I’ve already gone over the new Oathbreakers and Signature Spells from Modern Horizons 2 (linked here), so now it’s time to look at the new format staples from the set! To be absolutely clear, I am using the term “staples” a little loosely here. In other words, this article will be focusing on new cards that I believe have the potential to both prove effective in the format and show up in a fairly wide variety of decks. I won’t be giving any formal ranking for these cards, and these are all ultimately just my own personal opinions. With all that out of the way, let’s take a look at the new toys from Modern Horizons 2!
Esper Sentinel, Search the Premises & Out of Time
There have been whispers of new white card advantage on the horizon (see what I did there?), and I haven’t been disappointed with what we wound up getting this go around. Esper Sentinel‘s design is simple, yet elegant—and equally effective. I was initially a bit skeptical on how much card advantage this could accumulate over the course of a game, but I think this one-drop really does deserve the hype. Its ability becomes even more effective in any list that can consistently buff its power, though I’d say that’s definitely not a prerequisite to run Esper Sentinel. I’m not quite as excited for Search the Premises, primarily because it seems a bit clunkier in nature. That being said, it does trigger whenever your Oathbreaker is attacked, so I could still see it showing up in decks looking to make it to the late game.
Out of Time is a very strange card. If including phasing on this enchantment weren’t odd enough by itself, the presence of vanishing on this card makes it even trickier to evaluate. I would typically think of Out of Time as a strange, temporary board wipe of sorts, or an Oubliette for every creature in play. This enchantment could definitely buy one some much-needed time to catch up on board, and it could prove to be even more menacing when paired with the likes of Aminatou, the Fateshifter or Venser, the Sojourner. The fact that Oathbreaker is a multiplayer format will also help ensure that this card gets plenty of time counters placed onto it. Overall, Out of Time is certainly no Teferi’s Protection in terms of power level, though I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s a bad thing.
Junk Winder & Subtlety
Junk Winder might be one of the more “niche” cards on this list, but I still think it’s worth mentioning for one main reason; this card gets much better the more tokens you’re able to pour out, and creating tokens is a pretty common kind of ability for planeswalkers to have. Junk Winder‘s triggered ability also triggers off of any kind of token entering the battlefield, not just creature tokens. Any Oathbreaker capable of turning out tokens on a regular basis likely wouldn’t have much trouble reducing this card’s cost (Niko Aris and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer come to mind). Aside from being a 5/6 for a potentially low mana-cost, Junk Winder can also keep some of your opponent’s board tapped down in order to help pressure their Oathbreaker and/or life total. I’m looking forward to seeing just how many Oathbreakers wind up being able to put this slippery serpent to good use, and I suspect I’ll be trying it out in a few of my own personal lists.
Free counterspells tend to be pretty good and, in Oathbreaker, free counterspells that hit planeswalkers are even better. Subtlety‘s counterspell effect is certainly no Fierce Guardianship, but it does come with its own benefits. Since this card’s triggered doesn’t technically “counter” a spell, it can be used to fizzle spells that are normally uncounterable. Tucking a card onto the bottom of its owner’s library is usually more powerful than simply sending it to the graveyard, where it could be easily recurred. Subtlety also has its own worth as a 3/3 flyer, making it pretty well suited to pressuring opposing Oathbreakers and life totals alike. I wouldn’t go as far as to call this card an “auto-include”, but I’m sure there will be plenty of Oathbreaker players looking to play Subtlety—assuming they can get their hands on a copy of this mythic, of course.
Bone Shards, Flay Essence & Dauthi Voidwalker
I’m always a fan of new, budget-friendly pieces of planeswalker interaction, and we’ve got two new black sorceries that fit the bill. Bone Shards bears a striking resemblance to tried-and-true Spark Harvest, with one very notable difference. Being able to discard a card to help cast Bone Shards can actually be a bit of an upside in certain decks, most notably discard and reanimator strategies. Flay Essence costs a bit more mana, and it is essentially a sorcery-speed Hero’s Downfall; however, the incidental lifegain stapled to it can’t be discounted in a format like Oathbreaker. That lifegain bonus becomes even more relevant when Flay Essence is being flung at an opposing planeswalker, particularly ones with a high loyalty count. I’m pretty confident in saying that Bone Shards and Flay Essence will, at the very least, become staple removal spells for budget-friendly lists.
Dauthi Voidwalker has been stirring up older 1v1 formats a little bit, and I suspect it will prove its worth in Oathbreaker as well. If this creature were only a two-drop with evasion—that doubles as graveyard hate—then it still likely would have made it into this article; however, the fun doesn’t stop there. If you feel like it, you can also cash in your Dauthi Voidwalker to steal an opponent’s exiled card (a trick that you can continue to repeat if you recur the voidwalker, I might add). You don’t even have to pay the cost of the card you take! Between these possibilities, this card’s ability to easily pressure planeswalkers, and its combo potential with cards like Helm of Obedience, Dauthi Voidwalker will have plenty of opportunities to prove its worth in Oathbreaker.
Flame Blitz & Mine Collapse
After reading Flame Blitz for the first time, I did a double-take and reread it—then I proceeded to cackle out loud. It’s pretty rare to see mass planeswalker hate that’s this effective and efficient, which only makes this card all the more hilarious to me. The idea of being able to remove every planeswalker on board for just one red mana is undeniably appealing to me, even if it means disrupting the use of my own walkers. 5 damage is enough to remove a lot of different planeswalkers, especially if any of those walkers have ticked down recently. Oh yeah, and this card has cycling, because why not? Even if you never find an opportune moment to drop this enchantment on the board, you can always cycle it away for a redraw. I imagine Flame Blitz will wind up being pretty frustrating to play against, but I wouldn’t be surprised to at least see it become a red Oathbreaker control staple in the long run.
Speaking of cards that deal 5 damage to planeswalkers! Although Mine Collapse can be aimed at creatures, its most obvious application in Oathbreaker is as a piece of planeswalker spot removal. This card’s mana cost can even be circumvented entirely when it’s cast on your turn, at the price of sacrificing a Mountain and putting yourself down one mana in the long run. While sacrificing lands is never appealing, there will certainly still be situations when this downside will be worth it. Being able to be cast this spell as a four-drop instant isn’t such a bad option either, particularly for control decks looking to hold up mana on opponents’ turns. I’m not sure I’d go as far as to call this card a new red staple, but I think Mine Collapse will at least prove to be a solid budget-friendly card for the format.
Abundant Harvest, Tireless Provisioner & Verdant Command
Tireless Provisioner is . . . well, it’s one heck of a Magic card, alright. I didn’t really expect to see an upgraded Lotus Cobra any time soon, let alone one that’s only an uncommon! Sure, this elf friend costs one more mana, but the treasures made off of its triggered ability can also be stockpiled up for later use, as opposed to Lotus Cobra‘s limited-time usage. The ability to create Food tokens is also a notable perk, particularly in a format like Oathbreaker that tends to love its lifegain effects. As for the actual range of archetypes this card could fit into, I think lifegain lists, landfall decks and ramp strategies are all pretty great homes for this card. Most artifact decks in Oathbreaker don’t use green, though there are certainly exceptions there with cards like Oko, Thief of Crowns. Really any deck capable of putting spare treasure/food to good use could benefit from having Tireless Provisioner around, and I look forward to trying it out in a few of my own brews.
Sometimes it’s the little things in life that are worth taking a longer look at, and I think that’s the case with Abundant Harvest. Although green is certainly known for its own forms of card draw, it’s not every day that we see green get cantrips—and for all intents and purposes, that is essentially what this card is. This one-drop sorcery isn’t flashy by any measure, but it is a nice little effect that can help smooth out draws by ensuring you find either more mana or more gas, as necessary. Verdant Command, on the other hand, comes with a wide range of useful effects, perhaps most notably the ability to counter a planeswalker’s loyalty ability. Creating a couple of 1/1s or gaining a bit of life are both fine other “default” options to round out this modal spell, which will help ensure this card is never caught sitting dead in your hand. I don’t really expect either of these spells to become new format “all-stars”, per se, but I’m sure they’ll make for fine budget-friendly options for green decks at the very least.
Carth the Lion, Batterbone & Sword of Hearth and Home
Carth the Lion is the only multicolored card being mentioned in this article, though his unique abilities are certainly worth noting. I’m mainly interested in his second ability, which will essentially give a slight beneficial tweak to the costs of your planeswalkers’ loyalty abilities—an effect that I’m not sure has ever even shown up on a card before (please feel free to correct me if I’m mistaken). An adjustment of 1 may not seem like much at first glance, but this little change in loyalty costs can have a dramatic effect on a walker’s rate to reach their ultimate ability. It’s also worth noting that, while Carth can only go in golgari-colored decks, his static ability will benefit any planeswalker you have in play, regardless of specific color identity. I’m not sure I’d go as far as to call Carth a new “auto-include” in golgari decks, but he does at least seem like a must-have for Oathbreaker strategies looking to turbo out ultimate abilities (I’m looking at you, Garruk, Cursed Huntsman and Vraska, Golgari Queen).
I was excited to see the return of “living weapon” equipment in this set, and the new one that excites me the most for Oathbreaker is actually Batterbone. This two-drop isn’t particularly eye-catching at first glance, especially with that equip cost of five mana; however, I think its perks still make it worth mentioning. Vigilance and lifelink are arguably the two strongest keywords in the format, and Batterbone puts them together in one little package (as does its predecessor, Batterskull). I’m not sure this card will ultimately prove to be particularly “competitive”, but I am very excited to try it out in some of my creature-based beatdown decks. Sword of Hearth and Home, on the other hand, is clearly a fine inclusion for blink strategies, and possibly some ramp decks. I personally don’t find this newest member of the swords cycle to be quite as exciting as Sword of Sinew and Steel for Oathbreaker, but I’m sure that, like most other members of this cycle, it will find its own niche.
The Artifact Dual Lands
I was not really expecting to see artifact dual lands show up in this set—or ever, to be completely honest—but I’m certainly not complaining! While their enter-in-tapped nature does make them a bit slower than the artifact lands of old, the simple utility of having an artifact land that taps for two colors makes this downside worth it, in my opinion. The fact these lands are indestructible can also make them decent options for Oathbreakers looking to animate lands and/or artifacts, such as Nissa of Shadowed Boughs or Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. Any two-color deck running Thoughtcast as its Signature Spell could also easily put one of these lands to good use—and to top it all off, these lands are only commons! I’m sure this land cycle will find no shortage of homes in Oathbreaker.
Well, that’s it for my Modern Horizons 2 articles! This two-part series had to be finished later than originally intended, but I still had a lot of fun looking over this set through an Oathbreaker lens. I’m not 100% settled on what my next article will be, though I’m leaning towards making an article for either Grist, the Hunger Tide or Geyadrone Dihada. Regardless, my ultimate aim is still to work my way to a bi-weekly schedule for articles—school and shoulder pains have just been making reaching that goal a bit more difficult than expected, but I’ll get there!
Have any of y’all gotten to play some Oathbreaker games with these new cards yet? If so, what have been your favorite standouts? If not, what cards are you most excited to try out? I love reading y’all’s comments about your own brewing/gaming experiences, so please feel free to share!
About the author: My name is Alex Enders. I am a college student that’s been playing MTG for almost eight years, though I only began writing content about a year ago. My personal formats of choice are Oathbreaker, EDH, and draft. My other interests include music, education, and most things nerdy. You can find me on Twitter (@AAAEnders) or email me at aenders2112@gmail.com