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Main » Articles » Foretelling Kaldheim Standard

Foretelling Kaldheim Standard

Mike Likes
Posted on January 28, 2021
 Reddit

Hello everyone. We've reached the prerelease weekend for Kaldheim, so it's time for me to start looking at decks you can use in the opening weeks of our new Standard environment. Let's get started.

Izzet Foretell

We start with a deck featuring the foretell mechanic, which lets you pay for a portion of a spells cost now and a portion on a later turn. Let's take a look at the deck.

Izzet Foretell | KHM Standard | lorenzo.sssssssssssssssss, deckstats.net user

Foretell allows you to exile a card face down for 2 mana. That card can then be cast of a future turn for its foretell cost. This allows you surprise your opponent with some of the spells you cast, especially if your opponent has a means of looking at the cards in your hand. However, in order for this effect to have its maximum effectiveness, you'll want to have a variety of cards in your deck with foretell, so your opponent won't know what's coming their way.

This deck has quite a few cards with foretell, including Saw It Coming, which can counter an opponent's spell. It also has spells that interact with your opponent's creatures in various ways. Demon Bolt will deal four damage to a creature or planeswalker. Depart the Realm returns a nonland permanent to its owner's hand. You can use this spell as a means of creature removal, clearing the way for an alpha strike, or use it defensively as a way to save your own permanent from destruction.

While this deck works just fine by paying the usual 2 mana needed to foretell a card, it definitely gets better with a copy of Cosmos Charger in play. With one copy of Cosmos Charger on the battlefield, foretelling a card only costs one mana. Foretelling a card becomes free with two or more copies of Cosmos Charger in play. Cosmos Charger can also be foretold, so if you have two copies in play already, it's best to foretell any additional copies you draw and leave them exiled until you need them. This protects them from being destroyed with cards like Shatter the Sky, and offers you a means of rebuilding if your creatures are destroyed.

Legends

The next deck I have for you features a number of legendary permanents, many of which are from Kaldheim. Let's check it out.

Legends | KHM Standard | tmart2323, deckstats.net user

In a deck that cares about legendary permanents, there's no better planeswalker to have than Kaya the Inexorable. While it can be tempting to use her -3 loyalty ability to exile your opponent's troublesome permanents, the better plan is to use her +1 loyalty ability for a couple of turns. This ability offers you a means of protection for your nontoken creatures. Because of this, it becomes easier to defend Kaya with those creatures, even if that means the creature will die, since the ability will return the creature to your hand and create a 1/1 Spirit creature token with flying. Once you hit seven loyalty, you can use Kaya's ultimate ability, creating an emblem that you can use to return Kaya to the battlefield.

That emblem that Kaya creates is only one means of casting spells for free in this deck. Another happens when you have a copy of In Search of Greatness on the battlefield. In Search of Greatness allows you to cast a permanent spell from your hand for free if it has a converted mana cost (CMC) equal to one plus the highest CMC of other permanents you control. This happens at the beginning of your upkeep, and can happen multiple times if you have multiple copies of In Search of Greatness in play. If the only permanent you have in play other than lands is In Search of Greatness, you can still cast a 1-mana permanent spell. Any time we get a card that allows other cards to be cast without paying their mana cost, you have the potential for broken things to happen, so enjoy this card while you can. If it becomes too dominant, I'm sure Wizards of the Coast will hit it with the ban hammer.

All of the creatures in this deck, with the exception of Ilysian Caryatid, are legendary. There are a couple of Kaldheim Gods that offer benefits when you have legendary creatures in play. First, Esika, God of the Tree gives other legendary creatures you control vigilance. They also gain the ability to tap for one mana of any color, helping to accelerate your mana production, which allows you to cast spells that are more expensive. Finally, if you control three or more legendary creatures, Kolvori, God of Kinship will get a +4/+2 bonus, making him a 6/6, and vigilance. Kolvori also offers you an activated ability that you can use to find legendary creatures more easily.

Dwarven Tribal Equipment

The final deck I have for you this week is a Boros aggro deck featuring a lot of Dwarves and their toys. Let's take a look at it.

Dwarven Tribal Equipment | KHM Standard | ruhan, deckstats.net user

Even though all of the creatures in this deck aren't Dwarves, the majority of them are. Seven Dwarves already gets a bonus for each other copy of Seven Dwarves you have on the battlefield. Magda, Brazen Outlaw gives other Dwarves a +1/+0 bonus, giving your Dwarves a bit more oomph in battle. The final Dwarf in this deck is Koll, the Forgemaster. With Koll on the battlefield, any of your equipped nontoken creatures will be returned to your hand if they die. That offers you a lot of resiliency, and it can be quite difficult for an unprepared opponent to destroy your forces permanently.

Since equipping your team is important, this deck includes three legendary equipment cards for you to utilize. Embercleave is a staple finisher in a majority of Red-based aggro decks. Shadowspear offers a means of being able to destroy those pesky indestructible Gods from Theros. It also provides lifelink, allowing you to continue the good fight even longer. Sword of the Realms provides a +2/+0 bonus in addition to vigilance. It also offers the protection of sending the creature that has it equipped back to your hand in the event that the creature dies.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a few decks that all featured All That Glitters. This deck also uses All That Glitters to help push through a lot of damage. It works very well when it enchants Goldspan Dragon. Since Goldspan Dragon creates a Treasure token each time it attacks or becomes the target of a spell, you'll be able to create a fair number of Treasure tokens. Goldspan Dragon also doubles the output of mana a Treasure token provides, so you'll need to sacrifice fewer of them when casting spells. Magda, Brazen Outlaw also creates a Treasure token whenever a Dwarf you control attacks, so if you have All That Glitters enchanting Goldspan Dragon, your evasive attacker can hit like a sack of (gold) bricks.

Wrapping Up

For those of you who had felt that Standard was getting a little stale, change is coming. The cards from Kaldheim look like they'll invigorate Standard for the foreseeable future.

What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below. Also, feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!

-Mike Likes

TAGS articles, standard, constructed, analysis, decklist, mike likes, kaldheim, 01282021, khm standard

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