continue to invest and experiment in Standard". Kyle Chapman, reviewing the Amonkhet set for Ars Technica, wrote "Amonkhet is explicitly based on Egyptian mythology, and from glancing at a few opened booster packs, many of the classic tropes jump out from the art. [...] The real joy, though, is the sinister undercurrent slowly revealed through looking at the full set, especially the flavour text [...]. As the first expansion of a new block, Amonkhet is full of original mechanics, but also features a returning favourite that hasn’t been seen since Alara way back in 2009: Cycling. [...] Existing Magic players may remember God cards from Theros block, and this new cycle suffers a little in comparison; the new Gods have decent art and powerful abilities, but no unique frame, and lack some of the novel impact the second time around. [...] In general, the gameplay is deep but not intimidating; plenty of the mechanics revolve around choice and interaction between different components of your deck, leading to some difficult strategic decision [...]. The mechanics are mainly modular rather than linear, which means a lot of the assessment will be on a card-by-card basis". Mike Linnemann (also known as Vorthos Mike), for CoolStuffInc, highlighted how the art of the Amonkhet set showcases the storyline. Linnemann wrote, "the diehold vorthos community tried to ascertain if Dragon Planeswalker Nicol Bolas made this plane or commandeered it, creating the culture from scratch or warping it. Nicol Bolas arrived here. He did not make this plane. [...] We can see the cutthroat competition and not just the Black Trial of Ambition which forces you to turn on friends and teammates. [...] This is a North Korea culture, walled out from the rest of the world, if you are curious how a real world example could be like Amonkhet. Except, in the case of Amonkhet, grandparents grew up as babies with no one older than them. [...] Taking the Trials as a visual cue, we can see this is a top down set, where a culture and flavor drove the design rather than mechanics. We can see this young woman [...] mentioning in her flavor text that she will also be harvested, though she doesn’t say if that is by participating in the trial or by other means. [...] The art is only supposed to be made for usage at card size and this is successful.