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. 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 is a rather interesting “fixed” version of Recurring Nightmare, 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 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 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! If you really want to get aggressive, you could pair this with Armageddon 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 and Novice Inspector as reasonable cards to sacrifice, protecting your massive board of puny Creatures from Supreme Verdict 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 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, 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 or even Nekusar, the Mindrazer.
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. For instance, casting cards like Sojourner’s Companion or Myr Enforcer 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 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 work perfectly in conjunction with Unsealing. So does Scion of Draco. Even Evoking Solitude 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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