Check out past articles in this series here: Alpha to The Dark, Fallen Empires to Weatherlight, Tempest to Prophecy

Welcome to another week of exploration into the possibilities that the upcoming amazing set Modern Horizons has to offer us. Rest assured, there are a ton of good sets. Week one and two covered a lot of older sets with largely weaker power levels and week three covered the more extreme end. This time we're finding the solid middle ground.

The cards here, ranging from Invasion to Scourge of the Onslaught block, offer a wide swath of options without going too overboard in the process. This is where Magic as a whole began to hit its stride in terms of design and development - until Mirrodin block landed and ruined everything. As such, there's tons of treasure to pick out and plenty worth talking about.

Invasion

Let's dive right in with Invasion. Billed as the first dedicated multicolored set since Legends in 1994, Invasion was meant to put more focus on Gold cards and cards using off-color abilities than any set before it. And boy howdy did it deliver! With the infamous Urza block rotating and a relatively balanced set entering the mix in its stead, a lot more options opened up. Games slowed down quite a bit and they were more enjoyable for it.

What would I be doing if I didn't start right off by mentioning two of the key legendary creatures this set has to offer? The whole block featured a tremendous amount of legends I could rattle off for days, ranging from bad to amazing. I think it's best to focus on the actually playable ones, however.

Captain Sisay would be excellent for a number of decks. Note that she reads "legendary card," not "legendary creature." Because of this, you can fetch up legendary spells, artifacts, lands, even planeswalkers! There's tons of potential for Sisay and, as she also needs a reprint for the Commander crowd, she would be a most welcome reprint. Hanna, on the other hand, goes for artifacts and enchantments from the yard. She's almost certainly too slow, but the potential for regular value generation is too lucrative to pass up.

Remember back when I mentioned Legends how I considered showing the Elder Dragons? Well since Nicol Bolas is already in Modern (and their overall power level being low by today's standards), that's something we're not likely to get. What would actually be great to get some great reprints are the Invasion legendary Dragons. They're not super broken, but they tick a couple boxes.

The last part is especially key. The one that saw the most competitive play was absolutely Rith, the Awakener. The stories of Brian Kibler running away with him in the Pro Tour at the time have stayed with him even into the modern era of Magic thanks in no small part to Fires of Yavimaya.

Fires of Yavimaya is arguably not all that great by today's Standards. After all, we have Rhythm of the Wild in the most recent set. The difference, however, is Fires offers both the haste and a timely pump ability as well. It's still useful and has tons of value to boot. Alongside it came Armadillo Cloak which, when combined with Rith, crushed opponent after opponent. We have a version with current wording in Unflinching Courage so I think the card would be fine, even if the older templating might throw some players off. Meanwhile Fact or Fiction is one of the most classic skill-testing cards of all time and would be a most welcome addition into the format.

Next up are some enchantments. If you've been following the History on the Horizon series up until now, you'll notice I've mentioned a lot of possible Enchantress cards. I'm mentioning a lot more today. Few, however, are as important as Sterling Grove. The glue that holds Enchantress together, it both keeps opponents from interacting with your board, thus protecting your game plan, and lets you sacrifice it to tutor exactly what you need to win.

If you want to blow up your opponent's enchantments - as well as their artifacts - then by all means! Give us Aura Shards and we'll happily wipe them away! A Commander favorite that's commanding a high price tag these days as well, it's also reasonably costed to put in some serious work against certain decks out of the sideboard. Another amazing sideboard enchantment would be Dueling Grounds. We all know how rough decks like Phoenix and Dredge have been, after all. Decks that swarm the board fast and don't let up. Dueling Grounds puts things to a grinding halt on turn two and would help tremendously in the right deck.

Invasion also had a number of great counterspells. We recently saw Absorb get added to Modern thanks to Ravnica Allegiance but there was no sign of its opposite Undermine. This was likely because Guilds of Ravnica had Ionize (a fair tell we won't see Apocalypse's Suffocating Blast any time soon), but it would be great to have the classic back. If not, Prohibit and Exclude both make fine countermagic options all the same.

These cards affect the game a bit more directly. Recoil bounces permanents and makes the opponent discard, much like a one-time Dinrova Horror activation. Probe, on the other hand, attacks your opponent's hand while giving you more card selection in the process. Lastly there's Urza's Rage, a huge power card from the old days that was so iconic in its time it was the featured card for Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs. The Coalition. We even saw a recent version in the form of Fight With Fire. If it weren't for Urza's Rage being uncounterable, I'd say it likely could be downshifted to uncommon, but this being a higher power level set than normal, who knows what could happen!

Lastly, a few utility options. Tangle is an excellent Fog effect that was downshifted online but not in paper, leading prices to go up a bit and lending to the confusion between paper and online legalities for the Pauper format. It would be a fine downshift for the set to both clear up those legality issues and put more cards in the hands of the players. Meanwhile, Bind and Teferi's Response fill super niche roles that come up from time to time, allowing some amount of versatility in sideboard options.

Planeshift

If there's one thing I absolutely love in poking through these old sets, it's the cycles. There's always plenty to go around and Planeshift was no slouch.

The Lair cards, for one, are excellent mana fixing options. Not too good but also not bad in certain situations. They aren't like Karoos in that they only count for 1 mana, which is a noticeable drawback for sure, but they're still excellent for fixing. Alternatively, we could also see new ones themed around the Planar Chaos dragons.

What I don't want to see new versions of, however, are the Dragon Charms. Just go ahead and read them. Every single one is legitimately fantastic with an excellent set of abilities. I'm quite partial to Crosis's Charm myself and think that were it printed in Modern Horizons, I believe it would easily see play in Grixis Control builds.

There are two cycles I'd love to mention that are a bit harder to do right, however. As with many cycles, it often wasn't uncommon to see a featured card taken from a cycle and featured in Time Spiral as a Timeshifted card, thus making it legal in Modern. As such, even though I'd love the Battlemage and Familiar cycles properly in the format, the fact that both Thornscape Battlemage and Stormscape Familiar already are makes that a bit unlikely. I do hope I'm proven wrong and we at least see some of these incomplete cycles added into the mix.

Some of the tutors I talked about last week are a bit on the crazy side. One-mana instant-speed tutors are absolutely busted after all. What's not quite as busted is Diabolic Intent. Requiring a creature to sacrifice first, it's a Demonic Tutor in otherwise cost and function. Likely too strong still, the need to set up with a creature is a tall order for a number of decks that might want the card.

What would be great would be Eladamri's Call. As much as I'd love to see Green Sun's Zenith come back, it likely won't anytime soon (unless we get Force of Will that is). And so we remain stuck with the likes of Collected Company and Chord of Calling, both great options in their own right. Eladamri's Call fits well into a lot of these decks, finding you the exact creature you need for any specific moment.

In terms of utility, Hull Breach is a classic for blowing up artifacts and enchantments, while Cavern Harpy is a classic combo piece. Thanks to being able to bounce it back and forth, there's all kinds of things that the card is capable of. This is especially true when you stick it into an Aluren deck in Legacy and go off.

Finally, I absolutely have to talk about the set's two most iconic cards. Flametongue Kavu was a revelation and to this day, FTK style effects are regularly commented on. Nothing quite beats the classic, however, and I'd love to see it back. On the side of shutting things down more, Orim's Chant is an absolute star. Silence already gets some fringe love, but who doesn't just love the idea of sticking an Orim's Chant onto an Isochron Scepter?

Apocalypse

If you weren't aware, the Invasion block focused on a variety of specific color pairings. The first set, Invasion, focused more on shard colors. Planeshift still focused on friendly colors, or shards, but also put more emphasis on five-color with the then-unnamed Domain mechanic. When it came to Apocalypse, however, everything became more focused on the enemy colors, or wedges. Nothing epitomizes this concept more than the Volver creatures. They'd make great downshifts down to uncommon these days and would be a welcome addition to the set.

If you've followed along, you likely know I think the two main mechanical focuses for the set are going to be Cycling and tribal. All three of these excellent creatures fit quite well into that tribal setting and would do well in a potential Modern deck. Tidal Courier would be great too, but I don't foresee too many Merfolk showing up in the set, and boh Sylvan Messenger and Brass Herald are already Modern legal, so it would need to be these three.

The Whirlpool creatures would be great choices for all kinds of zany nonsense. Whirlpool Rider actually sees play in a Pauper deck known as Millver, using its ability to great effect alongside Jace's Erasure to mill the opponent out. It arguably wouldn't be too hard to pull off in Modern either, and these cards could be the engine, or else just working with cards like Underworld Dreams or Spiteful Visions.

In the small time, we've got these great cards. Goblin Legionnaire is a stone cold classic from the olden days. It's not quite as good without damage being on the stack any longer, but is still a solid body with great effects. Orim's Thunder is a bit more sideboard material, but being able to blow up artifacts and enchantments and deal damage all the while is great. Destructive Revelry is likely better on all fronts, but having the option is always welcome. Jilt is in a similar state, being great for shutting down opponents' creature but not being stellar on its own, especially when Fire // Ice, another great option, feels unlikely right now thanks to its recent Ultimate Masters printing.

If Hymn to Tourach is too strong for Modern, you know what isn't? Gerrard's Verdict. Still a great card in its own right, it would almost certainly see some play, even if it's no Hymn. Desolation Angel, while not great today, is an iconic favorite that would just be welcome on that cool factor alone. Then there's Life // Death. This card is straight up bananas and I'd love to see it in Modern. Unfortunately, a lot of the split cards at the time were a bit weaker and I don't know they'd include this as the only one in the set.

Lastly I have to talk about some of the most iconic cards in the set, if not the game. First off is the monstrous Spiritmonger. If you didn't play back in the day, there's a reason this card is such a house. Those stats aren't amazing for Constructed today but it's still a Limited bomb and a casual favorite today. Fun fact: did you know Spiritmonger actually came about from a contest called the "Create A Creature Contest." While I couldn't find much apart from the Wiki link, I remember the contest having artist sketches and creature descriptions posted online that got voted on by the fans and the result was an absolute unit of a beast.

If blowing things up is more your speed, however, Pernicious Deed is as classic of a board wipe as it ever was. Heck it even got just that much better thanks to Planeswalkers. It would almost certainly see some amount of play, as would the more targeted removal in the form of Vindicate. We have similar effects in Modern already but none that can blow up lands, which isn't the biggest thing in the grand scheme of options. If nothing else, alongside Deed, it seems like an absolute slam dunk in the Horizons.

Odyssey

Odyssey block took a truly radical approach for Magic at the time: making your graveyard an important part of the game. The cards were weird and unusual tribes like Cephalids made it onto the scene instead of the more classic creature types that would show up moving forward.

A couple sweet options would be these utility lands. All of them are great and, while Coliseum is almost a bit too strong, wouldn't break the format. In fact, they'd be great.

With Odyssey also came the rebirth of an old one-off creature type: Lhurgoyf. We already have seen Mortivore and Magnivore in Modern thanks to Core Sets, but not these ones. Of them, I think only Terravore would truly see play, as it works amazingly well alongside Knight of the Reliquary. Still, having the finished set would be excellent all the same.

By now you might be starting to note that each of these cards require or have an added effect when there's cards in your graveyard. These ones either get beefier or otherwise kill more effectively. It's truly as simple as that. What fuels all these graveyard strategies? These bad boys right here:

Both Psychatog, affectionately referred to as "Doctor Teeth," and Wild Mongrel were the best discard engines you could hope for. They single-handedly - along with a few cards I'll get to shortly - made Threshold possible, Flashback great value, and made a whole other mechanic insane on its own. Wild Mongrel already has a modern day equivalent in Noose Constrictor, so I see no reason why we shouldn't have the classic. Meanwhile Doctor Teeth made major decks function for easy kills on its own, but seventeen years of time have taken their toll and it's not quite the powerhouse it once was.

We could also see these cards show up to help fuel the yard. While Buried Alive and Entomb may be too strong thanks to cards like Arclight Phoenix showing up everywhere, there has been some talk about banning Faithless Looting and printing Careful Study instead. It's a bit fairer since it can't be flashed back and is ripe for a reprint.

Speaking of Flashback, these spells are excellent in that regard. Cheap removal, Fog, or massive tokens are always welcome. Just as well, Roar could likely make an excellent Pauper downshift.

Finally, there's these sweet cards. Innocent Blood is a great take on an edict effect while Squirrel Nest is great for making tons of tokens. While Squirrels don't normally show up in black border sets these days, this one did slip into the first Conspiracy set years ago and I think it could just as easily show up here. Standstill, however, is one I question. The card is great but would lead to real awkward board states, especially on camera, but could be incredibly strong as an option all the same.

Torment

Thanks to the set's focus on its main character, Chainer, a man driven to insanity by the power of the Mirari, Madness was one of the set's key mechanics in addition to the block's other graveyard-based ones. As such, we got some excellent cards in the process. Arrogant Wurm and Basking Rootwalla are bar none the best thing you can likely be doing with Madness. Today, Rootwalla still fuels Survival of the Fittest strategies in Vintage and Stompy in Pauper even, so you'd better believe it would rock in Modern. Circular Logic as a cheap, powerful counterspell would also be welcome, though I feel like it would be less likely the first time around and maybe more of a Modern Horizons 2 kind of deal.

To enable all the discarding, much like with Wild Mongrel and Psychatog, Torment brought us Aquamoeba and Putrid Imp. Aquamoeba was more for the Simic-based decks that were excellent at the time and Putrid Imp has done some time in Reanimator builds over the years. Even Cephalid Illusionist is great for fueling the yard. It even had two decks built around it once upon a time: Cephalid Breakfast and Boo Berry, both different decks which relied on you comboing the Illusionist with Nomads en-Kor for a ludicrous amount of triggers.

Chainer's Edict is a major staple. The card was incredible in Standard and it's still amazing in Pauper today. I'd love to see it in Modern even if it wouldn't be as good (especially with Liliana's Triumph coming in War of the Spark), hopefully with the classic artwork. Deep Analysis is excellent for card advantage. There's others, like Acorn Harvest and Crippling Fatigue, but nothing is quite like drawing cards.

Then there's Mesmeric Fiend. I thought this card already got the Timeshifted treatment but it turns out I was thinking of something like Faceless Butcher instead. We already have cards like Tidehollow Sculler and Brain Maggot, so I think the Fiend is more than fine in this day and age.

Lastly we've got these powerhouses. Seriously, these are some juggernauts. Ichorid would really power up Dredge and trust me, you don't want that right now. Cabal Ritual also fuels some degenerate Storm-based plays and seems a little too strong, even if Tendrils of Agony isn't in the format. What would be great, however, would be Cabal Coffers. Have you seen the price on it lately? It's really gotten expensive. Reprinting it would both bring down the price and give more dedicate Black decks a reason to show up to events again.

Judgment

Judgment brought with it a pair of great cycles. The first was the Wish cycle. We have one from Future Sight called Glittering Wish and a few similar cards like Standard's Mastermind's Acquisition these days. I really see no reason why we shouldn't have these. They offer some fresh ways for players to access cards and give newer players an opportunity to experience this sweet effect for themselves.

The second excellent cycle was the cycle of creatures that do things when in your graveyard. While we already saw the White uncommon one, Valor, in Time Spiral, we did also have a rare White one to fill in the gaps a bit: Glory. Genesis might be somewhat on its own as a result, but the card has an ability so strong and unique it's practically on an entirely different level.

Back in the days of Standard, Anurid Brushhopper was the big chase card from the set. That may surprise a lot of you, but it makes sense when you think about damage going on the stack. You could put the damage on the stack, discard a card, and bounce the Brushhopper. Then the damage resolves and your opponents' creatures die. Based on this old-school power level and being a decent rate today, it seems it would be a great reprint.

Mirari's Wake is a Commander and Cube all-star as well. It's not quite so good today, and likely wouldn't make a massive splash in Modern due to being too slow, but it's a great option nevertheless. What is worth considering is Solitary Confinement. If you're interested in Enchantress options, this is absolutely a card you want and need in order to properly protect your gameplan.

We could also finally see a much needed reprint of Battle Screech in this set too. The card has held onto a steady price tag due to being both a Pauper staple and only ever being printed in Judgment. It could even be a boon for some token decks in the process. Sylvan Safekeeper continues the mentions of bringing Invitational cards into Modern and this one is certainly a doozy, allowing you to protect your creatures. Similarly, as a one-time option, Benevolent Bodyguard can help out. It's no Mother of Runes, but then we might need full blown Mom right now.

Onslaught

Oh Onslaught, let me count the ways I love you. If you didn't know, Onslaught is quite possibly my favorite set of all time. It's roughly the set that got me into competitive Magic, induced my love for tribal decks, and is the source of innumerable memories with largely fantastic gameplay. One of the main reasons I play my signature Pauper deck, Elves, today is because of the Elves deck I piloted in the days of Onslaught block being so similar. As such, I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up a few sweet Elves to start us off:

These great elves fuel my Pauper deck and the deck I grew up with when I was younger. But like they do for Elves, so too do these for Goblins:

And these for Zombies:

If you can't tell, there's a lot of great tribes on display in Onslaught. Some, like Clerics, Wizards, and Soldiers, are more classes, which is fine given how they were their own types before the Great Creature Type Update. As such, Onslaught above just about any other set eligible for Modern Horizons has cards that could easily push whole archetypes. We even have special monstrous creatures like these:

And tribal-themed lands like these:

There's even some special lords that reward you for having a deck full of that one lone creature type, with some cards doing way more than others:

Each of these provides numerous options for decks and that's only the beginning. Some, like Skirk Prospector, have been reprinted, which shrinks the pool of options, but only by so much. Onslaught didn't just focus on tribes, though, it also reintroduced us to the Cycling mechanic and did so in fresh and inventive ways. With it came legendary cards like these:

Astral Slide, and to a lesser extent Lightning Rift, made up entire archetypes back in the day. Eternal Slide was a thing even, where you would combine Astral Slide, any Cycling card, and Eternal Witness for a loop while constantly picking up effects from the discarded cards.

Astral Slide is actually my number one hope for a potential downshift in the Pauper format. The build-around potentials are nearly endless, but not so broken enough they'd destroy the format or the world for that matter. Some expressed concerns about whether or not it should be a common for the sake of Limited, but I think it's less impactful there than Lightning Rift.

If you want some sweet effects when Cycling for those aforementioned cards, it's hard to go wrong with Krosan Tusker or Slice and Dice. Akroma's Vengeance is great for blowing things up, but sometimes you just want to Cycle that much more.

The same is true for each of these lands, which, as I mentioned when discussing Urza's Saga, I think they'd make great additions to the set.

Each of these creatures was a house in their Standard format. Grinning Demon was a revelation for two reasons. For one it was a souped up Juzam Djinn, one of the most iconic creatures in Magic's history. For another, it was the first Demon we'd seen in years, as Wizards was concerned by people treating the game as Satanic due to these creatures.

Where there's a Demon, though, there's gotta be an angel, and Exalted Angel both was and is no slouch. While I don't necessarily think she's good enough to make the cut, being able to Morph her and then flip her up is just as big game today as it was in 2003. Similarly, Blistering Firecat was a stellar Ball Lightning variant that was shockingly good. It certainly helped that you could first Morph it, get small damage in that way, and then go in for the massive hit soon after.

Some spells were their own thing. Patriarch's Bidding, a different riff on the set's tribal aspect, was a key part in the classic Goblin Bidding deck. Today, it commands a high price tag, so a reprint would be most welcome, even moreso if you're able to make an actual deck around the card.

Starstorm is an excellent board wipe spell that can be Cycled away in a pinch, while Kamahl just kills people dead. Both Commander favorites, they could all certainly stand to make an appearance in Modern.

Finally, some more Enchantress goodies. Enchantress's Presence allows us to get the combo engine online without relying exclusively on a creature. Even through a board wipe, this stays on the board. Well, most of the time at least. Words of War gave Enchantress a win condition as well up until cards like Emrakul showed up. Really all the Words cards are sweet, though their workings could make it hard to squeeze them into the set. Last but not least is Oversold Cemetery, a sweet enchantment that allows you to keep getting back tons of sweet creatures back from your graveyard every turn.

Legions

Speaking of getting tons of creatures, when you jump into Legions, you get absolutely no shortage of them. After all, the set was 100% pure creatures. This made for some interesting experiences and ways to play the game. Largely disliked by a number of players, in part due to it only having a handful of playables, there's really only so much worth talking about here. I can't even talk about Willbender (remember kids: if there's a face-down Morph creature, it's ALWAYS Willbender) due to it being in Time Spiral.

What I can talk about, however, are these critters:

That's right, Slivers came back in Legions, thanks no doubt to the block's strong tribal synergies. Just about every Sliver the set has to offer is up for grabs short of Essence Sliver (another Timeshifted card) and there's plenty to choose from in order to establish a solid collection between here, Tempest, and possibly some new ones.

Speaking of tribes, can I just say how much I really want these cards to show up in the set? The Gempalm Cyclers were some of my favorite cards and would be great additions, helping push each of their respective archetypes. Wizards likely wouldn't be impacted much, if someone even tried it, but each of the others would be more than welcome.

Speaking of tribes, both Clickslither and Timberwatch Elf were staples of their respective tribe's decks back in Standard. Clickslither is likely much too slow today, but once upon a time it was insane, allowing you to go in quick for massive amounts of damage. A massive casting cost makes it somewhat prohibitive these days, however.

What doesn't cost much and still kills the opponent dead, though, is Timberwatch Elf with a good number of Elves on the battlefield. Combo it with an untap effect like Quirion Ranger and you're in business. All of these creatures die horrible deaths to a flipped Bane of the Living. Flip it for two, wipe the board, and then start beating face is still as excellent a play as ever.

Lastly, each of these offers a neat utility option to decks of different types. While Corpse Harvester and Wirewood Hivemaster continue to trend of tribal opportunities, Deftblade Elite is meant for something more like a Bogles deck where you can suit it up and make its Provoke super strong.

Scourge

By and large, Scourge is a pretty forgettable set. The tribal synergies were only still somewhat here and the "high converted mana cost matters" mechanic was weird (ALL HAIL THE GREAT LORD EGOTIST). For all the weirdness, though, Wizards produced something insanely broken: Storm.

Many Storm cards appeared in Scourge and have been tearing up Eternal formats for years as a result. Brain Freeze and Tendrils are both almost certainly far too strong for the format, but still remain opportunities for the set. Don't even think about Mind's Desire, by the way. That card is stone cold broken and should never see the light of day again. What I would expect for Storm decks, however, is the card Xantid Swarm, which shows up in some Legacy Storm lists as a way to make sure your opponent can't do anything while you go off.

In some more realistic options, I'd love to see each of these. As a major Elves player, I'd kill to see Wirewood Symbiote. It's my number one most wanted card easily, and while I know they'd never do it, I'd kill for a downshift.

Stifle offers ways to deal with cards in a way we largely haven't had. Yes we have Trickbind and Disallow, but those aren't good old one-mana Stifles. Just remember: if we somehow get this and Standstill, you never Stifle a Standstill trigger. I promise it won't work out well for you.

Then there's Sulfuric Vortex. You put this card in the set and I promise that Burn players everywhere will cheer your name. A constantly repeating burn, it puts the pressure on your opponent fast.

Then there's some classic Cyclers. Eternal Dragon helps find lands while acting as a beater in the late game. It even comes back to your hand so you can keep doing it over and over again. There's also the Decree cycle. Most aren't that good, but both Decree of Justice and Decree of Pain saw a bunch of play and would be very welcome, especially if we got a Cycle engine like Astral Slide.

Finally, a couple creatures. The Warchief cycle already has its two most important creatures - Undead and Goblin Warchiefs - in Modern. Meanwhile, the two weakest - Krosan and Mistform - aren't even worth talking about. I'd still love to see Daru Warchief, though, to help give Soldier decks an extra super sweet lord to use and abuse.

Carrion Feeder is an engine that powers up fast, enabling all manner of sweet Aristocrats style builds. We see it sometimes in Pauper and it would be a great choice in Modern Zombies. Finally, more as a historical nostalgic inclusion, would be the very first "You Make The Card" winner: Forgotten Ancient. The card's cool and does neat things, but it's far from the best card ever.

Sometimes, though, it's worth it for the memories. I have plenty I could share about this era of Magic, arguably my favorite ever, but for now that's gonna be it. Next week I'll be back covering all the supplemental sets like Commander and Conspiracy. Make sure to let me know down below what you think of all these cards and what you'd love to see make it into such a legendary set as this. Until then, I'll see you all next week!