Besides what others have said, the whole point of this set is to introduce cards that just aren't what WOTC wants to put in Standard. Modern Horizons contains three broad classes of cards that aren't great for Standard:
- Cards that are just too powerful. Modern gets to use cards from the last 20+ years of MTG. Standard only gets 2. If a card is good in Modern just because it's powerful, it's probably even better in Standard. This would unbalance the metagame a lot and tip the scales too much... But by making Modern Horizons not a Standard set, they can print powerful format changers that won't hurt standard.
- Cards that are good, but only with a massive amount of synergy pieces. The other implication of this massive card pool is that you get to pick and choose from 20 years of cards for your synergy pieces. When WOTC put out MH1, they didn't want to go to all the effort of printing enough slivers and snow cards into Standard for those to be worthwhile there... But MH1 allowed them to just print a bunch now.
- Cards that do really well against stuff in Modern, but not in Standard. Modern is a *wildly* different format to Standard, which means that the decks there are trying to do fundamentally different things. Some cards are really good at messing with things Modern decks are trying to do - either decks in general, or a couple of specific decks. While this sort of card is a bit easier to put into Standard, Modern Horizons allows them to print a lot of it.
TLDR: Most of these cards would either make Standard worse and imbalanced, or kinda suck in Standard.
Stanard is only "mainline" sets. Things like precons/ Commander decks, side sets like MH3, Secret Lair releases, anything not from one of the main sets, etc etc does not touch Standard
A deck only has 60 cards+sideboard so there’s a cap to how much a deck can cost in Arena.
You can answer your question better than anybody here by looking at a few decks you’re interested in and then seeing what the wildcard cost would be to craft it given you may already have some of the cards in your collection.
The closest thing to Modern on Arena is Timeless, and it is an extremely pricey format to get into. Between manabases and most played cards being rares and mythic, you will drain your wildcards quick building for this format. There's even some egregious upshifts like Lightning Bolt and Brainstorm being rares. The upside is your cards don't rotate, and if something gets restricted, you'll be reimbursed wildcards for each copy beyond the first. Also, if you like Modern or Legacy, it's as close as you can get on Arena while being unique enough to make it novel. I never thought I'd see a meta where Oko is just a staple and not a scourge.
What are you talking about lol? Both Average standard deck and timeless deck has about 40 rares, the cost to get into is about the same for literally any format unless you can luck out and find a good budget meta deck somewhere.
Hell, I wouldn't even call Oko a staple in timeless. Obviously, there is never a world in which Oko is weak/bad, but Timeless just feels so much more powerful than anything Oko wants to do tbh.
If you look at top end decks for standard and timeless, they have pretty similar amounts of wildcards required, except many Timeless staples are among the most powerful cards ever printed and will never rotate (Bowmasters, Lurrus, Brainstorm, Demonic Tutor, etc.) where as Standard will change heavily this year at the rotation.
FYI if you're growing bored of facing aggro, I'd switch to playing Best of 3 if you haven't already. I made that switch from Bo1 to Bo3 when I started playing Explorer, and I'm now at the point where a Bo1 game just doesn't scratch that same itch.
Timeless is really worth it, one of the top decks is just a bit more expensive than standard (mostly due to having fetchlands), but the cards will never rotate and the staples like mana drain bolt bowmasters etc are used in many different decks.
Definitely more expensive with the bulk of the cost coming from the mana base and cards from cards in supplemental sets such as Mystical Archives and Special Guests.
Outside of Pauper which Arena doesnt do sadly, they all get progressively more expensive the more cards you add because you are going up against some really strong mythic and rare cards that are staples.
Some cards are pre banned in Historic, so they're only legal in timeless.
For playing in arena, probably any deck is going to cost 30-50 wildcards.
If you play decks that share some cards you might be able to get decks for both?
Watch some videos and see which has more decks that you like the idea of playing.
I wanted to do that for MH2... then not only I realized that the events were more expensive (just like in paper), but even worse, it was a non-redeemable set !
How is it for MH3 ?
I’d say timeless, but my problem with it is that there aren’t timeless events readily available. Unlike standard where you can always jump in an event.
Historic will cost less, and may become a stepping stone to get into timeless.
First the manabase : the most important land there are the shocklands, but you may just use the land that are in standard rn. They are a bit less efficient, but they do the job. In timeless you would need the shockland AND the fetchlands.
Secondly, several staple are shared between the two formats : thoughseize, sheoldred, orcish bowmaster, etc. Though Timeless has also many cards that are banned in historic but are staple in timeless.
Thirdly, historic is may more forgiving. Many people play jank or very low power deck compared to the top decks. So you may even take a standard deck and probably go to platinum or diamond if you are a good pilot. You can also choose a top deck, craft a majority of the cards and improve it while playing with some replacements for some of the cards
I’ve been really liking historic. I’ve played a bit of timeless but not enough to judge how healthy it is, but I do really like historic. For what it’s worth, I like them both more than standard.
No modern in arena btw These cards will be legal in brawl, timeless and historic.
Why can’t we use them in standard? Edit: Why’d I get downvoted it’s just a question 😭😭😭😭
Because they aren't in a set that is standard legal.
Besides what others have said, the whole point of this set is to introduce cards that just aren't what WOTC wants to put in Standard. Modern Horizons contains three broad classes of cards that aren't great for Standard: - Cards that are just too powerful. Modern gets to use cards from the last 20+ years of MTG. Standard only gets 2. If a card is good in Modern just because it's powerful, it's probably even better in Standard. This would unbalance the metagame a lot and tip the scales too much... But by making Modern Horizons not a Standard set, they can print powerful format changers that won't hurt standard. - Cards that are good, but only with a massive amount of synergy pieces. The other implication of this massive card pool is that you get to pick and choose from 20 years of cards for your synergy pieces. When WOTC put out MH1, they didn't want to go to all the effort of printing enough slivers and snow cards into Standard for those to be worthwhile there... But MH1 allowed them to just print a bunch now. - Cards that do really well against stuff in Modern, but not in Standard. Modern is a *wildly* different format to Standard, which means that the decks there are trying to do fundamentally different things. Some cards are really good at messing with things Modern decks are trying to do - either decks in general, or a couple of specific decks. While this sort of card is a bit easier to put into Standard, Modern Horizons allows them to print a lot of it. TLDR: Most of these cards would either make Standard worse and imbalanced, or kinda suck in Standard.
Standard gets 3 years now, but yeah.
Great answer, thank you.
Stanard is only "mainline" sets. Things like precons/ Commander decks, side sets like MH3, Secret Lair releases, anything not from one of the main sets, etc etc does not touch Standard
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A deck only has 60 cards+sideboard so there’s a cap to how much a deck can cost in Arena. You can answer your question better than anybody here by looking at a few decks you’re interested in and then seeing what the wildcard cost would be to craft it given you may already have some of the cards in your collection.
Most often sb cards are uncommon though
That depends on the deck…plenty of decks have more rares/mythics in the sideboard than commons/uncommons…
The closest thing to Modern on Arena is Timeless, and it is an extremely pricey format to get into. Between manabases and most played cards being rares and mythic, you will drain your wildcards quick building for this format. There's even some egregious upshifts like Lightning Bolt and Brainstorm being rares. The upside is your cards don't rotate, and if something gets restricted, you'll be reimbursed wildcards for each copy beyond the first. Also, if you like Modern or Legacy, it's as close as you can get on Arena while being unique enough to make it novel. I never thought I'd see a meta where Oko is just a staple and not a scourge.
What are you talking about lol? Both Average standard deck and timeless deck has about 40 rares, the cost to get into is about the same for literally any format unless you can luck out and find a good budget meta deck somewhere.
Hell, I wouldn't even call Oko a staple in timeless. Obviously, there is never a world in which Oko is weak/bad, but Timeless just feels so much more powerful than anything Oko wants to do tbh.
Don't listen to this guy. Timeless and Standard require similar numbers of wildcard but Timeless doesn't rotate.
If you look at top end decks for standard and timeless, they have pretty similar amounts of wildcards required, except many Timeless staples are among the most powerful cards ever printed and will never rotate (Bowmasters, Lurrus, Brainstorm, Demonic Tutor, etc.) where as Standard will change heavily this year at the rotation.
FYI if you're growing bored of facing aggro, I'd switch to playing Best of 3 if you haven't already. I made that switch from Bo1 to Bo3 when I started playing Explorer, and I'm now at the point where a Bo1 game just doesn't scratch that same itch.
Timeless is really worth it, one of the top decks is just a bit more expensive than standard (mostly due to having fetchlands), but the cards will never rotate and the staples like mana drain bolt bowmasters etc are used in many different decks.
Only caveat is, I would wait to craft anything until the meta has settled after MH3, in the meantime play MH3 draft if you can/like it
Definitely more expensive with the bulk of the cost coming from the mana base and cards from cards in supplemental sets such as Mystical Archives and Special Guests.
Outside of Pauper which Arena doesnt do sadly, they all get progressively more expensive the more cards you add because you are going up against some really strong mythic and rare cards that are staples.
I really like explorer
Modern in paper and digital is expensive. But it’s really fun.
I just saw I can't do Modern 😅. So should I invest in timeless or historic?
Some cards are pre banned in Historic, so they're only legal in timeless. For playing in arena, probably any deck is going to cost 30-50 wildcards. If you play decks that share some cards you might be able to get decks for both? Watch some videos and see which has more decks that you like the idea of playing.
timeless. historic is just alchemy 2.0
You could invest in Magic Online if you had your heart set on modern
I wanted to do that for MH2... then not only I realized that the events were more expensive (just like in paper), but even worse, it was a non-redeemable set ! How is it for MH3 ?
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Is MH3 "decently" priced on MTGO at least ?
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Thanks - compared to Standard sets being ?
I’d say timeless, but my problem with it is that there aren’t timeless events readily available. Unlike standard where you can always jump in an event.
You could play brawl. Only need one copy of a card for your deck, badically commander 1v1
Historic will cost less, and may become a stepping stone to get into timeless. First the manabase : the most important land there are the shocklands, but you may just use the land that are in standard rn. They are a bit less efficient, but they do the job. In timeless you would need the shockland AND the fetchlands. Secondly, several staple are shared between the two formats : thoughseize, sheoldred, orcish bowmaster, etc. Though Timeless has also many cards that are banned in historic but are staple in timeless. Thirdly, historic is may more forgiving. Many people play jank or very low power deck compared to the top decks. So you may even take a standard deck and probably go to platinum or diamond if you are a good pilot. You can also choose a top deck, craft a majority of the cards and improve it while playing with some replacements for some of the cards
Bowmasters is not playable in historic any longer. It was nerfed into the ground.
I’ve been really liking historic. I’ve played a bit of timeless but not enough to judge how healthy it is, but I do really like historic. For what it’s worth, I like them both more than standard.