MTG Salvation

If cycling is a thing, I can't wait for Living End variants to get a bunch of new tools!

Nice, Astral Drift feels like a homage to the classic Astral Slide. Can't wait to get some copies of this card.

After looking at old Extended Astral Slide lists, I'm not 100% convinced we can build a competitive Astral Drift deck for Modern (but let's try anyway!). Any draw engine we can construct with Eternal Witness is done in fewer cards with planeswalkers like Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Ral, Izzet Viceroy, and even Chandra, Torch of Defiance (although none of them are GW, and none of them can draw multiple cards per turn, at least none of them tax your mana or life, and all of them can boot creatures at least temporarily). I suppose Life from the Loam can be a more explosive draw engine that actually gives you the breathing room to boot creatures with your Cycling, though. Shame both draw engines are vulnerable to graveyard hate. I suspect any Astral Drift deck loses to Gx Tron (especially 8-Karn builds that obviously drift away from winning with creatures), but we'll need to tune Astral Drift decks to at least have a good shot against UR Phoenix (which can swing with a 7/8 on Turn 3 or overload your Astral Drift with multiple Arclight Phoenix). Granted, you may not need to buy that much time with each Cycling, as Teferi, Time Raveler has been quite good at buying time against UR Phoenix's threats in testing despite being basically one-shot bounce that soaks up one creature's attack or a burn spell.

On the other hand, would "blink up to one target creature + cantrip" be worth it on a 2W instant? Because that's basically Astral Drift on Cycling mode only.

Quote from cfusionpm »

If cycling is a thing, I can't wait for Living End variants to get a bunch of new tools!

Yup, seeing as Cycling is nigh-confirmed to be one of the Modern Horizons set mechanics with Astral Drift, I'm expecting some reprints and new cards with Cycling. (I'm expecting a lot of Limited fodder with Cycling, too, including reprints.)

Maybe they will finally give us an Elvish Aberration. Or maybe some brand new large creatures with cycling? Getting excited to see the next cards.

dont forget that flusterstorm, as the BaB promo, will not appear in packs

thanks for the reminder. Anyway, wotc can make Flusterstorm as "rare" as possible... but don't really need it, and it actually feels narrow to use against the decks that dominate my local meta right now.

The good thing is that flusterstorm does not play the set.
so it will not happen like with the nexus

Flusterstorm's placement also probably speaks to wanting to include it but it feeling weird to only have one storm card in a draft set, so they made it a buy a box so the archetype wouldn't have felt missing.

The Legacy MTGO leagues sometimes have tempo lists pop up with Nivmagus Elemental and 4 Flusterstorm - might similar lists pop up in Modern?

12 commons from Modern Horizons!!

Choking Tethers (reprint)
Elvish Fury (reprint - buyback is back!)
Goblin War Party (2R, Sorcery, Choose -Create three 1/1 goblins OR -Creatures get +1/+1 and haste, Entwine 2R)
Headless Specter (1BB, 2/2 flyer, Hypnotic Specter once Hellbent)
Imposter of the Sixth Pride (1W 3/1 changeling)
Lava Dart (sweet reprint - flashback is back!)
Martyr's Soul (2W, 3/2 spirit, convoke, when enters if you control no tapped lands put two +1/+1 counters)
PROHIBIT (REPRINT THANK GOD)
Savage Swipe (BEAR TRIBAL - G, sorcery, target creature gets +2/+2 if power 2. Creature fights target creature)
Stream of Thought (U, sorcery, target player mills 4, you shuffle up to 4 cards, replicate 2UU)
Venemous Changeling (2B 1/3 deathtouch changeling)
Wall of a Thousand Cuts (3WW 3/5 defender, flying, W: attack as if no defender)

Lava Dart and Prohibit are definitely Modern playable. I do think that Prohibit likely precludes Counterspell, unless there are some Limited considerations to putting Counterspell at another rarity. That's probably a bit disappointing but I'm pumped for the cards. Excited for more cards today!

EDIT: Images posted by another Reddit user - https://imgur.com/a/7QWHclB

Over 40 mechanics in the set confirmed by Maro on twitter too.

Hmm. Neat stuff I guess.

More cards later or is this all for today?

Quote from ElectricEye »

More cards later or is this all for today?

There are some uncommon previews before the next round, and then some rare previews later.

Get em while they're reasonable! 😂

Those early foils are so so beautiful.

For those keeping score on Counterspell (me), sets dating back to Shadows over Innistrad all have either 3 or 4 counters except for two that had 2 and 5.

I'm excited for Prohibit though, certainly a nice addition.

Firebolt, Goblin Matron, Wing Shards...and full-art Snow-Covered basics!

Full art Snow lands? Sure!

We need ringleader to team up with matron now!

Quote from Thenarus »

Firebolt, Goblin Matron, Wing Shards...and full-art Snow-Covered basics!

The Firebolt reprint has me excited for potential Chainer's Edict reprint!

*looks at basic lands*

Wait... what are those Cryptolith-looking things in the art.

...Nahiri, what are you doing?

If no counterspell I think it's time to sell my stuff. Prohibit is just ***** by comparison.

Thats your hill to die on? Why?

Goblin Matron...interesting. I think I have been asking for Patriarch's Bidding since 2016? Can I please have modern goblin bidding, WOTC?

Firebolt might be a low-key powerhouse in burn. one card, four damage simply requiring a delay. I don't know for sure, but there is potential.