Until I got into drafting, pre-releases were my favourite way to play Magic: The Gathering. Get a bunch of packs, make yourself a deck, and battle. With Modern Horizons 3 offering some pretty big cards and some big prices to boot, I was keen to see what this new set would be like.
So naturally, I headed down to Bea DnD to check it out.
Modern Horizons 3: A Modern Set?
If you haven’t heard of Modern, it’s one of the constructed sets. Standard has about three years of legal cards; Modern is kind of the same, but has heaps more years. So Magic: The Gathering Modern Horizons 3 is basically a side set that introduces a bunch of cards for the Modern format as well as reprints of otherwise ridiculously expensive cards.
This made me curious, because Modern as a set has a lot of synergies you need to know about. I know that because I took part in a booster draft using Modern Horizons 2, and I got absolutely stopped by people using cards with synergy. Funny that.
What’s the deal with the faceless creatures and giant jellyfish?
You thought the Phyrexians were bad? The Eldrazi are even bigger and badder. In fact, they were the obscenely powerful creatures from the main sets around eight years ago. So seven and a half years before I was even considering playing Magic. So for a newbie like me, they are colorless creatures that are stupidly powerful but expensive to get out.
This is a lot of what you can expect in this set, a whole lot of older creatures, but some fun mechanics. Fortunately, in the cards I used, they all had good helping text, so I didn’t have to look many rules up. But if you pull one of the Eldrazi, find a way to use it. Emrakul scrapped me out some wins when it was looking awfully close.
What’s the set like to play?
With the addition of a lot of colourless mana creatures, I was a wee bit nervous here. Fortunately, there are heaps of creatures that can generate tokens that can be sacrificed for colourless mana.
Using a prerelease kit also takes some pressure off, so you have the time to assess and find some synergies to win games. I managed to build about three wincons into my deck, which is better than usual, where I normally have one wincon. That is to swing, and I hope I swing harder and faster. There are plenty of opportunities to build different types of ramps in here, so it’s a damn fun one to play with.
Is the set worth playing?
This is tough, and only because of the price. With the $20 play boosters, all the events are much more expensive. The cards on offer are worth more, and it is fun as hell to play. There are some intriguing-looking commander decks too.
So if you can afford it, then hell yeah, but I wouldn’t blame you for waiting for the next Outlaws Booster Draft.
