Amonkhet Remastered Crafting and Rare Drafting Guide
Today is release day for Amonkhet Remastered, a set designed to add more cards to the Historic format on Magic Arena and help build toward the eventual release of Pioneer. While the set has over 300 cards, in reality, you don't need all of them—or even most of them—to play Historic or Pioneer. Getting cards can be surprisingly expensive on Magic Arena, so learning to pick through the chaff and focus your wildcards and rare draft picks on the cards that actually matter is an important skill. Today's video will (hopefully) make it a bit easier as we go color by color through the set to generate a list of the most important cards for both Historic and Pioneer, which should make crafting the cards you need from the set with wildcards or rare drafting them as you explore Amonkhet Remastered limited a bit easier!
Crafting and Rare Drafting Amonkhet Remastered
The following list is broken down by color, and each color is broken down into two tiers. Tier-one cards are the most important Historic and Pioneer cards from Amonkhet Remastered. If you plan on playing either of those formats, you are unlikely to regret having them in your collection. In general, tier-one cards are format staples that have the potential to go into multiple decks. Tier-two cards are cards that you'll probably still want to have in your collection but are narrower than tier-one cards are. Rather than going in multiple decks, they may be cards that are very important to one specific deck or cards that are more speculative in nature (cards that are likely good in a deck that may or may not end up being a top-tier competitive choice in Historic or Pioneer).
White
- Tier One: Wrath of God, Gideon of the Trials, Rest in Peace
- Tier Two: Anointed Procession, Gideon's Intervention, Dusk // Dawn, Angel of Sanctions, Cast Out
Wrath of God immediately becomes the best wrath in the Historic format, which means it should be a staple in control decks and also come in out of the sideboard against more midrange-focused builds. Gideon of the Trials has the pedigree of being very playable in Pioneer and somewhat playable in Modern, which makes Historic play a good bet as well. Rest in Peace jumps to the top of the list of graveyard hate available in the format, assuming you don't need access to your own graveyard.
Blue
- Tier One: Censor
- Tier Two: Nimble Obstructionist, Commit // Memory, Supreme Will, Pact of Negation, Strategic Planning
Blue is probably the weakest color in Amonkhet Remastered, with only a single tier option in Censor. While the counterspell is quite strong thanks to cycling and is likely to see a decent amount of play in Historic (and already has seen ample play in Pioneer), it's only an uncommon, so it shouldn't be too hard to pick up in drafts.
Black
- Tier One: Thoughtseize, Dread Wanderer
- Tier Two: Liliana, Death's Majesty, Demonic Pact, Liliana's Mastery, Lord of the Accursed
Thoughtseize is the single most important card in the set, and odds are it will be one of the most played cards (if not the most played) in Historic, while it is already the most played card in Pioneer. If you only have the wildcards to get a single card from Amonkhet Remastered, this is the one. Dread Wanderer makes its way into top-tier status because it has potential in Zombie tribal as well as just random mono-black or black-X aggro decks.
Red
- Tier One: Hazoret the Fervent, Glorybringer, Soul-Scar Mage, Abrade
- Tier Two: Anger of the Gods, Sweltering Suns, Chandra, Pyromaster, Ahn-Crop Crasher
Red is likely the strongest color in Amonkhet Remastered, and there are a lot of cards we need to add to our collections. Hazoret the Fervent is the best of the Amonkhet Gods and a great finisher for aggro and prison decks alike. Glorybringer is one of the best midrange threats in Magic, seeing heavy play all the way back to Modern and likely being a new staple of Pioneer. Soul-Scar Mage is the third-best red one-drop of all time, behind Goblin Guide and Monastery Swiftspear. But with neither in the Historic format (and only Monastery Swiftspear in Pioneer), it might be the best red one drop in Arena-only formats.
As for the second-tier cards, it's somewhat awkward that Anger of the Gods and Sweltering Suns do essentially the same thing. In general, Anger of the Gods is the more playable option, although Sweltering Suns can be even better in some metagames (with a few recursive creatures that need to be exiled). Meanwhile, Chandra, Pyromaster is a very strong and playable planeswalker and could show up in Historic immediately—just be warned that it will be made obsolete when Chandra, Torch of Defiance hits Arena (likely in Kaladesh Remastered, which shouldn't be that far in the future) since Kaladesh Chandra is basically a strictly better version of Chandra, Pyromaster.
Green
- Tier One: Collected Company, Rhonas the Indomitable, Hour of Promise
- Tier Two: Hornet Queen, Ramunap Excavator, Life Goes On
Collected Company is likely the second most impactful card from the set outside of Thoughtseize and should quickly develop into a staple of the Historic format. Rhonas the Indomitable is a good threat for green stompy and big-creature aggro decks. Just keep in mind that you probably don't need a full playset since most decks only play a copy or two. Meanwhile, Hour of Promise is Modern-playable ramp spell. Expect it to immediately slot into decks trying to cast Ulamog or Ugin, especially since Amonkhet Remastered is also releasing Deserts to allow Hour of Promise to make Zombie tokens.
Cats
Cats get their own heading, just because how valuable they are to craft or rare draft depends completely on whether or not you plan on building Cat tribal. Regal Caracal and Pride Sovereign are perhaps the two best Cats in all of Magic. If you are going to build a Cat deck in Historic or eventually Pioneer, they won't just be a part of it—they'll be the heart of it. Meanwhile, Prowling Serpopard is a nice sideboard option to fight through counterspells against control decks. The problem is that none of these cards really sees play outside of Cat tribal, and Cat tribal isn't a super-competitive deck (although it has been improving lately and could get there soon). As such, if you want to build Cats, these are tier-one options. If you don't have interest in building Cats, none of these cards really matters.
Colorless
- Tier One: God-Pharaoh's Gift, Gate to the Afterlife
- Tier Two: Perilous Vault, Throne of the God-Pharaoh, Hollow One, Oketra's Monument, Rhonas's Monument
I really love God-Pharaoh's Gift, which might be causing me to overrate its potential in Historic, although it has shown up on the fringes of Pioneer already. In reality, there's a pretty strong argument that there are no tier-one colorless cards and that all of these cards should be in tier two (since God-Pharaoh's Gift and Gate to the Afterlife are more archetype staples than true format staples).
Multicolor
- Tier One: The Scarab God, Sphinx's Revelation
- Tier Two: Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, Nissa, Steward of Elements, Cut // Ribbons, Driven // Despair, Spring // Mind, Wayward Servant
The Scarab God is right up with Thoughtseize and Collected Company on the list of best cards from Amonkhet Remastered. While it hasn't made huge waves in Pioneer or Modern, it does show up on occasion, and control players and midrange pilots alike will likely try it in Historic. Meanwhile, Sphinx's Revelation has a track record of being the best card in its Standard format, and even though it has been a while since our Return to Ravnica, it still hasn't been made obsolete by a strictly better option for control decks.
Lands
- Tier One: Uncommon Desert cycle
- Tier 1.5: Rare cycling duals
- Tier Two: Scavenger Grounds, Cascading Cataracts
Land-wise, the uncommon cycle is extremely playable, with Ramunap Ruins being strong in Modern and bannably good in Standard. Meanwhile, the cycling dual lands from Amonkhet Remastered are a lower tier cycle of dual lands. While you probably still want a playset of each in your collection, they rank behind the shock lands, check lands, and triomes in terms of playability in Historic. So if you don't have your shock lands and check lands, your wildcards are better off being spent there. Finally, Scavenger Grounds is a solid colorless dual land in graveyard-heavy metas, while Cascading Cataracts will almost certainly be a one-of tutor target for Golos, Tireless Pilgrim shenanigans in Field of the Dead decks, but you will likely only need a single copy.
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today! If you have any questions about the list, let me know in the comments! As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
