Hello everyone, this is Ripoff bringing you some great MTGO news! Today I’m introducing Horizons, a format which is recently starting to pick up steam on MOS!
This fan-made format is the brainchild of MTGO user Playtester74. It was invented as a consequence of the massive changes introduced to the modern format by the MH sets. Playtester74 wished to see a return to older archetypes and better gameplay which he believed could be facilitated through the elimination of the MH sets in modern as well as an adjusted ban list. Eventually the Magic Online Society took notice, facilitated discussion in their discord server, and even began a monthly league!
So what exactly is the format and how can you start playing? It is important to say that this is a “modern” format in the sense that all standard sets from eight edition onwards are legal. The biggest distinction between Modern and Horizons is that Horizons does not recognize Modern Horizons 1 or Modern Horizons 2 as format legal sets. Neither the legacy to modern reprints or the newly created cards are tournament legal.
The other major difference is that Horizons has a ban list which is voted on by the player base. No other format in MTG that I know of has this feature. The voting process is explained more thoroughly in an attached article. The key takeaways are that only players who participate and complete events receive voting power.
Why this format? __________________
From roughly 2013 - 2015 Modern was a fairly stable format to play in. It had a variety of playable archetypes with staples that were expected to retain their value over time. It was by far the most popular competitive MTG format and its dominance only began to slip when MTG as a whole began to disintegrate into irrelevance. One of the things that attracted the player base to the format was the idea that they could pick up a deck and master its key mechanics and matchups overtime. If they wanted to put the deck down and take a year long break they were free to do so. When they come back the deck MIGHT need one or two upgrades but the format as a whole wouldn’t be so radically different that they would no longer be able to compete on a competitive level. Horizons is an attempt to capture some of these old Modern values.
Horizons was also created to avoid having to play with The Modern Horizons sets which were part of the reason that this old style of community and collecting has fallen by the wayside.
Now lets talk about the Banned list for the Horizons format _______________________________________________________
There is a voting system to determine the Banned list for Horizons. To create consistency and predictabliity, there is a periodical voting system every 2 months. There can be a max of 12 cards deliberated for bans each cycle and there must be a 68% majority of votes in order for a card to be added or removed from the banned list. You can earn voting power by participating in Horizons events. Thus those who play the format, determine its future.
More information regarding how the banned list voting works can be found in the Horizons discord!
The current banned list can be found below:
Sensei's Divining Top
Mental Misstep
Chrome Mox
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
Mox Opal
Git Probe
Second Sunrise
Oko, Thief of Crowns
Skullclamp
Once Upon a Time
Eye of Ugin
Lurrus, of the Dream Den
Rite of Flame
Dark Depths
Treasure Cruise
Cloudpost
Mystic Sanctuary
Summer Bloom
Simian Spirit Guide
Ponder
Dig Through Time
Field of the Dead
Dread Return
The next ban vote will be held on 2/26/23
Does this format have events? ____________________________
Yes! Currently there is a monthly league of MTGO Horizons that is played through The Magic Online Society. Players sign up through discord and Gatherling.com. Deck lists are collected through Gatherling.com and we will be publishing them creating a database for the players to sort through! Overall the format has been an absolute joy to play and I think that the format has the potential to be unlike anything before it. In a good way! Hope to see you there. You can join the Magic Online Society Discord as well to play in the events! Thanks for taking the time to read, we hope to see you in our leagues!