Is it Too Early to Begin Speculating About a Second Modern Horizons?
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on July 18, 2019, 9:51 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Mark Rosewater stated that it usually takes a minimum of three months to determine if a product that WotC has released has been successful, so it may be too early to determine whether or not Modern Horizons has been successful, but, judging from everything that I have read about responses to that set, I would say that the majority of players, including myself, are very pleased with it.
Therefore, I wonder: is it too early to start speculating about a potential second Modern Horizons product? What does everyone else say about this?
sergiodelrio says... #3
I myself am also very behind the spirit of Modern Horizons, what it tries to do and how it does it. I rate MH1 an overall 8/10 and here's why:
I like the concept of "fixing" legacy cards and make them suitable for Modern. However, I think they could have been about half an inch stronger.
The set is very flavorful.
I like most of the reprints, yet I think there should have been others.
Mix and match mechanics are a homerun.
Some of the new cards are 10/10's in my book ( Wrenn and Six , Prismatic Vista just to name some)
My conclusion is, as a proof of concept MH1 was a homerun. They still need to adjust some knobs to make it better, but I certainly think this needs to be regular product. It will impact Modern at some point, and my personal preference would be that the impact results in a broader environment aka more decks being playable competitively, rather than pushing a hand full of decks over the top.
Thanks for reading and sorry for long post.
July 19, 2019 9:28 a.m.
Well what I think what MH should be is the reset button on modern. Dredge/Tron are the top dogs. You print everything beside it.
July 19, 2019 8:58 p.m.
Sarkhan420X says... #5
xtechnetia: i'm confused by your statement. it seems contradictory. first you say you're unhappy with modern horizons because it didn't shake up the format enough, then you say that if you wanted a format shaken up by each new set, you'd just play standard.
TypicalTimmy: hogaak bridgevine was doing more than just "shaking up" the format though.
July 19, 2019 9 p.m.
Sarkhan420X says... #6
xtechnetia: how did WAR shake up Modern, Legacy, or Vintage?
July 19, 2019 9:06 p.m.
xtechnetia says... #7
Sarkhan420X: my apologies, that was definitely a bit poorly worded.
I meant that Horizons didn't do either side justice. I personally don't like the attempt to directly shake up Modern with a set built for it, but they made the attempt, and it appears to have solved little anyways.
As for WAR, the most obvious example are the new planeswalkers - most notably new Narset, Teferi, and Karn, which are seeing play in Modern, Legacy, and Vintage (and in my opinion causing more harm than good in those formats).
Dreadhorde Arcanist was partially responsible for a resurgence in Legacy Delver. Blast Zone revived interest in many land-based strategies and caused a further decline in Modern Grixis Death's Shadow (I believe the popular deck using Shadow nowadays is Esper with Mentor and Unearth). Neoform is the basis of a new Modern combo deck that people are watching carefully in case it proves problematic. I think there are a couple of other examples I missed or am not aware of.
Less notably, some classic staples were also replaced, including the legendary Diabolic Edict finally being supplanted by Liliana's Triumph and Return to Nature obsoleting the oft-printed Naturalize .
July 19, 2019 9:52 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #8
If WotC does print a Modern Horizons 2, I really hope that they reprint cards that are already legal in modern (most notably Doubling Season , Vedalken Orrery , and Akroma's Memorial , because of how expensive those cards are), since some cards in this format are expensive and would disrupt standard too greatly if they were reprinted in a standard-legal set.
July 20, 2019 12:47 a.m.
Sarkhan420X says... #9
i kinda doubt future modern horizons sets will contain reprints of already legal modern cards. the whole point of it is to introduce new cards to the format that weren't previously legal. the reprints will come in some other product.
July 20, 2019 1:02 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #10
Sarkhan420X, in what sets would they be, in that case? With the Masters series currently on indefinite hiatus, the only other line of products that is composed entirely of reprints is Signature Spellbook.
July 22, 2019 9:54 p.m.
Sarkhan420X says... #11
wotc will come up with a new product under a different name.
xtechnetia says... #2
Horizons' code is MH1, which definitely indicates they want to leave the door open for future iterations.
Anyways, I can't say I'm super happy with Horizons. Modern's overall still where it's always been for the past while (graveyard format and all), and we had to get a fast ban on the Hogaak terror that arose from the set release. All that's really changed, in my not-very-informed opinion, is that the cost of buying into Modern increased, just because of some upgrades for a few decks (most notably Wrenn and Six ).
If I wanted a format where every set shook things up dramatically, Standard exists and fills that niche just fine. The whole appeal of nonrotating formats is that you get over the upfront cost and then maybe tweak your deck a little every set. Horizons, to me, sets a dangerous precedent where the Modern meta becomes dictated by new targeted set printings rather than just naturally absorbing the best of each new Standard set.
Personal dislike aside, I'm not sure how well Horizons has done. It's theoretically a print-to-demand set, but I hear word that many stores are still sitting on boxes and not likely to order more. Wallet fatigue could be the issue, given that WAR came out just before and also shook up every constructed format.
July 18, 2019 11:13 p.m.