Modern Horizons 3 Official Kickoff Unveils Free Spell Cycle and New Eldrazi Titans!

At long last, Modern Horizons 3 spoiler season has officially begun! This may seem rather surprising considering that we’ve been seeing cards from the set left and right the past month. Many of these reveals, however, were unofficial leaks rather than officially sanctioned reveals.

Between new reveals and spoilers that have already been spoiled, we have no idea just how exciting this official spoiler season is actually going to be. Have we already seen the most exciting cards in Modern Horizons 3, or are there some haymakers yet to come? Either way, we’re going to find out soon.

While Modern Horizon 3’s spoiler season spans for the next few weeks, it all starts today. With dozens of cards being revealed there’s certainly a lot to go over. For this article, we’ll just be talking about the new main set cards that have been revealed thus far. So, without any further ado, here’s what we saw during the Debut Livestream and accompanying aftershow.

Ulamog, the Defiler

While the Eldrazi may have been leaked previously, this is the first time that all three Eldrazi Titans in Modern Horizons 3 are being officially revealed! We did get Emrakul beforehand, but this is the first official reveal of Ulamog and Kozilek.

Ulamog, the Defiler does look quite powerful. Difficult to remove while providing instant value, Ulamog eats away at your opponent’s library immediately and threatens a gigantic creature with, likely, a devastating Annihilator trigger.

As far as Modern goes, this likely doesn’t beat Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger for one reason: the cast trigger of Ulamog, the Defiler does not impact the board. The Ward trigger, however, does mimic it, which gives this card some hope. Should this Ulamog get a chance to attack, the game likely ends on the spot, something that may not be the case for the other version of this Eldrazi Titan.

Overall, this could see some play as a haymaker in Tron decks, and will definitely be considered for the Commander format.

Unfortunately, Kozilek was leaked recently, so this card is likely in many player’s memories already. We won’t talk too much about the card as a result, but we will remind you that Kozilek does not necessarily need to allow another player to Manifest threats.

Flare Cycle Officially Revealed

Every Modern Horizons set has introduced some free spells that have completely warped formats. Modern Horizons had the various Force cards and Modern Horizons 2 had the Evoke Elementals. Modern Horizons 3 has Flare cards.

Flare cards offer players a free spell in exchange for a colored nontoken creature they have in play. Much like the Evoke Elementals of yore, you need to match the color of the spell with the color of your sacrifice.

Thanks to the First Look Livestream for Modern Horizons 3, we already know about Flare of Cultivation. Flare of Denial, the most exciting card in this cycle, was also officially revealed by Wizards of the Coast in response to the abundant leaks.

Now they’ve been revealed, the other three Flares all look rather playable. Flare of Fortitude is easily my favorite card in the cycle, and can easily find a home in competitive formats as well as Commander. In Commander, Flare of Fortitude is free board wipe protection in exchange for just one of your creatures. Considering that you were going to lose your board anyway, this is a fantastic exchange. In Modern, the ability to halt your life total from changing opens a can of infinite combos for you to consider. Ad Nauseam, for example, can now draw your entire deck at no cost.

Flare of Duplication seems easily applicable in Commander and could see some Modern play too. Copying a spell for free can easily lead to some infinite combo scenarios. Exchanging a cheap red creature for this effect will generally be worth it.

Flare of Malice, admittedly, is the most disappointing card in the cycle. As far as removal goes, this is mediocre considering how efficient removal is in the game of MTG nowadays. Sacrificing a small black creature for this can be worthwhile, and Solitude is a great example of that, but needing to have that creature in play could be surprisingly costly for removal.

Genku, Future Shaper

Genku, Future Shaper ends up marrying Tamiyo and having children that are represented by the tokens that Genku creates. As far as this card goes mechanically, it offers a rather interesting ability. This could definitely be a build-around in the Commander format, as it could easily go wide extremely quickly. If you can find a way to have three nontoken permanents you control leave the battlefield each turn in a four-player game, you can create 12 tokens per cycle. Combine this amount of power with a few universal pump spells, and your opponents could be dead quite easily.

In Modern, decks focused on utilizing Genku’s ability can certainly create a lot of value. The issue is more so that this card does not create any immediate value on its own, is four mana, which is absurdly expensive for Modern, and has no protective elements like Ward. I wouldn’t expect this card to see Modern play as a result, but it does trigger off of Fetch Lands, which gives Genku some hope.

Shadow of the Second Sun

This is a rather weird card that seems to lend itself to Commander despite being in the main set. Any decks that are trying to abuse upkeep triggers, like The Prismatic Bridge and Obeka, Splitter of Seconds would love to add this card to their arsenal. If you want Sphinx of the Second Sun in your deck, you want this card too. This does technically allow Modern players to untap their lands on their end step, but Wilderness Reclamation is a cheaper option for that effect that already exists within the format.

Medallion Reprints!

These cards were leaked as potential reprints in Modern Horizons 3, but thanks to being mixed with problematic leaks that were confirmed false, players were unsure of whether or not these leaks were real. It has now been confirmed that the Medallions are coming to Modern, and these cards are broken.

This is a major upgrade to Storm decks. Ruby Medallion basically fills the roles of cards like Goblin Electromancer and Baral, Chief of Compliance, but will be much more difficult to remove thanks to being an artifact. This deck will reliably be able to kill on turn three now without opening itself up to creature removal.

The other Medallions provide a lot of scary strategies that Modern players could not consider before. These are the types of reprint shifts that can warp a format, and combo players like myself should be incredibly excited about what it could mean for the format.

Flip Walkers Confirmed

The flip walker leaks back in April excited the community. The potential for a turn-one Planeswalker in Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student was rather exciting. These cards look absolutely gorgeous on paper, as demonstrated in the livestream.

Grist’s newest appearance looks disgustingly powerful and easily appears in Yawgmoth combo decks. A 1/2 with Deathtouch for one that easily flips into something that destroys creatures will stonewall the early game. On top of all that, Grist will even dodge Orcish Bowmasters and ramps up in value rather quickly.

Ral could see some play in Storm decks, even though those decks may no longer need Ral, and Sorin can excel in Commander decks that care about Extort.

Many Leaks Seem Authentic

Sadly, another thing that this official spoiler season kickoff confirms is that a lot of the leaks were indeed the real deal. Eladamri, Korvecdal, Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor, Six and more were revealed officially for the first time but were revealed to the community for the second time today.

That said, as this article shows, there are still some Modern Horizons 3 cards that players haven’t seen yet. If you want to see everything that Modern Horizons 3 has to offer, be sure to keep a pulse on official spoilers happening over the last two weeks. Otherwise, be sure to keep an eye out here, as we’ll have all the most interesting things happening in the MTG space for you to see.