Modern Horizons 3 on Magic Online

Posted on Jun 04, 2024

By Tony Mayer

It’s time to add some gas to Modern – the return of double-faced planeswalkers, a new cycle of free spells, gaggles of new Eldrazi, plus a pair of new MTGO-only premium card treatments, this set has it all! Old formats get new toys when Modern Horizons 3 (set code MH3) debuts on Magic Online next Tuesday, June 11 at 10 a.m. Pacific time (17:00 UTC).

The downtime to add this set to MTGO will happen tomorrow, June 5, from 9 a.m. to approximately 12 noon Pacific time (16:00-19:00 UTC). Be sure to follow our social media outlets (Discord, Twitter/X, and more) to keep real-time tabs on this release. As a reminder, our Help site and Forums will also be down during this period.

How to Collect and Play Modern Horizons 3

Boosters

Each MH3 booster pack will sell for $5.99 USD in the MTGO Store starting on Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT. This is another version of the new Play Booster, so the contents of the pack are different than Modern Horizons expansions in past years. For this set, the composition is:

• 5 regular commons
  • At least 4 of the 5 colors should appear within this group
  • 1 in 64 boosters will have a common replaced with a Special Guest card – this is a change from previous Play Boosters.
• 1 basic land (either regular or foil, can be Showcase) or a 6^th regular common
• 3 regular uncommons – can be single- or double-faced
• 1 regular rare or mythic
• 1 regular wildcard – that is, a non-foil of any rarity
  • Note: Commander cards can appear in a Play Booster for the first time – the 8 Featured and Face Commanders are fair game
• 1 foil wildcard – a foil in every pack!
• 1 card from the New to Modern bonus sheet (uncommon, rare, or mythic)

Booster Fun cards can appear in any of the last four slots listed above.

Event Structures

With the unique booster price of $5.99 for this set, we have a new suite of entry options and prize structures to share. Visit this page to get full details – Drafts will be 20 Event Tickets each and Sealed Leagues will run 35 Event Tickets.

Modern Horizons 3 Commander

This set has four new Commander decks for you to enjoy (set code M3C) – each deck features ten brand-new cards plus a powered-up suite of reprints. The decks will sell for $34.99 USD each in the MTGO Store starting next Tuesday. They are:

• Creative Energy (blue-red-white)
• Eldrazi Incursion (five-color plus colorless)
• Graveyard Overdrive (black-red-green)
• Tricky Terrain (green-blue)

Retro Fetchland Bundle

Staples of the Modern format return in a special edition – the Retro Fetchlands Bundle: Allied Colors feature the return of the original set of five from Onslaught and Khans of Tarkir with new art. Each Bundle costs $39.99 USD and is available in the Store starting next Tuesday.

None of the cards in Bundles are available in Treasure Chests or via All-Access, and they will leave the Store with the release of Bloomburrow.

Booster Fun Blowout!

There are a lot of alternate-art treatments of Modern Horizons 3. While many of these categories can be found in boosters, the breakdown of what’s found where in Treasure Chests starting next Tuesday is as follows:

Wait, what’s a Ripple Foil?

New Premium Effects – Ripple Foil and Etched Foil

We’ve done it again - Modern Horizons 3 adds additional layers of depth to the look and feel of Premium cards in our game!  

Mirroring a technique found in tabletop’s MH3 Collector Commander decks, the Ripple Foil treatment we've chosen is found on cards featuring the featured and face commanders in profile. Also, we went a step beyond and have added ripple to the five pitch Elementals returning as Special Guests. 

Like the rain effect used in OTJ, we found difficulty applying the subtle halo effect used by the print cards to our digital product. Instead, we leaned into a digital-only version: generative multi-color water ripples that decorate the card at random, providing a more unique digital experience.

The Etched Foil treatment is our version of this style that first debuted in tabletop with Commander Legends and on MTGO in 2022. We are hoping to impart an experience worthy of the matte sparkle finish applied to the same cards in paper form. We created a darkening and generative glint effect we hope imparts a sense of etched shimmer unique to MTGO.

With an added touch of interactivity on the cards, we hope this really demonstrates our goals with premium moving forward. In this case, a noticeable but unobtrusive sparkle. The great part is we can apply this change retroactively and it’ll be easy to spot across games – about 350 unique card versions across all rarities will feature the Etched look following tomorrow’s downtime!

Commander Corner

Commander Backlog

We have made further progress against the Commander backlog during this development cycle. As with previous times, the cards added this time were basically free to us while coding cards for this set. The Extended-Art versions of these will appear in the TC-Only slot starting next Tuesday.

5 Backlogged Commander Decks On-Sale Tomorrow!

Our steady progress against the Commander Backlog has finally paid off – four of the five Commander decks from March of the Machine as well as one of the two decks from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan have been fully implemented by our team and will be on-sale in the Store following tomorrow’s downtime!

Note: Because the Planechase variant is not currently supported on Magic Online, we have made a few swaps to remove cards that would not fully function.

Here’s the list of what’s available:

Additionally, all MOC decks have Sisay’s Ring swapped in for Ichor Elixir.

Magic Online Players Rewards (MOPR) Update

Like with the last set, upcoming MOPR rewards are single-month offerings:

The grant on July 1 covering June play and spending features all of the retro commons and uncommons from Modern Horizons 3, as well as the Snow-Covered Wastes and double-faced uncommons – all in foil!

For more information on earning Player Rewards, click here.

Treasure Chest Update

Treasure Chests will update when MH3 goes on sale next Tuesday – be sure to watch our Twitter/X (@MagicOnline) and our Discord channel to confirm this before opening Chests.

For full details on the changes to come, check out the Treasure Chest information page.

After next Tuesday, the next Treasure Chest update will occur on Tuesday, July 2.

Event Updates

Commander Leagues

We had some successes with Commander League offerings over the last couple months and some misses as well.

The good news is that Competitive Commander League will join the ranks of Leagues that start fresh when a new set releases. The current season of that League has been extended to end next Tuesday, then a new version will appear.

Friendly Commander Constructed with voting was not as popular as we hoped, so it will not return.

Commander Masters Phantom Limited had a decent following at first, but it could not stand up to Vintage Cube. We will look to bring back a Commander Limited offering once Bloomburrow arrives next month – likely as Commander Legends.

Alternate Play Schedule

Here’s a look at the schedule of events coming up between now and Bloomburrow. Each description mentions if the Draft is Phantom – cards won’t be added to players’ collections in Phantom events. All transitions take place at 10:00 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC) unless otherwise noted.

• June 11-26 – Modern Horizons 3 is center stage for these two weeks. As has become our custom, a Best-of-One League will be available during that period. (Keeper)
• June 26-July 17 – Vintage Cube returns for a three-week run featuring its Summer Refresh. (Phantom)
• July 17-30 – We’re lining up something good, but we aren’t ready to talk about it yet ...

Product Updates

New Player Event Tokens Replacing New Player Points

We are tweaking how New Player event entries are distributed starting with tomorrow’s downtime. New Player Points will no longer be given out – instead, we will be providing a set number of entries into each type of New Player event:

New Account Starter Kit

• Super Jump Event Token

Account Upgrade Kit

• 2^nd Super Jump Event Token
• Commander Gauntlet Event Token
• Gauntlet Event Token – for Modern Gauntlet

New Player Points will remain a valid entry option until the current versions of those Leagues end in September.

Avatars

We will grant Prestige avatars from Outlaws of Thunder Junction a few days after the end of that season on June 11. These will be extra to the ones accidentally granted in April.

Now let’s look ahead to the avatars of MH3! First up is the avatar given out in New Account kits – it's Hydra Trainer!

Next, we present the single avatar available in Treasure Chests – it’s Shilgengar, Sire of Famine!

Finally, we will dole out some Prestige! As usual, you get five points for each Competitive trophy you earn in Leagues and one for each Friendly trophy. At the end of the season (when Bloomburrow releases), you'll earn every avatar for which you qualify:

Earning at least five points gets you the uncommon Eladamri, Korvecdal avatar.

Earning at least 20 points nabs you the rare Tamiyo Inquisitive Student avatar.

Earning 40 points or more rewards you with the mythic rare Ajani, Nacatl Avenger avatar.

Also, we are rolling out our suite of Showcase Avatars with downtime. Players who competed in this year’s first season of Showcase Qualifiers in March will get these granted to their accounts tomorrow after downtime. If you reach one of these events later this year, you’ll also get one for the particular format. Here’s the list:

• Modern – Territorial Kavu
• Pioneer – Picklock Prankster
• Legacy – Daze
• Vintage (Season 1 only) – Opposition Agent
• Pauper (Season 2 only) - Thraben Inspector
• Standard (Season 3 only) - Warden of the Inner Sky

Odds and Ends

• Modern Horizons 3 will not be redeemable.
• As usual, Constructed and Limited events will rotate to new versions of the same event on release day, so make sure you complete any Leagues before the set launches. This includes Standard and Pioneer for which there are no changes to legality.
• Reprints in Modern Horizons 3 that are entering a format – including MH3’s New-to-Modern bonus sheet – will not become legal until the new Leagues kick off next Tuesday.

Whether you’re just joining us for the first time, for the first time in a while, or every time – we're glad you’re here. Have fun and we’ll see you on the battlefield!

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Do you have a passion for creating cards, managing complex servers, or improving the look and feel of the game? Check out Daybreak’s careers page to see if you may fit the bill – most jobs are found by filtering location to Washington, though you can apply if you are (or can become) able to legally work from Washington state, California, Texas, New York, or Massachusetts.