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Zendikar was one of the most popular sets of all time, and the Zendikar block was equally well-received, causing a massive increase in the player base. Brian DeMars wrote a nice retrospective article on the first Zendikar set that you can read here. The block featured a number of powerful cards that have had lasting impacts on constructed formats including Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Stoneforge Mystic, and the first printing of the enemy fetch lands. In additon to these powerful rares and mythics, It also has a number of uncommons worth noting.
Zendikar
We got an upgraded version of Hedron Crab in Battle for Zendikar with Ruin Crab, but the original crab still commands almost $8. I have previously mentioned how Mill players are a devoted group, and this price is one of the best pieces of evidence. On a side note, I definitely expect Ruin Crab to be the most valuable uncommon from BFZ, though I imagine the print run is much higher now so the price ceiling is lower.
Trailblazer's Boots essentially makes commanders unblockable thanks to the plethora of non-basics played in Commander.
Watchlist - Zendikar
While Punishing Fire has been reprinted twice, those reprints were the original Commander product in 2013 and Duel Decks: Knights vs Dragons. This card spiked hard a few years ago when people figured out the combo with Grove of the Burnwillows. This combo was so oppressive against creature-based decks that Punishing Fire was banned in Modern, where it remains. Should it ever get unbanned, this is easily a $5+ uncommon.
Ravenous Trap Is one of the few cards upgraded to rare when reprinted. after Zendikar, it appeared in Double Masters and Mystery Booster, and those reprints likely didn't add much to the supply. The current price is low mostly due to the greatly reduced power level of the Modern Izzet Phoenix decks following the banning of Faithless Looting, of which Ravenous Trap was a premium hate card. While we may not see Faithless Looting ever get unbanned in Modern, it is only a matter of time for another graveyard-centric deck to rise to power and dominate the format and when it does this will be an obvious sideboard inclusion. Get your copies now, while they are basically bulk.
Worldwake
Seedborn Muse is a must kill target in Commander, so it isn't surprising that this uncommon with a similar effect is valuable. Quest for Renewal is the only uncommon from the set that reaches our greater than $1.49 criteria. It is also important to remember that the draft format at the time was Zendikar, Zendikar, Worldwake. When Rise of the Eldrazi came out it was drafted as a single set, thus a lot less Worldwake was opened than either Zendikar or Rise of the Eldrazi.
Watchlist - Worldwake
While good ol' Tec Edge has taken a back seat to Field of Ruin or Ghost Quarter as the preferred land that destroys lands in Modern, it is important to note that unlike the other two, Tectonic Edge does NOT give your opponent a basic land, which most decks now run.
Rise of the Eldrazi
Inquisition of Kozilek is one of the premier hand disruption spells in Modern. While it does have some restrictions, the fact that the majority of cards in modern have a Mana Value of three or less means that it hits almost everything that is relevant. While inferior to Thoughtseize in terms of selection, in a format where the best dual lands can cost you two life to come into play untapped, the two life lost casting Thoughtseize matters.
Pawn of Ulamog jumped into the valuable uncommon slot relatively recently thanks to Yawgmoth, Thran Physician. Prior to Modern Horizons it was a bulk uncommon.
This is one of the few good level up cards, as getting Joraga Treespeaker to the first level is essentially free. The level up mechanic overall was a pretty big miss from a practical standpoint, falling so flat it is unlikely to be brought back in a premiere product. This means Joraga Treespeaker is unlikely to be reprinted.
Annihilator proved to be an incredibly powerful mechanic and when stapled onto creatures made them far more competitive. In addition to its first printing, Pathrazer of Ulamog has only a WPN promo and a Mystery Booster printing. Demand for this is likely heavily influenced by those who don't want to spend the money on the original big Eldrazi but still want creatures with Annihilator. Given its size and the requirement of three blockers, it tends to be a six-for-one when attacking: three sacrificed from the annihilator triggers and three creatures to block it.
This is one of my friend's pet cards. He was the first person I saw actually include it in a Commander deck years ago. Not of this World is a free counterspell to protect a commander with high power, or to protect any permanent if you are willing to pay the seven mana. It is a tribal spell, which can be relevant at times. It was recently reprinted in the Mystery Booster product, which is likely an insignificant print run to affect the price.
Wall of Omens is another modern staple that has been printed into oblivion, crushing its price the past few years.
Watchlist - Rise of the Eldrazi
This is definitely a hidden gem from Rise of the Eldrazi. While it has been reprinted once in the original Commander product, this is a card that both ramps you and can create large numbers of tokens repeatedly. Foils are still relatively cheap at under $3.
I would have had a lot more hope for this card breaking out if it hadn't been included in Commander Legends. Interest in that set has seemed to wane in the past few months though, so depending on if a lot more of that product gets opened or not, Pennon Blade is still a card to watch. You can pick up foils of the Rise of the Eldrazi version for around $1, which seems like the better option to take if you are going to speculate on this card.
Specifically, Cathar Commando and Outland Liberator fill well-known holes for several decks and will be adopted by at least some sideboards. See, the biggest hole in Humans has always been its weakness against Torpor Orb. The deck is built around creatures with enters-the-battlefield triggers, and Champion of the Parish is unplayably bad under the Orb. This weakness is compounded by Humans lacking Qasali Pridemage in-tribe. Humans can go outside the tribe for some answers, but Pridemage's cost was prohibitive due to its creature types. All the other options were similarly answered by Orb. Humans finally has two options to defeat the Orb or any other prison piece it needs to.
Liberator's front face is worse than Commando's mainly because flash is so powerful (an extra point of power never hurts, though). However, the potential of flipping Liberator into Frenzied Trapbreaker makes up for that weakness to the point that I'd expect Humans to adopt Liberator over Commando. True, Trapbreaker doesn't synergize with Humans, but it doesn't need to itself. Liberator has that covered and any +1/+1 counters will carry over when flipped. It's one thing to Pridemage 
away a threat; it's another to be able to swing into Urza's Saga constructs with confidence.Ā Also worth noting: Saga itself is a target. Liberator even makes Gavony Dawnguard more playable by getting Day/Night tracking started.
The next two are far more speculative, but I can definitely see their niche. Typically, control mirrors devolve into staring competitions followed by a frenzy of activity as one deck goes for it. Malevolent Hermit offers a pretty solid way to reposition and possibly steal games 2 and 3. A 2/1 beater isn't anything special, but Hermit's front face does provide a better Spell Pierce which stays active under Teferi, Time Raveler. And also can't be countered by Force of Negation. That's a pretty great way to pressure opponents/planeswalkers and keep up the shields.
However, it's the back side that can run away with games. Having a creature that can return from the graveyard is solid as it's card advantage. A flying creature that moots opposing counterspells is better. The only problem with Benevolent Geist is actually getting it into play. Casting it is no different than going for Teferi, but Geist can only be cast from the graveyard. This means that Hermit has to be cashed in first, which is no bad thing, or killed. The problem with the later option: most control removal exiles. However, that does leave the door open for looting effects if rushing to Geist is a thing. In either case, control players should be aware of the Hermit's power.
This has led a lot of players to point to Curse as the answer to Crashing Footfalls and Living End. And they're not wrong; delaying either deck's main gameplan until turn 5 is quite strong. However, the catch is that both decks have ways to answer the enchantment and still go off turn 3, with Brazen Borrower being the most common. This does not disqualify Curse as a sideboard card, but it does mean that it needs support to be effective. I'd argue that since Curse only delays the named card, it's not a general answer, but a taxing card, and that would limit play to tempo and aggro decks that actually put the delay to good use.
The final card is tricky to evaluate. It has one clear home, but that home is already occupied. Sunset Revelry is a cheaper Timely Reinforcements with a bonus. For one less mana it makes one less token and gains two less life. There's also a third clause that's unlikely to be relevant for a control deck against Burn, which is where Timely sees play. Being cheaper is usually the best way to see play and that's led to speculation that Revelry has made Timely obsolete. I'd be more cautious.
However, that cantrip potential might open up more space for Revelry. Timely never sees play outside of control vs aggro, but I could see Revelry being played by aggro against aggro. Being on the draw is quite hard for any creature deck, and getting on the back foot early can be fatal. Revelry can help a stalling aggro deck get back in against a better board. 4 life and 2 humans isn't going to do that, but those things plus a cantrip might. The latter is the most important part since it digs for more threats and may actually be valuable against midrange for that reason. That Tarmogoyf will hold off the humans perfectly fine, but I'm getting another chance to hit a real threat and you'll have to keep the 'Goyf back a turn or two. I'll certainly be testing it.
Similarly, Memory Deluge is a good card that I don't think is good enough. Picking the best two cards from the top four is decent and such digging and selection is especially important for control and combo decks. Four mana is a steep enough price that I think Deluge would be limited to control. The problem is that for less colored mana, Fact or Fiction digs five cards deep. Anyone who's played with or against Fact knows that the caster always gets what they want, so that's not a knock compared to Deluge. The big attraction is the flashback which makes Deluge Dig Through Time with minor discount and no delve. Of course, paying full price for Dig limits it to the late game, and considering that Fact isn't really seeing play, I don't think Deluge has a chance.
I want to acknowledge Willow Geist as a great build-around card. It can grow impressively large alongside Wrenn and Six, Lurrus of the Dream-Den, and to a lesser extent Murktide Regent. However, I have no idea if that's something viable in practice or what such a deck might look like, so I'm leaving Geist to Jordan if he wants it.
Meanwhile, there are a couple more enablers being suggested for graveyard decks. Phoenix primarily, again. Otherworldly Gaze is the main one, as filtering the top three cards and filling the graveyard on turn one is a decent way to set up Phoenix. However, 
Cathartic Pyre also sees 
Finally, there are two cards that would be very playable in a deck that does not and maybe cannot exist in Modern. The zombie tokens inĀ IMHĀ have decayed, which makes the fairly useless except as bad Shocks. As a trade-off, they can be made more efficiently than normal, reusable Zombies. Maro confirmed that Wizards wants them either to be 
In that specific circumstance, Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia becomes a keystone card. Making a decayed zombie every end step is great when said Zombie is going to be fed to something every turn. In such a deck it would be trivial to trigger Jadar every endstep. He's as fragile as they come, but that also makes him something to feed to the engine and replace. However, the real standout in that deck would be Startle. Sacrifice engine decks tend to be a bit slow and vulnerable to aggro. Startle buys time and makes more fodder for the engine without costing a card. It's priced right for Modern, but again, without a hungry sacrifice engine the effect is too weak. If one exists, then we're talking.
The best Modern card revealed from Midnight Hunt is also one of the most innocuous. I've already 
Once Consider is in Modern, expect to see more attempts to revive Arclight Phoenix. 
multiformat all-star because it draws up to two cards. The same will be true of Consider for many decks. Dredge and Reanimator would never stretch into blue for Opt. But they both might for Consider, though Reanimator is far more likely.
So as I was saying, Wizards is printing more graveyard enablers inĀ IMH, and consequently there will be an upswing in graveyard decks soon. And they won't be in the expected colors, so stop relying on Sanctifier en-Vec. Specifically, it's a new Faithless Looting. Which is multicolor, an instant, and has lifegain tacked on so it can be white. Meaning that it's actually not very much like Looting at all beyond sharing some text. But it does explain why Careful Study wasn't in MH2, disappointing plenty of Phoenix hopefuls. And s
decks that don't normally get card velocity. A two mana UW velocity card is competing with far more than Looting did, which will limit playability.
reanimation may be their chance to win. Mending offers the deck a way to burn through the air and set up for another attempt. However, it doesn't make the deck faster. The lifegain makes being slow less problematic against aggro decks, but I don't know if that's enough.
And now for something completely different. Glimpse of Nature has been banned since 
other creature combo deck, but it might be something to build around with flash and Collected Company. It also has flashback, but that costs enough that it's a late-game desperation move. Rite also triggers off enchantments, only lightly broadening the scope of which decks can play it. Enchantress already draws all the cards, it doesn't need a temporary boost. So, again, what's the big deal? Simple. Rite is white rather than blue.
gameplans. And I'm also not certain that Storm- or Elves-style combo is viable in Modern, and if it is, that it's better than existing Company decks.
Speaking of Humans, there are a number of Humans cards with potential inĀ IMH. Which makes sense. This is the plane that spawned Champion of the Parish, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Thalia's Lieutenant, after all. The catch is that, so far, most have catches to their playability. The biggest problem is that almost all are three mana or more. They're very good three mana cards, but cost is a huge factor in playability.
quite good and I know from experience that it will be easy to make live. The problem is that I doubt it will ever save Sentinel from removal. Smart players will just kill the other creatures first. Or sweep the board. It would be very good at breaking board stalls, but those are very rare. In other words, it's a good card for a different metagame.
Chaplain of Alms is another one that might be playable in the right metagame and the right deck. A 1/1 with first strike and ward 1 isn't much, but disturb makes me want to get down with that sickness. Getting a dead creature back transformed is decent value, and protecting every creature with ward 1 is pretty good. It's very fragile and costly, but in a very grindy meta it might work out.
catch is that Dawnguard doesn't trigger on entry. Instead, the trigger is tied to the Day/Night werewolf mechanic and only triggers when night becomes day or day becomes night. Which means that Dawnguard can trigger multiple times, but unless it was already night when she entered, it will be down the line.
However, it's not too far from possible. There are a number of new Day/Nightbound werewolves that would get the ball rolling for Dawnguard. Tovolar, Dire Overlord is the most playable creature so far, but it is quite early. And there are a few non-creatures that reference day and night, so there may be enough cards to get the ball rolling for Dawnguard. In an actual werewolf deck she'd be quite strong, but such a deck is likely a bad Domain Zoo and more for Standard than Modern.
