Top 10 Best Cards from Modern Horizons 3

The preview season for Modern Horizons 3 has finally come to an end, and with more than 500 cards and variants, the set shows it has enough potential to impact all eternal formats.

As usual, the Magic community is now beginning to debate which are the best cards in the set and what their potential will be in the game, with doubts whether we will see a new Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer or even a new Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis emerging to seize an unprepared format.

In this article, we list ten cards from the new expansion that, in general context, seem to be the best and most capable of impacting the competitive scene of Magic: The Gathering, regardless of the format in which they are inserted.

It is worth noting that this article only considers cards released exclusively in Modern Horizons 3, thus eliminating reprints and/or direct insertions from the Special Guests.

Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd

Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd is the type of creature we don't usually pay much attention to until we see it in play. Castable at Instant-speed, this new creature is perfect for situations where we can extract some value from another card while it attacks unimpeded, with powerful interactions alongside the Elementals of Modern Horizons 2 and other efficient ETB effects from eternal formats, like Orcish Bowmasters.

Harbinger of the Seas

Harbinger of the Seas has the same effect as Magus of the Moon, but aimed at Islands, which makes interacting against it significantly more difficult than against its predecessor.

After all, the number of decks that run removals in blue or the amount of removals on this color is significantly smaller than red, and the archetypes where this new creature can fit have some ease in protecting it with Counterspells.

Kozilek’s Unsealing

Kozilek's Unsealing can do absurd things with creatures with high mana value, but with cost reduction potential, especially with Affinity creatures like Myr Enforcer and Sojourner's Companion, making it possible keep a constant flow of threats or even put so much power into play that you can win the game the next turn in a single combat.

Six

Six's mana values ​​and long-term value are easily comparable to those of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, with abilities that make it easy to get the most value out of your lands while reusing your best creatures, Planeswalkers and other relevant permanents, proving to be a solid combination of abilities that can find a home in the most varied Goodstuff stacks in competitive Magic.

Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury

Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury is an excellent tool for controlling the board in the early turns and later becomes an efficient win condition that can end the game within three turns or exert pressure while continuing to control the battlefield, making it an efficient addition to Goodstuff, Midrange and even Control decks - despite the difficulties in paying its Escape cost.

10 - Nadu, Winged Wisdom

Nadu, Winged Wisdom has dozens of interactions that we can take advantage of in the most varied ways: any mix of spells and cheap creatures and/or effects that target creatures combined with a high number of lands will be enough to dig deep into a deck, possibly getting to the point where we can cast Thassa's Oracle to win the game, making it one of the best cards to build around in Modern Horizons 3.

9 - Flare of Malice

Free Spells are always potentially troublesome in Magic, and Flare of Malice is one of the most interesting in the current cycle due to its potential to interact with the board in strategies that, normally, don't care so much about losing a creature if the reward involves dealing with the best threat the opponent has.

Its ability is also a surefire answer to notoriously problematic cards in eternal formats, such as Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Archon of Cruelty, while it can also only deal with a Teferi, Time Raveler or Omnath, Locus of Creation that is generating too much value for the opponent.

8 - Necrodominance

Necrodominance, or the Necropotence we have at home, has a dozen restrictions so that we don't abuse its ability in the same way players did with its predecessors, but the possibility of recovering Its resources with five cards per turn is more than enough to make it have potential in eternal formats, whether for decks like Evoke or combo archetypes like Storm or Doomsday.

7 - Amped Raptor

In the right list, Amped Raptor can basically be read as a 2/1 with First Strike for two mana that brings a spell with it, being a kind of Bloodbraid Elf with a lower cost and which, unlike of cards with Cascade, does not guarantee that deckbuilding grants will always hit Crashing Footfalls or any zero-cost spell.

Whether with a Thoughtseize, Lightning Bolt or some high-impact card like Wrenn and Six, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer or Orcish Bowmasters, there are several powerful targets that this new creature can bring, and therefore, there is enough potential in it to enter some of the main competitive decks in eternal formats!

6 - Flare of Denial

If Free Spells have a history in the game, free counterspells have an even longer history of dealing with problematic situations or being the cause of them.

Flare of Denial doesn't have the same scope as Force of Will or Force of Negation and its concessions are heavy for traditional Tempo strategies like Delver of Secrets, but it offers for other archetypes with blue and more creatures and the possibility of using one of them as a resource to deal with an opponent's key card without having to play reactively during the game.

5 - Ugin’s Labyrinth

Like free spells, free mana also has a history in Magic, and while Ugin's Labyrinth requires very specific concessions to generate two mana, we cannot neglect the ease with which it interacts not only with Eldrazi, but with high-cost artifact creatures typical of Affinity, enhancing the deck's ability to play Simulacrum Synthesizer or Kozilek's Unsealing on the second turn, in addition to speeding up the casting of other key cards by a dozen from other archetypes and be able to revitalize the Eldrazi as a competitive archetype inside and outside Modern.

4 - Grist, Voracious Larva

Grist, Voracious Larva is probably the most powerful in MH3's new cycle of Flip Walkers and one of the easiest to enable in most competitive formats.

Furthermore, all of its abilities are useful in some way, it protects itself on its own and its ultimate, depending on the deck, wins games by taking any combination of creatures that perform a combo and/or creatures with powerful ETB effects.

3 - Vexing Bauble

Vexing Bauble is a real game changer when we think about formats where free spells and mechanics that aim to cheat on mana costs are common.

Its competitive potential is so high because formats like Legacy and Vintage have an abundance of cards and entire strategies that are completely blocked by this artifact, including some of the main pillars of their competitive Metagame, such as Force of Will and Daze, making it as powerful and with as much potential to dictate deckbuilding rules and the way matches play out as Orcish Bowmasters.

2 - Shifting Woodland

If we had to pick a card to be Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis from Modern Horizons 3, it would probably be Shifting Woodland. Part of the expansion's rare land cycle, it is the only one among them that can help to pay for the cost of the ability itself and whose effect is very capable of enabling powerful combos with permanents that have highly impactful activated and/or static abilities.

The first list speculations with the new card involve putting Omniscience in the graveyard to copy it with the land to cast spells for free in a single turn, while other possibilities include copying Griselbrand to draw cards and close combos, or even use it as a backup Archon of Cruelty in Reanimator strategies, which have no hard time putting several permanents in the graveyard and can reuse their targets with Shifting Woodland.

1 - Flare of Cultivation

If free spells and extra mana are troublesome effects in Magic, what can we expect from a spell that, in addition to being cast for free, accelerates our mana as early as the first turn?

Flare of Cultivation seems extremely harmless at first glance, but its combination with cards like Arboreal Grazer and/or green creatures that already serve as ramp in the first turns can create several situations where players start the second turn with four mana (the first land drop, the extra drop from Arboreal Grazer, the basic land sought by Flare of Cultivation and the second turn land, also guaranteed by the spell), essentially allowing to make much more explosive plays while leaving your opponent far behind.

This combination is very comparable to the situations that Modern and Legacy face today with Grief, where it is common for players to start the game with two fewer cards in their hand because their opponents started with Grief and Reanimate or Not Dead After All - except that, in this case, instead of taking resources from the opponent, the player can perform more actions during a single turn, which greatly favors combo decks and/or Big Mana.

That's all for today.

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Thanks for reading!