Modern Horizons 2 (MH2): The Complete Set Guide

Some sets change the game at the margins. Modern Horizons 2 rewrote the whole conversation. Released in June 2021, MH2 bypassed Standard entirely and dropped directly into Modern and eternal formats - and the impact was immediate, lasting, and, depending on who you ask, a little overwhelming.

By October 2022, it had become the best-selling Magic set of all time. By early 2023, it had crossed $200 million in sales - the first Magic set ever to do so. Those aren't numbers you can explain with hype alone. They reflect a set that genuinely delivered on its promise: more power, more complexity, more of what players loved about the original Modern Horizons (MH1).

Let's dig into what made it tick.

What is Modern Horizons 2?

Modern Horizons 2 (set code: MH2) is a 303-card supplemental set - or 492 cards when you count all the alternate treatments and special-numbered variants - released in tabletop on June 11-17, 2021 (Prerelease), with a Magic Online release on June 3, 2021.

Like its predecessor, MH2 was designed to introduce powerful new cards directly into Modern without ever passing through Standard. That means no slow rotation, no testing period in a gentler format first - just new tools landing straight into one of the game's most competitive environments.

Format check: Cards in MH2 are legal in Modern, Legacy, Vintage, and Commander. They are not Standard or Pioneer legal - though 128 MH2 cards were later reprinted in Jumpstart: Historic Horizons, bringing them to MTG Arena's Historic format. The enemy fetch lands from MH2 arrived on Arena in May 2024 via the Enemy Fetch Lands Anthology.

The set's regular card breakdown is:

• 101 commons
• 100 uncommons
• 78 rares
• 24 mythic rares

New cards and in-Modern reprints are numbered #001-261. New-to-Modern reprints run #262-303. Everything beyond that - borderless planeswalkers, showcase sketch cards, retro frame cards, extended art cards, and promo cards - carries its own number range up to #492.

A unique development process

MH2 had an unusual development story. Four high-profile competitive players - Zac Elsik, Sam Black, Brian Braun-Duin, and Brad Nelson - were brought in as consultants. That's significant because players who see unreleased card files are normally barred from competitive play to prevent foreknowledge giving them an unfair edge. Making an exception for these four speaks to how seriously Wizards took getting MH2's power level calibrated correctly.

Whether the calibration worked is, honestly, a matter of ongoing debate in the community.

Themes and mechanics

MH2 is a dense set. It features 59 named non-evergreen mechanics - some appearing on a single card, some running through entire draft archetypes, and some mixing together in ways that reward careful reading. If you like rules text, this is your set. If you find rules text intimidating, this is also a great set to grow into.

New mechanics and variants

A few genuinely new things arrived with MH2:

Trample over planeswalkers is a new variant on the classic trample keyword. Normally, excess combat damage assigned to a planeswalker is just... excess. With this variant, a creature can deal that overflow damage to the planeswalker's controller. It's a small but meaningful rules addition that makes certain attackers much more threatening in games with planeswalkers on the board.

Devour artifact (introduced on Caprichrome) is a variant of the devour keyword that lets a creature consume artifacts instead of creatures when it enters the battlefield. Devour normally asks you to sacrifice creatures - this twists that to open up artifact-heavy strategies.

Affinity for tokens makes its first appearance on Junk Winder - a creature whose cost is reduced based on how many tokens you control rather than how many artifacts or lands of a given type. Token-heavy decks suddenly had a new payoff to think about.

The set also introduces two new counter types: Corruption counters and Void counters. And in a fun rules wrinkle, Acorn counters appear on a non-acorn card for the first time.

Landmark card types

A few MH2 cards deserve special mention just for what they are, not just what they do:

Urza's Saga is the set's most structurally unusual card. It's the first black-bordered enchantment land ever printed - a card that functions simultaneously as a Saga and a land until it sacrifices itself at the end of its final chapter. Before MH2, enchantment lands existed only in silver-bordered sets. Urza's Saga changed that.

The set also introduces the first new Tribal card since Rise of the Eldrazi (2010), Altar of the Goyf, and the first new Incarnation creatures since Lorwyn (2007). New planeswalker types - Dakkon, Dihada, and Grist - are introduced, and the Ranger creature type makes its return.

Squirrels are, delightfully, a fully supported tribe in MH2. If that sounds like a joke, the competitive results will surprise you.

Limited and draft

MH2 draft is widely regarded as one of the more complex Limited formats in recent memory, which tracks given the 59 named mechanics in the set. But complexity doesn't mean inaccessible - it means there's a lot to learn, and experienced drafters found a lot to love.

The set's ten two-colour draft archetypes are:

| Colour Pair | Archetype | |---|---| | White-Blue | "Artifacts matter" (including Affinity) | | Blue-Black | "Self-discard" matters | | Black-Red | Madness aggro | | Red-Green | Storm | | Green-White | +1/+1 counters | | White-Black | Reanimator | | Blue-Green | Delirium | | Black-Green | Sacrifice / Squirrel tribal | | Red-White | Modular artifact aggro | | Blue-Red | Number of token types matters |

There's also a five-colour Converge archetype that rewards carefully managed mana bases.

The signpost uncommons for each archetype give you a clear signal of what lane you're in - Ethersworn Sphinx for WU artifacts, Lazotep Chancellor for UB self-discard, Ravenous Squirrel for BG sacrifice, and so on. If you see one of these passed late, it's usually a signal that the lane is open.

The format has real texture. Modular artifact aggro and Affinity both care about artifacts but play very differently - one is about combat counters spreading across creatures, the other is about cost reduction and building a critical mass. Learning to identify which version of an artifact deck you're drafting early is one of the key skill tests the format offers.

Notable cards and format impact

MH2 landed in Modern like a stone dropped into a still pond. The ripples were... significant.

All five enemy-coloured fetch lands - the cycle that had previously been locked out of Modern - appear at rare in MH2, available in regular Draft Boosters. This was the moment Modern's mana base became definitively complete. Extended art and retro frame versions appear in Set Boosters and Collector Boosters respectively, and they're among the most sought-after collector items the set produced.

Beyond the fetch lands, the set delivered a remarkable density of cards that went on to define or reshape Modern and Legacy archetypes. Urza's Saga in particular became one of the most-discussed and analysed cards in the set's aftermath - its ability to function as both a land and a powerful Saga made it an engine in numerous decks.

Format check: Several MH2 cards have had significant banlist conversations since the set's release. I'd recommend checking the current official Modern and Legacy banlists at wizards.com for the latest status, as these can shift with each ban announcement.

Grist, the Hunger Tide introduced a rules curiosity: it's a planeswalker that's also a Creature - an Insect - while outside the battlefield. That means it can be found by creature-tutors, which was a deliberately novel piece of design.

The set was a first in several product ways too: MH2 was the first supplemental set to include both Set Boosters and Collector Boosters, and the first supplemental set to have a Bundle. That product expansion reflected the confidence Wizards had in the set's appeal across player types - competitive players, collectors, and Limited enthusiasts alike.

Lore and setting

MH2 is unusual in that there's no dedicated storyline attached to it. No quest, no Phyrexian invasion, no planeswalker showdown - the set exists primarily as a mechanical and gameplay object rather than a narrative one.

That said, there is a loose thematic thread: Dakkon Blackblade, one of Magic's oldest characters, appears across several cards. Dakkon is a legendary warrior from the ancient history of the Dominarian continent, and the set treats his cards as a kind of easter egg for players with long memories. His planeswalker card introduces the Dakkon planeswalker type, and Geyadrone Dihada - the villain who enslaved him in the original lore - also appears, introducing the Dihada planeswalker type.

Lore aside: Dakkon Blackblade originally appeared on a card in Legends (1994), one of Magic's earliest sets. His story, and Dihada's role in it, dates back to the game's oldest pieces of published fiction. MH2 revisiting him is a genuine throwback for long-time players.

Svyelun of Sea and Sky appears on Draft Booster packaging and introduces the Merfolk legend that tribe had long been waiting for.

The set's tokens include 21 types - a notable count that reflects just how many different strategies are generating different kinds of creatures and objects across the set.

Set legacy

Modern Horizons 2 is, by almost any metric, one of the most impactful supplemental sets Magic has ever produced. Best-selling of all time as of late 2022. First set to cross $200 million. A format-reshaping card pool that players, deck builders, and tournament organizers are still reckoning with years after release.

I think the honest assessment is complicated, though. The set delivered exactly what it promised - extremely powerful, mechanically rich cards that landed directly in Modern and eternal formats. Whether that's a good thing depends on what you want from those formats. Some players celebrate the depth it added. Others felt certain cards arrived at a power level that compressed the diversity of viable strategies rather than expanding it.

What's harder to argue with is the craft on display. Urza's Saga as a design object is remarkable. The squirrel tribe getting genuine competitive legs is delightful. The fetch lands finally completing Modern's mana base is a milestone moment. The sheer density of mechanics and archetypes in Draft is a gift to players who love complexity.

MH2 also marked a structural first: a supplemental set with the full modern product lineup - Draft, Set, and Collector Boosters plus a Bundle. That product model has since become the template for how Wizards approaches high-profile non-Standard releases.

However you feel about its power level, Modern Horizons 2 is a set that mattered - and it's going to be referenced in conversations about Magic's history for a long time to come. ✨