MODERN HORIZONS 3: MY TOP 8 CARDS & DECKLISTS
Today I would like to share my eight favorite cards from Modern Horizons 3. The set is new and unique enough where I’m not comfortable ranking them from 1-8 quite yet. Overall I’m very happy with the set as it contains plenty of interesting additions to forgotten archetypes and made some old favorites like Snapcaster Mage playable yet again. Most of the cards I like change the Modern metagame without warping the format. It’s clear WOTC learned from the mistakes of MH2.
Psychic Frog
Let’s get one thing out of the way: I’m a Magic Boomer and I love a good Psychatog reference.
In fact, my first foray into tournament Magic was filled with ‘Togs in Standard, so it always holds a special place even though it would frequently knock in my teeth.
Psychic Frog is not only awesome in Modern as a discard outlet, but can also serve as a threat that runs away with the game in a less frustrating manner than most. It’s aggressively priced, but doesn’t have a broken feeling which is a hard balance to strike.
The true home for Psychic Frog is Legacy. Dreadhorde Arcanist was banned as a 2-drop card advantage outlet and the Frog is even blue to pitch to Force of Will. I like the Frog in Dimir Scaminator because it encourages fewer Orcish Bowmasters as they compete for the same slot. It was awkward when you would draw the reanimation targets in Scaminator as there wasn’t a powerful discard outlet available that helped contribute to the fair game plan.
This is likely the most ambitious inclusion as I may eat my words in three months when the Legacy metagame homogenizes around the frog.
Here’s InnoVationLB’s 5-0 Rescaminator MTGO League list:
Unstable Amulet
I was skeptical energy would actually make waves in Modern in a healthy way, but this is a pleasant surprise.
The mechanic is not broken like with Aetherworks Marvel in Standard, but serves as a value subtheme in many archetypes.
The Amulet appears to be best suited in Prowess decks as they not only generate card advantage, but also deal damage casting spells from different zones. Lava Dart, Slickshot Showoff, Amped Raptor, and Underworld Breach are all even scarier as they incidentally deal extra damage.
The Modern Horizons 3 theme of creating cards to juice specific archetypes means there are unique incentives to play different strategies. In the past Prowess decks would play Expressive Iteration in this slot because it was bluntly powerful, but playing blue is not a requirement.
Losing to Burn can be frustrating as they offer fewer interaction points, but Prowess at least offers the chance to kill early creatures for profit.
Here’s a Gruul Prowess list piloted by Andrea Mengucci:
Ral, Monsoon Mage
I’m not a combo player, but I do like when Storm is viable in Modern. An enabler stapled to a ⅓ creature provides an opportunity for most decks to interact. The flip planeswalker cycle provides a focused incentive for each color to get an undercosted threat if you play by their rules. It’s interesting you don’t have to transform Ral when you win the flip in order to have a chance at gaining additional loyalty later in the chain.
Welcome to the 2020s, Storm, you’ll hate it here.
Here’s a Ruby Storm list piloted to a top 16 finish at NRG: St. Louis by Taidhg Tajalli:
Invert Polarity
There are polarizing opinions on the new counter since it has surface-level variance of flipping a coin. Stealing certain spells, such as Living End and All is Dust, doesn’t feel like “winning” a flip which is interesting to me. I like the idea that after a week of the set being released, or even a year out, there will be awesome blowouts generated by stealing a card at the perfect time.
If you didn’t post your sick Invert Polarity on Twitter it didn’t happen. I don’t make the rules.
Invert Polarity is strong enough to seriously consider playing a Cancel variant in Modern without it being correct to fire it off at any spell. This is a tricky balance to successfully execute.
I have been gravitating toward Thoughtseize decks to interact, but Inverse Polarity is cool enough that I’m tempted to once again join the blue mages! Jeskai Tempo is my all-time favorite Modern archetype so I’m excited to brew lists with Snapcaster Mage once again.
Here’s Johnny Bresett’s second place list from NRG: St. Louis:
Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury
The titan’s have certainly caused some chaos in the case of Uro, but Phlage is a more balanced approach. Uro was deemed too powerful for Modern because it generated card advantage in all situations, but Phlage has a better place in a metagame filled with creatures.
Phlage is a great finisher in control decks because it threatens to close the game quickly. Many Modern control decks prior to MH3 would take too long to win as it meant first turning the corner and then swinging with Solitude and Subletely. Phlage is able to generate an advantage by attacking which will help tournaments finish faster. A win in my book.
Jeskai Control decks may want to stick with two Phlage as casting a three-mana sorcery could be risky. I’m also impressed with Force of Negation and Subtlety as a way to ensure the shields aren’t down when getting Phlage into the graveyard.
As a Kroxa enjoyer I welcome Phlage to Modern as another great payoff for interacting.
If you want to cast Phlage in a more proactive shell you can also look to Ryan Bellamy’s top 4 list from NRG: St. Louis. Jeskai Scam wasn’t on my bingo card, but Dress Down and Consign to Memory can cheat out Phlage, Nulldrifter, and Solitude. Pretty awesome that Consign acts as a Stifle to support this archetype without worrying about fetches being countered in the format.
Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
Modern Horizons 3 is still a very new set, but it appears Tamiyo’s best home is Izzet-based tempo decks. It’s a very powerful creature with synergies in most blue decks that also threatens to supplant Ragavan in certain situations. Both Tamiyo and Ragavan are legendary so there is room to explore a split in Izzet Murktide.
I enjoy that Tamiyo is able to quickly generate card advantage in a less frustrating manner than Ragavan. When Tamiyo is able to do her thing in the early game it means generating some clues followed by a planeswalker with a chance to interact before the ultimate.
The wizard sub theme is back in Modern thanks to Tamiyo combined with Snapcaster Mage. MH3 gave an incentive to heavily interact with the opponent without needing to shoehorn a broken combo to close a game.
Nethergoyf
Remember when Tarmogoyf was $100 a piece? If you do then your knee probably hurts like mine.
Nethergoyf is an awesome take on a fan favorite as it updates the iconic creature for this decade. Jund Saga is a big winner from Necrogoyf and I like to see Jund mages actually get a victory for once.
A cool nuance on escaping Necrogoyf is Urza’s Saga and Haywire Mite count for two types.
RespectTheCat has been an advocate of Nethergoyf. Here’s a list he played recently:
Ugin’s Labyrinth
Turn 1: Opponent plays Urza’s Tower
Turn 2: Opponent plays Eldrazi Temple
Me: Let’s goooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Modern Eldrazi decks needed a boost without giving me flashbacks to that dreaded winter nearly a decade ago.
Eldrazi has plenty of colored options to pair with Wastes or you can go mono brown. Underworld Cookbook is the clear winner to madness out Emrakul, the World Anew. The alien race is brought into this decade as it’s possible to play the archetype without Reality Smasher and Matter Reshaper.
Reed Anderson cracked the top 16 of NRG: St. Louis with Colorless Eldrazi:
Honorable Mention: Nadu, Winged Wisdom
Nadu is a win for the Modern format because it enables a creature-based combo other than Yawgmoth.
I would prefer the commonly executed combos to be deterministic instead of creating a complicated board state that likely wins, but should be played out.
It’s clear Nadu is a very powerful combo enabler in Modern, but time will tell if action needs to be taken. The Pro Tour this weekend will feature plenty of unique takes on the strategy as it slots into numerous shells. Players will have a vested interest to find resilient builds as it’s going to be public enemy number one.
RIW teammate Connor Mullaly made the top 16 of NRG: St. Louis with a four-color build I think is quite strong. It’s awesome to see more cEDH loops make their way into 60-card formats.
Endurance and Cephalid Coliseum can loop with the Nadu/Shuko combo to deck the opponent without the need for Thassa’s Oracle.
Modern Horizons 3 is a success in my book. Plenty of popular archetypes have a better chance to shine in this decade without jamming too many all-stars into the set. This will hopefully have the effect of each card having smaller demand and be more affordable compared to MH2. I’m excited to play some Modern!
