Modern Horizons 2 EDH Set Review - Red

Mike Carrozza • June 10, 2021

Set Review
modern horizons 2 previews

Bing bong, ding dongs! It's spoiler season and that means... "Shut up, Mike! Get to the cards and tell us about Modern Horizons 2 in EDH!" You got it!

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(please check out my article series Am I The Bolas? and send me stories you'd like me to talk about there, by the way!)

Modern Horizons 2 in EDH

BIG OL' RED MYTHICS

Fury

The pitch-evoke elemental cycle has been inspiring a ton of talk in Modern and Commander. Some are better for Modern than Commander. Fury is one of these. Maybe if you can give Fury

deathtouch, you can snipe four creatures. Even if you can snag two 2/2's for free, that's a pretty good deal. Of the five in the cycle, I reckon this bad boy won't see the most play. However! Evoke is casting a spell. Storm decks are often in red.

My friend loves this for his Riku of Two Reflections

deck where he hopes to Mystic Reflection
 copying Fury
 on an Avenger of Zendikar
 ETB trigger. That'd be a cool way to wreck house!

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

Monkey Pirate! I think Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

is so fun. Lil guy looks so happy! I love cards that get to play with opponents' cards. Especially if that same card ramps you and fixes so you can cast those cards. This'll be a sweet commander. Treasures rule and red has a few ways to make a bunch (*cough* Dockside Extortionist
*cough* too good *cough harder* *actually coughing* I'm alright). Equip Ragavan with some unblockable equipment or take advantage of that dash cost and Bedlam
. I'm excited to see this sweet monkey in action.

OH BABY IT'S TIME FOR RARES

Bloodbraid Marauder

Cool card! With suspend cards without mana costs hanging around, cascade is one of the ways to cast those right away. Bloodbraid Marauder

's got a bit of a mini-game built into it that says, not only would you want to build your deck to have only a handful of potent one-drops or none-drops in the deck, but also have a way to fill your graveyard with enough types to meet the delirium requirement. Combine with Phyrexian Reclamation
 or Erratic Portal
 to get the Marauder back in hand and do it again sounds like a fun time. I'm thinking RBx for decks forming around this, most likely Jund (black-red-green), and I'm excited to see what people end up doing with it.

Breya's Apprentice

Love an ETB token maker especially if they're artifacts. Breya's Apprentice

offers up an impulsive draw payoff for having some disposable artifacts laying around. Normally, I'd say a tap ability would be a big downside in my opinion, but the Apprentice is an artifact. There are plenty of ways to untap artifacts. Unwinding Clock
 does it every untap step and Clock of Omens
 allows you to tap whatever you're sacrificing to untap the Apprentice. In Saheeli, the Gifted
 decks, this ends up giving you two more artifacts to count toward her second plus one loyalty ability. In Breya, Etherium Sculptor
 decks, this gives you two more artifacts to use as part of the big machine you've assembled AND gives you a flavour win. Obligatory Osgir, the Reconstructor
 mention! Breya's Apprentice
 isn't the most exciting, but you know when it hits the table, it'll do work.

Calibrated Blast

I have no idea what to make of this card. Doomsday pile into having just Draco and copy Calibrated Blast as much as you can? I think what I don't like about this card is that you reveal cards and then bottom the next nonland card. No drawing, no exile-you-may-play-it-this-turn, no none of that. Bottom of the library. Firesong and Sunspeaker can gain life around this. Maybe Grenzo, Dungeon Warden decks can make use of this. I hope somebody breaks this card. I want new cards I don't understand to end up being cool or good. I'm fine with being wrong!

Chef's Kiss

Chef's Kiss might be my signature card because I do a fun stand-up bit about the "chef's kiss". Deflecting Swat and Bolt Bend are the first cards of this nature that come to mind for me. Kiss not hitting abilities when Commander is full of creatures with powerful enters-the-battlefield triggers doing a lot of heavy lifting can mean having this in your hand, wondering why you held up three mana. That said, hitting a Swords to Plowshares with this is a very spicy two-for-one. Not as much burn hanging out in Commander as in Modern where I think this will see more action. I also really appreciate finally having Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar on a card and having more cards fleshing her out.

Glimpse of Tomorrow

I love Warp World and a one-sided Warp World - that's the way to my heart. Building up a board of tokens and protecting them in a permanent-heavy deck can turn this card into a huge swing. Big ramp, big boom! My Grand Warlord Radha deck runs Warp World and just last week I was thinking "man, I wish there was more like this card." Good for me! Cascade, cheat the cost, use the Expertise cycle, or just suspend it - this card is pure fun. Now, this is a Chef's Kiss

Harmonic Prodigy

Double triggers for Wizards and Shaman! This will definitely find a home in Adeliz, the Cinder Wind decks. Atla Palani, Nest Tender is a Shaman with an incredibly powerful ability.

Be careful Inalla, Archmage Ritualist players - this will not add another trigger for Inalla's ability unless she's in play since the wording on Prodigy is "If an ability of a Shaman or another Wizard you control triggers".

Obsidian Charmaw

Oh boy. This is Tron hate hardcore. Solid Dragon with a Wasteland on ETB that could cost just two mana is wild. This format is full of Reliquary Towers and pain lands. "Thanks for playing that tapped Myriad Landscape into play at the perfect moment." In The Ur-Dragon decks this is already four mana. Panharmonicon says hello if you want to be mean. Have fun!

UNCOMMONS AND COMMONS THAT CAME TO PARTY

Captain Ripley Vance

This is the Vance of Vance's Blasting Cannons back on Ixalan. Really fun and cool design! Pump the Captain up with anthems or +1/+1 counters and get the spells piling up! Feels like a really cool aggro deck brewing here.

Dragon's Rage Channeler

I'm spotlighting this card for two reasons in particular: It's one mana to cast and it says surveil 1 in a colour that has not previously gotten surveil. I think surveil is a fantastic mechanic and I love to see it here as it's another great addition from Modern Horizons 2 in EDH. When you've got delirium, this guy's a sky beater that has to swing, but noncreature spells in red net you some solid selection or graveyard fuel. I think this is a good one!

Fast // Furious

Hahahaha nice. I'm glad this exists.

Flame Blitz

This is a weird one which is why it makes the review. If you're in a meta with a bunch of planeswalkers, having this hang out on the board for a while is pretty sweet. Don't need it? At least you can cycle it away for a card!

Goblin Traprunner

More fuel for the Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom + Okaun, Eye of Chaos decks and the Yusri, Fortune's Flame decks. Get your Krark's Thumbs out, it's flipping time! Three coins is a ton of coins off of one trigger. Sweet!

Spreading Insurrection

I want to love this card very much so I will be forcing it for a while. I might just want to play Insurrection instead though. Storm is wild though so maybe this takes off!

Strike It Rich

Speaking of storm cards! This is basically a way to up your storm count for "free". Is Anointed Procession hanging out? Does Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer need a quick way to turn all the tokens into mana? The art must also look great in foil with all those splashes of colour!

Galvanic Relay

In the right deck this could bring you up a ton of cards for your next turn.I think there's lots of potential here!

Revolutionist

Anje Falkenrath says YOINK! This is going right into my discard deck. Need to re-buy Wheel of Misfortune or Chaos Warp? I know a guy. I played Anarchist in the deck but removed it due to sorcery being too narrow. With Revolutionist functionally being a buffer Archaeomancer at its mana cost, I'm in on this guy.

Tavern Scoundrel

Coin flip decks that want Goblin Traprunner will love Tavern Scoundrel. A reference to Tavern Swindler this guy actually get you TWO TREASURES whenever you win a flip?! And that's a PASSIVE ability?! Come on! That's amazing!

RED! RED! RED! RED! RED!

All in all, I'm pretty stoked to see a lot of these cards in action. Not to mention Imperial Recruiter, Chance Encounter, and Goblin Bombardment reprints in this set are very sweet to have. I'm excited for Modern Horizons 2 in EDH and beyond and I really hope you are as well!

 

Mike Carrozza

Mike Carrozza

Mike Carrozza is a stand-up comedian from Montreal who’s done a lot of cool things like put out an album called Cherubic and worked with Tig Notaro, Kyle Kinane, and more people to brag about. He’s also been an avid EDH player who loves making silly stuff happen. @mikecarrozza on platforms