Hello folks. I hope your day is well.

Modern Horizons was a very different set than was expected by many. It's an odd draft, an unusual slate of cards, and sort of a Time Spiral II. The entire set was unorthodox, but will likely soon begin to pick up speed. I suspect that we'll get this more and more as things continue.

For example, I'd suspect that we'll see fun throwback themes that don't have enough cards in the past to come out again.

Take the Thallids and Saprolings from Fallen Empires as a great example.

While some are on the Reserve List, and Thallid itself is modern legal as it was reprinted in Time Spiral proper, there are still some Thallids we could see, like these three. And we could get another run of Thallids as a Green/Black draft deck in a future Modern Horizons.

It's a weird set. But for kitchen table players, it's very, very powerful and chock full of stronger cards that you might often see elsewhere. While there are some draft-only cards that are pretty much as far as they'll go, there are tons of cards that are stronger than similar options at the table already.

Here, let me give you a quick example

This is Cordial Vampire. It's a 2-drop that grows all of your Vampires (including itself) permanently whenever any creature dies. Your own? Your foes? That's a lot of counters! And it's better than something like Blood Artist as the effect is a lot more powerful.

Pondering Mage digs three, gives you one card, and is a 3/4 in size as well as rocking pertinent creature types.

Compare it to something like these that are the same mana, smaller, and have much weaker abilities. You can see where I am going with these. Even the utilities are better than normal.

This is a constant theme of Modern Horizons. You are getting deck stock like Ephemerate that is way better than what we had before. This continues throughout the set, and thus there are a ton of cards out there to consider for deck-building fun-times.

Due to the higher power level of many of these cards, they have a stronger impact in kitchen table formats where not being legal in Standard is not typically a part of their consideration.

Because Wrenn and Six, as well as a handful of other pricey hits are pushing high levels of value, many of the other cards have dropped in price, like both of the Swords of X and Y. For casual players, now is a good time to pick up some less well-known cards, especially given the fact that they tend to be a little better than many previous cards.

Let's look at my own Top Ten Cards From MDZ You Forgot Already!

Honorable Mention - Treefolk Umbra

This is a great way to kick off my list! This aura is fun, gives the toughness-damage ability that few love, and pumps up the butt while doing so. The totem armor of the Umbras is really strong as it'll save a key creature like a Commander from lethal damage once.

The toughness-damage ability has been in print since we saw Doran, the Siege Tower come down and rock the block. But know what? We still don't have that many cards that'll give you this cool ability.

Plus we have a number of Commanders that include Green that benefit from this - such as the "defense matters" of Arcades, the Strategist (who only gives his toughness-damage ability to your dorks with defender, not himself) to the "auramatters" of Uril, the Miststalker. Lots will love it. It will turn a Commander with a high toughness and defensive appearing dork into a threat to win quickly with Commander damage.

Take another look at it!

10. Force of Virtue

This is a fun Force that I think a lot of folks forgot about. Did you? It's just a mana more than Glorious Anthem and you have both flash and the ability to pitch it out, both of which are pretty keen-cool. It suits aggro and go-wide decks. I like to cast it during combat after I swing, and use it as a few combat tricks at once and potentially kill or trade in a few places, plus it'll permanently stick around as well.

Un-Forget it.

9. Watcher for Tomorrow

Watcher for Tomorrow is a fun card that, should you be able to find a way to force it to leave the battlefield, can basically Impulse for a single card. Now, please note that the card isn't in your hand, and your smooth Jazz playing Wizard's normally pertinent 2/1 for two mana arrives tapped and unable to wrestle into future turns have arrived. Tomorrow's Turns. There are loads of ways to get them. Blinks. Deaths. Self-bounces. Sacrifices. Tucks. Bonus points, this is in a color that's great with many of them.

Stop waiting for Tomorrow; play it today.

8. Splicer's Skill

Take a closer look at that splice. Any deck with sorceries or instants will benefit from the splice, as you turn four mana sitting around into game-winning 3/3 Golems. Plus, you don't lose the card, so you can keep up the pressure as the game progresses.

What sort of deck would want it? How Mystic Intellect from Commander 2019 -

Creatures like Elsha of the Infinite or Core Set 2020's Kykar, Wind's Fury are ideal homes for it. Did you forget already? It's okay, just toss it into these sorts of builds and move on!

7. Graveshifter

Gravedigger was probably the most pervasive card first printed in Portal.

Yes, that Portal.

It's been a strong card in countless decks, kitchen table brews, Cubes, draft formats, and more throughout the years. It's Zombie-ness also helped to give it some inclusions in Zombie decks.

But now we have a changeling Gravedigger for the same cost and value. You could grab it for a Grixis Commander Wizard build or a Rakdos Demon/Devil/Imp build around Rakdos, the Showstopper, and Rats for your Rat build and lots more. It offers all of card advantage and synergy and goods times of Gravedigger, but now in the tribe of your dreams. Don't die on it!

6. Echo of Eons

It's one of the cheapest mythics in the secondary marketplace from MDZ, but I'm not sure why. You know what this spell is, right? Flashback. Timetwister. Flashback. Timetwister. Many decks throughout the history of this game have loaded in many Timetwister and similar effects as they coveted them. Badly. And here are two of them in a single card. Come on! Toss them in and get your Timetwister groove on!

5. Crashing Footfalls

If you want, you can suspend this on the 1st turn, and then you'll net 8 power of dorks with haste and trample across two bodies on the 4th turn, long before you'd earn it turn-wise. That's a powerful spell, made more so by the fact that you only spend a mana on turn one, and then you can just move on.

But that fair play is not where you are likely to see it the best. Many effects exist, such as cascade, that covet a zero-cost spell. And hey! This is one of those spells. Two dorks! Now sure, if you cheat it, you'll not get the haste, only If you suspended it can you do that, but it's still 8 power.

I don't know how you may have forgotten about these crashing dorks, but don't do it.

4. Pashalik Mons

Pashalik Mons has so much value. You can churn a Goblin into two much like the iconic Goblin Warrens or the Warrens-influenced Weirding Shaman which sent the ability over to Black. Both of those are great, and the churning of dorks into more dorks will trigger Mons. It also triggers many other sacrifice themes, from Jund sacrifice to Boros tokens and more.

Don't forget that a certain Brawl leader in Throne of Eldraine will also enjoy your Goblins dying for the cause over and over again. Many a card wants you to run this. Don't fail to recognize how well it plays with others.

In fact, Pashalik Mons is the highest rating card on today's list that's not White. Good job!

Now, let's move to my top 3.

3. Recruit the Worthy

A strong buyback spell like Capsize or Whispers of the Muse has always proven to be strong. Turning extra mana into something valuable without having a permanent on the board that can be stopped is very strong. Typically, only counters and discard can stop this sort of effect. It's not the mana value of four mana for a single 1/1 dork, that's not great. It's sending that mana into this over, and over again, turn after turn. You can use it at the end of your foe's turn, and then untap and swing If you want. You can make these to block an attacker. It's also strong with some of the builds mentioned above for Splicer's Skill. Life is strong with this one.

So why aren't you running it?

2. Astral Drift

It's a useful cycling Astral Slide effect that you can drop and cycle into many a blink effect. Many. And oh yeah, it can cycle to blink itself! That's a card-drawing blink effect that's almost impossible to counter -what's not to love!

Cycling is harder to answer. Sure, your foe may have a way of countering an ability. But it's not likely. Usually they are just sitting with a real counter in their hand and stare at the cycling ability impotently. It's one of the reasons why Decree of Justice was always so powerful to cycle and win the game.

It's hard to answer cycle triggers like this one. And you can get a free blink to save a key dork from removal, or blocking, or to force out a foe's dork until the end of turn so you can swing and punch for game or combat trigger effects and many more. Reuse a key enters-the-battlefield ability and loads more.

Blink away my friends, blink away!

1. Irregular Cohort

Before we take a deep dive into the power of Irregular Cohort, I want you to consider a similar card - Beetleback Chief.

Beetleback Chief runs four mana, gives you itself as a 2/2, and then two 1/1 tokens, so there's 4 power for four mana across multiple bodies. The Chief knows and tells all. The Chief is regularly played in Commander as it's a perfect card for the format. We love our enters-the-battlefield triggers. It's just mad value. The tokens are awesome as they can chump block. It's been registered in more than 4600 decks. It's tokens are fuel for sacrifices. It can come back in reimagination and get more triggers. Blink. It's got made value.

Irregular Cohort? It's almost always better!

Here are some reasons why:

1. The Beetleback Chief makes Goblins and thus works in a Goblin tribal deck only. But here? The changeling tokens and dork can be any tribe out there. For that reason, they are useful in anything from Slivers to Elves to Wizard to Apes to Angels to Devils. Soldiers? Knights? You get it.
2. Irregular Cohort is in a better supported blink color. Blue and white blink stuff. They have effects like Ghostly Flicker and Ephemerate that send stuff out, and then right on back in. Thus, you can use these many effects and themes to blink this out and back again for 2/2 tokens.
3. Irregular Cohort is great for token-themes that don't include Red. For example, you could be playing a Selesnya token-creature matters build. This fits in builds like Orzhov Tokens and such too!

The only times where the Chief is better is for builds that really want three bodies to two, or something like Jund sacrifice that doesn't have White as an option. Can you hear the Cohort cry out? "Play Me! Don't forget about me!"

And there we are! Anything in there that you forgot about? Anything I forgot about in a list about cards people have forgot about? Just let me know!