The Ultimate Modern Horizons 3 Limited Set Review

Andrew Quinn June 3, 2024 Deckbuilding, Draft, Limited, Strategy

Last updated on July 17, 2024

Ugin's Labyrinth | Illustration by Samuele Bandini

It’s that time again! Time for the Modern format to be completely warped and overhauled in the name of making an incredible Limited environment!

The first Modern Horizons set was one of my favorite Draft formats of all time, and I sadly didn’t get any opportunities to play Modern Horizons 2. Needless to say, I’m beyond excited for this third installment! These Horizons MTG sets feature Draft formats packed full of incredibly powerful cards, and they heavily reward you for drafting highly synergistic decks. From the looks of things, Modern Horizons 3 will be no different. As with regular Standard sets, we’ll go over every single card that you can find in a Magic Draft and evaluate each card for Booster Draft and Sealed deck.

As always, I want to remind you that this MH3 Limited Set Review is based on my initial impressions of these cards. It’s hard to figure out how these cards will play out without knowing things like the speed of the format or the relative power levels of the colors and archetypes. These Limited set reviews are largely based on the card’s quality in a vacuum or assuming that their specific archetype is playable. You may also want to check the list of most expensive cards in MH3, in case you see a money card in your pool. If you're looking for a Draft-specific guide, check out Bryan's Ultimate Draft Guide to Modern Horizons 3.

I use a comparative rating system on a scale of 0-10. However, you’ll find that cards in this set are a lot stronger than in your typical Standard release, which means I’ll be much more strict with my grades. The scale is as follows:

10: The absolute best of the best. 10s make a meaningful impact on any game, especially when playing from behind, and are extremely tough to beat. Cards like Deep Forest Hermit or Fallen Shinobi.

8-9: Extremely good cards, usually game-winning bombs and the most efficient removal spells, though not quite good enough to be a 10/10. Could also be the mythic uncommon of the set (though these are harder to predict). Cards like Mist-Syndicate Naga or Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.

5-7: Important role-players. These are typically great uncommons that really drive you towards playing a particular color, like build-arounds and good removal, as well as very powerful commons. Cards like Blizzard Strix or Smiting Helix.

2-4: The average Limited card. Most commons end up in this range and most of your Limited decks are made up mostly of these. Cards like Igneous Elemental or Mother Bear.

1: These cards aren’t playable in your main deck, usually because they’re too situational, but they could be useful out of the sideboard. Cards like Nature's Chant or Dismantling Blow.

0: Absolutely awful cards. Virtually unplayable in every scenario and you should never put these cards in your main deck. Cards like Planebound Accomplice or Unbound Flourishing.

Table of Contents show

Set Mechanics

Abstruse Appropriation | Illustration by Jason Rainville

I normally talk about the set’s mechanics next… but over 70 keyword abilities, keyword actions, ability words, and unnamed mechanics are making a return in MH3, so I won’t be talking about all of them. Rather, I’m going to talk about some of the set’s more general themes and how they’ll apply to the Limited environment.

Eldrazi / Colorless Mana

The Eldrazi are back! I know some people really dislike them, but I absolutely love them. I like the challenge of casting huge spells, and Rise of the Eldrazi was one of the first sets I ever drafted, so they hold a special place in my heart. Playing most Eldrazi is a simple case of making sure you can accelerate your mana to cast the biggest creatures. As such, the Eldrazi spawn creature tokens which you can sacrifice to add a colorless mana go a long way towards accomplishing this. The bigger issue is paying the colorless mana requirements. When drafting Eldrazi, you need to make sure you have enough ways to fix for colorless mana. Thankfully, there are a lot of options, including new lands, those Spawn tokens, and more.

Energy

Energy is another favorite mechanic of mine. You tend to find a lot of cards that create energy do so pretty freely. Then, any benefits you can get for spending said energy are a very welcome bonus. Since you often get the energy counters nearly for free, it often feels like you’re getting away with something. A simple card like Tune the Narrative is closer to 1 mana to draw two cards than it is to a simple cantrip.

Modal Double-Faced Lands

Making a return from Zendikar Rising, we have a bunch of cards in this set that are Modal Double-Faced cards with lands on their back side. Even the worst of these were very playable and the ones in this set are a lot stronger. We even have a cycle of uncommon multicolored spells that can be played as dual lands. These are incredible Limited cards. They double as lands when you’re mana screwed but become real spells when you’re mana-flooded, which overall improves the consistency of your deck. I expect most of these will be getting very high grades.

Draft Archetypes

Like most modern Limited sets, Modern Horizons 3 follows the structure of having draftable archetypes for each of the 2-color pairs in this set. Here’s what we’re looking at:

Azorius (): Energy Matters + Flying Creatures
Dimir (): “Draw three cards”
Rakdos (): Artifacts Matter
Gruul (): Eldrazi Spawns
Selesnya (): Bestow/Auras
Orzhov (): Sacrifice
Golgari (): +1/+1 Counters Matter
Simic (): Eldrazi Ramp
Izzet (): Energy Midrange
Boros (): Go-Wide Energy Aggro

There are also some overarching themes which I’ll highlight, as many of the themes overlap to enable a few 3-color piles.

Jeskai (): Energy Matters
Abzan (): Modified Matters
Temur (): Eldrazi

Without further ado, let’s jump right into the cards! Let’s start with the colorless Eldrazi cards, as they come first in number order.

Colorless

Azlask, the Swelling Scourge

Rating: 2/10

Firstly, a quick explanation. This card, along with seven others we’ll see here are the face commanders from the Modern Horizons 3 Commander precons. But wait, aren’t those normally not in our Draft boosters? Usually you can only find them in Collector boosters, but for some reason, they can actually appear in the wildcard slots of Play boosters. They come very rarely, but I’ll still review them.

Azlask, the Swelling Scourge, from the Eldrazi Incursion Commander precon, looks like a really cool design, but five colors is a lot to ask for. If you do go for it, note that you don’t need any experience counters for it to be useful. Activating the ability still gives all your Spawn tokens Annihilator 1 and indestructible, which has the potential to devastate your opponent’s board in just a couple of attacks. It’s a lot to set up and most decks won’t be able to make it happen, but it’s something I’m sure I’ll try at some point. And fail.

Breaker of Creation

Rating: 6/10

I guess this is an Eldrazified Honey Mammoth. I’m very happy with that! All lands are colorless, meaning Breaker of Creation always gets you at least 5-8 life or so, but then it’s also going to be a must-kill threat that essentially has hexproof. That all adds up to one hell of a card. The double colorless in the casting cost is worrying, but I’m going to assume you can get your hands on enough colorless sources to enable this.

Devourer of Destiny

Rating: 5/10

Stacking the top of your deck on your first upkeep is a funny ability, but one that’s not too likely to come up in Limited. Without it, Devourer of Destiny is still effectively a big Meteor Golem. The fact that this doesn’t hit other big Eldrazi definitely holds it back, but killing pretty much anything else should still be good enough.

Drownyard Lurker

Rating: 2/10

7 mana for a 7/7 with vigilance sounds pretty mediocre to me, and the free Spawn token doesn’t do much to change that. Cycling Drownyard Lurker on turn 3 to get a Spawn and a free card sounds much better, but I’d honestly rather be committing more to the board, so I'm not excited by this.

Echoes of Eternity

Rating: 1/10

Triple colorless mana and 6 total mana sounds like far too much for an enchantment that doesn’t do anything when you play it. It’s extremely powerful to copy all colorless spells and their triggers, but I think the cost is too high. This kindred colorless enchantment is a sweet build-around card though, and probably worth trying out at some point.

Eldrazi Ravager

Rating: 6/10

Sign me up! Eldrazi Ravager is a solid 6-drop that you can cycle in the early game and later recur to your hand really easily, just by sacrificing a couple of Spawn tokens. This could be put onto the battlefield as early as turn 3 if you get enough Spawn tokens, which is something I’m very interested in doing. No matter how you use this, it’s a great card with a lot of flexibility.

Emrakul, the World Anew

Rating: 8/10

12 mana is a ton, but surely we can make it work. All it should take is a few Spawn tokens, some mana ramp and maybe a Worn Powerstone or two, because casting Emrakul should basically always win you the game. You can’t expect to play Emrakul without putting the effort in, but if there’s ever an MTG set to make it work, it has to be this one. The 6 colorless madness cost is pretty cute, but unlikely to be possible in this set.

Glaring Fleshraker

Warped Tusker

Rating: 2/10

Warped Tusker is essentially a green version of Drownyard Lurker. A 6/8 reach is a bit better than a 7/7 vigilance, but that doesn’t change anything. I’m sure this makes the cut in some Eldrazi decks, but it’s not particularly exciting.

Wastescape Battlemage

Rating: 6/10

As a fan of Peasant Cube, I’m a big fan of the battlemages from back in Planeshift. Two mana to bounce a creature and 1 mana to exile an artifact or enchantment are two pretty great abilities. There are also plenty of great targets for you to hit with Wastescape Battlemage, making this a slam dunk pick for the right Eldrazi deck.

White

Aerie Auxiliary

Rating: 3/10

The stat line of a 3/3 flier for 4 mana has proven itself to be really solid already, so add that it supports two other creatures with +1/+1 counters, and I think you have a good common. Curving into Aerie Auxiliary is a great way to enable a modified creature deck, so I reckon this will have its place in the format.

Ajani Fells the Godsire

Rating: 7/10

Ajani Fells the Godsire reminds me a lot of Elspeth Conquers Death, giving you a great removal mode upfront and then some great extra value on the following turns. 5 mana to exile a big creature and then make a 2/1 is really great; the following double strike is a nice bonus. The only thing holding this white enchantment back from a higher grade is the fact that it’s less useful than if it were just a creature.

Ajani, Nacatl Pariah / Ajani, Nacatl Avenger

Rating: 9/10

Ajani is just absurd! 2 mana for two creatures with combined power and toughness 3/3 is a great deal already. But then, since all Ajani, Nacatl Pariah needs to transform is have the 2/1 cat die, it becomes a must-kill threat that you can play as early as turn 2. If you ever get to transform it, the planeswalker side is brutal, churning out a free 2/1 token every turn and even removing your opponent’s creatures at the same time, assuming you have a red permanent to enable it. My only gripe with Ajani is that it doesn’t seem all that good in the late game and it doesn’t match up well against Eldrazi. In a set as powerful as this, that’s enough to knock it down a little, but this is still an incredible bomb.

Angel of the Ruins

Rating: 4/10

Plainscycling is a very strong ability, and the body you get for 7 mana is much more powerful than most other landcyclers. There are a lot of powerful artifacts and enchantments in this set, so this artifact creature could be an insane blowout when you get to 7 mana, or perhaps if you reanimate your Angel of the Ruins with a Victimize or something.

Argent Dais

Rating: 3/10

This white artifact is a really weird design. Needing two creatures to attack implies you should want Argent Dais in an aggressive deck, though notably it triggers when your opponent attacks, too. Exiling a nonland permanent and replacing it with two new cards sounds like something I’d only want to use on my own bad things and the absolute best things an opponent might have. I think there’s a lot to like about the card, but it seems like it’s trying to do too many disparate things for me to be that excited by it.

Charitable Levy

Rating: 0/10

Yeah, you can eventually cash Charitable Levy in for a card and an extra land, but the main reason you should be playing this is for the Thorn of Amethyst mode, and that’s just not a playable Limited card.

Decree of Justice

Rating: 4/10

Once a high pick in Cube and premier control finisher in Standard, Decree of Justice has aged very poorly since we last saw this white sorcery in 2003. Not to say the card is particularly bad, but it’s just not as exciting as it once was. For 5 or 6 mana, you can cycle it and make a few 1/1s and that’s just a good deal. I’d be more excited if white were one of the main colors for the Eldrazi deck and you could reliably sink tons of mana into it, but that’s not too likely to happen.

Distinguished Conjurer

Rating: 4/10

Repeatable flicker on a Soul Warden is a pretty powerful combination. The ability is really expensive to use, so Distinguished Conjurer is unlikely to be a very dominant card, but I’m sure there are plenty of decks that can use this human wizard well.

Dog Umbra

Rating: 5/10

A Pacifism with flash is pretty good. A flash Pacifism that can also save one of your creatures from removal or a bad combat thanks to umbra armor? That’s awesome. I’d assume Dog Umbra will be one of white’s best commons given how flexible and versatile it is.

Envoy of the Ancestors

Rating: 6/10

The modified creatures deck looks like it has a lot of nice toys to play with. Lifelink is one of the most valuable abilities in Limited, so granting it to your whole team is extremely powerful. Not to mention the outlast ability keeps this growing in size while also picking up a modification of its own. I really like Envoy of the Ancestors, and I hope I don’t have to play against it too often.

Essence Reliquary

Rating: 0/10

A way to repeatedly flicker your creatures would be fantastic, but then we start piling on those drawbacks. You have to recast the card, it doesn’t dodge a lot of removal since you can only use it on your turn, it has to tap so it can only be used once per turn. I doubt Essence Reliquary is anywhere close to good enough.

Expel the Unworthy

Rating: 5/10

Expel the Unworthy looks like a really excellent removal spell for white. 2 mana to exile any small creature or kicking it to 5 mana to exile anything is great, letting it scale well into the late game. Giving your opponent some extra life isn’t so great in an aggro deck, but control decks should be ecstatic to pick this up.

Flare of Fortitude

Rating: 1/10

This white instant is very disappointing. Even if you can cast Flare of Fortitude for free sometimes, all this amounts to is a Holy Day plus Heroic Intervention, and it’s far too expensive for either of those.

Glyph Elemental

Rating: 7/10

Bestow is one of Magic’s most broken mechanics for Limited. Or maybe I just have very bad memories of having to play against it. Regardless, I know Glyph Elemental is busted. 2 mana for a 2/2 that picks up a +1/+1 counter on landfall is already good, but bestowing it onto something else gives you so much extra advantage. It’s also a fantastic enabler for the modified creatures theme, allowing you to modify a creature upfront, then when it dies, this is a modified creature itself.

Guardian of the Forgotten

Rating: 5/10

Can’t exactly say no to a 4/4 with vigilance for 4 with some major upside. I don’t think you’ll want Guardian of the Forgotten as just a vanilla creature, but if you’re building a modified deck then this is great. Your opponent can’t exactly let you keep this around for too long or you’ll just overwhelm them with an army of free manifests.

Guide of Souls

Rating: 8/10

Soul Warden was already a fairly decent card, so I’m very excited to see a new one that also enables energy. An early Guide of Souls, especially with a few token makers, should represent a ton of free energy over the course of a game while also giving you one of the biggest rewards for spending that energy, turning any creature you like into a huge angel. Even if you draw it late, assuming you have some energy, it can just come down and buff one of your creatures immediately. This looks like one of the better energy payoffs, and it’s on such a cheap body, too.

Hexgold Slith

Wrath of the Skies

Rating: 8/10

Wrath of the Skies is a weird one. It’s a conditional board wipe, but with a ton of added flexibility. In a vacuum, it’s going to be pretty expensive to clear the board of anything significant, and you’re very unlikely to be able to touch the big Eldrazi in the set. Yet it changes completely in an energy deck. If you've accrued a bunch of energy, you could cast this for just 2 mana and clear the board. If you have any spare mana, you can turn it into energy and maybe not even kill anything. You can also have the biggest thing in play and kill everything else. There’s a lot of ways to play this card and that flexibility should be paramount in making it a strong card in the format.

Blue

Aether Spike

Rating: 3/10

The most ideal way to play Aether Spike is likely to Force Spike a good play and have an energy left over, which is bound to happen when you counterspell a play on turn 2 or 3. Later in the game, when you have a bunch of spare energy, this blue counterspell often turns into a hard counter, which is exactly what we want from variants of Quench. Seems good to me.

Amphibian Downpour

Rating: 5/10

Flavor: 10/10

This blue enchantment is so well designed it’s unreal! I don’t normally go for effects like Amphibian Downpour, but the possibility of getting to turn multiple creatures into frogs with just one card is very appealing. Remember, storm counts spells played by all players, so you could leave this open, let your opponent play a spell or two on their turn, then flash this aura in to shrink their board.

Bespoke Battlewagon

Rating: 2/10

While I like Bespoke Battlewagon in principle and it does a lot of good things, I think it’s just far too slow. We like a repeatable source of energy in theory, but the only comparison I can think of is Consulate Turret, which was basically unplayable. I hope this blue artifact surprises me, but I just don’t see it.

Brainsurge

Rating: 3/10

While I like the callback to Brainstorm, I think this blue instant isn’t all that good. Sure, we have a “draw three cards” theme that needs enabling, which Brainsurge does very easily, but I don’t think most decks can afford to spend 3 mana and not affect the board.

Consign to Memory

Rating: 2/10

Getting to counter any Eldrazi and their trigger at the same time for just 2 mana is extremely powerful. Consign to Memory is probably just a sideboard card, but if Eldrazi is one of the best decks in the metagame, I could see wanting to start this instead.

Copycrook

Rating: 5/10

Clone effects are extremely good in Limited, mostly because you can copy whatever the best creature on the board is, even if it’s your opponent’s creature. Conniving is only a minor upside, but if you discard a nonland to Copycrook, it probably makes this shapeshifter rogue the biggest creature on the board. Regardless, clones are good and I see no reason to suggest this blue creature won’t be.

Corrupted Shapeshifter

Rating: 2/10

The most desirable mode for this is likely the 3/3 with flying, though I can see all three options having their respective uses. Still, Corrupted Shapeshifter is pretty unexciting and I expect it’ll only serve as a mediocre curve filler.

Deem Inferior

Rating: 5/10

Getting an effect like this for potentially 1 mana is disgusting. It already costs just 3 mana thanks to your draw step, and I’m very happy to play Deem Inferior for that. I think most blue decks will be happy with this blue sorcery, but if you have ways of reducing this to 1 mana, it should be a high priority pick.

Deep Analysis

Rating: 4/10

I don’t know if I’m allowed to make the obvious jokes about this card’s name, so I’ll leave that part to your imaginations. Deep Analysis is a classic variant of Divination, before Divination was even printed. Getting two goes at this is incredible, and it also helps to enable the “draw three cards” theme, so I’m sure it’ll be worth playing.

Depth Defiler

Rating: 6/10

Now this is a Man-o'-War! I can’t help but picture Simon Pegg in The World’s End when I say that. Is that too obscure of a reference? Anyway, Depth Defiler is a huge beating. 5 mana to play a 3/5 plus bounce a creature is really solid, plus the buyout of getting to draw and discard one is nice if you don’t need the tempo swing. Getting to do both is starting to get silly. I’d imagine this is a very powerful card in any deck, but it gets particularly scary out of the Eldrazi deck.

Dreamtide Whale

Rating: 1/10

The awkward part about Dreamtide Whale is that it’s best to play it on turn 3, but that makes it far less likely to stick around. You only get a one-turn window to proliferate more time counters onto it or it dies after attacking only once. Even if you draw it late, keeping up with double spelling each turn to keep this in play doesn’t seem viable. I don’t think this is worth it in the long run, though it’s a cool idea.

Electrozoa

Rating: 3/10

Flash really pushes Electrozoa over the edge. If you can flash this in during combat and trade off with a creature, you’ve effectively just played a removal spell that nets you 2 energy counters, which is preferable to having a flying creature that can’t do much on your turn without paying energy all the time.

Emrakul’s Messenger

Rating: 4/10

You don’t need to do much to sell me on a 2/1 faerie flier for 2 mana like Emrakul's Messenger. Okay sure, I’ll take a free ability that creates Spawn tokens, why not?

Estrid’s Invocation

Rating: 0/10

This Commander 2018 reprint just won't make the cut in MH3 Limited. While there are some good enchantments in this set, with no real enchantment theme, playing Estrid's Invocation, an enchantment that has no text unless you already have a good one in play, isn’t going to be a winning strategy.

Flare of Denial

Rating: 4/10

Cancel is a fine start to this, but the upside of getting to cast Flare of Denial for free is pretty nice. Though funnily enough, thanks to the Eldrazi having the keyword devoid, there are a lot fewer blue creatures in this set to be able to sacrifice. Still, this is going to be a strong card and I really hope I get to sacrifice a Reef Worm to it at some point.

Harbinger of the Seas

Rating: 0/10

There are a lot of nonbasic lands in this set, but this merfolk still isn’t something that I’d ever want to cast. It’s interesting that most of the colorless mana sources will be nonbasic lands, so Harbinger of the Seas might end up shutting off some Eldrazi decks, but I think the existence of Spawn tokens is enough to put an end to that train of thought.

Hope-Ender Coatl

Rating: 7/10

I just love me an easy two-for-one. If your opponent ever has 3 mana up with blue available, you’d better not be thinking you can get away with tapping out for anything. Hope-Ender Coatl is ridiculous and still fine to just cast and not counter anything, thanks to being a flash Wind Drake. Plus, it’s an Eldrazi to boot. Love it!

Hydroelectric Specimen / Hydroelectric Laboratory

Rating: 3/10

This effect is so niche that I think people will expect it to work more often than it actually will. Still, Hydroelectric Specimen / Hydroelectric Laboratory is a modal double-faced land, so it’s hard to be too critical of it. I think it’ll be a land more often than not and then just be a situational play for when you have enough mana, and that’s totally fine.

Kappa Cannoneer

Rating: 8/10

Well then. Kappa Cannoneer is an absolute beating. I don’t know what WotC was on when they designed this artifact creature, because for a card from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Commander to make the kind of impact that this has is surely something they’ve learned how to avoid by now.

Unsubstantiate isn’t the most powerful of spells, especially when it costs 1 more mana. That said–and I hope you’re starting to tire of reading this–Sink into Stupor / Soporific Springs is a modal double-faced land and that makes all the difference. Most islands don’t double up as a bounce spell, but this one does. I’ll almost never cut this; it’s just too easy to slot into your land base.

Strix Serenade

Volatile Stormdrake

Rating: 1/10

Rating: 7/10

Even if it’s a bit overcosted, 4 mana to force your opponent to sacrifice their biggest creature is still good. The ability to cast it for free actually seems really good in this case. Since Flare of Malice is an instant, you can cast this in response to removal, sacrificing your targeted creature to kill theirs for free. Flare of Malice is likely the best of the flare cycle for Limited, especially given black’s tendency to want to sacrifice creatures.

Gravedig

Refurbished Familiar

Rating: 4/10

In recent years, cards like Virus Beetle have shown us just how good a cheap creature with a discard ability tacked on can be. Refurbished Familiar needs to cost less to be that good, but even at 4 mana, a 2/1 flier that snipes a card from your opponent’s hand is passable. This has to be one of the key commons to pick up when drafting the artifact aggro deck.

Retrofitted Transmogrant

Rating: 3/10

Retrofitted Transmogrant is a little on the weak side, but what makes me pay more attention to it is the fact that it slots well into three of black’s four archetypes. The fact that it comes back makes it great to sacrifice. It’s an artifact for black/red, and it comes back modified for black/green. All of that probably makes it a playable card.

Ripples of Undeath

Rating: 0/10

If you can consistently afford the 3 life and 1 mana, you’ll be basically drawing two cards each turn. Awesome. But you’re also churning through your deck incredibly quickly. Ripples of Undeath is milling you for three cards a turn, which will kill you in about 7-8 turns when combined with your draw step. This could be a powerhouse if this were a set that cared about the self-mill aspect, but that’s not the case, and this just looks like too much of a liability to actually be good.

Scurrilous Sentry

Rating: 2/10

I’m sure Scurrilous Sentry is good enough to fill some mana curves, but it looks remarkably underwhelming here. It’ll often be a modified creature, so it has that going for it, but that’s about all I can say for it. I just expect more from my 4-drops than a 2/3 menace that loots when it enters.

Shilgengar, Sire of Famine

Rating: 8/10

A free sacrifice outlet should never be underestimated, and trading a creature in for a Blood token isn’t too bad of an upside to be getting with Shilgengar, Sire of Famine. If you can put in the work and end up getting to six Blood tokens, the final ability looks like it’ll probably just end the game on the spot. Shilgengar is also just a 6/6 flier for 5 mana, so where exactly is the downside?

Sorin of House Markov / Sorin, Ravenous Neonate

Rating: 8/10

I don’t know if you’ve ever played against the extort mechanic before, but I can tell you from first-hand experience that it’s not fun. I don’t think any aggro decks will be able to battle through a 1/4 lifelinker with extort, which is Sorin of House Markov’s biggest advantage. Gaining 3 life in one turn sounds like it could be pretty hard to accomplish, since even if you attack with Sorin, you’d still need to cast two spells and pay the extort cost on each of them. If I picked up a Sorin early, I’d focus on making sure I had other sources of lifegain in my deck, because getting to flip into its planeswalker side should take over any fair game. Since you’ve already gained at least 3 life, its -1 ability should take out most opposing creatures, and from there you can leverage its abilities to take control of the game.

The Creation of Avacyn

Rating: 0/10

Okay, let’s walk through this black enchantment. I pay 3 mana, play The Creation of Avacyn, search up the best card in my deck. Next turn, I reveal it and lose a bunch of life if it was a creature. Then next turn… oh wait, my opponent has destroyed it. Yeah, I’m not into this. Tutors like Grim Tutor are pretty horrible in Limited, and this saga looks even worse than that. Cheating out a big creature sounds great in principle, but I don’t think you can expect that to happen every time.

Toxic Deluge

Rating: 10/10

If I’m going to pay life for anything in this format, you bet it’s going to be for Toxic Deluge, one of the new-to-Modern cards that, thanks to being reprinted in MH3, are now Modern-legal.

This is basically just a black board wipe at its core, but it can be so much more than that. If you have the biggest creature(s) on the board, you can kill all your opponent’s creatures and leave yourself something. It’s only 3 mana, so you can probably play a new creature down after clearing the board of everything else. Board wipes are already very good in Limited, but when they have the potential to be one-sided, they start creeping into broken territory.

Victimize

Rating: 5/10

I don’t remember the last time I actually got to cast a Victimize, though I really like the card in principle. Given that you’re only spending 3 mana and getting two creatures back, you don’t have to be too worried about how strong they are like you do with more traditional Zombify cards. I’ll be happy if I’m sacrificing a random token and getting a couple of nice triggered abilities for my trouble, which shouldn’t be too hard to set up.

Warren Soultrader

Rating: 6/10

As with Shilgengar, never underestimate the power of a free sacrifice outlet. Especially when Warren Soultrader is actually giving you extra mana, too. This should be busted in the sacrifices deck, but I’d just play it in anything. It’s still a 3/3 for 3 mana after all.

Wither and Bloom

Rating: 5/10

Last Gasp is always a great removal spell to see in Limited. Not only does it efficiently kill off small creatures, but you can use it in combat to shrink bigger creatures and block them profitably. Getting to cash it in out of your graveyard for a free +1/+1 counter is a pretty cool upside, but I’d take it highly even if it didn’t have that ability.

Wurmcoil Larva

Rating: 8/10

There’s surely no way this is a reasonable card to play against, right? I mean, this is Wurmcoil Engine we’re talking about. Its stats were never really the problem; it was the deathtouch and lifelink. You’ll have a bad time trying to race Wurmcoil Larva or trade off with it. Frankly, unless you can counter it or exile it, you’ll probably struggle against it in some way.

Red

Aether Revolt

Rating: 9/10

This red enchantment may not gift you anything upfront like a lot of the other build-around enchantments we’ve seen, but this could be one of the most busted ones. Turning every single thing that generates energy into a removal spell is just insane. We’ve seen plenty of creatures that give you 2 or 3 energy when they enter the battlefield, and now you can turn them into makeshift Flametongue Kavus. Aether Revolt is going to be one of my most sought after early picks and one of the best reasons to build an energy deck in this format.

Amped Raptor

Rating: 7/10

From one broken energy payoff to another. Given enough floating energy, Amped Raptor basically just cascades into any card in your deck. 2 mana to get a 2/1 red creature with first strike plus a random free spell is an incredible deal, enough that I’d try to build my deck in such a way that this dinosaur never misses. I also expect this to be a big player in Modern moving forward.

Ashling, Flame Dancer

Phyrexian Ironworks

Rating: 4/10

Only 1 energy whenever I attack? Not even 1 for each creature? That seems kind of weak compared to all the ridiculous energy cards we’ve seen in red so far. I do like the ability to turn energy into 3/3 golems, though. Phyrexian Ironworks might even be good enough in the right black/red deck, too, so it’s definitely got some potential.

Pinnacle Monk / Mystic Peak

Rating: 7/10

If you’ve read my reviews before, you might know how much I love an Archaeomancer or three. Pinnacle Monk / Mystic Peak might be the best version of that card that we’ve ever seen. The ability to be a land when you need it is incredible, but I’d honestly rather keep it as a spell as often as humanly possible. I can’t wait to do some silly infinite loops with this and Gravedig!

Powerbalance

Rating: 1/10

I really love the throwback to Counterbalance, but I don’t think Powerbalance is going to be good enough for Limited. Without a Sensei's Divining Top to pair with it, you just have no control over what your top card is. Maybe you could draft it early and get some Brainsurges, but I’m not sure that’s worth going for.

Ral and the Implicit Maze

Rating: 7/10

You’re really getting a lot for 5 mana here. A one-sided board wipe for small creatures, the ability to basically discard a card and draw two cards, plus a very real creature token to boot. My only gripe with Ral and the Implicit Maze is that it hinges on whether you can use the first ability well, but I think there are definitely enough decks in the format to hate on with it.

Ral, Monsoon Sage / Ral, Leyline Prodigy

Voidpouncer

Rating: 3/10

A split card of basically a 3/1 vanilla creature for 2 mana or a 5/3 with haste and trample for 5 mana sounds good to me. Voidpouncer can fill out your curve where you need it to and stay relevant when you draw it later in the game, exactly what I like to see in a 2-drop.

Wheel of Potential

Rating: 2/10

You need to spend so much energy for Wheel of Potential to be a play worth making, at which point it’s likely your opponent will take you up on your offer. This is probably best suited for very aggressive decks, which can play out their hands very quickly and then use this to restock. I just question how often you’ll want to put a situational draw spell in a deck like that.

Green

Annoyed Altisaur

Rating: 6/10

Not to brag, but I’ve drafted Double Masters 2022 a total of three times and never lost a match. And I owe it all to this happy boy right here! We probably all know that cascade is a broken mechanic by now, but it’s especially broken when attached to a huge 7-drop green creature that you’re already happy to cast like Annoyed Altisaur.

Basking Broodscale

Rating: 3/10

This looks like a really solid 2-drop, fitting very neatly into all of green’s draft archetypes. It’s not the strongest of cards, but it’s nice and flexible and fulfills a few different roles.

Birthing Ritual

Rating: 0/10

While I’m a big fan of Birthing Pod, this is Limited. We can’t afford to spend time upgrading our creatures into slightly better ones. We’re not really cheating creatures out from our deck if we’re sacrificing our other creatures to get them. Say you see a 4-drop with this and you sacrifice your 3-drop to get it. What happens when your opponent kills that creature? It’s as though you just walked right into a two-for-one. Nah, I’m not going to waste my time on this green enchantment.

Branching Evolution

Rating: 2/10

I don’t think Branching Evolution is unplayable, but you should probably play it less often than you think. We've seen some cards like this do well and black/green’s theme is centered around +1/+1 counters, so I have hope. I’d just want to be very deep into that archetype before playing this.

Bridgeworks Battle / Tanglespan Bridgeworks

Rating: 6/10

The green sorcery is literally Savage Smash, a very playable card in its own right. The fact that the other side can also be a land of course pushes it up a couple of grades, and I’d be looking to actively pick up Bridgeworks Battle / Tanglespan Bridgeworks whenever I see it. Removal on a land is just that good.

Collective Resistance

Rating: 1/10

I don’t think I like the idea of playing a 2-mana spell that grants hexproof and indestructible for a turn. I do like Collective Resistance out of the sideboard, where it solves a lot of potential problems, but I wouldn’t want to start it.

Colossal Dreadmask

Rating: 5/10

In case you missed it back in 2017/2018, WotC managed to print Colossal Dreadmaw in four different Magic sets in under a year and it became a meme. Of course, they’ve leaned into this over the years and often make callbacks to it. The Colossal Dreadmask variant as a living weapon looks really strong to me. You get your 6/6 trample creature right away, but then this green artifact leaves behind an enormous equipment that you can then use to turn any creature into a giant monster. It’s a lot to equip it again, but the bonus should be more than worth it.

Disciple of Freyalise / Garden of Freyalise

Rating: 4/10

Disciple of Freyalise / Garden of Freyalise looks like a reference to Disciple of Bolas for some reason, even though it wasn’t that memorable of a card. Oh well, as a modal double-faced land it can’t be that bad, though the creature side is only situationally good, like many of the others that we’ve seen.

Eladamri, Korvecdal

Rating: 7/10

I’m pretty happy with Eladamri, Korvecdal as just a 3/3 creature that lets you cast creature spells off the top of your library.

Eldrazi Repurposer

Rating: 4/10

This is such a great common. When I spoke earlier about not wanting to spend 3 mana to cycle Warped Tusker for a card and a spawn, I had Eldrazi Repurposer in mind. This is what I actually want to be spending 3 mana on. I can still accelerate myself with a Spawn token, but I also get a 3/3 out of the deal along with an extra Spawn when it dies.

Evolution Witness

Rating: 5/10

It’s possible I’m wrong about Evolution Witness, since it does take quite a bit of setup to get working, but the ability to return permanents from your graveyard to your hand this way looks very good. Not only do you get it when you use the adapt ability, but anything else you play that happens to put counters on will do the job. This goes really well with Nesting Grounds, and if you just get one or two cards back out of it, it’s been well worth the trouble.

Fanatic of Rhonas

Rating: 6/10

The presence of Eldrazi necessitates the need for some good mana acceleration, and Fanatic of Rhonas absolutely qualifies. As a 1/4, it dodges a good amount of early game removal. If you get to play a good 4-drop on turn 3, this will likely have ferocious enabled for the next turn, allowing you to play an 8-drop as early as turn 4, which very few other ramp spells are capable of doing. Not to mention that the eternalize ability gives it a ton of late game relevance.

Fangs of Kalonia

Rating: 2/10

I don’t think I care about this too much. As far as Overrun effects go, Fangs of Kalonia isn’t that strong. If my deck is heavy on the black/green theme with a bunch of creatures that trigger when they pick up counters, this goes up in value, but outside of that it looks too weak to me.

Flare of Cultivation

Rating: 3/10

Cultivate is definitely a card I’m interested in casting in this format. Making it cost double green is a pretty hefty downside, especially when we effectively have six colors to potentially juggle in the same deck. There are also next to no creatures that I’d be happy to sacrifice early to get this for free. Could we not have gotten Veteran Explorer in this set?

Fowl Strike

Rating: 1/10

The ability to put two +1/+1 counters on something at instant speed is a halfway decent combat trick, but Fowl Strike probably lacks efficiency for this format. Given this green instant is also a Plummet, I think it just qualifies as a high quality sideboard card that you could always main deck in a pinch and not be too sad about.

Gift of the Viper

Rating: 1/10

I’m not a fan of combat tricks in general. Gift of the Viper costs just 1 mana, so it has that going for it, but only a single +1/+1 counter isn’t necessarily going to help your creature survive a combat.

Grist, Voracious Larva / Grist, the Plague Swarm

Rating: 3/10

This new Grist is so weird. I want to like Grist, Voracious Larva / Grist, the Plague Swarm, but the trigger condition to transform it is far too situational. There are only a handful of ways in the whole set to actually enable it. The planeswalker side isn’t even that good when you finally get access to it. My grade is solely based on Grist being a 1-drop with deathtouch, which I’m very happy to play, but it doesn’t do a lot beyond that.

Horrific Assault

Rating: 5/10

1-mana removal, even in this form, shouldn’t be underestimated. If Horrific Assault ends up killing any sizable creature plus gaining you 3 life, you can catch yourself back up from a lot of dire situations.

Hydra Trainer

Rating: 5/10

We have a lot of ways to spread +1/+1 counters around on our board, which has me thinking we might get a very large boost off this creature’s ability. Notably, Hydra Trainer can target itself, meaning that even with no other synergies, it can attack as a 5/5 thanks to its own +1/+1 counters. But of course, we’re going to want to build around it, and I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to imagine dumping +6/+6 onto some evasive creature and really putting the pressure on.

Lion Umbra

Rating: 4/10

The nice thing about Lion Umbra is that we’ve seen tons of different creatures that come pre-modified, because they’re living weapons or they come with counters already applied. It looks trivial to get a modified creature onto the board and this is definitely efficient enough to be worth playing. You do have to be at least a little worried of getting two-for-oned, but at least the umbra armor ability stops some of the ways that can happen.

Malevolent Rumble

Rating: 3/10

These cards pretty much always suck. But then again, they never come with a free Spawn token attached as well as letting you grab any permanent card, so you basically never miss. Malevolent Rumble even fuels your graveyard while you’re at it! I could definitely find time for this!

Monstrous Vortex

Rating: 7/10

I feel like Monstrous Vortex ought to have devoid. After all, the main deck that wants this is going to be the Eldrazi ramp deck. Oh well, I’m into it either way. As soon as you get your first discover trigger, you’ve already been paid back for casting this. Get one or two more and you’re off to the races. You can’t just put it into any green deck, but I’d be interested once I had about five or so creatures that were big enough.

Nightshade Dryad

Rating: 4/10

We do love mana acceleration around here, especially when it can fix all the colors plus colorless. Nightshade Dryad is going to be a very important common in the format, especially when drafting Eldrazi.

Nyxborn Hydra

Rating: 5/10

This hydra a common. That’s all I can say. Nyxborn Hydra has five abilities, and it’s a common. Sure. I’m mostly interested in bestowing it, given how broken the bestow mechanic is. Granting trample is the biggest difference maker here. Imagine casting this with 7 mana to give +5/+5 and trample to a creature, which is hard enough to deal with on its own, but then you’ll be left with a 5/6 trample when that creature is dealt with. Unreal.

Path of Annihilation

Rating: 5/10

Path of Annihilation is like the big ramp spell of my dreams. It puts 4 additional mana onto the board, since you can tap the two spawns for mana next turn and sacrifice them, too. Then it sticks around giving you huge life boosts whenever you hit your big threats. Yes, sign me up please.

Priest of Titania

Rating: 4/10

There are exactly five elves in this set, so I don’t expect Priest of Titania to do the broken things we know it’s capable of in other formats. That said, it does count itself, so the worst it can be is a 2-drop mana dork. It also counts the whole battlefield, so even if you have no elves, there’s a chance you’ll play against someone who does and be paid off for it.

Primal Prayers

Rating: 0/10

An effectively functional reprint of Aluren was definitely not on my MH3 bingo card, but here we are. In a vacuum, you’re paying 4 mana to get two 3-drops for free. I’d probably rather not spend the card and just cast those 3-drops for full price. Primal Prayers is a combo enabler and we can’t make it work here, so best to leave it in the sideboard and move on.

Propagator Drone

Rating: 5/10

The funny part about Propagator Drone is that when it enters the battlefield, it’ll immediately trigger the new evolve ability on all your Spawn tokens. This is a great ability for the red/green deck that plans to go wide with spawns, but I don’t think it’s impactful enough to see much play outside of that. Or at least, I’d still put it in other decks, I just wouldn’t actively draft it.

Signature Slam

Rating: 7/10

Well, this is just a strict upgrade on Clear Shot, which was already one of the strongest green removal spells in the game. You have the ability to use Signature Slam in combat to set up a two-for-one by having your creature win a combat in addition to killing another creature. You also keep the +1/+1 counter and can potentially trigger other abilities with it. This is fantastic and also one of the best arts in the set to boot.

Six

Wirewood Symbiote

Rating: 0/10

I’ve already mentioned this, but there are only five elves in the set. That’s nowhere near enough to be happy playing Wirewood Symbiote. Bouncing Evolution Witness is the best thing I can see to do, but that’s so expensive to do it just doesn’t sound worth it.

Wumpus Aberration

Rating: 5/10

You can never allow your opponent to get a free creature in this format. Wumpus Aberration has to be cast for 2CG or it’s just bad. But yeah, if you can do that, it’s a 4-drop 6/6 with trample. That’s pretty damn good.

Multicolored

Abstruse Appropriation

Rating: 10/10

Hello, is that you, Fractured Identity? I believe it is! You do of course need some colorless mana in your deck for this devoid card to actually be a 10/10, but honestly Abstruse Appropriation is still about a 6 if you have literally zero colorless mana sources. If you get to cast their permanent, then it puts them so far behind. What a card!

Arna Kennerüd, Skycaptain

Rating: 5/10

I think Arna Kennerüd, Skycaptain is actually much closer to an 8 or 9/10, but its colors are bizarre. Blue is the color that cares the least about modified creatures and green cares about them the most. If this were an Abzan () card, it’d be incredible. Still, there’s a metric ton of mana fixing in this set, so casting this out of a black/white deck sounds very plausible, and it’s definitely worth trying to go for.

Bloodsoaked Insight / Sanguine Morass

With only one lhurgoyf in the set (and it’s mythic rare, too), we’re not caring about the first ability at all. However, creating a Tarmogoyf token every time you hit your opponent is incredible. If you can enable that ability on the turn you play Disa, it’s already given you two huge creatures for 5 mana and threatens to make more in the near future.

Drowner of Truth / Drowned Jungle

Rating: 7/10

Drowner of Truth / Drowned Jungle is definitely my favorite card in this cycle. The Eldrazi ramp deck needs a critical mass of 7-mana creatures to enable a bunch of its payoffs, but that’s a plan that’s inherently flawed, seeing as 7-drops tend to suck, doing nothing in the early game. What could be better than a 7-drop that’s also a dual land? If I’m drafting ramp, I’ll want as many of these as I can possible get.

Emissary of Soulfire

Rating: 4/10

Same as with the Cyclops, I’m just very interested in any creature that gives me 3 energy. The energy deck has the most broken payoffs of all the set’s archetypes, and Emissary of Soulfire is worth it just to enable those.

Expanding Ooze

Rating: 6/10

I actually like Expanding Ooze quite a lot more than the uncommon signpost for black/green. On its own, it can adapt and then put a +1/+1 counter on itself when it attacks, meaning it attacks as a 5/5 on turn 4. But it also helps to trigger all your black/green payoff cards, and all it has to do is attack, which it should often be able to do since it’s so big for its mana cost.

Faithful Watchdog

Rating: 4/10

A nice callback to Watchwolf, the first vanilla 3/3 for 2 mana, this card looks like it can definitely find a home in the green/white deck. Not only is it a good size for a 2-drop, but it comes automatically modified, so all your payoffs are already enabled.

Genku, Future Shaper

Rating: 4/10

This is wonderful flavor. Genku was Tamiyo’s husband, and together they had three children, who are each represented by one of the tokens that Genku creates (the rat token is Nashi, for example). The moonfolk on Kamigawa had a theme built around returning your lands to your hand, which is why this ability triggers the way it does, but in Limited this is very hard to have any control over. Genku, Future Shaper isn’t bad by any stretch, but it can’t fulfill its potential without any good ways to enable its ability.

Glasswing Grace / Age-Graced Chapel

Rating: 5/10

Yes, auras tend to suck, but +2/+2, flying, and lifelink is a big game. Even getting in one big hit before getting two-for-one'd might be enough to help swing a damage race. If you get lucky and they can’t deal with Glasswing Grace, it’ll run away with the game for you.

Golden-Tail Trainer

Rating: 7/10

The best part of Golden-Tail Trainer is the fact that it can buff the rest of your team when it attacks, which is an absurdly powerful ability. It shouldn’t be too hard within the context of this set to imagine this being a very easy +3/+3 or more, which is honestly the kind of ability I expect to see on a rare, like Wild Beastmaster in the past.

Horrid Shadowspinner

Rating: 4/10

When we’ve seen uncommons that rival the power level of rares and mythics, seeing a signpost card that just says draw two and discard two on it is pretty underwhelming. Yeah, Horrid Shadowspinner is fine and you’ll play it, but it’s not particularly great.

Imskir Iron-Eater

Rating: 8/10

With just two artifacts in play, this becomes a 6-mana creature that draws you one card. Sure, I’ll take that, though it’s not exciting. What we’re really aiming for is four or more artifacts, turning this into a huge demon Mulldrifter. It remains to be seen how easily the artifact deck will enable a play like this. Maybe this is a reason to be playing Tamiyo Meets the Story Circle….

Invert Polarity

Rating: 6/10

I’ve already said that you shouldn’t play cards that are only good if you can win a coin flip. Fortunately, Invert Polarity is fine even if you lose it. I figure that if this counters the spell, it was around a 3/10. If you steal the spell, it goes up to about a 9/10. Since you have a 50/50 chance of each of these, we can split the difference and call it a 6.

Izzet Generatorium

Rating: 3/10

I do want to be getting more energy, but Izzet Generatorium doesn’t actually produce any itself, it only increases the amount that other cards give you. It’s also pretty rare that you’ll be spending 4 or more energy in a turn, so I don’t think you’ll even be able to draw that many cards. I’m sure I’ll still play this, but I’d sooner pick up something that definitely gives me energy.

Jyoti, Moag Ancient

Rating: 0/10

Oh, come on WotC, what is this nonsense? What’s the point of putting these cards in the Play boosters if they don’t do anything in this format? Whatever. This is unplayable in the format, what with there being no use for the command zone and no land creatures.

Kaalia of the Vast

Rating: 4/10

I was about to have a bit of a rant about Kaalia of the Vast, too, but it actually doesn’t look too bad in this set. There are two angels and three dragons at common and uncommon, including some very big ones with good abilities. Plus, there are of course some big rare demons. Kaalia still isn’t great and you’ll need to be splashing it in something, but I could see it coming together if you built around it a little bit.

Kudo, King Among Bears

Rating: 7/10

Yes, love it! This is the king consort to Ayula, Queen Among Bears, who we met in Modern Horizons 1. Kudo, King Among Bears has a very strange ability, but remember that this applies to all creatures on the battlefield and green/white is a color combination that cares about modifications. Essentially, it means that you’ll probably have the biggest bears on the board since yours are more likely to be modified, which makes Kudo a must-kill for a lot of decks to even be able to get into combat with you.

Legion Leadership / Legion Stronghold

Rating: 4/10

Legion Leadership / Legion Stronghold is probably the worst card in this cycle since it’s basically just a mediocre combat trick. Still, it’s a dual land, so I’m not complaining at all.

Nadu, Winged Wisdom

Rating: 9/10

Nadu, Winged Wisdom looks like it may end up being the best Commander printed in Modern Horizons 3, and also have legs in Limited. Or, well, wings: this has the potential to draw a lot of extra cards. It even triggers off abilities, not just spells. I can’t think of all the interactions Nadu, Winged Wisdom has right now, but the simplest ones involve auras and equipment, plus I’d be much more inclined to run combat tricks with this around. It’s also a very efficiently-costed flier, so you’re probably never passing it and never cutting it from a deck that can feasibly cast it.

Obstinate Gargoyle

Rating: 4/10

Obstinate Gargoyle is a fun little design. In a vacuum, it’s basically a 2/2 that dies and comes back as a 1/1 with flying, almost as if it has the afterlife ability. Thanks to the way it’s designed though, you can do a lot more with it, especially since a +1/+1 counter will take off the -1/-1 counter and allow it to persist again.

Omo, Queen of Vesuva

Rating: 0/10

Once again, Omo, Queen of Vesuva was obviously designed for Commander (she is the face commander of the Tricky Terrain MH3 Commander precon) and does basically nothing in Limited, so let’s move on unless you really want a vanilla 1/5.

Ondu Knotmaster

Rating: 6/10

The adventure spell here is very powerful, especially when we care about modifications. The creature is fine, but without the adventure I wouldn’t have been interested. The combination of both on Ondu Knotmaster makes this a very powerful card indeed.

Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury

Rating: 10/10

These titans are always dumb. Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath was banned in multiple formats, and I’ve cast Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger more than I care to remember. You start by paying 3 mana for a Lightning Helix, which is very reasonable, but then this elder giant sits in the graveyard waiting until you can escape it, which is bound to eventually happen if you start trading off. Once it finally hits the board, Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury takes over the game immediately. You can keep killing your opponent’s creatures each turn, you’ll just need to focus on dealing with their bigger creatures, which shouldn’t be too bad since you won’t need to worry about the smaller ones. This just isn’t a reasonable card and likely one of the strongest cards in the MH3 set.

Planar Genesis

Rating: 5/10

This is certainly one way to do a Growth Spiral. It’s extremely similar in function and just a great way to accelerate us on turn 2. The fact that the worst Planar Genesis can ever be is an Impulse really sells it for me.

Psychic Frog

Rating: 8/10

Once again, we have to go back to the idea of threat of activation. If you play Psychic Frog and your opponent has a blocker, even a bigger one, can they really afford to block? They could block this with a 2/2 and you just chuck away a land and eat their creature. Except that Psychic Frog then keeps its extra stats, making it harder and harder to block each turn. Normally you’d just let it through, but then they’ll draw a card, and you can’t let that happen. This is a nasty card to play against, so you’d best hope you have some removal for it.

Pyretic Rebirth

Rating: 7/10

Pyretic Rebirth is a callback to the extremely powerful Vengeful Rebirth, and it might be even better. Getting a big reduction on mana while still retaining the core function of the card is really great to see. This is a simple and powerful two-for-one that's even worth splashing for.

Revitalizing Repast / Old-Growth Grove

Rating: 5/10

I’ll certainly accept a Snakeskin Veil on a land. Revitalizing Repast isn’t the best card to have on the front face of one of these MDFC lands, but it’s very cheap and flexible, and you’re going to play it regardless.

Riddle Gate Gargoyle

Rating: 5/10

Riddle Gate Gargoyle is easily the best energy enabler we’ve seen so far. 2 mana for a 2/2 with flying is already fantastic, so getting 3 energy is a huge bonus. Not only that, but given how powerful lifelink is, I could definitely see spending my energy on its ability, too.

Rosheen, Roaring Prophet

Rating: 1/10

Rosheen, Roaring Prophet is another cool legend, but not one that has any good uses in the set. There are only five X spells in the set, only one of which is playable in Rosheen’s colors. This isn’t playable, but I suppose it’s still a 4/4 for 4 if you really need that.

Rush of Inspiration / Crackling Falls

Rating: 5/10

While Rush of Inspiration may be a weak draw spell that you wouldn’t normally play, this is one of the dual land cycle, which means you’ll basically always play it. Besides, it’ll be a land most of the time, but then sometimes you’ll be flooded and would love to cash this in for some cards.

Satya, Aetherflux Genius

Rating: 9/10

Satya, Aetherflux Genius, the face commander of the Creative Energy MH3 Commander precon, is easily the strongest of the Commander cards in Limited. A 3/5 with haste and menace for just 4 mana is very powerful in its own right, but you also get 2 energy when you attack as well as an entirely free token copy of something else you have in play. It says you can spend energy to keep the token around, but as long as you get some damage and a good enters the battlefield trigger out of the deal, I doubt you even care about it anymore.

Scurry of Gremlins

Rating: 2/10

I thought this looked really good at first, but on further reading Scurry of Gremlins honestly looks atrocious. 4 mana gets you just two 1/1s and some energy, then for the incredibly high cost of 4 energy you can give a meager +1/+0 buff to your team? We’re in a world where you can apparently get a 2/2 flier plus 3 energy for half the mana, and this just doesn’t measure up.

Snapping Voidcraw

Rating: 5/10

I love good mana dorks, and I especially love them when they come with some way to stay relevant in the late game. Plus, Snapping Voidcraw is a common, so I’ll get to play with it a lot more often than usual. This is exactly the kind of signpost card I want to see for an Eldrazi ramp deck.

Sneaky Snacker

Rating: 3/10

A 2/1 flier for 2 mana is always pretty good, but I think that’s where Sneaky Snacker stops. The “draw three cards” theme doesn’t look particularly good, and I just think this’ll be a whiff as a result. It’s a good cheap flier, but it looks like that’s about it.

Strength of the Harvest / Haven of the Harvest

Rating: 6/10

Strength of the Harvest sounds incredible in a color combination that cares about creatures and auras. It’s essentially a stronger All That Glitters that’s also a dual land, and there are definitely decks that should be clamoring to get this.

Stump Stomp / Burnwillow Clearing

Rating: 7/10

Why is this one just Rabid Bite? A lot of these cards have the downside of costing a little more than they usually would, yet this one is actually a strict upgrade over what we normally get. I think Stump Stomp / Burnwillow Clearing is the strongest of the cycle, it’s just a solid removal spell.

Suppression Ray / Orderly Plaza

Rating: 5/10

Tapping all of your opponent’s creatures isn’t a great card, though in an aggressively-slanted deck it could be the exact card you’d need to break a board stall. If you have enough energy, getting to stun the creatures is pretty massive. Basically, Suppression Ray / Orderly Plaza is a card that will probably win you the game nearly every time you cast it. You just won’t find the window to cast it quite as often as other good cards. But hey, it’s still a dual land.

The Necrobloom

Rating: 2/10

Sadly, this is another cool legend that I’m sure will do some good stuff in other formats, but it’s going to be far too hard to enable in this setting. Most of the time it’ll be impossible to get 2/2s instead of 0/1s, so we just can’t make The Necrobloom work. Still, it’s a 2/7 creature that pumps out chump blockers on landfall, which might be good enough in some decks.

Titans’ Vanguard

Rating: 8/10

Ridgescale Tusker was a broken card back in Aether Revolt, and I believe it was the mythic uncommon of the set. This card feels like you actually got an upgrade on it. Sure, it only puts the counters onto colorless creatures, but here’s the thing…. If you’re red/green, you’ll have a lot of colorless creatures anyway. Plus, it has trample. Then there’s the fact that it triggers again every time it attacks. Even with no other creatures, this is a 5/5 trample that becomes a 6/6 when it attacks. Titans' Vanguard is an incredibly powerful, unfair card and one of the set’s best uncommons.

Ulalek, Fused Atrocity

Rating: 4/10

I’m not sure why a fusion of Kozilek and Ulamog is only a 2/5… but hey, I’m not a game designer, I guess. Ulalek, Fused Atrocity, the face commander from the Eldrazi Incursion MH3 Commander precon, has a very powerful ability for sure. Double colorless to copy each Eldrazi you cast as well as their triggers is really good. My big issue with this is the casting cost and the size. 5 mana is a lot for just a 2/5, especially when you have to spend specific colors and colorless mana to cast it. If you can overcome that and survive a turn then I’m sure Ulalek will do some good things, but it might be far too much for most decks.

Waterlogged Teachings / Inundated Archive

Rating: 4/10

It’s been a long time since I got to play with Mystical Teachings, but the card is probably far too slow for a modern Limited format. Inundated Archive is a dual land and we will be playing it, but this is also one where I’m far more likely to play it as a land than to cast it for Waterlogged Teachings.

Wight of the Reliquary

Rating: 6/10

Wight of the Reliquary is never going to be too bad of a card, since it’ll always be at least a 2/2 with vigilance for 2 and will often be at least a 3/3 or 4/4 without trying too hard. It also scales very well as the game goes long, as you’ll sometimes topdeck it in the late game, and it’ll just randomly be an 8/8. I don’t think it’ll be worth using the Wight to sacrifice creatures very often, but sacrificing them in response to removal or turning Spawn tokens into lands does sound very appealing.

Writhing Chrysalis

Rating: 5/10

When your archetype is built around going wide with Eldrazi and their spawn, a 4-drop that puts three creatures onto the battlefield is fantastic. Writhing Chrysalis is the perfect 4-drop to curve into the Titans' Vanguard on the following turn, and it’ll stay relevant later in the game as it keeps picking up +1/+1 counters as you sacrifice your spawns for mana.

Artifacts

Disruptor Flute

Rating: 0/10

Like basically every variant of Pithing Needle that came before it, you should not put Disruptor Flute into your deck. It’s designed for Constructed and let’s just move on.

The Medallions

Rating: 0-5/10

I was wondering whether to group the Medallions or review them individually, but since they’re all so similar, I’m just going to talk about them as a group. Emerald Medallion is by far the worst. Green already has good mana acceleration, but worse yet, green in this set is looking to ramp into big Eldrazi, which none of the Medallions help you to cast. Sapphire Medallion seems just as bad for the same reason. Ruby Medallion and Jet Medallion probably gain the most from these, since they lack mana acceleration the most, plus they have a nice artifact theme to play into. Overall, these are cool reprints, and I can’t wait to see how they perform in Modern, but in many ways they’re a bit lacking for Limited.

Idol of False Gods

Rating: 1/10

2 mana to cast plus 2 to activate is quite a lot for just a Spawn token. While the effect is nice in theory, I think in practice it’ll prove to be far too slow. If you happen to have a lot of Spawn makers in your deck, I can see Idol of False Gods making the cut to turbo charge the +1/+1 counters onto it, but other than that I don’t really like it.

Junk Diver

Rating: 4/10

Junk Diver is a pretty cool reprint from back in Urza’s Destiny. There are some very natural combos with it and a lot of artifacts throughout the set’s themes for you to get back. Picking up an artifact on death is a lot worse than on entering the battlefield, but the effect is still good, just so long as you have the right deck for it.

Solar Transformer

Rating: 5/10

I like Solar Transformer quite a lot. The ability to tap for colorless as well as colored mana is huge. You could play this in an Eldrazi deck very happily and not even care about the energy, and you could also play it in an energy deck and barely care about accelerating. Signets are very powerful, and this one has a fair bit more going for it than the usual offerings.

Urza’s Incubator

Rating: 4/10

I’d normally hate a card like Urza's Incubator, but a 2-mana discount sounds incredible for the Eldrazi deck. It’s the perfect mix for a creature type that relies on expensive creatures. Outside of Eldrazi, it’s worse than unplayable, but that’s fine.

Vexing Bauble

Rating: 2/10

I don’t think we’re casting that many free spells in this set, although the MH2 pitch elementals do appear in the Special Guest slot, so you never know. That’s not what Vexing Bauble will be for though. It’s just a 1-mana artifact that can be cycled away, which is something that an artifact-heavy deck might actually want.

Winter Moon

Rating: 0/10

While I love the reference and this will likely be a solid card in Modern, it’s just garbage in Limited. We don’t have enough nonbasic lands to hate on and even then, Winter Moon wouldn’t do enough to stop most decks.

Worn Powerstone

Rating: 4/10

Mana rocks tend to be bad in Limited, but most mana rocks can’t accelerate you to a 6-drop on turn 4. When you consider that, as well as the fact that Worn Powerstone is a source of colorless mana for your Eldrazi, this has to be a decent card for the right deck.

Lands

Archway of Innovation

Rating: 2/10

This is a really cool ability on a utility land, but I just don’t think you’re likely to have enough artifacts out to get a significant mana discount on anything too important. There are spells we’d like to give improvise to, but you just can’t reliably get the artifacts out. Still, if you think you can make it work, then the opportunity cost to include Archway of Innovation in your deck is amazingly low, so you’d might as well try.

Arena of Glory

Rating: 6/10

I can think of plenty of decks where this would be incredible. The ability to haste out one or even two creatures in one turn is very powerful, and the only downside is this land won’t untap for a turn, which is very easy to get around. The only question is when you’d pick it up in Draft, because there’s next to no downside to just putting Arena of Glory into your red decks. I’d assume I’d pick it over most commons, but it’s not quite powerful enough to be taken over premium spells.

Barbarian Ring

Rating: 2/10

A land that can be eventually turned into a free Shock sounds awesome, but costing you life to tap for mana is a pretty heavy downside. I don’t think Barbarian Ring has a good home in this set, but in particularly aggressive decks like black/red, this is probably good enough.

The Allied Fetch Lands

Rating: 4/10

The fetch lands are literally the best “dual” lands ever printed, but they’re only as good as what you pair them with. They’re broken when getting to fetch up any nonbasic lands that have the basic land types on them, which you might notice there are none of in this set. They’re still great duals that basically enter untapped, and if you’re in the right colors you can take them, but otherwise they’re nothing special. But obviously a very welcome reprint for all Constructed formats.

The Landscapes

Rating: 5/10

I love these new tri-lands. Each one is basically an Evolving Wilds for three colors that also taps for colorless. Given the Eldrazi cards in this set, these look very important and well designed for the format. If you’re a strictly 2-color deck, three of these will work for you. And if you need colorless sources, I’d just take whichever ones you find. I haven’t even mentioned that they can all cycle if you have access to all three of their colors, which every now and again is going to be amazing.

Cephalid Coliseum

Rating: 0/10

Getting to sacrifice Cephalid Coliseum to draw three and discard three isn’t even that big of an upside and definitely not one that’s good enough to compensate for a land that can't tap for mana without hurting you. I just don’t think this’ll ever be making the cut for me.

Deserted Temple

Rating: 2/10

I doubt you’ll be needing to untap any lands in this format, that’s really more for broken lands like Lotus Field and Gaea's Cradle. But hey, Deserted Temple‘s a colorless land in a format where that’s actually a benefit, so it might actually be useful.

Monumental Henge

Rating: 7/10

Like the other utility lands of this cycle, there’s very little cost to just slap Monumental Henge into any white deck in the format. This looks like one of the strongest lands in the cycle, as it actually just wins you any long game. It’s rare for lands to be able to draw you free cards and this is very capable of doing that over and over.

Nesting Grounds

Rating: 6/10

Nesting Grounds looks incredible in this set. It can’t be understated just how important colorless lands are for enabling the Eldrazi deck. But the main thing is that moving counters around your board lets you trigger all the abilities out of the black/green deck. Imagine this with Evolution Witness or Fetid Gargantua. It’s just absurd and you never even have to cast it.

Phyrexian Tower

Rating: 4/10

Whether it’s in the Historic cat oven decks or in Legacy’s Nic Fit, Phyrexian Tower has proven itself as one of the best legendary lands, with a lot of use to it. I don’t think it’ll be that good here, though, where you can’t specifically build around it. It’s still a good utility land and it does tap for colorless as a backup, so I’d look to play this in whatever color of deck can enable it. It might be best in Eldrazi decks where you can sacrifice Spawn tokens to it to accelerate something out.

Shifting Woodland

Rating: 5/10

The green land in this cycle has an ability that's a tad harder to enable, but just like the others, there’s little to no cost in just putting it into your green decks. Unless you think you can actively enable delirium, Shifting Woodland isn’t likely to be a high pick, but it should never actually be cut from your deck if it’s in your pool.

Snow-Covered Wastes

Rating: 2/10

Normally, this would be a very important card to see in the set. There’s nothing that requires snow mana, so Snow-Covered Wastes is just the colorless mana we care about. Of course we do need that for Eldrazi decks, but this is a lot worse than the Landscapes, since there’s actually very little in the set that benefits you from having basic colorless sources. It’s a colorless land, so take it if you need it, but it’s not quite as important as you might think.

Spymaster’s Vault

Rating: 6/10

Given the cheap activation cost and the fact that it’s not restricted to sorcery speed, Spymaster's Vault is probably the easiest of this land cycle to actually use. You have very little control over when it can be activated though, so it might end up not doing much at all. However, like I’ve said with all the others, this is never getting cut from your deck since the opportunity cost is so low.

Ugin’s Labyrinth

Rating: 7/10

Ugin's Labyrinth is quite the powerhouse land, and may end up being one of the best new cards from Modern Horizons 3. You’re obviously going to need to be an Eldrazi deck to want this. If you can imprint anything onto it right away, it puts you so far ahead it’s not even funny. You don’t even lose your 7-drop, because you can just get it back on a later turn. Fast mana is one of the easiest ways to break a game of Magic, and lands as powerful as this make it far too simple.

Urza’s Cave

Rating: 3/10

There are a few nice lands to go grab with this, but Urza's Cave will mostly be little more than a colorless land with a fun design. That’s still good, especially in Eldrazi decks, but not something you’ll need to actively pick up otherwise.

Rating: 5/10

We don’t really care about attacking anyone’s graveyards in this set, which reduces Endurance to nothing more than 3 mana 3/4 with flash and reach… oh wait, that’s still really good!

Expressive Iteration

Rating: 6/10

I remember having a conversation with some friends as to whether WotC could print a 2-mana Divination these days. Then a few weeks later, this bad boy was previewed for Strixhaven. It may just be a draw spell, but 2 mana to basically draw the best two from your top three is amazing. Enough so that it’s gotten itself banned in Pioneer and even Legacy of all places!

Wrap Up

Ajani, Nacatl Pariah | Illustration by Chris Rallis

With this Horizons set coming to Magic Arena, it should be the most accessible premium set we’ve ever seen. I hope you get plenty of opportunities to draft it, because it looks absolutely awesome.

Are you looking forward to MH3’s Limited environment? Tell me which cards have piqued your interest in the comments. If you liked this review, please follow us on Twitter @draftsim and join our Discord server, too. Share it with your friends and help drive the conversation further.

Until next time, take care of yourselves!

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Andrew Quinn

Andrew has been playing Magic since 2009 and has been an active Magic Judge since 2012. As a judge, he has worked on over 20 GPs across Europe and North America. As a player, he enjoys every constructed format and won the UK Legacy Nationals back in 2018, but he loves nothing more than to draft the greediest draft decks you’ll ever see.

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