Summary
Modern Horizons sets inMagic: The Gatheringare well-known for their intricate Limited formats, weaving together mechanics and abilities from Magic’s past to create strategically deep and interesting new cards. This process has traditionally led to some of the most enjoyable–and complex–Limited formats.
Modern Horizons 3 holds the player’s hand a bit more than the previous Horizons formats. That’s not to say it’s easy, just that the third iteration has pretty easy buckets of archetypes to understand. That makes the Limited format a lot more about understanding the intricacies within those buckets, rather than just knowing the available archetypes.
10Learn How To Configure Manabases With MFDCs
Modal Double-Faced Cards(MDFCs) made a splashy return in Modern Horizons 3, with 20 new split-lands to beef up your manabases. It’s important to value these cards highly in a draft, since they let you artificially increase your land count without reducing your access to spells.
Don’t just swap lands for MDFCs straight-up, though. That’s fine for the first one, but MDFCs are only advantageous if you actually get to cast the spell half most of the time. A good rule of thumb is cutting a land from your deck for every two MDFCs you intend to play.
9Synergy, Synergy, Synergy
Modern Horizons 3 is so synergy-driven that there aren’t even that many generically powerful cards to begin with. Most cards ask to be played in a certain deck, and need to be surrounded with the right support pieces. Lean into a strategy and fortify it as much as possible.
Red/black affinitywants as many artifacts as possible, red/white energy needs as many sources of energy as you can get, and so on. There’s very little room for generically fine cards within these shells, except maybe a handful of catch-all removal spells that you’d play in any deck anyway.
8Be Ready To Fight For Your Lane
Modern Horizons 3 has very straightforward archetypes, so it’s up to the drafter to correctly prioritize cards within the archetype they’ve settled on. However, players generally know what the best archetypes are, those beingenergy decksand Eldrazi decks.
The problem is, once you’ve moved in on an archetype, it can be very difficult to branch off into something different, since the archetypes don’t overlap much. If you’re going to stake a claim on one of the better archetypes, you need to commit pretty early and stick to your start.
7Prepare For Board Stalls
The prevalence of Eldrazi Spawn tokens and generally large creatures causes many matches to slow to a crawl in the mid-game. These situations favor the player who has a plan for breaking through a cluttered board, and there’s enough random reach in the set thatfliers won’t always be the answer.
The best way to push past an imposing defense is with cards that bypass blockers altogether. MDFCs like Sundering Eruption and Suppression Ray can steal games out of nowhere, but incidental damage from Molten Gatekeeper and Kami of Jealous Thirst can be your route to victory as well.
6Have A Plan For Beating Chrys
Writhing Chrysalis made a name for itself early in the format for being an absolutely game-warping card. We expect bombs like this in most formats, but ‘Chrys’being a commonmeans it’ll come up much more frequently, often in multiples.
Being able to beat a Chrys or two is something you should have in the back of your mind while drafting. You won’t encounter it every match, but it sets the bar for what you should expect to beat in order to do well. If you can’t regularly beat a Writhing Chrysalis, your deck probably won’t get too far.
Catch-all removal, unblockable effects, and deathtouch can be effective ways to beat Chrys. Bounce spells and flying creatures aren’t as effective due to its cast trigger and reach.
5Colorless Mana Is A Sixth Color
Eldrazi decks have to balance their usualblue/red/green color identitywith actual colorless mana, which is functionally another ‘color’ you’ll need access to. There are plenty of colorless sources available, but it’s still a juggling act you’ll have to attend to.
Your primary source of colorless mana should come from Eldrazi Spawn tokens, which can generate the mana you need independent of the lands you’re playing. Landscapes are also great, though you’ll want Landscapes that produce at least two of your other colors. If you have to resort to playing a Snow-Covered Wastes for colorless mana, something went wrong.
Bountiful Landscape is the best Landscape for Eldrazi decks, since it offers all three colors of mana associated with the Eldrazi color pairs.
4Conserve Your Energy
When playing an energy deck, you should ask yourself: “What do I want to be spending my energy on?“There’s no shortage of ways to make and spend energy, but you should save up for your big payoffs instead of blowing energy on incremental advantages.
Scurry of Gremlins, Reiterating Bolt, and Unstable Amulet are great places to sink your energy. Don’t waste too much of it on early-game creatures like Hexgold Slith. You’ll be well-off if you can play an energy-producing creature, trade it off for an opponent’s creature, then just pocket the energy for a different effect.
3Be Weary Drafting The Niche Archetypes
Most decks in the format fall into the energy, Eldrazi, or modified buckets, butblue/blackand red/black are outliers that don’t overlap with other decks. These decks have payoffs that don’t really gel with the rest of the format, but that’s a golden opportunity if one of these color pairs is completely open.
You have to be cautious getting into one of these decks. The payoffs aren’t amazing, and the decks don’t support multiple drafters at the same table. Recognizing when the gold cards are flowing is key to knowing when to start drafting black-red or blue-black.
Wheeling a card like Sneaky Snacker or Cranial Ram can be a clear sign one of these archetypes is open. If you open these cards but they don’t wheel, avoid moving into these colors.
2Value Landscapes Appropriately
Landscapes are the premier mana-fixing for the set. Each one accesses one of three different colors, as well as colorless mana for the decks that need it. They also have inherent synergy with landfall cards, orcards that key off sacrificing permanents, like Skittering Precursor or Genku, Future Shaper.
The question becomes when to actually draft Landscapes. If you’re splashing, a Landscape that covers all three of your colors should take priority over all but the best possible cards. A Landscape that touches two of your primary colors is also valuable, but you need not prioritize them so highly.
1Don’t Ignore The Commander Exclusives
All eight ofthe Modern Horizons 3 precon commandersmake an appearance from time to time. Jyoti is the worst card in the entire set, while Omo and Azlask aren’t really worth the trouble, but the rest are cards you should keep your eye on.
Satya’s an actual bomb for energy decks, while Disa the Restless is worth the slot if you can manage its mana cost. Ulalek’s not as hard to cast as its mana cost would suggest, and the ability is phenomenal in Eldrazi decks. Cayth and Coram are strong enough standalone cards, three-color mana costs permitting.
