So, honestly, until embarassingly recently, I didn't really "get" Modern Horizons, or its digital-only gaiden sequel, Historic Horizons. But, now that I understand the "Modern" format (basically every card set they've come out with since the borders changed in 8th Edition) and how Historic is kind of the Arena equivalent, dating back to the first sets to be released on Arena (which I believe was Ixalan, though earlier sets like Amonkhet and Kaladesh remastered have been added,) these new sets make way more sense: a way to add new cards to these formats that can link up with any of the mechanics used in those earlier sets.
It's also a way for deck archetypes that might be popular in those formats to get some new blood in them - you might not have had much luck finding new Modular artifact creatures since 2003, but the "Horizons" sets bring new stuff to them.
And if this is all obvious to you, good for you. You've been paying closer attention than I have.
With Jumpstart: Heroic Horizons, we've seen new cards added to the Historic format, including one terrifying infinite combo that I imagine will see some kind of ban (for now, having instant-speed removal to cast immediately after they use Davriel's Withering on Witherlark, to kill the thing before the former resolves, and home they don't have another one and an open black mana to do it anyway seems to be the only way to survive it.)
But while I imagine that the metagame for Historic is even thornier than it is for Standard (and Standard 2022) it's also a format that opens up a lot of possibilities for fun decks.
Way back around 2005 or so, I made a vampire deck. This was before Zendikar, Innistrad, or any set in which vampires had any sort of tribal support. Back in those days, black had basically only the one "small creature" tribe that saw any kind of regular printing, which was zombies. Yes, we had skeletons, though never, I believe, with any tribal support, and then of course Thrulls, which did technically get at least one tribal card in Fallen Empires. Anyway, WotC had not yet decided to make vampires the default black "humanoid" "race." Indeed, the most prominent vampires were pretty big creatures like Sengir Vampire, serving more as rivals for black's other big creatures like demons.
This deck worked, kind of. (Notably, this was on MTGO, so there were some cards, like Reformed Vampire - a sneaky tribute to the character and show Angel, which was a spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - that wouldn't even count for the Modern format.)
Anyway, after doing a Jumpstart game in which I had a vampire (and sliver, though I didn't even seem to draw them) deck, I decided to try my hand at building a Vampire Tribal deck.
And actually, it kind of works. I've managed to have some pretty successful matches, which was especially nice after a terrible losing streak today (I've been fighting just to stay at Silver Rank 1, and even for a bit dipped down about halfway through Silver Rank 2.)
The deck is built around - if it's built around anything other than "these are some cool vampires" - lifegain and swelling creatures, which, you know, is actually pretty classic vampire stuff.
Through mostly luck, I actually have four copies of Westgate Regent, which is one of those cards I think could be a huge centerpiece finisher in Standard if the proper support cards would allow you to build a deck around it. A bit like Szadek, Lord of Secrets from way back, Westgate Regent is a 4/4 flying vampire for 3BB (classing Sengir Vampire body) with Ward - Discard a Card, and when it deals damage to a player, it gets +1/+1 counters for each point of damage it deals.
Naturally, this guy will finish off your opponent real quickly (finding a way to give it double strike would be really nasty) and the Ward cost can be great if your opponent is out of cards.
The next really crucial piece is Cordial Vampire. This guy is a 1/1 for BB. Whenever any creature (including itself) dies (the phrasing on the card is a bit different, which I assume is to make sure you know to count it as well,) all vampires you control get a +1/+1 counter. This is actually deceptively powerful, as if you trade in combat, this triggers twice. So you can let him hang back from combat and block to pump him up from a 1/1 very quickly (in one game he got to 10/10.) And this goes across the board, so if you can manage to have a large number of vampires out, this will get delightfully out of hand really quickly.
I'm not sure I'm ready to spend wildcards on historic stuff, but I actually think this deck has legs, and will probably tweak it a bit. I know that when I started playing Arena, vampire decks were pretty popular in the metagame (possibly in part because they were somewhat cheap,) and I could imagine working some of the cards from those decks into this one (there are several already.)
Anyway, when it comes to classic horror monsters, I think I like werewolves more the same way that I'm a dog person - I still love vampires, just as I adore our three cats, even if I think of myself, personality-wise, as more of a werewolf/dog person.
While I don't think a dog is in my future any time soon, given the building I live in (and also because the three cats we have are plenty to keep us busy with pet care, and I would burn this whole world down if anything happened to them,) the prospect of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt on the horizon suggests that there could very well be some really fun lycanthropuppies coming real soon.
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