After a significant number of cards from the hotly anticipated upcoming MTG set Modern Horizons 3 were posted online by leakers, Wizards of the Coast has decided to unveil some of the upcoming cards officially. 21 Modern Horizons 3 cards were shown off “in non-potato-camera form” in an article shared by Blake Rasmussen on April 30. These include plenty of references, plenty of Eldrazi, and some truly busted lands.
First off, there are some Eldrazi versions of existing MTG cards in Modern Horizons 3. For instance, Nulldrifter is the eldritch horror version of Mulldrifter. It’s a very similar card, but triggers off casting not ETB, so no flicker shenanigans allowed, and comes with the terrifying Annihilator MTG keyword.
The Eldrazi version of Siege-Gang Commander also eschews an ETB. Spawn-Gang Commander creates Eldrazi tokens, which you can either sacrifice for colorless mana or fling around for damage. This one seems built for limited, where being able to make so many bodies is likely to make it a strong early pick.
Then there’s Winter Moon, a less bastard-y version of Winter Orb that only restricts you from untapping non-basic lands, so could be tremendous in a mono-color or colorless deck. There’s also a new Lhurgoyf, Nethergoyf which only looks at your own graveyard, but is one mana cheaper than Tarmogoyf and can ‘Escape’ back to the battlefield.
Wight of the Reliquary is a color shifted version of Knight of the Reliquary that can turn tokens into MTG mana ramp, and will be a great fit with top MTG commander, Gitrog. And Null Elemental Blast is a very retro callback – a version of Red/Blue Elemental Blast from Alpha which can hit any multicolored spell.
Finally, we’d like to draw attention to two impressive MTG land cards. Planar Nexus is all land types, which means it can turn on your Tron lands immediately (it’s an Urza’s Power-Plant, Mine, and Tower all in one) or be played with Loci for extra synergy. Ugin’s Labyrinth is the Sol Ring of lands, creating two colorless mana, provided you can exile a seven mana colorless card from your hand as you play it.
Previously, Wizards has landed itself in some hot PR waters with quite an aggressive response to leaks, including sending Pinkertons to speak to a YouTuber responsible for sharing cards before spoiler season. The community seems to be much more in favor of the new approach to major Magic leaks: essentially a shrug and a sassy article.
For more details on this and other upcoming MTG sets, check out the 2024 MTG release schedule.