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Main » Articles » Shaking Up Kaldheim Standard

Shaking Up Kaldheim Standard

Mike Likes
Posted on March 18, 2021
 Reddit

Hello everyone. As many of you readers already know, I identify mostly as a Mono-Red aggro player; but, there are times that I like to play other types of decks to shake things up. This week, I have a few decks for you I'm looking forward to trying out. All of these decks recently won six or more matches in a row on Magic Arena and were piloted by Platinum or Mythic ranked players. Let's get started.

Izzet Control

Most control decks aren't my style at all, but a deck like this one that uses both traditional counterspells and burn spells to control the battlefield is a lot of fun to play. Let's take a look at the deck.

Izzet Control | KHM Standard | Unknown Platinum/Mythic Ranked Player

Saw It Coming, Essence Scatter, Negate, and Jwari Disruption are all typical spells you might see in a standard control deck. Each of these spells can help nullify an opponent's plans. Negate and Essence Scatter specifically counter a noncreature spell and a creature spell respectively. Jwari Disruption is a soft counter and works best when played in the early portion of the game when mana isn't as plentiful. Saw It Coming can counter any spell your opponent plays, making it the best counter to have at any given time, but it is also the most expensive. By foretelling this spell, you can help make it cost less when you decide to play it and free up a spot for an additional card to be in your hand.

On the burn side of things, you have Frost Bite, Shatterskull Smashing, and the Stomp adventure of Bonecrusher Giant. Both Frost Bite and Shatterskull Smashing can only deal damage to an opponent's creatures or planeswalkers. You can use both of these spells to help keep threats off of your opponent's side of the battlefield. Stomp can also be used for this, but if your opponent doesn't have any true threats in play, you can direct Stomps damage directly at your opponent's life total instead. This damage can also help you finish them off when attacking becomes difficult.

All of these spells work wonderfully when you have a copy of Shark Typhoon on the battlefield. This can allow you the ability to make multiple flying Shark creature tokens each turn. Those tokens can be invaluable in defending your own life total, or pressing an attack from above. You can also attack with evasion with Goldspan Dragon, which creates a Treasure token. As long as Goldspan Dragon is on the battlefield, your Treasure tokens will produce twice as much mana, allowing you to always have mana open for casting (or bluffing) counterspells.

Mono-Blue Mill

The next deck I have for you features one of my favorite alternate ways to win, Mill. Let's check it out.

Mono-Blue Mill | KHM Standard | Unknown Platinum/Mythic Ranked Player

Most of the current mill decks are Blue/Black decks, while this one is Mono-Blue. That makes having the mana you need to cast your spells more easily available, as you're not prone to being mana screwed out of a color. With all of that being said, I am a little confused with the inclusion of one copy of Evolving Wilds in this deck. I would definitely consider swapping this card for another copy of Fabled Passage instead. That still allows you the potential of milling your opponent's deck of three cards twice during the turn, but your Island isn't guaranteed to come into play tapped.

Your easiest route to winning the game is to get on or more copies of Teferi's Tutelage onto the battlefield. With this enchantment in play, you'll be able to mill your opponent's deck for a minimum of two cards on each of your turns simply by drawing your card for the turn. With multiple copies in play, you'll be milling for four, six, or even eight cards each turn, assuming you don't play any cards that let you draw additional cards. I've played a mill deck on Magic Arena, and many opponents will simply concede the match once you have two copies of Teferi's Tutelage in play and have milled the two or three times. They see the writing on the wall and would rather fight a different battle than continue their uphill journey against your mill deck.

Milling a few cards each turn helps whittle your opponent's deck down, but ultimately you need to run your opponent's deck entirely out of cards if you want to win. To help facilitate this, you'll find Maddening Cacophony to be invaluable. For a cost of two mana, you can mill your opponent's deck of eight cards. Typically, this will be the best way to cast this spell. However, if you've had trouble milling your opponent for very many cards earlier in the game, you can consider casting Maddening Cacophony for its kicker cost. This will mill half of your opponent's library, rounded up. Doing that once can make reaching the goal of milling the rest of their deck much more obtainable.

Boros Warriors

The final deck I have for you is a Boros tribal deck centered on the Warrior tribe. Let's take a look at it.

Boros Warriors | KHM Standard | Unknown Platinum/Mythic Ranked Player

Kargan Warleader gives all other Warriors you control a +1/+1 bonus. Since every creature in this deck is a Warrior except Bonecrusher Giant, you'll be able to provide a bonus to the majority of your forces. Combine that bonus with the permanent bonus that Basri Ket provides one of your creatures, and you'll be able to overpower most opponents. With Basri Ket's +1 loyalty ability, you'll put a +1/+1 counter on one of your creatures, and that creature will gain indestructible until the end of the turn. That allows you to attack into an opponent that has more creatures without fear of being destroyed by multiple blockers.

Roughly one-third of the creatures in this deck are non-Human. That gives you a good chance of finding a Human that you can put into play when you attack with Winota, Joiner of Forces on the battlefield. Doing this provides you with another creature that is indestructible until the end of your turn. It also adds to your forces without requiring you to spend additional mana, enabling you to quickly outnumber your opponent.

This deck also features one of my favorite cards to help you finish off the game, Embercleave. Embercleave has a number of things that help it to be an amazing piece of equipment. It costs less mana to cast when you have multiple creatures attacking, enabling you to cast it for a little as two Red mana. It also has flash, so you can surprise your opponent by casting it during combat. Embercleave also attaches to a creature automatically when it enters the battlefield, so you can attach it to a creature after blockers have been declared. One other benefit is that it provides double strike and trample. This allows you to equip it to a creature that is being blocked, saving that creature and dealing enough damage to the blocking creature to destroy it. Alternatively, you can equip it to an unblocked creature in order to deal a ton of damage.

Wrapping Up

These three decks are right up my alley to play when I'm not in the moon for straight Mono-Red. What types of decks are your favorite to play, and what do you play when you want a change? Let me know in the comments below.

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, metagame, constructed, analysis, decklist, mike likes, kaldheim standard, 03182021

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