This contradicts what Wizards says in their latest MTGO announcement:
Quote from Wizards »
MODERN HORIZONS JUNE 6
Modern Horizons is on the horizon. Expect more details on the arrival of this new set in the coming weeks and as soon as previews start on May 19.
Bold emphasis mine: Wizards says that Modern Horizons previews actually start on May 19.
I'm honestly surprised there's been so little talk about God-Eternal Kefnet in the context of modern. Such a pushed creature with a measure of build in inevitability will make waves, no?
4-mana, 4-power blue fliers have typically not seen Modern play (e.g. Duskmantle Seer, Sphinx of Foresight), even if they have significant upsides. It probably says something when two of the 4-mana, 4-power blue fliers that see the most play in Modern are Curator of Mysteries (mainly for that sweet cheap Cycling) and Nicol Bolas, the Ravager (probably for the discard and ability to turn into a powerful planeswalker--the support from Kolaghan's Command also likely helps).
Of note: The Karn-Lattice combo makes it in on a Mono-G Tron deck with Karn, the Great Creator as a 4-of (another Mono-G Tron deck places higher with 1 Ugin, the Ineffable), Allosaurus Grishoalbrand gets 30th place with what looks like an unrefined list, Arboreal Grazer gets 5th place in Amulet Titan, and Blast Zone sees play (in Amulet Titan's sideboard, RG Eldrazi, and UW Control).
I've been hearing about Ashiok, Dream Render in Modern. This guy at my LGS made it seem like the card would get banned in Modern, which is incredulous. Is he onto something or is he blowing smoke up my ass?
It's currently a 2 dollar uncommon... banmania is crazy.
You want the true cheap War of the Spark uncommon that might eat a ban, it's Neoform. From my testing, it gives Allosaurus Rider Grishoalbrand a crazy high chance of Turn 2 wins (I honestly suspect close to Blazing Shoal Infect levels). Some other users like Allosaurus Grishoalbrand decks with a noticeably higher chance of winning on Turn 1. It's already pressuring me to play no other combo decks because they cannot combo off fast enough and they often fold to the same hate. The best disruption against this combo is pretty much cheap counterspells (preferably 1-mana ones), targeted discard (preferably with Liliana of the Veil backup), and Grafdigger's Cage; Turn 3 disruption is often too slow, Leonin Arbiter can have its tax paid, Pithing Needle doesn't stop the Allosaurus player from swinging with Griselbrand more than half the time, creature removal only rips out 7 life and they keep drawing cards in response. I suspect Meddling Mage on Allosaurus Rider and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben may do work against them, although Thalia is more doubtful because delaying the draw combo as late as possible has been working out well for me in testing, and I can easily pay for 2-3 Thalia taxes mid-combo if I merely wait for my Summoner's Pact trigger to try to bite me in the butt.
Some might cheer for the return of BGx Midrange and for UR Phoenix to be forced to fill itself with counterspells, but I don't like the direction the Modern meta will take as a result of Allosaurus Grishoalbrand. Squeezing out close to all other combo decks with a combo deck that can take on Burn is not a development I want to see.
Slightly more expensive green sun zenith, but can get any color creature and from the yard as well.
Was down on this card until I realized it read AND/or. You can get two creatures. If modern slows down to where fair green creaturedecks don't die on turn 3 anymore it might have some potential, although Sorcery speed probably means Chord of Calling is better.
Nope, you can't get two creatures. It reads "Search your library and/or graveyard for A creature". The and/or means that you can search your library, search your graveyard and then decide.
Thanks for clearing that up, very oddly worded if you ask me
Paying two more for your single creature means whatever you get should win on the spot then I'd say.
Paying 2 more for haste, and any creature in the deck is a pretty good rate. Chord of Calling is already paying similar once you factor in Convoke, if you consider instant speed to be similar to haste, and it has very good selection. I think the card is pretty fair honestly. It's good, but not broken.
You need X = 10 or more in order for anything you tutor for with Finale of Devastation to get Haste (or a pump). That's reachable only in big mana decks and infinite mana combos (e.g. the Devoted Vizier package).
Finally, an Amass card that kills a dude that doesn't have to target anything! Bleeding Edge is sadly no Wasteland Strangler or Vengeful Rebel, as all it makes for its 3 mana is a 2/2 and all it provides is -2/-2, but hey, at least the toughness reduction is unconditional, right?
Finale of Eternity has been confirmed, and a one-sided nigh-board wipe for low-toughness dudes seems sweet, especially when those opposing dudes refuse to attack. Casting this for merely 2BB can wreck quite a few decks' board states (Humans, Affinity, Burn on creature mode, Lingering Souls, forces UR Phoenix to cast 3 spells to get their Arclight Phoenixes out of the graveyard again, GWx Collected Company decks, etc.).
Anyone else think that Oath of Kaya has potential? It's sorcery-speed Lightning Helix for 1WB, and it also comes with a little opponent-draining bonus if you have at least one planeswalker they attack.
Can we break Soul Diviner? UB colours, dying to Bolt, and being a creature with a tap ability without Haste sucks, but at least it's a 2-drop that profitably blocks Tiago and Bob, and removing a counter from any of your stuff every turn to draw a card should get useful.
"Huatli, Sun's Heart" is a nice G/W hybrid-coloured 3-mana walker for Doran decks. The pro is that she can take the game out of Burn's reach with her -3 and its massive life gain in the right deck; the con is that she cannot protect herself, so if you want to keep the offense boost, you might want to awkwardly hold some attackers back. 7 starting loyalty is quite fat, though.
I'm not convinced that Ashiok, Dream Render is as good as you're all hyping this walker up to be. We have a similar one-sided search hoser that also costs 3 mana in Aven Mindcensor, and while not dying to creature removal or one Bolt is nice, being nearly un-maindeckable (unless you're a mill player) is not. The graveyard emptying is nifty, though, but too many graveyard abuse decks can dump cards between Ashiok activations (e.g. EOT Gifts Ungiven, dump Arclight Phoenixes the same turn you reanimate them,
I'm not convinced that Ashiok, Dream Render is as good as you're all hyping this walker up to be. We have a similar one-sided search hoser that also costs 3 mana in Aven Mindcensor, and while not dying to creature removal or one Bolt is nice, being nearly un-maindeckable (unless you're a mill player) is not. The graveyard emptying is nifty, though, but too many graveyard abuse decks can dump cards between Ashiok activations (e.g. EOT Gifts Ungiven, dump Arclight Phoenixes the same turn you reanimate them, same deal with Emrakul or Griselbrand in Goryo's Vengeance decks, the Vizier Finks sac outlet combo, small Living End, Faith's Reward Eggs might come back with the release of Bolas's Citadel). Unlike Mindcensor, I see new Ashiok as a sideboard card only, and I'm leery on that when RG Valakut can hit this walker twice with natural Valakut triggers and/or Bolts to blow Ashiok up. And woe if Tron gets enough mana to ignore or kill this guy...(Not stopping Karn, the Great Creator from doing anything remotely broken hurts still more.)
"Sarkhan the Masterless" seems like yet another 5-mana red 4/4 flying Dragon walker...although those have always felt quite powerful to me. He starts with 5 loyalty, his -3 makes a 4/4 Dragon with Flying, his +1 turns all your planeswalkers (including Sarkhan) into 4/4 Dragons with Flying until end of turn in a similar fashion, and his static ability pings opposing attackers for 1 damage per Dragon you control. Now that's swinging with your Dragons and still killing all too-daring Spirit tokens or V. Cliques.
Deliver Unto Evil costs 2B and can give you two decent cards from your graveyard...or one if all you can target are 3 cards in your graveyard. Do the shifty card quality and being dead early-game kill this card for Modern?
Commence the Endgame is an uncounterable way to get a decently large creature with Flash that draws 2 cards as it ETB. At 6 mana, though, how good will it be? And how well can opponents strip your hand so all you get is a 2/2 or 3/3 that draws 2 cards?
Yeah, "Blast Zone" fits in pretty much every Ux Control deck ever, all Tron decks, Amulet Titan, GWx Knight of the Reliquary decks, maybe RG Valakut, maybe some combo decks, maybe BGx Midrange, and quite possibly more. I'm really looking forward to blowing up hate permanents and aggro stuff with this land!
Anyone else think that Bond of Flourishing looks promising? It's sorcery-speed green Anticipate that gains 3 life (and reveals the card)! Life gain on a filter cantrip this strong seems fairly powerful.
I'm more excited about Toll of the Invasion myself. It has the same converted mana cost as Sin Collector, and it's a painless Thoughtseize on what's often 1/1 legs. It's a sorcery, not a creature, but hey!
In the meantime, if Mission Briefing has taught me anything, it's that I often need to wait for a deceptively long while to get any value out of a card that only lets me whip out spells from my graveyard. Finale of Promise looks like a rather conditional semi-late game play to me unless you truly need that one spell in your graveyard (or you're cheating out a dumped Living End or something).
God-Eternal Kefnet is a 4/5 flier who costs 2UU and has a 2-mana-discount Miracle copy machine on your instant and sorcery cards.
Sounds like your average slow 4-power, 4-mana flier, right? Except for the part where he's infinite turns with an extra turn card (Time Warp is the good old cheap standby) and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Might those GUx Time Warp Ramp decks want him and Jace TMS?
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I may as well quote what I said in the Rumor Mill: we have a contradictory announcement that says that MH1 previews actually start on May 19.
4-mana, 4-power blue fliers have typically not seen Modern play (e.g. Duskmantle Seer, Sphinx of Foresight), even if they have significant upsides. It probably says something when two of the 4-mana, 4-power blue fliers that see the most play in Modern are Curator of Mysteries (mainly for that sweet cheap Cycling) and Nicol Bolas, the Ravager (probably for the discard and ability to turn into a powerful planeswalker--the support from Kolaghan's Command also likely helps).
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2019-04-30
Of note: The Karn-Lattice combo makes it in on a Mono-G Tron deck with Karn, the Great Creator as a 4-of (another Mono-G Tron deck places higher with 1 Ugin, the Ineffable), Allosaurus Grishoalbrand gets 30th place with what looks like an unrefined list, Arboreal Grazer gets 5th place in Amulet Titan, and Blast Zone sees play (in Amulet Titan's sideboard, RG Eldrazi, and UW Control).
You want the true cheap War of the Spark uncommon that might eat a ban, it's Neoform. From my testing, it gives Allosaurus Rider Grishoalbrand a crazy high chance of Turn 2 wins (I honestly suspect close to Blazing Shoal Infect levels). Some other users like Allosaurus Grishoalbrand decks with a noticeably higher chance of winning on Turn 1. It's already pressuring me to play no other combo decks because they cannot combo off fast enough and they often fold to the same hate. The best disruption against this combo is pretty much cheap counterspells (preferably 1-mana ones), targeted discard (preferably with Liliana of the Veil backup), and Grafdigger's Cage; Turn 3 disruption is often too slow, Leonin Arbiter can have its tax paid, Pithing Needle doesn't stop the Allosaurus player from swinging with Griselbrand more than half the time, creature removal only rips out 7 life and they keep drawing cards in response. I suspect Meddling Mage on Allosaurus Rider and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben may do work against them, although Thalia is more doubtful because delaying the draw combo as late as possible has been working out well for me in testing, and I can easily pay for 2-3 Thalia taxes mid-combo if I merely wait for my Summoner's Pact trigger to try to bite me in the butt.
Some might cheer for the return of BGx Midrange and for UR Phoenix to be forced to fill itself with counterspells, but I don't like the direction the Modern meta will take as a result of Allosaurus Grishoalbrand. Squeezing out close to all other combo decks with a combo deck that can take on Burn is not a development I want to see.
You need X = 10 or more in order for anything you tutor for with Finale of Devastation to get Haste (or a pump). That's reachable only in big mana decks and infinite mana combos (e.g. the Devoted Vizier package).
"Huatli, Sun's Heart" is a nice G/W hybrid-coloured 3-mana walker for Doran decks. The pro is that she can take the game out of Burn's reach with her -3 and its massive life gain in the right deck; the con is that she cannot protect herself, so if you want to keep the offense boost, you might want to awkwardly hold some attackers back. 7 starting loyalty is quite fat, though.
Darn it, you're correct.
"Sarkhan the Masterless" seems like yet another 5-mana red 4/4 flying Dragon walker...although those have always felt quite powerful to me. He starts with 5 loyalty, his -3 makes a 4/4 Dragon with Flying, his +1 turns all your planeswalkers (including Sarkhan) into 4/4 Dragons with Flying until end of turn in a similar fashion, and his static ability pings opposing attackers for 1 damage per Dragon you control. Now that's swinging with your Dragons and still killing all too-daring Spirit tokens or V. Cliques.
Deliver Unto Evil costs 2B and can give you two decent cards from your graveyard...or one if all you can target are 3 cards in your graveyard. Do the shifty card quality and being dead early-game kill this card for Modern?
Commence the Endgame is an uncounterable way to get a decently large creature with Flash that draws 2 cards as it ETB. At 6 mana, though, how good will it be? And how well can opponents strip your hand so all you get is a 2/2 or 3/3 that draws 2 cards?
In the meantime, if Mission Briefing has taught me anything, it's that I often need to wait for a deceptively long while to get any value out of a card that only lets me whip out spells from my graveyard. Finale of Promise looks like a rather conditional semi-late game play to me unless you truly need that one spell in your graveyard (or you're cheating out a dumped Living End or something).
Sounds like your average slow 4-power, 4-mana flier, right? Except for the part where he's infinite turns with an extra turn card (Time Warp is the good old cheap standby) and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Might those GUx Time Warp Ramp decks want him and Jace TMS?