Sets (MH1) Modern Horizons Testing/Includes

This is a testing/includes thread. Post pictures or a text list using /c with what cards you plan to include and what cards you plan to test.
For me, I'm only going to include a few cards from this set. It was pretty great over all, but there just weren't a ton of cards that made me want to go out and get them as singles day 1 of release.
Includes:
giverofrunes1.jpg
astraldrift1.jpg
splicersskill.jpg
bazaartrademage.jpg
undeadaugur.jpg
goblinengineer1.jpg
tectonicreformation1.jpg
genesis1.jpg
scrapyardrecombiner1.jpg
Including if I open:
seasonedpyromancer1.jpg
prismaticvista1.jpg
Testing:
urzalordhighartificer1.jpg
echoofeons1.jpg
yawgmoththranphysician.jpg
hexdrinker1.jpg
ayulasinfluence1.jpg
What are your plans for this set?​
 
I'm pretty happy with what red got in this set. I was looking for non Goblin Welder/Daretti, Scrap Savant ways to abuse the graveyard and I think the cards below help with that.

Almost 100%
Seasoned Pyromancer: Looting (or better), tokens and flashback. This will replace Wheel of Fortune which is just too risky in my multiplayer setting and harder to take advantage of.

Magmatic Sinkhole: Kind of a red Murderous Cut that can hit some planeswalkers.

Wrenn and Six: Great way to recur lands sacrificed, looted away or just a fetch. Also very cheap CC wise which I am always in the market for.

Reap the Past: This card looks sweet to me. Red and green are both good at dumping cards in the GY, but there aren't many Gruul cards that take advantage of it. Reminds me of Seasons Past and I wouldn't mind a second one. To mitigate the random effect, green is great at returning lands from the GY so there won't be too many hopefully and the aforementioned Magmatic Sinkhole works nicely to remove the unwanted cards too.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician: This does a lot of cool things and easily replaces Yaheeni, Undying Partisan or Flesh Carver. Just wished the protection text wasn't there but, whatever.

Urza, Lord High Artificer: This might just be too busted, but it's a nice little self-contained engine that plays with my favorites: artifacts.

Prismatic Vista: I run a bunch of fetches already, but will still play this. Lands in the GY can be abused!

Nurturing Peatland, Waterlogged Grove: Green need lands in the GY and these provide a ton of value.

Nature's Chant: Low impact card, but the effect is valuable and this can get played in so many decks.

Not 100%
Goblin Engineer: I love what this card does, but I don't know if I want to play it with Welder/Daretti as it seems like a lot of overlap. I'm not cutting Welder or Daretti as they enable RB, RW and RU reanimator decks with artifact fatties. This will be tested for sure though.

Ransac the Lab: The only thing that makes me hesitate is that I could just play a second Discovery // Dispersal since blue loves filling the GY as well.

Silent Clearing, Sunbaked Canyon, Fiery Islet: These aren't green and while always good, I'm not sure if they are better than a temple or bounceland.

Scrapyard Recombiner: I play a ton of constructs and sacrificing artifacts can be good if the deck is built right. Might be too narrow, but will be testing it.

Tectonic Reformation: I love this card 100%, but I'm not sure if my drafters will appreciate. It's cheap and conditional and cycles. Seems like nothing can go wrong :p
 
Includes:

Ranger-Captain of Eos: White 3 drop slot has gotten pretty stacked in recent years, but I'm very very interested in this one. The base 3/3 body is solid at the rate, the ability to tutor up an impact 1 drop like Mother of Runes or Giver of Runes or utility creatures like Walking Ballista and Hangarback Walker has some cool play to it. Sad day for my boy Ranger of Eos, but I hardly ever had a 2nd impact 1 drop to pick up and this coming down a turn earlier is just more appealing. The ability to blank out a wrath for a turn is crucial for W/x Aggro decks to cross the finish line and I feel like this will end up playing much better than it looks.

Giver of Runes: Mother of Runes might be the most powerful 1 drop creature in White, maybe only 2nd all-time to Deathrite Shaman, and this is a fairer riff on it with a slightly bigger bottom and similar gameplay without doing the weird flagbearer subgame. I'm a little bummed that it's not a human for my cube, glad that that's the case for Modern. It's going to be a solid 1 drop, I think Stepmom will remain in my cube for a very long time.

Winds of Abandon: This will be a straight replacement for Declaration in Stone which I like in aggressive decks, but have found myself disliking in just about every other W/x build because your opponent will often be able to grind out an advantage with that extra card at some point. I'm also trying to make a tokens subtheme work so getting rid of Declaration for this should help in that regard. I'm also very interested in the Overload mode because this can more or less function as a sorcery speed Path to Exile or a 6 mana Settle the Wreckage hybrid. I'm actually going to be able to free up that Settle slot as well for something else since this will be pulling double-duty, which is great. Also that art is fantastic, this'll be a very pretty foil.

Urza, Lord High Artificer: The card that is making me re-evaluate UR Artifacts as an archetype entirely. I'm working on an in-depth write-up centered on the archetype that I'll post sometime this week in my Cube Blog. He's a 1000% snap include.

Bazaar Trademage: That's a big body on a splashable flier. Going down a card isn't great in most scenarios, but being a roadblock while filling your grave with something relevant to reanimate is very appealing to me. I just love loot effects stapled to bodies.

Watcher for Tomorrow: I glanced over this one on the initial reveal, but the more I think about it the more I like it. It gives you an early body that you can block with after it untaps, looking at 4 and picking 1 is MUCH better than just drawing a card, and it plays well with any blink strategy giving you card selection and drawing you a card. It's also a Wizard, so janky Riptide Laboratory loops can happen in grindier games.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician: Incredible card. It's a sac outlet, an engine all on its own, and it's extremely flavorful. The 2/4 body ensures that he won't die to just any piece of common spot removal, can block effectively, and he'll have some staying power being able to shrink and deal with bigger bodies on his own. This is going to be gross with anything recurrable like Bloodghast or Gravecrawler. Might be even nastier in decks that can generate a bunch of token bodies for fodder. This + Bitterblossom would be a very quick way to kill yourself but hey, greatness at any cost right?

Plague Engineer: I really like this card as a means of dealing with tokens and aggressive decks which can run right through games if they get set up. The 2/2 body is small enough that just about any piece of removal can deal with it, the -1/-1 is enough to kill most tokens produced in my cube, and I just think this is a really solid roleplayer in a variety of decks. You could also snipe down x/1s or use it as a weird one-shot removal spell after combat to get that final point of damage on a bigger body. Not bad at all. Saw it in action during LoadingReadyRun's pre-prerelease, did some serious work while out there. I think this will play better than it looks.

Seasoned Pyromancer: More loot effects stapled to bodies, hell yeah brother. Great card for token strategies, can put relevant cards into the graveyard for Reanimation/Daretti decks, and you can use it as a blocker and later cash it in for two more bodies at any point later in the game. Awesome card, that's a lot of value tied up in a tidy 1RR package.

Goblin Engineer: The 3rd card I've always needed to make Welder/Daretti decks more consistent. Red Entomb, pseudo-Welder ability, and it's right on curve for these kind of decks at 2cmc. Excellent card, I can't wait to give this a run.

Magmatic Sinkhole: I really like this card as a means of dealing with big bodies or walker from an aggressive leaning R/x deck. It's not incredible, but I could see it being pretty solid value for a color that has issues dealing with bigger bodies. This is pretty much Red's Murderous Cut. Nice.

Wrenn and Six: Another single card that made me want to try out an entire archetype in G/R Lands. I've got a lot of ideas for this one and a write-up on this will be coming down the pipeline at some point. I think this card is an All-Star, it's going to be incredible in action.

Soulherder: This card is such an awesome uncommon and signpost for a U/W blink subtheme. Doesn't require any additional hoops to jump through, gets going as soon as you reach the EOT, and it grows off any exile effect you might deploy. It's excellent along with amazing art to boot. I can't wait to grind some insane value with this and stuff like Wall of Omens, Blade Splicer, Venser, Shaper Savant or even the upcoming Urza, Lord High Artificer.

Scrapyard Recombiner: Wasn't too sure of this on first glace, but I like it the more that I think about it. Cashing in artifacts to tutor up constructs like any of the KLD Gearhulks or even Myr Battlesphere is pretty sweet. Worst case you can transmute it into one of those a turn after deploying it. Anything that gives my Artifacts archetype further consistency is welcome in my cube with open arms.

All Canopy Lands except for B/W: I want to have the green ones in the cube to help out G/x decks by giving them some more gas in the late game, R/W land is excellent for aggressive strategies, and Fiery Islet is better than the U/R Manland. I actually really like Shambling Vents power level wise, so I'll probably be keeping that in for my B/W decks.

Prismatic Vista: Pretty much another fetch, snap include. Nothing interesting to discuss.

Will Test:

Serra, the Benevolent: I've been wanting a 4 drop in White that was kind of token-y and could hold its own, a 4/4 Angel with a planeswalker attached (with gorgeous art) fits the bill. I don't like the gameplay that originates from either Gideon, Ally of Zendikar or Elspeth, Knight-Errant, but I feel like this is at the appropriate power level for what I want. I also like the weird plus ability interacting with existing fliers at 2 and 3 cmc slots in addition to token producers like Lingering Souls, Bitterblossom and Spectral Procession. This might be the B/W tokens card I've been wanting for a while, eager to give it a try.

Generous Gift: This is definitely more a commander card than anything, but I find the idea of a White Elephant gift (except it's green, which bothers me) absolutely hilarious. Destroying any permanent is big game, not an effect we get very often, and it's right within White's slice of the color wheel. I'm gonna give this a run and see how it turns out.

Echo of Eons: I'm not very interested in playing full retail for this, but I am super interested in flashing this back in the late game after looting it away early to improve my card quality. This card changes drastically in effectiveness when it is Timetwister vs. Time Reversal. I could see this being big game for burn heavy U/R tempo decks refilling their hand with gas.

Tectonic Reformation: This card seems more cute than good, but the base case of just cycling it for 2 and getting a card is just fine with me. It's an interesting red card that isn't a creature or burn spell and I'm all for trying out more of these. Seems like a pretty decent card for a G/R Lands archetype I'm trying to build. I could see some cool things happening like a super cycle turn to churn through the deck alongside something like Life From the Loam to get to something like Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar or Centaur Vinecrasher. This is also extremely gross if you can branch into black and play The Gitrog Monster. That just sounds disgusting and seems like a ton of fun. I think I just convinced myself to move this to an Include.

Ore-Scale Guardian: I didn't even notice this card until right now. This looks like a nice signal for G/R lands. 4/4 Flying Haste is a fine rate at 5 mana for a normal card, if you can turbo this out any earlier it becomes really solid. I could see the base case of this being 3RR happening more often than not with my environment containing double fetches and other means of pitching lands into the grave. I like it, not bad at all.

Winding Way: Could be an okay support card for G/R lands and graveyard based G/x strategies. I'm not a fan of Mulch in Cube and the looks at X pick on of Y or Z variants we've gotten in recent years haven't quite gotten there, but I kind of like the either-or of filling your hand with lands or bodies while pitching the other. I'm super duper excited for this in my Sidisi EDH deck though, you'll find me jamming this day 1.

Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis: I'm kind of interested in this, but Golgari is also my most stacked guild. I'll see if I can find space for it because it is pretty cool, but I don't really see it happening. I don't know how good this actually would be in practice because getting bricked is going to feel so bad, but recurrable threats from the graveyard that are humongous should never be underrated.

Good Fortune Unicorn: This is just a really strong uncommon that will play well in G/W Midrange. I don't really see a whole lot of synergies or anything super cool you can do with this in my cube, but you're mostly trying to smash with big bodies anyway so this will probably work out just fine. I guess there are cute infinite combo loops with Kitchen Finks or Murderous Redcap + this + sac outlet. I'll give it a shot, there aren't too many GW cards that are sacred cows for me aside from Knight of the Reliquary.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
okay but why can't we just get card images from scryfall on this site and have them during spoiler season?
This site predates Scryfall, I'm guessing they used a ready to go script that was available back then. Problem is, iirc, the user ErikChan used to do the technical stuff like add smilies and game tags, and I think we haven't seen them for about a year now? Don't know if there's anybody around currently who Jason trusts with access to the backend of this site and who has the skills to actually interpret and correctly implement the Scryfall API. And make the new API connection backwards compatible with the current one, so deck tags, for example, still work.
 
This site predates Scryfall, I'm guessing they used a ready to go script that was available back then. Problem is, iirc, the user ErikChan used to do the technical stuff like add smilies and game tags, and I think we haven't seen them for about a year now? Don't know if there's anybody around currently who Jason trusts with access to the backend of this site and who has the skills to actually interpret and correctly implement the Scryfall API. And make the new API connection backwards compatible with the current one, so deck tags, for example, still work.

I'm sure I could do it myself but yeah that requires actual access to the domain. Boo.
 
But.. anyone still using that..

It seems like it will only help thinning out in the amount of content this site will have. Threads, articles and discussions etc.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I find it's mostly used for short questions. Nothing like the discussions we're having on here. Plus, people can talk over Discord when drafting with each other.
 
Lots of nice stuff for my cube. Fiddling around with it at the moment, but these are the cards most likely to be inserted:

Astral Drift After this came out I went back and read the old Astral Slide thread. It's like somebody at Wizards read that thread and took all our suggestions on board. I really like how this stretches the discard (cycling) theme into white as well, should be cool. Need to get the promo though, 'cos that art is horrible.

Splicers Skill Not entirely convinced about this, as it can only be dealt with through discard, but sufficiently expensive to make it an end game threat. Between this and astral drift, thinking about bringing the splicers back in.

Rain of Revelation I have been totally swayed by the art and flavour text for this. I love it! If I'm going to pretent justify it to myself, it's a simpler careful consideration which still ties in with the discard theme. I'm weirdly excited by this.

Ransack the lab Need to see if/how this fits. It's just so odd for black to have stratetic planning and I'm not entirely sure it's needed. I'll have to see.

Goblin Engineer Perfect addition to the welder archetype with just enough difference to feel a bit more expansive. Entomb for artifacts is pretty interesting, and may add further synergies in the future.

Goblin War-party I like the flexibility, but the cost sticks in my throat a bit, and I don't like the similarity with heroic reinforcements. Need to mull on this a bit more.

Quakefoot Cyclops I really wanted to fit the evoke version of this in my cube for a while, but it was too weak. Cycling with effect makes this really good, and a decent way for aggressive decks to push through damage.

Tectonic Reformation Again love how this gives further support to the cycling deck and gives a build around in red. I'm a bit worried about how this will play out with life from the loam. I'm sure there was a quote from Grillo talking about how Life always became the best card draw in a format.

Throes of Chaos Super good. Supports lands discard, and velocity decks. Can be discarded early and won't feel bad about it. And cascade is just fun.

Springbloom Druid Thought the lands came in untapped like harrow but I still really like this. Ramp, way to fix colours and get land in graveyard for lands matter and delerium effects. This is lovely.

Winding Way Mega-mulch that can get gas in the late game, or still put creatures in your yard if that's what you need at the time. Early game land fixer, later game card draw, feeds graveyard strategies. Cool.

Prismatic Vista I'm big on fixing lands being able to apply to many different drafters, to make it easier to have fixing, and there be enough to go around. This is great, and supports lands, even if I'm not playing the 'good' fetchlands. Staple, and going to be irritatingly expensive. Thanks for making it a rare.

Wrenn and Six is obviously good and helps make the lands archetype a thing, but I'm not sure it's needed. I'm really going off theme signal cards in gold as it restricts the number of different decks that can build with it and therefore restricts creativity. Something to talk about more another time.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
After winning the prerelease draft with a GW beatdown deck, I want to try out these:



Savage Swipe was super sweet. I ran a whopping 10 creatures that naturally had 2 power, and it is a small subtheme, currently, in white. In addition, both Ranging Raptors and Needletooth Raptor are hilarious with this, and those are already in my cube. Definitely interested in trying to make this work!

Mother Bear is simply a solid 2-drop, and it can be great discard fodder. Don't know if it's actually good enough, but I might try.

Saddled Rimestag is a great aggressive two-drop, don't think I actually need to elaborate there.

Treetop Ambusher likely has no place in my cube either. I don't even run any other dash creatures, currently, but both Zurgo Bellstriker and Goblin Heelcutter have proven good enough in the past, and I really liked the gameplay of the Ambusher.

Good-Fortune Unicorn looks anaemic with its Gray Ogre body, but those counters add up fast. I currently run Juniper Order Ranger as well, and this might just be better? I don't run any persist cards, but this would be pretty busted with those and a sac outlet...

Rhox Veteran is the card that silently impressed me the most. Well, okay, other than Savage Swipe. Card is a house as a curve topper, both enabling and bolstering attacks, and it seems like a great replacement for the Ojutai Exemplars that's somehow still in my cube after the color reshuffle (where RW spells was a thing), because none of the other four drops really inspired me.



Ok, so I won't run Lesser Masticore, because I don't run any cards that use -1/-1 counters in my cube, but in one game, Good-Fortune Unicorn plus this persist bear meant I was able to attack unimpeded for a few turns. It even sneaked by bigger blockers because they were weary of the pump spell I had shown them in game 1. From my games, the activation cost was just a tad too expensive to be really useful though, would have loved it if it did 1 damage for 3 mana.

Deep Forest Hermit is a card I can't see myself running either. As army in a can, it's just as bad as Deranged Hermit before it, adding just a few too many bodies and power to the board. It might actually be better than the original, since the new Hermit sticks around for a few turns without the need for investing an additional {3}{G}{G}. That means you can keep deploying new threats or removal or whatever during your next few turns, all the while nipping at your opponent's life total with your chittering horde of doom.
 
Deep Forest Hermit is a card I can't see myself running either. As army in a can, it's just as bad as Deranged Hermit before it, adding just a few too many bodies and power to the board. It might actually be better than the original, since the new Hermit sticks around for a few turns without the need for investing an additional {3}{G}{G}. That means you can keep deploying new threats or removal or whatever during your next few turns, all the while nipping at your opponent's life total with your chittering horde of doom.

I kind of want to try this for the meme value :p. I might cut it after a draft or two, but killing people with squirrels seems really fun...
 
I want to try Hexdrinker because my green section is too boring right now, but it seems like it might be GRBS.
 
I want to try Hexdrinker because my green section is too boring right now, but it seems like it might be GRBS.

I mean, it's very powerful, possibly the best card for limited in the retail set, but I think GRBS is pushing it considering the amount of mana you have to invest. If you can't find a way to deal with it before they put 8 mana into it, you sort of deserve to get wrecked by it.
 
Okay, I finally figured it out, I'm going to give these cards a run:



Watcher is a great blink payoff and a 2-drop that's useful for every deck.
The Dragonheart might be the Nantuko Husk red deservers.
Mommy Bear is a nice value 2-drop that ticks many boxes in my cube.
Rain is a cool instant draw spell that works well with Drake Haven and Laboratory Maniac
Party is worth a try, nice to have some token support in red.
Sad to cut Rebecca Guays Mulch, but damn Winding way is soo much more flexible. Love it.

Funny, I'll only add Temur cards here while every card I'll add from M20 is either white or black.
 
GREAT SET

That being said, there are lots, LOTS of cards I want to try:



Cycling, as well as blink, is a thing in UWx, and Drift has cycling itself, so I just HAVE to try it out. Ephemerate looks a bit boring, but it's also for UW blink, and Rebound helps Spells Matter. It also makes creatures dodge removal. I'm just not sure if I like Momentary Blink better. Faerie Seer looks like the 1drop blue deserves. Fists of Flame adds to the aggressive nature Red has and is also perfect for Spells Matter. It also does look better than Defiant Strike, Guided Strike, Leap and Gallantry, but I'll see. Good-Fortune Unicorn is the perfect strong multicolour card for the +1/+1 counters theme in GWUx. Magmatic Sinkhole looks like a good alternative to Murderous Cut, which is quite a strong card. 5 damage might be a bit much, as it hits most creatures, and also planeswalkers (if I decide to add them, finally). Instant speed doesn't help. Scour All Possibilities is the perfect blue flashback card, love it. Seasoned Pyromancer looks exciting to me, might be a bit strong, though. Winding Way is exactly what I want. Yawgmoth is love.

Not sure about those, depends in how exactly I'm going to rebuild my Cube:



Generous Gift looks quite balanced for a hit-all, Beast Within for white. Goblin Engineer looks interesting, tutoring up a big artifact creature for reanimation or a smaller artifact so it can bring back just that. Mob might have the same problem as Magmatic Sinkhole for being too strong. Compare it to Stoke the Flames. Moonblade Shinobi looks very interesting for the archetype. Phantasmal Form also would be mainly for the Spells Matter archetype, especially if I implement some Heroic creatures to it. Ransack the Lab could be exactly what I need, comparable to Winding Way. Rhox Veteran is good for go wide strategies, taps down blockers.. I'm still not sure if it might end up a bit too weak? I'll see, I guess. Savage Swipe is an upgraded version of Prey Upon, and as I want to implement more Fight cards into my cube this looks perfect. Settle Beyond Reality is good removal for a deck with some etb creatures but might be a bit costy. I think I'll also run Victimize and think those two compare nicely. Smiting Helix just looks awesome but needing three colours is somewhat rough. Don't think this will make the cut. Soulherder looks good for UW blink and GWUx +1/+1 counters, but also a bit poison-y and boring. Splicer's Skill looks very interesting. Wrenn and Six would only be good for RG lands I think, but there it will be a powerhouse, maybe a bit too strong. Urza's just in this list because I WANT TO PLAY IT, but if I implement artifacts I guess it'll be definitely too strong as a payoff. It just screams 'break me in some way'.
 
I thought about Changeling Outcast, too. A human/zombie 1drop that is aggressive and helps ninjas sounds great obv.
My problem with it: I don't like 'unblockable' and prefer flying. For me, it's Defy Gravity instead of Artful Dodge, and a Faerie Seer looks far more interesting for ninjutsu (repeatable scry) than the outcast.

E: edited my posting above. :)
 
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