On the Horizons: A Guide to Modern Horizons Limited

Since the release of the original Modern Masters in Summer of 2013, eternal-focused sets have been a staple in Wizard’s yearly productions. These Masters sets are great for many reasons, mostly for the ability to be able to add or reprint incredibly powerful cards to eternal formats.  This helps diversify the older formats, all while bypassing Standard and the restrictions it presents.
It is a shame the Constructed spotlight usually overpowers the allure of the Limited environments of sets like Modern Horizons. This isn’t to say players won’t draft them at their local stores or attend heavily advertised events such as the past Las Vegas Grand Prix, but within a few weeks of release, these complex and intricate limited formats are put to the side.

With the release of Modern Horizons, things will be drastically different. The set is going to be highlighted on Magic’s biggest stage at Mythic Championship (MC) Barcelona on July 26th-28th. Not only will we be seeing the new additions to the modern format, Modern Horizons draft will be a vital part of the 16 rounds of competition. The MC is nearly two months after the set’s pre-release this weekend and as someone who is lucky enough to be participating in this historic event, I’m glad to have additional time to prepare. My favorite thing about this timing is that it’ll keep Modern Horizons in the public spotlight for an extra month. Players will not only get the traditional experience of playing with new cards in the first few weeks, but also will get to learn and develop skills within the format to follow along with the professional coverage in Barcelona. That being said, I think it is time to take an in-depth look at Modern Horizons limited!

Quick Tip

As someone who most (Including Myself) would consider a standard format grinder, I like to take a step out of my arena ladder comfort zone and review the essential concept of BREAD before hopping into a new limited format. It’s still as simple, yet useful, as it was 15 years ago when I learned it:

Bombs
Removal
Efficient Creatures
Additional Playables
Dead

In that order.

If all else fails, it’s hard to go all that wrong by keeping this in your head when opening that first pack. But we all know that in order to be a true limited stalwart, knowledge of set-specific color pairs and archetypes is key. I give each archetype a rating based on the following scale. Let’s start there!

0- Absolutely Unplayable

1- I'd rather have not drafted at all.

2- I don’t expect to win a match with this archetype.

3- There is some upside, but it’s pretty bad.

4- I have good cards, but there isn’t really a plan.

5- Pretty run of the mill draft deck

6- I’ll draft it a lot, but it’s nothing special.

7- I'm very pleased when I draft this.

8- I’m actively looking to draft this archetype, but so is everyone else.

9- Premium archetype, often referred to as “Theme Decks.”

10- I have 2 Pack Rats in my Deck!

White-Blue: Blink

Key Commons:

Powerful Uncommons and Rares:

U/W seems to be taking a break from its evasion and permission role and taking on more of a value-centric ETB trigger strategy. Man-o-War has been a staple in both constructed and limited almost since the dawn of time aka Visions, and to no one’s surprise, abusing its ability multiple times is quite crippling for the opponent. Having access to two additional triggers via Ephemerate at common, and potentially getting to live “The Dream” with Soul Herder as an uncommon has me quite excited.  There are also other great common creatures with unique ETB abilities such as Pondering Mage, Irregular Cohort, and Watcher for Tomorrow if you get a little lucky.

Stratton Scale: 8/10

White-Black: Changelings

Key Commons:

Powerful Uncommons and Rares:

B/W is getting to take a break from its default of vampire tribal in order to get vampires, zombies, horses and bears….. but all in the tidy package of our Changeling pals! The premium commons for the changeling deck don’t seem to be plentiful between those listed and Irregular Cohort shown above. That being said, if you can get your hands on a few of these uncommons or a rare, well then you’re cooking with gas. The ability to play a 3/3 double striking creature for two in the form of Valiant Changeling is incredibly powerful. Not to mention the ability to abuse the universal creature type to be able to unearth your creatures through Dregscape Sliver, or have an undercosted lord for all of your creatures via King of the Pride. I would be hesitant to first pick a premium common in this archetype, but if I found my payoff early, I know the potential benefits. The changeling deck can also be a nice backdoor to get into if you’re drafting another tribal deck and it turns into a disaster.

Stratton Scale: 6/10

White-Red: Slivers

Key Commons:

Powerful Uncommons and Rares:

Alright time for what you’ve all been waiting for. Usually slivers end up getting incredibly overhyped only to have every draft end in some sort of five color disaster. Luckily, Wizard’s has decided to focus them primarily within the Boros colors this time. This isn’t to say that there aren’t outlying off-color slivers, or someone somewhere won’t draft a completely busted The First Sliver theme deck, but generally speaking we get to both play with the powerful cards, and keep it dual-colored this time around to keep us lean and aggressive.

The commons are very good for this deck. The combination of Lancer Sliver and Cleaving Sliver at common makes combat a nightmare for the opponent. And once we start branching into the uncommons and rares, it only gets worse for our foes. Lavabelly and Hollowhead make it nearly impossible to race through the life swings and additional card selection they offer. And we don’t even need to talk about the atrocity that is Cloudshredder Sliver or as it will be known: Mantis Rider Sliver. Draft it if you can, but know going in that you are incredibly unlikely to be the only sliver drafter at the table. .

Stratton Scale: 9/10

White-Green: Tokens

Key Commons:

Powerful Uncommons and Rares:

In terms of consistency and raw card quality G/W doesn’t disappoint in doing what it does best. Rhox Veteran and Mother Bear are incredibly powerful first pickable common cards, with Bellowing Elk and friends being fine middle of the pack pickups. The uncommons and rare slot lack the “Wow” factor we see in other archetypes, but still offer some great members to the team. The combination of Squirrel’s Nest and Zhalfirin Decoy create a powerful engine that both amasses your board while slowing the opponent. Good-Fortune Unicorn and Battle Screech provide upgrades to other similar cards, and Scale Up lets us go over the top in the end game. This is one of the safest options as the floor is pretty high , but on the flipside, won’t lead to any incredibly broken decks without the help of a bomb or two.

Stratton Scale: 7/10

Blue-Black: Ninjas

Key Commons:

Powerful Uncommons and Rares:

Despite majority consensus in the opposite direction, I always thought Kamigawa was a cool set and I’m happy to see the ninjas making their return to limited. They seem to be packing a wallop this time with both powerful enablers in the evasive Faerie Seer and Phantom Ninja, but also some Ninjutsu tricks leading to a free flying creature, all at common. It’s also worth noting Ninjutsu plays incredibly well with the creatures intended for the U/W Blink archetype such as our ol’ buddy Man-o’-War. Getting to pick up the jellyfish if it is unblocked for another go around sounds pretty good to me.
The uncommons are also quite good. Twisted Reflection is nearly unplayable if you can’t pay the entwine cost, but if you can, it’s a clear slam dunk. I’m sure Fallen Shinobi will be swinging many games over the next few months, and Ingenious Infiltrator will be bringing back many fond memories of Ninja of the Deep Hours.

Stratton Scale: 8/10

Blue-Red Drawing Cards Matter

 Key Commons:

Powerful Uncommons and Rares: 

As much as I love the “Spells Matter” archetypes, it’s a flop this time around. The commons aren’t that great with Eyekite being a two mana 1 power flier the majority of the time. Even the upside of a Spinehorn minotaur simply trades with a standard 3/3 in combat. The uncommons get a little better but honestly not that much. The payoffs seem lacking and their enablers aren’t enticing either. Fact or Fiction doesn’t technically count as “Drawing Cards” so it won’t turn on any of our creature’s abilities. Bazaar Trademage does, but comes at the cost of card disadvantage, and I hate to break it to you, but most of the time you won’t be untapping with Oneirophage. I would avoid this one.

Stratton Scale: 3/10

Blue-Green: Snow

Key Commons: 

Powerful Uncommons and Rares:

Yep! You read that right. You won’t be getting your snow lands out of the land box before round one. If you want them, you have to draft them! That is single handedly the biggest limiting factor for the strength of this archetype. The commons aren’t all that bad with Winter’s Rest doing a great Narcolepsy impression and Rime Tender giving us some ramp towards our mana sink of Chillerpillar. The Uncommons and dual color rares also get pretty sweet with Blizzard Strix and Conifer Wurm ending games very quickly, and Frostwalk Bastion being the sole man-land in the set. Arcum’s Astrolabe and random snow lands can facilitate splashing bombs or removal if you’re lacking.  If you happen to be the sole drafter in this archetype I’d dare say your deck will be quite good, but having to compete with someone over specific color basic lands sounds absolutely dreadful.

Stratton Scale: 5/10

Black-Red: Goblins

Key Commons:

Powerful Uncommons and Rares:

Having been on a break during Magic’s trip to Lorwyn, I’m very excited to finally get my chance to draft some B/R goblins! The commons look mostly what i’d expect with some cheap efficient creatures that leave some value behind, and Goblin War Party that rewards us for going wide. Access to the great black and red removal is another boon for this archetype. The uncommons and rares are extremely solid. Sling-Gang Lieutenant or Munitions Expert combined with Goblin Matron will prove to be too much for most decks to combat. Also good to note Lightning Skelemental isn’t actually a goblin, but you’ll be hard pressed losing a game where it connects.

Stratton Scale: 8/10

Black-Green: Graveyard

 Key Commons:

Powerful Uncommons and Rares:

Judging by the sheer quantity of Premium cards available to you, I think an argument can be made that G/B has the best uncommons. Our commons provide us with two enablers within Ransack the Lab and Winding Way. This is a very big deal as in graveyard based sets of the past, getting all payoff with no enablers was a common failure. However, the opposite may be true this time as the payoffs we are looking for are residing within the uncommon and rare slots. Webweaver Changeling, Rotwidow Pack, and Hoggak are game breaking cards when enabled, but having them opened in your pod as well as seeing them may be difficult. I still believe despite the possible fail rate, the upside is high enough for me to draft the graveyard deck fairly consistently. Sadly, I’m sure multiple times I’ll miss and my big finisher will be a First-Sphere Gargantua.

Stratton Scale: 6/10

Red-Green: Lands Matter

Key Commons:

Powerful Uncommons and Rares:

And last but certainly not least of the archetypes, we have R/G Lands! Since the spoiling of Wrenn and Six by Tom Ross, I had been hoping for a land theme within the limited format of the set, and Wizard’s certainly came up big. The commons are fantastic with Krosan Tusker and Excavating Anurid acting as payoff and enablers bundled into one. We also have great enablers in their own right within Springbloom Dryad, and from borrowing Winding Way from the other graveyard deck. 

The uncommons are very pushed as well. Alpine Guide and Nantuko Cultivator do the same thing as the commons we mentioned in that they act as both a threat and an enabler. The individual threats are great as well with Ore-Scale Guardian and Ruinition Rioter being lights out quite often.

Stratton Scale: 9/10



Now that we’ve covered the Archetypes I want to briefly touch on the premium common and uncommon removal within the format. I plan on playing these almost 100 percent of the time if I’m that color.

Removal Spells:

-Reprobation (W)
-Settle Beyond Reality (W) 
-Crypt Rats (B)
-Defile (B)
-Mob (B)
-Smiting Helix (B/RW)
-Firebolt (R)
-Magmatic Sinkhole (R)
-Pyrophobia (R)
-Urza’s Rage (R)
-Savage Swipe (G)

As per usual black and red make out like bandits while white gets some premium options as blue and green are forced to feed on the scraps. I won’t go into too much detail, as based on the archetype analysis above, you should know how to slot these into different decks and within your pick order. For example,  Mob is a much better card in B/R goblins than in U/B Ninjas, albeit probably playable in both.
Another important thing to look at within a set’s limited format is the mana fixing and land cycles available.

Overall I’m not super impressed with the fixing within this format. The talisman’s are aggressively costed and quite good, but counting to have your desired color combo every time is a tough sell due to rarity. The cycle lands also being uncommon is a bit frustrating as they provide such a large benefit to almost every deck. The light within the darkness is definitely Cave of Temptation and Fountain of Ichor at common. Both provide fixing early with a late game benefit which is exactly what we’re looking for in that slot. As far as rares go, the canopy land cycle and the new fetchland, Prismatic Vista, are cool, but we can’t really bet on having them in the majority of our drafts.

Finally let’s look at the bombs this set has to offer. These days everyone seems to have their own interpretation of what a bomb is, but to me it’s always been simple.

When it is cast, at generally any point within a game, the momentum automatically switches to being about it.

Bombs:

- Force of Virtue
- Giver of Runes
- Winds of Abandon
- Serra the Benevolent
- Future Sight
- Plague Engineer
- Endling
- Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
- Seasoned Pyromancer
- Deep Forest Hermit
- Hexdrinker
- Genesis
- Sword of Truth and Justice
- Sword of Sinew and Steel

As would be expected in a set of this caliber, bombs are a plenty. Seeing swords again is pretty terrifying as not only are they among the most powerful of the bombs, but literally every deck gets to play them. If you’ve played any Scars of Mirrodin Block limited you know what it feels like to be safe behind your creatures only to have your opponent make you discard your removal spell and untap their lands, or worse, mill you 10 cards and make a chump blocker. You are going to lose to a Sword at least once during this formats life cycle, and i’m not going to lie, you probably won’t draw nature’s chant, and it’s going to suck. On a lighter note, Green and White seems to have gotten the biggest boost from their bombs which seems fair given their average uncommons.

With all of that Said, here are my Week 1 Archetype Power Rankings

1. R/G Lands Matter
2. R/W Slivers
3. B/R Goblins
4. U/B Ninjas
5. W/U Blink
6. W/G Tokens
7. B/G Graveyard
8. W/B Changelings
9. U/G Snow
10. U/R Cards Matter

Good Luck and may all your drafts be fun and value-packed!

Alex Stratton is a competitive grinder and former Level 2 Judge from Albany, NY that is currently residing in Saint Petersburg, FL. His accomplishments include a variety of Top 8's ranging all the way from Regionals to Old School TCG Diamond Series. He also possess multiple strong finishes on the Grand Prix Circuit and has recently Qualified for MC Barcelona by winning a MCQ. Alex predominately plays Standard, but loves all formats and the challenges they present.