Last updated on April 30, 2024
Modern Horizons 3 Key Art | Illustration by Ryan Pancoast
The Modern Horizons sets have been contentious since their very inception, printing cards directly into Modern while bypassing Standard. You’ve now had two and a half of them (if you count The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth at all) and can expect Modern Horizons III this summer.
What is known about it so far, and is it going to be another game-changer for Modern like Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons II? Let’s take a look.
Modern Horizons 3 Basic Information
Modern Horizons 3 Key Art | Illustration by Chris Rallis
Set Details
| Set Symbol |  |
| Set Code | MH3 |
| Hashtag | #MTGMH3 (assumed) |
| Number of Cards | TBA |
| Rarities | Common, Uncommon, Rare, Mythic (assumed) |
| Mechanics | Eldrazi, Energy, Transform, more TBA |
Important Dates
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| First Look | February 23, 2024 |
| Previews start | May 21, 2024 |
| Full gallery available | May 31, 2024 |
| Prerelease week | June 7, 2024 |
| Available on Draftsim's Draft Simulator | June 7, 2024 |
| Digital release date | June 11, 2024 |
| Paper release date | June 14, 2024 |
| Open House Weekend | June 14, 2024 |
| Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3 at MagicCon: Amsterdam | June 28-30, 2024 |
About the Set: The Story
Solitude | Illustration by Evan Shipard
Sets like Modern Horizons are format-specific expansions meant to deliver a diverse and unique set of cards. They aren’t limited to any specific plane or even any particular time. They can contain cards from any point in history and from any of Magic’s many worlds, or even hint at new planes and characters. The eldrazi titans have already been shown in a teaser image, even though two of them have been canonically destroyed (spoilers)!
Set Mechanics
Like the previous Modern Horizon sets, no mechanics are off the table here, and anything can be included. A lot of previous cards even contained interesting takes on past mechanics, or two mechanics from different sets combined in interesting ways, as with Modern Horizon II‘s Kaleidoscorch. That said, there are often overarching themes for each Horizons set, like MH1 had a lot of snow mechanics, and MH2 had a lot of madness/graveyard mechanics.
Double-Faced Cards
One thing you do know is that double-faced cards are going to be included in a Horizons set for the first time, including a new cycle of transforming planeswalkers like the ones in Magic: Origins, which is pretty exciting.
Energy
Energy is returning here, and I expect to see it on a good number of cards, not just Scurry of Gremlins that has been spoiled so far. It’s a mechanic that’s difficult to do in small quantities, and it also has a Commander deck to go alongside it.
Speculation
Very little is known about the set at this point, and spoilers will trickle out. However, WotC gave us some juicy morsels of info that are ripe for speculation!
Double-Faced cards are coming, and you'll at least get to have some more cards that transform into planeswalkers. WotC is giving us “a cycle” of them, but I suspect this could mean we get more than five. though caring about controlling one other colored permanent is a big clue. You can see Ajani, Nactal Pariah now, which cares about one other color, but I think that the designers couldn’t resist adding in a transforming Karn planeswalker… Possibly even one that transforms from an artifact that’s not a creature?
Official Spoilers
April 30, 2024
- Nethergoyf
- Herigast, Erupting Nullkite
- Ugin's Labyrinth
- Winter Moon
- Orim's Chant
- Sylvan Safekeeper
- Null Elemental Blast
- Kudo, King Among Bears
- Nulldrifter
- Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd
- Meltdown
- Kappa Cannoneer
- Spawn-Gang Commander
- Chthonian Nightmare
- Flare of Denial
- Urza's Cave
- Wight of the Reliquary
February 23, 2024
- Ajani, Nacatl Pariah / Ajani, Nacatl Avenger
- Priest of Titania
- Emrakul, the World Anew
- Flare of Cultivation
- Laelia, the Blade Reforged
- Psychic Frog
- Scurry of Gremlins
- Flooded Strand
- Polluted Delta
- Bloodstained Mire
- Windswept Heath
- Wooded Foothills
- Plains
- Island
- Swamp
- Mountain
- Forest
Unofficial Spoilers/Leaks
April 18, 2024
Grist, Voracious Larva costs just one and looks to be an incredible investment when you get to the planeswalker side.
Whenever Grist, Voracious Larva or another creature enters the battlefield under your control, if it entered from your graveyard or you cast it from your graveyard, you may pay . If you do, exile Grist, then return it to the battlefield transformed under its owner’s control.
Grist, the Plague Swarm starts with three loyalty and offers a bit of Naturalize, self mill, and ultimately can be a kind of mass reanimation effect.
+1: Create a 1/1 black and green Insect creature token, then mill two cards. Put a deathtouch counter on the token if a black card was milled this way.
−2: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
−6: For each creature card in your graveyard, create a token that’s a copy of it, except it’s a 1/1 black and green Insect.
Ral, Monsoon Mage is a solid cost reducer for your spells, with a fair chance of transforming right away.
Instant and sorcery spells you cast cost less to cast.
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell during your turn, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, Ral, Monsoon Mage deals 1 damage to you. If you win the flip, you may exile Ral. If you do, return him to the battlefield transformed under his owner’s control.
Ral, Leyline Prodigy is one of the few planeswalkers that can enter with a variable number of loyalty counters. Storm and magecraft decks will have no problem getting closer to casting free instants and sorceries.
Ral, Leyline Prodigy enters the battlefield with additional loyalty counter on him for each instant and sorcery spell you’ve cast this turn.
+1: Until your next turn, instant and sorcery spells you cast cost less to cast.
−2: Ral deals 2 damage divided as you choose among one or two targets. Draw a card if you control a blue permanent other than Ral.
−8: Exile the top eight cards of your library. you may cast instant and sorcery spells from among them this turn without paying their mana costs.
Sorin of House Markov has good stats to go along with two upper-tier keywords, lifelink and extort, and a seemingly trivial requirement for transforming.
At the beginning of your postcombat main phase, if you gained 3 or more life this turn, exile Sorin of House Markov, then return him to the battlefield transformed under his owner’s control.
Sorin, Ravenous Neonate retains the ability to extort, has a lot of starting loyalty, and represents two forms of removal.
+2: Create a Food token.
−1: Sorin, Ravenous Neonate deals damage equal to the amount of life you gained this turn to any target.
−6: Gain control of target creature. It becomes a Vampire in addition to its other types. Put a lifelink counter on it if you control a white permanent other than that creature or Sorin.
Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student should look up Divination in the Magic dictionary.
Whenever Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student attacks, investigate. (Create a Clue token. It’s an artifact with “, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.”)
When you draw your third card in a turn, exile Tamiyo, then return her to the battlefield transformed under her owner’s control.
Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar means serious card advantage on both minus abilities, and any more starting loyalty would be absurd.
+2: Until your next turn, whenever a creature attacks you a planeswalker you control, it gets -1/-0 until end of turn.
−3: Return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand. If it’s a green card, add one mana of any color.
−7: Draw cards equal to half the number of cards in your library, rounded up. You get an emblem with “You have no maximum hand size.”
Notable Cards
You may know of at least three legendary eldrazi, including Emrakul in the card Emrakul, the World Anew, and I would be surprised if the other two legends were anything other than her titan siblings. Going alongside the eldrazi are snow wastes, so who knows what that’s going to mean, or even if it’s just a seed for yet another future set.
Emrakul, the World Anew is a big creature with a lot of effects and can end the game in many many ways. You’re going to see two more titans, which will definitely make an impact somewhere. There’s also Flare of Cultivation, and the rest of that free spell cycle, which seems safer than previous free spells, but still has plenty of potential to be broken.
Reprints-wise you’re looking at the allied fetch lands like Polluted Delta, which have grown in value over the last nine or so years since they last had a substantial reprint. They go in mana bases not only in Modern, but also Commander, Legacy, and Vintage. They’re constantly in demand, and although the enemy-colored ones printed in MH2 are still much lower than they were before their reprint there, they’re still over $10 each.
You must see that evoke elementals from MH2, such as Solitude, are coming in the special guest slot. These won’t show up in a lot of boosters, but are certainly notable!
Available Products
Play Boosters
Like the recent Standard sets, Modern Horizons 3 will have play boosters instead of draft and set boosters. These boosters contain 14 cards with the following:
- 1-5 cards of rarity rare or higher
- 3-6 Uncommon cards
- 5-9 Common cards
- Land card (traditional foil land replaces a land in 20% of boosters)
- 1 card of any rarity is traditional foil; borderless fetch land in <1% of boosters
- YOUR NEW FOREVER FAVORITES—Introducing a heaping helping of exciting cards for Modern, one of Magic’s most celebrated formats, plus the return of competitive favorites, there’s something for everyone to love in Modern Horizons 3
- POWERFUL CARDS FOR MODERN CONSTRUCTED, LIMITED & COMMANDER PLAY—Spice up your deck with powerful New-to-Modern cards, host a supercharged Booster Draft with friends, or discover Legendary Creatures with striking special treatments to inspire your next Commander Deck
- MODERN’S NEVER BEEN MORE MARVELOUS—Expand your horizons with novel twists on classic mechanics and more cards for beloved Modern strategies
- FUN TO OPEN. FUN TO PLAY—Get the best of Draft and Set Boosters, combined into one! Play Boosters are great for Limited play and fun to open, with a possibility of Art cards, striking alt-frame cards, and more
- MODERN MIGHT THAT SHINES BRIGHT—Both powerful and flashy, every MH3 Play Booster includes 1-5 cards of rarity Rare or higher and 1-2 shining Traditional Foil cards
Collector Boosters
Modern Horizons 3 Collector Boosters are your place for the blingiest foils. This is where the big money cards will be, and will contain 15 cards in the following breakdown:
- Up to 2 foil-etched cards
- 10-12 traditional foil cards
- 5 cards rarity rare or higher
- 3-5 Uncommon cards
- 4-6 Common cards
- 1 Land card
- Serialized card in <1% of boosters
- MODERN’S NEVER BEEN MORE MARVELOUS—Introducing a heaping helping of exciting cards for Modern, one of Magic’s most celebrated formats, plus the return of competitive favorites, there’s something for everyone to love in Modern Horizons 3
- BEAUTY AND BRAWN—Crush with a deck full of gorgeous special treatments; every Collector Booster contains 7 alt-frame cards, including the possibility of Retro-Frame, Borderless Profile, Borderless Frame Break, Borderless Concept Eldrazi, and Borderless Fetch Land cards
- MODERN MIGHT THAT SHINES BRIGHT—Both powerful and flashy, every pack contains 10-12 Traditional Foil cards and may contain Collector Booster exclusive, like Foil-Etched cards, a Textured Foil card, or even a foil Serialized card
- POWERFUL CARDS FOR LIMITED, CONSTRUCTED & COMMANDER PLAY—Spice up your deck with powerful New-to-Modern cards or discover Legendary Creatures with striking special treatments to inspire your next Commander Deck
- GET DIRECT ACCESS TO THE COOLEST CARDS—Collector Boosters give you direct access to the most desirable Modern Horizons 3 cards, including 5 cards of rarity Rare or higher in every pack
Commander Decks
You get the standard four Commander precons with Modern Horizons 3, which came as a bit of a surprise for some. These include a 5+1 color Eldrazi deck, a Jeskai Energy deck, a Simic lands matter deck and a Jund graveyard matters deck. Each deck will contain:
- 1 ready-to-play deck of 100 Magic cards (2 traditional foil legendary cards, 98 nonfoil cards)
- 2-card Collector Booster Sample Pack
- 1 foil-etched display commander
- 15 new-to-Magic cards
- 10 double-sided tokens
- 1 deck box
- 1 Life Wheel
- 1 strategy insert
- 1 reference card
- POWERFUL RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX—Battle your friends with powerful creatures and spectacular spells with four 100-card Commander Decks that are ready to play right out of the box
- GET ALL 4 MODERN HORIZONS 3 DECKS—Fill your graveyard and avenge the dead with Graveyard Overdrive, ramp lands and grow value with Tricky Terrain, use energy counters for powerful payoffs with Creative Energy, or unleash Eldrazi to devour all in your path with Eldrazi Incursion
- INTRODUCING 60 COMMANDER CARDS—With all 4 Modern Horizons 3 Commander Decks, you’ll get a total of 60 never-before-seen Commander cards, with 15 in each deck (including 2 foil Legendary Creatures)
- COLLECT SPECIAL TREATMENT CARDS—Each deck also comes with a 2-card Collector Booster Sample Pack containing 2 alt-border cards from the Modern Horizons 3 set, including 1 Rare or Mythic Rare and at least 1 Traditional Foil card
- YOUR NEW FOREVER FAVORITES—Introducing a heaping helping of exciting cards plus the return of competitive favorites, there’s something for everyone to love in Modern Horizons 3 Commander Decks
Collector's Edition Commander Decks
Not only are you getting EDH precons, you can drool over Collector's Edition versions of Modern Horizons 3 Commander Decks. They are exactly the same as the normal versions, but contain a ‘brand new foil treatment’ on each card and two borderless profile cards.
- COLLECT ALL 4 COLLECTOR’S EDITION DECKS—Get a bundle of 4 Modern Horizons 3 Collector’s Edition Commander Decks (Graveyard Overdrive, Tricky Terrain, Creative Energy, and Eldrazi Incursion)
- EXCLUSIVE COLLECTOR’S EDITION FOIL TREATMENT—All 100 cards in each Collector’s Edition deck feature a special foil treatment introduced for the very first time—Ripple Foil cards that gleam in a pattern like ripples in a pool of water
- BORDERLESS PROFILE COMMANDERS—Meet the new stars of your collection with an up-close, profile view of your commanders. Each deck includes 2 Legendary Creature cards featuring a striking Borderless Profile alt-art treatment and dressed to impress in Ripple Foil
- INTRODUCING 60 COMMANDER CARDS—These decks introduce a total of 60 never-before-seen cards to Magic: The Gathering, with 15 introduced in each deck
- POWERFUL RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX—Win with style with powerful all-foil decks that are ready to defeat your opponents right out of the box
Prerelease Pack
MH3 is getting a prerelease, including prerelease kits. These are pretty typical for prerelease kits:
- 6 Modern Horizons 3 play boosters; each play booster contains 14 Magic cards
- 1 foil, year-stamped rare or mythic rare
- 1 Magic: The Gathering Arena code card (only available in select regions)
- 1 deck box
- 1 spindown die
Bundle
Modern Horizons 3 Bundles are coming if you’re looking for something a little smaller than a full box of boosters. Much like the bundles you see for Standard-legal sets, they contain:
- 9 Modern Horizons 3 play boosters
- 1 Traditional foil card with bundle-exclusive alternate-art
- 15 Traditional foil basic land cards (5 with full-art)
- 15 nonfoil basic land cards (5 with full-art)
- 1 oversized spindown life counter
- 1 card storage box
- 2 reference cards
- Each play booster includes a combination of 1–5 cards of rarity rare or higher and 3–6 uncommon, 5–8 common, and 1 land card. 1 card of any rarity is traditional foil. Foil borderless mythic paneswalker in <1% of boosters. Traditional foil land replaces a land in 20% of boosters. List card included in 20% of play boosters.
- YOUR NEW FOREVER FAVORITES—Introducing a heaping helping of exciting cards for Modern, one of Magic’s most celebrated formats, plus the return of competitive favorites, there’s something for everyone to love in Modern Horizons 3
- NOW WITH PLAY BOOSTERS—Get the best of Draft and Set Boosters, combined into one! Play Boosters are great for Limited play and fun to open, with a possibility of multiple Rares and at least 1 shining foil card in every pack
- FULL-ART LANDS & SPECIAL ALTERNATE-ART CARD—Every Bundle also comes with 1 Traditional Foil promo card featuring Bundle-exclusive alternate art, and 10 of the 30 included Land cards feature stunning Full-Art (5 foil, 5 nonfoil)
- EXCLUSIVE ACCESSORIES—In addition to cards from the set, each MH3 Bundle comes with exclusive accessories, including a special die to track your life total and a sturdy box to store everything in
- POWERFUL CARDS FOR MODERN CONSTRUCTED, LIMITED & COMMANDER PLAY—Spice up your deck with powerful New-to-Modern cards, host a supercharged Booster Draft with friends, or discover Legendary Creatures with striking special treatments to inspire your next Commander Deck
Gift Bundle
We’re also getting Modern Horizons 3: Gift Edition Bundles. Just like most versions of Gift Bundles they are essentially normal Bundles with a bonus Collector Booster. For a full breakdown, they contain:
- 9 Modern Horizons 3 play boosters
- 1 Modern Horizons 3 collector booster
- 1 Traditional foil card with bundle-exclusive alternate-art
- 15 Traditional foil basic land cards (5 with full-art)
- 15 nonfoil basic land cards (5 with full-art)
- 1 oversized spindown life counter
- 1 card storage box
- 2 reference cards
- Each play booster includes a combination of 1–5 cards of rarity rare or higher and 3–6 uncommon, 5–8 common, and 1 land card. 1 card of any rarity is traditional foil. Foil borderless mythic paneswalker in <1% of boosters. Traditional foil land replaces a land in 20% of boosters. List card included in 20% of play boosters.
- Collector booster includes up to 2 foil-etched cards and 10–12 traditional foil cards. Includes 5 cards of rarity rare or higher and 3–5 uncommon, 4–6 common, and 1 land card. Serialized card in <1% of boosters.
- GIVE THE GIFT OF MAGIC—The perfect present for any Magic fan, this Gift Bundle is full of exclusive accessories and the coolest cards from Modern Horizons 3, including a Collector Booster packed with Rare cards, shiny foils, and alt-art, alt-frame cards
- MODERN’S NEVER BEEN MORE MARVELOUS—Introducing a heaping helping of exciting cards for Modern, one of Magic’s most celebrated formats, plus the return of competitive favorites, there’s something for every fan to love in Modern Horizons 3
- A COLLECTOR BOOSTER FULL OF TREASURES—Both powerful and flashy, the included Collector Booster is packed with only the coolest cards and is the only place fans may find Foil-Etched cards, Textured Foil cards, or Serialized cards printed with a unique number
- BOOSTERS FOR PLAYING & BUILDING DECKS—Play Boosters are the best packs for playing Magic with friends and are fun to open, with a possibility of multiple Rares and at least 1 shining foil card in every pack
- FULL-ART LANDS & SPECIAL ALTERNATE-ART CARD—Every MH3 Bundle: Gift Edition also comes with 1 Traditional Foil promo card featuring Bundle-exclusive alternate art, and 10 of the 30 included Land cards feature stunning Full-Art (5 foil, 5 nonfoil)
Gazing to the Horizons
Modern Horizons 3 Key Art | Illustration by Pindurski
Is Modern Horizons III something you’re eagerly looking forward to? Or are you worried that it’s going to warp your favorite format? The previous two incarnations have both been big news for Modern, as well as Commander and Legacy, and have also been pretty popular draft formats. Maybe Wizards has learned from the previous two sets and will approach this one with a different strategy. You'll just have to wait and see what comes.
I know there’s going to be some discourse about this one! What do you want to see? Reprints? What do you not want to see? Let me know your thoughts down below or over in the official Draftsim Discord! And while you’re watching, stay tuned here for all the latest news!
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