Locations
Yesterday we went over the Red and Artifact cards from Kaldheim. Make sure to check that out if you have not. Today we will be going over the Green and Land cards, but before we begin, let us go over my grading scale.
I will not be going over cards that I believe will not see play in Standard and I will not be going over the Commander cards that will not see Standard play. For example, cards like Goldmaw Champion and Master Skald will be omitted since they are just Limited cards and saying, "This is just a Limited card" repeatedly gets old rather fast. Do not worry though, I will be covering all the rare and mythic cards in the actual Kaldheim set. So, if you like a certain rare or mythic, it will be mentioned in the review.
Keep in mind I'm rating all these cards for Standard playability. I will mention Modern applications if I believe the card has some.
Each card will be listed by color, then alphabetically by name.
Each card will be given a rating of 1-5. If a card would receive a 0, meaning it will see no play in that format ever, its rating is left off the list.
Rating | Explanation | Standard Examples
0 - Will never see play in this format (0 ratings are not listed).
1 - Unlikely to see play. (Divine Gambit)
2 - Could see fringe play, or occasional sideboard card. (Disdainful Stroke, Annul, Erebos's Intervention, Shadow's Verdict)
3 - Commonly played, staple in a single deck, or frequent play in several decks. (Righteous Valkyrie, Behold the Multiverse, Solemn Simulacrum)
4 - Format staples. Sees play in multiple decks, one of the best cards in the format. (Saw it Coming, Fabled Passage, Bonecrusher Giant)
5 - Format warping. If you are in these colors, you play that card or keep that card in mind when building decks. (Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Embercleave, The Great Henge)
Now that we have that out of the way, let's begin!
Green
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Battle Mammoth - 2 - Just a much worse Elder Gargaroth. Just stick to that game ending beast. |
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Blessing of Frost - 2 - You have to play snow lands to even use this spell and its sorcery speed to boot making it extremely vulnerable to removal. Not of fan of this card, especially since it costs 4 mana. |
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Blizzard Brawl - 3 - This is a great payoff for snow midrange. 1 mana fight spell that ensures your creature lives is solid. |
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Elvish Warmaster - 3 - Great way to swarm the battlefield with Elves. It's just slow since it only triggers once per turn. Still, a steady stream of 1/1's is solid. |
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Esika, God of the Tree - 2.5 - Eskia can do some powerful things with Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy, ramping you to the sky! While Prismatic Bridge is absolutely my favorite card from the set, it just does nothing when it enters the battlefield and is a prime target for Elspeth Conquers Death and Binding the Old Gods. Costing five different colors also is not helping in a land of pathways. |
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Esika's Chariot - 2 - I like this card in a token deck but it's also solid in Yorion decks, Yorion probably has better things to blink though. |
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Fynn, the Fangbearer - 2 - Building a deck around Fynn is hard since you need Fynn early for your deck to work and he is extremely fragile. Sure, you'll have games where you'll have Fynn and Snakeskin Veil but more than not he will just die, or your opponent will have removal or blockers. |
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In Search of Greatness - 3 - A lot of people think this card will be broken or terrible. I think it is just a fine card. Sometimes you will cast multiple free spells and win and other times it will just scry. Because your opponent can interact with your board, it makes this a much less scary and narrow Fires of Invention. |
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Jaspera Sentinel - 2.5 - No Llanowar Elves but still a solid 1-drop in your elf deck. It does not do anything flashy but still ramps you and attacks. |
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Jorn, God of Winter - 2.5 - I am more excited for Kaldring, the Rimestaff than Jorn. Rimestaff seems sweet in a snow control deck where at the very least you can recur snow lands. Might make other snow cards like Priest of the Haunted Edge playable. |
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Kolvori, God of Kinship - 2 - I am just unexcited about both sides of Kolvori. You are better off running Questing Beast in your 4-drop slot if you are a midrange deck. |
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Masked Vandal - 2.5 - Solid sideboard card that can fit any tribal decks, love that it exiles as that well help against Dance of the Manse. |
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Old-Growth Troll - 3.5 - Wow! Amazing card for Mono-Green stompy. The only reason it is not a four is because this card should only see play in Mono-Green. However, in that deck it is going to be a house. An extremely aggressive creature that can ramp you and can come back from Doomskar. |
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Path to the World Tree - 3 - Huge fan of Path to the World Tree. It insures you hit your land drops early and is an excellent value engine late in the game once you have got your mana fixed. I like it a lot in Yorion decks. |
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Realmwalker - 2.5 - Realmwalker is all right but its best home, Elves already has Harald. If you want more card advantage, then you can run some Realmwalkers but I'd run four Haralds first in my elf deck. |
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Sculptor of Winter - 2.5 - Fine ramp creature in snow decks. It is no Paradise Druid but should still see play in snow decks that want to ramp. |
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Snakeskin Veil - 2 - This is fringe playable if you have some important creature you are really trying to protect, like Fynn, the Fangbearer. Would be an excellent hard if the Heroic or Infect Mechanic was around. |
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Toski, Bearer of Secrets - 2 - I adore Toski and he's an excellent creature to mutate onto, but I do not see him doing much outside of that. You can just kill your opponent in Mono-Green Stompy or Gruul with Questing Beast and do not need Toski. |
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Tyvar Kell - 3 - Tyvar is an excellent example on how to make a planeswalker with a passive ability great but not broken. Tyvar does a lot for your Elf deck but it just does not outright win the game for you, unlike Nissa, Who Shakes the World. You will still need a game plan, Tyvar just helps with that plan. |
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Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider - 4 - Vorniclex is a monster of a card and one of the best cards in the set. 6/6 Trample Haste is already amazing but the fact that he shuts off your opponent's sagas, makes most of your planeswalkers ultimate right away, and does not die to Ugin (Ugin will enter with 3 loyalty) pushes him over the top. Just an excellent well-rounded finisher. |
Top 5 Green Cards
- Vorniclex, Monstrous Raider
- Old-Growth Troll
- Blizzard Brawl
- Path to the World Tree
- In Search of Greatness
Looks like Mono-Green stompy got a big boost from Kaldheim. The deck could play the top three Green cards and even In Search of Greatness. Curious if that will put it back into Tier one category.
Next up, we have the Land cards!
Land
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Pathways - 4 - Pathways are great and will be played as long as they are legal in Standard. Just be careful which side you pick as the wrong choice could cost you the game later. Especially if you are playing 3+ colors. |
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Snow Duals - 3 - Not exciting but these lands do have land types and will be needed in two plus colored snow decks. |
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Axgard Armory - 2 - Pretty powerful ability since you can get two cards, but falls into the Embercleave trap again where Embercleave is the best card to tutor up but Embercleave is better in a deck that does not run Axgard Armory. |
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Bretagard Stronghold - 2 - Seems like a fine addition to your   midrange deck if we have one. |
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Faceless Haven - 4 - Snow Mutavault is amazing and works so well in so many decks. It is a great payoff for playing snow lands. I expect to see this card more and more as time goes on. |
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Gates of Istfell - 2.5 - A slightly better Memorial to Genius. I could see this in some  control decks as a singleton or two. |
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Gnottvold Slumbermound - 2.5 - This ability costs a lot of mana, but it answers annoying lands like Faceless Haven and can give you a 4/4 creature at Instant speed. I would not play four, but one or two seems great in Gruul. |
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Great Hall of Starnheim - 2.5 - This is cheap for a 4/4 angel. A lot of Black creatures also play well with being sacrificed, like Skyclave Shade. |
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Immersturm Skullcairn - 3 - Immersturm seems great to me as it's a land that gives   decks reach. Similar to Ramunap Ruins that was banned in Standard. It comes into play tapped and has to sacrifice itself, but it is still a solid card for those decks to get the last few points of damage in. |
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Littjara Mirrorlake - 2 - This ability is a bit too costly for my liking, also only targeting your creatures makes it a bit worse. I would rather just play Glasspool Mimic. |
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Port of Karfell - 3 - Awfully expensive but an extremely powerful effect. Love this card in something like Sultai Reanimator or in Gyruda, Doom of Depths decks. |
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Skemfar Elderhall - 2 - Sorcery speed and only -2/-2 makes me think this card will not see much play. Would be much better if you could use it as an instant. |
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Surtland Frostpyre - 1.5 - Sorcery speed Pyroclasm. Was it too good at Instant speed? Tapping out on my turn to Pyroclasm is not what I want to be doing in my decks. |
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Tyrite Sanctum - 2 - Interesting card that can make one of your creatures indestructible or just grow your creatures over time. I do like it in mono-colored decks but in three plus color decks it is very hard to play. |
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The World Tree - 3.5 - I love The World Tree. It is a Chromatic Lantern, but you do not have to use Chromatic Lantern. I will have this card in a lot of my decks as it is just an excellent mana fixer in decks playing three or more colors. The ability to tutor Gods will not come up much but that's okay, it should be used more to help fix your five-color deck. Now I want to build a deck with Ultimatums and The World Tree... |
Top 5 Land Cards
We have a ton of great land options from Kaldheim. I love how decks can get rewarded from only playing two colors from the spell lands and they get rewarded for playing snow in Faceless Haven. Overall, I'm super excited for Kaldheim and think it is an amazing set, with great lore and fantastic mechanics!
If you shop at Coolstuffinc, be sure to use code ALI5 to get 5% off your entire order. This will save you money and help me too.
That's the end of the set review for me, make sure to tune in next week for best of one and best of three videos!
As always, thanks for reading,
Ali Aintrazi
Follow me @AliEldrazi
