The Top 10 Cards from Modern Horizons 3

Being only a couple weeks out from Modern Horizons 3, it’s time we evaluated what the true standouts are in this set, and what game pieces are likely to be here with us to stay for the near future. Today, I’ll talk briefly about what are, in my mind, the top ten cards from MH3 to be on the lookout for. Let’s dive in!

Ugin's Labyrinth

While this list is in no particular order, I figured I would start with Ugin’s Labyrinth, which is arguably the most powerful card in the set. This is sort of the Urza's Saga of MH3 in terms of a land that will likely become ubiquitous with the format at large in a short period of time.

Labyrinth is a potent piece of colorless mana ramp, so the decks that may seek to play it might be a little bit more narrow than Urza’s Saga, but it accelerates decks like Tron and Affinity beyond what any other piece of ramp can currently do. Affinity can play this turn one imprinting a Frogmyr Enforcer or Sojourner's Companion, and then on turn two play a Simulacrum Synthesizer, and this is all on top of the zero- or one-mana artifacts that can be cast on turn one and two anyway. In so many words, in Affinity, Labyrinth speeds up the game by one turn, enabling explosive plays with Synthesizer as early as turn two. For Tron or Eldrazi Tron, it’s obvious as to why this card is so good: it replaces Eye of Ugin and gives Eldrazi another “Sol Ring” land to complement Eldrazi Temple. 

Now, is this card worth its pre-order price? Absolutely not. I do expect the long-run price of this to settle a little bit higher than Urza’s Saga given that it’s at a mythic slot. My guess is that this particular game piece will be around $50 in a couple of months. 

Ugin's Labyrinth	CardKingdom $79.99	TCGPlayer $88.84
Ugin's Labyrinth (Borderless)	CardKingdom $109.99	TCGPlayer $79.99

Flare of Denial

We had the Evoke Elementals cycle in MH2 and the Force cycle in MH1. Now in MH3, we have the Flare cycle. In the aggregate, the power level of the Flare cards are on par with the Force cycle. Of the Flares, two seem highly playable right out of the gate: Flare of Cultivation and Flare of Denial. Flare of Denial, in particular, is the best of the bunch.

Now, unlike the previous Modern Horizons cycles, Flares are a little bit more narrow in use in that in order to activate them for their alternative cost, you need to sacrifice a nontoken creature of the Flare’s respective color. So, while Flare of Denial is a “free” counterspell, you need to sac a blue creature. Thus, you can’t really slot it into every single deck as freely as of the Evoke Elementals. Having said that, decks like Merfolk love this card to no end. Given that Merfolk go wide with creatures, a free counter spell at the cost of one lowly Merfolk can be game-saving and/or game-winning. I feel like this card is actually not inappropriately priced at this point prior to release, but I do expect it to drop a little more. This is probably between $15 to $20 in the long-run.

Flare of Denial	CardKingdom $39.99	TCGPlayer $35.97
Flare of Denial (Borderless)	CardKingdom $59.99	TCGPlayer $47.30
Flare of Denial (Retro Frame)	CardKingdom $59.99	TCGPlayer $34.98

Birthing Ritual

Birthing Ritual is a fascinating card that Yawgmoth players will likely play as a four-of over Wall of Roots (at least that’s the buzz currently). 

This card can do three specific things if you control a creature: 

1. Look at the top seven cards of your library at your end step with no other actions

2. Look at the top seven cards of your library at your end step and sac a creature (unconditional sac outlet, if you will)

3. You can use the full effect: look at seven cards, sac a creature, and get that sweet “We have Birthing Pod at home” effect

This card is really versatile, and I think it’s easy to look at it and evaluate purely as a lower-cost, albeit narrower, Birthing Pod, but it can just be a way to get free information and trigger “leave the battlefield” or “when a creature dies” effects. Super interesting card. Its pre-order prices are a little high, but not by much. My guess is that this will settle around $10 to $15, unless it sees considerable play in decks other than Golgari Yawgmoth.

Birthing Ritual	CardKingdom $34.99	TCGPlayer $20.37
Birthing Ritual (Borderless)	CardKingdom $39.99	TCGPlayer $19.97

Strix Serenade

Not much to say here. This is Swan Song’s complementary cousin. 

How good is an unconditional creature counterspell? Stupidly good in Modern. The fact that it can also hit artifacts is incredibly relevant, too. This card will likely see cEDH play as well, as it’s a one-mana Commander-card counterspell. I would imagine its long-run value is around where Swan Song is as well: $10 to $12. 

Strix Serenade	CardKingdom $17.99	TCGPlayer $17.98
Strix Serenade (Borderless)	CardKingdom $27.99	TCGPlayer $13.00

Springheart Nantuko

This card has “infinite combo” written all over it. Now, as with any infinite combo piece in Modern, I’m always skeptical regarding its viability. However, in Modern, Springheart has one particular deck that it slots into rather nicely: Amulet Titan. 

Bestowing this on a Primeval Titan with Amulet of Vigor in play creates as many copies of Prime Time as you have lands in your deck. That will probably end the game if the Valakut triggers don’t. Beyond this, Amulet Titan can also use Springheart in combination with one Amulet of Vigor, a Simic Growth Chamber, and Arboreal Grazer to make infinite Arboreal Grazers as early as turn two. Now, you may be asking: how can infinite Arboreal Grazers at zero power end the game? Good question, allow me to turn your attention to a classic card: Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers, which can simply be run out with the last Grazer copy’s ETB effect. Overall, very high power-potential, but in narrow use. Probably a $3 to $4 card in the long-run. 

Springheart Nantuko	CardKingdom $14.99	TCGPlayer $14.81
Springheart Nantuko (Borderless)	CardKingdom $24.99	TCGPlayer $12.49

Shifting Woodland

I love this card. It’s kind of like Thespian's Stage, except it cares about cards in your graveyard, rather than strictly other lands in play.

What’s more is that its Delirium cost can be paid for using the mana it can generate—which is to say, you don’t have to tap to use its effect making it functionally three mana to activate. Legacy loves this for enabling cheeky Dark Depths plays, and in Modern, Golgari Yawgmoth and Amulet Titan will love the way this deck complements their existing game plays, or allows for increased consistency and resiliency. Pre-order prices for this card are actually somewhat lower than I would expect: around $20. While getting Delirium online isn’t as easy in the decks that want to play this card by comparison to Izzet Prowess or Murktide decks, it’s still easy enough to capitalize on its ability. This is one of the few cards that I think may be worth speccing on. Like Agatha's Soul Cauldron, the upper-limit of this card’s power level isn’t bounded, so as new cards come into the format that synergize with Woodland, its potential increases concurrently. 

Shifting Woodland

CardKingdom $22.99

TCGPlayer $22.20

Harbinger of the Seas

“...Because Magus of the Moon needed to be blue.” I don’t know if this was the logic behind this card’s design, but it has all the right design choices going for it: it’s a Wizard, which is relevant for cards like Flame of Anor, and it’s a Merfolk, which is relevant for…well…Merfolk. Oh it’s also a creature, which means it evades Boseiju, Who Endures. 

The price of this card right now is on par with Magus of the Moon, which actually doesn’t feel too out of place. I do expect this card (as with most) to dip in price a little bit, although it does have the potential to gain significant value if Merfolk’s boost from MH3 propels it into the top spots in the meta. 

Harbinger of the Seas	CardKingdom $24.99	TCGPlayer $20.00
Harbinger of the Seas (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $24.99	TCGPlayer $15.85

Meltdown

Again, not much to say here. This is arguably the most efficient mass artifact removal spell in the game. Porting this card from Legacy to Modern will certainly change up sideboard plans for decks that can play it. 

Right now, an Urza's Saga (the set, not the card) Meltdown will run you $9 or so. This reprint will likely flood the market with more copies than the uptick in demand for it in Modern will be, and as such, I expect the long-run price to fall a little bit to $6, give-or-take. 

Meltdown	CardKingdom $2.99	TCGPlayer $3.38
Meltdown (Retro Frame)	CardKingdom $4.99	TCGPlayer $2.20
Meltdown	CardKingdom $7.49	TCGPlayer $8.90

Kappa Cannoneer

A confirmed reprint from Commander: Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. I thought the original leak of this card had to be fake. I mean, this card is a menace in Commander, right up there with Voja in terms of near-un-interactable creatures that hit early and hard. I cannot reiterate how stunned I am to see this in Modern. 

This card is a game-finisher in Affinity and possibly even a new toy for ambitious Hardened Scales fanatics. Its evasiveness is unmatched by most other cards in the game. In the right deck, this card lands early, and gets big. I’ve been testing a Mono-Blue Affinity deck that I brewed in anticipation of MH3, and have found that against the best decks in the current meta (with some small upgrades, of course), it’s easy to get a 9/9 Cannoneer swinging in as early as turn three, thereby setting you up for lethal on turn four. Beyond Cannoneer’s sheer power level, it also does one of the most important things in Affinity: it triggers Simulacrum Synthesizer, which is incredibly synergistic in that your Construct tokens trigger Cannoneer, growing him to larger, game-ending proportions.

Kappa Cannoneer	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $5.02
Kappa Cannoneer (Retro Frame)	CardKingdom $14.99	TCGPlayer $8.94
Kappa Cannoneer	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $5.47
Kappa Cannoneer	CardKingdom $5.99	TCGPlayer $4.05

Ulamog, the Defiler

Third time's the charm, right? I didn’t think Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger could be topped in terms of power level, but then again, this is a power-crept set. 

For ten mana, this card exiles half of an opponent’s library, gets at least three +1/+1 counters (going by average mana values), making it a 10/10 most of the time when it enters with a Ward - “Annihilator 2” level of built-in protection, and, again, likely Annihilator 3 if you exile at least a permanent card with a mana value of three from half your opponent’s deck (again, this is being conservative). This is almost certainly the best Eldrazi Titan in the game that’s Modern-legal. Full stop. Right now this guy is pre-ordering at $80 or so, and perhaps that’s the right price, although I still find it rather high. I can’t see this card going for more than Ugin's Labyrinth in the long-run. I would guess that when the dust settles in a couple months or so that this card will be going for between $35 and $40. I would expect Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to dip a little bit too. 

Ulamog, the Defiler	CardKingdom $79.99	TCGPlayer $81.99
Ulamog, the Defiler (Borderless)	CardKingdom $99.99	TCGPlayer $139.94
Ulamog, the Defiler (Retro Frame)	CardKingdom $89.99	TCGPlayer $89.99

Looking Ahead

This is a long article, so I thank you all for sticking with me as we take one final deep dive into MH3 before the set drops. The power level of this set is quite immense, potentially more powerful than MH2, and all the cards mentioned today have the ability to impact the meta substantially. Having said that, the adoption rate of these cards remains to be seen. It will take the meta at least a month or so to really sort itself out and absorb these new cards, so expect prices to fluctuate for a while post-release. 

All the same, if history is any guide, this set will likely be the most-opened Magic product of all time, so the supply of single cards in the market is going to be immense. It’s difficult to overstate how flooded the market will be with these singles, so exercise extreme caution when speculating. The safe bets for this set are the reprints: Fetchlands, Kappa Cannoneer, Meltdown, Buried Alive, and everything in between. Known commodities are always fairly reliable specs, especially Kappa Cannoneer and Meltdown. Speculate safely, folks, and see you on the other side of the (Modern) horizon!

Further Reading:

The History of MTG Finance