Modern Horizons 3 (MH3) Limited Over and Underperformers Guide

Hey everyone! We’re about a week into drafting Modern Horizons 3 and it’s time to take a peek at which cards have been performing outside the range of their initial expectations. Understanding the reasons that this is happening is a great exercise to better comprehend the format as a whole.

Keep in mind that this is only discussing cards that are performing differently than expected. It makes no sense to tell you that Fury is busted or that Orim's Chant is terrible because everyone already knew that.

I’ve already updated the Modern Horizons 3 Limited Tier List so I won’t be adding the numerical changes in this article since they’ve been fluctuating as the meta settles in. It’s more important to focus on why these cards are performing outside their expectations than to try to quantify the exact differential.

Overperformers

Static Prison

I was very down on this card coming into the set because clearing a permanent out of the way for two turns would be underpowered in a normal limited format. It’s not a world beater or anything, but it can act as a pseudo-Swords to Plowshares for some decks.

The energy decks can manage to keep this around almost permanently and the aggressive decks can usually kill you in the massive tempo swing window that this produces. With a lot of decks planning to win with a massive Eldrazi, white can use a cheap solution even if it is temporary.

It also combos nicely with Essence Reliquary giving you a nice energy reserve while letting you eat their tokens.

Consign to Memory

This (alongside honorable mention Meltdown) is actually an all-star out of the sideboard. They have both been huge game swingers and the disrespect that I’ve been hearing has got to stop. Countering your opponent’s six or seven drop for only one mana is going to have them shouting some expletives. Of course, hitting the always dreaded Writhing Chrysalis is pretty amazing as well.

The reason I’m choosing to highlight this one over Meltdown is that I’ve even started tossing a Consign to Memory in during bo1 games. There are so many devoid cards that this almost always has a target.

Accursed Marauder

The non-token part on this is the big key as it ensures that they sacrifice a real creature while leaving your opponent’s Eldrazi Spawn tokens sitting on their thumbs watching their big buddy get shipped directly to the yard. A big part of this format is “what are you going to do when they drop an Eldrazi” and this gives you a solid answer to that on the cheap.

I’ve been loving black decks lately and this has been a key card that I’ve been able to pick up without investing a premium pick. This can get ridiculous If you manage to get Chthonian Nightmare to go along with it.

Unstable Amulet

While you still obviously don’t want to be playing this in a deck that doesn’t make any energy, it has been a great engine for any deck that is in that business. Turning all of that extra energy into extra draws makes all of your less awe-inspiring cards perform like they were actually premium plucks.

Writhing Chrysalis

I certainly couldn’t put out this article without talking about this one. I originally thought it was the best multicolored common, but definitely in the conversation for best overall common. Performing as a top three overall card in the set is certainly above those expectations.

This card is a serious issue for the format, at least over the first week when people keep ending up with multiples late. For example, I did a draft last night where I ended up with three of them, but didn’t have to take any of them before pick three. We keep waiting for it to self-correct, but it’s been really struggling to do so on Arena.

I’m not saying something crazy like “Writhing Chrysalis is as big of a mistake in limited as Tolarian Academy was in constructed”. Despite the outcry, it’s not THAT big of a problem. From what they said it feels like the design team did a hasty patch-up job on Writhing Chrysalis at the end without testing it and the Skullclamp situation repeated itself.

Underperformers

Decree of Justice

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Even during preview season, I knew this wasn’t going to live up to its glory days. It’s been far worse than expected though only having a place in controlling decks that need a finisher. The format does too much, too fast leaving this sitting in the blocks hoping you don’t draw it until it’s a late game top deck.

Laelia, the Blade Reforged

I am still happy to slam this early on, but it has been performing far below the busted bomb status it was expected to be. In this format, it often gets brick walled early which leaves you needing a hard removal, a trick, or running it in hoping to hit something you can cast.

It just lines up poorly against a lot that is going on here. Consider that your opponent plays an Eldrazi Repurposer and this was your turn three plan. You don’t want to trade without getting some value, but you don’t want to just play a Gray Ogre and sit around with it.

You can still rack up a ton of value and there are plenty of nifty combos. It just takes quite a bit more to go your way to get the job done than expected.

Thriving Skyclaw

I thought this was going to be a serviceable flyer that could do a bit more in the energy deck. So far it has been a sure-fire sign that something went wrong with my draft.

My theory is that the prevalence of cheap removal and reach creatures makes smaller flying creatures preform below their normal levels.

Wither and Bloom

I always have to have a disclaimer with this type of card. This is still a really solid removal spell that you should be taking early. The difference is that I’m hoping to pick it up between picks 3-5 rather than picks 1-3.

The problem comes back to Writhing Chrysalis and the horde of Eldrazi that follows it. There are still plenty of matchups that this is an all star in, it’s just performing a tiny bit lower than expected because of how the format has shaken out.

Solar Transformer

My initial take on this card was that it was great because it did a bit of everything for every deck except hard aggro decks. The reality is that the format requires either extremely focused decks or extremely powerful ones to “get there”. Doing a small bit of everything doesn’t perform as well in that type of environment. I’m still taking Solar Transformer, but not as early as I was.

A basic two color Eldrazi deck is going to prefer cards like Nightshade Dryad or even a Basking Broodscale in the two drop slot while one with a few energy payoffs might bump this up a bit. An energy deck that is splashing around is still going to value this highly compared to other options.

As I said at the beginning, I’m not saying this card is bad. It’s just dropped a few picks in my overall pick order.

Wrap Up

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back in a few days with my Comprehensive Draft Guide for Modern Horizons 3 ahead of the Arena Open. Until then, stay classy people!

I’m always open to feedback, let me know what you loved, what you hated, or just send dog pics. You can contact me at:

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