Constructed Magic and Limited Magic are very different beasts. The best Constructed decks are highly tuned to execute a specific game plan: aggressive drops, or midrange power, or a mass of control spells that give way to one or two win conditions. On the other hand Limited decks - especially Sealed decks - are forced to contend with a narrow card pool that forces deck-building compromises. Limited games are more chaotic as a result, and that’s part of the appeal for many players.

However it’s no fun playing a deck that feels like a random jumble of cards thrown together. That’s where set synergies come in, and good Limited environments have clearly defined archetypes that allow strategies to come together. But the best Limited environments go a step beyond that and have archetypes that meld together in surprising ways, giving players a sense of discovery and exploration.

Enter Modern Horizons 2, the set with a thousand mechanics from across Magic’s illustrious history. That description makes MH2 sound like a messy sprawl, but these mechanics are actually carefully curated to create fun and interesting synergies. I’m super excited to play this set; let’s dive in and see what to expect! 

Meta-Archetypes

Recent Magic sets are designed around color pairs, with each set supporting either five or ten color pair archetypes. Modern Horizons 2 has archetypes for all ten color pairs, and I’d usually suggest that a player start by studying these. However, MH2 does something interesting. This set contains something I call “meta-archetypes”: broader themes that span multiple color pairs. This is important to know because MH2 has excellent color fixing, allowing decks to easily extend to three, four, or even five colors. As a result it’s often proper to reach outside of your main color pair in order to splash cards with powerful effects.

Let’s take a look at these meta-archetypes.

Artifacts ( White, Blue, Red, Green )

Artifacts are supported in a multitude of ways. Cards with Affinity such as Lens Flare can turn a linear mana curve into something close to exponential, allowing you to quickly jump ahead in power. Other cards power up through the number of artifacts on your side of the battlefield, and that number can quickly become ridiculous with an enchantment like Fae Offering. Lastly, Modular creatures like Arcbound Tracker give you free rein to attack; if a Modular creature dies, you can simply drop its counters on another artifact creature and outpace any defense your opponent raises.

Graveyard ( White, Blue, Black, Red )

Graveyard shenanigans abound in MH2. Reanimation spells like Late to Dinner allow you to place massive creatures onto the battlefield way, way, way ahead of the curve. The Delirium mechanic returns rewarding cards such as Raving Visionary for careful graveyard sculpting. Madness returns as well, providing a way to aggressively cheat in spells. Of course, all these mechanics require you to have some sort of discard outlet. Fortunately MH2 has plenty of these: Bone Shards is but one of many.

Big Mana ( Blue, Red, Green )

Big Mana is usually associated with ramp, and you can definitely use the temporary mana produced by Treasure makers such as Burdened Aerialist to cast big spells ahead of curve. However there’s another thing you can do with a lot of mana: Storm off! Cards such as Chatterstorm reward you for casting multiple spells in one turn. There’s an additional twist as well: MH2 has cards such as Faithless Salvaging that can act as a “free spell” cast for zero mana, allowing you to raise your Storm count to obscene levels.

Tokens ( Blue, Black, Green )

There are a wide variety of token makers in MH2 such as Underworld Hermit. These tokens have obvious uses - card draw, life gain, mana production, board presence. However there are other ways to take advantage of tokens. Both Junk Winder and Glimmer Bairn can take advantage of token creation to win games by themselves.

+1/+1 Counters ( White, Red, Green )

We’ve already seen +1/+1 counters in the form of Modular White and Red artifact creatures such as Arcbound Slasher. You can take advantage of those counters with cards such as Deepwood Denizen that dramatically reward you for having counters on creatures. There are also creatures like Constable of the Realm that give you an immediate reward for buffing them up.

What do meta-archetypes mean for players? First, many cards are useful in multiple color pairs. That means two color decks should have less filler cards than normal, and will feel more streamlined in terms of what they’re trying to do. Second, since MH2 has excellent color fixing, you can build a nutty deck with all kinds of busted synergies. For example, you can construct a Grixis deck that takes advantage of self-discard and Madness and Delirium to create an unbeatable whirl of value.

I will say that Artifacts, Graveyard, and Tokens feel better supported than the other two archetypes; and an aggressive deck will probably want to stay within its two colors. But overall MH2 gives players a lot of options, and that’s one of the things that makes the set so great!

Archetypes

Now that we’ve looked at MH2’s meta-archetypes, let’s take a look at the ten two-color archetypes. There is a signature uncommon and a signature common for each of these archetypes.

White/Blue: Artifacts

White/Blue cares about its artifacts. Its early game involves quickly playing out artifacts and finding more using cards such as Chrome Courier. Then it slams Affinity cards such as Etherworn Sphinx, overwhelming the opponent with powerful cards played ahead of the curve.

White/Black: Reanimation

Constructed decks that use a reanimator strategy typically rely on reanimating big expensive creatures. Breathless Knight shows how MH2 broadens this strategy by giving you an advantage when reanimating smaller creatures as well. Graceful Restoration makes this difference stark by allowing you to choose between one big creature or two smaller creatures.

Blue/Black: Self-Discard

Blue/Black is a color pair with one of the stranger strategies in MH2: you get bonuses when you discard a card from hand. These kinds of archetypes need explicit enablers and payoffs, and Dihada’s Ploy and Lazotep Chancellor are an example of each. The strength of this archetype is actually due to how it plays well with other archetypes such as reanimation, Delirium, and Madness.

Blue/Red: Delirium

Delirium is a fun mechanic that asks you to quickly throw four different card types into your graveyard in order to claim some amazing bonuses. Prophetic Titan is a good 2-for-1 without Delirium; with Delirium it becomes a completely busted 3-for-1. It’s not always easy to achieve Delirium, however. Fortunately cards like Storm God’s Oracle make it both easy and appealing by encompassing two card types while being easy to throw into the graveyard.

Black/Red: Madness

Madness is another mechanic that requires explicit enablers and payoffs. Rakdos Headliner is a super-efficient aggressive enabler, while Terminal Agony is a great payoff. Madness is an aggressive archetype that encourages you to quickly dump your hand onto the board, but look for additional benefits in the form of cards that use discard as a cost.

Black/Green: Squirrels

The one tribal archetype in MH2 focuses on an unexpected tribe: Squirrels. Squirrels go wide with cards like Drey Keeper, but also give you the opportunity to cash in your tokens by sacrificing them for a beneficial effect.

Red/White: Aggressive Artifacts

The centerpiece of Red/White’s aggressive artifacts strategy is the Modular keyword, which allows a swarm of small artifact creatures to eventually coalesce into one large artifact creature. You can also direct this effect by finding a way to sacrifice your own Modular creatures, allowing you to transfer counters from a blocked creature to an unblocked one. Foundry Helix is one extremely powerful to do so, providing a massive damage swing that can be enough to end the game on the spot.

Red/Green: Storm

Goblin Anarchomancer and Road // Ruin are both ramp cards, which might lead one to conclude that the Red/Green archetype is actually ramp. But in MH2, ramp by itself does not necessarily provide the amazing value that other archetypes possess, and that’s where Storm comes in: cards that give you a ton of value for using all your mana to cast a bunch of spells in one turn.

Green/White: +1/+1 Counters

Green/White feels like the most traditional archetype in MH2: play creatures, make them big, and remove troublesome blockers before swinging in for the victory. If you’re used to more traditional Draft formats, this is probably the archetype that will be the most familiar for you.

Green/Blue: Value Tokens

The value tokens are Clues, Food, and Treasure, providing card draw, life, and mana respectively. Green/Blue aims to churn out these tokens in order to overwhelm the opponent through a tide of incremental advantage. However there are also ways to use those tokens to close out games much faster. Combine Chrysalis is one such way, turning your non-creature tokens into evasive beaters.

Color Fixing

As I mentioned above, color fixing is very strong in MH2. Here are the generic colorless options, all common.

Artifact Dual Lands

There is a cycle of ten artifact dual lands at common. Not every pack has one; however a pack can have multiple artifact dual lands. Note that these lands are indestructible, so don’t try and attack an opponent’s greedy mana base through artifact destruction cards.

Landcycling

Each color has a common card with Basic Landcycling. If you’re playing three or more colors, I’d recommend picking up one or two of these in your primary colors in order to enable your splash colors. Decks with artifact lands can also take advantage of Sojourner’s Companion to dig them out.

Ornithopter of Paradise

This artifact is extremely effective at both ramp and color fixing. If your opponent plays one early, I’d recommend killing it on sight.

Note that each color has a powerful uncommon with the Converge keyword. Many of them can be reasonably played with even two colors, and if you have one of these cards then the value of incidental splash mana - an Ornithopter of Paradise or a partially off-color artifact dual land - goes way up.

Counter-Tactics

So far we’ve talked about the strategies various colors use to win. But what should you do to prevent your opponent from winning?

There are the typical bomb rares that have to be destroyed on sight; make sure you pack in enough removal to deal with those cards. But also look out for enablers: mana fixers in greedy decks or discard outlets in graveyard based decks.

Beyond that, the wealth of decks that rely on artifacts or the graveyard means that cards that disrupt either of these strategies are especially valuable in your sideboard, and creatures that incidentally hate on these strategies such as Landscaper Colos and Foundation Breaker may be powerful enough to go into your main deck. And Break Ties is worthy of special attention, as it messes with both artifacts and the graveyard while still being useful if your opponent is playing a deck that relies on neither.

Key Commons

Rares and mythics are exciting, but the bulk of your deck is going to consist of commons. Some of them are mentioned above, and here are some other ones that have impressed me so far.

White

• Arcbound Prototype: This creature seems like your normal bear. But if you control other artifact creatures, your opponent will think twice about trading with it and creating a bigger problem elsewhere

Blue

• Aeromoeba: A 2/4 flyer is already an excellent defender and a reasonable attacker. But its additional abilities - a discard outlet that can also abruptly thump the opponent for a lot of damage - turn a good card into an excellent one.
• Phantasmal Dreadmaw: Sure, this creature gets blown up by literally any single-target removal spell - but your opponent still has to use that removal spell. And if they don’t, this undercosted 6/6 trampling dinosaur will end games quick.

Black

• Sinister Starfish: You don’t want to play too many of this card, but it’s an excellent early game blocker that also provides card selection and allows you to cultivate your graveyard.

Red

• Arcbound Slasher: A 4/4 haste attacker is great at putting an opponent on their back foot, and if the situation calls for something else you can play it as a chunky blocker.
• Faithless Salvaging: Discarding a card is an effect and not a cost, so if you have no cards in hand this is pretty close to a two-mana draw two.
• Lightning Spear: I stopped underrating this card after it destroyed me a few times. Trample is no joke, and its 3 damage effect gives you added reach in finishing off an opponent.

Green

• Bannerhide Krushok: Curving an Ornithopter of Paradise into a turn 3 Bannerhide Krushok can swing games irreversibly in your favor. And if your opponent does eventually manage to kill this creature, you can still use its Scavenge ability to eke out an advantage in later turns.
• Duskshell Crawler: This card shines because of its trample effect, which will often catch opponents by surprise and allow you to swing in for an unexpected win.

Summation

Modern Horizons 2 is a complicated set with a lot of moving parts. Here’s what I’d keep in mind:

• Red/White Aggressive Artifacts and Green/White +1/+1 Counters decks reward aggressive and linear play. If I were playing either of these archetypes, I’d avoid splashing for a third color.
• It will take a fair amount of luck for a Black/Green Squirrels deck to come together - but a Squirrels deck with the right uncommons and rares will be very powerful.
• Red/Green Storm feels like the worst supported of all the archetypes.
• If you’re in any other archetype, think of your meta-archetype - artifacts, graveyard, or tokens - and consider expanding beyond two colors. The color fixing in this set is good enough to support adventurous splashes.
• Don’t hesitate to play Converge uncommons even if you’re only two colors; and if you do, take partially off-color artifact lands.
• When drafting, take hate for graveyard and artifact decks.

Good luck!