I would pair this card with Violent Outburst in the ranking, as they play a similar role being the enabler for Cascade decks, Living End, Crashing Footfalls and Glimpse of Tomorrow combo.

While Violent Outburst is instant speed, making it better in some spots, Shardless Agent is a creature. 2/2 means you’re lethal in two rounds with Crashing Foothfalls, or you even got a blocker/attacker if your Cascade payoff doesn’t resolve.

Being blue is also relevant, since Cascade decks use Force of Negation, and also green helps with Force of Vigor out of the sideboard.

The first card on our multicolor list is Shardless Agent. I personally would have liked to see Violent Outburst on this spot, as I think it is the better Cascade-enabler.

In any case, this three-mana creature is amazing in any deck that plays it, usually as a key part of their combo. Two very strong decks, Living End and Rhinos (Crashing Footfalls) would not exist in their current form without the possibility to play eight cheap Cascade cards.

In these decks, Shardless Agent enables an easy two-card combo with either Living End or Crashing Footfalls, making those lists very consistent and powerful strategies and the best combo decks in the format.

But while there are many broken things one can build around thanks to Shardless Agent, it is not problematic for the format. There is always enough to combat these combos, take Teferi, Time Raveler or Chalice of the Void, which both provide strong and efficient answers to any Cascade-shenanigans.

Shardless Agent entered the Modern card pool with a bang after the release of Modern Horizons 1.

Both Violent Outburst and Shardless Agent are the backbone of every Cascade deck being played in Modern nowadays, and currently there are two tier 1 decks (Living End, Crashing Footfalls) cascading into powerful spells to win the game.

I personally chose Violent Outburst over Shardless Agent for this spot, as the former is the only one you can cast at instant speed in the entire format.

This is especially relevant considering that these decks all play Force of Negation which can only be played for 0 mana on the opponent’s turn. Play patterns which force through the Cascade spell end up being:

“I cast Violent Outburst on your turn with Force of Negation protection. Can you counter two spells on your turn? If so, I can still untap and cast another Cascade spell on my turn.”

I was very suprised seeing this card only on 5 since I put Shardless Agent as the clear winner of all multicolor cards in Modern.

Shardless Agent has changed the format probably the most in enabling 2 entire archetypes, Living End and especially Temur Rhinos, being absolute top contenders in the format.

Looking at the huge results Temur Rhinos had since the printing of Shardless Agents and at the top 5 list, I think the power and consistency this card enables still feels underestimated. Especially in being a creature and dodging cards like Force of Negation, Spell Pierce and Flusterstorm by also being able to attack and block empowered Temur Rhinos in being one of the dominant forces.

I definitely can see its limits by not becoming any better than Temur Rhinos allready is, but comparing it to the other cards since the banning of Lurrus of the Dream-Den, I think the impact of Shardless Agent remains or even increased.

This card does everything, and it was an instant addition to all the 4C control decks that lost Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath from the previous ban.

First it immediately replaces itself drawing a card, gaining 4 puts you out of reach of Lava Spike (Omnath, Locus of Creation + Fetch Land is usually concession from Burn decks). In addition, it makes enough mana to being free, or to add Yorion, Sky Nomad to your hand, and it deals 4 damage to your opponents and all theirs Planeswalkers. Eventually you can just let it sit and gain 4 life per turn until you draw something. 

Quite an essay for one of the best cards Modern got. 

Now with Leyline Binding (a card that would be included easily in Top 5 white cards if it was printed in time) Unholy Heat, Mystical Dispute and other answers Omnath, Locus of Creation is not too difficult to manage, but you have to do it immediately otherwise a harmless fetch can generate a lot of value.

Speaking of the lands and the speed of the format, it’s easy to compare how Omnath, Locus of Creation works in Modern and in Pioneer. 

This is a card I have little experience playing with myself, but I have sat on the other side of the table often enough to know how powerful the elemental can be.

Omnath, Locus of Creation is one of those new, power-crept creatures with too much text that can seemingly do it all: Draw cards, gain life, generate mana and he even packs an in-built win condition.

It is just a little too much on a four-mana 4/4. The namesake 4-color deck is a top tier deck for several months already, and the elemental is an important cornerstone of the strategy. Since the deck is not very fast and usually needs to catch up a little bit, Omnath, Locus of Creation is a perfect fit since he is great in making up some ground after having fallen behind.

In a list that is geared towards generating insane value, the Omnath, Locus of Creation is a tireless engine that supplies resources throughout the whole game and plays well on board. The number four spot, however, is deserved as the next three cards arguably take it up another notch.

Omnath, Locus of Creation… I love casting this card as much as my opponents hate playing against it.

Although four mana is quite a lot, Omnath, Locus of Creation stabilizes games incredibly well and does a bit of everything. Life gain against aggressive strategies, card advantage against decks wanting to grind, mana to give you a needed explosive turn to catch up – these are just some of the most useful functions it serves in different spots.

Omnath, Locus of Creation fits especially well in Yorion and/or Risen Reef decks of which there are a few in the current metagame, and since these decks also play pitch-elementals (Solitude, Fury etc.) drawing multiple copies of a legendary card like Omnath, Locus of Creation also ends up serving other purposes.

Being played only in two decks, this card still feels like the remaining piece of card which survived the bannings of Uro, Titans of Nature Wrath and Mystic Sanctuary in February 2021.

Omnath, Locus of Creation is an absolute powerhouse and key card in its own control shell functioning pretty much like Primeval Titan in Amulet Titan. Although the interaction against Omnath, Locus of Creation have dramatically increased with Solitude, Fury, Subtlety and Unholy Heat, the card still is extremely hard to deal with and often wins on the spot.

Since 4c Omnath also represents a slightly favored win rate against the most played deck UR Murktide, the deck is in general a great choice to play right now. Overall Omnath, Locus of Creation shares a solid meta share and decent win rate against the field making it a worthy 4 on our ranking.

The double-edged swords (Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Feast and Famine, etc.) are the best cards in UWx Control decks and the best card against them, is this 3 mana Planeswalker. It is also one of the best noncreature spells Modern got.

In a deeply interactive format playing only sorcery speed is annoying, and it also stops a ton of cards such as Cascade spells, Shelldock Island, Instant Madness cards and Bring to Light.

Being able to “protect” itself by bouncing a two drop, or even one of your cards to make additional value is also great. Plus, playing instant speed Supreme Verdict, Thoughtseize in Upkeep and Scapeshift feels amazing.

In third place we have Teferi, Time Raveler. This War of the Spark Planeswalker is a controversial one and a defining card of the Modern format. For only three mana he shuts down your opponent’s instant speed interaction and can even bounce a creature to draw a card!

I remember when he was released, many control players rejoiced, claiming that this was the perfect Planeswalker, great in any matchup and never a dead draw.

While this did not turn out to be totally true (there are bad matchups for the Teferi, Time Raveler), he is still among the best cards in Modern. Although control is seldom a top tier deck in the format, the three-mana Planeswalker is extremely well positioned right now given the plethora of Cascade decks, which he simply shuts down with his static ability.

Many players say that he is not well-designed because turning off your opponent’s instant speed actions is just too strong and frustrating. I see that point, but I still think he is okay, especially given the overall rising power-level of the format.

“Teferi, the Fun Police” changes the rules of Magic in a very unpleasant way for a lot of decks. Counters are suddenly dead cards, suspend spells are not castable anymore, and waiting for your opponent to make a move stops being an option.

Since Teferi, Time Raveler stops any permission spells from being cast at instant speed, the Planeswalker is also great in combo decks trying to force through a winning game line – and it doesn’t only stop these permission spells, but also bounces problematic permanents which are preventing your combo from functioning.

This wide range of applicability makes Teferi, Time Raveler a format staple in multiple archetypes. Combo decks, aggressive decks like Hammer Time, and 4 colour grindy decks all like having access to the card for multiple reasons.

The Planeswalker which transforms MtG into Hearthstone, currently sees play mostly in control decks and takes up number 3 in our rankings.

With the increased amount of blue decks and the addition of Counterspell in Modern, Teferi, Time Raveler shines in locking your opponent playing Sorcery speed only and often clearing the board of Murktide Regents and other threats with its bounce ability.

The fact that Teferis minus 3 bounce also draws a card, makes it an immediate replace itself on an empty board and never truly bad or dead card in hand. There are definitely matchups in which Teferi, Time Raveler doesn’t have a big board impact, but when it does, it’s often absolutely game crushing.

My take for best multicolor card in Modern, and probably best card in the format too. Playing Wrenn and Six on Turn 2, makes you feel so ahead and there aren’t many interactions to it (except for exactly Pierce or Snare) if you’re OTP. 

Also being able to answer x/1 for basically no cost warped the format, and nowadays, noone plays Noble Hierarch or so many x/1 as it used before. And when you deploy T2 Wrenn and Six versus a T1 Esper Sentinel/Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer you’ve almost won.

Now we come to the real heavy hitters. Wrenn and Six is arguably the best Planeswalker in the game (There is no other Planeswalker that costs less than three mana! Note from the editor: Not sure if that’s entirely true) and consequently one of the best cards in Modern.

It was difficult to rank it second on this list and I still think it is a very close race with the top spot.

Wrenn and Six is the backbone of the 4-color decks that define the format at the moment and grants these decks a level of consistency that is unparalleled. In Modern, where most decks use Fetch Lands to fulfill their mana requirements, Wrenn and Six is incredible in securing your land drops and giving you access to all the colors you need.

This is key for the success of these greedy rainbow-decks. The two-mana staple is the definition of value.

It enters the battlefield with three loyalty counters and immediately ticks up to four while grabbing a land from your graveyard and thus replacing itself. Additionally, it can ping down some small creatures on your opponent’s side at the cost of only one loyalty. Just as a little bonus, its ultimate ability is also pure value, giving you an emblem that turns the lands in your hand into flashback-versions of the spells in your graveyard, ‘cause why not.

I personally placed Wrenn and Six in the first place, and think it should take the number 1 spot by a wide margin.

For two mana this Planeswalker does way too much, especially when considering how many Utility Lands exist in Modern. With a Fetch Land you suddenly have as many land drops as your heart desires. With Boseiju, Who Shelters All you can destroy multiple problematic permanents. With Triome Lands you can start drawing cards if you have nothing else to do.

Do you need to kill a one mana toughness creature? Wrenn and Six can use its minus ability multiple times before leaving the battlefield – something very few Planeswalkers can boast.

After serving all of these purposes, you also get an often game winning ultimate ability.

Although Wrenn and Six has become a staple card in Modern since its printing, I didn’t even put W6 in my initial top 5 list. Unlike in Legacy in which Wrenn and Six was a 2 mana Crucible of Worlds for Wasteland and rightfully banned, Wrenn and Six doesn’t have close the impact in Modern and is only really played in 4c Omnath, Jund and Creativity shells.

The reasons are simple: Compared to Legacy there are a lot less powerful Utility Lands to return which will have a big impact on the game, most of the time you get Fetch Lands to make sure you are hitting a land every turn (which is definitely good).

The second reason is that the board state of Modern is a lot less X/1 centered like in Legacy, so W6 will have naturally less targets to kill. Actually a lot of decks may ignore Wrenn and Six since they’re either faster than it’s minus 7 ability or Wrenn and Six just doesn’t have the impact to deal with any creature they’re presenting.

The only real matchup in which Wrenn and Six truly shines is against Control decks which don’t have enough board presence to pressure it.

Lastly, I think almost none of the existing decks would get fundamentally worse if Wrenn and Six was banned. Unlike archetype building and key cards like Shardless Agent or Omnath, Locus of Creation, W6 would barely be missed and at the end is only a really good turn 2 threat without being a centerpiece of a deck.

That being said future printings might buff Wrenn and Six since its potential for being a land recurring threat are high, but for what Modern is now I don’t really believe W6 deserves the second place, or to rephrase it: Definitely not in comparison to Shardless Agent.

This is probably the best cantrip Modern got, and I’m surprised it’s not from a Horizon set. Sometimes anticipate… Sometimes divination!

I especially love it because it’s a smart card, and requires you to fully understand what you need when; even deciding when to cast it is tricky – my go to is generally playing Expressive Iteration when I have no more land drops to do. Taking full value out of your spells is the best you can do in Modern at the moment. Unless you’re against Cascade and you don’t have the counter… then I’d even play it on Turn 2! 

For me, it was very hard to decide between Expressive Iteration and Wrenn and Six. They are both among the best, if not the best, cards in their respective shells, and they both interact extremely well with the rest of the Modern environment. I settled for Iteration because I think it is even better at what it does in Izzet Murktide, than what Wrenn and Six does in the 4-color decks.

For two mana you get to look at the top three cards of your library and take two of those cards, the minor downside being that you must play one of them this turn.

While it may not sound as insane as getting a Planeswalker for two mana, this effect is just absurd in the right deck. Securing a land drop and giving you an extra card to play later is exactly what blue-red tempo decks need to keep up the pressure and not die down after some turns. This is the difference between playing mono-red or adding blue for card advantage and Expressive Iteration is probably the best card ever printed for the Izzet archetype.

It is so strong, it had to be banned in Pioneer, and therefore I think I should take home the number one rank.

Expressive Iteration fills a role left vacant since Treasure Cruise was banned in 2015 – an efficient card advantage tool for Izzet decks.

The usual play pattern for EI involves waiting until turn 3 or later to play a land from exile and choose a spell to place into your hand. Once you start finding two spells in the later stages of the game is where the real card advantage starts taking place, making the player casting IE pull ahead in resources.

This makes EI especially strong in decks like UR Murktide which play very efficient permission spells.

The card has not only been adopted in Modern – Legacy decks also play the card to great success and in Pioneer it has even gotten banned.

The multiple formats all star card Expressive Iteration takes up the number 1 spot of our multicolor list. Although I put it on 3 in my personal list for Modern, this specific decision was definitely harder than for the rest and I can see how in a vacuum Expressive Iteration can be the true winner.

In general Expressive Iteration is a great card. For 2 mana you draw one card and play one out of the top 3 cards. Being 2 mana only makes it an incredible turn 3 play, even turn 2 if you count in 0 mana cards like Mishra’s Bauble.

With Expressive Iteration being in so many decks and reaching all 4 copies even in a format like Vintage, I hear a lot of players saying the card is too good in both Modern and Legacy, comparing it essentially to Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time, which both formats have seen and banned.

Since I already played with all of the mentioned cards, I absolutely disagree with this sentiment.

Unlike previously mentioned Treasure Cruise and DTT, Expressive Iteration actually requires more specific deck building and has in general a much lower power level in a Fetch Land format. Being in Izzet colors makes it already more color restrictive, so unless you’re playing exactly UR Murktide, you’re looking at least into a 3 color shell to make Expressive Iteration work.

Second point is, the card draws only 1 card and forces you to make a play out of the remaining 2 cards. The exiled card of Expressive Iteration may often be a non-optimal play and requires either a very low curve to fully capitalize on it exactly like Grixis Shadow or UR Murktide, or an ongoing finding of additional land drops.

I know that being especially in Izzet, an aggressive color combination with low to the curve threats, the card opened up the archetype to become extremely good especially since the printings of absurd Modern Horizons 2 creatures like Ragavan, DRC and Murktide Regent. Still, I believe that Expressive Iteration actually has deck building restrictions to it, being almost non-abusable in combo decks and holds up a much lower ceiling in Control decks. That argumentation applies even more to Legacy than Modern since you clearly see Expressive Iteration being extraordinary in Delver, good in Control and non-existing in absurdly strong combo decks like Storm, Doomsday or Sneak & Show.

For Modern, Expressive Iteration is definitely the go-to card advantage and grind machine after the banning of Lurrus of the Dream-Den and we definitely continue to see it on top of the meta share and win percentages. But nowhere is the card close to Treasure Cruise or Dig Through Time and lines up way more in the overall power level of both Legacy and Modern.

1. Expressive Iteration
2. Wrenn and Six
3. Teferi, Time Raveler
4. Shardless Agent / Violent Outburst
5. Omnath, Locus of Creation
6. Yorion, the Sky Nomad
7. Grist, the Hunger Tide
8. Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
9. Supreme Verdict
10. Drown in the Loch

1. Expressive Iteration
2. Wrenn and Six
3. Teferi, Time Raveler
4. Omnath, Locus of Creation
5. Violent Outburst
6. Shardless Agent
7. Supreme Verdict
8. Grist, The Hunger Tide
9. Manamorphose
10. Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger

1. Wrenn and Six
2. Teferi, Time Raveler
3. Omnath, Locust of Creation
4. Expressive Iteration
5. Violent Outburst
6. Yorion, the Sky Nomad
7. Shardless Agent
8. Risen Reef
9. Jegantha, the Well Spring
10. Kroxa, Titan of Nature’s Hunger

1. Shardless Agent
2. Yorion, the Sky Nomad
3. Expressive Iteration
4. Omnath, Locus of Creation
5. Teferi, Time Raveler
6. Wrenn and Six
7. Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
8. Violent Outburst
9. Supreme Verdict
10. Kolaghan’s Command

1. Expressive Iteration
2. Wrenn and Six
3. Violent Outburst
4. Omnath, Locus of Creation
5. Yorion, Sky Nomad
6. Teferi, Time Raveler
7. Shardless Agent
8. Jegantha, the Wellspring
9. Ice-Fang Coatl
10. Supreme Verdict