Spoiler Highlight - MH3: Kozilek’s Unsealing in Legacy

Greetings, Legacy fans! Settle in for another Modern Horizons 3 highlight that may shake up this format: Kozilek's Unsealing!

Recently, we got an enchantment that draws numerous cards - Up the Beanstalk - and it quickly became the most important card in Legacy. Now, we got a new card that does the same, only better; Kozilek's Unsealing is similar to Up the Beanstalk in many ways, but it might draw us even more cards.

Those who have been keeping up with MH3 spoilers have probably realized by now that Eldrazi are quite important in this set. New versions of Kozilek and Ulamog returned, and we even got a bizarre mix of the two - Ulalek, Fused Atrocity. It also has mechanics that are tied to colorless monstrosities like Annihilator, Mana Incolor, abilities that trigger when you cast spells, Devoid, and Eldrazi Spawn tokens.

Well, our highlighted enchantment of today uses these two last mechanics and much more!

Let's take a look at the card itself, shall we?

As this card creates a lot of value from cards that usually cost a lot more than you'll actually pay to cast it, comparing it to the aforementioned Up the Beanstalk is inevitable. Curiously, even though both fit blue decks like a glove, they aren't useful to pay for Force of Will's alternative cost. Keep in mind that, despite costing blue mana, Kozilek's Unsealing is a colorless enchantment because it has Devoid.

Speaking of Force of Will, this is a crucial difference between these two cards: whereas Beanstalk's ability triggers when you play any spell, the new card only triggers if you cast creatures. Besides this, Unsealing only gives you cards, and not Eldrazi Spawn tokens, from 7 mana onward.

If there's something Up the Beanstalk has shown us (and The One Ring also did, to an extent) is that, despite this format's high power level, Legacy still needs low-cost cards that give you card advantage consistently throughout the game. Kozilek's Unsealing will reinforce this idea as well. Because you can't create resources from Leyline Binding and Lórien Revealed, Kozilek's Unsealing has to look for another way to find its place in this format.

Fortunately, this path is not only paved out already but will also gain new traffic lights when the new set comes along.

When it was released, Simulacrum Synthesizer already forced Legacy players to look for ways to play artifacts that cost more for less. Coincidently, many of these artifacts are also creatures, with abilities like affinity or improvise, which fits Kozilek's Unsealing's gameplay. We also already got another new card that fits this style: Frogmyr Enforcer.

There's also creatures with evoke, like Subtlety or Mulldrifter. Though they aren't enough to give us cards, they're enough to trigger the first part of our new enchantment and create Eldrazi Spawn tokens. Then, we have the new Eldrazi, Nulldrifter, which, if you evoke it with Unsealing in play, will draw you five cards. This points to where in this format Kozilek's Unsealing might find space.

Particularly, I see two ways to play with Kozilek's Unsealing: the first is to use it to create value gradually, similar to Up the Beanstalk. Eventually, you'll bury your opponent under card advantage, with a style similar to 8-cast.

The other alternative is to simply go all in with it and use it as a true combo engine. The goal is to try to play a sequence of 0-cost creatures. You'll dig through your deck until you get a win condition, be that a Grapeshot with a lethal Storm count, or Thassa's Oracle's triggered ability with an empty deck.

The lists below, which I built, are just a broad idea of what I mentioned above, considering the full set isn't out yet. These decks will probably use even more support cards once we see the rest of the set.

I believe the first deck that will test out this new enchantment will be some version of 8-cast (maybe 4-cast is a better name?). The idea will be to put in play a Frogmyr Enforcer, a 0-mana Sojourner's Companion, and Thought Monitor. They'll create cards with Kozilek's Unsealing or Construct tokens with Simulacrum Synthesizer - preferably both.

It's important to stress that the new card, Frogmyr Enforcer, offers you the choice to play it as a Prototype for 4 mana. You can get the red mana with Mox Opal or Lotus Petal. This version still triggers Synthesizer's ability, but, with Unsealing, it only creates the Eldrazi Spawn token instead of drawing cards.

Sink into Stupor plays the same role as Otawara, Soaring City: it is a land that deals with problematic cards, but it also feeds Force of Will, which is another advantage as well.

Another deck that may get some value out of the mix between Kozilek's Unsealing and Nulldrifter is the good old Cloudpost deck. In this deck, this new Eldrazi will be useful both if you evoke it and if you just play it in the usual, honest way (as honest as a deck that creates 200 mana can be), which will give you an absurd number of cards.

Additionally, this archetype already uses Eldrazis that meet Kozilek's Unsealing's demands. An upgrade this deck will probably be interested in is replacing Pithing Needle, an answer that basically stops Wasteland from ruining your day, for the more versatile Disruptor Flute. Pithing Needle is incredibly restrictive in matches in which this terrible land isn't in, and Disruptor Flute is useful even against decks without any activated abilities. It simply taxes one of your opponent's cards by 3 mana.

To finish, I did something I haven't done in years: I built a deck without using a pre-made base. Ben Bleiwiss from Star City suggested the idea to me, and I just built it from there.

The goal with the deck above is to play Kozilek's Unsealing as soon as possible, and then draw as much as you can with your 7-mana creatures that will actually cost 0 or 1. Then, you'll play more Lotus Petal, Mox Opal and Chrome Mox to create more mana, and eventually play a second Unsealing to make sure you'll always have cards in hand.

Eventually, you'll run out of cards and Thassa's Oracle will do what it does best: win you the game.

There's also a plan B: some decks in this format simply can't answer 4/4 creatures all that well that cost 0 mana. Is it going to work? I have no idea, but it is a solid plan, and should be refined by more people.

Kozilek's Unsealing has a lot of potential. If its destiny is to be a card advantage engine, or a central piece in multiple broken combo decks in this format, we'll have to wait for its release to know. Until then, we can only speculate.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!