MTG Modern Horizons 3 Uncommon bomb in Commander Aristocrat decks slips under radar

An Uncommon from Modern Horizons 3 spoilers called Marionette Apprentice is a powerful two-drop in Black for Aristocrat decks for Magic: The Gathering Commander builds.

The official Modern Horizons 3 spoilers began on May 21, with MTG cards like the Flare cycle, Frogmyr Enforcer, Mogg Mob, and Ulamog, the Defiler garnering attention. But slipping under the radar was an Uncommon called Marionette Apprentice, a two-drop Mono-Black Human Artificer creature with Fabricate and the ability to tick life points off opponents when another creature or Artifact you own goes to the graveyard. 

The name may sound familiar to MTG Aristocrat players as a similar card called Marionette Master was printed through the Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in Forgotten Realms Planar Portal Commander Precon. It also had Fabricate but had a CMC cost of six mana. Upon Marionette Apprentice being revealed, content creator Dev from Strictly Better MTG called it “A Zulaport Cutthroat Marionette Master mashup.” He also called the MH3 Aristocrat card “ridiculous,” and said it will go in “every deck he plays.” 

Marionette Apprentice is a ridiculously powerful MTG card in a Commander Aristocrat deck in that an opponent loses life any time another creature or Artifact you control is put into the graveyard. Tokens don’t reside in a player’s graveyard but they technically visit it first before disappearing into oblivion. This means Blood tokens, Treasure tokens, Clue tokens, Food tokens, and creature tokens are now fair game within an Aristocrats deck—which is a game changer. 

For players unfamiliar with the MTG keyword mechanic Fabricate, it allows the controller to either place a +1/+1 counter on the card based on the Fabricate number or create that many Servo Artifact creature tokens. In the case of Marionette Apprentice, you’ll likely create a token creature that ticks a life point off your opponent’s life total when it perishes. 

You can check out Marionette Apprentice and all the other Modern Horizons 3 spoilers when Prerelease events start on June 7.