Modern Horizons 3 Leaks - 4 New Double Sided Planeswalkers

We're about two months away from the June 14th release of Modern Horizons 3. And until now, we've only had one small batch of MH3 spoilers. That changed yesterday, though, as four cards from the set were leaked online. Continuing with the theme we saw with Ajani, Nacatl Pariah, we have four more dual-faced Planeswalkers to check out. So, without further ado, let's get into the Modern Horizons 3 leak.

Modern Horizons 3 Leak

Each of these double-sided Planeswalkers starts as a creature and flips when some particular condition has been met. Conceptually, the cards tell how the characters discovered or "awoken" their planeswalker sparks. The creature portion represents them before finding their spark, and the planeswalker side shows them as they were soon after becoming a waker being cast through the blind eternities.

Tamyo, Inquisitive Student // Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar

Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, wants you to draw three cards in a single turn to transform her. She helps out her ability by making clue tokens whenever she attacks. The combination of flying and relatively high toughness will contribute to favorable attacks.

On the flip side, we start with two loyalty. The +2 shrinks the power of an opposing attacker, the -3 brings an instant or sorcery from your graveyard and gives you one mana of any color if it's green, and the ult (-7) draws cards equal to half the cards in your library and gives you an emblem to keep them.

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My main concern with the planeswalker side is that you have to +2 three times to get to the -7. Considering it only shrinks an attacking creature by -1, I think getting to the ult will be an uphill battle.

Grist, Voracious Larva // Grist, the Plague Swarm

Personally, I like Grist much more than Tamiyo. It's a one-mana 1/2 with deathtouch that cares about creatures entering the battlefield from your graveyard. When Grist or another creature does, you can pay one and transform it. You will have to have that one available, which means you may not always be able to transform it.

When you are able, though, you get one hell of a walker. The +1 creates a 1/1 black and green insect, allows you to mill two cards, and gives the token deathtouch if you milled a black card. These tokens are going to go a long way in keeping Grist alive. The -2 can remove things like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki or Engineered Explosives. And the ult is a pretty spicy way to make a ain't board with the best abilities in your graveyard.

Sorin of House Markov // Sorin, Ravenous Neonate

Sorn of House Markov has lifelink and extort and requires you to gain three in a turn to transform him. Considering he has lifelink and extort, he should make getting up to three fairly easy. As for the walker side, Sorin Ravenous Neonate is pretty strong. First, it keeps the extort, which is fantastic. Next, you get a blood token with the +2, which can gain you even more life.

If you've gained a lot of life, the -1 can become a substantial removal or burn spell. There are enough life gain resources in the format to make this -1 pretty powerful. Even just using it the turn it's flipped means you've got a Lightning Bolt worth of damage to throw around.

The ultimate is a bit strange - You gain control of an opposing creature and turn it into a vampire. Then, if you have a white permanent other than the stolen creature or Sorin, it gains lifelink. It's not bad, but I'm not sure it's a game-ending effect. It gets better if you have some way to capitalize on the creature being turned into a vampire. But, considering the creature isn't a vampire, I doubt it'll find its way into vampire tribal.

Ral, Monsoon Mage // Ral, Leyline Prodigy

Ral is interesting because the flip into a planeswalker is optional, and sometimes it may be better not to transform it. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, you flip a coin. If you lose, Ral deals one damage to you. If you win, you can transform Ral. There aren't too many coin-flipping effects in the game so sometimes players may opt to keep Ral in creature form.

Moving back up the card, Ral reduces the cost of your instants and sorceries by one mana. This is good in general, but also helps fuel the ability to flip coins. If you do transform him, he enters with an additional loyalty counter for each instant or sorcery you've cast that turn. If you play your cards right, Ral could come into play pretty loaded.

The +1 gives you the same abilty to reduce the cost of your instants and sorceries by one mana as the creature portion. The -2 gives you two damage split between up to two targets, and the ult can potentially yeild you eight free spells from the top of your library if you get lucky. I think this will be played in EDH more than Modern but overall, I like it.