3 MTG Decks for Day 1 of Modern Horizons 3

What’s coming on the horizon? Robots, and plenty of them!

Modern is getting a massive influx of cards with the upcoming release of Modern Horizons 3! Today, we’ll be looking over a few decks you may see on release weekend and beyond, highlighting what you can do with the new cards from classic aggro beatdown to Prison. There’s plenty to cover today, so let’s get to it!

Rakdos Eldrazi Affinity

Market Price: $45.05

Affinity is an archetype that’s iconic in Modern’s history. However, Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons 2 simply provided too many answers for Affinity to thrive post-Mox Opal ban. But with Modern Horizons 3, the set has a bunch of new tools for the Affinity arsenal. One of the unsung heroes of this archetype is Frogmyr Enforcer, a roleplayer in the sense that it helps you deploy your hand and avoid feeling stuck with clunky artifact cards in your hand.

Modern

Rakdos Eldrazi Affinity

Market Price:$373.81

Maindeck, 60 cards

Sortsort deckCreature (31)

4Frogmite
4Frogmyr Enforcer
4Herigast, Erupting Nullkite
3Imskir Iron-Eater
1Kozilek, the Broken Reality
4Memnite
3Myr Enforcer
4Ornithopter
4Sojourner’s Companion

Artifact (6)

1Paradise Mantle
1Shadowspear
4Springleaf Drum

Land (23)

1Arena of Glory
2Blood Crypt
4Darksteel Citadel
4Drossforge Bridge
1Mountain
4Sanctum of Ugin
3Treasure Vault
4Ugin’s Labyrinth

Sideboard (15)

2Alpine Moon
2Cursed Totem
1Null Elemental Blast
1Pithing Needle
2Soulless Jailer
3Surgical Extraction
3Thoughtseize
1Tormod’s Crypt

This iteration of Affinity is shifting towards Rakdos instead of Blue. While this may seem an omission, you do need Red for Imskir Iron Eater, who helps keep a steady stream of pressure while also gumming up the board. Sure, there’s definitely a Blue Affinity build somewhere with Modern Horizons 3’s release, but there’s another massive draw to play Red in Affinity. Herigast, Erupting Nullkite is that card — it’s an Eldrazi — but it slots perfectly well in an Affinity strategy as the card asks you to have a high mana value creatures in play (such as Frogmyr Enforcer).

Market Price: $18.23

With that, there are some pretty fun combos you can achieve with Rakdos Affinity, such as:

You have Myr Enforcer and Sanctum of Ugin in play.
You cast Herigast, Erupting Nullkite for the Emerge cost, sacrificing the Myr Enforcer.
You put your Sanctum of Ugin trigger on the stack and then Herigast’s trigger on top of that.
Exile your hand and draw three cards.
Then, you sacrifice Sanctum of Ugin to find a Kozilek, the Broken Reality.
Since Herigast gives your creature spells Emerge, you cast Kozilek for the Emerge cost, sacrificing Herigast to pay them.
With Kozilek’s cast trigger, you Manfiest the opponent’s hand away.
You draw a bunch of cards and have a colorless Lord in play!
Profit!

The biggest gain from using all of these cards is that they pair with Ugin’s Labyrinth perfectly, as a way to enable a Ancient Tomb-esque land early. In the late game, you can cash in the imprinted card to your hand. One of the issues with the returned card is that there might be challenges to cast it, so imprinting a Myr Enforcer or Frogmyr Enforcer is ideal as you’ll be able to cast it due to its Affinity cost reduction. Imprinting a card with Ugin’s Labyrinth serves another purpose as you can hide it from Herigast’s “exile your hand” ability.

Orzhov Soul Sisters

Market Price: $18.33

Market Price: $21.12

Souls Sisters is another archetype from Modern’s past that has (unfortunately) gone the way of the dodo. So today, we’re going to revitalize the archetype with Modern Horizons 3 cards!

Modern

Orzhov Soul Sisters

Market Price:$578.28

Maindeck, 60 cards

Sortsort deckCreature (27)

4Esper Sentinel
3Giver of Runes
4Guide of Souls
1Haywire Mite
2Martyr of Sands
4Ocelot Pride
2Ranger of Eos
4Solitude
2Sorin of House Markov
1Timeless Dragon

Sorcery (4)

4Thoughtseize

Instant (2)

2Path to Exile

Enchantment (6)

3Abiding Grace
3Ripples of Undeath

Land (21)

3Concealed Courtyard
1Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
3Godless Shrine
4Marsh Flats
4Plains
1Swamp
1Temple Garden
4Windswept Heath

Sideboard (15)

3Ashiok, Dream Render
2Kataki, War’s Wage
2Relic of Progenitus
2Sanctifier en-Vec
1Stony Silence
2Surgical Extraction
3Vexing Bauble

Ocelot Pride is a Mythic from the upcoming set that’s been getting a little bit of buzz, but the one toughness is seen as a downside due to the weakness against Wrenn and Six and Orcish Bowmasters. While I’m sympathetic towards these weaknesses, it’s worth noting the Cat can run away with games quite quickly. Creating a Cat token is easy with this card, allowing you to build a real board presence.

Guide of Souls is another new Soul Sister card that rewards you with Energy as well as passive lifegain. It’s pretty good at just being an efficient body that can lead to evasion and a power boost as the game progresses. Many players have written this off as a card for Soul Sisters or a combo-enabling card with Primal Prayers. While this is true, Guide of Souls is also a good card for being a beatdown in White, allowing you to quickly pressure your opponents and put them on the back foot. This is why I’ve added Esper Sentinel to the list, as it’s a great creature to receive the buff from Guide of Souls, giving you this evasive threat that can passively draw you cards. As such, this is a pretty good way to win a game.

Market Price: $24.42

Ultimately, this is what Orzhov Soul Sisters is trying to do by presenting you with a fast board presence and leveraging small advantages to slowly take over the game. Ripples of Undeath is another way to help you set up Abiding Grace, this Uncommon was a powerful one back in Modern Horizons but didn’t have a proper home. It’s the classic example of seeding power when the tools are not there, but for you to someday have the ability to enable it with newer cards. Ripples of Undeath generates a ton of card advantage if you have the resources to enable it. Fortunately, this Souls Sisters build is filled to the brim with cheap spells and passive lifegain, meaning you can consistently pay the life and draw a card each turn, making it easier to snowball out of control!

Mono-Green Prison

Mycosynth Lattice saw a ban in Modern due to creating a frustrating lock with Karn, the Great Creator, making it so players couldn’t cast any spells. Well, good news! I bring you an iteration of that concept with Mono-Green Prison.

Modern

Mono-Green Prison

Market Price:$838.26

Maindeck, 60 cards

Sortsort deckCreature (12)

4Arboreal Grazer
1Elvish Pioneer
3Six$4.77
4Young Wolf

Planeswalker (4)

4Karn, the Great Creator

Sorcery (4)

4Flare of Cultivation

Instant (2)

2Dismember

Artifact (14)

3Ensnaring Bridge
4Mishra’s Bauble
1Shadowspear
3The One Ring
3Vexing Bauble

Land (24)

1Boseiju, Who Endures
15Forest
2Golgari Rot Farm
2Phyrexian Tower
4Urza’s Saga

Sideboard (15)

1Cityscape Leveler
1Cursed Totem
1Disruptor Flute
1Ensnaring Bridge
1Haywire Mite
1Liquimetal Coating
1Omen Machine
1Phyrexian Metamorph
1Pithing Needle
1The One Ring
1The Stone Brain
1Vexing Bauble
1Walking Ballista
1Winter Moon
1Wurmcoil Engine

Vexing Bauble is a card that players are hyped about! It can beat a turn one Grief and also negate a bunch of “free spells” that are commonplace in Modern, such as the Force and Flare cycle. It’s also weird in how Vexing Bauble interacts with cards such as Omen Machine.

Omen Machine

New Phyrexia, Rare

This New Phyrexia Rare makes you essentially lock both players out of playing the game as well as not being able to cast any spells. The difference is you can eventually sacrifice the Vexing Bauble, or use Karn, the Great Creator to find a spell from exile and win the game that way

This combination is similar to the Mycosynth Lattice days, but it’s a legitimate two-card combo. While I think Tron might be a great home for this combo, I wanted to try this out in a Mono-Green build with access to fast mana. Also, there’s The One Ring to sift through our deck and find the two cards needed to combo off. I’m playing three Vexing Bauble in the main to help enable the combo but also to help insulate against these “free spells” the opponents may want to play. However, this does create some tension with Flare of Cultivation, but I don’t think this is the end of the world, as you can play the Flare before the Vexing Bauble in most match-ups.

Even though this Mono-Green Prison build is very “all in”, Karn, the Great Creator is an incredible card. I could easily see this game plan in builds such as Mono-Black Coffers, where you can drain your opponent out of resources and establish this stubborn, hard-to-beat lock. I’ve been a fan of Mono-Green in Modern for some time, where a good friend of mine finished in the Top 4 at SCG Con Atlanta a little while ago. Mono-Green is underexplored in Modern, and I hope the release of Modern Horizons 3 gives it some extra eyes!

Modern Horizons 3 has a wide breadth of cards, and I’m only scratching the surface of what’s possible. The set asks you to build new decks and explore these exciting new payoffs. As someone who worked on Modern Horizons 3, I cannot wait to see what players brew up in the coming weeks. So, make sure to get out there and start brewing!