Magic: The Gathering Modern Horizons 3 release date, cards, mechanics & Commander Decks revealed
We've barely caught our breath after Magic: The Gathering took us to Thunder Junction, but Magic's next set has the Modern format in its sights with Modern Horizons 3.
With new cards and plenty of chase reprints in this set, there's a lot to look forward to, including fresh Commander Decks, so here's everything you need to know about it.
Magic: The Gathering Modern Horizons 3 release date and prerelease
Players will get to start playing Modern Horizons 3 on June 14, 2024, which is shortly after the Outlaws of Thunder Junction expansion. Prerelease weekend is June 7.
You can also begin collecting the cards from this set on MTG Arena from June 11.
All Modern Horizons 3 cards so far
These are all the cards that have been previewed so far:
Still, it wouldn't be a new Magic set without some new borders, and this time around we get Borderless and Retro frames - the latter of which was last seen in The Brother's War, if I'm not mistaken.
Here are some cards getting the borderless treatment:
And here are the classic retro frames:
Modern Horizons 3 mechanics
So what's new in terms of gameplay mechanics? Actually, quite a bit. In fact, there are 40 mechanics returning. Take that in... 40.
The folks at Daily MTG have summarized every single one so I'd urge you to have a look there, but many of them are, admittedly, mechanics that have been knocking around in recent years anyway. Things like Flashback, Affinity, and more are all present and accounted for.
My favourite, though, is the arrival of double-faced Planeswalker cards. These tell stories of characters from Magic's history, letting you move from Ral, Leyline Prodigy into his Monsoon Mage version.
What's interesting is that these cards can actually change colour identity, too. So Ral moves from blue and red to all red, while Sorin of House Markov moves from Black to Black and White when he becomes Sorin, Ravenous Neonate.
Check out the currently revealed ones below:
Modern Horizons 3 Commander Decks
With a new set comes a new quartet of Commander Decks, which helps alleviate a little of the disappointment of not getting any for the Assassin's Creed crossover.
Check out the decks, and their Commanders, below:
Deck | Commander | Colour identity |
Creative Energy | Satya, Aetherflux Genius | Blue/White/Red |
Eldrazi Incursion | Ulalek, Fused Atrocity | Red/Green/Black/Blue/White |
Graveyard Overdrive | Disa the Restless | Red/Green/Black |
Tricky Terrain | Omo, Queen of Vesuva | Green/Blue |
I've written before about my love of Commander decks, but I usually find one that stands out. With this bunch, I'm struggling to pick just one.
I've been enjoying Revenant Recon from Murders at Karlov Manor, so maybe I'll stick to resurrecting things from my graveyard with Graveyard Overdrive. That said, a colourless Eldrazi Commander that lets you copy spells by paying colourless mana sounds like a lot of fun, so maybe I'll go with Eldrazi Incursion.
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