Magic: The Gathering - The 10 Best Cards In Modern Horizons 3 For Modern

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• Phlage, Titan Of Fire's Fury

• Flare Of Duplication

• Frogmyr Enforcer

• Ulamog, The Defiler

• Amped Raptor

• Flare Of Denial

• Flare Of Cultivation

• Ugin's Labyrinth

• Shifting Woodland

• Vexing Bauble

In the past, the arrival of a new Modern Horizons set has shifted the Magic: The Gathering Modern metagame landscape dramatically. Each Modern Horizons set features new takes on old favorites, a powerful cycle of cards, and a fair amount of much-needed reprints.

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Modern Horizons 3 has not affected the Modern metagame as heavily as its predecessors. That being said, this set is home to several powerful new cards that are sure to make a splash in a Modern wave pool near you. Here's our guess at the biggest players.

10 Phlage, Titan Of Fire's Fury

Lightning Helix On A Big Stick

Like the other Elder Giants from Theros Beyond Death, Phlage is a handy addition to its color pair. This is especially important for Boros (Red/White) as the archetype has struggled to stake out a place for itself in Modern for quite some time now (excluding Boros Burn of course).

A more expensive Lightning Helix may not be the most appealing effect in every matchup, but it's perfect for stabilizing against an aggressive deck. Furthermore, you can always go up top with this effect and hit an opponent directly in their life total.

By the time you cast this card for its escape cost, you've likely removed two creatures, gained six life, and placed a huge threat on the board.

9 Flare Of Duplication

Red Gets A Counterspell!

Copy spells hardly see any play in Modern at the moment, but Flare of Duplication is doing its best to be the exception to the rule. Copying a lethal spell like Lightning Bolt or Boros Charm seems quite good, however, this card probably doesn't have a home in Burn as it's more reliable to fill the deck slot with another burn spell in case you end up topdecking.

This does work as a red counterspell as you can use it to counter a counterspell targeting another of your spells. If you're main decking this card, you probably want to copy something much more valuable though. It remains to be seen what that card might be, but there's bound to be something interesting out there and the fail case here seems acceptable.

8 Frogmyr Enforcer

A Frog For Affinity

This is an upgraded version of Myr Enforcer: a card that already sees play in Affinity decks. Consequently, there's no reason that this card shouldn't entirely replace Myr Enforcer. The option to cast this card for its prototype cost gives it a nice bit of flexibility that's important for Affinity as attaining a critical mass of artifacts on the battlefield is a key part of the deck's strategy.

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It might even be the case that you see copies of Frogmyr Enforcer alongside copies of Myr Enforcer to give the deck added redundancy. Finally, Frogmyr Enforcer is another great artifact for triggering Simulacrum Synthesizer: an up-and-coming deck archetype that will likely see more play soon.

7 Ulamog, The Defiler

All Hail The Eldrazi Overlords

Yet another big colorless boy for Tron players to choose from. While this Ulamog won't replace any of its previous iterations or other cards present in Tron's main deck, having a suite of top-end powerhouse creatures for a variety of situations is part of what makes Tron so good.

This is yet another monster to add to the suite. Seeing as the Defiler exiles half of an opponent's library upon being cast, you're sure to hit at least one high mana value card to give Ulamog annihilator four or more. Usually, a single attack from a creature with annihilator is enough to end a game.

6 Amped Raptor

We Love Free Spells

This unassuming uncommon would have been much better if it had haste instead of first strike, however, it might still make the cut in Burn or another deck with mostly one and two drops. The best-case scenario with this card is that you get an essentially free 2/1 first strike in addition to casting a spell you wanted to cast anyway.

Of course, the ceiling on this card is putting it in a deck that generates a lot of energy and trying to cast something huge for free. Unfortunately, that's an improbable proposition. The Raptor's weakness to removal like Orcish Bowmasters is also a strike against it.

5 Flare Of Denial

We Especially Lover Free Counterspells

Counterspells that don't cost mana have a history of being powerful. While Flare of Denial has a very real cost in that you need a nontoken creature to sacrifice to make it free, creatures like Snapcaster Mage make for the perfect sacrificial fodder.

Both combo decks and any aggressive deck playing blue might be good homes for this card as it's much better if you're actively tapping out. After all, the best counterspell is the one that your opponent doesn't see coming.

4 Flare Of Cultivation

Land Ho!

This appears to be an impressive new source of ramp for decks interested in making loads of mana fast. The best creature to sacrifice is likely Arboreal Grazer as a turn one Grazer into Flare of Cultivation will see you untapping with access to four mana on turn two.

Previously, this was a feat only consistently accomplished by very few decks in Modern. Fast mana is one of the most broken effects in Magic, so this is certainly a card to be wary of.

3 Ugin's Labyrinth

Not Another Eldrazi Winter

Speaking of ramp and fast mana, Ugin's Labyrinth is a card that's reminiscent of Eye of Ugin. For those unfamiliar with Eye of Ugin, it was almost solely responsible for a period of Modern often referred to as "Eldrazi Winter". During this time, Eldrazi decks absolutely dominated the field ultimately leading to the banning of Eye of Ugin.

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Granted, you do need to imprint a seven mana value or more card to get your Eye of Ugin effect. Hopefully, this requirement makes Ugin's Labyrinth much less consistent at providing extra mana than Eye of Ugin. If it doesn't, we may be looking at a new Eldrazi Winter season.

2 Shifting Woodland

Don't Bury Your Dead In The Woods Please

Welcome to the newest and baddest tool for graveyard synergy lovers. Shifting Woodland can copy any permanent in your graveyard as long as you've got four different card types in your graveyard and three mana available. In case you didn't know, achieving delirium by turn two is very easily done in Modern.

Some of the best targets for this card to copy include Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Atraxa, Grand Unifier. However, there's also a good case for Omniscience as the best option as this would allow you to empty your hand onto the battlefield. If one thing is for sure, it's that sideboard graveyard hate will be even more necessary than it already is.

1 Vexing Bauble

But How Vexing Is It?

Potentially the most overlooked card of Modern Horizons 3, Vexing Bauble is an uncommon rarity artifact that stands to upset the nature of the Modern metagame as we know it. In recent years, decks like Crashing Footfalls and Rakdos Scam have popularized the power of casting cards without actually paying their mana costs.

However, Vexing Bauble could put an end to all of that. This artifact only costs a single generic mana so it can be placed into any deck or sideboard and will come online before your opponent can cheat anything into play if you go first. The fail case of sacrificing it to draw a card also means it has a relatively low deck-building cost.

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