While I had yet to acquire an actual Innistrad: Midnight Hunt product from my local game store here in Iloilo City, Wizards Magic: the Gathering official Twitter page announced the start date of the previews of the next set Innistrad: Crimson Vow. This will happen on October 28, 2021.

I would expect more Vampire and Werewolves themes in this set as the plot revealed the failure of the Harvesttive Festival, and so with the new cards that will support these tribal decks. Gruul Werewolves will either become a staple Aggro deck or lean towards a Midrange-ish build with late-game bombs such as Wrenn and Seven. More so, I am hoping for the return of my Rakdos Vampires favorite deck archetype with the current Standard version.

As for the local Prerelease, I do hope the next set will have it face2face and on schedule, with expected health protocols observed. I do long for a social interactive Magic games environment.

Check out the announcement poster below.

Land destruction is an old Magic: the Gathering deck strategy and the spells that do this usually cost at least 3-mana, except for an old Alpha and Beta card Sinkhole. This is the lone Sorcery card that destroys any land without questions asked or any drawbacks. That said, I am glad to see a similar version in the upcoming Modern Horizons 2 set that is of the same color, same mana cost, and the same card type, but with a bonus.

Check out the card Break the Ice.

The card’s only condition is that the target land should be Snow subtype or could produce colorless mana. The first thing that comes to mind about those lands in Modern are the Tron lands: Urza’s Tower, Urza’s Powerplant and Urza’s Mine. They are popularly used in the metagame in Tron ramp decks and this card will surely slowdown their progress. What is worse is when the Overload cost is paid which is a one-sided Armageddon. Not only the Tron lands that could be hit but also the Pain lands, Filter Lands, and of course some random decks utilizing Snow lands.

Will this become a staple in Black-based decks? I am not pretty sure. Surely the metagame will be affected by the new set but how these cards can upgrade the current top tier decks will be seen once the next Modern tournament online or in paper will be held. Modern deck techs of course will be discussed in various Magic: the Gathering websites but on actual gameplay will show its efficiency.

That is a wrap for now on this Modern Horizons 2 card feature. The complete spoiler is now up at the mothership site which you can check here.

Until then, thanks for reading.

It is still spoiler season for the Magic: the Gathering trading card game and these upcoming cards from a special set are worth watching out for. I am quite overwhelmed by the cards revealed in terms of their power level that can be very relevant in shaping the Modern metagame. The majority of the top-tier decks will either receive a big boost or get anti from in the sideboarded games (i.e. Tron decks).

Today’s Modern Horizon 2 card preview will be a relevant inclusion in the reanimator strategies in the metagame. Check out Archon of Cruelty.

Getting this into the battlefield gets you a huge value in sort of a mini Cruel Ultimatum. A 6/6 Flyer, an edict effect, card draw, and gain life is already a major advantage. The format already has a lot of cards that can get this creature to your graveyard and ready for any reanimation spell. A simple Esper (for Unburial Rites) or Dimir colors can suffice a decent deck.

The full Modern Horizons 2 spoiler might be out this week and I’d expect more powerful cards to be revealed. Playing in the Modern is still farfetched in the physical setting but I would not mind seeing new deck brews after the full MH2 list is out.

That is a wrap for now, until the next blog post.