A few years ago, there was a huge variety in the types of MTG sets being released each year. Between Masters sets, Horizons sets, Commander Legends, Un-Sets, and even Precon-focused sets, players were spoiled for choice.
Recently, however, Universes Beyond has only grown in popularity, pushing everything else out of the way. Now, we’re just getting three Magic Multiverse sets and three Universes Beyond sets each year from 2027 onwards.
While these sets do have plenty of precons and other goodies, since they’re all Standard-legal, there are some limitations. The loss of reprint-focused sets, for instance, has been a massive blow, but it’s not all bad news.
Good Riddance Modern Horizons
“Trifas: If/When: Modern Horizons 4?
Mark Rosewater: If.”
Via: Blogatog
Recently, MTG’s Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, revealed that another Modern Horizons set isn’t on the cards right now. Specifically, the future of this product line is only an “if,” which feels like a huge surprise, in all honesty.
During their heyday, Modern Horizons sets absolutely raked in cash for Wizards; however, they did so at the cost of controversy. Thanks to being loaded to the gills with powerful new staples, these sets were incredibly hard to avoid.
Sadly, it was just these staples that made Modern Horizons sets one of the more hated product lines in MTG history. Thanks to being so powerful and overtuned, they always had a huge format-warping impact on Modern, and often Legacy, too.
Beyond just warping the format, every Modern Horizons set has created a new ban-worthy menace.
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis
You can't spend mana to cast this spell.
Convoke, delve (Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's color. Each card you exile from your graveyard pays for {1}.)
You may cast this card from your graveyard.
Trample
and
Nadu, Winged Wisdom
Nadu, Winged Wisdom
Flying
Creatures you control have "Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a land card, put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, put it into your hand. This ability triggers only twice each turn."
are undoubtedly the worst of these, causing absolute havoc upon release.
Considering Modern is meant to be a format that doesn’t have fixed rotations, many MTG players weren’t exactly happy with them. What does make these players happy, however, is learning that the product line is seemingly on an indefinite hiatus.
Once the reveal from Rosewater’s Blogatog hit social media, MTG players didn’t hesitate to celebrate the demise of Modern Horizons. With players bemoaning these sets as the reason they don’t play Modern and saying this is a change for the better, the reaction was crystal clear.
All or Nothing
Considering the problems with forcibly rotating a format as expensive as Modern, another Horizons set being an “if” is definitely positive. That being said, the past Modern Horizons sets weren’t wall-to-wall bad ideas and broken cards.
For starters, the precons for Modern Horizons 3 were a real treat, offering a more powerful out-of-the-box experience. Even in the main set, there were plenty of appropriately powered new builds around Commanders, with unique and interesting mechanics.
Speaking of card designs, many Modern Horizons cards were fun throwbacks to classic designs. This was also true for many of the reprints, which brought old and exciting cards into Modern for the first time.
To an extent, you can also make the argument that Modern does deserve new unique cards to empower existing archetypes. In an ideal world, Modern Horizons could have done exactly this, keeping the metagame diverse, but evidently that’s easier said than done.
Even if we step away from the magical Christmas land of a balanced Modern Horizons set, these sets were great for Wizards. Each one made money hand over fist, so seemingly scuttling the entire line is a wild move.
That being said, while Wizards does like making money, they clearly know the negative reaction players have to these sets. On top of this, there’s not really room for them anymore, since each year should only have six major sets.
Realistically, space is more likely to be the main concern here, as Universes Beyond sets perform so well that there’s no replacing them. As for Magic Multiverse sets, these are a core part of the MTG brand, and they’ve been strong sellers recently, too.
A Saving Grace
Thankfully, even if Modern Horizons sets aren’t coming back any time soon, their best bits don’t have to stay gone. While it’s not Modern-legal, the recently released Mystery Booster: Commander Edition solves a lot of problems.
As a fan-focused Commander-legal product, Mystery Booster: Commander Edition contains tons of deep cuts like
Joven and Chandler
Joven and Chandler
Backup 2 (When this creature enters the battlefield, put two +1/+1 counters on target creature. If that's another creature, it gains the following abilities until end of turn.)
Haste
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to an opponent, destroy target artifact that player controls.
. Being a Mystery Booster set, this release also contains plenty of fantastic reprints to also scratch that itch.
Considering this set has the saving grace of not being Modern legal, too, it does provide a lot of the otherwise missed positives. That being said, while it’s an “if” now, Modern Horizons’ future hasn’t been condemned entirely.
While he is the Head Designer of Magic: The Gathering, Mark Rosewater won’t always reveal the future via Blogatog. Instead, when/if statements like this are based on a gut feeling, rather than any timescale or guarantee.
Due to this, some players on Reddit pointed out that this could be a misdirect by Rosewater, as a set wouldn’t be announced by Blogatog. That being said, given Wizards has been moving away from Direct-to-Modern sets for some time, that seems very unlikely.
Ultimately, as usual when it comes to MTG’s future, we can only really wait and see what happens. Thankfully, in the meantime, we shouldn’t be bored, at least, as six sets per year is still a whole lot of Magic.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew, and our MTG Rocks Podcast!