Sets (MH3) Modern Horizons 3 Previews

I just took it out for Sicarian Infiltrator in my OTJ update :(
How's that been playing so far? I've been eyeing it.

I think they're still trying to dial in the best version of Hexproof. Ward is cool but it's really clunky and it becomes basically Hexproof once you go more than 3 on it. These 'limited' hexproof clauses seem to be where they are going, for better or worse. I do not like green eggs and ham wordy cards either!
I feel like the best approach is to have non-mana ward costs, which is a space that they haven't really explored much. Out of the 146 cards that have or grant Ward, there are nine cards that have a Ward cost that isn't mana or life. There are four cards with "Ward — Discard a card", two with "Ward — Sacrifice a creature", Saruman of Many Colors and Sauron, the Dark Lord (which are both just variations on the previous two), and Axebane Feroth.

Or, alternatively... we could have more temporary hexproof? I dunno.
 
Transcribing this guy from one of the Commander decks because I'm feeling too lazy to mess with the picture:

Razorfield Ripper - {2}{W}
Artifact Creature — Equipment Rhino
Whenever ~ or the equipped creature attacks, you get {E}, then it gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the amount of {E} you have.
Reconfigure — Pay {2} or {E}{E}{E}
2/2
 
This is like a 7 foot tall man and a 6'6" tall woman having a 4'11" son.

Hah yeah

I am not sure how lore accurate these Modern Horizons sets are. Maybe they’re suppose to be lore accurate but not have an actual story that goes from A, to B, to C and to D. The Eldrazi aren’t dead. They are just defeated and decided to leave. So this is (probably) just a combination of those two.

Also we have new legendary Eldrazi Titans in this set finally confirming that there exists more than just the three.
 
How's that been playing so far? I've been eyeing it.

Sicarian Infiltrator was a champ!

Being able to flash it in as a blocker for 3 mana was great - I'd rather have that as the low-end than a Divination.

I played it twice in my artifact deck at 5 mana: once I flashed it in to trade one with an attacking Bob and the other time to draw an answer when they played a bigger creature than the Lightning Bolt I was holding up could deal with. I was playing UR artifacts, and it had additional synergies, but it never lined up for a big turn with my Tolarian Academy as I had hoped.

All in all, I loved it. Much more flexible than Mulldrifter, even if it felt absolutely awful taking it out of its sleeve. I'm OK keeping stuff in for emotional reasons, but I think gameplay wise, this is much more interesting and powerful.
 
I do run it in my main cube and it hasn't done anything spectacular but I don't see myself taking it out anytime soon.

I just picked up another playset for a goofy/casual blue artifact 60-card deck I'm working on (about a week before it spiked!) Hey--better lucky than good... :p
 
I was super bummed that both my Simulacrum Synthesizer and my copy of it (via the hugely underrated The Mycosynth Gardens) were destroyed just before I was able to cast Sicarian Infiltrator one of those games I mentioned above. Super sweet combo for Cube. Wouldn't really bet on it for Legacy, but I stand to be surprised.

Speaking of Simulacrum Synthesizer, it's really hard not to just spend a bunch of money I don't have on the Vault Frame version of the card. There's a copy on TCGPlayer of $60 ($10-15 under market) from a buyer I've used before...it's so sweet. I normally don't like the alternative versions of cards and legibility is a real concern with the Vault Frames, but I adore this one in particular all the same.

Interestingly, it's the same for me with Vaultborn Tyrant. I think the card is sweet, and it serves a similar role to Titan of Industry in my list but is 10x more viscerally exciting to draft and cast, so I'm willing to accept a slightly more powerful top-end card than I'd want otherwise. But I didn't pre-order it since it looked like it was coming down, and I don't really like the art of the normal version. Well, the Vault Frame version has gone up and up and is pretty hard to crack statistically, so I dunno if I'll ever be able to replace the ol' Titan at this rate.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Man, if it was just one mana more expensive the Wight would've been the golgari card I've always wanted. It combines dredge, sacrifice and land strategies. But it is most likely a little bit too good.
 

I saw this floating by my twitter feed. Seems like it can do things in vintage?
Still not convinced it's very good. Skeptical what kinda game leads to six of those in play lol.
I actually own the rights to Eldrazi spoilers around here. Thanks.

Anyways, this card's perfect for me.

The counterspell could work if I end up going a little heavier into 5C stuff. Spoiler dependent.

Ugins-Labyrinth-MH3-265.jpg

Wonderful art, but certainly too strong.

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It's doesn't say basic. This is pretty nice. It's also a much needed C source.

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The damn vigilance makes this so annoying. It's one thing to be massive, but to massively attack and massively block is a lot.

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Really nice combination of "you can't block with your dude" and blink. Seems like it's at a reasonable mid power level, ya?

Herigast-Erupting-Nullkite-MH3-265.jpg

I obviously want to run this. I'm not totally sure it's that great, as Emerge is a little hard to evaluate and exiling your hand is also a little hard to evaluate.

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I know we've already seen this and it's an auto include for me, but I've been seeking 2 mana kill spells that can hit everything but Eldrazi... PLEASE give me Shrieknaw.

Kudo-King-Among-Bears-MH3-265.jpg

Probably not doing anything outside EDH, but this is a fun design.

Planar-Nexus-M3C-265.jpg

I'm always interested in some tribal land shenanigans and this is a nice piece of that puzzle alongside the Rangeling land.

Final-Act-M3C-265.jpg

WotC remembers they made battles?! Black Farewell is decent if you can swing 6mv Wraths.

A lot of these cards feel like r/custommagic designs where they took an old card and changed it a little bit with a clever name, but it's working.
 
Planar Nexus is a sweet card with a lot of niche interactions. I love it. Some other interesting cards:



March is interesting because it implies that we're going to see more nonbasic type shenanigans, while Cthonian Nightmare's just a "fixed" version of Recurring Nightmare.

Oh, right, and Orim's Chant got some sick new showcase art:

2706178a-8a9a-4e40-b716-6aef4185ca39.jpg
 
Kudo-King-Among-Bears-MH3-265.jpg

Probably not doing anything outside EDH, but this is a fun design.

This actually is my favorite card of the set so far.

It's the first hate bear in Magic that hates on practically anything.

You can build your deck around tokens and/or +1/+1 counters, which hey, are pretty common GW themes to begin with! And then their bombs are pretty much meaningless to you.

No more getting stopped by a Wall of Omens or Concealing Curtains - their toughness means nothing now!

It's anti-reanimator tech, anti-ramp tech (Hornet Queen isn't terribly popular these days), and even hates on midrange with its over-statted monsters. It's beautiful. The art is beautiful too! I love this bear!!
 
This actually is my favorite card of the set so far.

It's the first hate bear in Magic that hates on practically anything.

You can build your deck around tokens and/or +1/+1 counters, which hey, are pretty common GW themes to begin with! And then their bombs are pretty much meaningless to you.

No more getting stopped by a Wall of Omens or Concealing Curtains - their toughness means nothing now!

It's anti-reanimator tech, anti-ramp tech (Hornet Queen isn't terribly popular these days), and even hates on midrange with its over-statted monsters. It's beautiful. The art is beautiful too! I love this bear!!
Honestly I had read that as "Other 2/2's are bears in addition to their other types" and I was not excited for it. That makes so much more sense.
 
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