Redge from the Digital Animation team here at VIZ. When not working on the simulcast of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, I play and watch a lot of Magic: The Gathering. You can catch me at Gamescape in San Francisco on any given Friday drafting Magic, at home viewing tournament coverage of Wizards of the Coast events and SCG tours, or listening to the Limited Resources and Magic the Amateuring podcasts.

At VIZ, I’ve had the pleasure of being a consultant to the team that puts together The Art of Magic: The Gathering series of hardcover books, and being able to apply card and lore knowledge with the art has been rewarding. Let’s take a look at the new set as it debuted on the competitive stage and see some of the sweet, sweltering art that will be in The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Amonkhet.

Sweltering Suns, by Raymond Swanland

With Amonkhet unleashed many were anticipating a new landscape of standard due to the new set’s presence and absence of the format dominating Copy Cat Combo. Would the fined-tuned machine of Mardu Vehicles now be positioned to run over the format with the cat out of the bag? Or would Amonkhet bring a glorious new deck to cast out Gideon from his long reign and break the hearts of Kiran?

Glorybringer, by Sam Burley

Pro Tour Amonkhet ran a full three days and the Top 8 players demonstrated that the new decks have been deemed worthy for competitive play. A notable event occurred when Christian Calcano reached the Top 8 Standings live on camera with a heartwarming emotional moment that was a wonder to behold.

Deem Worthy, by Lius Lasahido

The Top 8 players for the weekend gave us a preview of what the standard competitive decks will look like for the next few months. Golgari Energy surged into the ocho, while three zombie decks kept on creeping on. The remaining four were Aetherworks Marvel decks, ceaselessly calling Ulamog and Chandra from six under.

Wayward Servant, by Anthony Palumbo

The finals gave us one of my favorite crossover events: Marvel vs Zombies. Actual real life final boss Yuuya Watanabe brought a refined Temur Aetherworks Marvel to match against two-time GP champion Gerry Thompson and his relentless zombies. The final match reached a glorious end, with Thompson threatening eight zombies to send forward (thanks to a pair of Diregraf Colossus’), along with a Scrapheap Scrounger. Dark Salvation removed one of Watanabe’s two remaining defensive creatures, while Thompson played his final card, a Lord of the Accursed, which added an additional eight on top of an already lethal attack, affirming Thompson’s dark grasp upon the PT Amonkhet trophy.

Lord of the Accursed, by Grzegorz Rutkowski

Here are some other notable Amonkhet cards of Pro Tour Amonkhet that are destined to land us into a new standard environment:

• Magma Spray – Single cost fast removal that exiles creatures answers many of the recurring aggressive strategies available.
• Dread Wanderer – Gravecrawler with discard shenanigans potential.
• Wayward Servant – Slow bleed with explosive results with Diregraf Colossus and Liliana’s Mastery.
• Lord of the Accursed – Zombies are scary. Now they have a king that sneaks them through defenses.
• Censor – Counter that’s solid early game and replaces itself in the late game. Also smooths out rough keeps.
• Liliana’s Mastery – Curve topping anthem that builds your board with 6 power. Also depicts Liliana’s performing the Crossing of the Red Sea amongst a sea of dead.

Liliana’s Mastery, by Kieran Yanner

Delve deeper into Magic: The Gathering lore and art in our The Art of Magic: The Gathering books.

In addition to the upcoming The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Amonkeht, we also have The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Zendikar, The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Innistrad and The Art of Magic: The Gathering - Kaladesh. See them all on our dedicated The Art of Magic: The Gathering page.