Modern Horizons 3 leaks and spoilers have been in full force in recent weeks. While most official previews don’t kick off until May 21, the plethora of leaks revealed thus far have given us a decent idea about the main themes of the set.
We’ve seen multiple “free” spells in the form of Flares of various colors, such as
Flare of Denial
Flare of Denial
You may sacrifice a nontoken blue creature rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target spell.
. There have also been plenty of Modern Horizons 3 cards that directly reference older cards, even those on the Reserved List. For instance,
Chthonian Nightmare
Chthonian Nightmare
When this enchantment enters, you get {E}{E}{E} (three energy counters).
Pay X {E}, Sacrifice a creature, Return this enchantment to its owner's hand: Return target creature card with mana value X from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate only as a sorcery.
is a rather interesting “fixed” version of
Recurring Nightmare
Recurring Nightmare
Sacrifice a creature, Return this enchantment to its owner's hand: Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate only as a sorcery.
, utilizing the Energy mechanic. With this in mind, some intriguing build-around mechanics and Creature types such as Energy counters and Eldrazi seem to be major focuses within the set, too.
Today, we are going to go over some new Modern Horizons 3 leaks that fit each of these categories. The white Flare, a new Energy-focused
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune
Each player discards their hand, then draws seven cards.
variant, and an intriguing big Creature payoff have all been revealed! Of note, some of these are still leaks, not official spoilers. As such, some of them could turn out to be fake, though we will be writing under the assumption that they are real. If you’d like to wait for an official reveal of these cards, consider this your spoiler warning. With that out of the way, let’s start by looking at the White Flare in all its glory.
Flare of Fortitude
As is the case with all of the other Flares revealed so far, Flare of Fortitude gains most of its strength from its alternate casting cost. Paying four mana to protect your life total and your permanents is a rather steep cost, but paying zero mana and simply sacrificing a non-token white Creature instead is big game.
In Commander, Flare of Fortitude is a slam dunk inclusion for any go-wide Creature deck. First of all, it protects your entire board from board wipes. Notably, this goes beyond just Creatures, so casting this in response to something like
Austere Command
Austere Command
Choose two —
• Destroy all artifacts.
• Destroy all enchantments.
• Destroy all creatures with mana value 3 or less.
• Destroy all creatures with mana value 4 or greater.
that would blow up Artifacts is fair game.
With this in mind, you can even use Flare of Fortitude proactively. Just sacrifice a white Creature and cast this for free, then cast a board wipe to create your own
Plague Wind
Plague Wind
Destroy all creatures you don't control. They can't be regenerated.
! If you really want to get aggressive, you could pair this with
Armageddon
Armageddon
Destroy all lands.
to blow up all of your opponents’ Lands.
Beyond Commander, it’s possible a deck like Boros Convoke in Modern could utilize this card. With
Thraben Inspector
Thraben Inspector
When this creature enters, investigate. (Create a Clue token. It's an artifact with "{2}, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.")
and
Novice Inspector
Novice Inspector
When this creature enters, investigate. (Create a Clue token. It's an artifact with "{2}, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.")
as reasonable cards to sacrifice, protecting your massive board of puny Creatures from
Supreme Verdict
Supreme Verdict
This spell can't be countered.
Destroy all creatures.
or Oblivion Stone for free could be devastating.
You can even use Flare in racing situations. If your Prowess opponent goes all in on one combat, using Flare after they attack and exhaust a bunch of resources as a way to protect your life total can completely blow them out. Flare is more versatile than it looks.
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Wheel of Potential
Next, we have another intriguing iteration of an absurdly powerful card from back in the day. Wheel of Potential is clearly reminiscent of
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune
Each player discards their hand, then draws seven cards.
but is definitely a bit harder to maximize.
While Wheel of Fortune forces all players to discard their hands and draw seven cards, Wheel of Potential gives each player the option to exile their hand. This means that synergies with discard payoffs, such as
Waste Not
Waste Not
Whenever an opponent discards a creature card, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
Whenever an opponent discards a land card, add {B}{B}.
Whenever an opponent discards a noncreature, nonland card, draw a card.
, are off the table. On top of that, if the opponent likes their hand of cards, they can choose to keep it instead.
Further, you also need to have a decent supply of Energy counters to make this card work. In an ideal world, you would cast Wheel of Potential after dumping your hand as a means to refuel. The other option is to cast Wheel paying a lot of Energy counters up front while simultaneously controlling a card like
Narset, Parter of Veils
Narset, Parter of Veils
Each opponent can't draw more than one card each turn.
−2: Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a noncreature, nonland card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
or even
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
At the beginning of each player's draw step, that player draws an additional card.
Whenever an opponent draws a card, Nekusar deals 1 damage to that player.
.
Obviously, the fact that Wheel of Potential doesn’t force your opponents to discard their hands and get punished is unfortunate. Still, building a one-sided Wheel of Fortune can be strong, and this one lets you play cards you exiled for a turn that you would’ve lost otherwise. The reality is, Wheel of Potential isn’t a super powerful card, but decks that can generate a ton of Energy counters may be interested, nonetheless.
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Kozilek’s Unsealing
Our final spoiler of the day, Kozilek’s Unsealing is very easily abusable. At first glance, this card looks mostly like an Eldrazi payoff. However, there are two key things to note with this card. Kozilek’s Unsealing tirggers off any Creature type being cast, so long as it cost four or more mana. Also, this Enchantment triggers regardless of whether you actually spent four or more mana to cast your large Creature spell.
With this in mind, the card is drawing some comparisons to
Up the Beanstalk
Up the Beanstalk
When this enchantment enters and whenever you cast a spell with mana value 5 or greater, draw a card.
. For instance, casting cards like
Sojourner’s Companion
Sojourner’s Companion
Affinity for artifacts
Artifact landcycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Search your library for an artifact land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.)
or
Myr Enforcer
Myr Enforcer
Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact you control.)
for free will still enable you to draw three cards.
If you’re lucky, you may be able to chain these Creatures together and draw a ton of cards. For Modern Affinity,
Simulacrum Synthesizer
Simulacrum Synthesizer
When this artifact enters, scry 2.
Whenever another artifact you control with mana value 3 or greater enters, create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with "This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control."
may still prove to be a stronger card at the same mana cost, but Kozilek’s Unsealing is certainly worth consideration.
There are simply so many high-cost Creatures that can be cast for cheap. Delve threats like
Murktide Regent
Murktide Regent
Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for {1}.)
Flying
This creature enters with a +1/+1 counter on it for each instant and sorcery card exiled with it.
Whenever an instant or sorcery card leaves your graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
work perfectly in conjunction with Unsealing. So does
Scion of Draco
Scion of Draco
Domain — This spell costs {2} less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control.
Flying
Each creature you control has vigilance if it's white, hexproof if it's blue, lifelink if it's black, first strike if it's red, and trample if it's green.
. Even Evoking
Solitude
Solitude
Flash
Lifelink
When this creature enters, exile up to one other target creature. That creature's controller gains life equal to its power.
Evoke—Exile a white card from your hand.
will net you some Eldrazi Spawn tokens. This Enchantment has immense multi-format potential despite being just an uncommon.
While there are still a lot of new Modern Horizons 3 cards yet to be revealed, a multitude of powerhouses have made their presences known. Between Modern, Eternal formats, Arena-specific formats, and Commander, get readfy for some major shakeups to take place.
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