Hour of Devastation Previews 6-27

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Hello MTG peeps,

We are now on the second day of the second week of official Magic: the Gathering previews for the upcoming Hour of Devastation set releasing on July 14, 2017 with PreRelease events the weekend before on July 8th and 9th. Here is today's round-up of new cards for you -  
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Endless Sands
Land - Desert, Rare
Tap: Add C to your mana pool.
2, tap: Exile target creature you control.
4, tap, Sacrifice Endless Sands: Return each creature exiled with Endless Sands to the battlefield under its owner's control.


Sweet art from the brilliantly talented Noah Bradley.  If Helvault coupled with Safe Haven and had a kid, this card would be it.  Ceratinly better than the both as Endless Sands taps out colourless mana in addition to the other two abilities.  If standard had a seat / safety belt, this would be it - perfect plan against targeted removal.

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Imminent Doom, 2R
Enchantment, Rare
Imminent Doom enters the battlefield with a doom counter on it. 
Whenever you cast a spell with converted mana cost equal to the number of doom counters on Imminent Doom, Imminent Doom deals that much damage to target creature or player, then put a doom counter on Imminent Doom.

We will nickname this card right now - calling this Enchantment 'Victor', after Marvel supervillian Victor Van Doom.  Seems rather progressive but a bit fussy, as you need to play progressively higher CMC spells for this this to deliver.

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Hour of Promise, 4G
Sorcery, Rare
Search your library for up to two land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library. Then if you control three or more Deserts, create two 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens. 
With the Hekma breached and its protection removed, the deserts swept in.

Dollar Bin Rare.  We cannot imagine a build where players may want this in standard.  Were we to pull this out of booster pack, we would likely be inconsolable.

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Maw of Chaos, 5RR
Creature - Hellion, Rare
When Maw of Chaos enters the battlefield, it deals 3 damage to each other creature. 
6/6

Nice flashy rare with limited board wipe.  If by turn 7 (assuming you cannot ramp or cheat this out earlier), you need this spell, things are going rather poorly in your game.

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Hollow One, 5
Artifact Creature - Golem, Rare
Hollow One costs 2 less to cast for each card you've cycled or discarded this turn. 
Cycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Draw a card.) 
The embodiment of yearning, forever drifting the deserts to find what had once made it whole.
4/4

Not certain why this thing is pegged ar Rare, as Wizards forgot to add any spice here.  That said, this is certainly not abysmal.  If you have a list with a good measure of looting (draw / discard), then it may help to a threat on the battlefield while you filter to float out your win condition.  Suggested standard format pairing with Cathartic Reunion (1R sorcery, As an additional cost to cast Cathartic Reunion, discard two cards. Draw three cards.) Makes the Hollow One now cost 1 - Not too shabby.

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Hour of Devastation Uncommon Desert Cycle
All add a colourless mana and one may pay 1 life, tap to generate the respective coloured mana.  Activated abilities as below limted to any time you could play a sorcery.  The arts on these do look great, but we really wish the activated abilities here were set at instant speed, which would have made this cycle a lot better.

Shefet Dunes - 2WW, sac a desert, creatures you control get +1/+1 until turn's end.

Ipnu Rivulet - 1U, sac a desert, mill a player top 4 cards.

Ifnir Deadlands - 2BB, sac a desert, put 2 -1/-1 counters on target opponent's creature.

Ramunap Ruins - 2RR, sac a desert, deal 2 damage to each opponent.


Hashep Oasis - 1GG, sac a desert, targert creature is pumped +3/+3 until turn's end.

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