Then this happened
Those are Maelstrom Pulse and Vindicate, being cast by Egyptian Gods.
Egyptian Gods!!!!!
Well, that's certainly a thing. Amonkhet is filled with ancient Egyptian flavouring. And I'm finding it all amazing. There are mechanics like Embalm to turn your creatures into Mummies, cards for the Gods, the return of Cycling. Plus....
The return of Nicol Bolas. He created the plane, uses it as a base of operations and is venerated as the God-Pharaoh. He will get a new Planeswalker card in either this set or it's follow up Hour of Devastation. It's got me excited for Magic again.
So much so that I'm going to collect a set. Like an actual, one of each card, stored in a display folder set. All the artwork so far is gorgeous. Means getting hold of the promos too, which will mean entering the Game Day and trying to top 8 (it helps that the top 8 promo is a Dragon). I'm undecided about applying this to the inevitable playmats and sleeves. It also means doing the same for the second set.
There are 2 problems with this plan:
1) Top 8ing Game Day is going to require a Standard Deck, and a decent one at that. It's not an FNM where I can play anything. My most recent deck was based on the Nissa Planeswalker deck, and so while being fun wasn't super-competitive or tuned.
2) The Invocations. The 2 pieces of artwork I've shown above are from the Masterpieces, not the main set. They come in a fancy card frame with foiling. Not only are the roughly 1 per 11 billion boosters, but this time they are sought after cards like Force of Will and Wrath of God. The cheapest is $40 pre-order. They are going to be a massive challenge and may require buying rather than trading.
Still, I want to do it. The set looks fantastic so far and we aren't even fully through the first week of spoilers as I type this.
So Fuck You, WOTC! I was out, and you pulled me back in.
