Cards I would love to see in Historic Horizons

By: R Koster, Rob Koster
Jul 29 2021 12:00pm

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For those of you not in the know, Historic Horizons is a Magic Arena digital-only set that is releasing on August 12 of 2021, which is in 2 weeks. I mean, they are just cranking out these sets like there is no tomorrow, but that aside.

Historic had a big shakeup in literal days, so it's about time we got a big one. And boy, oh boy, is WotC going to deliver. Historic Horizons will have 782 cards that will be going to be Historic legal. Which, if they print the right ones, is fantastic news. I love the power level that Historic is at now, and it's currently easily my favorite format. However, there are a bunch of cards that I would love to see added. So here are my picks for cards that I would give a warm welcome into Historic.

Remand

I love Remand to death. It's one of my favorite cards of all time, and I jam it in every single deck I can get it in and then a few that it shouldn't belong in at all. Remand would quickly eat a bunch of my wildcards. A small caveat though, I would like Memory Lapse banned if we get Remand. I think the two of them together might be a bit much.

Cranial Plating

With Cranial Plating hardly seeing any Modern play anymore and not being legal in Pioneer, I would love to see it in Historic. Eternal formats feel just right when you get demolished by a Cranial Plating every once in a while. I've seen a couple of Tempered Steel decks. But they could use the boost because they only worked when they drew Tempered Steel.

Tarmogoyf

Come on, we all know we want it. It'll be perfectly fine; I mean, it's barely a Modern playable card anymore. At this point, they should reprint this into Standard and make everyone happy.

Those are the ones I would love to see that weren't in a Horizons set. So now, let's look at cards in Horizon sets.

Esper Sentinel

We are very close to having a reasonable Humans deck in the format. I've messed around with Orzhov Humans and with 5 Color Humans, but both of the decks just needed another one drop. This would be perfect.

Timeless Dragon

People have been messing around with Mardu and Grixis Dragons. I think Timeless Dragon would be a sweet one for people to mess around with, and I think it's fine on rate for the format.

Rishidan Dockhand

My Merfolk deck needs this. So I want them to print it. I also think it would be of a reasonable power level, and the format can use a bit more land disruption in it anyway.

Thought Monitor

Artifact Aggro decks are sweet and Thought Monitor is very cool, but it's just not getting there in Modern. I would love to give it a try in Historic.

Tide Shaper

I already mentioned my Merfolk deck needed one drops.

Tourach, Dread Cantor

A 2/1 that makes some value when you get later into the game seems like an excellent way to give black Midrange decks something sweet to do later in the game.

Glimpse of Tomorrow

We should have Warp World legal in every format. If we can't, this will do.

Thrasta, Tempest's Roar

Do you ever really have enough giant Dinosaurs in your format? I think not!

Dakkon, Shadow Slayer

I think this card is designed delightfully and would give players a reason to go Esper instead of Jeskai or Azorius. Diversifying the field doesn't seem wrong to me at all.

Karmic Guide

I want everyone to experience the joy of Karmic Guide shenanigans. I also don't mind giving the Angel decks in the format a bit of a boost. Some poor soul lost to me today after gaining over a 130 life. Angels are sweet; let's make the deck do more than be the small-creature-deck-destroyer.

Upheaval

It did stone nothing in Modern. Let's give it a try in Historic. There's barely any ramp, and I doubt it would see any play at all.

Vindicate

Let's give control players even more reasons to go Esper. Let's divide the control stock up a bit. It's also just an excellent safety valve on the format if need be. I can't see Vindicate being a problem at all in the Stone Rain format. I would find it funny if Mardu Ponza became a thing because of this.

So those are the cards I would like out of Modern Horizons 2. Let's see what I'd like out of the original Modern Horizons.

Astral Drift

We already had an aggressively slanted Cycling deck before using Flourishing Fox and Hollow One. I thought that deck was lovely, and I'd like to help it out a bunch.

Ranger-Captain of Eos

This one is already confirmed. It's a fantastic card. Moving along.

Fact or Fiction

I'm very cautiously mentioning this one. I would LOVE to have this card legal. I also wouldn't be surprised at all if it turned out to be too good. It's one of the most fun cards of all time, though, so I'd love to find out if the format can handle it.

Cordial Vampire

Every once in a while, you encounter a Vampires player on the ladder. Let them have their fun; let them play this.

Aria of Flame

This is another one that might be too good. But it's entertaining, and you can do a lot of creative stuff with it. I'd like to see it given a try in a format without free spells. I also find Combo to be almost non-existent, which feels off. Combo is a big part of Eternal formats to me; let's throw them a bone. Bonus points to WotC if they also give us Kavu Predator and Fiery Justice.

Goblin Engineer

This card is sweet and did barely anything in Modern. So let's give it a try in Historic.

Tectonic Reformation

Lands should be a part of the format! I wish this card had done more in Modern so just like with the others. Let's give it a try in Historic and see if something dregs up.

Ayula's Influence

For the same Lands deck as Tectonic Reformation.

Unsettled Mariner

This card is a significant boost to tribal decks that, as far as I know, can use the help.

Those are the cards that I'd like from the two Modern Horizons sets. Not going to lie. Looking back at the first Modern Horizons, there are a lot of cards that I don't care about or never want to see ever again. They did a way better job on the second Modern Horizons for sure. The second one has set the bar very high for sure, and I hope they keep it up that way!

Now I've mentioned all the cards I would like from the first two sets. Next, let's talk about what I don't want. I'm going to keep this a bit shorter because the general trend will be obvious very fast.

I don't want in my Historic format:

Force of Virtue

Force of Negation

Urza, Lord High Artificer

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

That's it; those are the cards that I've seen many people on Reddit asking for that. I don't get why you would ever want them in the format.

I think free spells remove a vital element of the game, and the more of them have made their way into Modern, the less into the format I've been. I'm still having fun in the format, don't get me wrong on that, but the novelty of getting blown out while your opponent doesn't have any mana up wears off fast. Like, really fast. So that covers the Force cycle, Lava Dart, and the Evokers.

Then we move along to Urza, Lord High Artificer and Goblin Anarchomancer.

These cards cheat on mana crazy hard. I want to see more combo decks in the format. I, however, think these two might be just a bit too much on the power level scale.

Wrenn and Six, the fetchlands, Plague Engineer and Arcum's Astrolabe

Perfect mana is boring. Nuff said. I love how you have to think about how you want to build your mana base in Historic. Wrenn and Six also punishes people for having fun with small creature decks, which shouldn't be penalized at all but should be encouraged instead. This also goes for Plague Engineer. I would ban that card from ever getting printed if I could.

And as a final closing note. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer.

I've seen people ask for this card, and you are all nuts. This card is wholly Bonkers and will dash over the format like nobody's business. Also, Aaron Forsythe already confirmed to IGN that this isn't getting reprinted, so there's that.

What are the things you would like to see in the format? Let me know!