MTG Modern Horizons 3’s Flare cycle brings new way to cast free spells

The Flare cycle is a new set of Modern Horizons 3 Instants. There’s one for each color of mana, each with a unique casting cost that can be used as an alternative to paying mana.

The Flare cycle consists of the white mana Flare of Fortitude, blue mana Flare of Denial, black mana Flare of Malice, red mana Flare of Duplication, and green mana Flare of Cultivation. Their primary effects differ, but the Flares all share the alternate casting cost ‘You may sacrifice a nontoken (Creature of this card’s color) rather than pay this spell’s mana cost.’

Beyond their potential free casting, these Instants come equipped with classic spell effects associated with their mana color – keeping the cards reliable while exploring the new design space.

WotC

First up, Flare of Fortitude offers blanket protection for your board, preventing your life total from changing for the turn while granting Creatures Hexproof and Indestructible.

Flare of Denial is a classic counterspell, preventing a target spell from being cast. Free counterspells in particular offer incredible value.

Flare of Malice forces opponents into a cruel sacrifice choice, making them give up their highest-value Creature or Planeswalker. Through this, the card can effectively work as a sacrifice trade-off, with its caster giving up a small, cheap Creature in exchange for taking every other player’s heavy hitters off the board.

Flare of Duplication is an excellent combo piece, copying a target Instant or Sorcery and selecting new targets for the copy. It can be used to double up on your own spellslinging or give an opponent a taste of what they’re prepared to use against you.

Finally, Flare of Cultivation is a green ramp effect in the same vein as Cultivate and Kodama’s Reach, fetching two basic Lands from the library, putting one directly onto the field, and adding one to the hand.

Modern Horizons 3’s Flare cards are likely to cause a scene not just in the Modern format, but in Commander too. There, free interaction – specifically counterspells and Instant-speed protection – like Deflecting Swat, Fierce Guardianship, and Flawless Maneuver – are among the most popular and generically useful cards in the whole format.

These cards have racked up huge price tags thanks to their potential free casting, and while the Flare cards do have more of a drawback through their sacrifice trigger, not requiring mana is still a huge upside.

MTG players will want to keep an eye out for the Flare cards once Modern Horizons 3 launches on June 14, as there’s a good chance that these cards will quickly appreciate in price.