Modern Horizons

The upcoming Modern Horizons supplementary set is scheduled to hit shelves on June 14^th, 2019. The set will be the first of its kind, featuring reprints from Eternal formats, as well as new cards designed specifically to support Modern, effectively skipping Standard legality. More specifically, all the reprinted cards in the set will now become Modern legal, potentially introducing dozens of Legacy and Vintage cards in the format.

This is a new approach for Wizards of the Coast, as, up to this point, supplementary sets like Commander, Conspiracy, Battlebond and Planechase have funneled cards solely into Legacy and Vintage, with no impact on Modern. As a result, Modern as a format has ended in a very tricky position, as all of its potential new cards would need to be printed in Standard legal sets first. This means that, up to this point, Wizards of the Coast has had no chance to print new cards straight into Modern.

This, however, is going to change with Modern Horizons. Wizards of the Coast now has a chance to print cards in either Standard, Modern or Legacy and Vintage, depending on whether new cards are printed in regular sets, Modern Horizons sets or other supplementary products.

With the set featuring no existing Modern card, but only a mix of newly printed Modern-legal cards and Legacy reprints coming into Modern for the first times, speculations are abounding. Will the set allow powerful Legacy staples to be played in Modern for the first time? Will only fringe playable cards be introduced? Will the newly introduced cards be threats or answers? Is the purpose to shakeup Modern as a format, or to complement existing strategies with new tools? Will we see new decks in the format?

With only a couple of new cards known at the moment, all we can do is speculate. So, brace yourself, because this is exactly what I’m going to do, here. What follows is my list of the top 10 cards I hope to see reprinted in Modern Horizons.

Number 1 and 2: Counterspells

One key aspect of Modern, as it is right now, is the current lack of cheap hard Counterspell effects. Control decks are essentially forced to balance between expensive and powerful hard counters, such as Cryptic Command, and cheap conditional counters, like Mana Leak.

Legacy, on the other hand, is a format filled with interesting counter options, such as the staple that is Force of Will. The card currently acts as a sort of safety valve for Legacy, ensuring that, no matter what new broken card is introduced in the format, a powerful kill switch can always be deployed. Couple that with Daze and you have a number of free counters to keep in check the most problematic strategies.

I do believe Modern is fine with the current number of free counters, as Pact of Negation already serves the purpose of protecting key combo pieces. It is also my belief that Modern Horizons will not introduce Force of Will to the Modern format, but I do believe some other alternatives could be expected.

Most notably, Counterspell is the type of cheap hard counter that could really spice up the Modern format. Control decks already enjoy their Mana Leaks, but these cards tend to intuitively lose a lot of value as the game progresses, becoming less and less effective as Mana availability increases.

Alongside Counterspell, Flusterstorm is another card I would absolutely love to see printed. The card is going to often serve as a Spell Pierce equivalent, but the possibility to have another good one Mana counter in the format is really interesting for Azorius and Jeskai control strategies.

As a side note, I would love to also see Mystic Confluence become Modern legal, but I think the card would too easily compete with relatively expensive hard counters, such as Cryptic Command. Definitely an interesting card, but I am personally a bit on the fence about its potential appearance in Modern Horizons.

Number 3 and 4: Cheap White Creatures

White Weenie strategies have existed in Modern for years, fluctuating between valid competitive decks and niche lists to hopefully catch opponents off-guard. Many Token based lists have evolved into the amalgam that Humans currently is: a deck that mostly resembles a collection of the best Creatures ever printed in Modern, randomly bearing the Human Creature type.

While every new Human card introduced in the future runs the risk of providing the definitive tool to make the deck “too good”, we can just look at our past to find a couple of very interesting options for a Modern legal release.

First and foremost, Containment Priest is a very interesting sideboard card to combat Aether Vial–based strategies, as well as the occasional Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker variation. While I would not see the card sliding into any Humans main deck list, it would surely be a very respectable sideboard option.

Speaking of powerful Humans, Mother of Runes is a card I can see finding room both in the famed Human Tribal strategy, as well as within Bant Infect lists. The card is unquestionably powerful and it could either replace Apostle’s Blessing, or it could see play alongside it. Despite its power, the Modern format has a plethora of cheap cards that can deal with Mother of Runes as soon as she hits the battlefield, so I wouldn’t be too afraid of her breaking the format.

Number 5: Black Signature Cards

Black’s colour identity is all about the pursue of power at any cost. The very idea of converting life into powerful effects is what Black truly excels at.

This is shown quite prominently in Modern’s most played Black cards. Thoughtseize and Surgical Extraction are among the most played cards in the entire format and they both feature a payment of life in exchange for a powerful, often discounted effect.

What we are truly missing, however, is a full dive into one of Black’s most famous and unique play strategies: reanimation. The current metagame of Modern sees Reanimate effects as a fringe strategy at best, with Goryo’s Vengeance seeing some play in Instant Reanimation decks.

Personally, I really think there could be room for a single additional piece of reanimation tech. While I am not even close to suggesting that the full trifecta of Entomb, Exhume and Reanimate should become Modern legal, I thoroughly enjoy the possibility of having just one of the three cards available in the format. I would love to see Modern players struggle and look for ways to play with the limited available options, assembling some kind of reanimation deck, without going all-in with Legacy staples.

Staying on theme of Black trading life for effects, I must add I would personally love to see Toxic Deluge sliding into Modern, but I am afraid the format is fine with unconditional board wipes costing four Mana or more. So, unfortunately, I’m giving Toxic Deluge a hard pass.

Number 6: the Best Land

Many experienced players have discussed about the possibility of introducing powerful Legacy Lands into the Modern format. While egregious names get occasionally thrown around, it is my belief that Modern Horizons will not include Wasteland, nor Karakas. Those Lands are extremely powerful in Legacy and their inclusion in Modern Horizons could very well lead to Modern becoming just “Legacy-light“.

Among all Lands that could be introduced in Modern from the other Eternal formats, the one I would really love to see is actually Ash Barrens. The card is one of the most beautiful and elegant designs of the past years and it can be easily introduced in the format without breaking it apart. It’s not an overtly powerful card, nor I think it is going to be a key component in any existing or new strategy. But it’s just too good to not be included in the format, at least for the purposes of increasing its availability and provide much needed reprints to the Pauper players.

Number 7 and 8: Cheating Pauper

Speaking of Pauper, Modern Horizon is a great opportunity for Wizards to do something a bit tricky to help non-Modern formats out. Despite not being a fully supported format, Pauper is gaining increasing recognition, with more and more players joining the ranks of the Commons-only format.

Among the most talked about cards of the format, Oubliette and Cuombajj Witches are in desperate need for a reprint. Unfortunately, they are hard to reprint in a Standard legal set, as the card designs are significantly misaligned with the current sensibility of the Colour Pie. On the other hand, the much anticipated Pauper Masters sets seems to not be coming anytime soon, so Wizards may really want to sneak a couple of Pauper staples into another supplementary set.

This is why I think Modern Horizons could pose an excellent chance to reprint these two cards, making them Modern legal and, most importantly, increasing their availability. I know it feels like we’re cheating with the original purpose of Modern Horizons, but wouldn’t it be an interesting twist?

Speaking of cheating, I would also like to mention another tricky reprint I would like to see in the set. Ophiomancer does not see much play in Legacy, but it comes with a nice and interesting piece of trivia. Its Black Snake Token with deathtouch currently does not exist in paper, meaning that the card is still somehow “incomplete”. So why not seize the opportunity of Modern Horizons to reprint the card and give it the Token it deserves? I must confess I don’t think this is really going to happen, but I guess it would be a very good surprise.

Number 9 and 10: Planechase Awesomeness

Baleful Strix is my favourite Magic card ever. It’s powerful, efficient and it plays extremely well in a number of Legacy decks. It is my belief that the card is in fact not too powerful for Modern, with the current meta being probably quite indifferent to cheap flying Creatures providing relatively small card advantage.

The beauty of Baleful Strix is that its impact on a format is not in introducing game-breaking combos, nor in enabling new strategies. The card is simply extremely good at supporting existing battle plans, increasing strategies’ reliability and managing problematic board states until a full plan can be set in motion.

Sliding the card in the format would likely help solidifying existing decks and maybe, just maybe, it would lead to a resurgence of Dimir Control lists. Would it see play in Death’s Shadow lists? Possibly. Would it completely warp the format? I don’t think so.

Speaking of interesting cards first seen in Planechase products, I would love to also see Shardless Agent popping up in Modern Horizons. Not because the card needs a reprint, nor because it is a particularly played card in Legacy. It certainly was, but it has relatively fallen from grace throughout the past years.

That said, the card would really help supporting a potential cascade-focused deck, featuring both Shardless Agent and Bloodbraid Elf. Cascade is just a fascinating mechanic and it is amazing for coverage purpose, providing thrills and interesting game moments whenever it is displayed. And, boy, does Modern need an injection of spectacular effects and thrilling suspense, after too many months of Krark-Clan Ironworks nonsense.

This is something I really hope will come as a byproduct of Modern Horizons: the inception of new decks in the Modern format, even if just as a new take on preexisting card. For instance, we already have a number of very good cards featuring the cascade mechanic, but these have seen play either as standalone gems in existing decks, such as Bloodbraid Elf in Jund, or as pseudo-combo enabler, much like Demonic Dread in Living End strategies. What if cascade became the centerpiece mechanic of a dedicated deck?

Notable Exclusions

While I know this is among the most talked about potential Modern Horizons reprints, I do not think we are going to see True-Name Nemesis in the set. Not because the card is too powerful for Modern, but because it’s not a good card to look at.

Any Legacy player knows that True-Name Nemesis is a very strong card, but I personally believe it does nothing good for the aesthetic of the game. The card just floats there, often unchecked, ticking continuously like a time bomb. Sure, Modern has a lot of ways to potentially deal with it, but is it really worth it?

Another card I would personally love to see in Modern Horizons is Teferi’s Protection. The card is extremely interesting and its sole existence can significantly warp entire games around it, leading to a challenging guessing game between players. Will your opponent have it? Are they just bluffing it?

It all makes for amazing mind games, but I must confess I dread a format where decks can play up to four copies of Teferi’s Protection, leading to potential nightmarish games where nothing happens and everyone keeps fading away.

A final honorable mentioned has to go to Sylvan Library. I believe the card would be absolutely fine in Modern, but I am setting it aside, for now, because of the its intrinsic complexity. It’s not that I do not trust Modern players with this effect, but Sylvan Library can play very similarly to Sensei’s Divining Top, which, despite being an amazingly iconic card, can often leads to excruciatingly long games. When Sensei’s Divining Top was legal in Legacy, too often we saw games of players just staring at each other, while taking turns pondering, thinking, deliberating and evaluating options.

What Modern Horizons Represents

Modern Horizons will be the first set of its kind, targeting a specific format and skipping Standard Legality with an injection of almost two hundred new cards. In a way, this is not unlike the printing of a new Commander preconstructed deck, which aims at supporting a very specific format, skipping Standard legality.

What is truly new, here, is that Modern is a competitive format. And it has historically existed in between the easy access of Standard and the elitist clubs of Legacy and Vintage. As a result, it is a format veterans can turn to, but it’s not really “the old school” format.

Modern Horizons could be a great step in the right direction of imbuing the format with a more defined identity, maybe setting a number of metrics and implicit characteristics that really help telling Modern apart from all other formats. As things stand, Modern currently incorporates bits from Standard, like a retake of the Standard Arclight Phoenix deck, obviously featuring a larger card pool and a stronger card selection, while also sharing many commonalities with Legacy, like the powerful Death’s Shadow deck.

It is also true that this could all pan out in a very drastic and potentially format-breaking way. Were Wizards of the Coast to inject the Modern format with a lot of powerful Legacy cards, the two formats may end up merging into very similar environments with, potential, Legacy itself dying. Many players are reading what they believe to be the signs of an impending doom for the format, such as the fact that MagicFest Niagara Falls will be the only MagicFest in 2019 featuring Legacy as its main format, while simultaneously taking place in a relatively hard to reach location.

On top of that, the Reserved List is still a very large elephant in Legacy’s room, essentially forcing all aspiring Legacy players to invest four-figure budgets in the format, or settle for a fairly limited number of alternative options. Take my opinion with a pinch of salt, but I am fairly sure the Reserved List is not going to be dismantled or revoked anytime soon. So if you’re hoping for Legacy to become a cheaper format, pick a number and know the line is going to be long.

I must confess I cannot disagree with this perception. I am a Legacy Burn player myself and, if Modern Horizons were to introduce Chain Lightning, Price of Progress and Fireblast to Modern, I would be seriously tempted to make the jump and just move to a different format. One that could egoistically be more welcoming for a deck like mine.

While it’s too soon to predict what the future holds for both Modern and Legacy, the impact of Modern Horizons could really be huge for at least one of the two formats. Until more is known, all we can do is speculate.