Nothing can compare to actually playing with the cards.

We've spent the last few weeks gawking at new Kaldheim cards, going over what they may do and where they may go, but now we're out of the theoretical and into the empirical. Magic cards are notoriously difficult to evaluate and with Kaldheim being a wordier set than most we're bound to get some wrong.

Today we're going to look at the early winners in Kaldheim Standard, the cards that have really stood out and impressed in this first week!

Showdown of the Skalds

I think everyone was pretty sure this card was powerful; the question was exactly what should we be doing with it. Well, the answer apparently is "everything."

The obvious answer was to be a curve topper in an aggressive deck, playing a similar role to something like Experimental Frenzy. You curve out, expend some resources, and reload. Red and White are already the most aggressive colors, and you can easily lean one way or the other and splash Showdown or just play both colors.

Boros Aggro | KHM Standard | SandyDogMTG

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Giant Killer
• 2 Goldspan Dragon
• 2 Skyclave Apparition
• 3 Selfless Savior
• 4 Bonecrusher Giant
• 4 Robber of the Rich
• 4 Seasoned Hallowblade
• 4 Shepherd of the Flock
• 4 Usher of the Fallen

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Shatterskull Smashing

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Showdown of the Skalds

• Artifacts (4)
• 1 Embercleave
• 3 Maul of the Skyclaves

• Lands (20)
• 4 Mountain
• 8 Plains
• 4 Needleverge Pathway
• 4 Temple of Triumph

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Giant Killer
• 3 Redcap Melee
• 2 Embereth Shieldbreaker
• 2 Phoenix of Ash
• 3 Ox of Agonas
• 2 Skyclave Apparition

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Aggro master SandyDogMTG has given us a great baseline for the Boros deck, with a solid curve but good power level as well.

Immediately obvious is how powerful the adventure creatures are with Showdown of the Skalds. The spell half is almost always cheaper than the creature half, allowing you to make sure you can use all four cards before losing them, and furthermore each adventure card is a pair of +1/+1 counters rather than just one. The real winner here however is Shepherd of the Flock, which is already a fine card but is amazing at resetting Showdown of the Skalds. This gives Boros a card draw engine that can rival almost anything else in the format.

Naya Adventures | KHM Standard | Crokeyz

• Creatures (28)
• 2 Masked Vandal
• 2 Scavenging Ooze
• 4 Bonecrusher Giant
• 4 Edgewall Innkeeper
• 4 Giant Killer
• 4 Kazandu Mammoth
• 4 Lovestruck Beast
• 4 Shepherd of the Flock

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Shatterskull Smashing

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Showdown of the Skalds

• Artifacts (4)
• 1 Embercleave
• 3 The Great Henge

• Lands (22)
• 2 Forest
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Plains
• 4 Branchloft Pathway
• 4 Cragcrown Pathway
• 4 Fabled Passage
• 4 Needleverge Pathway

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 The Akroan War
• 2 Klothys, God of Destiny
• 3 Glass Casket
• 2 Scavenging Ooze
• 2 Phoenix of Ash
• 2 Masked Vandal
• 2 Elspeth Conquers Death

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Popular streamer and budding MTG heel Crokeyz was one of many to take this to its next logical step, grafting Shepherd of the Flock and Showdown of the Skalds into the already decorated Gruul adventures. There's still evolution happening here, but the power is undeniable.

Showdown of the Skalds is seeing play elsewhere as well, from other aggressive strategies all the way to some esoteric Yorion, Sky Nomad builds. It's pretty clear at this point that it is one of the best cards in the format and figuring out the best ways to utilize it will pay huge dividends.

Binding the Old Gods

Keeping with the "sagas go brrrrr" theme, Binding the Old Gods has also been showing up everywhere while making a case for being one of the best cards in the set. Seriously, why is this card only uncommon?

In a vacuum Binding the Old Gods is already very good, a sort of super variant on the not-quite-there Deathsprout. Being able to kill anything for four mana is already huge and this is magnified by a format that has so many powerful artifacts and enchantments. Not being cold to The Great Henge or Doom Foretold in Game 1s is a mighty nice thing, and if this was all there was to it Binding the Old Gods would be a solid card.

But Yorion, Sky Nomad exists.

Four Color Yorion | KHM Standard | Bielzito

• Companion (1)
• 1 Yorion, Sky Nomad

• Creatures (7)
• 3 Yorion, Sky Nomad
• 4 Skyclave Apparition

• Instants (6)
• 3 Eliminate
• 3 Heartless Act

• Sorceries (8)
• 2 Dance of the Manse
• 2 Extinction Event
• 4 Emeria's Call

• Enchantments (23)
• 2 Elspeth Conquers Death
• 2 Omen of the Sun
• 3 Firja's Retribution
• 4 Binding the Old Gods
• 4 Doom Foretold
• 4 Elspeth's Nightmare
• 4 Omen of the Sea

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Golden Egg

• Lands (32)
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 4 Barkchannel Pathway
• 4 Brightclimb Pathway
• 4 Clearwater Pathway
• 4 Darkbore Pathway
• 4 Hengegate Pathway
• 4 Indatha Triome
• 4 Zagoth Triome

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Yorion, Sky Nomad
• 1 Heartless Act
• 3 Archon of Sun's Grace
• 2 Cling to Dust
• 2 Heliod's Intervention
• 4 Mystical Dispute
• 2 Treacherous Blessing

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Yorion, Sky Nomad was already one of the best cards in the format, but the influx of sagas in Kaldheim has really pushed it over the edge. Binding the Old Gods and Yorion are a perfect curve, providing an unbelievable amount of tempo and card advantage just by themselves. Between Binding the Old Gods and Elspeth Conquers Death no permanent is safe, giving the Yorion deck all the time in the world to generate value.

The fact that Binding the Old Gods gets any Forest and not just a basic Forest is also huge in a format with Triomes and snow duals, making it an exceptional manafixer.

We're going to be seeing Binding the Old Gods a whole lot in the next year or so in Standard.

Cosima, God of the Voyage

I was really hoping to get to talk more about Cosima, God of the Voyage in this article, but unfortunately publication deadlines are a thing and I just couldn't finish reading it in time.

I hope to make some hot coco and snuggle up on the couch and finish it later today, no spoilers please!

Goldspan Dragon

Goldspan Dragon has already made some serious waves, but in more unique ways than originally considered.

It's easy to see Goldspan Dragon and see "the new Glorybringer." After all, there have been a number of mythic 4/4 haste dragons over the years that have seen moderate to serious play. However, Goldspan Dragon's mana generation has a very non-Red property usually seen in other colors.

In a lot of ways, Goldspan Dragon has far more in common with Nissa, Who Shakes the World or Teferi, Hero of Dominaria - it's a 5-drop threat that immediately gives you back two mana, which plays wonderfully with counterspells and other reactive spells. Sure, you could use Snakeskin Veil to protect your Goldspan Dragon, or you could just cast Negate or Saw It Coming and counter their next big play no matter what it is, allowing you to untap with a huge dragon in play.

We see this played out in an entirely new archetype built (I believe) by none other than Luis Scott-Vargas and played to a finals finish by Jana Amari in one of the earliest Standard events:

Izzet Tempo | KHM Standard | Jana Amari, 2nd Place Insight Esports Standard Snow-Down

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Bonecrusher Giant
• 4 Brazen Borrower
• 4 Goldspan Dragon

• Instants (18)
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Essence Scatter
• 2 Negate
• 4 Behold the Multiverse
• 4 Frost Bite
• 4 Saw It Coming

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Shatterskull Smashing

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Shark Typhoon

• Lands (23)
• 3 Snow-Covered Mountain
• 8 Snow-Covered Island
• 1 Faceless Haven
• 3 Volatile Fjord
• 4 Fabled Passage
• 4 Riverglide Pathway

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Negate
• 3 Mystical Dispute
• 1 Shredded Sails
• 2 Soul-Guide Lantern
• 2 Storm's Wrath
• 2 Tundra Fumarole
• 2 Scorching Dragonfire
• 1 Redcap Melee

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This deck is pretty awesome.

Playing true draw-go control is pretty difficult in this day and age of Magic design, as you really need to close out games while you're in control. Well, big hasty dragons tend to do that! There's a lot of great interaction at two mana between Negate, Disdainful Stroke, and Essence Scatter, and countermagic is one of the best ways to combat the power of sagas, Yorion, and even Goldspan Dragon.

Two mana is also the important flashpoint for both foretell spells, which are excellent. Glimmer of Genius eat your heart out! And, of course, the adventure cards which need no introduction.

This deck is exciting to watch and I'm curious to see how it evolves and what else Goldspan Dragon can do.

Honorable Mention: Jaspera Sentinel

While it hasn't yet had the success of the other cards listed today, Jaspera Sentinel deserves some attention as well. All of today's cards are "rate" cards, in that they're just a lot of huge numbers and powerful effects. While sure they synergize well with Yorion or counterspells, they're still just knockout great cards even when the synergies don't come together.

Jaspera Sentinel is the opposite.

A one-mana 1/2 isn't exactly tipping the power scales, and Jaspera Sentinel is a few pegs below Noble Hierarch or Birds of Paradise on the "mana creatures tier list" (don't tell Twitter), but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a place.

Jaspera Sentinel has a great mix of things going for it. Both the elf and rogue types are super relevant for tribal and/or party implications and these are decks that are really wanting for a 1-drop. It also plays super well with Magda, Brazen Outlaw. There haven't been many playable 1-drops in Standard in the last few years, which pushes things toward power rather than synergy, but Jaspera Sentinel can help buck that trend.

I played Sam Black's elves list on my video last Monday, and have also been seeing various party decks floating around as well as well as some sweet Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy decks. Maybe these decks need to wait for Bonecrusher Giant to rotate, but there's definitely something there.

Beating A Fairytale

The power level of Eldraine (even with a whopping six cards banned!) still looms over Standard, as does Yorion, Sky Nomad, but there's a lot of awesome things going on with much more to dive into.

As previously stated, there are a ton of words on all of these Kaldheim cards and it's going to take some time to figure out what to do with the more confusing ones. However, the ones that do will be rewarded!