Magic‘s latest release was only released a couple of weeks ago and the set surely didn't realize its full impact yet. Now the hour, the Hour of Devastation, had come: three days, four formats, hundreds of players, thousands of Euros in prize coupons … To kick off the weekend, we asked several renowned experts in attendance here in Prague for their opinion on the new cards!

Julian Knab, Legacy champion 2017 SuperFinals: “The Gods and Deserts look interesting. If the environment is super slow and grindy, a card like Endless Sands has potential to dominate as it works with both aggressive as well as midrange/lategame-oriented strategies. Hostile Desert will almost certainly see play, Ifnir Deadlands, Ramunap Ruins, and Abrade also look really strong. Depending on how strong the Deserts turn out to be and how slow the format is, Ramunap Excavator could be another format all-star. And of course there's Hour of Devastation, which will likely see tons of play if red has enough cards to actually support such a deck. By far the strongest card is Nimble Obstructionist; it's ridiculous. A 3/1 flyer with flash and cycling is already an amazing card all by itself, but the potential to even create card advantage with it really puts it over the top. I expect this guy to be heavily played if the Standard environment allows for it.”

Walter Wölfler, Legacy finalist MKM Series Frankfurt 2017:Hour of Devastation is going to give blue-red and Grixis control decks in Standard a way to sweep away larger creatures as well as resolved planeswalkers, which have been one of the archetype's major issues.”

Rodrigo Togores, three-time MKM Series champion: “I think that the most interesting card from the set is Ramunap Excavator. Crucible of Worlds is an amazing card and that's the same on legs. Abrade is interesting for almost every format, because it lets you destroy artifacts against decks with a low number of them. If they don't draw any you can still kill a creature and don't have a dead card.”

Johannes Gutbrod, Legacy champion MKM Series Frankfurt 2017:Abrade looks really flexible and I could see it working in lots of different decks.”

Marius Hausmann, Legacy champion MKM Series Milan 2017: “Since I don't play any Standard I can't honestly say much about the impact of the set on the format. From the outside, Bontu's Last Reckoning looks quite exciting though. Aside from this there will surely be some sweet Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh deck, perhaps even one with the worse Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver as you can tutor for it via Visage of Bolas—or even with both of them.”

Tomo Pejanovic Nosaka, Modern quarterfinalist MKM Series Milan 2017: “I believe the new multicolor Gods could have an impact on Standard and maybe even Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh. I don't play Standard so I can't say anything more specific, but a card like Ammit Eternal could end up being a playable beater. Abrade is an interesting uncommon that will surely see some play in red decks. However, what I'm looking forward to is to see if Deserts become Constructed viable as I find them quite interesting.”