Modern Horizons 3/Trivia

Modern Horizons 3/Trivia

 

New-to-Modern reprints

 

Horizons reprints

 

Commander decks

 

Art Series

 

Trivia

 

Card comparisons

 

MaRo's Modern Horizons 3 Teaser

The amount of leaks for this set led to Mark Rosewater refraining from doing his usual teaser.

Callbacks

As an ode to the history of Magic, many cards in Modern Horizons 3 and MH3 Commander make references to older cards.

Main set

Card	Inspired by	Notes
Accursed Marauder	Fleshbag Marauder	Each player sacrifices a creature to this Zombie Marauder.
Aerie Auxiliary	Expedition Raptor Joraga Auxiliary	Auxiliary Bird that Supports 2.
Aether Spike	Force Spike	A Force Spike scalable with energy.
Amphibian Downpour	Turn to Frog	Turn to Frog with Storm, flavored as a literal storm.
Arcbound Condor	Clockwork Condor Arcbound Crusher etc.	A combination of the Mirrodin artifact creature archetypes.
Archway of Innovation	Inspiring Statuary	Permanents that grant Improvise. The three figures of the Statuary are artistically reflected by the archway and the aether skytrails.
Argent Dais	Oblation	Argent Dais's playtest name was "Oblation Station".
Ashling, Flame Dancer	Ashling the Pilgrim Omnath, Locus of Creation Omnath, Locus of Mana	Follows the three-fold trigger system of Creation Omnath and the mana-storage of Mana Omnath; her original card also had a third-trigger effect.
Basking Broodscale	Basking Rootwalla	Basking Lizards with single-pump effects.
Birthing Ritual	Birthing Pod	A more restricted version of Birthing Pod that doesn't cost life or mana.
Boggart Trawler	Bojuka Bog	Land and graveyard hate on the same Bog, but the Trawler is a spell of itself rather than the land's ability.
Brainsurge	Brainstorm	For two more generic mana, draw an extra card compared to Brainstorm.
Bridgeworks Battle	Clackbridge Troll Tanglespan Lookout	Eldraine troll taking up new residence.
Burnwillow Clearing	Grove of the Burnwillows	Creative callback to the land that contributed to Punishing Fire's banning in the format
Chthonian Nightmare	Recurring Nightmare	Return-to-hand reanimation enchantments, now gated by an energy cost. "Chthonian" means "dwelling beneath the surface of the earth", "infernal" or "being of the underworld".
Collective Resistance	Collective Effort Collective Brutality Collective Defiance	The Green member of the "Collective" mega cycle of rare Escalate sorceries started in Eldritch Moon
Colossal Dreadmask	Colossal Dreadmaw	A living weapon version of the Dreadmaw, expanding on the meme.
Consuming Corruption	Corrupt Tendrils of Corruption	Another smaller version of Corrupt, one nearly strictly better than the previous iteration, given one would need many Swamps to play such a card.
Corrupted Shapeshifter	Primal Clay, Primal Plasma	An Eldrazi take on Primal Clay (and consequently, Primal Plasma).
Cranial Ram	Cranial Plating	A multicolored Living weapon version that also increases toughness with a slightly higher equip cost. The Living Weapon ability replaces the instant speed attaching ability.
Depth Defiler	Bearer of Silence Vile Redeemer	During Oath of the Gatewatch, several Eldrazi had pay-colorless cast triggers akin to Kicker, which Depth Defiler hence uses more literally.
Disciple of Freyalise	Disciple of Bolas	Similar artwork, Disciple in name, and abilities are nearly identical save for optionality.
Drowner of Truth	Drowner of Hope	Blue Drowner Eldrazi that come with two tokens.
Eldrazi Ravager	Deathless Behemoth	6/6 Eldrazi that return themselves by sacrificing two others; while of different lineages, both feature the front ribcage body design.
Emrakul, the World Anew	Emrakul, the Promised End	Iterations of Emrakul that take control over minds, with similar protection effects. Having Madness reflects the use of Madness in Shadows over Innistrad block.
Emrakul's Messenger	Faerie Vandal|	Flying Faerie Rogues that reward drawing the second a turn; both have rhyming iambic flavor texts.
Envoy of the Ancestors	Abzan Battle-Priest	Abzan-aligned Lifelink granters with Outlast.
Essence Reliquary	Portal of Sanctuary	Artifacts with tap abilities that save permanents and your Auras attached to them.
Etched Slith Hexgold Slith	Slith Ascendant etc.	New sliths that reflect the fate of Mirrodin and New Phyrexia.
Etherium Pteramander	Pteramander	An Esper Pteramander; trades caring for instants and sorceries for artifacts controlled.
Eviscerator's Insight	Deep Analysis (Torment)	Draw-two cards with Flashback. Whereas Analysis depicts a Manticore, the Inight features Solemn Simulacrum.
Evolution Witness	Eternal Witness	3-mana green 2/1 Witnesses that return cards from the graveyard.
Faithful Watchdog	Watchwolf	3/3 watch-canines.
Fanatic of Rhonas	Rhonas, the Indomitable	A disciple of Rhonas, both with Ferocious; adding mana helps Rhonas's trample ability.
Fangs of Kalonia	Kalonian Hydra	Counter doublers from Kalonia.
Fell the Profane	Hero's Downfall	Same effects with identical yet opposite flavors.
Fetid Gargantua	Phyrexian Gargantua Night's Whisper	Gargantua that draw two cards; flavor text anthropomorphizes the night.
Flare of Cultivation	Cultivate	A slightly more complex-costed Cultivate with an alternate cost.
Flare of Denial	Counterspell Cancel	A slightly more expensive Counterspell with an alternate cost. Also strictly better than Cancel, Counterspell's standard replacement, due to all the variations better than Cancel.
Flare of Duplication	Reverberate	A slightly more expensive Reverberate with an alternate cost.
Flare of Fortitude	Teferi's Protection	A slightly more expensive Teferi's Protection with an alternate cost that swaps the permanents phasing out with giving them hexproof and indestructible.
Flare of Malice	Soul Shatter	A slightly more expensive Soul Shatter with an alternate cost.
Frogmyr Enforcer	Myr Enforcer Frogmite	Adding prototype, allowing for the larger Myr Enforcer half to be cast as the smaller red Frogmite half.
Furnace Hellkite	Furnace Dragon Hellkite Igniter	A 5/5 Flying Dragon with Affinity for Artifacts, like the Furnace Dragon, but has a form of firebreathing and costs like the Igniter.
Galvanic Discharge	Lightning Bolt Harnessed Lightning	Damage for . Bolt with set mechanic: scalable with Energy. Strictly better than the previous energy damage spell.
Genku, Future Shaper	Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion Meloku of the Clouded Mirror	Tamiyo's husband, with the rat representing Nashi. The Moonfolk of Kamigawa block all had return-land abilities, something particularly powerful with Genku.
Ghostfire Slice	Ghostfire Blade Ghostfire	Ugin's damaging magic. Has a discount clause like the Blade but is focused on the opponent rather than the player. Artwork features the same invisible blade outline. Incidentally, the 4 damage kills Morphs equipped with the Blade.
Glasswing Grace	Gift of Orzhova On Serra's Wings	Hybrid Flying and lifelink Auras that feature stained glass wings. Flavour text references Serra.
Gravedig	Gravedigger	For half the cost, it provides either the Gravedigger body or its ETB effect. Paying the entwine cost as well is basically casting a Gravedigger. The art depicts the titular Gravedigger still digging a grave prior to getting a body.
Grim Servant	Grim Tutor Vile Entomber	Tutors that cost 3 life to find a card. Also a 4MV Zombie Warlock that tutors upon entry.
Grist, the Plague Swarm The Hunger Tide Rises	Grist, the Hunger Tide	In addition to being the same character, the +1 ability creates an Insect and gets a bonus for milling a particular quality, and the ultimate is based on the creatures in its controller's graveyard. The Saga creates enough creatures to search for Grist on the last chapter, due to Grist's passive ability.
Guide of Souls	Soul Warden Soul's Attendant	Another in the series of one-mana creatures that gain life when creatures enter.
Harbinger of the Seas	Magus of the Moon Tide Shaper	A colorshifted version of the effect, with a denser mana cost but is a Merfolk, a race known for turning lands into Islands and using Islandwalk.
Horrific Assault	Prey Upon (Eldritch Moon)	Green's one-mana common interactive spell featuring The Trevails.
Inspired Inventor	Glint-Sleeve Artisan	2/2s that have fabricate, with the Inventor having bonus options.
Invert Polarity	Odds//Ends	Multicolored Izzet spells that affect cards on the stack on the flip of a coin.
Kami of Jealous Thirst	Thirst for Meaning Thirst for Knowledge Thirst for Discovery	The type-cycle of blue draw spells all draw three cards, triggering the discount.
Kozilek's Unsealing	Sarkhan's Unsealing Emrakul's Influence	Cards that promote playing big numbers. Kozilek's Unsealing takes its name and trigger numbers after Sarkhan's Unsealing, but focuses on mana value like Emrakul's Influence (who is Kozilek's fellow Eldrazi titan), except being able to work with any creature type instead of just Eldrazis.
Kozilek, the Broken Reality	Kozilek, Butcher of Truth	Resolving the Broken Reality's trigger in full would give the four cards from the Butcher's cast trigger.
Kudo, King Among Bears	Ayula, Queen Among Bears	By turning other creatures into Bears (both the type and as 2/2 creatures), Kudo's effect supports Ayula, his consort.
Legion Leadership	Double Cleave Boros Charm	A strange way to produce most of double strike's effect.
Lion Umbra	Daybreak Coronet	Auras that can only enchant other enchanted creatures - they grant +3/+3 and Vigilance, amongst other things, for CC. Additionally, the Coronet depicted a leonin, making a Lion an appropriate animal for the Umbra.
Mandibular Kite	Skinwing	The Machine Orthodoxy's response to an older Living weapon design, which players would agree to be significantly stronger.
Marionette Apprentice	Marionette Master	An Apprentice to the Master, both being Black Fabricate Artificers that drain when artifacts are put into the graveyard.
Mogg Mob	Mogg Fanatic	Three Mogg Fanatics in one. Continuing the Modern Horizons trend of stapling three creatures together.
Necrodominance	Necropotence	A legendary version of Necropotence with new design templating: restricting the size of your hand to five, using one trigger instead of stepped payments, and exiling directly rather than triggering from the graveyard.
The Necrobloom	Grave Bramble Field of the Dead	Both cards reference the video game Plants vs. Zombies, designed by George Fan. Has the seven-name clause for making zombies like the Field.
Nethergoyf	Tarmogoyf	A colorshifted version of Tarmogoyf that only cares about its controller's graveyard to balance its cheaper cost. It also refers to Delirium in its Escape cost without using the ability word.
Nulldrifter	Mulldrifter	An Eldrazi version of Mulldrifter with a higher cost but with added Annihilator. You draw cards when the card is cast, as opposed to when the creature enters the battlefield like other Eldrazi triggers.
Null Elemental Blast	Red Elemental Blast Blue Elemental Blast	A colorless version of previous elemental blasts that targets multicolored cards as its opposite.
Ocelot Pride	Attended Healer	Both create 1/1 white Cat creature tokens on gaining life, and both depict ocelots in their art.
Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor	Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo	Another Fox in the service of the Kamigawan royalty, with a similar Aura-focus to Light-Paws.
Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury	Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger	A third Elder Giant, the first White one; has coordinated escape costs, size, and entry effects.
Powerbalance	Counterbalance	CC Enchantments that match mana values on top of the library for a certain result.
Primal Prayers	Aluren	Enchantments that let a player cast cheap creatures without mana but rebalanced by requiring energy.
Psychic Frog	Psychatog	A frog version of Psychatog with a more permanent stat boost on its discard ability, a saboteur ability that draws a card, and exiling an extra card from the graveyard for a temporary flying ability instead of a stat boost.
Pyretic Rebirth	Terminate (Planeshift)	Darigaaz's original fate in Invasion block was to throw himself into a volcano, which this art reflects. Notably, Darigaaz Reincarnated was hatched as an egg, not reanimated.
Quest for the Necropolis	Quest for the Gravelord Soul Stair Expedition	Naming scheme of one with the Landfall condition and graveyard recursion of the Expedition. It uses a cost reduction mechanic to give it better late game power.
Ral, Leyline Prodigy	Electrolyze	Ral casts the iconic Izzet spell if one controls another blue permanent.
Ral and the Implicit Maze	Spellgorger Weird	The Saga creates the Weird as a token, almost like conjure.
Retrofitted Transmogrant	Razorlash Transmogrant	Black-aligned artifact zombie Transmogrants that return themselves with +1/+1 counter(s).
Rosheen, Roaring Prophet	Rosheen Meanderer Elementalist's Palette	A new iteration of Rosheen for {x}-decks; has a compressed version of the Palette's mana ability.
Scurry of Gremlins	Heroic Reinforcements	Haste-giving team pump effects with the same mana cost that create two 1/1 tokens.
Serum Visionary	Serum Visions	Serum Visions on a stick. For some reason, set on Ravnica instead of the plane that blinkmoth serum comes from.
Shadow of the Second Sun	Sphinx of the Second Sun	Same beginning-phase repeating ability, but now on an Aura.
Six	Wrenn and Six Wrenn and Realmbreaker	Six independent of Wrenn. Bestow Retraces on other cards and has a mill-and-return ability like Wrenn's third incarnation.
Skoa, Embermage	Fireblast	Fireblast on a stick, and can turn additional copies of itself into more copies of Fireblast via grandeur. The drafting incentive is referenced in the flavor text with "kindling".
Snow-Covered Wastes	Wastes	The same colorless basic land, but with added Snow supertype. Also a stab at Eldrazi Winter.
Solar Transformer	Sphere of the Suns	Replacing charge counters with Energy counters, and adding a permanent mana ability.
Sowing Mycospawn	Reap and Sow	An Entwine design modified into a kicker design; plays off the fact that nobody would play Reap and Sow for its land destruction option, so entwine was basically kicker.
Spawn-Gang Commander	Siege-Gang Commander	Eldrazi-fied Siege-Gang Commander.
Springheart Nantuko	Scute Swarm	Green 1/1 insects that can duplicate.
Strix Serenade	Swan Song	Same cost, same "bird-vocalisation" name, and creates the same token 2/2 blue Bird with flying, but swaps "instant, sorcery, or enchantment" with "creature, artifact, or planeswalker".
The Creation of Avacyn	Reanimate Entomb	A slow way to Reanimate or tutor anything.
Thief of Existence	Skyclave Apparition Thought-Knot Seer	A three-mana "polymorph" creature that hits things cheaper than 4 mana like the Apparition, but with the leaves trigger of Thought-Knot Seer.
Thriving Skyclaw	Thriving Grubs Wasitora, Nekoru Queen	Thriving red creatures on Kaladesh that grow with energy payments. Has a strong artistic resemblance to Wasitora, the original Cat Dragon of Magic.
Trickster's Elk	Oko, Thief of Crowns Kenrith's Transformation	An Elk that can turn other creatures into nondescript Elk, like Oko's ability. Bestow cost and flavor refers to the Aura that Oko cast in-story.
Tune the Narrative	Attune with Aether	One-mana common card-neutral spells that give two energy. "Attune Aether" can be found within "Tune the Narrative" as an anagram.
Warped Tusker	Krosan Tusker	Boar Beast Tuskers that cycle and generate a mana source when they do so.
Wrath of the Skies	Wrath of God Pernicious Deed	An Energy gated version of Deed, but with the naming convention and coloring of Wrath — "the skies" is often a metonym for deities.
Ugin's Labyrinth	Sanctum of Ugin Eye of Ugin	Lands associated with Ugin that deal with seven-or-greater-mana colorless spells.
Ugin's Binding	Kozilek's Return Cyclonic Rift	2C instants that "cast" a magnified version of themselves from the graveyard upon the casting of a seven-mana colorless spell. Additionally, the first ability on Ugin’s Binding is Cyclonic Rift, while its second ability is the same as Cyclonic Rift overloaded.
Ulamog, the Defiler	Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger	Ulamog's Battle for Zendikar incarnation, with its attack trigger as its cast trigger and its cast trigger as a ward cost.
Urza's Cave	Urza's Power Plant, Urza's Mine, and Urza's Tower	Enabler for Urzatron decks. Another card where the name matches the types.
Voidpouncer	Skizzik	Vaguely triangular shaped creatures that are 5/3s with Trample and Haste for 5 mana, but with different unkicked forms.
Vexing Bauble	Nix Void Mirror	Nix in Bauble form.
Volatile Stormdrake	Gilded Drake	Drakes that swap creatures, the Stormdrake using energy to restrict the mana value of the card that you get in return.
Warren Soultrader	Phyrexian Altar	Both can sacrifice creatures to create mana and feature life-and-death flavor texts.
Wastescape Battlemage	Sunscape Battlemage	Battlemages with separate blue and green kickers. Artistically intended to reflect a horse and rider, which three of the original cycle had.
Waterlogged Teachings	Mystical Teachings Enlightened Tutor	identity instant tutors. The artwork inverts Enlightened Tutor's by having the hand holding the book come from the bookcase side of withdrawing it.
Wheel of Potential	Wheel of Fortune	Paying energy instead of mana, allowing for fewer cards to be drawn and cards that are exiled to be played the same turn by the controlling player.
White Orchid Phantom	Knight of the White Orchid Ghost Quarter	The Knight, still a 2/2 First Strike for , now acting like a Ghost Quarter.
Wight of the Reliquary	Knight of the Reliquary Champion of the Perished (Champion of the Parish)	Undead/Reanimated version of the Knight. The wordplay brings to mind Champion of the Perished with Champion of the Parish.
Wing It	Thieving Otter Spontaneous Flight	The Otter was a prime target for a flying counter in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, as shown on the strictly better trick.
Winter Moon	Winter Orb Blood Moon	Narrows the Winter Orb effect down to non-basic lands as Blood Moon does, both prolific land-hate cards.
Witch Enchanter	Disenchant	"Which enchanter?" "Dis enchanter" wordplay.
Wumpus Aberration	Hunted Wumpus	Eldrazi-fied Hunted Wumpus, but with trample and a way to avoid the downside.
Wurmcoil Larva	Wurmcoil Engine	Smaller Engine that makes similarly smaller tokens.

Commander set

Card	Inspired by	Notes
Bloodbraid Challenger	Bloodbraid Elf	Hasty cascaders, with the Challenger having higher Power/Toughness and added Escape.
Broodmate Tyrant	Broodmate Dragon	A larger and more expensive Dragon that brings a token, but also with Encore.
Copy Land	Copy Artifact Copy Enchantment	Enchantments copying card with certain card types. A mega cycle in the making.
Eldrazi Confluence	Spatial Contortion Eldrazi Displacer Warping Wail	A Confluence with the modes comprised of the two true colorless spells and the uniquely White Eldrazi's ability, all from Oath of the Gatewatch.
Final Act	Farewell	A colorshifted multimode board wipe which trades the anti-artifact and enchantment text for the option to destroy all Battles.
Infested Thrinax	Sprouting Thrinax	3/3 Lizards that can produce three Saprolings when they die, but the Infested grants it to other creatures.
Lazotep Quarry	The Scarab God	Ways to Eternalize any creature.
Planar Nexus	Nearby Planet	Eternal legal Rangeling, but only the non-basic types.
Sawhorn Nemesis	True-Name Nemesis	Nemesis of your opponent(s), with an effect that affects everything they control.
Siege-Gang Lieutenant	Siege-Gang Commander	Siege-Gang Commander with the lieutenant ability.
Sphinx of the Revelation	Sphinx's Revelation	Sphinx of the Revelation has an Energy-gated Sphinx's Revelation ability.
Stone Idol Generator	Ancient Stone Idol	Non-creature version, much cheaper.
Tarmogoyf Nest Polygoyf Barrowgoyf Pyrogoyf	Tarmogoyf	All are Tarmogoyf variants/references.
Trenchpost	Cloudpost	A new Locus.

Miscellaneous

• When initially previewed, the deck box for the Creative Energy commander deck incorrectly displayed mana symbols while the name of the deck is in the correct shading. This was later corrected and does not appear on the physical deck box.
  • The Collector's Edition deck box displayed the correct mana symbols.
• The Eldrazi Incursion commander deck is the first to display all six base mana symbols (). There is no functional difference between this templating and displaying only , as colorless is not a color and does not contribute to or otherwise affect color identity. However, the decision to include alongside was likely made to emphasize the deck's unique theme of caring about colorless cards.
• The tokens created by Genku, Future Shaper represent his and Tamiyo's (adopted) children.
• Thief of Existence was called "Time Unraveler" during design, because its purpose is to check Teferi, Time Raveler.
• Skoa, Embermage is the first common legendary creature since Chandler and Joven in Homelands (The Prismatic Piper and Faceless One having the Special rarity).
• Tamiyo Meets the Story Circle is depicted as an Orihon, a style of Japanese codex.
• Flare of Denial repeats the flavor text of Second Guess.
• Aether Revolt is a card named after a set and continues the trend of one being printed in each Modern Horizons set (being preceded by Mirrodin Besieged in Modern Horizons and Urza's Saga in Modern Horizons 2).
• Reckless Pyrosurfer is reference to the tiny surfer depicted on Flamewave.
• Revitalizing Repast // Old-Growth Grove is the first double-faced card to be printed as strictly better than an earlier double-faced card — Vastwood Fortification // Vastwood Thicket.
• Starting with Modern Horizons 3, Efreet is no longer used as a creature type. Cards similar to Pinnacle Monk are now showing up as Djinni.
• Emrakul's Messenger is an Eldrazi Faerie, though neither Zendikar nor Innistrad does have native Faeries.