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MAGIC: THE GATHERING’s Next Set Wants You To Love Being the Villain (Exclusive)

Who doesn’t like playing the bad guy every once in a while? Magic: The Gathering‘s latest set of cards — Hour of Devastation — is taking full advantage of that occasional impulse by giving you the means and the meanness to rain down mystical fire as one of the most powerful characters in MTG lore returns. Nerdist has an exclusive reveal of even more of those means below.

The previous set, Amonkhet, was an ancient Egyptian-themed collection of cards that pitted cats, mummies, and gods against each other. While the set was ostensibly just publisher Wizards of the Coast’s riff on the mythology — like the Theros block was to ancient Greek mythology — the art of the cards and the flavor text pointed to something more sinister. Read closely, and Amonket hinted at the return of a being so powerful it could topple the gods themselves: the immortal, evil dragon Nicol Bolas.

Hour of Devastation revolves around the influence and oppression of this incredibly powerful planeswalker. The first Bolas card was strong in its own right (a devastating card in a Scion of the Ur Dragon EDH deck), and the second, a planeswalker, was even stronger. In HOD, the new Bolas planeswalker card are undeniable game-enders. From all the previews so far, HOD looks like an exciting addition to the Egyptian flavor, complete with more gods, more cats, and more clever mechanics that revel in the devastating revelation Bolas seeks to bring to the plane.

To help prove that point, Nerdist is excited to exclusively reveal five new cards of the set below!

Rhonas’s Stalwart

Survivors’ Encampment

Seer of the Last Tomorrow

Tragic Lesson

Life Goes On

Let us know what you think of the new cards in the comments below!

Hour of Devastation drops July 14th at your local card store.

Images: Jonas De Ro; Wizards of the Coast

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