Spoiler Highlight: Wrath of the Skies in Modern, Legacy, and Vintage

Wrath of the Skies is a sorcery that costs . When you cast it, it gives you an X number of energy counters and lets you use any number of them to destroy each artifact, enchantment, and creature that costs X or less.

As you can see, energy counters will return in Modern Horizons 3, and will likely be one of its most important mechanics in eternal formats. Because you'll get an X number of energy counters, this card has a lot of potential in formats like Modern and Legacy, formats in which players use many impactful cards on earlier turns. You'll be able to deal with them with Wrath of the Skies.

Modern is well-served with global removals. Besides this, it focuses quite heavily on fast interactions that affect the game state immediately, like Rakdos Scam. Cards like Supreme Verdict and Anger of the Gods are way more popular in sideboards to improve specific matchups.

If we take a look at the main decks in this format, we'll also realize that there are almost no reasons to play Wrath of the Skies, even in our sideboards.

Scam and Domain are too fast, and Amulet Titan and Yawgmoth need their own, specific hates. Only decks that are more aggro, like Prowess, or strategies that focus solely on artifacts, like Affinity and Hammer, should worry about this new card.

So, how relevant is Wrath of the Skies to this format?

As I mentioned before, early turns have too much attrition in current Modern; a lot happens in the first few turns. This is not only because of strategies like Scam and Domain, which focus on a faster game pace, but also because players use incredibly impactful cards in these earlier turns, like Orcish Bowmasters, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, and Urza’s Saga.

Wrath of the Skies can deal with all of these cards reasonably well, particularly Urza's Saga, considering you won't need energy counters to get rid of it, and Saga can be impactful on any turn. This significantly improves this new card as a possible hate.

Another thing you should notice is that there are a few decks that lean on artifacts a bit too much besides the ones we already mentioned. We're talking about Creativity and decks like Scales, which will be completely obliterated by the new card.

Will just this be enough to make this card see play? Maybe not in the most important decks, but who knows? The control archetype might get some new support cards. We'll probably still see more cards with the energy mechanic in MH3 - until then, it's best to remember that this format already has Attune With Aether, and some versions of Bant and 4C Control still see play. This could inspire players to create a new version that tries to abuse energy counters and boost the effect of this new card.

Additionally, the fact you can target enchantments and artifacts with it, besides creatures, is one of the best things about Wrath of the Skies.

In Legacy, things are a bit different. This format really leans on cost artifacts like Chrome Mox and Lotus Petal, aside from other relevant permanents like Up the Beanstalk and the aforementioned Bowmasters and the Saga, which are also really popular.

You can also remove creatures like Delver of Secrets and Dragon's Rage Channeler with this new card if you use the energies you need to do so. Just like in Modern, with the right build, you'll be able to deal with cards like Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath.

One of the most popular decks in Legacy nowadays is Lands, an extremely complicated deck that acts like a control deck. It wants to stabilize the game with powerful lands, like Urza's Saga itself, which puts Construct tokens in play, or destroy your opponent's lands with Wasteland. It ends the game with Dark Depths and the ever-powerful Marit Lage. Because low-cost permanents are incredibly popular, and Urza's Saga is critical in Lands, Wrath of the Skies looks like an incredible tool in this format.

In Vintage, this card might be even more important, considering one of the main decks in this format uses most of the cards I mentioned before. This is true for many decks in this format.

Lurrus Saga not only uses Bowmasters, but also all Moxes and a few other permanents that Wrath easily deals with.

Wrath of the Skies is an interesting card on its own, but, if MH3 shows us some payoff with the energy mechanic, it will be even better. It is an excellent choice because of its versatility, even against cards like Meltdown, which is also included in Modern Horizons 3.

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Thank you for reading, and see you next time!