Multiverse Set Review: MODERN HORIZONS 3 (PArt 3)
All That Glitters
July 11, 2024 - By Nicholas Fair
Welcome to part three of my four-part review of Modern Horizons 3! Today’s article will cover the remaining cards from the base set; that’s Gold, Artifacts, and Land cards. Part 4 will cover the remaining cards that are found in the Commander products and the “Special Guests” sheet, but for now, settle in for some good, old-fashioned lore discussion. If you haven’t read parts 1 and 2, I highly reccommend you do so using the links below.
For those who are new to these reviews, the goal is to discuss new cards, evaluate their artwork and mechanical design, and use what we know to assign them to known planes in the Magic Multiverse. It’s not a small exercise, but to lovers of lore and those who build plane-specific cubes or decks, it’s hopefully a huge help. Plus, it’s great for discussion among the community.
As with the other set reviews, I am only one person, and quite often I miss a thing or two (despite my best efforts!). We also owe an incredible amount to the community for crowdsourcing card origins and lore, so please feel free to send me your feedback or details on anything you think I may have missed at mtgmultiverse.feedback@gmail.com.
MODERN HORIZONS 3: MULTICOLOR CARDS
Zendikar
Because the eldrazi were worshiped as gods before they fully manifested on the plane, they had a substantial following from the Zendikari natives prior to the whole “trying to eat the world” thing that happened. Despite that, some of their followers continued to worship them as they tore Zendikar apart and turned its defenders into bismuth; “Ayli” in the flavour text was one of those.
Dominaria (New Argive)
Modern Horizons sets are great for lore callbacks, and hunting for flavour text is a great way to find the origins of characters you might otherwise be unfamiliar with. Of course, Arna here clearly matches the design of the Kjeldorans on Dominaria (who, in the modern era, help found New Argive), and she even has her own aesthir riding falcon. But even if she didn’t, we know she’s from Dominaria thanks to her appearance in Ice Age and Alliances, mainly talking about her love of giant birds and her hated of people who desecrate giant birds.
Unknown
Although I love this little Goblin’s moxy and desire to run into a lightning storm wearing metal armor, his weapons and armor (and design, really) are all as nondescript as his environment. I think this is another case of a “nondescript plane” in the art brief.
New Phyrexia
A combination of one of the most powerful equipment ever printed, Cranial Plating, and the Phyrexian mechanic Living weapon, Cranial Ram offers a lot of power in draft formats and is one of the more Geiger-esque entities on New Phyrexia as of late. Not that I’m complaining.
Ikoria
One of the cooler parts of Ikoria’s world building is that each of the “Triome” environments on the plane was home to specific creature types that were aligned with that triome’s colors. Across Ikoria the assignment were: white Cats, blue Elementals, black Nightmares, red Dinosaurs, and green Beasts. Every multicolor creature on the plane’s initial visit had 1:1 matching creature types to their colors, so a green-blue creature was always an Elemental Beast, a black-white creature was always a Cat Nightmare, etc. Wombat is an incredibly rare creature type in Magic, found literally on one black border card from Legends, but as this little guy is also a Nightmare, and he’s surrounded by a terrain that matches Ikoria’s glowing landscapes fairly well, it seems like a totally intuitive fit.
Ravnica (Izzet)
The Izzet on Ravnica enjoy crafting these odd little “Big Daddy”-esque cyclopses, and have since our first visit to the plane. They all seem to sit on the edge of body horror when I try to think what their heads look like under those teeny tiny helmets, and Cyclops Superconductor here is no exception.
Tarkir
This is the very first “exalted” keyword counter in Magic, and also probably the first keyword counter that actually benefits from being stacked up: now that’s cool!
Literally all of Magic’s Djinn Monks are from Tarkir, in various timelines, and they have the same unique design with a triangular-shaped head and two downturned goat-like horns on the side of their heads. They have smooth, light blue skin, look very physically powerful, and belong to either the Jeskai or Ojutai clans. To cover our bases, these are vastly different than the usually “Genie” found in pop culture or on Dominaria. The djinn of Ravnica resemble elementals more than anything else, and the ones found on Strixhaven are almost like blue-skinned elves.
Innistrad
An ooze crawls down a cobblestone path, past wooden houses, overwhelming and absorbing an unfortunate peasant on the roadside. Most of Magic’s currently 58 oozes are generally from Ravnica’s Simic guild thanks to the mad science association from the first set, but there are also quite a few to be found on Innistrad thanks to the horror movie “The Blob'' from the 1950’s. Given that Innistrad oozes are specifically “ever-expanding” by nature (just like the Blob) and that the environment in the illustration fits in Innistrad’s style of architecture and level of technology, I think we can put Expanding Ooze there.
Unknown (The plane of Sunblade Elf)
I feel old, thinking back to when I was a kid and a 3/3 for {G}{W} was something to behold. Watchwolf is clearly the inspiration for Faithful Watchdog here, even reflected in the name. I wonder if this card was just called “Watchdog” when initially designed for more of an obvious callback.
But that’s enough about history. Where is this little pup from? The idyllic environment here isn’t too specific, although if pressed I would almost say Eldraine given that it’s vaguely Arthurian and “generic fantasy” in appearance. However, it’s been raised that the beautiful silver-and-gold armor of our pup here matches the card Sunblade Elf, and seems to even have its sword in the field. Sunblade Elf is a planar orphan from a core set, which means Faithful Watchdog is too.
Kamigawa
Genku here is the husband of the dearly departed planeswalker Tamiyo. It makes sense given that this set is wrapping up her story with her flip walker and saga that we’d also get her husband (and kids!) as well. That’s right; the three tokens created by Genku represent his and Tamiyo’s adopted children. The Rat is, of course, Nashi, their eldest, who Tamiyo’s digital ‘echo’ travels with.
Kamigawa
The title of Golden-Tail is rooted back in ancient Kamigawa, in the teachings of the fighting style of the legendary kitsune samurai of the same name. Those techniques have been passed down from master-to-student until the modern era, where there is now an entire Academy devoted to teaching Golden-Tail’s skills to the next generation.
Lorwyn / Shadowmoor
This is the kind of boogeyman that Kithkin dream about, it seems. The design of the horrible multi-limbed horror here is somewhat reminiscent of Ashiok’s Nightmare creatures, although it has the wrong creature type. As most Kithkin are from Lorwyn and they are far and away associated with that plane (their existence on Dominaria is mostly forgotten in the modern era), I think it’s easy to place this guy on Lorwyn, or at least, Shadowmoor, like the plane’s other Horrors.
Kaldheim (Immersturm)
Every time I read this card my brain thinks “Imskir” is a place, not this guy’s name, so the fact that he’s legendary totally skips my attention. Anyway; even though he’s not a Berserker, Imskir here is very obviously a member of Kaldheim’s spike-bearded lords of slaughter, with all of the key visual cues found in their world guide. One can only imagine what his epithet, “Iron-Eater” means when he’s from a sub-plane of eternal, unending warfare.
Ravnica (Izzet)
There’s nothing more Izzet than a spell that involves flipping a coin with artwork feating a metric ton of lightning and gadgets. I mean, it’s even got a quote from the Guild Leader Ral Zarek.
Ravnica (Izzet)
Speaking of, I’m glad the Izzet have discovered the energy mechanic; it seems like such a great fit for their mad science and industry. This card art looks to take place somehwere under some of the Steam Vents.
Unknown
In one of their development stories about Kudo, it was revealed that he was designed purely based on the prompt “hate bear”, which is a common phrase referring to a 2-mana, usually 2-power creature that shuts down “unfair” strategies in Magic. One of the most famous is Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and it used to be a popular deck in both modern and legacy. None of these creatures were actually Bears, but it looks like Kudo is here to remedy that.
Kudo here is canonical husband to Ayula, Queen Among Bears from the first Modern Horizons, although we don’t actually know where either is from. If I could guess I’d say Dominaria, but there’s nothing to that guess beyond a gut instinct.
Amonkhet
Even though he’s currently tearing up the Modern circuit, Nadu here is far from problematic for lovers of Magic lore. He’s a very specific type of Aven based off the Ibis, a bird commonly associated with the Egyptian god of knowledge, Thoth. This association was used as the basis for the design of Amonkhet’s blue god, Kefnet, and some of the aven on the plane (though others that are white-aligned resemble hawks, like the Egyptian sun god Ra). The floating obelisk behind him is also a very common sight on Amonkhet.
Unknown
Gargoyles have a long pedigree in Magic history, dating back all the way to Alpha, although they have a wide variety of designs that makes it hard to ID a specific plane this little guy is from. The imp-like design of the card is somewhat unique, but not enough to identify a planar home, and the gem in its chest should be telling, but is similarly unhelpful.
Zendikar
Ondu is a place on Zendikar home to Clerics of all types, Minotaurs, Giants, Greathorns, and Spiritdancers. The Kor there (and everywhere on the plane) really love their knots and slinging lines, which make this card basically as obvious as they come when placing. This may be the first Adventure card on Zendikar, but I almost hope it won’t be the last.
Theros
Initially previewed as the “Titan of Burning Wind” alongside Skotha, Titan of Eternal Dark in the Theros D&D book, Phlage is the embodiment of the primordial fear of wildfires amidst the mortals of Theros. Phlage is the third of the titans we’ve gotten cards of, after Kroxa & Uro in Theros: Beyond Death. Theros has a unique sub-plane known as Nyx that manifests the beliefs of the plane’s mortals, and in the early days of the plane’s existence, most mortals feared the untamed wilderness and powerful forces of nature. These fears manifested in the Titans, and only later did community and organized worship manifest the more benevolent gods on the plane.
The Blind Eternities
Planes are born, and, eventually, they die. It’s unknown the exact requirements for a plane forming within the Blind Eternities, but conceptually it mirrors a lot of real-world cosmology in how planets form. Touched on in the novella “Children of the Nameless” by Brandon Sanderson, a plane forms around a World Soul, or at least, one manifests in the process of a plane forming, pulled together by magical forces. The plane of Arcavios was created when two separate proto-planes smashed together within the Blind Eternities, which is freaking *awesome* and I hope that WotC does more with it the next time we visit Strixhaven.
Unknown
This little Hypnotoad is a great nested reference to the Odyssey block’s boogeyman, Psychatog, an accidentally powerful standard all-star. Psychatog was so powerful that it actually overshadowed the Invitational card released at the same time, Shadowmage Infiltrator, which was all kinds of insane to witness. The design of Psychic Frog even incorporates the Infiltrator’s saboteur ability, and the initially pitched design that Jon Finkel handed over for the card had a way to give it temporary flying, which makes this card about seven layers deep of references.
I have my doubts about if this card is even intended to take place anywhere given how tongue-in-cheek the design is.
Dominaria
Darigaaz, for those who don’t know, is one of the Primevals from Dominaria. They’re younger than the Elder Dragons, but older than humanity, and if you ever ask a lore master to explain the timeline around them you’ll be politely asked to leave because of how confusing the timeline of early Dominaria is when it comes to the various times Dragons supposedly ruled the world.
This card in particular, though, takes place after the Dominarian Invasion, sometime before our return to Dominaria. During the Phyrexian Invasion, the planeswalker Tevesh Szat exploited the dragon Darigaaz to wake up his kin and sow destruction to weaken the plane. Darigaaz, a Shivan Dragon and friend to mortals, came to his senses not soon after the other four Primevals were awakened, and put an end to their collective invulnerability by sacrificing himself. This card depicts his rebirth, maintaining the weird anthro-ness design from its mirror, Terminate.
Alara (Esper)
Apparently, after Energy was designed for Mirrodin and discarded, it was also tried as a mechanic for Esper for Shards of Alara. It was discarded there as well, but Riddle Gate Gargoyle here is a great call-back to that hypothetical timeline.
The extra glow on the Gargyle isn’t obviously etherium at first glance, although there is precedence for it giving off a blue electric glow. The shard of Esper tends to use Gargoyles for guardians, and the structures in the background match Esper’s world guide for etherium structures exactly.
Lorwyn / Shadowmoor
Rosheen is always mad, because she is one of the few beings aware that the world of Lorwyn and Shadowmoor are switching between one another on a day-and-night cycle. Nobody seems to believe her and dismiss her as crazy and “rambling.” Her first card cared about {X} mana costs, and it’s cool to see that carried through here, although this is an odd card to find in Modern Horizons, especially at rare.
Kaladesh
Gremlins are a rare creature type, initially seen on Phyrexia, they occasionally pop up as a little treat. On Kaladesh, Gremlins have a much larger presence than elsewhere in the multiverse, with their lifecycle being entirely dependent on devouring aether that is harnessed in Kaladeshi devices. They’re like real-life mechanic shop pests, but if those pests were adorable and based off of anteaters.
Innistrad
Nephalia is a coastal province on Innistrad that’s continually cloaked in mist. It’s rife with harbors and sea trade, and populated by blue-aligned humans, ghosts, and vampires. It looks like during Emrakul’s visit that their turtles got more than a little tenacle-y.
Eldraine
A little blue faerie in striped stockings, sitting on what looks like a gingerbread table, eating the candy chairs? That’s Eldraine all-right, and it’s not even close.
Notably, Eldraine has a vast array of types of Faerie, and this one more closely resembles those found in the Realm as opposed to more surreal look of the ones in the Wilds.
Unknown
I know that a few folks have mentioned looking forward to finding out more about The Necrobloom, so I’m sorry if this disappoints. I’ve searched high and low, but this card is one that stands as wildly unique. Here’s what we know: the Necrobloom is a plant that can incubate the bodies of the dead within it and raise them as zombies. It’s inside a cave with little to no other information on its whereabouts. The card mechanically references Field of the Dead, and could arguably be a homage to the game Plants vs Zombies as its creator, George Fan, is also a big Magic player. Magic certainly had no issue referencing the game before.
Zendikar
More Eldrazi from the Titans’ attack/failed reformatting!
Alara
Well, pour one out for Knight of the Reliquary, I suppose. Even the flavour text is a call-back to the flavour of the initial Knight card. The Wight here takes the initial design and flips the lands-for-lands into creatures-for-lands by trading white mana for black mana, but it plays much, much differently. The wordplay here brings to mind the undead-ifying of other cards, like Champion of the Parish becoming Champion of the Perished.
Lore note: you’ve probably seen the Reliquary these cards reference before if you’ve played any amount of commander!
Zendikar
Who’s that Eldrazi? It’s Metapod! I mean, it’s a horrible cocoon with a mouth and tentacles galore.
More Eldrazi Drones from Zendikar; with hedrons in the background for extra assurance.
Unknown
Whenever there’s a mechanical cycle across all color pairs in a set, I want them all to be plane-bound or for them all to be planar orphans, but more often than not they end up being a mix. The double-faced land cycle here is no exception. Bloodsoaked Insight here is easily the most elusive, with the rest of these taking place somewhere known or at least likely. Anyone out there have any ideas?
Zendikar
Oh hey, it’s Ayli again in that flavour text, everyone’s favorite doomsday cult leader.
Dominaria
The first instance of beautiful “stained glass wings as an aura” in Magic was Gift of Orzhova from Gatecrash. The art was gorgeous, and doubly so in foil, and its popularity no doubt contributed to the visual design of modern Benalia on Dominaria a few years later. The card On Serra’s Wings literally shows the stained glass coming to life to empower the figure, and that magic has continued on in Glasswing Grace here. The glass captures Serra’s light, and is infused with her magic, making it as strong as steel and light as air.
Ravnica (Boros)
The “legion” here is the Boros Legion, commonly just referred to as the “Boros Guild” on Ravnica. They’re a red-and-white aligned military/police force led by a badass angel and hard-boiled spirit cop one week from retirement.
Kaldheim (Skemfar)
Harald in the flavour text is the king of Elfkind on Skemfar, a sub-plane of Kaldheim’s world tree. Harald is the brother of the (once) planeswalker Tyvar, and the one who united the different clans of elves under one rule. The elves of Kaldheim once held the secret to immortality that is now controlled by the gods of Kaldheim, and Harald has promised to his kin that they will reclaim their immortality at any cost.
He’s also likely named after the real-world figure Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway.
Kaladesh
Although she’s relocated to Ixalan for her partner Huatli, Saheeli is initially a Kaladesh native. The flip side of this card references Ghirapur, the capital of Kaladesh.
TheroS
Karametra is the Therosian god of harvests, inspired in part by the real-world Greek god Perseophone. Because of green and white’s affinity for enchantments, Karametra finds herself on a lot of Theros cards from supplementary sets, like her disciple Sythis from Modern Horizons 2. The figure in the center here is a green-aligned warrior from Setessa, a matriarchal warrior society similar to the mythical Greek Amazons.
The Plane of Grove of the Burnwillows
Despite its appearance in the Time Spiral block years and years ago, and its not-unheard-of status in Magic history, I’m kind of surprised we still haven’t learned where Grove of the Burnwillows is from. Stump Stomp doesn’t give us any new clues, other than the plane has loggers and what looks like treefolk, or at least animated trees.
Kaladesh
Kaladesh filigree, energy, references to the Consulate, and a vedalken. Doesn’t get much more obvious than that.
Duskmourn
I had initally pegged this card as planeless, but after the release of the Planeswalker’s Guide to Duskmourn I spotted what I think is a lock-in fir for both the front and back of this card. It’s obviously a mechanical call-back to Mystical Teachings , but the art of this card feels like it’s very much part of the “Floodpits” from Duskmourn:
“Screen-lined corridors that breathe a cold, obscuring fog. Twisting staircases that you can walk onto but never off of. Libraries where waterfalls pour into waist-high lakes of sodden pages.” Oh yeah, that’s what’s up.
MODERN HORIZONS 3: Artifact Cards
Kamigawa
Kamigawa isn’t the only plane with bamboo, but this flute’s design matches fairly closely to instruments used by the Orochi and various Jukai monks from the plane, so I think it slots in nicely.
Kamigawa (maybe)
This is a little bit of a tentative connection, but the emerald and golden decoration here reminds me a lot of the headdress of Azusa, Lost but Seeking. The floating motes of green magic is also remniscent of the kami’s magic.
Zendikar
No, this card isn’t referencing Karona (though I sort of wish it somehow was.) Zendikar natives sure do love building shrines to their eventual destroyers.
Dominaria
Man, this art goes hard. What we have here seems to be a Phyrexian removing their eye, and the eye itself depicting the symbol of Phyrexia. The black oil leaking from the eyes is a symbol of classic Phyrexia, leading me to believe this is a sleeper agent on either modern or pre-mending Dominaria.
Unknown
This art is absolutely breathtaking, but I have no clue where to start in placing it.
Uknown
If I had to take a guess, the relief carvings and classic “seashell” decoration seem to evoke much of old Vedalia on Dominaria, which was inspired by the real-world trappings of the mythological Atlantis (yes, I know Magic has its own Altantis/”Etlan Shiis”).
Unknown
Given that Mirrodin was initially designed with the energy mechanic, only to have it shifted over to charge counters, this being a clear re-tooling of Sphere of the Suns that keeps the sun motif is really cool to see.
The art for this card has two visible suns; which is probably the best hint it can give us of its location. Amonkhet has two suns, although this wouldn’t make any sense on the zombie-desert-Egypt world. Ixalan has three suns. Mirrodin has five. Maybe this is somewhere entirely new?
Kaladesh
I wonder, if during design, this card was called “Nixing Bauble” as it’s clearly a reference to the Future Sight card Nix. It’s my guess that, as this is literally “Nix” in bauble form, and it’s got a crackling blue-teal energy to it while being contained in a brass/gold filigree box, that it belongs on Kaladesh. It has all the marks of a submission to the “Masterpieces” of the Inventor’s Fair. The flavour text fits this perfectly, implying it’s an anonymously submitted invention.
Dominaria
The child of Winter Orb and Blood Moon, two very much Dominarian-centric cards about celestial bodies.
MODERN HORIZONS: Land Cards
Kaladesh
Improvise is a mechanic initially created for the set Aether Revolt, set on Kaladesh. These kinds of archways, which reach into the sky to harvest the raw, swirling aether from the clouds, are not uncommon sights on the plane. Aether intermingles freely with the plane’s physical world in a way unique to Kaladesh, causing spiral patterns to emerge in the landscape and fauna alike. Almost contrary to what you’d expect, Kaladesh has far fewer naturally-born magic users than most planes, with the majority of the plane’s denizens preferring to use their native “Aetherpunk” technology over magic.
Amonkhet
What a cool card. First, this is the first non-creature card to have exert, a mechanic from Amonkhet that was designed to depict the denizens of the plane “pushing themselves past their limits.” This card specifically depicts the final trial arena, clearly paying homage to the jackal-headed god of zeal, Hazoret, who rewarded the final winner of the trial with eternal glory when they are deemed worthy.
New Phyrexia
I do like that Modern Horizons 3 has decided to re-imagine each of the allied fetchlands from Onslaught with new artwork. Each of these has unique art for the normal card and the full-art variant, but both are always from the same plane, and fairly obviously. Bloodstained mire is a beautiful bit of Phyrexian wreckage framing the red sun of Mirrodin. The oil drips in front of it, forming the symbol of Phyrexia. Perfection.
Ixalan
Each of the landscapes in this set are beautiful, and like the double-faced cycle above, I wish they were all obviously planeless or planar. But I think we have a mix here, so I’ve done my best to identify what I can. Bountiful Landscape clearly encapsulates the three mana types it’s meant to create. I was torn between Ixalan and Yavimaya on Dominaria for a while, but the volcano in the background feels very Ixalani with how close it’s located to the beautiful river and forest.
Lorwyn / Shadowmoor
The spiraling, empty, lonesome bogland here is a perfect vision of Shadowmoor from our initial visit to the original plane of dusk. Somehow beautiful and melancholy, the world is walked by the spirits of the departed, and thrives on isolation under hallowed moonlight.
Tarkir
Although at first glance the art style of Deceptive Landscape could be said to match the desert of Amonkhet as opposed to Tarkir, Amonkhet famously has no oasis to be found. It’s a dead world of zombies and ruin, whereas Tarkir is full of lush areas where the dragonfire ends.
Eldraine (Vantress)
Vantress, the blue-aligned court of Eldraine, famously flooded itself in an attempt to stop Phyrexians from taking it during the March of the Machine. This looks like the result.
Duskmourn
There is no Avacyn tombstone to be found here, despite the fact that Innistrad would be a great fit for this artwork. Looking further though, into the somewhat weird lighting of this piece, it almost feels like it’s indoors, doesn’t it? The way the trees, which are few and far between, still seem to create a canopy that covers the sky? Almost like the description of the surreal and shifting landscapes from Planeswalker’s Guide to Duskmourn ?
You betcha.
Dominaria
There’s no missing Thran ruins now that Magic art direction has finally settled on a cohesive design for Thran technology. Streamlined, sleek cylinders, ovals, and wing-shapes, with inlaid even lines of gold. Calling back to the historic mechanic created for the first return to Dominaria is an extra treat to seal the deal.
Tarkir (Maybe?)
That storm reminds Grixis visuals at first, but there’s no way this is Alara with the “lightning trees” in the bottom of the image. The only other link I can see, visually, is the rocky crags found in Dragon-timeline Tarkir; but that seems like I’m stretching it a bit far.
New Phyrexia
The first Phyrexian Tower was from old Phyrexia, and the reprint with new art also took place there, although with somewhat updated aesthetics and an anecdote from Karn. It’s nice that we finally got an update for New Phyrexia, likely on the The Monumental Facade, a false surface to the world covered in monuments to Phyrexia’s greatness. You can see some structures in the foreground that evoke praise to the Mother of Machines.
Kamigawa
Towashi, referenced in the flavour here, is a city in Kamigawa. It’s harder to see on this artwork as opposed to the full-art Polluted Delta, but there is a “pixel glitching” in reality in both arts that represents a “merge site” where the spirit world and physical world collide.
Dominaria (Shiv)
Now this, this looks like Shiv. Shiv is an island/continent covered in volcanoes, and is the greatest source of red mana on the plane. It’s also surrounded by reefs that thrive in the volcanically-heated waters, and otherwise scorched forests like this art depicts. An argument could be made for Jund, although Jund is much more lush than this, and is related to green mana expressly.
Unknown
Deserts that are on fire? Take your pick of what plane this could be! Rabiah comes to mind first, although there are certainly places on Dominaria that fit, or Tarkir, or maybe Amonkhet.
AlAra (Naya)
This kind of elevated landscape is known as a plateau, or, more specifically, a mesa, and often rise over ancient forests in the real world. Mesas are referenced randomly on various worlds, although the vividness of this one and the naya-associated colors is enough to sell me on it being Naya, on Alara.
Innistrad
Emrakul’s influence affected more than just the fauna of Innistrad. When the great, noodly god arrived, she caused rampant insanity and shifted all organic life into a mockery of itself; the very trees of the woods included. And hey, it’s even got Delirium, the mechanic created for Shadows Over Innistrad.
Zendikar
The first Modern Horizons had a snow theme, but that’s not all this is a call-back to. It’s also a snow land to complete the only basic land without a snow variant (Wastes) while making a reference to “Eldrazi Winter”, a time when Eldrazi decks ran unchecked in modern. Zendikar has icy peaks and snow, so there’s no reason this can’t stand alongside the other wastes from the plane.
New Capenna
Connive is the mechanic of the Obscura from New Capenna, the crime family of information. They use little portals to transmit information at a distance, and employ psychic spies who gather information without detection and store it in massive vaults for safekeeping.
Alara (Bant)
Look at this landscape, then look again. Did you think it was floating on clouds? I did at first, thinking it was something from Serra’s realm. But that’s just a reflection of perfect clouds on beautiful and still water, looking a lot like the green-white-blue shard of Bant and its picturesque coasts to me.
Innistrad
Speaking of Jund earlier, how could WotC make a literal “Jund” themed commander deck in this set and not also make a land for our favorite world of devouring apex predators? Apparently so. Although this is Jund colors (red, green, black), the visual design doesn’t really match what we know of the world. But, on the other hand, the long, creeping tree branches right out of a Tim Burton film fit perfectly on Innistrad. The world of Innistrad has primarily red-and-black aligned mountains where the vampires reside, and the forest leading up to them is home to the red-and-green werewolves. Given that Innistrad already had Warped Landscapes, this isn’t even close to a stretch. Like, really.
Zendikar
Oh yeah, that’s the most hedron-y art this side of an un-set. I’m not entirely sure where this labyrinth is meant to exist as I’d have assumed Ugin would use it within his eye to hide access to the Eldrazi, but what can you do?
Dominaria
Oh hey, it’s the “Urza’s is a land type” joke again. We got a new land type in “Cave” and so we need Urza’s Cave, naturally. Not that I’m complaining, I love this card mechanically.
For those not in-the-know somehow, Urza is a planeswalker from Dominaria, and during the Brothers’ War he strip-mined the land to create all kinds of war factories, towers, mines, and power-plants.
Ixalan
*points to flavour text*
But also, these steppes are very remniscent of the card art on Restless Preairie, and the subtle statue on the left pays homage to the Threefold Sun.
Kaldheim (Gnottvold)
The trolls of Kaldheim dwell on the green-and-red aligned subplane known as Gnottvold. It’s not very complex as far as worlds go; it’s mostly stone and forests as far as the eye can see, filled with gigantic creatures that slumber in stone.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
Three down, one to go! Thank-you again for reading; it’s a pleasure writing these, and it’s even more of a pleasure getting to hear back from fellow lore fans about what they’re most excited about from the set and what they think of the lore. Once all four parts are live, you’ll be able to find all the cards on their home planes as part of the MtG-Multiverse, but until then, let me know your thoughts via email.
Cheers!
-Nick