Modern Horizons is definitely the most exciting and innovative Magic: The Gathering expansion designed specifically for Modern format.
It includes 254 cards that give access to some well-established Legacy cards, which now become available in Modern. Also, there is a huge number of brand new cards that will surely find their places in top-tier decks, or even create new ones.
Modern Horizons offers a number of techniques, but it is clearly more focused on control archetypes, specifically blue control decks.
If that's what you've been waiting for, then be sure to take a look at some of the most powerful cards in Modern Horizons that have the highest chance to see play in the current Modern meta.
Prismatic Vista
Modern Horizons has introduced a brand new set of rare cycle lands in the vein of Horizon Canopy. While those five dual lands are the obvious stars of this new Modern set, MtG players should not ignore another excellent rare fetchland - Prismatic Vista.
It is similar to Evolving Wilds, but it puts basic lands on the battlefield untapped, which changes everything.
First of all, it protects players from the effect of Blood Moon, and secondly, it fetches colorless Wastes lands, which would be an excellent addition to Eldrazi decks.
Besides, it will work just as well in two color decks that mostly rely on basic lands, such as many blue-white decks in Modern.
Giver of Runes
This creature is a new twist on one of the staple cards in Legacy - Mother of Runes. Now this kind of effect is available in Modern with a slight difference: Giver of Runes can't protect itself.
However, it can protect other creatures from colorless effects, and that makes a huge difference against Tron players that are currently holding the top-tier shelf in the format. Eldrazi and artifact-based decks will also have a problem dealing with this kind of protection.
It will most likely find its way into the Death and Taxes lists that have been dreaming about this card for a very long time.
Unearth
Here is another card that has been available in Legacy but not Modern. Now this reprint from the Urza's Legacy set finally finds its way into the Modern format.
Unearth can bring back creatures like Death's Shadow, Tarmogoyf, Scavenging Ooze, Snapcaster Mage, Dark Confidant, Fulminator Mage, and many others. All these cards are extremely valuable and replaying them for just one mana from your graveyard would be quite incredible.
On top of that, it has cycling, which makes it a valuable addition to any maindeck that requires an early draw.
All this makes Unearth the most valuable common card in the Modern Horizons set.
Archmage's Charm
Modern Horizons has a couple of really exciting counterspells, such as Force of Negation and Archmage's Charm. The latter one is a bit more flexible and guarantees a card draw in case there is an extra copy of it in your hand already.
It has a slightly off mana base that requires you to have three islands, but if Modern players managed to successfully cast Cryptic Commands for so many years, then they will surely find a way to cast Archmage's Charm.
The third ability is also quite good and allows you to steal Aether Vial artifacts from opponents or their tokens. So there are a lot of cool things happening here for sure.
Force of Negation
Although this is not as powerful as the Legacy staple counterspell, a slightly nerfed version of Force of Will can still wreck havoc in the Modern format.
Even the mana base makes it very much castable for what it is in case you really need to counter an opponent's spell during your turn, unlike Force of Will that costs whole five mana.
On top of that, Force of Negation exiles countered spells, which is perfect against graveyard-based decks.
This is a fantastic card that will never lose its value. Be sure to include it in your blue decks, because everyone else will.
Kaya's Guile
History shows that cards with several powerful effects have been consistently showing some amazing results, such as Kolaghan's Command and Cryptic Command.
The first two choices in Kaya's Guile are some of the most relevant effects in Modern, and this means that every Esper Control player would want to play at least two copies of it in their maindecks.
Since the effects take place in the order of listing, you can force an opponent to sacrifice their creature, and then get them to exile their graveyard.
It also has Entwine ability, which allows players to cast all four effects at once, and that's exactly what makes it a highly versatile and valuable card.
Mirrodin Besieged
Traditionally, every Magic: The Gathering set has that one or two win condition cards that offer victory by sticking to a certain gameplan. Mirrodin Besieged is such a card in Modern Horizons.
The Phyrexian choice allows players to win automatically by simply putting 15 artifacts into their graveyard. This also guarantees the victory at the end step, which is much better than waiting for the beginning of the next upkeep. So you can basically win the turn you play it.
Lastly, this is not a legendary enchantment, which means that you can play more than one copy with different choices on board.
Soulherder
Blue-white decks now have another cool creature to play with. Soulherder will fit perfectly into lists that run Deputy of Detention, Reflector Mage, and Flickerwisp.
Besides that it can grow on its own, which is guaranteed by its second ability that resolves at each of your end step.
This means that Soulherder will definitely grow faster with the help of other creatures or grow more steadily on its own.
In any case, this will be a great addition to any ETB deck that has blue and white mana bases.
Fact or Fiction
Modern Storm players can add another gift card to their lists in the form of Fact or Fiction. But it's going to serve just as well in blue control decks, which will help cycle through some unwanted pieces in order to reach a Jace planeswalker, and hopefully, one of the counterspells.
Many blue decks already run cards like Glimmer of Genius, Think Twice, and Heiroglyphic Illumination. With Fact or Fiction being strictly better for the same cost, you can be sure to see at least a couple of copies being included in most maindecks.
Also, this spell resolves regardless of the Narset's effect, so you will definitely have an ability to draw more than one card in a turn.
Kess, Dissident Mage
Once Kess was an exclusive foil Commander card, but now it's very much available in Modern as a non-foil.
The Grixis color scheme narrows its application to only certain types of decks, but this kind of repeatable Snapcaster effect is super welcome in Grixis Control decks.
Think of such spells like Thoughtsieze, Inquisition of Kozilek, Lightning Bolt, Spell Pierce, etc.. You can easily cast them twice on your turn with the help of Kess and gain significant advantage.
This legendary creature also synergizes with Young Pyromancer for the non-stop token generation.
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis
Hogaak is the card with by far the coolest design in all of the Modern Horizons. It relies solely on your creatures and graveyard, which means that you can run it in manaless lists, such as Dredge.
There is one tricky part though. Players to have at least two green or black creatures on board to be able to cast Hogaak through Convoke ability, since Delve can't use colors the way Convoke does.
But even then, it is very much possible to cast Hogaak on turn two or three if you have the right circumstances. It is as powerful as it can get in Modern.
Published: Jun 3, 2019 10:30 am