Innistrad: Midnight Hunt brings us back to one of Magic‘s most beloved planes, and it also means new cards for one of Magic‘s most beloved formats — Modern! So far, Midnight Hunt seems much tamer than the original Innistrad in terms of power level; I don’t expect many, if any, format-defining cards from this set, but there are definitely a handful of good roleplayers. Let’s take a look, shall we?
Faithful Mending
Pretty cheeky of WotC here with the latest attempt at a “fixed” Faithless Looting, with the name and flavor text referencing the banned sorcery. While Faithful Mending isn’t as good as Faithless Looting, it is a good bit better than Faithless Salvaging. I imagine the first place a lot of Modern players will look to play this card is Jeskai Phoenix, but I expect it to be even better in a Reanimator shell. Orzhov Reanimator is already close to being a competitive deck, as it is, but it comes up just a bit short in the enablers department. Dredge is another reasonable home for Faithful Mending — the mana base will certainly need to be adjusted to include Mana Confluence and Gemstone Mine in order to support it, but I believe it will be worth it.
Consider
Consider doesn’t have a high bar to clear, but it is likely a better version of Opt. Putting a card in your graveyard is better than putting a card on the bottom of your deck for most Modern decks. Phoenix decks will likely be interested in a cheap spell that puts a card into your graveyard and draws a card. From time to time, Azorius Control will play Opt, and those decks often play Snapcaster Mage, so the benefit of putting cards into your graveyard isn’t lost there. There’s also a chance that Izzet Murktide plays Consider instead of Serum Visions to turbo out Murktide Regent and turn on delirium for Dragon’s Rage Channeler.
Memory Deluge
Memory Deluge seems like an upgrade to Fact or Fiction to me. You’ll often draw slightly fewer cards on average, but you don’t give away any information to your opponent. The flashback on Memory Deluge isn’t just free flashback value — instead of looking at four cards, you get to look at seven! You may think that Fact or Fiction doesn’t see much Modern play, but I expect people to move from Jace, the Mind Sculptor to spells like this as Unholy Heat puts Jace in an unfavorable position. I’d expect the various control decks of Modern to have some number of copies in the 75 moving forward.
Sungold Sentinel
Sungold Sentinel may look a bit unassuming on its face as a two-mana 3/2 in Modern. But just like Dauthi Voidwalker, Sungold Sentinel might provide just enough incidental graveyard hate to find a home in your starting 60. Soul-Guide Lantern’s ETB effect is an underrated part of that card; getting the same effect when Sungold Sentinel enters the battlefield or attacks is nothing to scoff at. Normally, I’d be skeptical of a 3/2 in Modern, given how removal-dense a lot of the top decks are, but having a reasonable ETB paired with the protection of its coven ability makes Sungold Sentinel a potential starter in Humans. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it show up in other white aggressive decks, at least as a solid sideboard option against decks like Reanimator and Dredge.
Jerren, Corrupted Bishop
Jerren, Corrupted Bishop is the latest and probably best value three-drop that Humans has access to. Given the prevalence of Lightning Bolt, Unholy Heat, and Fatal Push, Humans is going to need something extra at the top to grind with the various flavors of RBx Lurrus decks. Losing a life and making a 1/1 that benefits from Human synergies is a solid consolation prize for losing a creature. Two mana to give a Human lifelink is also going to put in a lot of work against aggressive red decks, making it relatively difficult for your opponent to win the race. But wait, there’s more! If you manage to end up at 13 life with all the life total manipulation Jerren provides, you can flip it into Ormendahl, the Corruptor, which will undoubtedly close the game in short order.
Conclusion
Innistrad: Midnight Hunt will find its way into Modern soon, and I’m excited to see which other cards will make an impact. There were so many good roleplayers that I had a tough time narrowing down this list, and I’d love to hear which cards you think will see play. Be sure to let me know on Twitter at @RappaciousOne!
Michael Rapp is a Modern specialist who favors Thoughtseize decks. Magic sates his desire for competition and constant improvement.