With MH3 spoilers flying thick and fast, we’re taking a look at some of the most interesting cards of the lot: the double-sided Modern Horizons 3 planeswalker cards.
Just like the flipwalkers from the 2015 MTG set Magic Origins, these four cards each start out as creatures, portraying the characters these planeswalkers were before their sparks ignited. Most of the creatures come with an ability that will help you flip them into their glorious MTG planeswalker form. And some of them are very, very cheap.
Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student might be the hardest to transform of the bunch, which makes sense: she’s essentially a one mana planeswalker, so your opponents had better hope there are some hoops to jump through.
In this case, you need to draw three cards a turn – if only Brainstorm wasn’t on the MTG banlist for Modern.
Tamiyo is pretty hard to evaluate. At first she looks underwhelming. Her planeswalker form, Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar, can certainly be useful, slowing aggro decks to a crawl with her defensive ability, fetching an essential spell at the right moment, or preparing to draw half your deck. However, she’s hard to get to, and her abilities don’t exactly wow.
But the low mana cost is what might upend this evaluation. If you think of her as a flying early blocker that can make clue tokens and generate more value once that’s no longer useful, the card seems much more attractive.
Grist, Voracious Larva is another one mana flipwalker. This one’s not hard to transform – you just need Grist, or any other creature, to enter the battlefield from a graveyard.
Once flipped, Grist, The Plague Swarm can make deathtouch 1/1s to protect itself, blow up pesky enchantments or artifacts, and ultimately make token copies of everything in your graveyard – only they’re still little insect 1/1s. I now want to end a Commander game with a miniature bug version of Craterhoof Behemoth.
Ral, Monsoon Mage is a card with some serious Storm potential – though that’ll make more sense when we look at it in unison with its ‘walker side. This soggy sad boi makes instants and sorceries a bit cheaper, and has a fun coin flip effect where if you fail it zaps you, and if you succeed you can flip him.
Ral, Leyline Prodigy has a bunch of abilities too, but all we really care about is that -8 ultimate, and the fact that Ral comes in with extra loyalty counters for each instant and sorcery you cast that turn.
The key here is that Ral’s transformation is a may ability. So, if you’ve the mana available, you can wait until you’re able to cast six spells in a turn, then turn him over and -8 on the spot. Knowing my luck, I’d then fail to hit any instants or sorceries in the top eight cards of my library.
Sorin of House Markov has a fairly unrewarding creature side, but his planeswalker form is pretty terrifying – and not just because of the fruit punch mouth. Sorin, Ravenous Neonate can turn life you gain into direct damage which can be targeted in any direction. We can see it being the finisher in a lifegain deck and best friends with cards like Amalia or Lurrus.
If you’re up against an aggro deck, Hangry Sorin’s ability to create food tokens while ticking up loyalty counters two at a time is going to be pretty troublesome, too.
In case you missed the last batch of MTG spoilers for Modern Horizons 3 – here’s the flip-walker we saw earlier, to complete the cycle.
We have friendly Ajani above, and vengeful Ajani below. If you have a cat creature type deck, take notice.
Be aware that, whether or not they have a spot in Modern, all these flipwalkers can serve as your MTG commander. You can check out the best Planeswalker commanders in our dedicated guide.