Well folks, Modern Horizons has been fully previewed at last. Now it’s time to sit back, relax, and see what sort of chaos this awesome set is going to unleash upon one of Magic’s premier Constructed formats.
Even though a lot of the cards in Modern Horizons have been met with a good deal of grumbling from certain loud factions of the Magic community, the set did a great job hitting a very difficult target. Wizards of the Coast had a long and narrow tightrope to walk between “Ugh – Modern Horizons is a dud. I’m not buying any packs!” and “Ugh – Modern Horizons has introduced so many new expensive staples that I feel obligated to go out and drop $1,000 on cards just to keep up with the format!”
Falling off either side of the tightrope would have been pretty bad. If Modern Horizons were straight-up awful, WotC wouldn’t have just lost money; our chances of getting any other straight-to-Modern sets would have gone down significantly. Plus, we’d have had to listen to several months of non-stop moaning and groaning from literally everyone.
On the other hand, imagine the outcry if there were eight to ten mythic rares in Modern Horizons that were must-owns for serious Modern players. Either you’d have to shell out a lot of dough for a bunch of new staples right away, or you’d risk paying super-high prices until those mythic staples were eventually reprinted in a Masters set. Both options would have felt bad, especially since you’d know that WotC could just announce Modern Horizons 2 and force you to spend another grand whenever they felt like it.
Luckily, WotC didn’t fall into either trap. They did this by printing most of the exciting Commander cards at mythic, making them optional purchases for casual players who are mostly going to be chasing one-ofs regardless. Most of the slam-dunk Modern staples in Modern Horizons were printed at lower rarities, making them far more accessible to the playerbase and less prone to crazy spikes.
In addition to that, most of the best Modern cards in Modern Horizons are fairly narrow. There are a few big exceptions to this rule, including the Horizon lands, but most of the future staples in this set only have a handful of potential homes and interactions. This is a good thing – if you’ve got a pet deck or a strategy or two you’d like to mess with, there are probably less than a dozen cards from the set that you’re going to need to buy. That should keep the whole endeavor from feeling too overwhelming.
Regardless, Modern Horizons is still full of cards that are going to increase in price as soon as the set leaves print. Two years from now, we’ll be looking back at Modern Horizons staples and talking about how they were only been printed once, and it was in a set with $7 booster packs. You’d better believe that we’ll start to see some pretty serious buyouts in a year or so that’ll try to push the envelope in new and frustrating ways.
The best way to personally combat this eventuality is to be aggressive with your buys over the next two to three months. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that you should plan to buy whatever Modern Horizons cards you think you’ll ever need by the end of the summer. I’ve tried to write my set review with that in mind, highlighting some cards that are worth picking up at current retail and others that you should snag once the available supply hits critical mass in early- to mid-July.
Let’s begin, shall we?
Mythic Rares
Echo of Eons – $40
Echo of Eons is the sort of high-powered card that will see play in formats as far back as Vintage. Nobody wants to pay six mana for a Timetwister, of course, but flashing one back for 2U? That’s outstanding value.
Echo of Eons looks like it’ll be at its best with Lion’s Eye Diamond in Legacy. I have no idea if that card – already a $300 Reserved List staple – has the legs to climb any higher, but it’s certainly not going to drop in price any time soon. If you’ve been holding off on picking up your last couple of Lion’s Eye Diamonds, I’d get on that ASAP. You don’t want to get left out in the cold if it does spike to $400-$500.
As for Modern, Echo of Eons probably won’t make as many waves as some people seem to think it will. I’m already hearing some people betting that Echo of Eons will be banned within the year, but I’d be utterly shocked if that happens.
Echo of Eons will see some play in Modern, though, and it might even become a format staple. At the very least, it’ll see play in rogue decks like Pitch Blue, where it can combo with Narset, Parter of Veils to soft-lock your opponent pretty easily. I’d expect other Pitch Blue staples like Lore Broker, Vendilion Clique, Day’s Undoing, Commandeer, and Disrupting Shoal to all see price increases as folks attempt to work Echo of Eons into their deck. This is the sort of brew that doesn’t even have to end up being all that good in order to sustain some long-term price spikes, either – it just has to be fun.
Of course, Echo of Eons is either going to sink or swim long-term depending on whether the card ends up as part of the engine in a top-tier Modern deck. I certainly like its chances more than most of the Modern Timetwister variants, most of which have strict clauses or high mana costs going against them. I’d certainly be recommending Echo of Eons if it were pre-ordering in the $15-$20 range, but at $40 it’s already pretty much maxed out based on the amount of play it’s likely to see. Best case, your $40 investment is stable. Worst case, you’re looking at a $12-$15 card over the next year or so. There are certainly worse cards to buy into at current retail – we’ll be covering one of those next – but I’m going to give this one a skip for now. I’ll buy in next month once the hype has died down a bit.
Sword of Sinew and Steel – $35
The existing Sword of X and Y cycle doesn’t see much play in Modern as-is. Sword of Fire and Ice sees some play in Legacy thanks to Stoneforge Mystic, and Sword of Light and Shadow is a sideboard card now and then, but that’s about it.
I can’t imagine Sword of Sinew and Steel bucks this trend. If you’re connecting with a creature equipped with this stabby friend, you should be able to kill a planeswalker regardless. Most artifact decks aren’t going to care about Sword of Sinew and Steel either, since they’ll either be chump-blocking forever with Thopters or locking you out with Ensnaring Bridge or Mycosynth Lattice. Either way, there are better answers.
What about Commander? Some of the Swords are pretty good in that format – especially Sword of Feast and Famine, which can untap all your lands. Sword of Sinew and Steel might be better than average in that format, since it protects your creature from the spot removal colors while allowing you to destroy planeswalkers and artifacts controlled by players other than the one you attack.
Regardless, I can’t see this sword staying above $25 long-term, and $15-$20 seems more likely to me. As with most of the casual cards in Modern Horizons, this price is coming down over the next couple of months no matter what. Hold off on buying in until July if you’re in the market.
Sword of Truth and Justice – $35
Sword of Truth and Justice is probably going to see a little more play than Sword of Sinew and Steel, if only because blue and white are very strong colors to have protection against in both Modern and Commander. It’s still not powerful enough to become much of a Modern staple, but there are quite a few decks that run Mirran Crusader in both Modern and Legacy and they’ll all at least have to consider running this card alongside it.
Proliferate is a pretty exciting ability in Commander, too, though this is still one of the more underpowered Swords in the cycle in terms of raw ability. The protection abilities might make up for it, but I still don’t see Sword of Truth and Justice approaching Fire and Ice levels of popularity, much less Feast and Famine. Much like Sword of Sinew and Steel, this feels more like a $20 card long-term than a $35 card. If you’re in the market, wait at least a month for the price to come down somewhat.
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician – $35
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician is going to be a Commander all-star. In Modern? I’m not so sure. Protection from Humans is a pretty nice ability, and you can certainly build an engine that will start to approximate Yawgmoth’s Bargain if you want to, but we’re still talking about a four-mana 2/4 that requires a lot of fiddly set-up before anything good happens. Yawgmoth would be a Standard staple for sure, but he might just be too slow for Modern.
That doesn’t mean people won’t try to make Yawgmoth a thing. Geralf’s Messenger is the first card I’d look at in a Yawgmoth deck, and I’ve already seen some price movement that makes me think we’re due for at least a small spike. Gravecrawler seems like it might have a home in this deck as well. I don’t think that deck will have enough gas to even start approaching Modern’s top tier right now, but folks will certainly give it their best shot.
As with the Swords, Yawgmoth feels overpriced to me right now. Like I said in the intro, I feel like people are overrating the mythics of Modern Horizons while underrating a lot of the rares. I expect Yawgmoth to end up in the $15 range long term, and I’d stay away for now.
Kess, Dissident Mage – $16
If you’re going to buy any of the mythic rares that I’m talking about in today’s article, Kess feels like the best of the bunch by a long shot. I wouldn’t be shocked if we see more copies of Kess, Dissident Mage near the top of the metagame than Echo of Eons, for example, and I doubt we see much of the Swords or Yawgmoth at all.
People aren’t talking about Kess right now because she’s a reprint from Commander 2017. She’s also mostly remembered from the debacle at Grand Prix Seattle a while back, where there literally weren’t enough non-warped foil copies of Kess in the room to satisfy the number of people playing her in Legacy. “They’re only printing Kess in Modern Horizons in order to save face!” is a funny meme, but it ignores the fact that the card is poised to make a pretty big impact in Modern.
The real question with Kess is how much Grixis there’s likely to be in Modern going forward. If you can cast her, getting a repeatable Snapcaster Mage trigger every turn is pretty unreal. We know she’s powerful in tournament settings already because we’ve seen what she can do in Legacy, and the less counter-heavy Grixis decks in Modern are probably going to rebuild themselves around this card. One way or another, Kess is going to see play. The only question is how much.
With so many of the mythics in Modern Horizons being casual-only cards, Kess has some room to make a run if a Grixis Control deck ends up doing well. The fact that Kess has been printed before is almost irrelevant – Commander 2017 is a very-low-supply set, and we already know that most of those copies are warped anyway. The fact that Kess is technically a reprint won’t stop it from being a $50+ card if that’s what the market bears.
So yeah. Worst case, Kess isn’t going below the $12-$15 range. Best case, she’ll become one of the premier control cards in the format. I’m going to snag my playset now just in case.
Hexdrinker – $15
Hexdrinker is both versatile and powerful enough to become a Modern staple. One-mana cards rule the roost in Modern, and the fact that you can dump a bunch of mana into this friend (at sorcery speed only, sadly) in order to buy yourself a legitimate threat at any stage of the game means that it’s at least worth considering. A one-mana card that can become a 2/1 early, a 4/4 mid-game, and a 6/6 late game – with relevant protection abilities, no less – is good enough to see play.
Unfortunately, Hexdrinker is a creature that doesn’t do anything when it enters the battlefield. Modern hasn’t even had room for a card like Wild Nacatl in a while, and Hexdrinker seems like it’ll only find a home in a fast creature deck like Mono-Green Aggro or Zoo. If Hexdrinker is enough to bring one of these decks back from the brink or irrelevance, it’ll justify its $15 price tag. I don’t think it’s likely, but it’s possible.
The other issue with Hexdrinker is that cards like this don’t have a ton of casual demand to help backstop the price. Either Hexdrinker makes a splash in Modern, or we’re looking at a $5 mythic. Personally, I’m staying away. I’d rather spend my money on cards with less downside and more upside.
Rares
Hall of Heliod’s Generosity – $15
Oh, hey, it’s the third entry in the Volrath’s Stronghold cycle! We’ve got Hall of Heliod’s Generosity and Academy Ruins now, so we’re only missing red and green.
Enchantments aren’t quite as prevalent as creatures and artifacts, but Hall of Heliod’s Generosity is going to be a popular casual card for years to come. It should see some competitive play as well, likely in Legacy Enchantress as well as in…well, I don’t know if any of Modern’s current decks want this, but I have no doubt that it’ll find a home at some point. Cards this good always find a home.
I’m not sure if there will be any secondary spikes relating to Hall of Heliod’s Generosity – not until they put Argothian Enchantress in one of these Modern Horizons sets, at least – but Enduring Ideal seems like a solid spec to me regardless. The deck already somewhat exists, and a card that was only printed in Saviors of Kamigawa is always on the cusp of breaking out financially. All it takes is one Saffron Olive video and we’re looking at a $30+ card.
As for Hall of Heliod’s Generosity itself, $15 seems like a fair buy-in. This thing is probably never dropping below $8-$10, and there’s $20-$25 upside if it ends up finding a competitive niche. I’m not going to break the bank buying these out or anything, but it’s a fine pickup at current retail if you want a copy or three.
Tectonic Reformation – $12
Cycling lands are good, but I don’t know if Tectonic Reformation is good. There aren’t enough cycling payoffs in Modern yet, and “play a card to get value out of your lands” cards with mana costs tend to not be nearly as good as the ones without a mana cost. Consider the difference between Seismic Assault and Molten Vortex, for example.
Tectonic Reformation is quite good in Commander, and it might see some Modern play now and again, but I see no reason why this card is pre-ordering for $12 while some of the cards that are pre-ordering for $3 seem better to me. Perhaps I’m missing something obvious, but I’m staying well away from Tectonic Reformation until all that shakes out in a month or two.
Dead of Winter – $8
As much as I’d like to believe in some sort of Snow Control deck, I don’t think the pieces are there. At the very least, we’d probably need some sort of snow-based multicolored lands or fetchlands to really make it hum. It’ll probably happen at some point, but we’re not getting them in Modern Horizons.
For now, it seems like Dead of Winter’s best shot at seeing play is in some sort of Mono-Black Control shell. Folks have been trying to make that happen for years, though, and I’m not sure a three-mana Mutilate is going to be the thing to push it over the edge. The 8-Rack and 10-Rack decks are likely going to run a few of these, but I don’t know where it sees play beyond that.
Dead of Winter certainly has the necessary power level to succeed, but there’s dollar rare downside here and many other cards in the $5 range have more upside and less downside. I’m staying away from this one for now.
Unsettled Mariner – $7
Some cards take a long time to evaluate. Some do not. Unsettled Mariner falls into the latter camp. The card is not just very good; it’s very easy to see exactly how and why it’s very good. If you’ve ever played with or against Humans, you know how much they’re going to love Unsettled Mariner.
The fun doesn’t stop there, either. Merfolk are probably going to run Unsettled Mariner as well. Bant and Azorius Spirits are going to at least consider Unsettled Mariner. Heck, even Slivers might want to get in on the action, though Diffusion Sliver is still probably better.
Anyway, this is one of the few cards in Modern Horizons that slots right into a top-tier deck. Buying in at $7 is totally fine, and I expect Unsettled Mariner to settle in at $10+ at some point. The card is not only a safe buy, it’s a safe buy with upside. Snag your copies now.
Crashing Footfalls – $6
I can’t see too many decks playing Crashing Footfalls without a way to cheat it onto the battlefield. Luckily, we’ve got no shortage of options. Between Bloodbraid Elf, Electrodominance, As Foretold, and Finale of Promise, there are ways to get a couple of 4/4 Rhinos onto the battlefield pretty early on.
I feel like these Ancestral Vision / Restore Balance decks are a huge tease every time we get a new card to combo with them, though. I get all hyped up during preview season, and then I don’t hear about the deck again until the next time WotC prints another way to sneak them through. Because of that, I don’t think Crashing Footfalls is a great buy at $6. It’s a very powerful card that could end up making a splash, but there’s dollar rare downside here and I’d rather snag some of the other pieces of the deck instead if I’m going to make a gamble in this direction. Go snag Ancestral Vision or Restore Balance, because neither is getting reprinted this year. The available supply of Crashing Footfalls should be enough to keep up with demand regardless.
Collector Ouphe – $5
Collector Ouphe is about as obvious a future Modern staples as it gets. We all know how good Stony Silence is, and Stony Silence stapled onto a Grizzly Bears is going to see a ton of play. Seriously – I don’t even think I need to list all of the decks that are at least going to consider running Collector Ouphe.
I have no idea why this card is pre-ordering at just $5. Maybe it’s too boring? Are we bored by cards that are just generically good now? Whatever. Every Modern player is going to need a set of these at some point, and you should get yours now. This is going to be a $10+ card for years.
Kaya’s Guile – $5
Modal cards like this are always, always, always underrated.
Kolaghan’s Command and Collective Brutality were Standard staples in their day, and they’re both Modern staples now. Both cards were super-cheap during their pre-order periods, though, and it took players a while to figure out just how good they are. Turns out, versatility is incredibly powerful, especially when it allows you to essentially stick a bunch of sideboard cards in your maindeck.
At any rate, most of the Esper Control players I’ve talked to are very excited about Kaya’s Guile, which is all I needed to hear. This card is going to see play, perhaps in multiple decks, which makes it a solid buy at $5. Snag a set of these while Modern Horizons is in print, because it’s the sort of card that’ll be $15+ a year or two from now.
Spiteful Sliver – $5
It’s possible that Spiteful Sliver will become part of a new Blasphemous Slivers combo deck where you dump a bunch of Slivers onto the battlefield (including this one) and kill your opponent with Blasphemous Act. That’s an admittedly dodgy strategy, but all it would take is one Saffron Olive or Conley Woods stream for Blasphemous Act to spike from $4 to $15. It’s probably worth picking up a few Blasphemous Acts now, just in case.
Regardless, Spiteful Sliver is a safe buy at $5. It might dip down into the $3 range for a couple of months, but good rare Slivers are always a safe bet to hold their value long-term. This isn’t going to be a major money-maker or anything, but if you want to snag these at current retail, go nuts. You should have no problem getting out of them for at least $5 each if you’re patient enough.
Nether Spirit – $5
Nether Spirit is pretty bad in most situations, but it’s an outstanding card advantage engine and win condition once you start combining it with cards like Smallpox and Liliana of the Veil. Heck, there’s even a Legacy deck that runs Nether Spirit alongside Nether Void, Sinkhole, and other battlefield control cards.
Could we really see Legacy Pox-style decks making the jump to Modern? It’s a pretty big long shot. We’re not getting Nether Void, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Wasteland, or Sinkhole anytime soon. There are existing 8-Rack-style decks that run Liliana of the Veil and Smallpox, though, and they’ll probably want to try out a couple of Nether Spirits. My guess is that this one ends up in the sub-$5 range despite seeing a little bit of play. You can snag a couple of copies now if you want since the risk is pretty low, but so is the upside. I don’t think the addition of this card to the Modern pool will be enough to cause Liliana of the Veil’s price to rise, either.
Eladamri’s Call – $5
I can all but guarantee you that Eladamri’s Call will see play in Modern. Heck, the card sees play in Legacy right now, and there’s an entire galaxy of Modern decks that at least want to consider running an instant-speed creature tutor: Amulet Titan, Counters Company, all the Devoted Druid combo decks, all the Through the Breach decks, Vannifar Pod, Neobrand, Jeskai Ascendancy, Naya TitanShift, perhaps even Mono-Green Tron splashing white.
Eladamri’s Call won’t find a home in all these decks, where it’ll have to compete against cards like Summoner’s Pact, Chord of Calling, and Neoform. I don’t think it’ll matter. Eladamri’s Call was just printed in Masters 25 and the price had reached the $4-$5 mark based on casual interest alone. If it sees even a light amount of Modern play, Eladamri’s Call is heading toward $10. I’m snagging a set at $5 for sure.
Endling – $4
Most of you are probably too young to remember when Morphling was one of the most sought-after cards in all of Urza’s Saga. In fact, I’m not sure there was another card in the entirety of Urza block that you couldn’t get in a one-for-one trade for a Morphling. That’s how powerful the control finisher was in its day.
Those days are long gone now, and Endling isn’t going to bring them back. Creatures have to be more than generically good to see play in Modern nowadays, and I don’t think Endling’s upside is high enough to make its versatility pay off. I could be wrong about that – Zombies are powerful, and Endling can do all sorts of fun things to dodge most of the good spot removal spells in Modern – but my guess is that this ends up being a future bulk rare.
On Thin Ice – $4
Oh, look, it’s Chained to the Rocks, except for snow lands!
On Thin Ice is far better than Chained to the Rocks since you can actually cast it with the same land you enchant – just a single Snow-Covered Plains and you’re good. Because of that, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some control decks trying to move over from Plains to Snow-Covered Plains in order to run On Thin Ice as Path to Exiles five and six. The manabases would have to look pretty different than they do now, though – for example, the current Azorius Control lists only run two copies of Plains, and that’s before we’ve got Archmage’s Charm to contend with.
My gut tells me that On Thin Ice is going to flop, but it’s worth keeping in mind that one-mana spells are the gasoline that keeps Modern running right now. Eleven of the top twelve most-played cards in Modern cost one mana, and the twelfth (Damping Sphere) costs two. In terms of specs in the $4 range, On Thin Ice has by far the most upside. I don’t think it’s a likely card to pay off, but if you’re looking to take a swing at a future top-tier staple, here it is.
Marit Lage’s Slumber – $4
As I said regarding Dead of Winter, I’m just not a fan of most of this snow business. These “Snow Matters” decks are all super narrow and linear, so it’ll either work well or not at all without much variance either way. Marit Lage is certainly a powerful payoff, but you have to get all the way to ten snow permanents, wait until your next upkeep, collect Marit Lage, and then wait another turn before you can attack. That’s not nearly fast enough for Modern unless you’ve got a really clever way to stack your battlefield with snow permanents by Turn 3 or 4. I suppose there’s a shot that this ends up being an expensive part of Modern’s next top combo deck, but I figure it’ll end up in the bulk bin instead.
Cordial Vampire – $3
Cordial Vampire has A+ flavor – and look at that art! – but I’m still not sure there’s a Modern deck that can really make use of it. Vampires are closer than most tribes, admittedly, and two-mana lords tend to be good, but I still feel like Cordial Vampire is best served as a casual card.
If you’re going to speculate on casual Vampires, there are some pretty interesting options available to you. Captivating Vampire is probably the best, though I’ve always been a fan of Vampire Nocturnus. I also wouldn’t be shocked if Edgar Markov sees some movement since that’s a low-supply Commander card that’s the Vampire general of choice according to EDHREC.
That said, there’s no real downside with Cordial Vampire at $3. Best case, the Modern deck comes together and you’re looking at an $8-$10 card at least. Worst case, casual demand should keep it in the $2-$3 range with a shot at further growth down the road. It’s not a premier spec target for me right now, but it’s a totally fine buy at current retail.
Mirrodin Besieged – $3
Mirrodin Besieged – no, not the set – seems like one of the most underrated cards in Modern Horizons right now. Sai, Master Thopterist sees play in Modern as it is, and Mirrodin Besieged is a lot harder to remove. Even if it didn’t have its second mode, this card would be a casual staple for years to come.
It’s the Phyrexian mode that really makes Mirrodin Besieged hum. Even mediocre to bad cards with alternate win conditions tend to be worth more than they should – take a look at Helix Pinnacle’s price tag right now – and getting fifteen artifacts into your graveyard shouldn’t be all that hard for some of the decks that already exist in Modern. The fact that it triggers at your end step is relevant, too, because it speeds up your clock by a full turn. Even better, you can audible into either side of the card depending on how the game is going, giving you that much-needed versatility.
Even if it doesn’t do much in Modern, Mirrodin Besieged is one of those cards that should be pretty stable in the $5 range for a while based on casual play alone. It’s an obvious snag at $3 with a great deal of upside and very little downside. Just snag a few sets, throw them into your long-term hold box, and wait.
Mist-Syndicate Naga – $3
Mist-Syndicate Naga reminds me of Pack Rat in terms of its ability to get entirely out of hand if left unchecked. Just ninjutsu this onto the battlefield early on, and bam – stopping two of these is already quite difficult.
I just don’t know if this strategy is fast enough for Modern. We’re a few years removed from the heyday of Ninja Bear Delver decks, and even the Fae have trouble competing these days. There’s certainly some upside here, but I doubt Mist-Syndicate Naga gets there.
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis – $3
The downside to Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis is that you have to have at least two black and/or green creatures on the battlefield to cast it. You can only delve away the colorless mana, so you have to convoke the other two. Thank goodness – we’d be looking at one of the most powerful cards in the set otherwise.
As it is, I feel like most of the current Graveyard decks in Modern have to at least consider Hogaak. Convoke is a bit of a stumbling block for Dredge, but I can still see that deck running a couple of copies. It’s also possible that this card enables some form of Vengevine to come back. It might also see play in some of the Loam decks that might have new life thanks to Modern Horizons.
Since $3 is the bulk rare price for Modern Horizons, it seems like a pretty solid buy right now. Hogaak will probably find a home somewhere, and you’ll want a set when it does. Beyond that, Vengevine seems like a decent buy. The card has been on the decline for quite some time, and even the hint of a little more play could cause a spike.
Pashalik Mons – $3
I would love to live in a Modern world where Pashalik Mons is good, but I feel like it’s just a little too slow for the current metagame. A 2/2 for three mana isn’t great for a deck that wants to attack, and you’re going to need to start throwing four mana at a time into its ability if you’re interested in doing anything that’s even slightly unfair. Perhaps there’s some kind of crazy but viable Goblin Aristocrats shell out there somewhere, but that’s not the sort of gamble I’m willing to take. This is a future $2 Commander card.
Reap the Past – $3
Holy color pie, Batman! Reap the Past is, essentially, a Braingeyser for Gruul.
The randomness factor doesn’t really matter if you’re drawing your entire graveyard, and the spells you’ve already cast this turn are likely to be better than random cards from the top of your library anyhow. Granted, you can’t cast this for much value with an empty or near-empty ‘yard, but it’s still going to be strong in most games of Commander.
Unfortunately, that’s probably where Reap the Past’s utility stops. Big dumb expensive card draw sorceries aren’t good in Modern, and I don’t think this one is going to be an exception. Fun Commander card, but future $2 rare.
Future Sight – $1
Future Sight is almost certainly too expensive to see any competitive play in Modern. The effect is incredibly powerful, but five mana (including three blue mana) for an enchantment that may or may not do anything the turn you play it is not going to be all that attractive to most deck builders. There’s some slight fringe combo potential here still, but the fact that Future Sight has been printed so many times – especially in Duel Decks: Jace vs. Vraska – means that the price is probably never going above $2-$3 even in the best-case scenario. If you’re going to invest, you can grab the old-bordered foils from Onslaught, but even those don’t have nearly as much upside as most of the reprints in Modern Horizons. Future bulk rare.
This Week’s Trends
We’ve reached a place with Standard where Mono-Red Aggro is both the best and most-played deck in the format by a pretty wide margin. It’s pretty frustrating that this seems to happen every year or so these days, and I hope that Core Set 2020 fixes things. There’s still time for the metagame to adjust on its own, of course, but a Mono-Red summer sounds pretty boring to me.
At any rate, Dire Fleet Daredevil was the biggest Standard gainer of the week since it wasn’t seeing much play before the most recent iteration of Mono-Red Aggro began to dominate. I wouldn’t be shocked if Chandra, Fire Artisan sees another spike, too, and Experimental Frenzy has proven itself as a multi-format staple. I’m not sure how many people who want to play Mono-Red haven’t built themselves a copy at this point, but all of these cards have at least a little bit more room to run.
Don’t look now, but Teferi, Time Raveler is also slowly starting to trend upward. We’re getting closer to peak supply on War of the Spark, so it’s just about time to move in on these. You’re going to be needing Teferi, Time Raveler for the next year and a half of Standard play as well as in Modern after that, so don’t be shy about snagging yourself a set soon if you can find a good price.
We’ve talked about most of the big Modern spikes already, but it’s worth mentioning that Unwinding Clock spiked this week due to Urza, Lord High Artificer and Sword of the Meek is continuing to rise in price due to all the support it has in Modern Horizons. I can’t think of a single other Modern card that benefited more from the new set, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re entering a period where this Future Sight uncommon is an easy $20+.