Sets (MH3) Modern Horizons 3 Previews

[gaytransmulldrifter]

Only took over a decade but they finally printed a new quest for all the Zendikar sickos like me. This one seems like it would be fun in a low power environment. I like the mounting tension that these cards add to the game. Quest for the Gravelord is a favorite among my players, and I think people like it because of that exciting ramp up as the quest counters tick up.

Unfortunately, the big downside here is that this name is not as much fun to say as Zektar Shrine Expedition. My new upcoming prog rock project Zektar Shrine Expedition.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I dig this quest! This is such a cute reanimator spell, especially with 14 fetchlands in the 450, it should be doable to get this down to low numbers, and it’s fetchable with Zur the Enchanter!

 

[ravnic]

It's a great design. It's obviously good on turn one, but unlike other landfall cards, it isn't a horrible topdeck late, because then you can probably just activate it for the full amount and get something great back.

 

[Erik Twice]

The introduction of Birthing Ritual and my spare space in white makes me wonder if one failed archetype can be brought back:



First, Birthing Ritual is a broadly playable enchantment that also acts as a sac outlet. Hence, I wonder if Rector can fit in as some sort of secondary theme. I've had a ton of success with a "cheat" subtheme in white, so I hope to replicate the success I've had with:



Interestingly, it's Replenish that interests me more this time. Rector has two problems:

- Most good targets are very cheap (Earthcraft, Animate Dead, Survival of the Fittest, Goblin Bombardment)
- Control decks rely on chump blocking in order to sacrifice it

Replenish could, in theory, gain significant value by bringing back several enchantments. If it could be the narrow "Fact or Fiction builaround" of white, that would be enough for me. However, I fear it may simply lack targets or suffer from 24th card syndrome.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

My only regret for Quest of the Necropolis is that it activates only as a sorcery

 

[inscho]

My only regret for Quest of the Necropolis is that it activates only as a sorcery

Yeah that's a bummer for sure. It's nice that it targets any graveyard at least

 

[Nanonox]

Replenish could, in theory, gain significant value by bringing back several enchantments. If it could be the narrow "Fact or Fiction builaround" of white, that would be enough for me. However, I fear it may simply lack targets or suffer from 24th card syndrome.

I think the biggest issue is that White has trouble filling the GY effectively. That means you either lean into another color for self-mill or you run enchantments that bin themselves



You get the point. Sagas, cycling and sacrificing. This leads you down a more controlling route which is fine for both Rector and Replenish. I don't know how you make Rector pop in a controlling deck though.

 

[ravnic]

Good boy here to remind you that enchantment creatures are a thing too.

 

[MilesOfficial]

After a decade of my hemming and hawing about the Mirage fetch cycle, they print these!

There's a very good chance I run the whole bunch. What's the point of having a 720 card singleton list if you can't support neat cycles like this? They're very good at supporting 3 color decks and splashes without helping 5-color decks quite as much, which seems good. Every deck in my Cube is better off with a Terramorphic besides maybe 2-color aggro, and these are Terramorphics you can get pretty late because of their more narrow application, and I'm a sucker for getting things into graveyards.

Love the art across the board, too. What a delight!

 

[Nanonox]

This guy is a rather spicy and open-ended build around. Comletely busted fetches first off. Getting mana back with each sacrifice opens the doors to funky lines. It would be fantastic in the grindy artifact builds with Goblin engineer, Scrap Trawler, Emry, Lurker of the Loch and Baubles + Stars. In sacrifice decks it offers more fodder. Definitely considering it!

 

[gaytransmulldrifter]

I'm surprised that they bothered to bring back Devoid as a major set mechanic considering every article and podcast Rosewater has done where he talks about it is like "people hated Devoid so so so much they threw eggs at Devoid and called it mean names".

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

I'm surprised that they bothered to bring back Devoid as a major set mechanic considering every article and podcast Rosewater has done where he talks about is like "people hated Devoid so so so much they threw eggs at Devoid and called it mean names".

Devoid of fun

 

[gaytransmulldrifter]

It's a bad mechanic! You can barely even call it a mechanic lol it's like if they made artifacts that say "Flesh (This does not count as an artifact") on them.

 

[Velrun]

Yeah they made Devoid because they wanted people who are color blind to also be able to enjoy the game equally to the rest of us.

 

[StrionicAdventurer]

This set is so good for my Peasant environment. Love those "landscape" lands. Really cool how the triple-color Cycling serves as a nice visual shorthand for the fetchable basics available to each one. If they all had Cycling it would be really hard to tell them apart, I think.

 

[ravnic]

View attachment 9690

This guy is a rather spicy and open-ended build around. Comletely busted fetches first off. Getting mana back with each sacrifice opens the doors to funky lines. It would be fantastic in the grindy artifact builds with Goblin engineer, Scrap Trawler, Emry, Lurker of the Loch and Baubles + Stars. In sacrifice decks it offers more fodder. Definitely considering it!

More and more often these days I find myself excluding cards that would be really cool synergie cards because they also come with kinda pushed base stats (catering to 40 life formats much?). I've considered this guy, and if it was a 3/2 or maybe didn't have menace, I would add it, but as it stands, no. Too good of a body AND a valueable effect with no risk just doesn't fit my design philosophies and goals in many cases. Too bad.

 

[Chris Taylor]

More and more often these days I find myself excluding cards that would be really cool synergie cards because they also come with kinda pushed base stats (catering to 40 life formats much?). I've considered this guy, and if it was a 3/2 or maybe didn't have menace, I would add it, but as it stands, no. Too good of a body AND a valueable effect with no risk just doesn't fit my design philosophies and goals in many cases. Too bad.

You may want to consider pawn of Ulamog if this is close but you want a worse body. Not the exact same, surely but close

 

[Nanonox]

More and more often these days I find myself excluding cards that would be really cool synergie cards because they also come with kinda pushed base stats

I get that at your power level, a 3/3 menace for 3 is already on rate or above. That makes the extra text pure upside. Too much and your whole cube dynamic changes. But I think that it could be valuable from time to time if you really want a signpost for an archetype or want to include an easy way to get into the theme. "Good cards with hooks" as Jason called them in his video I believe.

All that to say, it depends I guess

 

[spicewitch]

idol of false gods looks kiiiiiiiiiinda like weatherlight compleated?

 

[Erik Twice]

By the way, I'm sure it's awful but I want this to work:

 

[ravnic]

I get that at your power level, a 3/3 menace for 3 is already on rate or above. That makes the extra text pure upside. Too much and your whole cube dynamic changes. But I think that it could be valuable from time to time if you really want a signpost for an archetype or want to include an easy way to get into the theme. "Good cards with hooks" as Jason called them in his video I believe.

All that to say, it depends I guess

That is a great point! I've done this in a very careful fashion here and there and it really works. Quality is more effective than quantity if you want people to draft something.

 

[LadyMapi]

I'm surprised that they bothered to bring back Devoid as a major set mechanic considering every article and podcast Rosewater has done where he talks about it is like "people hated Devoid so so so much they threw eggs at Devoid and called it mean names".

They brought back Devoid because something like Devoid is pretty much necessary if you're going to have a draft environment where "colorless matters" is a draft theme and don't want to rebuild your heuristics from scratch.

 

[inscho]

 

[gaytransmulldrifter]

They brought back Devoid because something like Devoid is pretty much necessary if you're going to have a draft environment where "colorless matters" is a draft theme and don't want to rebuild your heuristics from scratch.

Yeah I just think it's goofy because colorless doesn't actually matter when the cards are not really colorless. They are colorless because a line of text tells you that they are colorless, they are not meaningfully colorless as we understand colorless in the context of how the game system works.

But I'm sure this was all run into the dirt when the mechanic premiered I just wasn't playing at the time.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Yeah I just think it's goofy because colorless doesn't actually matter when the cards are not really colorless. They are colorless because a line of text tells you that they are colorless, they are not meaningfully colorless as we understand colorless in the context of how the game system works.

But I'm sure this was all run into the dirt when the mechanic premiered I just wasn't playing at the time.

They're colorless for the flavor more than anything. "Devoid" is really just a way to emphasize the fact that the Eldrazi are beings of colorless mana even when they're drawing on one of the five colors for power.