It’s easy to be hyperbolic when discussing cards from Modern Horizons 3. As a set specifically designed to supplement high-power eternal formats, the card quality is a cut above the usual Standard legal fare. As a result, words like “Broken” and “Format-Defining” have become commonplace in community discussions of the new leaks. Often these are just early excitement, but sometimes there’s real substance behind them. That’s very much the case with Vexing Bauble, one of the most exciting MTG cards we’ve seen in years. If the leak is to be believed.
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Vexing Bauble
Vexing Bauble doesn’t look like the stuff of multi-format glory at first glance. It’s a one-mana Artifact, an Uncommon no less, that counters spells if no mana is spent to cast them. This is a symmetrical effect, so it counters your spells as well, if applicable. You can also pay one, tap and sac it, and draw a card. On-board Cycling one, essentially.
This is the kind of card that’s a perfect teaching opportunity for new players. It looks like a niche waste of cardboard to the untrained eye. Those who know the Magic meta well, though, will immediately see the card’s potential to completely shut down multiple important decks. We’ll get into the specific decks shortly, but for now, it’s enough to know that a surprising number of decks rely on casting spells for free.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an effect like this.
Void Mirror
Void Mirror
Whenever a player casts a spell, if no colored mana was spent to cast it, counter that spell.
,
Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
Each opponent can't cast noncreature spells with mana value greater than the number of lands that player controls.
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, if no mana was spent to cast it, counter that spell.
, and
Boromir, Warden of the Tower
Boromir, Warden of the Tower
Vigilance
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, if no mana was spent to cast it, counter that spell.
Sacrifice Boromir: Creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn. The Ring tempts you.
all offer similar abilities. What makes Bauble special compared to these is its mana cost. Being just one colorless means you can get it down on turn one before your opponent can get going.
Vexing Bauble’s cost also means the card is a valid
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.
tutor target, which boosts any card’s playability by a lot. The lack of any color requirement means any deck can run it, too. This should, at minimum, ensure the card a spot in nearly every eternal sideboard. As we’ll get into, though, Vexing Bauble is almost certainly main deck material.
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Impact In Modern
In its current state, Modern is a format dense with sneaky decks that love playing powerful spells for no mana. The top dog in the meta at the moment is Rakdos Scam. This is a deck that relies on cheating out
Grief
Grief
Menace
When this creature enters, target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
Evoke—Exile a black card from your hand.
alongside
Not Dead After All
Not Dead After All
Until end of turn, target creature you control gains "When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield tapped under its owner's control, then create a Wicked Role token attached to it." (Enchanted creature gets +1/+1. When this token is put into a graveyard, each opponent loses 1 life.)
to strip the key cards from your opponent’s hand before they have a chance to play them.
The key to this deck’s success is Grief’s Evoke ability, which lets you cast it for free. With a Vexing Bauble in play, that key is snatched away. The card also handily counters cards cast off of
Dauthi Voidwalker
Dauthi Voidwalker
Shadow (This creature can block or be blocked by only creatures with shadow.)
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, instead exile it with a void counter on it.
{T}, Sacrifice this creature: Choose an exiled card an opponent owns with a void counter on it. You may play it this turn without paying its mana cost.
, another staple card in the deck. Without these broken starts, Scam is forced to play like a normal Rakdos Midrange deck, which is far easier to deal with.
Another deck that Bauble dismantles is Living End. This one is all about using
Shardless Agent
Shardless Agent
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
to Cascade into a free Living End, then flip a bunch of chunky creatures into play for the win. With Vexing Bauble out, Shardless Agent goes from a win condition to a 2/2 for three. Whatever your opponent Cascades into will just be countered immediately.
Beyond these major archetypes, there are a host of individual powerful cards hosed by Vexing Bauble.
Crashing Footfalls
Crashing Footfalls
Suspend 4—{G} (Rather than cast this card from your hand, pay {G} and exile it with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.)
Create two 4/4 green Rhino creature tokens with trample.
,
Scion of Draco
Scion of Draco
Domain — This spell costs {2} less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control.
Flying
Each creature you control has vigilance if it's white, hexproof if it's blue, lifelink if it's black, first strike if it's red, and trample if it's green.
, and most of the good Affinity cards, for example, get countered outright. With Artifacts set to make a comeback post-MH3, this could be very important indeed in Modern. To say nothing of the new MH3 Flare cycle, which doesn’t get a chance to run rampant in a Bauble-less world.
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Impact Beyond Modern
Modern isn’t the only MTG format Vexing Bauble is set to hit like a truck, however. Legacy and Vintage have even more of a tendency towards free spells and broken turns. Or at least they do for now, in a pre-Bauble world.
Force of Will
Force of Will
You may pay 1 life and exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target spell.
may be the most notable example and one of the key cards that separates these two formats from Modern.
The fact that Force of Will exists, as a mostly-free universal Counterspell, goes a long way towards keeping the shenanigans possible in these older formats in check. With a Vexing Bauble in play, though, it’ll be countered itself before it can address any given problem. Of course, with a Bauble in play, a lot of these problems themselves will also be countered, so swings and roundabouts.
Vexing Bauble will also disrupt the high volume of ‘fast mana’ in both formats.
Lotus Petal
Lotus Petal
{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.
sees play in both, while Vintage makes use of the legendary
Black Lotus
Black Lotus
{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add three mana of any one color.
and colored Moxen. These cards help decks of all kinds get out of the gate fast, and all of them cost zero mana.
This means that Vexing Bauble will counter them if played. If you’re on the play, you can drop your own Moxen followed by Vexing Bauble to lock your opponent out of a similarly strong start. Not quite in keeping with the ‘fair’ ideals of the card, but very effective nonetheless.
It’s rare to see an MTG card with such strong potential in every format, but Vexing Bauble is the real deal. If this leak is real, then you’re likely looking at another ‘Mythic Uncommon,’ in both power and price terms.
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