The 10 Most Impactful Cards From Jumpstart Historic Horizons

We are now a few days into the release of Jumpstart: Historic Horizons on Magic Arena. The set aimed to bring some powerful new cards to Historic, taking cards from Modern Horizons, Modern Horizons 2 and other sets. It also introduced some brand new Arena only cards that have unique digital only mechanics. After a few days of testing and a tournament over the weekend, we now have a clearer picture of which cards are making waves in the format.

Honorable Mention – Cordial Vampire

Our Honorable mention goes to Cordial Vampire. It’s help bring the vampires deck into prominence, essentially giving them a lord. When you couple this with various removal spells, you can put together a very powerful board very quickly.

10. Svyelun of Sea and Sky + Master of the Pearl Trident

and share the number 10 spot. With the addition of this powerful mythic from Modern Horizons 2 and powerful lord, Merfolk has become a very viable aggro deck. With 12 lords and a powerful boss monster, this deck can get off the ground quick and can be very difficult to race.

9. Freyalise, Skyshroud Partisan + Skyshroud Lookout

Skyshroud Lookout English — *Wizards of the Coast*

Our first pair of digital only cards is Freyalise, Skyshroud Partisan and Skyshroud Lookout. Elves is definitely the best tribal deck in the format that the moment, and these two cards have given Elves the needed consistency and tempo to help propel them to competitiveness.

8. Scurry Oak

Next up we have Scurry Oak. This may seem pretty unassuming as an uncommon, but this card is a key piece to one of the combo decks in the format. When comboed with Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Prosperous Innkeeper or Soul Warden, you can create an endless loop of creating a massive Scurry Oak and a massive amount of squirrels all while gaining an equally massive amount of life. To top it off, we can get our combo out with Collected Company.

7. Hardened Scales

Hardened-Scales-J21-672 — *Wizards of the Coast*

is a modern staple, and finds a home in Historic as well. This card helped spawn a Selesnya counters aggro deck. It’s a very low to the ground deck that aims to build a board full creatures with +1/+1 counters. This card was definitely one where it was unclear how this deck would be built, or if it’d be viable, but it’s definitely a good one.

6. Davriel’s Withering + Vesperlark

The next digital only card is Davriel’s Withering, paired with Vesperlark. These two cards form another infinite combo, and when you combo it with something like Blood Artist, you can drain your opponent out of the game. You can find this combo with Collected Company, and while it’s soft to graveyard removal, the sideboards brings in artifact and enchantment destruction to play around it.

5. Seasoned Pyromancer

One of the more powerful creatures that Wizards put into the set was Seasoned Pyromancer. One of the most impactful cards in Modern has made a good splash in Historic. Finding homes in various Rakdos or Izzet decks, this creature provides some much needed card draw, and can put some bodies on the board. This is definitely one of the premier crafts of the set.

4. Esper Sentinel

What was our pick for the best card in the set, Esper Sentinel comes in at number 4 on our list. While this card has seen play in many different decks, and it definitely performs as well as we thought, there’s a few other cards that did more. Still, this card is a fantastic include in multiple decks, taxing your opponent’s spells, or drawing you 2-3 cards a game.

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3. Serra’s Emissary

is one of the sleeper hits of the set. This card single handedly brought the Jeskai deck to the top of the format. Giving you and your creatures protection from the most relevant card type in your opponent’s deck can often be a death sentence for them, and many decks lack the diversity in spells to deal with this massive 7/7 flying body.

2. Unholy Heat

is one of the top removal spells in the format. Being able to deal 6 damage for 1 mana is incredibly powerful. Hitting Delirium isn’t very difficult to do. While right now, the format is anticipating the delirium strategy so graveyard hate is pretty plentiful, but you definitely refill it at a reasonable pace to make this full powered.

1. Dragon’s Rage Channeler

dragon rage channeler — *Wizards of the Coast*

The most impactful card in the format has to be Dragon’s Rage Channeler. The entirety of the format has warped around this card, causing many decks to play main deck graveyard hate. This is a power house card in the modern format and so the hype for this in Historic caused a HUGE shift in the meta. As the format ages and we get more cards, expect that this will continue to be a player in the game.