Aintrazi
Posted on July 7, 2017
 Reddit

Welcome back! Last week we talked about brewing. I went over my process on how to brew a new deck or modify an existing one and my process behind it. Now that we have that article out of the way, we can focus on the juicy parts today. Hour of Devastation will soon be upon us and I’m ready to make some decks! My favorite decks to make are usually big mana decks and today that’s what we are going to be focusing on. Don’t worry, they all won’t be ramp decks but they all might contain Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as the ultimate finish. My control decks would be playing Emrakul, the Promised End instead of Ulamog, but sadly we don’t have that option. We are also going to be looking at Hour of Devastation, Hour of Promise, and Hour of Revelation. All these cards are pushed and very powerful. You all ready? I know I am, let’s start things off with a big. Let’s look at big mana Grixis!

Big Grixis ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Ali Aintrazi

Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
This deck is basically my old ur Ulamog Control deck from a awhile back. I’ve opted to shave all the Drowner of Hopes and some Ulamogs for a couple of Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaohs. So, the deck is running Black just for Nicol Bolas and we have six sources of Black to help cast or glorious God-Pharaoh. Four Aether Hubs and a couple of Crypt of the Eternals should let us cast him easily when we have access to seven mana. This deck can get Bolas online as early as turn five if you played a Hedron Archive on the fourth turn.

The objective of the deck is simple, just try and keep the battlefield clear as much as possible while countering relevant spells. This deck had problems with decks that went super wide when I played it last time. It just couldn’t keep up with all the small creatures. Now, thanks to Hour of Devastation, we will be able to keep the battlefield clear of not only creatures, but also Planeswalkers. With the addition of Pull from Tomorrow we can play cards that aren’t as impactful late game like, Magma Spray. Early on Magma Spray can be great and later we can just pitch it to Pull from Tomorrow.

One important thing that is different with this deck than others is the addition of Hedron Archive. Hedron Archive is what allows us to play so many big spells in our deck and cast those spells earlier. Hedron Archive works very well with Supreme Will. You can play Hedron Archive when you have five lands and still hold up Supreme Will to counter something or Impulse at their end step. This deck has many answers for the early and mid-game while having some of the strongest hay makers in Standard for the late game.

Another shell I want to try Nicol Bolas in is a ramp one, especially since we still have Oath of Nissa. Who would’ve thought that Nissa would be helping cast Nicol Bolas? Tic Toc, we move onto the Hour of Promise.

R/G Ramp ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Ali Aintrazi

Hour of Promise
Ramp decks got a huge boost in power thanks to the help of Hour of Promise. Hour of Promise can essentially get you four lands by fetching up two Shrine of the Forsaken Gods and potentially allowing you to cast Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger the following turn. What’s great about Hour of Promise is that it’s not a dead card late game since it will still get you any two lands and make two 2/2 Zombie tokens. In fact, when you cast Hour of Promise if you already control three deserts you can get whatever you want and you’ll still create a couple of zombie tokens. It’s the reason I’m running six deserts main deck, it honestly could end up that the deck wants access to more deserts after testing.

Since we are shifting back to play Shrine of the Forsaken Gods then we need to focus on getting lands onto the battlefield. This means stepping away from Hedron Archive a bit and playing more spells that put lands onto the battlefield like Shefet Monitor. Shefet Monitor can also get us deserts and curves perfectly into Hour of Promise!

It’s strange for a ramp deck to have the best board wipe in Standard but here we are. Thanks to Hour of Devastation and our other removal we should be able to buy enough time to cast our big payoff spells. Speaking of payoff spells, Nicol Bolas is a great one. We can cast the Elder Dragon off Oath of Nissa but if we don’t get Oath of Nissa then we can pick up a Cascading Cataracts to cast him for eight or a pair of Aether Hubs to cast him for seven.

Sifter Wurm is a terrific addition to the Sideboard giving us access to a powerful life gain spell and dig spell. It all comes on a body to boot!

We can’t talk about ramp decks without at least mentioning ug ramp, what kind of Ali article would that be?

U/G Ramp ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Ali Aintrazi

Like rg ramp but instead of casting World Breakers we are casting Part the Waterveil and Ulamog. Part the Waterveil allows this deck to turn the corner very quickly and kill your opponent out of nowhere. The draw to playing Blue isn’t just Crush of Tentacles but also Pull from Tomorrow. This deck is sure to have the largest Pull from Tomorrows than either other deck since we are ramping. The only problem with ug is it has a tough time dealing with a swarm of creatures outside of fogging them out with Haze of Pollen until you can find a Crush of Tentacles. I think this deck has potential but it does need a lot more work than the other decks. I don’t want to talk too much about ramp since I’m sure some of you aren’t the biggest fans of the strategy. So, our next deck is a deck focused around using Hour of Revelation to the fullest.

Let’s look at the last hour, Hour of Revelation.

U/W Control ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Ali Aintrazi

Hour of Revelation
uw Control gained a lot from this set. Hour of Revelation is what the deck has been waiting for. Being able to destroy all creatures, vehicles, and Planeswalkers in one fell swoop is powerful. This is very good against everything except other control decks and even then, killing a Planeswalker or a Gearhulk isn’t the worst thing ever. Hour of Revelation crushes the Metalwork Colossus decks as well, destroying all their artifact toys and creatures.

This list has a plethora of answers to deal with any kind or permanent and wins with threats that are very hard to interact with like Kefnet, Westvale Abbey, and Approach of the Second Sun. It’s also built with many cycling cards so you can dig through it very quickly or just cycle away cards you don’t need or that are dead in that matchup. Pull from Tomorrow also helps pitch dead cards in the matchup early while being a win condition late in the game.

Nimble Obstructionist is another great card this deck gained. This bird can be a threat, a removal spell, or a powerful counterspell that replaces itself. Countering things like a Planeswalker ultimate, Oath of Nissa, crewing a vehicle, Archangel Avacyn flipping or making things indestructible, creature land activations, Scrapheap Scrounger trying to come back from the graveyard and many more things. I’m a fan of the Stifle bird.

Well, it looks like we’ve reached the end of the hour. We’ve talked about four great starting points for decks. I do believe Grixis, rg Ramp, and uw control all have potential in the new Standard format. Next time I’ll probably be looking at some more obscure cards. I really want to try to play Swarm Intelligence and Fraying Sanity. I want to find the most competitive shells for those cards because they both seem amazing and fun to play.

Well, that’s all I have for you today. Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you all next time!

Much love,

Ali Aintrazi

@AliEldrazi on Twitter

Hour of Devastation is now available for preorder at CoolStuffInc.com!

TAGS articles, constructed, analysis, standard, ali aintrazi, decklist, brewing, hour of devastation standard

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