Magic: the Gathering has left the colourful, rebellious world of Kaladesh and arrived in the dark, foreboding, and Egyptian-themed plane of Amonkhet. The titular expansion set contains 264 cards—and we’ve got one of those new cards to show you today: Story Spotlight card Cruel Reality.

Eventual victory is the theme of the day as Cruel Reality descends: force your opponent to say goodbye to their least favourite friend every turn. This kind of effect is agonisingly slow, but repeating it every turn is powerful—the longer the battle goes on, the more your opponent’s resources will dwindle, until they run out and slowly lose the game.

With this being a Story Spotlight (squint at the text at the bottom of the card), Cruel Reality shows us a tantalising hint of the plot arc in Amonkhet, with Gideon starting to discover some of the morbid secrets behind the gleaming city. From the other spoilers we’ve seen so far, it looks like glorious death (and reincarnation?) is a big part of the plane’s culture, which makes the mood a lot darker than the recently colourful Kaladesh and sets up for the “Gatewatch versus a certain elder dragon” conflict.

This card sees the return of the “Curse” card type—a mummy’s curse being a classic trope in Egyptian mythology—which suggests we’ll see a few more ways to blight your opponent in Amonkhet. Seven mana is a tricky ask, so this isn’t a card we expect to break into the more sleek, competitive formats, but it is a card that appeals to those of us that like to watch our opponents squirm.

Amonkhet is released worldwide on April 28, with prerelease events the weekend before (April 22-23). The Magic store locator can help you find a store hosting an event near you.

We'll have a full review of the expansion ahead of release. If you've not played Magic: the Gathering before or you're a lapsed player from your teenage years, and you're interested in playing the game, our past coverage is a good place to start.