It seems like every day of the Modern Horizons 3 preview season brings a new reason to stare at your screen in disbelief. Yesterday we saw a wild new take on Cranial Plating, one of the best Affinity cards of all time. Today, we’ve been shown a straight-up reprint of one of the best typal support cards ever printed. The rumors are true, folks:
Wirewood Symbiote
Wirewood Symbiote
Return an Elf you control to its owner's hand: Untap target creature. Activate only once each turn.
is coming to Modern.
This is huge news for fans of the long-neglected Elf creature type, naturally, but it’s also just an exciting spoiler in its own right. Wirewood Symbiote is a Legacy-playable card, and seeing what effect such power has on Modern will be interesting viewing indeed. In a set full of outrageous-looking new cards, Symbiote is one with the history to back up its claim to fame.
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Wirewood Symbiote In Modern?!
So what exactly has Wirewood Symbiote done to earn such a fearsome reputation? After all, it’s just a 1/1 Insect for one green mana. Well, this 1/1 Insect has an ability, and it’s one that really grows on you. At any time, you can return an Elf you control to your hand. In exchange, you can untap a creature of your choice.
Seems like a relatively tame ability to put a ‘once per turn’ clause on, but, in reality, it’s far from it. Elves, as you may already know, are well-known for their mana dorks; creatures that tap to give you additional mana. Symbiote’s ability doesn’t specify that the Elf you return needs to be untapped, so you can tap a dork for mana, bounce it to Symbiote, and untap another dork for even more.
That’s a nice little ramp trick, but it’s only a fraction of what Symbiote can do. Perhaps even more famously, it can recycle enters-the-battlefield triggers on your Elves. Cards like
Elvish Visionary
Elvish Visionary
When this creature enters, draw a card.
become card advantage machines when paired with Symbiote. This gives Elves decks, which typically play Aggro/Combo, some game in the long run.
Bouncing Elves also lets you play them again, which lets you nab extra triggers on cards like
Leaf-Crowned Visionary
Leaf-Crowned Visionary
Other Elves you control get +1/+1.
Whenever you cast an Elf spell, you may pay {G}. If you do, draw a card.
and
Nettle Sentinel
Nettle Sentinel
This creature doesn't untap during your untap step.
Whenever you cast a green spell, you may untap this creature.
. Basically, there are a tonne of uses for both halves of Symbiote’s ability, and it comes on a cheap enough body to make them all relevant.
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The Elvish Revolution
Can all of that power make Elves relevant in Modern again? It certainly has a shot. While the Modern version of the deck lacks the explosive potential of its Legacy counterpart, due to a lack of
Glimpse of Nature
Glimpse of Nature
Whenever you cast a creature spell this turn, draw a card.
, it still employs a similar playstyle. It aims to win by generating a huge amount of mana and funneling it into pump effects to push your 1/1 hordes over the edge.
Modern Elves decks tend to include
Elvish Archdruid
Elvish Archdruid
Other Elf creatures you control get +1/+1.
{T}: Add {G} for each Elf you control.
in their ranks, which is a mana dork that scales based on your Elves in play. Combined with Symbiote, this can skyrocket your mana very early on. The deck is also fond of
Heritage Druid
Heritage Druid
Tap three untapped Elves you control: Add {G}{G}{G}.
, which can tap down any non-mana generating Elves before you bounce them with Symbiote, for maximum value.
The card may also play well with Eladamri, Korvecdal, the powerful new Elf legend from MH3. His creature-cheating ability requires you to tap him, so Symbiote can get you an extra use of it each turn. The creature you cheat out can even serve as one of the two creatures you tap to activate it again. Alternatively, Symbiote can serve as simple protection for the new Eladamri, if it proves crucial to the deck’s plan. Bouncing your key card out of harms way at instant speed is nothing to sniff at.
Overall, Symbiote is an incredible multi-tool for Modern Elves decks, and there’s a near 100% chance that they all start jamming four copies as soon as MH3 hits. Just look at how often they play
Quirion Ranger
Quirion Ranger
Return a Forest you control to its owner's hand: Untap target creature. Activate only once each turn.
, an inferior version of the same effect if you need proof.
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Lands Beyond
Elves isn’t the only place Wirewood Symbiote could see play, however. There are plenty of other synergies for the card in Modern. Take
Jegantha, the Wellspring
Jegantha, the Wellspring
Companion — No card in your starting deck has more than one of the same mana symbol in its mana cost. (If this card is your chosen companion, you may put it into your hand from outside the game for {3} as a sorcery.)
{T}: Add {W}{U}{B}{R}{G}. This mana can't be spent to pay generic mana costs.
, for example. This is a staple Companion in both Domain Zoo and Temur Prowess decks. The card’s power is largely tied up in its tap ability, which gives you one mana of each color in one big chunk. With Symbiote and another Elf out, you can make that 10 instead.
Of course, such synergies would require you to add more Elves to otherwise Elfless lists. It’s not too difficult to slot in a few
Elvish Mystic
Elvish Mystic
{T}: Add {G}.
or Elvish Visionary, mind you. Alternatively, you could lean more into the ‘ETB recycling’ side of the card and include Elves with powerful abilities in your deck just to bounce them.
Frilled Mystic
Frilled Mystic
Flash
When this creature enters, you may counter target spell.
is an ideal choice here, letting you keep your opponent’s spells locked down in a grindy game. You could also employ the talents of
Unscrupulous Agent
Unscrupulous Agent
When this creature enters, target opponent exiles a card from their hand.
, to add a hand attack element to your Golgari Midrange pile. And these are just two examples: the Elf creature type has many a member in Modern.
However you slice it, Wirewood Symbiote is a very exciting reprint, for both old and new players. Whether it lives up to its reputation in Modern remains to be seen, but you better believe those Elves players are going to try it out. And probably a lot of other players, too.