Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast (WotC), check out the latest take on Birthing Pod from Modern Horizons 3 — Birthing Ritual!
Modern players loved Birthing Pod and the creature combo and toolbox-style gameplay it injected in the format. But since the banning of the card nine years ago, WotC has printed plenty of variations and fixed versions of the Phyrexian artifact to allow players to relive the glory days of podding for value or an instant-win combo.
Modern Horizons 3 introduces a new iteration on the beloved card, this time as a two-mana enchantment. Like many of the powered-down versions of the original, Birthing Ritual is limited to once per turn, this time at the controller’s end step. It also doesn’t allow the player to search their deck for the creature, but instead gives them an option of a creature from the top seven cards of their library.
Fortunately, Birthing Ritual allows you to look at the top seven cards first, then decide if you want to sacrifice a creature to replace it with one from those cards. It also allows you to swap a creature for one of the same or less mana value instead of forcing you to continuously go up the chain.
Will Birthing Ritual revive an old archetype in Modern or spawn a new one? Are the restrictions to once per turn and only getting to see seven cards from your library too harsh? Does having to make it to your end step to get value from it make it too much of a liability to invest in considering the format is full of ways to interact with the enchantment at instant-speed and zero mana?
Modern Horizons 3 is scheduled to release on June 14. View our official preview gallery.
