Many members of the Magic community were unsure what to expect when Wizards of the Coast revealed that Amonkhet Remastered would have a preview season. The set, according to Wizards, was going to combine and trim down the Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation into a single release for MTG Arena—so why was there a need to preview cards from already-existing sets?
Well, today marked the beginning of Amonkhet Remastered’s preview season and it turns out that it isn’t just made up of cards from Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation. Instead, it’s an Amonkhet set with a twist and will include some cards from outside of the Amonkhet block.
Four of those new-to-Amonkhet cards were previewed, today: Collected Company, Hornet Queen, Wrath of God, and Rest in Peace. Three of the four cards feature new, Amonkhet-themed art by Lake Hurwitz, Jonathan Kuo, and Jarel Threat, while Wrath of God uses the art from its Invocation frame by Titus Lunter.
Collected Company and Hornet Queen are being added to Amonkhet Remastered.
Wrath of God and Rest in Peace are being added to Amonkhet Remastered.
“For both Hornet Queen and Collected Company, and all the newly-added cards, we wanted to take Amonkhet Remastered as an opportunity to bring beloved Magic cards onto the plane of Amonkhet,” lead designer Mike Turian told Destructoid, “and show what they would have looked like had they originally been introduced on that plane.”
Collected Company “shows a group of survivors from different races and classes of Amonkhet,” Turian continued, while Hornet Queen shows “one of the most lethal creatures Magic has to offer” that has “invaded the ruined outskirts of an Amonkhet city.”
Unfortunately, Turian didn’t speak to the decision to add new cards from outside of the Amonkhet block to Amonkhet Remastered. However, one of the motivating factors was likely the set’s ability to add cards to MTG Arena without those cards having to come from a Standard set or an Historic Anthology. The cards will become legal in the game’s Historic format and will continue to expand the game’s card pool towards eventually supporting the Pioneer format. Wizards has stated that they will use a combination of remastered sets like Amonkhet Remastered—which were revealed today to potentially include cards from outside of the original sets being “remastered”—and Pioneer Masters sets, the later of which is coming by the end of the year.
Previews for Amonkhet Remastered continue through Wednesday. The set will be released on MTG Arena later this week on Thursday, August 13.