Kaldheim brings the world of Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore to the world of Magic: the Gathering! The set brought us the introduction of the omenpaths, which would become a major staple of modern Magic story, as well as the reintroduction of the Phyrexians as a major villain once again. It also brought with it a whole host of incredible mythics for us to rank - some of which, yet again, managed to break a variety of formats as well. Let's dive right in to the list and get ranking!

• 20. Alrund, God of the Cosmos // Hakka, Whispering Raven
• 19. Niko Aris
• 18. Resplendent Marshal
• 17. Eradicator Valkyrie
• 16. Battle Mammoth
• 15. Toralf, God of Fury // Toralf's Hammer
• 14. Tyvar Kell
• 13. Kaya the Inexorable
• 12. Quakebringer
• 11. Burning-Rune Demon

10. Haunting Voyage

Patriarch's Bidding has been a tremendously popular card in typal decks for years. In Standard, the card had a tremendous repertoire thanks to the Goblin Bidding deck, but it would later gain further prevalence thanks to Commander. Haunting Voyage falls into a similar camp, allowing you to either reanimate two creatures at once or wait a bit longer and get back everything. Unlike Bidding, this is card only impacts creatures from your graveyard, meaning you can't accidentally benefit your opponents in the process. An instant casual hit.

9. Halvar, God of Battle // Sword of the Realms

Halvar provides a powerful effect for equipment and aura-based decks of all kinds, making your equipped and enchanted creatures harder to deal with. It also makes you able to move stuff around, which is great - particularly if you have powerful auras you want on different creatures or equipment with high equip costs. Arguably the real value the card brings to the table, though, is the backside: Sword of the Realms. This powerful equipment makes it difficult for your creatures to be taken down for good, all while providing them with decent buffs at the same time. This made Halvar a solid inclusion in White Aggro decks in Standard and is why it remains a great card for any equipment or aura Commander deck.

8. Orvar, the All-Form

Changelings were a major theme in the set, both playing into the minor typal themes of the set while also fitting in great with Norse myth's theme of shapeshifters. Orvar, the All-Form represented the pinnacle of this theme, offering a powerful legend that enables you to generate tremendous amounts of clones in the right deck. Additionally, the card proved powerful in formats like Modern where it was an excellent foil to the likes of Archon of Cruelty in Indomitable Creativity lists.

7. Starnheim Unleashed

Starnheim Unleashed provided a variety of decks from Control to Angels a great way to close out games. Only one angel for 4 mana is a reasonable option, even if it's not terribly exciting. The real draw here is in foretelling it on an early turn and then casting it for a massive spell at the game's close, providing you with as many angels as you have mana for. In this way, it draws parallels to other similar historically powerful cards like Decree of Justice and Entreat the Angels.

6. Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge

This is one powerful card, but also is a bit strange when it comes to a list like this. This is because its main draw isn't so much Esika herself but rather the backside of The Prismatic Bridge. This powerful spell gives you one random free creature or planeswalker from your deck every turn, and best of all it can be played straight out of your command zone. The front side also being an outstanding mana dork allows you to set up your board early and then replay Esika later as The Prismatic Bridge for huge value.

5. Koma, Cosmos Serpent

Few cards read Commander staple quite like Koma, Cosmos Serpent. This card is an absolute behemoth that's incredibly difficult to deal with and also gives you a massive 3/3 creature every turn. That's right: every turn, not just yours! Eat your heart out, Verdant Force! This power wasn't just big enough for Commander, but also proved a major player as a game-ender in a variety of Standard decks - proving particularly efficient at dealing with control decks thanks to being uncounterable.

4. Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider

Players love doubling stuff and Vorinclex doubling your counters proved to be a tremendous draw for players of all kinds. As you can imagine, this became an instant staple in Commander, the home of beloved counter doublers like Doubling Season and Branching Evolution. What's more surprising, though, is how impactful this big 6 mana creature had on Standard as well. It showed up in several decks, though perhaps most impactfully coming down as a major game-ending threat in Sultai Ultimatum decks off of an Emergent Ultimatum.

3. Goldspan Dragon

Big dragons have a long history across Magic in Standard, especially when their value is just right. Goldspan Dragon offers a huge body the acts as a massive hasty threat. Not only does the card hit hard and fast, but it also provides you with tons of mana thanks to the treasures it makes and the fact that it provides extra mana via those treasures. This allows the card to not only be a veritable threat, but also protect itself with the mana it generates. Thus, the card added another major dragon to the history of Standard, where it dominated through its entire time in the format.

2. Alrund's Epiphany

Throughout most of its tenure in the format, Alrund's Epiphany proved a powerfully dominant force in Standard. Just about every deck that could run it was and it typically spelled doom for opponents whenever it came down. This one worked in conjunction with several other cards on this list including Goldspan Dragon and Vorinclex to dominate games. It was eventually banned in Standard, proving to be too strong for the game's main format.

1. Valki, God of Lies // Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor

If you were an active Standard player at the time of Kaldheim's release, you might be screaming right now about how Alrund's Epiphany should be number one given its dominance in the format. Make no mistake, that's definitely a big deal, but it's rather hard to overstate just how much Valki/Tibalt broke multiple formats for a brief period of time. The card benefited from an interaction with cascade that let you find Valki off the cascade trigger but cast the backside of Tibalt instead. This interaction decimated Modern and Legacy, resulting in an entire segment of the rules to be changed to prevent future situations like this from happening again. Even now, this interaction is still viable with Bring to Light in Pioneer, making Tibalt a continual threat years later. Alrund's Epiphany wishes it had that level of impact behind it.

Paige Smith

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