It's time once again for another Pauper review and this time we've got ourselves a bit of a doozy! It's Modern Horizons 3 preview time, and this is a set sure to bring a ton of powerful cards to the land of commons!

The previous two Modern Horizons releases brought with them tons of wildly impactful cards for all formats - including Pauper - that have regularly changed them dramatically. Many strong cards that have come to define the Pauper format originated in these sets, with some being so strong they ended up getting banned, such as Arcum's Astrolabe, Chatterstorm, and Galvanic Relay!

As a note for how things are going this time around, I'm not taking my past approach of tackling every single common in Masters/Horizons sets. This is more a matter of me trying to condense my reviews more into a single article as opposed to multiple like I'd need to do otherwise. I've been following this method a lot over the last year, but it hasn't come up yet for one of these kinds of releases since Ravnica Remastered's downshift count was rather light.

For this set, there aren't really so much of the usual themes and mechanics to cover the way I'd usually lump things together. With Modern Horizons sets, Wizards tends to go rather wide in the amount of mechanics utilized and as a result, they don't do so much of one mechanic in large quantities. There's a handful of exceptions, and while I'm going to skip the "artifact matters" as it's better to discuss those individually, I have two (and a cycle) I'd like to at least touch on.

Energy

Kaladesh and Aether Revolt brought with them the energy mechanic, and it was absurdly powerful in Standard to the point that it caused several bans. While it's unlikely we'll see the mechanic come back there anytime soon, Wizards opted to bring it back here. Unfortunately, energy as a whole isn't super impactful when it comes to the Pauper format. This isn't because the cards aren't good, but it's rather an issue of the cards being reasonable individually as opposed to relying on a core Energy strategy.

Take something like Tune the Narrative. You get an easy cantrip and some energy. What are you doing with that energy, though? Your only real payoffs are basically the Thriving cycle from Kaladesh (Thriving Grubs, Thriving Rats, Thriving Rhino) and the Aether creature cycle from Aether Revolt (Aether Chaser, Aether Poisoner, Aether Swooper). None of these is necessarily worth the investment of trying to make energy happen. It's similar with Galvanic Discharge, where you can scale your damage, but there isn't much you can do with excess energy if you use less than the three energy you make. At that point, wouldn't you just rather have almost any other Red burn spell instead?

Consider cards like Jolted Awake or Aether Spike. Both are decent enough on their own, but get better if you utilize more energy. How many card slots do you really want to invest to get yourself to a point where you want to build off of energy? In most cases, loading up on the energy cards ends up leaving you with a pile of cards that feels overall mediocre, even if there's some decent stuff in the mix. Given that, I don't think we're really at a spot where energy is going to become a major player, though the fact that they utilized it here and in the Universes Beyond: Fallout Commander decks leads me to feel like we might see more eventually. If we do, these cards stand to get a lot better, but right now I don't think there's enough to make a cohesive strategy with a strong core.

I will, however, point out Smelted Chargebug and Riddle Gate Gargoyle as being decently playable cards. Even if it's your only energy card in your deck, Chargebug still makes for a decent creature as it provides ways to make your big threats even bigger and evasive as well. Playing one of these into a Myr Enforcer can really bring the beats. Similarly, the Gargoyle being a 2 mana 2/2 flier with upside is a great deal even if you totally ignore the energy abilities.

The Landscape Lands

These land designs rock. They're basically better Panorama lands (i.e. Esper Panorama) and in most decks are just better versions of Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse. Not only can you use them for mana or find your colors when the opportunity is right, but if you draw them late in the game, you can cycle them away. The only issue with these is that to make them truly worthwhile, you need to be running all three colors, otherwise it's likely you won't be able to cycle them away meaningfully. Three or more color decks are largely far and few between in Pauper, making them a little underwhelming as a result. When those decks do show up, though, these are easy adds barring something like Affinity which doesn't run basics.

Fleshbag Marauder effects have been on the cusp of being good enough for a while but couldn't quite get there. At 2 mana, though, this thing rules! There's a lot of ways you can make this work for you, as sacrificing something like a Shambling Ghast can actually two-for-one off a single card. Worst case, it's just a Cruel Edict, and given the flexibility of accessing the creature as well, that's a great deal to take.

Players quickly realized how this goes infinite when combined with Sadistic Glee. The way the combo works is that you suit up Broodscale with Sadistic Glee, get a counter on Broodscale, and you can sacrifice the token it makes to Sadistic Glee. That then puts another counter on Broodscale, which makes another token, which you sacrifice to Sadistic Glee, and you have a loop for infinite counters.

There certainly is something there, however it's incredibly fragile and easy to disrupt with most forms of interaction ranging from hard removal to soft removal (bounce spells) to counter magic. I liken it to Hangar Scrounger, which many people realized could go infinite with Seeker of Skybreak and insisted that it could be a thing. I think Basking Broodscale has more legs than that, but Hangar Scrounger never took off and it's largely for the same reasons as what makes Basking Broodscale strategies so shaky. Players will try it, but I think it's going to end up a lot more of a lower tier deck than it looks.

In a general sense, none of these options are particularly good, but a 0/12 is something we haven't really seen before. As far as defensive options that you can't take out with burn spells go, this is as good as it gets, but the high mana cost makes it basically a non-starter in the format.

So, uh, do we really even need to talk about this? This card is nuts for artifact-based strategies and Gavin Verhey noted that the Pauper Format Panel (which I am a part of) will very likely be taking action against it very quickly. It's not hard to see why given how both Cranial Plating and All That Glitters are already banned in the format. It's not hard to slot this into existing Grixis strategies and it pretty easily spawns more streamlined Rakdos builds as well. I'm not going to sit here and say this card is 100% getting the ax, but it's got as high a likelihood as I've ever seen, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Getting the cost reduction on this is trivial, as most Blue decks in the format are capable of drawing several cards a turn. I see this working best in Mono-Blue Terror lists, since the deck can have a tough time getting rid of things on a permanent basis. The lack of sorcery isn't particularly great, but it's not hard to get good use out of this when you want it.

If you have a way to put counters on creatures regularly, this can be an absolute house. Without the means to do that, though (which will be the case for most decks), it's likely going to be unremarkable.

A cheap equipment that enters as a creature and does a lot of chip damage isn't too bad. What makes it rough is less the upfront cost and more the fact that re-equipping it costs 2 mana. For something like Cranial Ram, that's acceptable, as the value you get for it is well justified, but for something like this not so much.

Deadly Dispute this is not, but as a Costly Plunder that you can cast again later in the game, it's pretty solid. You don't want to replace Deadly Dispute with this because that treasure token really is that valuable, but getting the additional late game shot may be decently better than running copies of Reckoner's Bargain or Fanatical Offering. It largely comes down to the deck you're playing and how useful those cards are in the current meta, but there's almost certainly going to be a home for this in the format.

You know I won't say no to a new common elf hitting the Pauper format! This one is pretty great, as it's not hard at all to get counters on this even without the adapt ability. The high cost and fragility make it a bit dicey, but if you can make it work it's pretty decent. Elves and Wall Combo lists in particular may want to try a couple copies due to the high mana output making the adapt cost trivial along with the high number of permanents to return.

This card isn't Swords to Plowshares (sorry to the people hoping that leak was real) but it's still some rock solid removal. Most low-cost removal in White has restrictions like only hitting low power creatures. This hits a fairly remarkable amount of things, though has a number of substantial misses as well, and you can't rely on the 5 mana side in those cases. Given that, this likely doesn't make too big of an impact when you can just run Journey to Nowhere, but for decks leaning heavy on White, this isn't a bad option to have around.

I'm actually surprised this made it to common before plain old Watchwolf did. This is generally just better than Watchwolf for the sake of Pauper, but I'm not sure that's going to be good enough at this point. Call of the Conclave has been legal for seven years now (yes, Modern Masters 2017 really was that long ago. I can't believe it either) and has basically never seen meaningful play, so it's highly unlikely this will make the cut either, even if it's better.

There aren't very many cases where I'd want to run this over most other removal, but it's a great way to get problematic copies of Guardian of the Guildpact off the board. If you're struggling with creatures that have Protection from Red, this also helps there, but those applications aren't going to come up quite as often. This is for extremely specific metagames, but useful to have for those metas.

This art is so goofy I'm shocked it's in a black bordered set. Plummet effects are often somewhat mediocre, but when you get the option to cycle it to put counters on something instead? That's a really sweet deal. Might still be a bit too medium for most metas (you're probably only hitting faeries or Mulldrifters after all), but it's a great option to have.

This is a ton of value wrapped up in a really small package. For Green creature based decks, this is a great get, even if most decks will only want a couple copies tops.

Three cards for 3 mana is solid, but you have to cast them on the same turn. This isn't like Reckless Impulse or Wrenn's Resolve where you get to cast them later, making it a bit less good as a result. The 3 mana cost for it and the tokens generating mana your typical Red deck won't make good use of makes this feel like a bit of a dud to me. Seriously awesome artwork on this one, though.

This card seems extremely easy to activate. After all, it's unbelievably easy to draw three cards in one turn when there's access to Brainstorm, Lorien Revealed, and all the other cantrip effects in the format. The fact that it costs 3 mana up front, is easy to deal with, can't attack well, and is an expensive activation without the triple draw makes it seem a little dicey. If you can control things long enough to protect it and set up, it's a solid way to close out games, and I do think it's worth trying, but I'm not sure it's where most players will settle.

If we still had All That Glitters in the format, this would be a slam dunk no brainer inclusion in just about any deck running that. Without it, it's a much dicier card, as it's something that's a decently cheap artifact flier, but is extremely difficult to re-equip if the Germ token dies. Since the Glitters ban, Affinity has moved back to Grixis, so it's unlikely this makes a big impact right now, but will assuredly see play whenever more White-aligned artifact aggro decks pop up.

There's a lot of potential here for decks that like to self mill since you get a refund for the one generic mana you're paying, but the fact remains that you still need to pay the 2 mana up front. I do like this over, say, Commune with the Gods because of just how versatile your options are in what you can get. Might be okay in Bogles, given that, since it also provides you with a creature to eat an edict.

At what point do we have a critical mass of these effects? We also have Impact Tremors and Mirkwood Bats off the top of my head, as well as the likes of Makeshift Munitions to take those creatures a bit further. Neither Tremors nor Mirkwood Bats sees serious competitive play, so I'd guess this doesn't move the needle too much, but it's an interesting addition regardless.

The fact that this can turn from a mana dork into a removal creature is pretty good, but the card being 2 mana just makes it so uninviting in a world of multiple 1 mana dorks.

I've had a ton of games with Bogles where you flood out and are stuck just sitting on a ton of excess mana with no way to utilize it. Nyxborn Hydra provides you with a way to use that and make your creature as big as you'd like. Best of all, if your Bogle dies, you're still left with a creature thanks to Nyxborn Hydra falling off. I wouldn't want to go too deeply on something like this, but a fun-of, one-of can go a long way.

I just want to shout out this card because I absolutely love how elegant the design is on it. It's likely unplayable in Pauper, though.

This is about as easy of an include as you can get in Affinity decks. I might go so far as to say you could potentially cut Frogmite for this. The base rate is good enough and you get either a discard or a cantrip as well. Oh yeah, and it also has the worthwhile interaction of dodging Krark-Clan Shaman damage by being a flier. Everything about this looks good and I think it's a safe assumption to say this will see play.

This card isn't great on the front end, but it's not hard to get it back over and over again in the late game, but it also comes back bigger as well. The fact that it's an artifact is great too, since even though Affinity lists might not want this, it has some great synergy with Deadly Dispute-style cards in general. This is because you can sacrifice it and then bring it back later. Nothing too flashy, but just the right kind of role player.

Rarely has a common felt so well geared for Pauper - and that's saying something given all the good Red creatures we've gotten over the past year or so. Sarpadian Simulacrum is a really easy slot into Kuldotha Red decks, allowing you easy early turn damage that can be turned into Kuldotha Rebirth fodder later on. It also turns on Goblin Tomb Raider and can be sacrificed in the late game to its own ability to deal with bigger creatures. Not a bad deal in such a small package!

If you can get this going, it's an absolute house. Not only does it get bigger, but it's hard to block well and gives you decent card filtration as well. The issue is that until you can get it going for a few turns, the rate right when it comes into play is abysmal. There's likely a shell somewhere where this could work, but it's probably not worth trying to make it happen.

The best comparison I can make to this is something like Augur of Bolas, Fallaji Archaeologist, or Sea Gate Oracle. Each of those are way better at giving you the choice of what card you want up front, and two of them cost less at 2 mana. This can set up your future draws fine and still replaces itself, but ideally you'd probably like to have the better selection in what card you're drawing.

The versatility alone on this rules, and having split second is all the better. That ability alone gives some interesting utility to Goblin Combo because you can generate infinite mana while this is on the stack since Skirk Prospector is a mana ability. There's enough ways to deal with it before and after that mana generation, though, as you can interact while the First Day of Class is being used, or stop Makeshift Munitions from achieving its kill condition. Beyond that, I'm not sure exactly what deck wants this, because I think it's a bit much for what something like Kuldotha Red would be interested in, but the flexibility is worthwhile alone.

What's this? A legendary creature at common that doesn't completely suck? Yup, it's Skoa, Embermage! Admittedly, this card still isn't particularly great because most Red decks won't be looking to reach 6 mana, but the big body, four damage to anything, plus the ability to dodge Cast Down makes it a decent card for the right deck. Odds are most lists won't want four of this card, so the chances of you making use of the grandeur ability are low, but it could come up from time to time.

You know what deck loves drawing a lot of cards and utilizing faeries? Dimir Faeries, of course! This is a pretty easy card to slot in that's fairly aggressive and comes back from the graveyard with ease. Hard to say that it won't be played, though finding the spots for it will be the main hurdle in its inclusion.

Hey, more modal spells rock! This is a pretty good one, though it's both extremely deck and meta dependent. You want to run it in decks that utilize a lot of creatures and also functions in metas that use lots of enchantments and want graveyard hate. That ends up being a bit more niche than you might think in practice, so while it's certainly playable, it's likely not going to be ever-present either.

We've been seeing a lot more of these auras that make things into tiny 1/1s, but the ability to exile the creature is a new one. Unfortunately, there aren't a ton of ways to generate Colorless mana in your average Blue deck, so this isn't terribly worth rocking most of the time. If the right deck comes around where you do have access to Colorless mana, this might be worth a shot, but it's probably still going to be somewhat low impact most of the time.

There's some good versatility in options here, but most aggressive Red decks won't be generally reaching 5 mana nor will they have access to Colorless mana either. Without those two things, this ends up just being a 2 mana 3/1, which isn't particularly good.

Hey, that's a pretty clean Tron payoff right there! It works pretty solidly in a number of ramp decks as well. Ulamog's Crusher is generally going to be better at closing games out, but the fact that you can cycle this away gives it a little more versatility. You can do that when you need early game ramp and it can even be used for something like reanimator strategies as you can cycle it, make a token, and use that token as, say, Dread Return fodder. It probably won't do much - if anything - but it does provide an interesting tool to tinker with.

As far as combat tricks go, this one rules. +2/+2 and flying until end of turn is medium, even if you get the scry, but the fact that whatever you pump continues to have flying afterwards is awesome. The uses for this are almost assuredly going to be quite narrow, but when it's good, it's really good.

Last Gasp hasn't been playable in years and the extra ability to get a single counter for additional investment probably isn't going to be the thing that makes it playable again.

That wraps things up for this Pauper review! Modern Horizons 3 is almost definitely going to bring in a bunch of powerful cards. Outside of something like Cranial Ram, though, there's not too much that's looking like it's going to be a major issue from the jump. It'll be interesting to see how things shake out and see which cards end up being powerful roleplayers, which end up being format defining, and which end up being left on the sidelines. I, for one, can't wait to see what the next couple weeks bring!

Paige Smith

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