Modern Horizons 2 EDH Set Review: Colorless and Lands

Hello and welcome to the Modern Horizons 2 EDH Set Review of artifacts, lands, and all things lacking color. I'm Lenny Wooley a.k.a Ajani's Gay Pridemate. Community lurker and stream guest turned all-purpose guest extraordinaire thanks to the publishing of this article. I'm here to talk about some of the cards I think are going to be great or at least okay in commander. I'll be skipping the reprints. There are good ones but you don't need me to tell you about the fetch lands. So, what does Modern Horizons 2 EDH have in store for artifact decks? Let's find out.

More Modern Horizons 2 EDH Set Review Content

Artifacts

Kaldra Compleat

At seven mana to cast and equip, I don't see this having a home outside dedicated equipment decks where you can bypass the casting or equip cost. If you can manage to hang onto a Stonehewer Giant long enough, it can tutor Kaldra right onto the battlefield attached to a creature you control. Stoneforge Mystic can drop it from your hand and Sigarda's Aid will let you cast it at the most opportune time and attach it to one of your creatures. Halvar, God of Battle, Balan Wandering Knight, and Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist can also save the equip cost. Halvar and Balan I especially love since giving Kaldra or anything it's attached to double strike turns it into a nightmare.

Scion of Draco

I'm a big fan of keyword soup, but this one just seems off. Multicolor creatures aren't all that common in the format outside of commanders and figuring out what creature has what ability seems like an unnecessary headache when Akroma's Memorial is available and just saw a reprint. I do see the Scion hanging out and not being cast with its parent Draco in Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow decks thanks to that steep mana cost. The Ur-Dragon tends to have some multi-color Dragons kicking around, can likely cast the Scion for free and would love each of those keywords.

Sword of Hearth and Home

Once again we get another sword of X and Y. They make up for taunting us with an incomplete cycle by giving us an absolute banger of a card. Protection from green and white lets us slip past some of the baddest creatures while dodging some of the most prevalent single target removal. We've seen how well Sword of the Animist can ramp and this staples it to a blink effect. We have the usual ETB all-stars like Sun Titan, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, and Eternal Witness but this blinks a creature you own, not just control, so you can get back something that was stolen from you or just decide that you'd rather keep that Humble Defector all to yourself.

Academy Manufactor

If you have a deck that reliably makes Food, Clues, or Treasure, this card is for you! Gyome, Master Chef, Galazeth Prismari, and Magda, Brazen Outlaw all make Food or Treasure on their own. Lonis, Cryptozoologist is a brand new Clue-focused commander in this set. Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer decks are frequently making Treasures and Clues and turning them into something. It's also worth noting that making copies of the Manufactor will get you into some serious math if you start making the right tokens. Keep an eye out for all the new cards in Modern Horizons 2 that will set this guy off.

Dermotaxi

Similar to Body Double, Dermotaxi is part clone, part reanimator spell, and can moonlight as a bit of graveyard hate since it exiles a creature in any graveyard. It works well with vehicle-based commanders like The Omenkeel or Depala, Pilot Exemplar as well as commanders that love to get tapped like Emmara, Soul of the Accord, or King Macar, the Gold Cursed. Personally I'm looking forward to losing to a copied Phage the Untouchable.

Diamond Lion

I suspect I'm not the first to call this Lion's Eye Diamond at Home. LED is already a difficult card to use properly, and making it into a two-mana creature that cannot activate the turn it enters the battlefield makes it that much harder. That said, there are plenty of graveyard-centric commanders that are going to want this. Muldrotha, the Grave Tide first and foremost, but also Kess, Dissident Mage, and Daretti, Scrap Savant.

Liquimetal Torque

Hello new red staple! Liquimetal Coating was a card that saw a little play to make effects that target artifacts hit other permanents. I've been on the receiving end of that more than once from Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury. Now that we have this effect on an aggressively-costed mana rock, expect to see it in mono-red, Rakdos, and Grixis decks looking to get more flexibility out of their artifact removal.

Nettlecyst

In most decks, I think you're better off using Blackblade Reforged if you want this kind of effect. While the Nettlecyst does grant a bonus for enchantments, let me tell you, Tuvasa, the Sunlit has better things to do than cast something that doesn't even draw her a card. Akiri, Fearless Voyager works well with this since it comes with an expendable creature. Silas Renn, Seeker Adept is another commander who would be interested; Cranial Plating is a common sight in Silas decks and it wouldn't hurt to have a bit of redundancy. The toughness boost also pairs quite well with deathtouch as your opponents may not have a creature big enough to kill him.

Ornithopter of Paradise

Mana dorks are not without drawbacks in this format, but still I love this! This is the first colorless creature that taps for a color of your choice. There aren't even that many mana rocks at the same cost that do that. Zada Hedron Grinder players are going to be happy to have another mana-producing creature, and the evasion is quite the bonus for those decks. Commanders that care about flying creatures, like Kangee, Sky Warden or Inniaz, the Gale Force might be interested in ramp that they can make into an attacker. Aura and or equipment focused decks can use this as mana acceleration early game and if it sticks around it makes a decent target to suit up..

Sol Talisman

While we as Commander players like to play somewhat longer games, we are not about delayed gratification. Waiting three turns for a Sol Ring just isn't worth it. What we ARE about is cheating costs and getting around restrictions. Osgir, the Reconstructor and Daretti, Scrap Savant can make use of it, provided you can clear the low hurdle of getting it into your graveyard. It's also possible to bypass the need to suspend it by cascading into it, though I think it's not a great hit outside of Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder where you have the potential to cast a one or two-mana spell and might want something like this to cascade into. If you aren't doing the above just run a rock you get when you pay for it.

Void Mirror

Despite the initial controversy when this card was revealed, this isn't the end of the format. Any deck can work around it, and most can do so easily. Void Mirror will also counter spells you didn't pay mana for, so it may see some play in higher-powered games where things like Fierce Guardianship are more common. It is possible to lock everyone out of casting with something like Knowledge Pool or Possibility Storm, but that includes you.

Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp

Recently, Boros (aka Lorehold) has been given new interesting and powerful commanders. Zabaz is not one of them. If you really want a red-white modular deck and really don't want to run something better, this is your wasp. Its red ability is a kind of sacrifice outlet except that it does nothing for you and its white ability gives it flying. On top of that most modular creatures aren't great and there isn't much else for this as a commander. As a 99 card in a modular deck though, it's not bad.

Lands

Urza's Saga

I'm still reeling from finding out an enchantment land exists. This card is wild. The chapter 2 ability is likely not going to be relevant outside of artifact decks, but maybe you'll want an extra blocker from time to time. It is possible for Thespian's Stage to become a copy of the saga and gain the ability to make a construct and change to a different land. The final chapter is huge. There is a wide variety of powerful one and zero-cost artifacts to serve any strategy. Skullclamp, Grafdigger's Cage, Amulet of Vigor, and Colossus Hammer can all be found with this ability, for example. If it's mana you need, you can fetch Sol Ring. You may not see the final chapter if you drop this later in the game but even then it's a land it's still doing something. I'm wary about calling something a staple of the format, but I think this is the real deal.

Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Continuing green's long-standing tradition of getting everything the game has to offer, and that continues with this entry into Modern Horizons 2 EDH land. Green now has its own spin on Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. That said, it's not really providing the same benefits since there isn't a green Cabal Coffers and green already has multiple cards to double up on mana, though Nissa, Who Shakes the World will give us that sweet one-sided mana boost we want. So what can we do? Life and Limb will now turn all lands into 1/1 Saprolings, which can be a risky position unless of course you happen to make your Forests indestructible with a Timber Protector or you follow up with something like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. Elvish Champion gives all Elves forestwalk and Ambush Commander will turn our Forests into Elves. Lumbering Satyr gives all creatures forestwalk if you're ready to take the game or just like to live dangerously.

My favorite interaction comes from Quirion Ranger or Scryb Ranger, which allows you to return Forests to your hand. Now you can make mana with that Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, return it to your hand, and play it again for more mana or you can return Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun to recast Growing Rites of itlimoc to dig for more creatures. I'm absolutely here for all the strange interactions with this card, but I doubt it will be the color staple Urborg is for black.

Artifact Dual Lands

These are great additions for any deck that already wants to run artifact lands and is okay with a few lands coming into play tapped. Aside from artifact based strategies, Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper is particularly interested in indestructible lands as he can turn them into big, hard to remove threats.

Conclusion

That's all I have to say on the colorless cards for now; thanks for joining me to conclude the Modern Horizons 2 EDH Set Review! What are you searching for with Urza's Saga? Let me know in the comments along with any questions, comments, or sweet synergies I missed. Or you can hit me up on Twitter @Lennywooley.