Deadly Designs: Modern Horizons and What Could’ve Been

Hey there! I’m Scott from the top four of last year’s Great Designer Search 3. Welcome back to another installment of Deadly Designs, where we talk about Magic card design from an outsider’s perspective.

Last time we talked about one card, specifically Karn, the Great Creator, but this time we’ll be looking at a whole set: Modern Horizons.

A set which has already brought about a fresh banning in modern!

Modern Horizons is the first set to print cards directly into the modern format without having to first go through standard. The idea of that is very exciting. What cards would Wizards give us to help shake up and slow down the format?

Maybe Containment Priest to stop broken strategies? Or Counterspell so we can stop playing Logic Knot? Or maybe something new that would spark whole new decks?

There were so many possibilities…

…and then we got Dredge cards, Infect cards, and lands for blister-fast aggro.

In all seriousness though, I can’t complain much about Modern Horizons.

I think Wizards did a good job for their first stab at printing cards directly into modern. And to be fair their original idea for the set wasn’t even “new cards for modern” but rather “Time Spiral 2.0,” where they print complex cards that reference all of Magic’s lore/history.

And they did print a few modern-focused cards,

even if they they didn’t go quite far enough.

However, since it was billed to us, the audience, as “the modern set,” it brought some disappointment. There were a lot of cards that I personally was hoping would be in the set in some form or another that were not there.

So today I’d like to go through some of those ideas, and talk about 10 cards that I wish had been in Modern Horizons, starting with…

#1. Complete Cremation

Complete Cremation is the first card in the category I call “maindeckable hate.” One of modern’s defining features is all of its combo decks. Some of them use the graveyard like Dredge, some of them use spells like Storm, and some of them use lands like Tron. The issue is that it’s hard to play graveyard hate or Storm hate in your main deck, since it’d be dead against so many other decks.

Which is why I would’ve like to see some more maindeckable cards with graveyard hate, nonbasic land hate, storm hate, life gain, etc. added on.

That’s exactly what Complete Consecration does. Against a fair deck, it’s no different from a Wrath of God. But against a deck like Dredge, Bridgevine, or even Phoenix that’s looking to recur its creatures, it can be very powerful.

Some might argue that Complete Consecration is too good, but I would say that if Supreme Verdict gets to be a better Wrath of God for just one blue mana, then we can have a better Wrath with one black mana too. Besides, most cards that make it into modern are “pushed” a little bit, so for a set based around modern, I think it’s okay to go a little further than usual.

#2. Reflective Reef

Continuing with “maindeckable hate,” Reflective Reef is a card that helps against decks looking to abuse their lands, like Tron, Amulet, and to a lesser extent Valakut.

Designing nonbasic land hate, especially maindeckable nonbasic land hate, is really hard. Destroying lands can be brutal and miserable for the opponent, and you don’t want to punish fair decks for just playing dual lands.

Blood Moon does the job, but it does it too well, and only red can play it. Something like Field of Ruin is better, but often by the time you can activate it on turn three, it’s too late.

That’s where Reflective Reef comes in. It doesn’t punish the opponent for playing dual lands, since they’ll still have access to all their colors, and it can come down as early as turn one. I also like that it’s playable in any deck, though it’s best in slower decks, since it comes into play tapped, hopefully encouraging modern to slow down a bit.

#3. Backstab

Continuing with the theme of “maindeckable hate,” modern is full of infinite combos. Kiki-Jiki plus Deceiver Exarch, Devoted Druid plus Vizier of Remedies, Felidar Sovereign plus Saheeli Rai, and more. Backstab punishes those strategies by having their controller lose a million life after repeating their combo a million times.

Similar to the other cards so far, against a fair strategy, Backstab is a slightly better Vendetta. Only against broken strategies is it game-winning. A card like this would make the combo player think twice before going off if their opponent has a black mana open.

This card could be too strong, but I would like to see a world—at least for a while—where the strongest cards in modern are doing fair things, like killing creatures, rather than killing opponents on turn two or three.

#4. Baleful Decree

Another card in the “maindeckable hate” category. Baleful Decree hurts decks like Bogles that abuse hexproof and Phoenix/Dredge that get multiple threats out from their graveyard for free, while also being decent against control by killing planeswalkers.

Now if only there was a way that we could make it so that it could kill the goblin tokens created by Empty the Warrens, since you can’t name “goblin” as a card name….

#5. Shield of Light

With Shield of Light, we get to the next category of cards that I call “early interaction.” Many modern games are decided on the first three turns, which does not usually make for fun matches. Adding cards to the modern pool as tools to fight this could be beneficial for the format.

Something like Shield of Light does exactly that. It can be cast for free on turns one, two, or three—and not do much against fair decks on those turns—but after that, starting on turn four and beyond, it’s just a normal card.

Similar to Mindbreak Trap or Ravenous Trap, any color of deck can play it, but only a white deck can pay the mana cost when the alternative cost isn’t turned on. We’ve seen similar “turn-based” wording on cards like Serra Avenger before too.

Shield of Light is tuned to specifically hurt Dredge, Phoenix, Tron, Reanimator, Storm and Infect. It doesn’t win the game against them, but it stops them in their tracks, slows them down, and gives you some time to hopefully mount a comeback.

#6. Growing Rebuttal

And now we get to the last few cards, the “growers.” These cards each do something different as the game goes longer, depending on how many lands you have.

If actual Counterspell is too good for modern (which is a discussion for another day), then Growing Rebuttal is something that could work. On the first few turns it’s a worse Force Spike that can still get the job done, then turns into a respectable Mana Leak, and then finally becomes an easier-to-cast Counterspell in the late game.

Making counterspells that are effective at stopping unfair decks is hard, because those same unfair decks could just turn around and play them themselves. But Growing Rebuttal isn’t that great if you’re looking to combo off on turn two or three; it’s specifically designed for decks that want the game to go longer, which all of the “grow” cards encourage you to do.

#7. Growing Nature

Growing Nature shows off the versatility of the “grow” cards, that the three levels don’t have to necessarily do variations of the same thing.

It starts off as a Lay of the Land to smooth out your opening hand by getting a land you need, then turns into an Oath of Nissa to find some gas in the midgame, and then turns into a Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer in the lategame.

A card like this could help decks that want to play big things by letting them hit their land drops more reliably, while also providing a big dude of its own eventually, so it’s not a dead draw in the lategame.

#8. Growing Flames

Growing Flames is a take on a red ritual that could help modern rather than hurt it. Most rituals just get broken in half by Storm decks, but this one is only active starting on turn three. And even then it can only cast permanents, it can’t chain into more sorcery/instant rituals, and you have to be heavy red for it to really work.

A card like this could help “big red” decks — mono-red decks that want to cast big things like Chandras and Koths and Inferno Titans. The first mode is an instant speed Pillar of Flame that helps the deck survive on the first few turns, the second mode boosts out big planeswalkers/creatures/artifacts, and the last mode is a Light Up the Stage that digs a card deeper.

It’s a powerful card, but only if the game goes longer than the first few turns, which is something I’d like to encourage as much as possible.

#9. Growing Manipulation

Similarly, Growing Manipulation is a take on a tutor that could work for modern. The first ability is a better Sadistic Sacrament that helps you survive against broken strategies, which then turns into a Demonic Tutor, which then turns into a final ability that can win the game against some opponents.

Again, these are powerful effects. Sadistic Sacrament can single-handedly shut down a combo deck, and Demonic Tutor is a powerful card.

But a card like this that hurts combo in the early game could be good for modern, and the Demonic Tutor can only happen starting on turn five, meaning that it rewards playing more slowly. The final “free casting” mode only targets opponents so that you can’t grab an Emrakul out of your deck, but if your opponent is playing something broken (such as their own Emrakul!) you’re welcome to grab it yourself.

#10. Growing Retribution

And finally, Growing Retribution shows that the power of a “grow” card doesn’t have to just scale upward in one direction.

It starts off incredibly efficient, exiling all creatures for only two mana in order to prevent blazing starts from the opponent (and graveyard recursion). But that only lasts for one turn. Then it turns into an efficient-but-painful kill spell, before finally turning into a slightly-worse Swords to Plowshares in the endgame.

A card like this could keep you alive in the first few turns when your opponent somehow has sixteen power on turn two, kill a key creature in the midgame that you desperately need dead, and still be a good topdeck in the late game for taking down a threat.

Is wiping the board for only two mana still too good, even if you can only do it when you have two mana? I’m not sure. Against a fair deck, it might only kill one or two creatures, and a smart opponent can easily play around it.

But if it encourages a modern format where vomiting out your entire hand/graveyard on turn two is not always the right choice, then I’d say it’s worth a shot.

Phew! That was a lot of talk about Modern Horizons. I’m sure we’ll revisit the topic in the future, since there’s so many other designs ripe for the picking. Let me know if you have any of your own!

In the meantime, feel free to say hi on Twitter or on Twitch!