Thanks to the absurd amount of leaks, the Modern Horizons 3 spoiler season has been accelerated a bit. Things officially kick off next week, but we’ve already seen no end of content. Between the unofficial leaks and surprisingly early spoilers, there’s a lot of Modern Horizons 3 content already available for players to dive into.
While a lot of recent cards players have been talking about are unofficial leaks, it seems that Wizards of the Coast has spoiled a few more cards early through official channels. They did it in a rather unusual way, reposting old stories that have some relevance to the lore covered in Modern Horizons 3. Among the cards spoiled this way is a new beginning of game effect that could have some serious implications for Modern, especially when partnered with Ugin’s Labyrinth.
Devourer of Destiny
Devourer of Destiny is rather expensive for Modern at first glance. This seven mana creature is hardly worth casting to simply exile a colored permanent, after all, seven mana should ideally threaten to win the game. Despite what you’d hope to get for the cost, Devourer of Destiny is simply a 6/6 with a fairly basic removal effect when cast.
Fortunately, Devourer of Destiny does a lot more than just function as a threat. This card has a beginning-of-game effect that can seriously fix your first draw. Looking at the top four cards of your deck and selecting a card from among them can help your early game opening be as threatening as possible.
If this was all the card did, Devourer of Destiny’s viability would still be questionable. The mana value of seven, however, was definitely not an accident. This enables what is perhaps the most powerful card in all of Modern Horizons 3, and it certainly adds a lot of game to Devourer of Destiny.
Fixing your Draw and Turning on Ugin’s Labyrinth
Ugin’s Labyrinth introduces a Sol Land to Modern, which is a massive deal. The catch? You need to Imprint a colorless card with mana value seven or greater. Obviously, this means that Ugin’s Labyrinth won’t work in every deck, but it does have some homes. Affinity, Tron, Calibrated Blast, and some other niche archetypes can definitely make use of Ugin’s Labyrinth, and it certainly makes Devourer of Destiny a lot better.
The openings that Ugin’s Labyrinth can enable are absurdly powerful, and Devourer of Destiny can make those openings more consistent. This combination makes a turn one Chalice of the Void more realistic in Modern than it probably should be. This play can completely lock out some archetypes from playing the game, especially if this is executed on the play.
Even if you’re not setting up devastating turn-one plays, the added consistency from Devourer of Destiny is a welcome boon. Since it replaces itself while also potentially providing added utility, there’s hardly a reason not to run it. Depending on how many other decks receive major buffs in Modern Horizons 3, this could potentially turn colorless decks into a major problem.
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What About Commander?
Devourer of Destiny feels a lot less interesting in Commander. A seven mana creature that exiles a colored threat isn’t very strong in that format, and while using it as a threat in a focused archetype is a bit more reasonable, you’re much better spending your mana elsewhere.
Additionally, thanks to the singleton nature of Commander, it will be much more difficult to start with a copy of Devourer of Destiny in your opening hand. Not only is your deck bigger, but you can only run one copy of the Devourer. Ultimately, I would recommend against this card in Commander as a result.
Other Official Spoilers
Breaker of Creation was another card revealed through official channels yesterday. This card is not nearly as exciting as Devourer of Destiny. While it can be used as an Imprint option for Ugin’s Labyrinth, it seems like Draft chaff beyond that. For eight mana, this Eldrazi is incredibly underwhelming.
In theory, Breaker of Creation does a great job stabilizing your situation in a colorless Limited deck and can be difficult to remove. That being said, it doesn’t do nearly enough for eight mana in a constructed format. Competitively viable eight mana cards need to be Atraxa, Grand Unifier levels of good, and it just isn’t.
Either way, from what we’ve seen so far, Eldrazi fans should have a lot of fun Drafting Modern Horizons 3. Between all the spoilers and leaks, it’s safe to say Eldrazi cards are absolutely everywhere in the set, likely propping up multiple colors. Thanks to the sheer amount of new Eldrazi cards, there’s even a chance the archetype could reappear in Modern!
At the end of the day, while we’ve seen a fair few Eldrazi leaks and spoilers, there’s still a lot left to see. As a result, we won’t know if Eldrazi Tron is well and truly back until the spoiler season is officially over. Unless everything is leaked beforehand, this should happen on May 31st, 2024.
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