Multiverse Set Review: MODERN HORIZONS 2 (PArt 4)
MODERN SENSIBILITIES: ARTIFACTS & LANDS
JUNE 28, 2021 - By Nicholas Fair
Your patience has paid off, because it’s time for the final part of my four-part review of Modern Horizons 2! As the last entry in the review of every card in the set that isn’t a direct reprint, I’ll be discussing not only the artifact and land cards from this absurdly cool set, but I’ll also go over some fun facts and visual trends in the set, along with a final count of all the planes represented.
For those that are new to the Multiverse Reviews here on MtG-Multiverse, my goal is to evaluate and discuss new cards from the latest Magic release and assign them to known planes in the Multiverse if possible. To read parts 1 through 3 in this series, check the links below.
As with the other set reviews, I am only one person, and quite often I miss a thing or two (despite my best efforts!). MtG-Multiverse is also a huge community effort, so please feel free to send me your feedback or details on anything you think I may have missed at mtgmultiverse.feedback@gmail.com. Let’s get to it!
MODERN HORIZONS: ARTIFACTS
DOMINARIA: Tolaria
The Tolarian Academy on Dominaria is the most famous academy for magic in the multiverse, save for the Strixhaven school on Arcavios. The initial school at Tolaria was overrun by Phyrexians during the invasion and obliterated by Barrin, but a new school was re-opened during the modern era at Tolaria West. It’s not immediately obvious if this card is meant to be a modern or ancient Tolarian card, though the creature type Assembly-Worker makes it seem like a reference to Urza’s constructs. As Urza founded the initial academy, this would fit great in the initial Tolarian Academy.
Dominaria
As referenced in Part 2 during the entry for Necrogoyf, I mentioned that Lhurgoyfs have only ever seen on Dominaria. This looks like a really fun nod to ancient Dominaria, though, and I’d love to see more on “deep-Lhyrgoyf" lore.
new phyrexia
As the original Mirrodin was the first set to introduce the evergreen Equipment creature type, the set New Phyrexia introduced a twist on the mechanic: Living Weapon. The flavour of the mechanic is the creation of neo-technological Phyrexian germs that animate the equipment into walking versions of themselves. Batterbone is a weird soft-bone creature that is likely a reference to the stand-out Living Weapon from the last time we visited New Phyrexia: Batterskull. It even has the same lifelink and vigilance abilities.
unknown
Bottle Golems here is a great callback to the card Bottle Gnomes, initially from Tempest, then from Mirrodin. These little guys look like they’re meant to be mud homunculi on the desk of an alchemist of some kind, although there’s no obvious hints as to where that’s located. These little guys are cute as heck, though, and I hope we see more of them!
uNKNOWN
A splice of the card Mind Stone and the card Brainstorm, Brainstone is a fun mechanical reference to past card advantage. Aside from being limited to planes that have end tables, however, it’s not immediately obvious where Brainstone is from.
doMiNARIA: OTARIA
Although I initially said I was not going to include any cards that were given new art that remained on the same plane, Cursed Totem here has been heavily re-flavoured from the first iteration. This is a great example of the heavy lifting flavour text can do. Poor Flesdrim, of the Cabal.
MurAGANDA
I love this card so much. Not only is is colorless reanimation, it’s a card that shows three humanoids turning a mammoth carcass into a car. Although we’ve seen mammoths as part of the ice age on Dominaria, honey mammoths on Ikoria, four-tusked mammoths on Zendikar, battle mammoths on Kaldheim, and thorn mammoths on Eldraine, this artwork slows a pretty evocative environment with lizards and crocodiles, and feels like a direct homage to pre-historic illustrations. In that vein, it’s a perfect fit for the “prehistory comes alive” world of Muraganda, and not a good fit for anything else given the absurd concept behind it.
DOMINARIA: Zhalfir
Wizards of the Coast previewed this card early on as it’s a funny flip on the card Lion’s Eye Diamond from Mirage. Diamond Lions, with their diamond eyes, are from the African-themed continent of Jamuraa, in the kingdom of Zhalfir, though it’s currently permanently phased out due to the efforts of the planeswalker Teferi and the Mending of Dominaria.
DOMINARIA: Otaria
Although Magic has a lot of generic and fun artwork involving goblins and their ability to die with relative ease, this isn’t the case for Fodder Tosser. Fodder Cannon from Urza’s Destiny is the basic callback here, but the flavour text references Furt the goblin, who we know is from Otaria. He’s a goblin lookout who liked exploding morph spiders and who eventually met an unfortunate end.
NEW PHYREXIA
It’s the Sword, Shield, and Helm of Kaldra all together once again! Back during the Mirrodin block, the sunseeker elf Glissa and her gang of misfits went about trying to defeat the mad Memnarch by assembling the weapons of Kaldra and summoning their Avatar. Kaldra was mind-controlled by Memnarch and turned on our heroes, however, and so Glissa had to use her magic to destroy it. Luckily (or not so much, depending on your perspective) she was eventually turned into a Phyrexian and was able to bring them back from destruction. Although Phyrexians aren’t worthy of summoning the original Kaldra, it looks like they did the second-best thing and had one of their germs connect the three as a rough facsimile. Sure, it’s not as good as the original Kaldra, but it also only requires one card to summon.
UNKNOWN
We’ve never heard of Ervos Trax from the flavour text before, so it’s hard to place this rather cool necklace in the multiverse. Visually it’s a fairly graphic piece by artist Brian Snõddy, who has been doing art for Magic for ages, though it does remind me of other fantastical jewelry from across the multiverse.
UNKNOWN
Originally from the Odyssey block, Millikin was a riff on the card Manakin, designed to be a straw construct that generated mana. This art is a fun new visual take on the mana/millikin motifs, although asides from being in a toymaker’s workshop there aren’t enough visual cues to hint where this is taking place. We did get a new design for Manakin not long ago, perhaps they exist in the same place? Or maybe they’re all still on Dominaria, the creations of one unlucky toymaker.
MIRRODIN
One of the cool things about getting callbacks to the Mirrodin block is that the set contained callbacks to the Magic set Antiquities, so cards like Monoskelion here are actually double-callbacks. Triskelions were artifacts created during the Brother’s War on Dominaria by the artificer Tawnos, although they reappeared on Mirrodin with a new and much more deadly visage. Monoskelion here has the same giant-spike-leg design of its 3-legged cousin, and even has the “stabbing someone in the foreground” motif, so it seems pretty clear that it’s meant to be a Mirran construct. It’s probably due to interactions with other cards that care about counters, I can’t help but be a little regretful that we didn’t see this printed as a 0/0 for 2 with a free activated ability in order to make it a true 1/3 of a Triskelion. But at least it’s closer than the biskelion…
MiRRODIN
More adorable Myr! This little guy has some flavour text from Pontifex, a Mirran Vedalken who we never got a card for but who was a semi-prominent character during the Mirrodin block as the chief researcher at the Knowledge Pool. Fun fact: Pontifex is named after the title given to the chief high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome.
NEW PHYREXIA
Our third living weapon of the set, Nettlecyst is a nasty one! Designed to look like a gigantic contagion spore made of maces, the Nettlecyst reminds me of a creature in the Netflix special Alien Worlds that were designed to be the perfect adaptation for any environment, no matter how harsh. Fitting, really. The abilities of the Nettlecyst look like it’s meant to roll around and pick up your artifacts to add to its power, like an evil Katamari ball, although I imagine it’s primarily a reference to the affinity all-star Cranial Plating.
KALADESH
Initially we saw the Eternities Crafter Rashmi during the Kaladesh storyline. An inventor who was working on teleportation, Rashmi accidentally stumbles upon the ability to create a planar gateway and has it stolen by Tezzeret, who Nicol Bolas had been sending to different technologically advanced planes. Tezzeret fused the Planar Bridge into himself and used it to enable the invasion of Ravnica as part of War of the Spark. This ornithopter of paradise seems to imply that Kaladesh is going to be alright, however. It’s a great mash-up of the original 0/2 flyer Ornithopter and the card Birds of Paradise, though it looks like the art is inspired more by the original Ornithopter from Dominaria than a Kaladeshi one.
RAVNICA
Although we don’t have many artifacts on Ravnica, there have been a few animate statues in its history. This is likely a construct from within a Selesnyan Sanctuary due to the visual motifs matching what we know of our recent Autumn-themed visit to Ravnica and the flavour text referencing the song of the Worldsoul, Mat'Selesnya. There are a lot of references to the Conclave of Selesnya being a chorus or group of voices coming together as one, and the guild leader Trostani is notable for being given vocal epithets to match. It’s also worth noting that a raptor is not just a type of dinosaur, but also a type of predatory bird, like a falcon, though most raptors in Magic tend to be of the dinosaur variety.
DOMINARIA
With a mana cost of 16, the original Draco has the highest mana value of any card ever printed. His Scion here only has a mana value of 12, but the exact same domain mana reduction ability, making him much cheaper to cast and more powerful for it. Both are dragon engines from the Brother’s War on Dominaria, though it’s unclear how dragon engines propagate or reproduce. The design of the initial Draco has led some to theorize that he was a living dragon that was eventually fully replaced with mechanical parts rather than a mechanical dragon, and the look of Scion of Draco backs that hunch up.
DOMINARIA
Scion of Draco contains more than one reference, funnily enough. Much less obvious than the initial Draco reference, the second ability on the Scion to grant keyword abilities is based on another artifact engine on Dominaria that opposed the Phyrexians: Tek. We don’t know much anything about Tek, but given that one of my custom magic card challenges was for card designers on Reddit to re-design Draco, you can bet I love the Scion here.
MIRRODIN
A strictly better Myr Enforcer, this shiny, squishy little Salamander still has all the round charm of one of my favorite Myr. Placing the Sojourner’s Companion is easy enough; the background clearly showcases the quicksilver sea, and the flavour text references Mirrodin before Phyrexia’s takeover. The name is likely a reference to the Dominarian native Venser, the Sojourner, who died on Mirrodin to give Karn a chance at escaping capture and corruption. Though there isn’t a mechanical link I can see between Venser and the Companion, this means that Venser just had a gigantic chrome salamander as a friend for no good reason, which is almost better in every way.
UNKNOWN
This card is part of a multi-set cycle of powerful mana artifacts that have suspend and no actual mana cost, the third after Lotus Bloom (referencing Black Lotus) and Mox Tantalite (referencing the Moxen cycle). Sol Talisman here is a reference to Sol Ring, a powerful mana-infused artifact that has been created on many different planes due to its simplicity to craft and efficiency at trapping pure colorless mana. Because of this, and because of the fantastical but uniquely geometric shape of the talisman here, it’s impossible to place this card in a planar home for now.
UNKNOWN
Had we not seen Sojourner’s Companion a few cards ago, I would never have considered this card for Mirrodin as we almost never see liquid-chrome artifact creatures. Matching to the quicksilver salamander gave me pause for a moment, although the desert this chrome camel is walking through is true sand and not anything like the reflective deserts on Mirrodin. So if it’s not Mirran, what is it? Hard to say; the ability is somewhat reminiscent of the mechanic Graft from the Simic in the original Ravnica, though clearly this isn’t located on a massive planar city. It seems that for now Steel Dromedary will remain a mystery.
KALDHEIM
Sword of Hearth and Home is another callback to a Mirrodin cycle, although one that has now resumed as part of the Modern Horizons sets. Initially the “Swords of X & Y” cycle wasn’t even meant to be a cycle, instead just two cool (and very powerful) swords on the original Mirrodin block. But giving protections to 4 of the 5 colors left players feeling there was something missing, and Wizards of the Coast decided to finish the cycle of enemy-colored protection swords when we returned during Scars of Mirrodin. Of course, once you make a cycle of enemy-protection swords, you leave the door open for ally-protection ones, and Wizards began the new cycle with Sword of Truth and Justice and Sword of Sinew and Steel. This means we’re due for two more in the future: one giving protection and abilities from Blue and Black, and one from Red and Green!
KALDHEIM
Both artworks for Sword of Hearth and Home are beautiful references to Norse motifs that find themselves perfectly nestled on the plane of Kaldheim. The initial tip-off is the knotwork and runes of the sword handle that beautifully match the visual design of Kaldheim, but the dark-green forest in the background underneath what is almost certainly branches of the World Tree seal the deal. Best of all, the human realm of Kaldheim is green-white aligned, making this the perfect weapon for the heroes of Bretagard.
DOMINARIA: HELL
The final reference to the story of everyone’s favorite underworld chef, Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, The Underworld Cookbook is her first published book of recipes. Initially requested of her by her demonic master Vincent so he could have her recipes re-created in the event of her departure, the cookbook only sold two copies out of the 20 created. I guess it’s a really niche product!
DOMINARIA
One of the coolest thing about Magic is the wonder and unknown related to the cards in the game. When Tormod was first mentioned he was simply a name on a tomb. Players assumed he was someone long-dead, but didn’t know much more and theorized he might be some long-dead planeswalker or mage. Many years later, Wizards of the Coast delivered his card: a powerful Lich that worked wonderfully with the exile effects of his tomb. We’re now seeing that story continued: it seems that Tormod lives in his crypt, his undeath a well-kept secret behind guarded doors.
ALARA: Esper
Vectis is a place on Alara’s shard of Esper, although we haven’t gotten a lot of detail about it beyond it being populated by rogues and ruffians who use their etherium enhancements for more visceral combat. The art on this card doesn’t look to contain anything remotely etherium-related, but it’s likely these gloves were created by Esper artificers to support the less-enlightened and artifact-infused members of their cohort.
UNKNOWN
Although the flavour text on Void Mirror is said by Niko Aris, they are a planeswalker and thus we can’t actually know where they were when they were quoted. Given that Niko is initially from Theros, and that this vessel is an Italian-style vase that doesn’t relate to any known Therosian art, it leaves us with very little to go on. For now, it’s homeless.
MIRRODIN
Introduced as part of the New Legends of Modern Horizons 2 article on the mothership, Zabaz is an insect that feeds on the ambient energies of Mirrodin (my guess: the magical equivalent of static electricity). It’s got modular, an ability only seen on some of Mirrodin’s artifact species, and appears to be similarly constructed to the arcbound on that plane, with energy connecting its metallic limbs.
MODERN HORIZONS: LANDS
MIRRODIN
At the meeting of the Dross, the vent-covered swamps of Mirrodin and home to the Vault of Whispers, and the Tangle, the copper forests of Mirrodin and home to the Tree of Tales, the Darkmoss Bridge joins them together. Because the Phyrexians struck first in the black and green areas of Mirrodin, this would have been one of the first places to fall.
MIRRODIN
At the meeting of the Dross, the vent-covered swamps of Mirrodin and home to the Vault of Whispers, and the Oxid Ridge, the mountains of Mirrodin and home to the Great Furnace, the Drossforge Bridge joins them together. This bridge is most likely flanked by Blackcleave Cliffs.
MIRRODIN
At the meeting of the Dross, the vent-covered swamps of Mirrodin and home to the Vault of Whispers, and the Razorgrass Fields, the spear-tipped plains of Mirrodin and home to the Ancient Den, the Goldmire Bridge joins them together.
MIRRODIN
At the meeting of the Dross, the vent-covered swamps of Mirrodin and home to the Vault of Whispers, and the Quicksilver Sea, the ocean of Mirrodin and home to the Seat of the Synod, the Mistvault Bridge joins them together. This bridge is most likely flanked by Darkslick Shores.
NEW PHYREXIA
Unlike the other artifact lands in this set, Power Depot looks like it’s at home to the terraformed Mirrodin: New Phyrexia. The artwork is reminiscent of a church of horrors, and matches what we know of Norn’s Dominion.
MIRRODIN
At the meeting of the Razorgrass Fields, the spear-tipped plains of Mirrodin and home to the Ancient Den, and the Quicksilver Sea, the ocean of Mirrodin and home to the Seat of the Synod, the Razortide Bridge joins them together. This bridge is most likely going over the Seachrome Coast.
MIRRODIN
At the meeting of the Razorgrass Fields, the spear-tipped plains of Mirrodin and home to the Ancient Den, and the Oxid Ridge, the mountains of Mirrodin and home to the Great Furnace, the Rustvale Bridge joins them together.
MIRRODIN
At the meeting of the Oxid Ridge, the mountains of Mirrodin and home to the Great Furnace, and the Quicksilver Sea, the ocean of Mirrodin and home to the Seat of the Synod, the Silverbluff Bridge joins them together.
MIRRODIN
At the meeting of the Oxid Ridge, the mountains of Mirrodin and home to the Great Furnace, and the copper forests of Mirrodin and home to the Tree of Tales, the Slagwoods Bridge joins them together. It probably goes over a Copperline Gorge.
MIRRODIN
At the meeting of the copper forests of Mirrodin and home to the Tree of Tales, and the Quicksilver Sea, the ocean of Mirrodin and home to the Seat of the Synod, the Tanglepool Bridge joins them together.
MIRRODIN
At the meeting of the copper forests of Mirrodin and home to the Tree of Tales, and the Razorgrass Fields, the spear-tipped plains of Mirrodin and home to the Ancient Den, the Thornglint Bridge joins them together. It likely expands over the Razorverge Thicket.
DOMINARIA
This card is named Urza’s Saga, and its card type is Urza’s Saga: what else is there to know? You can learn about the fun design and development cycle this card went through on Good Morning Magic, but the takeaway is that this showcases the growth of the planeswalker Urza during his rise to power after his sparking in Argoth.
DOMINARIA: YAVIMAYA (obviously)
Designed as a dramatic foil to the Planar Chaos card Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and named as a call-out to Gaea’s Cradle, this card represents the gigantic Dominarian forest of Yavimaya. Initially part of the mainland of Terisiare, although now a separate island, Yavimaya is protected by the Maro spirit Multani. A portion of it was teleported to the swamp of Urborg during the Mending, and the portion of Multani’s soul that went with it combined with the spirit of Urborg and birthed the new Maro spirit Muldrotha.
PATTERNS & TRENDS
And there you have it: a full review of every card from Modern Horizons 2. Taking a look at everything Wizards has done in this absolutely bonkers set, it’s kind of crazy how well they were able to bring forward old lore and give it new life with modern art direction. Now let’s talk about some of the fun trends and some of my favorite artistic call-backs you can find in the set.
1.) Using Slush Art
Even more so than the first Modern Horizons, this set was excellent at not only artistic call-backs, but using “slush art” to maximum effect. This is entirely possible because there’s no single setting and thus cards don’t have to adhere to any visual rules if they aren’t mechanical or direct references; unlike in a standard set like Kaldheim. For those unaware, slush art is artwork that Wizards of the Coast has commissioned for use in a set but had to remove due to various circumstances such as a late development change to a card that made the artwork no longer match the card mechanically. This orphaned artwork is still owned by WotC and deserves its time in the sun, but it’s now homeless.
Some skilled set designers or art directors look to use slush art whenever possible in supplemental sets like this, Masters sets, and on Commander cards. Check out a peek into the process on Alison Luhr’s twitter as she discusses Modern Horizons 1’s Fountain of Ichor. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be for some artists to hear their artwork has been removed from a set due to no fault of their own, although that means it may find its way into another set when the time is right, such as Nightshade Harvester being commissioned for Eldraine before being put on a card in Commander Legends. For this set, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the planeless cards or ones with no visual match, like Vectis Gloves, are creative re-uses of slush art.
2.) The dramatic Foils of Yawgmoth and Gaea
Yawgmoth is a name that everyone in Magic knows. It’s no surprise: he’s the guy behind Magic’s biggest big-bad, and has had his name on a huge number of broken cards (due in no small part to being prominent in the Urza block, a block famous for broken cards). In Modern Horizons 2, we saw designers take a chance at re-inventing two of the most powerful cards bearing the Yawgmoth name and shift them from black to green. In doing so, they re-flavoured both of them using Gaea and Yavimaya; the two biggest sources of green mana and opposition to Yawgmoth during the invasion of Dominaria. The art and card designs are meant to echo these past cards, and it’s no more obvious than in Gaea’s Will. Check it out:
3.) Re-Inventing the Arcbound
To those of us that played Magic back in 2004, it’s hard to forget the ever-present boogeyman that was Arcbound Ravager. Easily the most powerful of the Arcbound creatures from the Mirrodin block, the energy-conduit artifact had an iconic look that was great in the era, but seems a little out of place in modern games. Why? Modern game artwork has certainly come a long way since 2004, when Arcbound Ravager first hit the scene, but the limits of traditional illustration really haven’t changed much at all. What has changed, though, is the audience: the modern casual gamer in 2021 knows a lot, lot more fantasy and science fiction than the average casual gamer in 2004. The advent of comic movies and popular scifi have pushed the understanding of abstract scifi and magic concepts in your average gamer, and in doing so have expanded the visual vocabulary of what individuals will accept and understand.
Compare the original Ravager from 2004 to the Phyrexian Arcbound Ravager from 2019. They’re both artifact constructs, but where you have a lego-block-style design in the Darksteel ravager, the new look is updated to something streamlined, with a metallic shell or armature surrounded by a field of magical energy that gives the beast more of an obvious visual mass. It looks more dangerous and lethal, like something that’s worthy of the reputation ravager holds in Magic.
Now that we’ve made that comparison, I’d like you to take a look at how the Arcbound were treated in Modern Horizons II. Compare Style A and B below: both cards from Modern Horizons 2, but that approach the visual of the arcbound vastly differently. This is not to say either artwork is better or worse: they’re both beautiful fantasy pieces by their respective artists and both should be applauded.
The design of the Arcbound Javelineers in A is by far much more accurate to how the Arcbound were first conceptualized; and I’d argue it reads better at a small scale. You can easily understand when looking at a 1”x2” square that this is a being made of “pieces” that then re-assemble like metallic Lego blocks when it dies. But it’s almost cartoonish in that simplicity, and at higher resolutions seems very visually clunky. This is the trick to card illustration: knowing the scale that your artwork will be seen at changes how an artist will approach the visual design of their piece. No doubt Eric Deschamps, a veteran of card illustration, made sure his figure was easy to comprehend at the smallest possible scale.
The design of the Arcbound Slasher in B, in contrast, is worthy of a full cinema conceptualization as a creature design that feels much more “realistic”, if such a thing can be said of lightning robots in space. It’s obvious that WotC wanted to push this visual design with how much they pushed for the “completed” Arcbound Ravager as late as 2019, and in turn give Mirrodin a bit of a “refreshed” look without actually changing anything about the lore. After all, for fans of Mirrodin and the original arcbound, we never fell in love with the fact that they were made of larger blocks or smaller ones: we fell in love with the concept of robots held together by magical lightning. This new approach captures the essence of the arcbound without being a literal 1:1 re-creation of their visual design, and that is worthy of praise. The art direction on the Slivers of M14, in contrast, is an example of not respecting the source material and expecting fans to love it based on card function alone. Take notes: this is how you do a planar rebrand right.
4.) The Dakkon Blackblade Saga
One of the great opportunities in designing sets like Modern Horizons 2 is that Wizards of the Coast gets the opportunity to revisit old properties that never got cards in the first place. We’re all accustomed to modern design, where characters are designed as cards at the same time the story is being written, but back in the 1990’s this was not at all the case. Characters were invented with no confirmed backstory, and often times there were zero cards that actually represented the characters in the books or comics. This shifted after the mid-2000’s, and again when Planeswalkers were introduced, but early Magic is full of beloved characters who have never, ever, been seen in a game of Magic. Modern Horizons and other supplemental sets are a chance to fix that.
For the Dakkon saga, we were graced with cards for Dakkon himself, his backstory, his enemy-turned-friend, his ally-turned-nemesis, his fatal mistake, his forging the Blackblade, and of course the Elder Dragon he slew. And in doing so, not only did we get really cool top-down designs, but we got a visual update for their characters as well. Compare Dakkon and Geyadrone in the 90’s comic compared to their Modern Horizons 2 artwork:
Taking old-school comic designs and turning them into something that doesn’t look goofy is something that the concept and costume teams over at Marvel Comics have been doing since they began the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I’ll tell you that it’s no simple feat. Seeing the work Jake Murray and Ekaterina Burmak have done to breathe life into these old designs is superb. Everything that is iconic about the characters is kept: check out the skulls on Dakkon’s shoulders and boots, for example, but then the materials and proportions have been shifted to make the artwork read as more realistic. Maintaining the visual identity of a character who dresses in the “skin-tight spandex armor” that was so prevalent in comic art is no small feat. Ekaterina’s design especially: take a look at how that the contours and colors of Geyadrone’s outfit have been maintained making her clearly read as the same character while the actual outfit she’s in has been shifted dramatically to something that looks like it’s actually made out of fabric and leather. Bravo!
…and then of course, you have the Elder Dragons.
The Final Plane Count
Given that Modern Horizons introduces over 300 new cards to Magic, there’s a lot of cards getting added to MtG-Multiverse’s planar pages. Taking a look at what planes got more or less cards is a great way to see what Wizards of the Coast is focusing on. In doing so, we can see not only what they think fans want, but what they want to remind fans about: giving us little nudges and reminders to prepare us for the next sets they want to release by keeping memories fresh. So let’s see what we’re working with:
Planes in Modern Horizons 2
The top score went to Dominaria with 49: no surprise there given that this is a set aimed at enfranchised players who would have likely grown up playing during the “every set is on Dominaria” stretch of Magic from the 90’s through the mid 2000’s. The inclusion of the Dakkon storyline also added to this series, but it’s still a massive amount of cards clearly shown on the plane. Following in second was the fan-favorite Ravnica with 17 cards, who finds its way into every supplemental set. I imagine this set was also a great chance to use any slush art from the recent Ravnica and War of the Spark sets. Innistrad comes in third with 16, most likely laying the foundation for our visit to it back-to-back later this year. Mirrodin came in fourth with 15 cards, which makes sense given that it’s one of the only opportunities for us to visit the now-destroyed plane and because the main draft archetype was modular. Surprisingly, Alara came in fifth with 11 cards. Again, it’s unlikely we’ll revisit Alara in standard, so getting a chance to show off cards here for fans of the plane is a great one. Lorwyn came in in 6th with 9 cards, and Hell/The Void in 7th with 6 cards. Given that, I suppose it’s about time I give Hell/The Void its own planar page on this site. After all, if I give planes with one card entry like Equilor an entire page of their own, it’s only fair Hell get one, too.
Final Plane Count (not counting full-art variants):
Alara - 11
Amonkhet - 2
Dominaria - 49
Eldraine - 3
Fiora - 1
Hell/The Abyss - 6
Ikoria - 1
Innistrad - 16
Ixalan - 5
Kaladesh - 4
Kaldheim - 2
Kamigawa - 3
Lorwyn - 9
Meditation Realm - 1
Mercadia - 2
Mirrodin - 15
Muraganda - 1
New Phyrexia - 4
Rabiah - 1
Rath - 3
Ravnica - 17
Serra’s Realm - 3
Shandalar - 1
Tarkir - 2
Ulgrotha - 1
Wildfire - 2
Thank-you so much for coming along with me on this journey to appreciate the amazing set that is Modern Horizons 2. If you all enjoyed this write-up, please consider Donating below, or sharing the site to other Vorthos fans of Magic: the Gathering. And as always, I’d love to hear your feedback via email at mtgmultiverse.feedback@gmail.com.
Until next time,
-Nick