Magical Supplements – Hour of Devastation
Every new set of Magic is exciting for fans of nearly every format, but especially Standard, Modern and EDH players. Sure, a new set affects Standard the most, but new cards can often find a home supplementing Modern and EDH decks. In fact, the value of a card is sustained by its usefulness in Modern and EDH decks. Every time a new set comes out, I will look at the cards and pick a couple to feature through the lens of Modern and EDH players. Let’s take a look at Hour of Devastation.
Majestic Myriarch
This card isn’t getting much love (if we’re looking at its $ value) since its release, and as far as Standard goes, that makes sense. There are few decks where such a card would be beneficial. You would have to run too many colors in Standard for its ability to be remotely useful. But in EDH, Majestic Myriarch can really shine as a powerful supplement.
One example of a great place for Myriarch is an Animar EDH deck. I, for one, am a huge fan of the all-creature Animar decks out there. It’s a blast to find answers for every scenario out there within the realm of creatures in color combinations of red, green and blue. Within such a deck of expansive creature abilities, Myriarch can become a powerful adversary for opponents. In my personal Animar deck, Myriarch would quickly become a 10/10 or higher with every passive ability sampled on its text.
Obelisk Spider
Wither and Infect were powerful abilities. Infect is still argued as one of the most broken abilities in Magic. Providing another creature that benefits from -1/-1 counter decks is a welcome sight for fans of those abilities. Obelisk Spider provides abilities that would make it a reasonable addition to a lot of -1/-1 counter deck combinations, from EDH to Modern.
I have a Modern Necroskitter deck that is currently mono black. I am considering splashing green just for this little guy. Sure, the weak version of Wither it offers in its first ability isn’t anything to glance at in beefy -1/-1 counter decks, but the -1/-1 counter-bound life gain Obelisk Spider offers in its second ability is too flavorful and beneficial to pass up. It’s like Extort in -1/-1 counter format. And for 3 CMC, it’s not hurting most curves.
The Scarab God
This guy is absolutely devastating to opponents of zombie EDH decks. There are tons of black/blue zombie EDH commanders that have a variety of builds around graveyard shenanigans. Scarab God offers graveyard shenanigans NOT limited to your own graveyard, an incredibly powerful zombie tribal ability, and is hard to get rid of when supplemented in an already-built zombie deck.
It is rare for a card to come out that can upgrade your current commander with virtually no change to the rest of the deck. With Scarab God’s tribal and graveyard abilities, he can do just that. Since Innistrad, blue has become a powerful ally to zombies, and Scarab God furthers that trend. His hefty price tag at the moment ($18) makes him more of an option in EDH than Modern for us poor planeswalkers, but he’s difficult to dismiss from your radar.
Wrap-Up
Because the plane of Amonkhet is so friendly to tribal zombies, it’s hard not to find some powerful supplements for any graveyard/zombie shenanigans you may run. -1/-1 counters are another mechanic that you can play with supplementing from this block, perhaps using Black Sun Zenith in combination with the removal of counters from your own creatures. There is a lot to play with in this set from a modern perspective, and it’s worth a look.
– Dalton