We’re only 3 days in to preview season for Jumpstart: Historic Horizons. We’ve seen some awesome cards be previewed from Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons 2. One of the cards that was previewed yesterday is one that myself and others thought would not make the set due to it’s potential power level, and that is
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Protection from Humans
Pay 1 life, Sacrifice another creature: Put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature and draw a card.
{B}{B}, Discard a card: Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
.
This card has found a recent home in modern in a Black Green Sacrifice deck alongside Geralf’s Messanger. With Yawgmoth and 2 Geralf’s Messangers, you can loop sacrificing and returning the messangers to kill your opponent. While we don’t have such a combo in Historic, it’s still a very strong card in a fair sense. But if this card is legal in the format, what else could be awaiting us on the… Horizon?
Urza, Lord High Artificer
The counterpart to Yagmoth is
Urza, Lord High Artificer
Urza, Lord High Artificer
When Urza enters, create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with "This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control."
Tap an untapped artifact you control: Add {U}.
{5}: Shuffle your library, then exile the top card. Until end of turn, you may play that card without paying its mana cost.
. Urza’s story in Modern is that of early dominance, a slow midlife, and then a return to prominence with the release of Modern Horizons 2. We have yet to see a real artifact deck show up in Historic, but if Urza makes it in, we very well could see the deck take off.
Urza’s Saga
Urza’s Saga
Urza’s Saga
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — This Saga gains "{T}: Add {C}."
II — This Saga gains "{2}, {T}: Create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with 'This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.'"
III — Search your library for an artifact card with mana cost {0} or {1}, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
was heralded as the strongest card in Modern Horizons 2 in the early days of the set, but the meta has learned to build around this card. It still sees a lot of play, but isn’t quite the dominant force it was. If this card were to come to Historic, I don’t know that it’d really make a huge splash. The only deck that really could use it would be the Hammer Time deck, fetching up
Colossus Hammer
Colossus Hammer
Equipped creature gets +10/+10 and loses flying.
Equip {8} ({8}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
, which we already have
Fighter Class
Fighter Class
(Gain the next level as a sorcery to add its ability.)
When this Class enters, search your library for an Equipment card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
{1}{R}{W}: Level 2
Equip abilities you activate cost {2} less to activate.
{3}{R}{W}: Level 3
Whenever a creature you control attacks, up to one target creature blocks it this combat if able.
to do this. Outside of that we don’t see a ton of 0 or 1 cost artifacts really making the rounds in the Historic Meta, so this could be a safe include for the time being.
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Hand Trap Elemental Cycle
This one is a bit less likely, but the elemental cycle from Modern Horizons 2. These cards would help push new deck archetypes such as Orzhov Blink, Temur or 4 color elementals, and more. I think that this is a bit less likely, since we have cards like
Ephemerate
Ephemerate
Exile target creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control.
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)
or
Malakir Rebirth
Malakir Rebirth
Choose target creature. You lose 2 life. Until end of turn, that creature gains "When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield tapped under its owner's control."
, and that can cause some pretty unfavorable play patterns, but we still don’t know the extent of everything else in the set.
READ MORE: Will Historic Horizons Make Hollow One Be A Viable Deck on MTG Arena?
What cards are you expecting that we’ll see come out in the set going forward? We have a few weeks left of previews and we’ve seen even more bangers get dropped. What cards do you hope make it into the set, and what cards do you not want to see? Let us know in the comments!
Jumpstart: Historic Horizons is a Magic Arena only set. The set will be only legal for the Historic Format. It releases on August 12, 2021 on Magic Arena and contains 782 cards, comprised of 31 new Arena Only cards, and 751 reprints from Modern Horizons, Modern Horizons 2 and more. You can check out our preview gallery to stay up to date with all the cards!