Editor's Note: This article heavily discusses cards that were not previewed from official sources. If you would like to avoid discussion of leaks, be forewarned they feature heavily below this point.

Welcome back, everyone!

I hope you guys had an amazing New Year, and I hope 2021 promised to be a little brighter than 2020. While we're not in the full swing of Kaldheim previews yet, cards and information about the set is slowly trickling out from unofficial sources, and we still have a bit more to talk about today.

Since last time we spoke about Kaldheim, we've seen a handful of new cards revealed, along with two of the new mechanics from the set: boast and foretell. Because both of the new mechanics can be found on some of the cards we'll be talking about today, I'm going to talk about the respective cards they can be found on, along with what I think of those cards.

Awkwardly enough, this is the second week in a row that we're mainly talking about Red and Green cards, mostly because a lot of the current previews thus far have revolved around the Naya shard. We've barely seen any Blue or Black cards yet, but I assume they'll start showing up eventually.

Either way, let's jump in!

Dragonkin Berserker

My immediate thought is that this guy would fit nicely into the Vintage Cube. The 2/2 body with first strike for two mana isn't the worst deal, and there are a ton of generic Red creatures that excel due to their abilities. Is this better there than something like Abbot of Keral Keep or Dreadhorde Arcanist? Maybe.

Where this card really shines is the boast mechanic. Similar to abilities such as bloodthirst and raid, boast requires you to attack with the creature before you can use the boast ability. One specific difference is that raid didn't care which creature you attacked with, while boast wants you to attack with the creature that has the boast ability. One upside is that you don't actually have to connect to use the boast ability. On the Berserker for example, if you opponent has a 3/3 that you know will block it, you can still attack, and before damage is assigned, you can pay 5 mana to make a dragon.

This card reminds me of a more aggressive Dragonmaster Outcast, allowing you to make a dragon each turn after a certain land/mana threshold is met. While you do have to pay mana here each turn for a new dragon, the Berserker is a bit better of a creature on the front end, and ideally, your boast ability will eventually cost 1 mana per turn.

I initially loved the idea of making infinite mana in the Vintage Cube somehow, then using that mana to make infinite dragons with the Dragonkin Berserker. Unfortunately, I eventually realized that the ability could only be used once per turn. So instead of using the card in any sort of storm deck, it looks like it would be solely relegated to the Mono-Red deck, but it's still a very serviceable creature.

In a way this ability reminds me of kicker. You have a great rate on the front end, with a 2/2 with first strike for two. And you have a decent rate for a 5/5 flier on the back on. If all boast mechanics are like this, I think I'm going to be a fan, because cards that scale well from the early game to the late game (kicker, flashback, MDFCs, etc) are some of the best types of cards in the game.

Battle Mammoth

Battle Mammoth is the other card that displays the sets mechanics, and it also proves that Green decks are still going to get massively powerful cards. I remember talking with Rob about Elder Gargaroth when it was spoiled. I thought the card was going to be great, since it had so many abilities and you basically had to kill it. Rob wasn't impressed because it didn't do anything when it entered the battlefield. My feeling ended up being correct there, and I have a similar feeling about Battle Mammoth.

The Mammoth also displays the foretell ability, which is going to remind everyone on earth of both morph and suspend. Basically, with foretell, you get to pay two generic mana to remove the card from the game. Then, at any later turn, you may pay the foretell cost to cast the card, presumably always at a discount. So, for the Battle Mammoth, you can exile it on turn two, then cast it for 4 mana on turn four, which is a great deal if you had nothing to do on turn two anyway. This is another ability that gives you a good amount of flexibility.

While the foretell-to-cmc discount is only one mana, that should be good enough. The Mammoth is a 6/5 trampler, after all. If you were tired of getting hit by Questing Beast on turn four, wait until this thing starts seeing play. Additionally, it also has the Leovold ability where whenever any permanent you control becomes the target of a spell or ability, you get to draw a card. So, unlike Elder Gargaroth, if the opponent kills this immediately, it still replaces itself.

One interesting caveat is that foretell specifically says "Cast it on a later turn for its foretell cost." While I don't think it will come up frequently, this means that you can't exile a card and cast it on the same turn. You know, like if your opponent uses Teferi, Time Raveler's +1 ability, then casts Thoughtseize on your draw step. If you foretell in response - which you should be able to do, since it doesn't specify sorcery speed, only that you have to do it during your turn - you can't also cast the Mammoth on your main phase. Like I said, a really obscure corner case, but something to keep in mind.

Again, foretell seems like a sweet ability, as it gives you things to do on turns you might not have anything to do, for what could end up being a sizable benefit. One of the worst things about Magic, of which there are only a few, is having resource issues. Whether that means not being able to use your mana early, not having enough mana later in the game, or not having anything to do with your late game mana. All of these issues seem to be addressed by mechanics like boast and foretell and MDFCs, so I'm pretty thrilled about the most recent design directions.

Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider

So, this was a card that no one was sure was real or not. We still don't have confirmation, but it has a few really interesting implications, the biggest of which is that it signals a return of (or to) Phyrexia. Vorinclex, while completely dissimilar to his original New Phyrexia counterpart, has a Branching Evolution tacked onto him. While the original Vorinclex was a 7/6 with trample, the new one is a 6/6 with both trample and haste for two less mana.

The most exciting part about both of his non-keyword abilities, however, are that they also affect planeswalkers. Much like Doubling Season before it, there are numerous planeswalkers the Praetor can cause to immediately ultimate upon playing them. Additionally, the second ability is extremely oppressive against opposing planeswalkers, especially since the number of counters they put on is rounded down. Can you imagine Jace, the Mind Sculptor entering the battlefield with one counter? It's kind of brutal.

All that being said, six mana is a lot, and most of the action is likely to happen before Vorinclex enters the battlefield, but even so, this is a beefy beater with haste and two really game-altering effects, and I think that counts for a lot. Phyrexian Praetors returning and what that means for the direction of future sets is just icing on the cake. If you wanted to wager that Vorinclex is meant to interact with infect and poison counters, I think it would be a pretty safe bet.

That's all we have for now! Thank you so much for reading, I love you all and I hope you're still staying safe. Definitely let me know what you think of these new Kaldheim cards and mechanics down below, as I love hearing your thoughts. I'm also almost positive I either missed something or read something incorrectly, so be sure and set me straight there too! Use FRANK5 to get 5% off, I hope your new year is going well, and I'll catch you all next week.

Frank Lepore

Twitch | YouTube | Patreon | Freshly Brewed