Commander Review: Kaldheim | Part 2 | Green, Multicolor, Colorless, Lands
Here's Part 2 of my Kaldheim Commander Review. Check out Part 1 if you haven't already! Alright, let's go!
GREEN
Battle Mammoth
Battle Mammoth provides a weak version of hexproof: you're still losing your permanents to targeted removal, but you at least draw a card. It's certainly a step down from mass hexproof like Dawnglade Regent or Privileged Position but this one does come with 6/5 trample body, which is something.
I'm not excited to run this Mammoth in most decks. However, the reason I'm bringing this Elephant up here is because it's a slam-dunk in one particular deck: Elephant Tribal! No, I'm not tuskin' around, it's a real deck and I wrote about it long ago! Check it out!
Blessing of Frost
Blessing of Frost is one of the powerful snow cards in the set: paying four mana to distribute four +1/+1 counters is a fine rate, and on top of that you're drawing a couple cards! This is the exact sort of thing any +1/+1 Counter deck will want, most notably decks that focus on a lot of creatures like Hamza, Guardian of Arashin and Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, but it's still solid in Voltron strategies too like Skullbriar, the Walking Grave.
It's hard to imagine not recommending this card in any +1/+1 Counter deck, which I'm not happy about but whatever. It's also solid in Snow Tribal under Jorn, God of Winter.
Blizzard Brawl
Prey Upon just got a strictly better version with Blizzard Brawl: now your creature can kill bigger things and you never need to worry about trading. That's great in any Snow Tribal deck and makes a good case for Fight decks to run snow basics too, like Neyith of the Dire Hunt.
Boreal Outrider
Boreal Outrider is pretty much a better Ivy Lane Denizen: all you need is snow basics and all your creatures will come with a free +1/+1 counter on them. Outrider works best in decks looking to go wide with +1/+1 Counters with stuff like Rishkar, Peema Renegade, and not so much Voltron strategies. Between this and Blessing of Frost I'd highly recommend +1/+1 Counter decks swap over to snow basics to run these powerful upgrades.
Elvish Warmaster
Elvish Warmaster is a half-priced Lys Alana Huntmaster with a reasonably capped token trigger. It also comes with a mana sink to pump your Elves, which is good since the tribe generates so much mana and can easily be a finisher if your deck runs infinite mana combos that the tribe is known for. I'd consider Warmaster a new staple for Elf Tribal.
Esika's Chariot
Esika's Chariot is a sweet repeatable populate generator that even creates fluffy kitties to pull the chariot and copy if you don't have better targets. It's a slam-dunk in the two Populate decks, Ghired, Conclave Exile and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice.
Fynn, the Fangbearer
Deathtouch Tribal remains a fairly unexplored archetype, but it seems Wizards has been sprinkling in some support for it in the past few years: we've had Vraska, Swarm's Eminence a few years back, then Hooded Blightfang more recently, and now we've got the most impressive support with Fynn, the Fangbearer, which gives small deathtouch creatures a far nastier bite.
While Fynn could work as a Deathtouch commander, I think he's more interesting in the 99 of a Golgari deck, like Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons. You don't necessarily need to go Deathtouch Tribal with Hapatra: simply make an army of snakes using her typical -1/-1 counter strategies then use Fynn as a finisher once you have a lethal amount of snakes. You absolutely could go Deathtouch Tribal with Hapatra though! Also recently I played against a Deathtouch Tribal deck led by Halana, Kessig Ranger & Sengir, the Dark Baron, using Halana's bite trigger to make every deathtouch creature cast into removal which was pretty effective.
In Search of Greatness
In Search of Greatness is an interesting "ramp" card but I'm not sure which deck will want it. What you can ramp out with it is very restrictive, only the current highest cmc on your board +1, which seems clunky to me. Worst case you scry 1, which is something, but it ain't great. I dunno. This is a card that I need to see play before I give a better review of, but I feel like people are overvaluing it a lot right now. However it might be the perfect fit in decks that I hadn't considered.
Kolvori, God of Kinship
Kolvori, God of Kinship is a great but narrow card that is a staple in Legendary Creature Tribal decks. The front side is solid incremental card draw that digs six deep which is good card selection as well, plus you can smack fools each turn with a 6/6 in the process. The back side is a solid mana rock, 2cmc, taps for a color, comes into play untapped, good.
I'd jam Kolvori into any Legendary Creatue Tribal deck. She's fine as a Commander but the card pool is pretty small if you're restricting yourself to Mono Green. I prefer her in the 99 of a multicolored deck like Captain Sisay or Kethis, the Hidden Hand.
Masked Vandal
One of the most powerful changelings in the set is actually a common! Masked Vandal is a cheaper, stronger Reclamation Sage (an EDH staple) so long as you've got creatures in the graveyard that you're willing to exile. While I doubt Vandal will be outright replacing Sage I'd be happy to run it in most decks that already run Sage. It's also a changeling so it's a slam-dunk in any Tribal deck, including Tribal Tribal!
Old-Growth Troll
Old-Growth Troll looks like a Standard card and not so much for Commander but I think the design is really neat. If Troll Tribal ever becomes a thing -- honestly it's just a matter of time -- I'll be happy to jam it there.
Realmwalker
Realmwalker is another absolutely brilliant changeling from the set. It's basically a Tribal version of Vizier of the Menagerie, restricting you to just one tribe but with the benefit of having a lower cmc and Realmwalker itself always benefitting from your tribe's synergies due to being a changeling. It's fantastic in any creature-heavy Tribal deck, plus it's just the best in Tribal Tribal! Did I mention I'm excited for Tribal Tribal??? BECAUSE I AM!
Rootless Yew
Rootless Yew is a new staple in Treefolk Tribal! Yew all my have forgotten about this mighty tribe, but I didn't! Doran, the Siege Tower didn't! Colfenor, the Last Yew didn't! Bring back Treefolk Tribal!
Roots of Wisdom
Roots of Wisdom is flavorful and decent budget recursion in an Elf Tribal deck, particularly Golgari ones which can take more advantage of the mill portion with more powerful recursion options. It ain't great but it's dirt cheap and if you're on a tight budget it gets the job done.
Sculptor of Winter
Sculptor of Winter is a solid inclusion in Jorn, God of Winter: it's a snow permanent you get an extra activation per turn when Jorn untaps it, plus aura ramp like Overgrowth are really strong in a deck full of ways to untap those lands. It may also be worth playing in other decks as well, perhaps certain Freed from the Real combos.
Toski, Bearer of Secrets
Back in 2019 Green got its own versions of Coastal Piracy with Ohran Frostfang and Keeper of Fables. Now it's gotten the strongest one yet with Toski, Bearer of Secrets. Any Go Wide style Green deck is going to love Toski: it's a creature which Green can easily tutor up, it's indestructible so it's hard to remove, and it can turn your army into a massive card draw engine. Heck, it can even draw cards itself if you give it some evasion.
I think Toski is a new staple in any Green Go Wide deck, such as tokens like Rhys the Redeemed or evasive weenies like Edric, Spymaster of Trest. But I'm most excited for this as the perfect commander for a beloved tribe: Squirrels! Yes, Toski is our Squirrel commander, the perfect leader for our Deranged Hermit and whatnot. Expect Toski Squirrel Tribal to be featured soon!
Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider
Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider is one heck of a card: it doubles the counters like a half of Doubling Season while also shutting down your opponents' counter strategies. Oh, and it's attached to a 6/6 creature with trample and haste! This is powerful, cost-effective, and scary, but thankfully it won't carry the same levels of salt as its original incarnation, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. I consider that a win-win for good card design.
I think Vorinclex can be a powerful commander at the head of a Mono Green +1/+1 Counter or Superfriends deck, but is probably going to show up more commonly in the 99 of those decks with access to more colors.
MULTICOLOR
Aegar, the Freezing Flame
For the longest time our defacto Giant Tribal commander was the Boros Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas, who doesn't specifically support Giants but does a great job of it. Kalemne's style of Giant Tribal is aggressive, slamming down big fatties and smacking for big damage.
Now we've got a second option for Giant Tribal, this time the Izzet Aegar, the Freezing Flame. While there's overlap with Kalemne Giants since Red is the primary color for the tribe, the style of play is quite different, instead focusing on the Big Burn aspect of Giants that Kaldheim has been pushing the tribe towards with cards like Battle of Frost and Fire and Quakebringer.
As someone who has long been a fan of Giant Tribal, I'm a big fan of Aegar. I think I like him more than Kalemne -- probably because it has the words "draw a card" on it -- and I'm really excited to play around with him.
Arni Slays the Troll
This saga starts as a Prey Upon and the other chapters aren't that exciting but hey it's extra value. It's not an amazing saga but it's a cool inclusion in Neyith of the Dire Hunt or a Saga deck that can bounce / blink / remove counters off them.
Battle for Bretagard
Battle for Bretagard is basically a bad Second Harvest, with two underwhelming chapters before you get a sweet token doubler. It's still a fine budget option for Populate decks like Ghired, Conclave Exile.
Battle of Frost and Fire
Battle of Frost and Fire is a saga version of Thundercloud Shaman, being more consistent and offering more utility with the downside of not being attached to a giant creature. It's a new staple in Aegar, the Freezing Flame.
The Bears of Littjara
This Saga can be quite powerful in Tribal Tribal, though it's a bit slow. It's good enough for a low-budget version of the deck, like a pseudo-Mirror Entity.
Binding The Old Gods
The best sagas are often front-loaded, like Binding the Old Gods here, where the first chapter's removal is the best part of the card. However the other two chapters are so bland that it's not particularly exciting. It's kinda like a more flexible but slower sorcery-speed Deathsprout which is totally playable but not exciting. Overall meh about this in EDH.
The Bloodsky Massacre
Is Berserker Tribal a thing? If so, this saga is solid. Wouldn't consider this card outside of it.
Esika, God of the Tree
Esika, God of the Tree's front side supports Legendary Creatures, turning them all into Birds of Paradise with vigilance. This is pretty strong and can enable ye old Aggravated Assault combos by attacking with 5+ legendary creatures, then tapping them to pay for Assault's extra combat ability for infinite combats. The front side alone makes for a solid addition to Legendary Creature Tribal, either as the commander or under Sisay, Weatherlight Captain.
The back side is generating more buzz though: The Prismatic Bridge is a combination of ramp + card advantage, cheating out the top creature/planeswalker into play each upkeep. That's a great rate for a 5cmc enchantment and can easily be built around, either by stacking your deck to make sure everything you hit is high-impact or manipulating the top of your library with Vampiric Tutor and similar cards to control what you hit with it. Plus you can get extra triggers with cards like Paradox Haze and Strionic Resonator.
The Prismatic Bridge seems solid in a whole bunch of decks. I like it as the commander of 5C Enchantress or 5C Superfriends, two archetypes that don't have "official" 5C commanders. It's also fine in the 99 as well!
Firja, Judge of Valor
Firja, Judge of Valor feels like an Izzet card, like Jori En, Ruin Diver. Casting 2+ spells per turn is typically an Izzet colored thing and the colors that are best suited for it anyway since those colors are loaded with 1cmc instant cantrips like Opt and such. It feels like Firja is the wrong colors for this strategy. Ironically, being Orzhov is exactly why I'm interested in her; if she was just another Izzet commander I'd skip over her. But as Orzhov? How the heck do you build her? This question excites me as a brewer!
I don't know how good Firja actually is. I can guarantee Orzhov is less suited to using her properly than Izzet would be. But that's a fun puzzle to solve. She also fills your graveyard which can set up some Black reanimation. I'm sure a "best" version of her will be discovered soon enough but I'm excited to brew with her and figure it out myself. Even if it's not ultra powerful it sure looks fun!
Firja's Retribution
It's rare that we see actual Angel support in Black, which is a neat aspect to explore. This saga is a solid payoff for Orzhov Angels and kinda makes me want to try it out.
Forging the Tyrite Sword
Do you want to wait three turns before you can Steelshaper's Gift? Eh, probably not. The treasure tokens aren't worth the delay or the higher cmc. It's still fine in a low budget version of Equipment though.
Harald Unites the Elves
Harald Unites the Elves is one of the better Elf Tribal reanimation options. Paying four mana to reanimate your best Elf / Tyvar is a fine rate and unlike some of the other frontloaded sagas, this one's second and third chapters are also really solid. Overall this is an excellent inclusion in Golgari Elfball decks like Lathril, Blade of the Elves.
Immersturm Predator
I like Immersturm Predator in a Rakdos Aristocrats deck, where it provides both a sac outlet while also being a repeatable source of graveyard hate. It seems like a reasonable inclusion in decks like Judith, the Scourge Diva, perhaps even a Dragon Tribal deck like The Ur-Dragon, maybe even Vampire Tribal. Card is sweet but not busted.
Invasion of the Giants
I'm not going to say that Invasion of the Giants is a great card, but it's a flavorful one, and that's good enough for me to auto-include it in Giant Tribal with Aegar, the Freezing Flame.
Jorn, God of Winter
Jorn, God of Winter is our official Snow Tribal commander and does an amazing job at supporting the archetype. The front side, Jorn, God of Winter, is the more explosive side, which is primarily used to double the mana output of your snow lands but there are a handful of other snow permanents that can take advantage of the untapping like Frost Augur. This lets you spend all your mana on your first main phase, attack with Jorn, and then spend all your mana again on your second main phase. Or you can attack with Jorn, tap all your lands to float mana, untap all your lands with Jorn's trigger, then tap all your lands for mana again and dump it all into an instant spell like Pull from Tomorrow or flash in huge spells with Leyline of Anticipation.
The back side, Kaldring, the Rimestaff, is less flashy but just as powerful, being super efficient graveyard recursion and repeatable card advantage. It's easy to get value out of this as your stuff naturally gets removed from the battlefield and gets even better once you pair it with ways to fill your graveyard be it tutors like Mythos of Brokkos or self-mill like The Three Seasons.
Overall Jorn does a ton of powerful things, and while you can build around specific abilities the only thing you really need to do is fill your deck with Snow cards to get tremendous value out of him. As much as I hate snow basic lands, I have to admit that I loved playing Snow Tribal on stream and it's a deck that I could see myself playing again in the future.
Kardur, Doomscourge
I love Kardur, Doomscourge and I'm glad that it's actually picking up some hype! Kardur's ETB trigger is essentially a mass goad effect, forcing your opponents to attack into each other. People often underestimate the power of goading because its affect on the board isn't so apparent. By forcing your opponents to attack each other, you're indirectly dealing a ton of damage to them, saving your own life total for a turn cycle, potentially killing smaller attackers if they have to attack into blockers, and removing potential blockers so you can attack into everyone easier. The power of goad is dependent on your opponents' board states but on average it's a really strong effect.
I'm really excited to brew a Goad deck around Kardur: we can give our opponents more creatures to attack with Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor, give opponents incentives to hit each other with Curse of Opulence, and protect ourselves with Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs. We already had a Naya Goad commander that I really enjoy, Marisi, Breaker of the Coil, and I'm excited to see what a Goad deck looks like in Rakdos colors.
Kaya the Inexorable
Kaya the Inexorable has a solid collection of abilities that makes her worth considering in a few decks. Her +1 is creature protection that can be used proactively with Sacrifice strategies or even Blink ones.Her -3 is great flexible removal, and her -7 is powerful card advantage + recursion that isn't too difficult to fairly work up towards. Kaya still suffers from all the typical planeswalker problems in a multiplayer format, but her she's strong enough that I'd consider her in Aminatou, the Fateshifter Blink decks and certain sacrifice decks like Teysa, Orzhov Scion.
King Narfi's Betrayal
This saga is packing some sweet value: for three mana and waiting a turn you basically get to "draw" four creatures / planeswalkers among everyone's graveyards. This is really sweet and mana-efficient if you hit four targets with it. I think this is a fine inclusion in just about any deck, but Mill decks like Phenax, God of Deception and Rogue Tribal like Anowon, the Ruin Thief will get the most consistent value out of it.
Koll, the Forgemaster
Koll, the Forgemaster quickly generated hype as a new Boros Combo commander. Here's how the combo works. You'll need:
- Koll, the Forgemaster on the battlefield.
- An equipment that can equip for 0 mana (Lightning Greaves) or a way to make the equip cost 0 (Puresteel Paladin).
- A 0cmc creature (Ornithopter).
- A sac outlet that can win you the game (Blasting Station).
With all these pieces on the battlefield, equip the 0cmc creature with the equipment, then sacrifice the equipped creature. Koll sends the creature back to your hand and you recast, re-equip, and resacrifice for no mana. Repeat until your opponents are dead.
While this combo requires four pieces to win, it has a decent amount of redundancy that you can pack into the deck and you don't need a ton of mana to assemble it. Plus it's pretty budget-friendly! This makes Koll a solid choice as a Boros Combo commander whose secondary win conditions naturally transition into an Equipment strategy.
Is Koll the best Boros commander? Nah. There are more effective Boros combos out there. Is he the best Equipment commander? Well, maybe. Personally though I still prefer Akiri, Fearless Voyager for her consistency and resiliency. But Koll is certainly a great option, both as a commander and part of the 99 of Equipment decks. Being able to easily end games is a great ace up your sleeve while still offering the ability to play a "fair" game as well.
Koma, Cosmos Serpent
Koma is a big ol' snake that acts as a powered up Verdant Force, quickly flooding the board with 3/3 serpents with the added benefit that you can sacrifice those serpents to tap down permanents or protect Koma. This makes Koma an ever-growing threat at the table that is hard to remove.
Koma is a fine Voltron commander, but I'm far more excited to add him to Sea Monster Tribal under Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle, joining its bretheren like Serpent of Yawning Depths.
Maja, Bretagard Protector
Maja is yet another card that does the "landfall to make a token" schtick, like Emeria Angel, Retreat to Emeria, Felidar Retreat, and Sporemound. The card definitely isn't breaking new ground but regardless it's a solid card overall, providing both tokens and an anthem rolled into one.
I guess the one notable thing here is that Maja makes Human Warriors, so decks that care about those creature types might want this as well, but for the most part I think Maja is going straight into the 99 of Landfall decks like Omnath, Locus of Creation.
Moritte of the Frost
Moritte of the Frost is a Clever Impersonator that can only target your own stuff, costs one additional mana, but comes with the upside of being snow/changeling for additional synergy potential and having two +1/+1 counters if it's a creature. Overall that's not a great tradeoff but for specific decks -- Snow Tribal and Tribal creature decks -- the upside is definitely worth it. I like it in both Jorn, God of Winter and certain Tribal decks, specifically being a solid candidate for Tribal Tribal.
Also off-tangent but every time I look at Moritte of the Frost I'm reminded at how absurd Sakashima of a Thousand Faces. They're not the exact same of course -- Sakashima can only copy creatures, isn't a changeling / snow, doesn't get extra counters -- but even so, Sakashima just crushes it.
Narfi, Betrayer King
Every time I read this card's name my brain immediatly yells "NARF!" a la Pinky & The Brain and it makes me giggle because I am a child.
As for the card itself, I dunno, it's kinda sweet I guess? It's an overcosted anthem but it's real strength is how resilient it is to removal. There might be infinite combos with this one if you can find a way to generate infinite snow mana while sacrificing Narfi infinite times to Blasting Station or whatever. Personally I don't care for Narfi as a commander, but rather as part of the 99 of a Snow or Zombie deck, where you could possibly mill or Entomb Narfi and then get him into play for just three mana.
Niko Aris
Niko Aris is a super unique and interesting planeswalker. They come with their own unique permanent type -- Shards -- which are just Clues but are enchantments instead of artifacts. This X ability alone makes it super interesting for Enchantress decks as it's basically a super efficient way to drop down a whole bunch of enchantments, giving you a ton of constellation triggers off Setessan Champion and similar effects plus powering up other Enchantress cards like Serra's Sanctum.
The rest of the card is pretty decent, then +1 ability doubling as evasion + bounce, the -2 is a reasonable removal, and -1 generates even more card advantage and Enchantress triggers. Overall it looks like a slam-dunk for Enchantress decks like Tuvasa the Sunlit.
Also bold prediction time: Niko Aris' +1 ability was designed for a future Standard that includes the return of Kamigawa. Giving a creature evasion and bouncing it screams "ninjutsu" to me (e.g. Ninja of the Deep Hours). We also know that WOTC has been working on a cyberpunk Kamigawa set, so this would make perfect sense. So new Kamigawa set in the same standard as Kaldheim, calling it now!
Niko Defies Destiny
This saga is too slow and unimpactful for me to give it high marks in a Foretell deck. However, it is clearly a thematic card for the archetype, so if you're full-on flavor then this is a fine budget inclusion in Ranar the Ever-Watchful.
The Raven's Warning
A slow, temporary Coastal Piracy isn't that appealing to me. I think it's best in Isperia the Inscrutable decks as Isperia does get maximum value out of the first two abilities but even so it's kinda meh.
Sarulf, Realm Eater
Sarulf is quite the powerhouse of a card! Its wipes out opposing permanents like a souped up Pernicious Deed while also just wrecking people as an ever-growing threat on the table, where even incidental things like opponents cracking fetchlands just keep growing him.
I think Sarulf works great as a Voltron commander. You'll want plenty of ways to give him counters like Increasing Savagery and ways to protect him like Slippery Bogbonder and Daring Fiendbonder and just go to town. If your oppponents ever build up a scary board, just pop Sarulf to exile everything else and keep smashing. It's effective, but do keep in mind that you will absolutely be the archenemy at the table: Sarulf essentially points a gun at the battlefield, telling your opponents that everything they have in play or would put into play will be exiled at a moment's notice, and the only way to prevent this is to kill Sarulf, with the safest solution being just removing you entirely. So build this deck with caution!
I actually prefer Sarulf as part of the 99 of a bunch of decks. That way you don't become archenemy for playing him, and since you're in Green and Black you have dozens of ways to tutor him up when you need him.
Showdown of the Skalds
This saga is terrific card draw in Boros! It basically reads pay 4 mana draw 4 cards! Compare that to Harmonize or Ambition's Cost, solid card draw as well, and they're only 4 mana draw 3. Yes you only have 2 turns to play the exiled cards but that's enough time. The other two chapters are solid too but it's really just gravy on top of that card draw. Excellent inclusion in just about any Boros deck.
Svella, Ice Shaper
I've had a few people message me about building Svella, Ice Shaper, so I know there's at least some hype for this card, but it simply doesn't resonate with me. It's an interesting design space, and I think making snow Manaliths is neat, but I just can't get excited to brew around it. At face value this is slow ramp with a slow mana sink. It honestly feels like a watered-down Golos, Tireless Pilgrim. I'm not complaining that we have a commander than Golos because honestly screw that busted lazy commander, but this one is so much lower in power that I'm pretty meh on it.
I dunno. Maybe Svella is cool. Maybe there's cool synergies that I'm missing here. Maybe there's Gruul Snow Tribal that is unique and different from Jorn, God of Winter so we actually have two Snow leaders instead of one. Let me know in the comments section below.
The Three Seasons
The Three Seasons' main draw is its chapter 2 ability, which is a double value Regrowth for Snow Tribal at 2cmc, which makes it slow but solid value. The other two chapters are fine as well. It's not an insane card but it's a good one for Snow Tribal.
The Trickster-God's Heist
The Trickster-God's Heist is incredibly powerful in Commander without any extra synergies: considering how important commanders are to a deck's strategy, exchanging control of an opponent's commander for another creature is absolutely brutal. Then chapter 2 also can mess up opponents as well, perhaps trading your treasure token for an opposing Sol Ring. It's really easy to get value out of this saga without even building around it.
I'm kinda bitter that this is Dimir though. It would've been PERFECT in my Zedruu the Greathearted deck!
Tyvar Kell
Tyvar Kell is a fantastic new support card for Elfball. Elves are great at churning out an army of tokens like Lys Alana Huntmaster and Tyvar's passive ability turns all of those into powerful ramp. His +1 allows you to re-use activated abilities like Timberwatch Elf, his 0 is incremental token generation, and his ultimate allows Elves to snowball into an inevitable win. That's some great value at 4cmc!
I think Tyvar is a new staple in any Golgari Elfball deck, like Lathril, Blade of the Elves.
Vega, the Watcher
Vega, the Watcher is another commander that lots of people have been asking me to brew up, and for good reason: it draws lots of cards! But even better, it draws those cards in a unique way. There's actually quite a few ways you can cast spells outside of your hand:
- Cast from the graveyard with flashback (Think Twice), jump-start (Radical Idea), retrace (Oona's Grace), aftermath (Failure // Comply), or cards that let you temporarily cast from the graveyard (Underworld Breach)
- Cast from exile with foretell (Depart the Realm), imprint (Isochron Scepter), or rebound (Consuming Vapors)
- Cast spells with suspend (Ancestral Vision)
- Cast from your library (Future Sight)
- Cast from your opponents' library (Chaos Wand)
So there's a lot of ways to trigger Vega, but the trick becomes trying to assemble a cohesive synergistic deck out of this pile without everything falling apart if Vega isn't on the battlefield. The easiest way is probably UW Spellslinger, but I'm hoping there's more interesting stuff out there. Either way I'm excited to brew with it!
Waking the Trolls
Waking the Trolls costs a lot, is slow, and probably not that strong ... but who cares, chapter 3 summons an army of trolls! That sounds sweet and I want to kill someone with it.
ARTIFACT
Cosmos Elixir
Cosmos Elixir is decent card draw in a Lifegain deck. It's essentially a conditional 4cmc Phyrexian Arena but the big upside is you draw on end step instead of waiting a full turn cycle to get value. It ain't amazing but it works, and for Lifegain decks that don't have access to good colors like Lyra Dawnbringer this will be a welcome addition to keep them chugging along.
Maskwood Nexus
Maskwood Nexus is the card I am by far the most hyped for. To clear things up: no, this is not a card you want in a regular Tribal deck. If you're a Cleric Tribal deck, for example, chances are nearly all your creatures are Clerics so you aren't getting much value out of it, and the activated ability here to make changelings isn't actually that good it's just a nice bonus.
No, the reason you want to play Nexus is if you're playing a Tribal deck with a lot of non-Tribal creatures. For example, I recently did a Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator & Breeches, Brazen Plunderer Combo deck that turns non-Pirate creatures like Reckless Fireweaver into Pirates to combo off with Malcolm, and in that deck Nexus is the perfect way to make all your non-Pirates into Pirates. Or if you're building a deck around The World Tree, Nexus can turn all your non-God creatures into Gods to dump them all into play.
But by far the thing I'm most excited for Nexus is Tribal Tribal. The deck consists of a core of changelings that are then supported by a bunch of Tribal payoff cards like Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow and The Ur-Dragon. Nexus lets you turn all your support cards into all creature types, so every creature synergizes perfectly in the deck! It's super fun! If you're interested in Tribal Tribal then my updated primer will be out soon but until then you can check out the original.
Pyre of Heroes
Pyre of Heroes is a nerfed version of Birthing Pod or more recently Prime Speaker Vannifar, but it's still really good and is notably usable in non-Green deck, which is really interesting. I can immediately see it doing work in Cleric Tribal in Orah, Skyclave Hierophant for example. Seems great!
Raiders' Karve
I have a soft spot for Explorer's Scope. I think it's a solid card in non-Green decks, particulaly Equipment decks and decks that can manipulate the top card of your library with scry or a Scroll Rack. Raiders' Karve is a Scope for Vehicle decks such as Magda, Brazen Outlaw and especially Depala, Pilot Exemplar. I'll continue singing their praises until people catch on!
Replicating Ring
Is Replicating Ring good? I don't think so, but it sure is a cool design! I much prefer 2cmc rocks over 3cmc, though there are some 3cmc rocks that I do jam like Skyclave Relic and (if on a strict budget) Commander's Sphere. I think Ring is a step down from Relic since you can kick Relic whenever you have the extra mana whereas Ring has to wait eight turns before you get its extra value. However, in a proliferate deck, especially a deck that can pump out way more counters like Evolution Sage then yeah, Ring can be sweet! So it's a fun inclusion in Atraxa, Praetors' Voice.
Runed Crown
Runed Crown is a sweet card with tons of flexibility that could be really sweet ... if we had good Rune cards. Unfortunately we don't have good ones yet, but if we ever do, Runed Crown will be awesome.
Scorn Effigy
Scorn Effigy is a slam-dunk in Reaper King decks. Reaper King costs five mana so it's difficult to both cast him and other scarecrows on the same turn. You can foretell Effigy in advance and then cast it for free the turn you cast Reaper King.
LANDS
Snow Duals
Even ignoring the snow part, these commons are super budget duals that you can tutor up with fetchlands or other ramp cards like Three Visits or Kor Cartographer which is really sweet. They're great in Snow Tribal but they'll also be used heavily in a lot of budget manabases.
Saclands(?)
Not sure what I'd call these cards, but overall they're pretty solid. The sac abilities on some of them are really good, by far my favorite being Port of Karfell which seems like a super legit reanimation ability in decks like Araumi of the Dead Tide. Imagine cracking this for a Sepulchral Primordial or something! Really sweet. Most of these are good too, especially in budget brews.
Pathways
The pathways are kinda good I guess? I dunno, I never found them that interesting. I guess they're good in 2C decks as they enter untapped and mana-fix. But I'm meh on it.
Faceless Haven
Faceless Haven is a snow Mutavault which is pretty sweet. Any deck with lots of snow basics can run it, so it's an easy inclusion in Snow Tribal like Jorn, God of Winter and then any Mono Color / 2C deck with snow lands.
Tyrite Sanctum
Tyrite Sanctum is a really cool inclusion in a Voltron deck, turning excess mana into making your commander an indestructible God. It's also sweet in God Tribal or changelings decks like Orvar, the All-Form.
The World Tree
The World Tree is my second-favorite card from the set, which looks to me like a new staple in 5C decks: it's a little crummy early being a tapland that only taps for G, but as soon as you hit 6+ lands it's a free Chromatic Lantern attached to a land which is amazing. I think the reward well outweighs the risk and is tasty for any 5C deck, shining most in Golos, Tireless Pilgrim as it's both ramp and tutor for it.
The first ability here is the main draw of the card and the reason why I'd recommend it in any 5C deck. But the activated ability is also really fun and worth brewing around. It's a great finisher for God Tribal decks, but I'm even more excited for it in Tribal Tribal, since all changelings are Gods. It seems super fun combining this with Maskwood Nexus, letting you grab all the creatures in your deck! It's a lot of mana and not super competitive but I love it.
That's All, Folks!
So those are my initial takes on the new Kaldheim cards. I'll be showcasing a ton of the new commanders over on my stream on YouTube we'll be showing them on Commander Clash as well. Next up though is a primer update to my Tribal Tribal deck! Kaldheim has so many sweet upgrades for the deck that I can't wait to talk about. Thanks for reading and I'll be back soon!
