Howdy, gamers, and welcome to another Modern-centric article by yours truly! If you’re eagerly awaiting my Cube Top 10 list for Modern Horizons 3, don’t worry, I’ll be back with that next week, and will even be covering the Commander decks for the week after! I’ve caught the competitive Magic bug, though, so this week, I’ll be looking over the set for any potential updates to my darling, Modern Prowess.
My current preferred list is Gruul with a Jegantha companion, and while I don’t see anything in Modern Horizons 3 that is likely to change this, I do want to highlight every card that I see as a potential option for Prowess more generally. The cards I’ll be going over today mostly would fit into a mono-red shell, though I will start my list with an exception.
Triton Wavebreaker
Triton Wavebreaker is not the first one-mana blue 1/1 with prowess, and Elusive Otter isn’t currently seeing any play despite some Prowess players preferring Preordain and Expressive Iteration to the Gruul build, so why should we care about this card?
In the short term, you probably shouldn’t. Wrenn and Six and Orcish Bowmasters put far too much pressure on X/1s for comfort, and the ability to bestow Triton Wavebreaker doesn’t put it over against these cards, given that they tend to pair with additional spot removal anyway. That being said, there might come a time when those cards aren’t so prevalent (or existent) in the format, and considering that we already know that Preordain is busted, it will make a lot of sense to reach for more one-mana prowess creatures, should such a day that we can confidently register one-toughness creatures again ever come.
Amped Raptor
Most energy cards require you to play other energy cards to get much meaningful value from them, but Amped Raptor is a significant exception in this category. So long as all of your cards cost two or less, you’ll always net a free spell when this one enters the battlefield! I played a team event in the Modern seat a couple of weeks ago, and I have been feeling that running lands is a little heavy for Prowess even with the Commercial District, and I have a strong distaste for the maindeck Unholy Heat as well.
I intend to experiment with both Light Up the Stage and Amped Raptor in these slots. Amped Raptor asks less of you, and to the extent that a 2/1 with first strike is worth two mana, it gives you a free spell when it enters! I wasn’t close to playing 2/1s for two mana before, though, and Wrenn and Six and Orcish Bowmasters definitely don’t sweat this card, so I could see it ultimately falling flat. My intuition tells me Light Up the Stage will prove superior, but I intend to give the Raptor its due.
Sundering Eruption
I’ve been cold on Blood Moon for a pretty long time now, but Sundering Eruption is intriguing because it can sneakily exist in your maindeck and can just be played as a land when you don’t want the effect. It’s obviously not as impactful as Blood Moon, but it’s far more “free” to play! Hitting a random Tron land or bounceland is pretty powerful, and the ability to stop non-flying creatures from blocking can also push damage against the likes of Wall of Roots and Arboreal Grazer meaningfully. Three life or a land entering tapped will definitely catch up to you against aggressive decks, though, so I don’t believe that the deck can bear more than one or maybe two copies, but it’s worth giving a try to measure the relevance of the upside as well as the downside.
Pinnacle Monk
While we’re on the topic of modal double-faced cards (MDFCs), I wish I could say I was at all excited about Pinnacle Monk. Costing five mana and requiring you to un-companion Jegantha is a pair of unreasonable asks. The card might literally say “prowess”, but it’s just a tool for Belcher decks.
Meltdown
Meltdown is an oldie but a goodie getting a reprint into Modern. Prowess’s greatest weakness is Chalice of the Void, and Meltdown will destroy any number of Chalices and has been a go-to way to clean up the impact of Urza’s Saga in Legacy for some time now. I still expect some Scion of Draco and Leyline of the Guildpact in the field, so I’m not ready to give up on enchantment removal yet, but Meltdown is absolutely something to keep in mind if Chalice of the Void rises to prominence again, and having a copy or two for decks like Amulet Titan and Hammer Time is probably worthwhile as things currently stand anyway.
Vexing Bauble
Vexing Bauble is slightly awkward because it would counter your own Mishra’s Baubles, flashed back Lava Darts, and plotted Slickshot Show-Offs, but there is some merit to the card as a sideboard option. I don’t think it’s realistic to try to have one in hand on the play against Grief decks, but a card that makes it harder to Solitude or Living End you is worth considering. There’s not a matchup that currently makes me want to reach for Vexing Bauble, but it’s very much a card to be aware of as an option.
Winter Moon
I’ll reiterate that I’m cold on Blood Moon, and a big part of the problem is that three mana on the draw is often just not good enough these days. As such, I pay a lot more mind to cards that cost two mana in this space. I don’t think that Winter Moon actually does much of anything in most games against Amulet Titan, and it doesn’t seem like all that great of a player against Tron either, though if there end up being multiple matchups where it shines, there is a lot of merit to Winter Moon as a sideboard option.
The place where you’re most likely to want Winter Moon is against Omnath decks, though with them currently being Leyline + Scion decks, you’re already locked in to Pick Your Poison against them anyway, and you don’t want to over-sideboard into a mess of a deck that can’t actually deal damage. Winter Moon is another maybe for someday. For now, I see Sundering Eruption as the more serious option for the matchups where Winter Moon is potentially effective.
Disruptor Flute
Now this is a sideboard card! Disruptor Flute is the Modern Horizons 3 card that I can confidently say will be making its way into Prowess sideboards. I currently have one Cursed Totem in my sideboard, and Disruptor Flute naming Yawgmoth, Thran Physician does a lot of what I want to do with that card anyway, while also being potentially relevant in a ton of other matchups. Primeval Titan, Indomitable Creativity, Living End, and The One Ring are just a few cards that come to mind that I would love to make my opponent pay three more mana for. Disruptor Flute is a flexible hate piece that buys a couple of turns to push damage, one that Prowess is perfectly positioned to use.
Arena of Glory
When I first read Arena of Glory, I misread the exert ability and missed that it cost a mana to activate. There’s something here, but with Monastery Swiftspear and Slickshot Show-Off already having haste and part of the appeal of Prowess being the ability to keep one-landers, there’s a real cost here for questionable upside. Arena of Glory isn’t a zero, but won’t be a staple either.
Barbarian Ring
Reprinted-to-Modern Barbarian Ring, on the other hand, has real potential. With wimpy Wild Slash taking up slots in my deck to combat The One Ring and the myriad cheap creatures currently played in Modern, a little extra push of damage that comes in the form of a land is very welcome. Seeing as what you’re trying to draw when you sacrifice a Horizon land is a way to deal damage, I am very likely to turn my Fiery Islets into Barbarian Rings. Mishra’s Bauble, Manamorphose, and fetchlands are all very good at getting you to threshold, and I imagine that I’ll be playing at least one Barbarian Ring for the foreseeable future. I don’t think it would be completely out of the question to play three or four.
Against Prowess
All told, Prowess is picking up at least one great sideboard card along with some appealing utility land options to spice up its manabase. This leaves the question of how the rest of the format will shape up. What I’m most afraid of is Ugin’s Labyrinth powering out spells that are more impactful than what Prowess can bring to the table, along with Chalice of the Voids.
Whatever everyone else is bringing to the table, I’m excited to sleeve up some Mountains (and Barbarian Rings) and take on all comers. I’m optimistic that Prowess will continue to have at least a puncher’s chance against the field, and that’s all that I could realistically ask for.
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