Welcome back to The Modern Perspective! Anxiously wiping our sweaty palms, the Modern Community holds its breath one more week for the new Banned and Restricted announcement. Luckily we have Born of the Gods speculation to help distract us! There is always a lot of excitement for the release of a new set, but it usually becomes quickly apparent that non-rotating formats such as Modern and Legacy have slim pickings when it comes to future prospects.

Just because the pickings are slim, doesn't mean that second sets of Blocks haven't had a huge part in shaping the Modern Format. In an effort to dispel the myth that Second Sets are always disappointing, I've gone through each one and ranked them against each other in an effort to give them the credit they are due.

Part I. Picks from Born of the Gods

Part II. What Second Sets Bring to Modern

Part III. The Modern Land Prices

Part I. Picks from Born of the Gods

I'm not going to be quite as "adventurous" as I was with Theros when it comes to picks. BNG doesn't have as many oddly interesting cards, or even as many "plain ol' efficient" ones. It still has close to a dozen cards that will require some testing before we can make any declarations.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos One of the first cards that people were getting excited about, Brimaz is a decent beater. 4 Toughness is the magic number to avoid Lightning Bolt and survive combat against a wide variety of popular creatures. That 4 toughness can only protect Brimaz so much; there are plenty of other removal spells in the format that deal with The King just fine. That's par for the course when it comes to creatures, but it's an important detail when choosing which cards to play. That means that Brimaz is really dependent on how good the Token creation ability winds up being. An attacking creature is pretty good and the Vigilance means the Tokens can help gum up the ground to win a damage race. Brimaz will pair up nicely with Honor of the Pure to help make the clock go by very quickly, but otherwise he's nowhere near as fast as Wurmcoil Engine or Hero of Bladehold. There is some stiff competition in the 3-drop W/x creature department, so it'll be interesting if Brimaz actually makes the cut or not?

Spirit of the Labyrinth One of the most talked about cards for Legacy from the new set, Spirit of the Labyrinth has some strong potential in Modern as well. While our format doesn't have as many legal cards that say "Draw 3 cards..." as Legacy, there is still a fair amount of extra card drawing going on. Serum Visions, Gitaxian Probe, Cryptic Command, Izzet Charm, Faithless Looting, Jace Beleren and Sphinx's Revelation are all juicy cards to hold at bay with a SoftL. You know, this card really needs a nick-name. I like "Softie" since it gets most of the letters in the abbreviation. Or actually, how about "Sofie"? Yeah, I like it. So Sofie seems exciting for the format, but she isn't an auto-include right off the bat. A 3/1 with no evasion is great to swing into an open board, but the second almost any other creature gets in her way, Sofie is just going to hang back in that ornately carved throne and glower. Those stats aren't bad, but they don't make her an indestructible tank by any means. Also, the non-combo deck that usually draws the most cards right now is UWR and that deck runs three zillion pieces of removal that all pick off Sofie. There are also a lot of decks that could care less what her ability says. Many decks in the format play a fair enough game of Magic that extra card draws don't enter the equation. It seems like depending on your meta, Sofie will start most games in the Sideboard. This isn't a bad thing, but SB space is tight and you have to ask yourself how many matchups Sofie will come in for? If you are going to make Sofie a part of your 75, I'd suggest it be in builds that use Aether Vial as opposed to just straight casting W/x decks. Surprising an opponent after they have already committed to casting a draw spell is much better than having Sofie out there in the open.

Drown in Sorrow A bonafide upgrade to Infest, Drown in Sorrow has a chance of being a very solid sideboard card in Modern. Decks that aren't using Red for Pyroclasm might like having access to a relatively fast sweeper. The new 'Scry 1' tacked onto the card is just gravy. The decision between Drown in Sorrow and Damnation will depend on a lot of factors. At 4 mana, Damnation will clear 98% of most creatures right off the board. It just depends if 4 mana is too slow in your meta. I don't expect to see 16 Drown in Sorrow in the Top 8 lists of the next Grand Prix, but I imagine we will see it pop up as a 2-of here and there.

Searing Blood Fighting for a spot already occupied by Searing Blaze, Searing Blood is trying really hard to become the new 2 for 1 in the hearts of Red players everywhere. If anything, it should become a hit with budget players that don't want to invest in the Fetch Lands that help make Searing Blaze as good as it is. 2 damage will still deal with most of the low cost threats in the format such as Deathrite Shaman and Dark Confidant however, it can't be aimed directly at the player to hit a Planeswalker, even for 1, the way that Searing Blaze can. This could come up when the opponent has a Lili at 1 that you really want to be able to ping off the board. Blaze needs there to be two targets, but Blood needs that first target to actually die first. In the end, this will see use because there are plenty of budget Red grinders out there who will gladly take a "lesser" version of a good ability.

Courser of Kruphix The Courser is an odd little card. Its ability is a bit like, but not nearly as powerful as Oracle of Mul Daya's, but the Courser is a 2/4 for 3 mana instead of a 2/2 for 4. This makes a big difference in a format full of Lightning Bolt effects. The extra stamina means that the Courser should stay alive long enough for you to get a few land drops from the top of the deck instead of from hand. The Courser can also gain life from lands, something that a lot of decks could find useful as they dip low cracking Fetches into Shocks. That passive life gain could add up over time. Breaking even on a Fetch or only going down 1 off of a previously mentioned Fetch/Shock play isn't so bad. Courser might not fit into the pre-existing mana ramp decks of Modern, but it could find a home in some new 3-4 Color Midrange list that can thoroughly take advantage of both abilities.

Satyr Wayfinder This card is a bit of a stretch, but it does have a shell that it might call "Home". That shell is G/x/x Dredgevine. The Dredgevine deck would gladly use a creature that helps fill the yard with Dredge spells and the Vengevine while counting towards the "2 creatures cast" clause. The stats on this creature hardly matter, all that matters is "four cards....put the rest in your graveyard". The Satyr will probably compete for the Grisly Salvage spot in the deck. Salvage will dig one card deeper and gives you the choice of keeping a Land or Creature. The Satyr is already a creature, so it could be discarded to Lotleth Troll in a pinch. I'm interested is seeing if this card can actually earn a spot in Modern.

Kiora, the Crashing Wave The long desired, fan-favorite (?) Planeswalker finally makes an appearance in the actual game. Kiora was shot down almost instantly by the community. There can be a thing as "too much anticipation". I'm not so sure if Kiora is a bad Planeswalker. She isn't the kind of card that immediately slots into a deck and makes it Tier 1. Instead, people will need to test with her in a variety of different builds, some that probably haven't even been discussed yet, in order to find the best fit. Her +1 can prevent damage on some unique cards and being able to generate multiple Explores could be much better than we are giving it credit. I wish that you could automatically use her -5 ability if you cast her and had a Doubling Season in play, but I'll just have to settle for the fact that Kiora and Doubling Season still play well together. It could be the most EDH-y deck Modern has seen yet!

Kiora's Follower Some folks are very excited to put this card into Birthing Pod decks that splash Blue. Others aren't. A 2/2 that can untap any other permanent is pretty cool. Even just untapping a land is useful in the early game. Untapping Pod for another activation, or Kiki-Jiki at the end of the opponent's turn to "go infinite" is great. It's that 2 Toughness that's really holding back the enthusiasm. Pod already has plenty of low toughness creatures. Having a 2-drop that can survive burn the way Wall of Roots can is very desirable. Does having a creature with more potential in it offset that danger? We will have to see. The Follower could find a home in decks outside of Pod. Cards like Arbor Elf have managed it and there could be some other potent combo out there just waiting to be discovered.

Mogis, God of Slaughter I imagine Mogis is a bit of a surprise. Even the Standard players have written off the Minotaur God. Modern has a lot of players that are trying to make R/B/x Control decks work. It's possible that a card that can act as both removal and a win condition might be of some use? The line used to discredit Mogis is usually "They have the choice of keeping the creature around until it is inconvenient to take the damage." That is true....if they have creatures that is. A R/B/x deck that is performing well should makes short work of them. Then once they are too low to make a good choice, they can simply die. Mogis may not pan out, but I could see some testing happening before it's a total wash.

Xenagos, God of Revels A poster by the name of Walk on MTGSalvation pointed out this annihilating combo in the Mono Green Devotion (Nykthos Green) thread: Tooth and Nail for Xenagos and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn = a hasted 30/30 super creature. Emrakul is already a nearly unstoppable beast and if Xenagos isn't a creature, few cards in the format can stop him at Instant speed either. While it isn't a guaranteed win, it's going to be hard for most decks to stop it. That it only takes up 2 spots in the deck is nice too. I really like the Genesis Wave version of Nykthos Green (as last week has shown), but this makes me interested in testing out the T&N version once BNG drops. Thanks again to Walk for sharing such a cool interaction!

And that's it.

Honestly, those are really the only cards I wanted to talk about. The set has a few other cards that might edge their way in, but they have some stiff competition in Modern. Still, they might make it someday; all of the Second Sets have plenty of Borderline cards in them.

What's that? What's a Borderline Card?

Perhaps you should read the next section to find out?

Part II. What Second Sets Bring to Modern

As BNG was being spoiled and folks were pointing out the lack of Modern playable cards, the phrase "It's a second set, what do you expect?" came up often. That got me wondering; do Second Sets really provide less to the Modern format? How many cards does a Second Set usually provide? How will we know if BNG is less useful than other sets?

First, here is the complete list of Second Sets currently legal in Modern:

Darksteel

Betrayers of Kamigawa

Guildpact

Planar Chaos

Morningtide

Eventide

Conflux

Worldwake

Mirrodin Besieged

Dark Ascension

Gatecrash

I went through each set and made a list of the cards that are used in Modern. Just spotting a card didn't seem to provide enough information though. Plenty of cards show up from time to time, but only some cards could be considered truly useful. I decided to go with the following definitions:

Proven Cards - These are cards that consistently show up in Decks that have made results on more than one occasion. If they are Main Deck cards, they have shown up multiple times, possibly across multiple builds of the deck. If they are Sideboard Cards, they have seen use in multiple lists or the same list repeatedly.



Each Proven Card is worth 2 Points .



- These are cards that consistently show up in Decks that have made results on more than one occasion. If they are Main Deck cards, they have shown up multiple times, possibly across multiple builds of the deck. If they are Sideboard Cards, they have seen use in multiple lists or the same list repeatedly. Each Proven Card is worth . Borderline Cards - These are cards that are on the cusp of being "Modern Playable". They are cards that have made a Main Deck appearance once, maybe twice, but not enough times that they have become even a debatable "must run". Borderline Cards may have shown up in a Sideboard here or there, but not as often as Proven Sideboard cards have. These are the cards that have shown some staying power, but aren't quite there yet.



Each Borderline Card is worth 1 Point.

I only counted a card for a set if it was the first set that it became Modern legal in. That means that Guildpact gets credit for Shock Lands, but not Gatecrash.

After adding up all of the Points, I ranked them in order. I'm only going to provide full details on the Top 3 sets, but I have all of the other information if anyone is interested.

And our Top 3 are:

Here is the break down for all of the sets:

Set Total Proven Borderline Worldwake 39 28 11 Mirrodin Besieged 30 18 12 Eventide 26 18 7 Planarchaos 25 16 9 Darksteel 21 18 3 Gatecrash 21 16 5 Guildpact 19 14 5 Morningtide 19 14 5 Dark Ascension 19 16 3 Conflux 18 10 8 Betrayers of Kamigawa 15 14 1

Over all, most of the Second Sets have roughly the same amount of Proven cards, but can vary wildly on the Borderline range. Conflux actually had the lowest amount of Proven cards, but lucky for it, has a great deal of Borderline ones.

How will Born of the Gods stack up in the end? Only time will tell. I'd say most of its cards are Borderline at best, but I've been wrong before.

There are plenty of cards in these sets that don't fall into either category so don't discount a set based off of these numbers. The numbers aren't static and can change over time. Plenty of cards on my lists barely saw play a year ago. Never be afraid to find some new card to try and prove it is better than we think! (I saw a few worth tinkering with while compiling the lists.)

Part III. The Modern Land Prices

All prices are from MTGOtrader.com. The version linked was the cheapest when the land was added, but be sure to check for the best available price!

The Zendikar Fetch Lands

The Fetch Lands are the lynchpin of most mana bases in Modern. Being able to fix your colors by finding a Ravnica Shock Land is critical to the various top tier multi-color decks. The Fetchlands also have great synergy with the best one drop creature in the format, Deathrite Shaman. The price of Fetchlands is often considered the defining cost barrier of Modern, however, on MTGO, they are usually cheaper than many high demand Mythics.

Oddly enough, 3 of the 5 Fetches came out being worth more than the previous week, even though the supply increased? Seems kind of odd, but here we are. Tarn dropping was surprising so maybe there will be a little less Twin running around in the future? Marsh Flats is still trying to find a home.

The Ravnica Shock Lands

The Shock Lands, with their dual basic land types, are very important pillars of the Modern format. The nickname is derived from the 2 life paid to put the land into play untapped compared to the 2 damage from the card Shock. After being reprinted in the Return to Ravnica block, the prices dropped dramatically and it is now much easier for players to acquire these lands with a modest budget.

Did you hear that? It's the sound of Sacred Foundry pulling way ahead of the other Shocks! It's a bold leap, but can it maintain it? Hallowed Fountain has an equivalent climb percentage-wise, but it wasn't as worth as much to begin with. Most of the Shocks are still pretty cheap. Will some new BNG deck help change that?

The Scars of Mirrodin Fast Lands

The Fast Lands are a great way to ensure two colors of mana in the first few turns of the game. Only available in allied color pairings, they see the most use for colors that have strong aggressive themes that are not affected by the drawback. The Fast Lands have a relatively low price threshold and are an inexpensive way to add mana consistency to a deck.

Razorverge goes right back up again. Gorge keeps dipping. Seachrome Coast, what are we going to do with you?

The Worldwake Man-Lands

The ability to produce two colors and provide a creature with an ability makes these lands rather attractive. More useful in mid-range and control oriented decks that don't mind the drawback as much. Currently only one of these lands appears as a '4-of' in a deck; so while they have a moderate price threshold, keep in mind that you usually only need about 1-2 copies of each per a deck.

The Flashback Drafts did do a number on the Man Land prices. Ravine and Tar Pit both went even lower than they are now (and I picked up both of them like I said I would if they dropped) but found a little room to recover. Still, just some tough drops all around. Expect them to be back up by June.

The Core Set/Innistrad Check Lands

While they do not provide mana on the first turn of the game, the Check Lands still have enough potential to see use in Modern. When combined with the Ravnica Shock Lands, the Checks are an inexpensive way to create reliable 2 color mana bases. Now that the Check Lands have rotated out of Standard, their prices are extremely low. Newer players to Modern, as well as those with very tight budgets, may want to start with these extremely cheap lands.

Not a whole lot of worthwhile change on the Checks front. Drowned Catacomb continues to be the best Core Set check by hanging in the .25 range.

The Utility and Deck Specific Lands

This section covers Utility Lands, off cycle mana fixers and Deck specific lands that you might need if you want to build a Modern deck. Whether it's the Urza Tron Cycle, Affinity or you just want to know how much the most used lands that blow up other lands cost, this should give you some idea of what you are working with.

Tectonic Edge did drop, but not by as much as I was anticipating. The steady climb on Academy Ruins is worth watching. Mutavault continues to see-saw but it still has quite a bit of Standard time to go.



Conclusion

Here we are at the end of the article! I hope you enjoyed another round of speculation with Born of the Gods dropping on us soon! Making a quick examination of the Second Sets and rating them was actually fun and I might do it for all of the sets someday. A little "Destroy All Monsters" amongst sets could be epic.

Join me next week for a very special article as I talk briefly about the results of the Banned announcement and finally get around to writing about G/W Hatebears.

Until next time,

- Gio

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