Magic’s newest set is on the way, the hotly anticipated Modern Horizons 3. Printing a bunch of powerful new cards that can’t go in Standard, the previous two iterations both were seismic events in Modern, Legacy, and Commander massively shifting the meta and providing valuable reprints. This time around we’re getting another bumper crop of cards including a bunch of new Eldrazi and a welcome reprint of fetchlands. A new set means new cards, and we’re kicking off our review with the multicolor cards that serve as signposts to let you know what direction each color pair is trying to build in. As usual we won’t be looking at everything, and we’ll be doing this primarily but not exclusively with an eye for Commander play.
Multicolor Cards
Genku, Future Shaper
Marcy: This feels like a card for Commander more than anything else, a leader who wants to be in a deck about flickering permanents. The final ability for 5 CMC is maybe what stands out. Even then, kind of a whatever card.
Loxi: It’s interesting because it realistically is meant to be a blink payoff based on the colors, but I think this will really find home in some sort of Esper Aristocrats deck like Bane, Lord of Darkness as a way to gain extra value off LTB triggers. It’s not really doing enough to be a commander, but it can make a good chunk of stats over time.
Ryan: Seems like a silly card that could be fun in the 99 of a Commander deck but as far as Modern goes, I doubt a four mana that doesn’t do anything on its own is going to make much of a splash unfortunately.
Psychic Frog
TheChirurgeon: Hey, I’ve seen this story before! It’s Psychatog, but even better. Well, mostly. I think having to exile three cards from your graveyard is a lot more fair, and we’re a long time removed from the days and format when Psychatog was one of the game’s best creatures, but at UB I feel like this is worth a look.
Marcy: Pretty strong little frog. A Dimir deck with a lot of draw/discard would find this little guy a great fit, and I think you could argue that the ability to exile things you can’t or don’t plan on getting back is worth it to get a card (assuming flying gets you over blockers). Maybe fun in a Dimir commander, probably very good in limited, but in actual Modern or other formats, I don’t think this card matters.
Ryan: Look at this trippy little guy. For just two mana they put in a ton of work, drawing card, synergies with Madness and discard effects, and can get evasion with a little bit of work. I’m not super sure what deck it’ll slot into, since the two mana space is pretty packed with plenty of other spells, but it would be interesting to see how they fit into a deck.
Loxi: From a Commander perspective, this is a good repeatable discard outlet for decks that want that. I think being an evasive creature that draws cards with a questionably useful typing is a rough spot to be in with so many Rogues and other creatures in the format.
Imskir Iron-Eater
Marcy: Affinity decks should have no problem getting this out quick, and three cards for three life (or more, if you have a lot out) isn’t bad. There are also tons of options for huge things to hurl at your opponent, not even counting things like Liquimetal Coating or similar. Could certainly make for a spin on an Affinity Commander.
Ryan: Oh look at that, a two mana 5/5 that has a wild ETB effect and can fling artifacts at your opponents. Imskir doesn’t fit neatly into traditional Affinity lists, since they’re primarily blue-based decks, but it could have potential to unlock a Grixis deck with some brewing.
Loxi: Absolutely love this as a damage-based finisher in artifact decks. Not a bad commander, but I really like this just being jammed into things like Mishra, Tamer of Mak Fawa as a way to recycle a big artifact creature, beat someone’s face in with it, then sacrifice it for even more damage.
Rosheen, Roaring Prophet
TheChirurgeon: It’s cool to see Rosheen in a state that isn’t “mourning the world that was,” though if this is the Llorwyn version shouldn’t she be red-white? Either way I like how she combos with Rosheen Meanderer.
Marcy: I like the idea of tapping to reveal and generating a lot of free mana but I also find it very funny to show your opponent your hand and then have them just go “Anyway, Negate.”
Ryan: I want to like this card, but it feels like it isn’t going to do much other than add two, maybe four mana more often than not. Returning an X cost spell from your graveyard to hand is neat, but it seems like more often than not, you’re only going to get two bonus mana from that card you returned, even in a deck dedicated to X spells.
Loxi: Rosheen decided meandering was overrated and decided to start getting pissed. She’s solid, she has a higher ceiling but a lower floor than her old version. I like both, and though you obviously will get a lot from just always running both, I think the Meanderer is a bit nicer in the command zone just for the sake of being more consistent.
Stump Stomp / Burnwillow Clearing
TheChirurgeon: Doing hybrid mana spells on the back of Enters-the-battlefield tapped lands is really solid, and this is a decent enough removal effect to make this an amazing draft pickup. I think this probably makes it into my cube. Not as sure about the others, though. Also it’s cool to see the return of Burnwillows, albeit in a less broken form.
Marcy: Pretty solid flip land. By the way, I always found these cards hilarious in a world of sleeveless magic.
Ryan: I love all these DFCs and Stump Stomp has some of the most potential to see play. Plus the flavor text is amazing, it’s the epitome of ‘What’s the worst that could happen?”
Loxi: If you’ve ever listened to the MTGoldfish’s Commander Clash podcast, what I’m about to say probably won’t be a surprise; MDFC’s are really good. Their opportunity cost is very low, even if the effect isn’t anything crazy. In this case, the effect is…quite solid. Getting the pick between a land and removal in any situation is really useful for overall deck construction and gives it good use at most points in a game. A+, really great card.
Golden-Tail Trainer
Marcy: I’d love to have this card in Standard for GW Enchantments, but alas. Otherwise, I kind of don’t find this card that impressive.
Ryan: This card is solid, granting a ton of effects to your modified creatures but not so much that your opponents will feel good about burning a removal spell to get rid of it. I think the downside is that it might not have a lot of playability outside of Commander.
Loxi: First off, this art is lovely. The color palette and the angles in the armor and posing are super pleasing, gorgeous. Second, this is a pretty easy inclusion in most enchantment decks. I’ve written in the past about go-tall style decks using an archetype of creature referred to as a “Carrier,” which are the ones you want to stack all your junk on. This is a good one, since it fuels you to play more cards for cheaper as well as buffs up the rest of your board without having to stack too much up on other things.
Kudo, King Among Bears
Marcy: A 2/2 Bear that makes everything base 2/2 and a Bear is where I feel like we’ve really gone full circle on the joke.
Ryan: I mean, it’s a Bear King. It’s not even a Bear Lord, since he doesn’t even give your other Bears any sort of bonus really. He certainly seems like a silly Commander but doesn’t have any potential in Modern.
FromTheShire: I fucking love this card, and not just because I’m a monster who wants to Living Land and then Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. It’s not a great commander but it will be super fun, and there are enough ways to search for creatures that you’ll be able to get your hidden commander of Ayula, Queen Among Bears without too much trouble.
Strength of the Harvest / Haven of the Harvest
Marcy: Ugh, make this Standard legal, please…! Otherwise, really good land to put in your GW Enchantment deck in Commander or Brawl. These flip lands have pretty good value, overall.
Ryan: I really like this DFC, but there are just better versions of the enchantment. I think you still play a few copies in a Naya or Bant version of an Auras deck, but it might get sidelined by more efficient cards.
Loxi: For the sake of brevity, I’m going to say this is also a good MDFC for the same reasons I listed on the Burnwillows.
FromTheShire: Smash cut to Pauper players being glad this is an uncommon on the heels of the All That Glitters banning.
Invert Polarity
TheChirurgeon: I really like this as a spell that’s mostly win-win. I say mostly because well, sometimes gaining control of a spell won’t help you but this will be the only counter in your hand and you’ll be desperately hoping to lose the flip. Which is pretty funny, and I could see myself running this in my janky Commander deck.
Marcy: Since you get the counter no matter what, I think this is overall a pretty solid card. I also think it helps in the sense that Izzet doesn’t always get a lot of great counter spells specifically in its color combo.
Ryan: There’s kinda no downside to Invert Polarity, either way, that spell isn’t resolving in the way they’d like. I like that it’s on par for a plain ol’ Cancel at three mana and will definitely be very silly in Commander.
Loxi: It’s got a bit of a restrictive casting cost as far as counterspells go, but in an Izzet deck or a deck with a really smooth manabase for color fixing, it’s a nice way to get a bit more value from countering a spell. Like Rob mentioned though, there are some spells you likely won’t want to control, so it does make it have some risk at times. It’s fun as hell though, and that’s really why you’re jamming this one.
FromTheShire: Love flipping coins, love the art, love the flavor…. There’s no part of this card I don’t like. Sure it will occasionally mean you gain control of a board wipe you really wanted to counter, but that’s the price you pay for being Izzet baby.
Izzet Generatorium
Marcy: It’s kind of wild that Izzet is not a color combo that historically uses Energy almost at all. I’m also not convinced this card changes that.
TheChirurgeon: Izzet really feel like they should do stuff with Energy, right?
Ryan: Temur Energy was a thing during the Kaladesh block but I don’t think this is doing enough to bring it back in Modern.
FromTheShire: Outstanding piece for the recent Fallout energy deck, and while I don’t think this immediately creates and energy deck in Modern, if one does eventually pop up I won’t be surprised if this features in it.
Rush of Inspiration / Crackling Falls
Marcy: On the back of the last card, if this goes in a deck with energy, I think this has good flex. Otherwise, still not a bad card if you don’t mind the potential of discarding the card you need.
TheChirurgeon: Another one I really like for the cube. This is a solid enough effect at a hybrid cost that stapling it onto a dual gives it a ton of utility.
Ryan: It’s three mana to draw one card. Even in an Energy-based deck there are better spells.
Loxi: I think this definitely is less generically useful than the other MDFC’s, although I do think it still beats out a lot of the other tap lands in versatility just as a way to dig through your deck later in the game if you don’t need mana.
Cursed Wombat
Marcy: The classic new “prevent a broken card” text of “triggers only once each turn,” also usually comes with the added context that the card itself is unlikely to be game changing. That said this could just be good, honest strong in a deck that places counters, especially if you can do so on an opponent’s turn.
Ryan: It seems like a silly card to bust out if you’re in a Counter-based Commander deck, especially since it hits all your permanents. Otherwise, doesn’t seem great.
Loxi: One of the now famous “do thing, but more!” cards, it’s solid. Corpsejack Menace is a classic, and I’d wager these two weirdos will get along nicely.
FromTheShire: Absolute worst case it’s redundancy which is never a bad thing to have, but counters decks can easily be doing things on each turn to somewhat break the restriction and this has the upside of counting any permanents, not just creatures.
Revitalizing Repast / Old-Growth Grove
Marcy: Kind of messed up lore on this card, but that aside, strong flip land. Actually, all of the flip lands have been pretty solid, with good case uses for their opposite sides.
Ryan: Probably one of the best of the DFC lands, especially since its just one mana.
Loxi: Spot protection on your lands? Yeah, sign me right up.
FromTheShire: Low opportunity cost on a great protection spell, excellent.
Wight of the Reliquary
Loxi: This is a really good card for both Sacrifice strategies as well as Landfall, so where I think it really shines are decks like our new big frog The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride that can easily access synergies from both archetypes.
Ryan: My poor Knight of the Reliquary, slain in the line of duty. Wight of the Reliquary is really good, though I’m not sure exactly where she would fit in Modern currently. Love the flavor text too, especially since it plays off her land-fetching ability.
TheChirurgeon: This is a really fun callback and I like that she’s gained vigilance, though uh, that doesn’t feel particularly black and green. Oh lord, is this a dumb callback to that stupid designer search question?
Marcy: Is it better or worse if the answer to that is “no”? The initial read is they changed it because she’s dead, so now it’s a B card instead of W, but it is also slightly wild to me that I think this might actually be better than the original? Or at least, very on par with it.
Legion Leadership / Legion Stronghold
Marcy: A very sneaky little card that can certainly end a lot of games if your opponents don’t see it coming.
Ryan: Seems fine as a card. Probably a Limited spell that’ll do some work but not much past that.
Loxi: Not to be a broken record, but again I am quite high on this because it can be a tapland when you need mana and a finisher when you need that. Obviously you need to be in a combat focused deck for this one, but if you are I see little reason why you wouldn’t cram this in if your manabase can warrant a few taplands.
TheChirurgeon: I think this is close enough to removal in draft I’d snatch it up as well. Also just a solid game-ender.
FromTheShire: Very nice combat trick on a land. I think this absolutely will see a little play at some point in an aggro shell. It would be perfect in Hammer Time but that deck is kind of poorly positioned in the current meta.
Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury
TheChirurgeon: It’s neat to finally get some of the other Titans of Theros – it’s been an incomplete cycle for a long time, with only Uro and Kroxa out, so getting Phlage and maybe one day we’ll get Skotha.
Ryan: It’s a Lightning Helix on a Giant body, which is good, but maybe not quite good enough to compete with her buddies, Uro and Kroxa. I like how it effectively negates Uro’s lifegain, but also it doesn’t feel like it does enough to make an impact.
Marcy: Pretty solid Titan too; you get a 3 mana bolt that you can then escape later, if you’re casting it from your hand, and then when it hits the battlefield it certainly is quite a problem. I don’t quite know if Phlage is as strong as Uro or Kroxa, but a potentially reoccurring Lightning Helix on a 6/6 body is pretty scary.
Loxi: This is one of those cards that clearly is pretty solid, I just don’t know where to put it. It’s not really great for burn type decks, and not particularly crazy for lifegain. Maybe Boros Reanimator with Plargg, Dean of Chaos could use it well since it can get snagged from Plargg’s trigger or just throwing it in a Giant deck as a good value creature.
Nadu, Winged Wisdom
Marcy: “Triggers only twice each turn” is a new one. I like that this is slightly good removal deterrence, because your opponent has to decide if getting rid of Nadu is worth thinning your deck for you, and also might give you a solution to the problem.
Ryan: This card feels really unique and has the potential to be very good in multiple formats. It’s basically a free Explore trigger when a creature is targeted by anything. Having to track the ‘twice each turn’ trigger seems like a bit of a headache though.
Loxi: This is one of the Simic cards ever, not in a bad way though. It sounds like it might be fun to try and do some weird instant-speed multi-target spells on your own creatures to get as much value as you can from this in one turn cycle.
FromTheShire: This card is fucking bananas. It gives the ability to EACH creature, meaning each one of your creatures can be targeted TWICE by something like Lightning Greaves for free to either put a land into play UNTAPPED or a card into your hand. Notably this is not a draw so it dodges effects like Orcish Bowmasters and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. With cards like Scute Swarm, Field of the Dead, and Springheart Nantuko, this gets game ending incredibly quickly, so much so that people are already brewing cEDH decks around it.
Planar Genesis
Marcy: I could see Tron getting use out of this card, especially since it is Instant speed.
Ryan: All these two mana Simic draw spells are getting out of control. It is slightly worse than Growth Spiral, since you can only play a land from the top four cards of your deck, rather than taking one directly from your hand and putting it into play, but still very good.
Loxi: In most scenarios, I’d play this with the intent of a draw spell that sometimes can ramp you. That’s not bad, but I do think I generally prefer Growth Spiral to it
TheChirurgeon: This is a cool alternative to Impulse that kind of staples it to an Explore.
Arna Kennerüd, Skycaptain
Marcy: I mean, frankly, I’m discarding a card all day to kill this immediately every time, no questions asked. Honestly, at 5 mana, I don’t know if that Ward is enough deterrence.
Ryan: There is so much going on with this card. You can quickly replicate an arsenal of equipment tokens with Arna, and since it triggers anytime a modified creature you control attacks, you can go wide with your creatures. Esper colors is kinda awkward for some of the better Equipment-based decks but it might not be a problem.
Loxi: Not to be a Debbie-downer, but let’s be real for a second; this card is a fucking nightmare to track on board, and I think it will be a pain to play just because the bookkeeping it requires is outrageous.
FromTheShire: Another super powerful effect, good lord.
The Necrobloom
Marcy: I suppose it wouldn’t be a non-Standard set without the return of Dredge! (Although, LotR didn’t have it). There’s some real possibility to this card, especially since it helps fix some of the issues Dredge can have, which is milling your mana resources.
Ryan: The Necrobloom has enough strings attached to it to justify printing dredge on a new card. While this seems very fun to build a Commander deck around, I don’t know if it’ll see much play outside of that.
Loxi: I love Dredge in all of its absurd glory, and this is a fun take on it that will have some really fun and proactive ways to play self mill/landfall. Zombie synergies built in are also a nice touch and provide a really solid shell for this to work with.
FromTheShire: Seems like a really fun landfall commander.
Next Time: Monocolor
That wraps up our look at the set’s multicolored cards. Join us next time as we review the sets monocolor cards, picking out our favorites, and talking about the future build-arounds. In the meantime, if you have any questions or feedback, drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.
