For those willing to dive into Magic’s history, there are plenty of bizarre old cards to find that have been lost to time. While many of these cards offer strong payoffs to decks designed to use them, many have a common flaw. These cards affect all players equally, demanding that you break the parity to make them worthwhile. Even among these cards, Horn of Plenty throws a wrench in the usual design, offering a benefit instead of a downside.
MTG Horn of Plenty
Horn of Plenty offers an endless amount of cards, but it certainly comes with a catch. Not only do you have to pay for all the cards you get, but your opponents get the same benefit, too. If that weren’t enough, Horn of Plenty forces players to draw their extra cards at the end phase, preventing the possibility to Storm off for a win. On the bright side, because Horn of Plenty helps everyone out, there’s a decent chance your opponents will ignore it until it’s too late.
Thankfully, on top of looking pretty non-threatening, breaking the parity on Horn of Plenty is easier than you might expect. On a base level, the only thing you need to do to get more value out of this than your opponents is to cast a ton of cheap spells. This makes Horn of Plenty a great payoff in Affinity decks like Urza, Chief Artificer, and Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch. These decks can establish their board of cheerio effects and mana dorks, and refill their hand with their extra mana at the end step. Alternatively, Ramp Commanders like Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait and Hearthhull, the Worldseed can get Horn of Plenty out early, and draw lots of cards with it.
As if this wasn’t good enough, Horn of Plenty notably doesn’t care which turn you cast a spell. This allows you to turn a removal spell like Deadly Rollick, or a Flash threat like High Fae Trickster, into a cantrip. Combo this idea with a land untapper like Seedborn Muse, and you’ll never run out of things to do.
While Horn of Plenty can easily help you pull ahead on its own, the card truly shines when you interact with your opponent’s card draw. For Commanders like The Unagi of Kyoshi Island and The Council of Four, Horn of Plenty acts as both a card advantage engine and a way to trigger your Commander. Alternatively, you can also use card punishers like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse or Nekusar, the Mindrazer to make Horn of Plenty a more painful exchange.
Completely Unheard Of
While giving resources to others isn’t something that every player likes doing, the payoff that Horn of Plenty offers is still worthwhile. Despite this value, only 582 decks run this card, according to EDHREC. Considering that the card sees almost no play even in its most synergistic home, there’s a decent chance the majority of MTG players simply aren’t even aware that Horn of Plenty exists.
Thanks to its ambiguity, Horn of Plenty offers an extremely robust draw effect on a massive budget. For $0.50, it is extremely easy to get your money’s worth out of an endless draw engine like this. For its price point, Horn of Plenty might be the best draw engine in the entire game.
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