Hey everyone! Are you prepared to broaden your horizons before crushing some dreams in the newest set? That’s right, it’s somehow already new set time with Modern Horizons 3 preparing to drop on MTG Arena on June 11th. I’m not getting much time outside of the content creation dungeon with this crazy release schedule, but at least my wife promised to slide food under the door every time I finish an article.
Per usual, I’ll be grading the entire set for limited purposes. Maybe one day I’ll get to see sunlight again, but today is not that day.
0.5: Very unhappy to main deck this, but maybe it has fringe sideboard applications. Cards that “could” be situationally decent, but bad in most situations. (Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, Mana Flare)
0.0: Unplayable in every possible situation. They rarely print cards this bad these days. (Hew the Entwood, One with Nothing)
Powerful cards to MTG Arena releases on June 11, 2024 for Timeless and Historic formats! Learn all about Modern Horizons 3 and find all our related articles in our hub.
I don’t think there will be too many decks that don’t have colorless sources so I’m assuming that you’ll get them with this grade. Exiling something for four mana is totally fine, but stealing their best nonland permanent is so much sweeter.
You had me at a warded up 4/4 flying lifelink for five even with it being three colors. It’s even better if you ever get to use that last ability, but it’s not even necessary for this to be a good card.
I love all of these dual land MDFCs because you would most likely be playing the dual land in your deck anyway. I feel that’s a big upside compared to the regular MDFCs whose lands have a drawback compared to what you’d normally expect.
You prefer to be playing this in a heavily aggressive deck or have some way to lower the cost to a more reasonable amount. If this turns into a draw three for two mana that’s a bargain even if they are your opponent’s cards which will probably be on a different plan than yours.
Are you playing Boros beats? Then this little guy is a great two drop that encourages your future recruits to fight through that summoning sickness and do it for the team.
This was already banned in pauper so you can probably guess that it is pretty good. While this set lacks artifact lands to make this completely bonkers, getting a germ token pre-equipped to it makes up for that. You prefer to be in Rakdos artifacts for this, but that’s not a bad place to be if you have a couple of these ready to ram on in.
I never thought I would be using the words nightmare wombat, but here we are. This gets huge with a swiftness and even bumps your other +1+1 counter cards as well. I’m sure you won’t mind getting two cards back off of Evolution Witness.
This doesn’t even have to be in the Energy decks to do its thing, but it can really shine there. Even if you have zero synergies, this is a 2/2 prowess for three that can light something up when it dies. That’s still a really good common.
This card is great if you are planning on only smashing in with one (preferably evasive) creature. You’re not limited to once per turn on the exalted counters so if you have some extra energy you can really go off right away.
Back in the day people were worried about Watchwolf being too powerful. Now it has Vigilance and counters (so it comes pre-modified) while being a common. Give Lord Fancy-Paws all the treats and pets cause he’ll get the job done.
I really want to have a sacrifice land in play when I drop this so I get the value right away. You’ll still get a plenty of tokens through normal game play as long as this sticks around. Eventually you can just pump up the jams to finish the game off.
You really need to have plenty of equipment and bestow auras going on to do anything with this. Some +1+1 counters wouldn’t hurt either. Its so dependent on other cards to even be playable that I can’t grade it any higher than this. There will be decks where this functions almost like a bomb, but I heavily suspect it will spend most of its time in the sideboard.
This is an easy way to trigger the draw three cards such as Sneaky Snacker. It also can conveniently drop that snacker into your graveyard to reap that value. While Dimir doesn’t exactly excel at pumping creatures, it does well at clearing the way especially when you are zooming through your deck with this.
This is difficult to give an actual grade because it’s amazing in a dedicated artifact deck and absolute dog water in a deck without any artifacts. I’m rating it here for where you can put it when you’re drafting it early since it is a commitment to an archetype. The actual grade will fluctuate wildly throughout your draft.
I hate that this card exists because it swings a game on a coin flip. Hard to cast Cancel is still playable in a high-power set, but it’s disgusting when it outright steals one of their best spells.
This has a ton of potential in the energy deck, but is pretty much unplayable in other decks. You do have the option to pay extra energy on some cards so that you can still trigger the card draw.
I can see the potential here since you can be prepared to take advantage of the symmetry. The problem with that is you were prepared for that and one removal spell ruins your whole plan. It also makes their Eldrazi spawn tokens real creatures.
This is another of those cards that makes you want to throw something. It’s a solid rate on a flyer that at its worst gets replaced if they deal with it. Now start thinking of the times they try to kill this; you protect it and draw two. It makes every fight spell into a cantrip even if you’re using a different one of your creatures. It just keeps the good times rolling.
I doubt that you are ever going to get your Field of the Dead on, but it’s definitely higher than a zero chance to happen. This is still a big body that pumps out 0/1 plant tokens for all of your sacrificing needs.
Persist can be a truly annoying ability especially with ways to use +1+1 counters to remove the -1-1 counters. These make lovely sacrifice fodder as well as great targets for modification. On it’s base it is a 2/2 for three that dies into a 1/1 flyer. That’s fine, but you really want to be doing other stuff to take advantage of it.
Speaking of ways to take advantage of Obstinate Gargoyle, Ondu Knotmaster does a lovely job of that in both supplying extra counters and benefiting from the modified creature’s death.
This is what happens if you leave Cookie Monster (Psychatog) and Thieving Magpie alone together. This is some serious power creep from those days.
You usually have to come up with some way to force your Ophidian through, but they can’t block this because of the threat of activation. Later on, they don’t really have that option since you can just make it fly on over.
So, a potentially huge flyer that provides card advantage every turn. All of that for two mana is straight up clown shoes. I understand that this dies to removal so maybe I shouldn’t give it the five. The thing is if they don’t have that removal, they aren’t beating this.
This is an instant speed removal spell that just happens to get a card back from your graveyard. Obviously if this read kill target non-Eldrazi creature, draw a card for four mana, you’d be all over this. As long as you have something in the bin, that’s functionally what it does.
This is very similar to Snakeskin Veil in that it can usually dodge a removal spell, but this one also makes it easier to win a combat. It also synergizes with all of the when this gets a +1+1 counter cards such as Evolution Witness to be able to pick up an extra card.
You can’t really go wrong with a 2/2 flyer for two and this one even throws three energy into the deal. That’s either a decent chunk towards doing other shenanigans or at least one free pop for this. As a bonus it triggers on any attack and can target any of your creatures which sets you up to gain a decent chunk of life out of nowhere.
Are you looking to cast a 4/4 for four that mills you for six? Because that’s what this really is in this set. If you’re playing a graveyard theme, then go ahead and pick this up.
Double ramping early is always disgusting and even better when you are doing it in Eldrazi. It even conveniently gives you two colorless sources without requiring one to get it down. On top of that, it even provides some card advantage later.
I’ve been called this plenty of times throughout my life. Don’t judge me, sometimes you deserve a delicious treat.
I like this card because it’s a two-power flyer for two mana. It can also recur itself, but you do need to be able to draw three cards in one turn to bring it back. If you can easily do that, bump this up to a 3.0. If you can’t do it at all, drop it to a 2.0
A decent size pair of pants (does anyone else still use this terminology for auras) to toss on a creature if you aren’t just dropping it as an early dual.
As with the rest of this cycle, I’m extremely happy running this if I am in these colors. A dual land that could just steal a game for you or shut down their side for an extra turn if you have some extra energy running around is just great.
This is the actual mythic uncommon from the set. It does disgusting things in the Eldrazi deck and there will be a lot of complaints about getting wrecked by this card.
This Mystical Teachings got so waterlogged that it lost the ability to flashback. While the front seems like a card you would never play, it being able to grab a key removal spell or something when you top deck it late is actually pretty good considering that it’s a dual land.
This can get really big, really fast. It also turns excess creatures (or ones targeted with removal) into lands. While that doesn’t seem spectacular, it can really ramp you like crazy which can certainly do some work if you have landfall cards.
This card has felt ridiculous for a common. It ramps you hard up to the big boy Eldrazi while growing into one on their own.
Wrap Up
Thanks for reading! I’ll be back soon with my limited review of the New to Modern and Special Guests cards from Modern Horizons 3. Until then, stay classy people!
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.
Josh is a member of the elite limited team The Draft Lab as well as the host of The Draft Lab Podcast. He was qualifying for Pro Tours, Nationals, and Worlds literally before some of you were born. After a Magic hiatus to play poker and go to medical school, he has been dominating Arena with over an 80% win percentage in Bo3 as well as making #1 rank in Mythic.
