Spoiler Highlight MH3: Wight of the Reliquary in Legacy

Rejoice, Legacy fans! It's finally time to see Modern Horizons 3's previews and spoilers. Considering how MH1 and MH2 (and also the set that was released straight to Modern, Lord of the Rings) affected Legacy, many also expect its third edition to cause a lot of trouble.

So, right away, let's discuss an alternative version of a card that is already quite popular in this format: apparently, Knight of the Reliquary was infected by Zombies. Now, we have this card:

Obviously, the similarities with the original card are clear: they both exchange something for lands (any land - there are no restrictions regarding what you can search), and both grow as you fill your graveyard with this "something". The most significant difference between them is that, whereas you'll play lands for no cost at all with the old version, to grow the new card you'll need to, usually, invest some mana. This is something we can play around; I'll show you how later on.

On the other side, considering the original Knight exchanges lands for lands, it doesn't increase your total number of lands, except through tricks, such as sacrificing a Flagstones of Trokair, for instance. It's important to stress that the Zombie version has Vigilance and costs one mana less because it doesn't grow as easily as the Human version.

But let's go back to Wight of the Reliquary's main effect: swap creatures for lands. Regarding what you can do with it, decks like Maverick or Naya Depths are already great examples that show how powerful it is to tutor any type of land in Legacy: be it by finding the cards you need to play the Dark Depths + Thespian’s Stage combo, giving you a constant flow of Wasteland, or even by dealing with your opponent with Bojuka Bog if they focus on their own graveyard a bit too much for your liking. Wight might do the same, but you'll need to know how to deal with your need for sacrifices.

The simplest way is quite similar to its 3-mana version: sacrifice a land and get a land. “But, Eltinho, it doesn't work that way!" Actually, it does, if you take into account you can use a fetch land to get a Dryad Arbor. But that's not all. Green Sun’s Zenith will give you more ways to sacrifice cards, like Ramunap Excavator or Renegade Rallier, to keep a constant flow of Dryad Arbor from your graveyard or even low-cost creatures. This will effectively turn Wight of the Reliquary into a tool to accelerate mana. Additionally, you can also simply sacrifice creatures that were going to die anyway, be it because your opponent tried to remove them, or because it was an Evoked Grief. However, there are a few specific black creatures that are fascinating with this card.

Orcish Bowmasters will give you, for 2 mana and Flash, two "sacrificeable" bodies. Grist, the Hunger Tide (another card you can tutor with Green Sun's Zenith) will give you a constant flow of fodder that, on top of it all, will also feed your graveyard. However, the card that really stood out to me because of the way it interacts with Wight is a bit forgotten in Legacy, though it was once critical in Dredge lists (and it is valid in Modern, so if you play this format, listen closely!): Bloodghast.

This Vampire Spirit released back in Zendikar will give you all the fuel you need to sacrifice, considering it will return to your board as soon as you get your land with Wight of the Reliquary. The fact it doesn't force you to sacrifice anything else to go from your graveyard to your board means it works whether you play it for 2 mana or if you throw it in your graveyard through abilities like Dredge, Surveil, or even Grist, the Hunger Tide's mill. Bloodghast also gets bonus points because it is an efficient activator not only for Grist's second ability but also Fiend Artisan's, which tends to show up in these archetypes as well.

Multiple Wights will give you an absurd amount of value with a single Bloodghast.

In general, I believe this card fits existing archetypes really well, considering there are many decks that use Crop Rotation or Knight of the Reliquary. They'll welcome this new knight with open arms. Let's see some decks that will bring this new card to life.

The first place our new knight may shine is the good old Maverick, which has been gaining some space in the current metagame. This deck already has the tools to make this new card work - Dryad Arbor, Dark Depths, Grist, the Hunger Tide - and can find an answer for most strategies their opponents might play.

I added a pair of Bloodghast, considering they interact well not only with Wight but also, as we mentioned before, Fiend Artisan and Grist, the Hunger Tide.

Our second suggestion is Abzan Depths, which focuses a lot more on summoning Mart Lage. In this list, Wight is just another 2-mana version of Knight of the Reliquary, instead of a potential value engine, like in the previous list.

As a result, this deck won't go for Bloodghast, but I'll add a second Dryad Arbor to activate Knight of the Reliquary's ability more consistently. This way you'll complete this deck's puzzle and summon a 20/20 Indestructible Avatar more often.

Finally, our third list also plays a new card from Modern Horizons 3, one of the first cards to be revealed – Flare of Cultivation.

In this archetype, both new cards will create value by sacrificing Veteran Explorer to create an absurd amount of mana, particularly in a format in which most decks can't benefit from this card's "symmetric" effect. In this deck, Wight will also activate Grief's Evoke ability a few extra times.

Wight of the Reliquary seems to be a guaranteed hit from the new set. It fits into many existing archetypes and might even carry a new one, in the same way its sister, Knight of the Reliquary, does.

The interaction with Bloodghast has a lot of potential and might create a new strategy if you use its full potential, instead of only using it as a secondary card in the lists we suggested. Get ready for the new Golgari staple!

See you next time!