- Set contains 254 cards + BAB promo
- Set code for this is "MH1"
- All cards in this set will be all Modern legal (as well as Legacy and Vintage legal), bypassing Standard
- Contains newly designed cards
- Contains newly printed to Modern cards from before 8th Edition
- Reprints will not be of currently Modern legal cards (ie: no fetches, Goyfs, etc...)
- Boosters will sell for $6.99USD on MTGO
- The set will not be available on MTGArena
- Releases June 14th
- Prerelease will be Draft, not Sealed
- Magicfest GP DC, Copenhagen, and Seattle will be Modern Horizons Limited.
- There will be a Buy-A-Box promo, which is a new-to-Modern reprint with alternate art
- No more previews until May
A lot of info for the announcement! Sadly, we don't have a lot of cards to look at this time since the release is 3.5 months away. However, they did preview two cards:
Menace
At the beginning of your precombat main phase, you may sacrifice a creature. When you do, choose a nonland card name, then target player reveals their hand and discards all cards with that name.
+2 Creatures you control with flying get +1/+1 until end of turn.
-3 Create a 4/4 white Angel token creature with flying and vigilance.
-6 You get an emblem with "If you control a creature, damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.
Serra the Benevolent already looks Modern-playable. She can be a 5/5 Flying/Vigilance Angel on the offence (4/4 on the defence) or Worship your opponents can't boot with Suspend 1. And woe to your opponents if she can produce another Angel. All for only 4 cmc!
I suspect Cabal Therapist may lure removal, but I'm not quite as sure on that. It's easy to whiff with your first named card.
I suspect Cabal Therapist may lure removal, but I'm not quite as sure on that. It's easy to whiff with your first named card.
If Cabal Therapist lures removal then it has done its job. Its job is to remove cards from your opponent's hand. You guess a card, and take any that are there. Maybe none, maybe up to 4. If it gets removed instead then you are guaranteed a card from their hand plus the spent resources.
I have been saying to my friend group for a while now that I would really like to see Cabal Therapy printed for modern, and finally they pulled the trigger on something very similar. I am already very hyped for this set as "reprints" like this really excite me, and I don't think a card like Cabal Therapist would be printed in standard. Already a from me.
Therapist combos with confidant, letting you turn off the bleeding and thoughtseize to boot. It also turns spare dorks into thoughtseizes, good for both junk and jund.
Therapist combos with confidant, letting you turn off the bleeding and thoughtseize to boot. It also turns spare dorks into thoughtseizes, good for both junk and jund.
The thing is that discard loses value fairly hard by the mid-game against aggro and black-based midrange. Turning spare dorks into Thoughtseize may not be what you want fairly often.
Cabal Therapist looks like a very clumsy card. It reminds me of the Augur cycle from Future Sight.
Cons:
- Can't control when the effect happens, making it weak as a sac outlet. If you have a sac outlet, you want to be able to sac in response to blocks or removal.
- Does nothing until the turn after you cast it. If I hardcast Cabal Therapy, I get to name a card immediately. If I hardcast Therapist, I get a 1/1 menace.
- Does nothing in the graveyard. You can mill yourself to get Therapy in the graveyard and flash it back. Milling Therapist doesn't accomplish anything.
- Not a sorcery. Therapy has synergy with Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor, as casting Therapy gives you a token which you can then sac for flashback. Not so with Therapist.
Serra looks average. 4 mana PWs tend to find their way into SBs for slow matchups. I guess Spirits could use it since they have enough fliers and occasionally play Worship.
Therapist likes Aether Vial, so you can add creatures to the bf before Therapist's trigger. Seems super slow so it has to be part of an engine : Bitterblossom, Aristocrats, 8Rack,...
The cons you mention @izzetmage are a bit unfair, Therapist doesn't fit in the same package, it has nothing to do with YP and Mentor decks or mill strats. It's like if you said a con was it was not a good PW... Well guess what, Therapist is not a sorcery either ! It's part of a creature package, like Bloodghasts for example.
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
once i realized therapist only works at the beginning of the pre-combat main my estimation of the card dropped drastically. imo the card looks quite bad and not good enough for any current decks i can think of. maybe playtesting with the card will prove differently /shrug
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Yeah, Therapist doesn't do anything the turn you cast it. Then next turn you could sac it to itself making it a delayed random guess discard spell (unless you used Peek in your upkeep or something). In turn 3 you could actually sac another creature and may get some mileage out of the card as by then you may have an active Bridge From Below or something. Still, it is precombat, so you are delaying yourself by saccing a potential attacker.
Turn 1: nothing
Turn 2: poor discard
Turn 3: actual use
Turn 4: do you still want discard spells at this stage?
I was intrigued by the Cabal Therap-part, but probably this card ends up being a trap.
Therapist seems pretty bonkers to me, I dunno T1 discard into t2 1 mana anything + therapist seems quite good. If you nab any acceleration with the initial discard you have almost full information for therapist to shred a hand on t3 even if it sacs itself. That means my opponent has 2 turns and generally 3 mana to stop me from screwing their entire hand potentially if I'm on the play. My initial discard taking the most problematic answer from them to stop me.
Are there decks that can get under that like storm or elves? Sure. Are there decks that will hard fold to that like a bunch of midrange nonsense? Also sure.
I actually like that you can't fire it off twice in one turn like therapy. Makes the card much more fair for the environment imho. Therapy could single-handedly push combo out of the format by itself depending on what we get.
The power level is there imho and although you build differently around it, it's a scary card for the format in my eyes. Seems very breakable.
One of the reasons that I like Modern is that you can have hatebears, zoo decks, and tribal decks of all different stripes competeting, at least, it was that way a few years ago. Creature heavy decks like Humans and Spirits might have become weaker now thanks to phoenix decks. I hope they continue working with the format to promote and sustain creature-heavy decks compared to spell-heavy decks. There are not many if any other eternal formats that support creature heavy decks like Modern does.
I fear bringing in so many pre-8th edition cards that they will push spells past the point that creature heavy decks can work well enough like already exists in Legacy.
I like tribal decks in modern and they have their place. I am a fan of modern elves of all stripes, merfolk, humans, spirits and off-brands like Shamans, Slivers, and Allies.
I mean they can power-up some of these tribes like Humans or Spirits with new cards (as I don't think there are old humans or spirits that would make a difference), reprints of Conspiracy/Commander humans and spirits. However, I am looking forward to maybe tribal support like Birchlore Ranger, Crystalline Sliver, Hibernation Sliver, Muscle Sliver, Wirewood Symbiote, and perhaps others that could be of help.
I think the Serra Planeswalker is really good, even if I’m biased because I’ve been waiting for a Serra Planeswalker card since Lorwyn. We still need an Urza though. (Unstable Urza doesn’t count.)
Both cards are rather medicore tbh. Therapist's clause of being precombat main only makes it basically useless in the early game, where you would need that effect. And Serra is okay-ish, but compared to Zendrika Gideon she is worse. I would only play her, if I would want the Warship effect.
Greetings,
Kathal
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What I play or have:
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
Based on maro posts on his tumblr about how the storm scale is only appied to standard legal sets I'm officially scared this will change the format deeply.
Both cards are rather medicore tbh. Therapist's clause of being precombat main only makes it basically useless in the early game, where you would need that effect. And Serra is okay-ish, but compared to Zendrika Gideon she is worse. I would only play her, if I would want the Warship effect.
Greetings,
Kathal
After testing Serra in a Bant Midrange-Control deck (closer to UW Control) today, I have to disagree with you. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar may be the faster clock in a vacuum, but it was oh so nice to be able to swing with evasion with Serra's angels. And those angels make dang fine blockers at the same time.
Given the steep rise in creatures with Flying in Modern lately, I dare say that Serra is a better meta call than Gideon AoZ right now.
I only want Astral Slide with the 1 mana cylcer back, than I'm a happy man
Loved the deck back in the days, played it as long as I could in Extended (even though it was rather garbage in a world of Thopter Depths XD), I just want to jam those cards again
Greetings,
Kathal
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What I play or have:
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
I don't know what to think. I'm considering selling out of the format out of the concern that they will spike the power level and indirectly render our existing decks obsolete. Also, the potential hit on value is a concern.
The reason why I play this format is because it changes only very slowly. If it becomes a second Standard then I just don't want to compete (money wise) in the long run.
I really want things like Dark Ritual. Unreasonable, but thats what I want.
I mean, you know that if this happens it will be you who, a few months later, will be going all out "I am quitting modern if then don't do something about these linear decks" right?
I only want Astral Slide with the 1 mana cylcer back, than I'm a happy man
Loved the deck back in the days, played it as long as I could in Extended (even though it was rather garbage in a world of Thopter Depths XD), I just want to jam those cards again
I don't know what to think. I'm considering selling out of the format out of the concern that they will spike the power level and indirectly render our existing decks obsolete. Also, the potential hit on value is a concern.
The reason why I play this format is because it changes only very slowly. If it becomes a second Standard then I just don't want to compete (money wise) in the long run.
As a teaser they obviously spoiled two relatively high powered cards and these cards don't seem to break anything. Although the power will be relatively high, I doubt it will lead to extreme power creep.
Nothing rotates out, so it is not really comparable to Standard. However, if there is a chase mythic in the set you need 4x for your deck, then it can become expensive.
Here is what we know so far from the livestream on twitch:
- Set contains 254 cards + BAB promo
- Set code for this is "MH1"
- All cards in this set will be all Modern legal (as well as Legacy and Vintage legal), bypassing Standard
- Contains newly designed cards
- Contains newly printed to Modern cards from before 8th Edition
- Reprints will not be of currently Modern legal cards (ie: no fetches, Goyfs, etc...)
- Boosters will sell for $6.99USD on MTGO
- The set will not be available on MTGArena
- Releases June 14th
- Prerelease will be Draft, not Sealed
-
MagicfestGP DC, Copenhagen, and Seattle will be Modern Horizons Limited.- There will be a Buy-A-Box promo, which is a new-to-Modern reprint with alternate art
- No more previews until May
A lot of info for the announcement! Sadly, we don't have a lot of cards to look at this time since the release is 3.5 months away. However, they did preview two cards:
Creature - Horror
Menace
At the beginning of your precombat main phase, you may sacrifice a creature. When you do, choose a nonland card name, then target player reveals their hand and discards all cards with that name.
1/1
Legendary Planeswalker - Serra
+2 Creatures you control with flying get +1/+1 until end of turn.
-3 Create a 4/4 white Angel token creature with flying and vigilance.
-6 You get an emblem with "If you control a creature, damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.
4 Starting Loyalty
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
I suspect Cabal Therapist may lure removal, but I'm not quite as sure on that. It's easy to whiff with your first named card.
Standard: lol no
Modern: BG/x, UR/x, Burn, Merfolk, Zoo, Storm
Legacy: Shardless BUG, Delver (BUG, RUG, Grixis), Landstill, Depths Combo, Merfolk
Vintage: Dark Times, BUG Fish, Merfolk
EDH: Teysa, Orzhov Scion / Krenko, Mob Boss / Stonebrow, Krosan Hero
2 Serra the Benevolent
4 Lingering Souls
4 Spectral Procession
4 Soul Warden
4 Path to Exile
4 Thoughtseize
4 Cabal Therapist
4 Sign In Blood
2 Smallpox
24 Lands
Seems good
RADAMARO, FIRST TO DESIRER
UKEFNET THE MINDFULU
GSASAYA, OROCHI ASCENDANTG
MODERN
RMONO-RED ELDRAZIR
The thing is that discard loses value fairly hard by the mid-game against aggro and black-based midrange. Turning spare dorks into Thoughtseize may not be what you want fairly often.
Cons:
- Can't control when the effect happens, making it weak as a sac outlet. If you have a sac outlet, you want to be able to sac in response to blocks or removal.
- Does nothing until the turn after you cast it. If I hardcast Cabal Therapy, I get to name a card immediately. If I hardcast Therapist, I get a 1/1 menace.
- Does nothing in the graveyard. You can mill yourself to get Therapy in the graveyard and flash it back. Milling Therapist doesn't accomplish anything.
- Not a sorcery. Therapy has synergy with Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor, as casting Therapy gives you a token which you can then sac for flashback. Not so with Therapist.
Serra looks average. 4 mana PWs tend to find their way into SBs for slow matchups. I guess Spirits could use it since they have enough fliers and occasionally play Worship.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
The cons you mention @izzetmage are a bit unfair, Therapist doesn't fit in the same package, it has nothing to do with YP and Mentor decks or mill strats. It's like if you said a con was it was not a good PW... Well guess what, Therapist is not a sorcery either ! It's part of a creature package, like Bloodghasts for example.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Turn 1: nothing
Turn 2: poor discard
Turn 3: actual use
Turn 4: do you still want discard spells at this stage?
I was intrigued by the Cabal Therap-part, but probably this card ends up being a trap.
Are there decks that can get under that like storm or elves? Sure. Are there decks that will hard fold to that like a bunch of midrange nonsense? Also sure.
I actually like that you can't fire it off twice in one turn like therapy. Makes the card much more fair for the environment imho. Therapy could single-handedly push combo out of the format by itself depending on what we get.
The power level is there imho and although you build differently around it, it's a scary card for the format in my eyes. Seems very breakable.
I fear bringing in so many pre-8th edition cards that they will push spells past the point that creature heavy decks can work well enough like already exists in Legacy.
I like tribal decks in modern and they have their place. I am a fan of modern elves of all stripes, merfolk, humans, spirits and off-brands like Shamans, Slivers, and Allies.
I mean they can power-up some of these tribes like Humans or Spirits with new cards (as I don't think there are old humans or spirits that would make a difference), reprints of Conspiracy/Commander humans and spirits. However, I am looking forward to maybe tribal support like Birchlore Ranger, Crystalline Sliver, Hibernation Sliver, Muscle Sliver, Wirewood Symbiote, and perhaps others that could be of help.
Greetings,
Kathal
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
Spirits
After testing Serra in a Bant Midrange-Control deck (closer to UW Control) today, I have to disagree with you. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar may be the faster clock in a vacuum, but it was oh so nice to be able to swing with evasion with Serra's angels. And those angels make dang fine blockers at the same time.
Given the steep rise in creatures with Flying in Modern lately, I dare say that Serra is a better meta call than Gideon AoZ right now.
Turn 1 Lily is going to be brutal.
_______________
Also looking forward to using Serra in my UW.
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Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
Loved the deck back in the days, played it as long as I could in Extended (even though it was rather garbage in a world of Thopter Depths XD), I just want to jam those cards again
Greetings,
Kathal
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
The reason why I play this format is because it changes only very slowly. If it becomes a second Standard then I just don't want to compete (money wise) in the long run.
So much yes on Astral Slide!
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
Nothing rotates out, so it is not really comparable to Standard. However, if there is a chase mythic in the set you need 4x for your deck, then it can become expensive.