Thursday 18 March 2021

Kaldheim - 7pt Highlander Set Review

Ver heill ok sæll, this is my Kaldheim 7point Highlander Set Review.

SNOW

A colourless land in Highlander has stiff competition: Field of Ruin, Mishra's Factory, Dust Bowl, etc. 
If your deck is weak to planeswalkers, Faceless Haven is more appealing. 
Not strong enough to build around; you add it at the end of deck building if you happen to have the snow mana.
Into the North just got much better.

Reminiscent of Figure of Destiny. You may read it and think "Three mana for a 2/3?" or "Six mana for a 4/4 flier?" and dismiss it. However, spreading that mana over mulitple turns lets you fill holes in your curve and it gives Ascendant Spirit pseudo haste.
The real question is "What kind of deck can run mostly snow lands (minimal dual lands) and still compete in power and consistency?". It would probably be a hardcore greed punisher deck with Back to Basics and Ruination.
A manabase of:
Prismatic Vista
Scalding Tarn
11 Mountain
12 Island
is a little sketchy. You probably need to run Volcanic Island or the new ETBtapped snow duals (below) to gain access to 6 more fetchlands.

Very niche. Volcanic Island is infinitely better. However, sometimes you need that second colour and the snow mana. The snow duals of the other guilds may also be playable, I just featured Volatile Fjord because Izzet is the 'snowiest' guild.

Needs a snow-theme, otherwise Shock and its many bretheren are better (Shock is actually a playable card, especially with the popularity of Hullbreacher and Opposition Agent).
The third damage is important against some must-kill creatures like Leovold, Emissary of Trest, Dreadhorde Arcanist and Kambal, Consul of Allocation but the majority of key creatures have 2 toughness.

Very niche, but excellent in all-snow decks, which are presumably monored or UR for Back to Basics. You can use the colourless to put your companion (Lutri, Obosh or Zirda) in hand, or perhaps you're running plenty of artifacts to spend that colourless mana on.

Slow, but I can see this in a midrange deck as a tutor for Dark Depths. Or if you already have Dark Depths there's Mouth of Ronom or Faceless Haven.

Kaldring is much better than Jorn. I can see Kaldring in a deck with lots of early looting and/or self mill. Without the looting or mill, you can't reliably get snow permanents into the graveyard. Kaldring would be best on turn4 when you can immediately play a land from the graveyard. That way you generate some value even if Kaldring gets dealt with immediately.
I've had a couple goes at building Time Vault decks and one of the challenges is making Voltaic Key and all your other things that untap artifacts into useful cards whilst Time Vault isn't around. There are surprisingly few artifacts that tap for value. Sensei's Divining Top is a great one. Grim Monolith and Mana Vault are good too, but having an extra one in Kaldring, the Rimestaff is very nice. Too bad there's no good way to make Time Vault a snow permanent, otherwise Rime Tender and Jorn could untap it! Thermal Flux is cute but only a once off.
Kaldring gives you another shot with Dark Depths incase Marit Lage got Path to Exile'd or something the first time.
If you can sacrifice artifacts easily, then you can recur Arcum's Astrolabe; likewise with creatures and Ice-Fang Coatl.

SAGAS (saggers)

A cool card type. For a refresher, here's an extract from the Dominaria set rules primer:
  • As a Saga enters the battlefield, its controller puts a lore counter on it. As your precombat main phase begins (immediately after your draw step), you put another lore counter on each Saga you control. Putting a lore counter on a Saga in either of these ways doesn't use the stack.
  • Each symbol on the left of a Saga's text box represents a chapter ability. A chapter ability is a triggered ability that triggers when a lore counter that is put on the Saga causes the number of lore counters on the Saga to become equal to or greater than the ability's chapter number. Chapter abilities are put onto the stack and may be responded to.
  • A chapter ability doesn't trigger if a lore counter is put on a Saga that already had a number of lore counters greater than or equal to that chapter's number. For example, the third lore counter put on a Saga causes the III chapter ability to trigger, but I and II won't trigger again.
  • Once a chapter ability has triggered, the ability on the stack won't be affected if the Saga gains or loses counters, or if it leaves the battlefield.
  • If multiple chapter abilities trigger at the same time, their controller puts them on the stack in any order. If any of them require targets, those targets are chosen as you put the abilities on the stack, before any of those abilities resolve.
  • If counters are removed from a Saga, the appropriate chapter abilities will trigger again when the Saga receives lore counters. Removing lore counters won't cause a previous chapter ability to trigger.
  • Once the number of lore counters on a Saga is greater than or equal to the greatest number among its chapter abilities—the Saga's controller sacrifices it as soon as its chapter ability has left the stack, most likely by resolving or being countered. This state-based action doesn't use the stack.
The last dot point clarifies that you will have the opportunity to blink or bounce your saga with the final chapter ability on the stack before you need to sacrifice it. Perhaps Synod Sanctum could make it's debut in a deck full of Sagas and 'gain control' effects. That would be sweet.

The token may get bounced by Teferi, Time Raveler or Jace, the Mind Sculptor. However, if your deck has lots of 4power creatures in it, you should have another one around to catch the third lore trigger. Note that if you have a 4power flash creatures like Nightpack Ambusher, you can flash it down in response to the trigger.

This is the first strong berserker tribe payoff I've seen. The card isn't good outside of tribal because if the token dies the rest of the lore triggers do nothing. However, if you can keep a berserker or two around, it is amazing. We'll need a few more berserker payoffs before this is playable.

Definitely a pattern among these sagas of "I: get a token, II & III get value if it survives".

Amazing card advantage for RW. You'll want a low average curve and most of your spells to be proactive to increase the chance of playing all four cards by the end of the next turn. For the same reason it's best to cast this as the last spell from your hand (unless you urgently need to find something).
This card would still be strong without the II and III triggers. Runaway Steam-Kin goes overdrive in age II and III.

Long ago before enemy fetchlands existed, I had a land destruction deck which would've loved this. Enemy fetchlands killed that deck, which is probably a good thing because my opponents did not have fun.
In those days you could take a few hits from their early creatures whilst you destroyed lands. These days creatures are too powerful to ignore for a that long, so I don't think that old strategy would work. Also, now it's probably better to setup a quick Strip Mine lock instead of stringing Stone Rains together.

FORTELL

Foretell is a good way to spend your mana when you don't want to cast spells. For example, you think your opponent is holding up a counterspell or you may want to flip Huntmaster of the Fells.
Creatures with fortell are good with sweepers.
Foretell lets you hide cards from Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister, Wheel of Misfortune and Balance.
Thran Turbine can be used to foretell.
Lion's Eye Diamond is good with foretell.
The mana from turn1 Sol Ring is often unused and can go towards foretelling.

Somewhere between Glimmer of Genius and Think Twice. It's a little slow but I can imagine some control decks running it.

Waiting until turn4 to cast Wrath of God can often be too slow. Doomskar can be cast on turn three. I think it's better than Wrath. 
There have been turn three sweepers around for a long time but they each have drawbacks that could make them situationally worse than Doomskar. For example, Anger of the Gods won't kill >3 toughness creatures and Toxic Deluge costs life to cast.
Doomskar does allow regeneration, but that's quite rare in Highlander. Regenerators that I've seen lately include Welding Jar, Experiment One and Gobin Chirurgeon.

Fork price speculators are getting nervous.
Most forks copy target spell. Targetted forks can copy your opponent's stuff too but are risky when copying your stuff because the original spell may get countered, which fizzles the fork too. Force of Negation and Daze are both very popular, so even if the opponent is tapped out there is high risk. Realistically if you're running a fork effect in your deck it's so you can copy your own things. Therefore, the forks which trigger and create a copy are safer, e.g. Doublecast and Sea Gate Stormcaller.
Dual Strike is at its best with Ancestral Recall and Time Walk.

Decent beater for decks with lots of expensive spells, although it's only good early on whilst you have lots of cards to foretell.
Dream Devourer enables big turns, which is great for cards like Mind's Desire, Bonus Round and Bubbling Muck. Dream Devourer may actually be a decent sideboard card for Storm combo when the opponent takes out their removal. 
He may save a key spell from Vendilion Clique.
It can cast Myr Superion. One day I'll run Myr Superion!
Note that spells without costs, e.g. Ancestral Vision, can't be cast even if foretold.

MODAL DOUBLEFACED CARDS

These recently featured in Zendikar Rising. Here's a rules refresher if you need.

Finally some decent punishment for players running snow basics. Icequake and Freyalise's Radiance don't quite cut it. Players have been running snow basics simply to bluff that they run Tainted Pact, Gifts Ungiven or Ice-Fang Coatl. At least now there's half a reason not to.
I am bothered that her disruptive abilites aren't symetrical. I like the skill test of avoiding nombos during deck building.
Valkmira can save you from Brainfreeze. Whereas Val Kilmer can save you from The Riddler.


Very weird card. Will take a couple games to get a feel for it.
The Omenkeel is great against combo decks. They typically have few blockers and The Omenkeel does damage fast. It may even exile important combo pieces off the top.
Against all other archetypes you'll be casting Cosima. The less you bring back Cosima, the more cards you will draw. Fetchlands are critical for Cosima. Without them she won't be able to attack planeswalkers and draw cards or block and draw cards.

In modern players were cascading into Valki and casting Tibalt instead, which was totally broken. WotC fixed that by 'errataring' cascade to check the CMC when casting as well.
I've been wrong about rules interactions many times in the past, so I went to extraordinary measures this time to verify one:
You can't cast Valki as Tibalt with In Search of Greatness, Aluren, or Kari Zev's Expertise. You could do it with Fires of Invention but not until you have seven lands!
Shinanigans aside, Valki is decent disruption in a creature combo heavy meta. Exiling Protean Hulk or Thassa's Oracle from hand their is pretty good. He's like a bad Tidehollow Sculler that turns awesome if you have seven mana.

Best in storm combo. If you can cast Harnfel and untap you should win the game. Birgi is also good for storm if the opponent doesn't have removal.
I like Birgi in the 'Red Threes' deck, which has all its points in fast mana to rush Blood Moon and many other strong 2R threats.
Red Mishra's Workshop decks with Goblin Welder and Daretti, Scrap Savant have been popular in the past. Daretti and Goblin Welder can't put Harnfel onto the battlefield but they all fit a theme.
Memory Jar was pointed for a very long time. Harnfel feels very similar.

The Pathway series is complete! Ahhhh my OCD.
I haven't used pathway lands yet. There seems to be better options available. A three colour deck would run 3 duals, 3 shocks, 9 fetches, Prismatic Vista and 3, 4 or 5 basics. That's about 24 lands already and if there was space, fastlands and painlands would fill it first. There's no room for them in 3colour decks. 
The dynamic of fetchlands and dual lands unintuitively results in 3colour mana bases being more reliable than 2colour mana bases. The only reason to go two colour is if you're running nonbasic hate like Back to Basics or Blood Moon, or if you want to run a lot of colourless lands. Lets have a look at these situations and see if there's room for pathways:
  • Back to Basics - Doesn't want pathways because it wants minimal nonbasics.
  • Blood Moon - The red pathways are better than Mountain.
  • Lots of colourless lands - Take the example of the below UB Time Vault manabase. The deck is running UU and BB spells, which means minimum two basics of each. Clearwater Pathway is the 25th and final land included, just beating Drowned Catacomb, Darkwater Catacombs and Sunken Ruins for a spot. However, depending on the spell suite, one of those other lands could easily take its spot.
Underground Sea
Watery Grave
Polluted Delta
Marsh Flats
Verdant Catacombs
Bloodstained Mire
Flooded Strand
Misty Rainforest
Flooded Strand
Prismatic Vista
Snow-Covered Island
Snow-Covered Island
Snow-Covered Swamp
Snow-Covered Swamp
Darkslick Shores
Underground River
River of Tears
Ancient Tomb
City of Traitors
Academy Ruins
Vault of Whispers
Seat of the Synod

TRIBAL

I love tribal decks because they have less options and are therefore easier to tune. You also get to run cards that rarely see play.
Tribal decks are interesting to build in Highlander; You need a critical mass of creatures and payoff to be rewarded for your choice of strategy; After you've added lands you're left with little space for removal and disruption. 

Aggro tribes:
GOBLINS
HUMANS
WARRIORS

and combo tribes:
ELVES
ELDRAZI 

...can race combo decks.

Other tribes are more reliant on disruption. For the tribes that rely on disruption, creatures that act as removal or disruption and do well in combat, are very important. 'Disruption' is metagame dependant. Not all disruption works against every combo deck. At the moment the two combos which are most important to disrupt are:

and

Both of which can be set up by Gifts Ungiven. After a lot of time on Scryfall.com I've identified the tribes which I believe have enough disruption to not rely on racing (at least ~10 disruptive creatures):

HUMANS (Deck colour: Wx or Wxx or Wxxx or Wxxxx)
Humans could go aggro, but they have enough disruption that I think they should go midrange with disruption instead; That way they have a better chance against other midrange decks.

SPIRITS (UW or Bant)
With a high number of flier, Spirits are less relaint on removal than other tribes.

SOLDIERS (Abzan)
Worse than Humans but that could change with another Soldier tribal set.

WIZARDS (Bant)
Worse than Humans but that could change with another Wizard tribal set.

CLERICS (Abzan)
Focused on self sacrifice. Birthing Pod/Pyre of Heroes into Academy Rector would be the central strategy.

Wow. 
Birthing Pod is a solid one point, which indicates Pyre of Heroes' power.
My Goblin deck probably switches to a Birthing Pod / Pyre of Heroes variant now, to increase the access to Muxus. I intend to do that update for the 7ph.com website. I've been slack on that.
I've been tuning a Mishra's Workshop midrange deck for a while and I'm happy with its power level. That deck has an incidental Construct tribal theme. Pyre of Heroes tying in with the artifact theme makes it even better there.
Pyre of Heroes performs best in combo decks or decks which have one or two extremely strong creatures (Muxus, Goblin Grandee).
Isaac Egan has been thrashing the 'Spellseeker into Ephemerate into Time Walk into Eternal Witness' chain for years and top8'ing most tournaments with it. Spellseeker and Eternal Witness are both humans. There's definitely a deck there.
Clerics want to be sacrificed anyway. I think there could be a good Academy Rector / Arena Rector focused build. Or that deck could be Humans too with Aluren: Imperial Recruiter for Niambi, Esteemed Speaker returning Recruiter for 3 life and recasting Recruiter to get Cavern Harpy, which leads to infinite life and then you can find Cunning Sparkmage to finish them off. It's a bummer that Harpy isn't a Human. Don't know whether that combo is worth all the slots, but it's cool.

Straight into every green tribal deck but it only 1power so it may be sideboard. 
Goblins can now kill enchantments; I'm excited.
Is one mana cheaper than Qasali Pridemage, Knight of Autumn and Reclamation Sage to Green Sun's Zenith for and remove an artifact or enchantment. I would run this in addition to Qasali Pridemage though because the instant speed option is important against Time Vault and Umezawa's Jitte.
The 'exile a creature card from your graveyard' requirement is significant; Some mechanics can help there, like Cycling and Explore, or you could run creatures which can sacrifice.
If players are running powerful artifacts and enchantments, they're likely running ways of returning them from the graveyard too. Therefore, exiling the artifact or enchantment is a big upgrade on 'destroy'. 

The card I'm most excited by in this set. The anticipation of looking at my next card each turn gives me tingles. 
Realmwalker is a must answer threat. It can be Green Sun's Zenith'd and it hits off Collected Company. It ticks all my boxes really.
Fetchlands give more chances of having a creature on top. There is tension between playing around Opposition Agent verses saving fetchlands to improve Realmwalker.
Realmwalker is especially good with Goblin Recruiter. It is worse than Conspicuous Snoop or Muxus but sometimes those two are in the graveyard or exiled.
I think the suite of Realmwalker, Collected Company, Masked Vandal, Green Sun's Zenith and Once Upon a Time, will pull most tribal decks into green.

Sideboard card.

Elves have always been weak to sweepers. Some Elves players have turned to Garruks and Nissas for resilience. However, those Planeswalkers take away from the tribal synergy of the deck, unlike Skemfar Avenger. 
3 power for two mana is good enough stats to maindeck.

Even though he's not a creature for Glimpse of Nature, Realmwalker, etc; I imagine Tyvar more than makes up for that with raw power. Untapping an Elvish Archdruid or Priest of Titania, is amazing. Acting like a Heritage Druid is amazing, albiet black mana is much worse than green.
Tyvar is another elf card that is resilient to sweepers.

Elf decks produce a lot mana, so the activated ability is very realistic.
Token creation amplifies in tribal decks. 


Lots of support for Elves in Kaldheim. A little extra for Warriors is nice too.
Harald is more beatdown than combo but he may still be good in combo.
Elf decks probably wouldn't run Karakas but that would be nice for bouncing Harald each turn.

One sided Shared Triumph. I won my Mox Pearl with Shared Triumph back in 2007 (Mox Pearl was 'only' $250 back then). I believe Time Spiral was the latest set at the time. Behold:

// Creatures

// Spells
Mox Pearl
Swords to Plowshares
Æther Vial
Lightning Greaves
Shared Triumph
Skullclamp
Umezawa's Jitte
Steelshaper's Gift
Sword of Fire and Ice


// Sideboard
Tormod's Crypt

WILD. Those were the days. Looking back, this deck should've just been White Weenie rather than Soldiers buuuut score board!
For more old lists check out Ben's Bible. Kudos to that man for his work putting it together and Kudro to an updated Soldiers list.

Warriors are a much stronger tribe than angels.
If you have a warrior in the graveyard in the midgame, chances are you only have 0, 1 or 2 on the battlefield. Resplendent Marshal doesn't put counters on itself, so for full value you'll play it late game. It's still a 3/3 flier for three, so casting it turn3 is fine if you have nothing else.
Warriors don't cycle or get into the graveyard for value. You'll be relying on your opponent to put them there. The only exceptions I found are Azra Oddsmaker, Goblin Cratermaker and maybe Neheb, the Worthy.

Sacrificing five treasures to Tinker is game winning power. The challenge is getting the five treasures. The current treasure produces aren't productive enough, but that could change.
Dwarves don't have enough support yet. They do have Dwarven Recruiter but there's no combo available yet. Goblins recently gained Muxus and the Conspicuous Snoop + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo, which drastically increased its power level. Dwarves need something like that.

CARDS NOT AVAILABLE IN BOOSTERS

Unique cards that aren't regulated by the flat price of boosters are dangerous things. It pisses me off and we are well and truely on the slippery slope. Without Standard and Limited to regulate card power, and without a booster price to keep card prices in check, WotC could simply print a busted card which they set the price for. True-Name Nemesis is an example of this. Let's hope they resist temptation.

Produces infinite mana for creature spells with Food Chain because you can exile infinite tokens for one mana each time. Ranar is vulnerable to removal midcombo, whereas Squee, the Immortal, Eternal Scourge and Misthollow Griffin are not. However, if you already have one of those three, Ranar will produce infinite spirits. He's infinite mana and a win condition.

Powerful with:
Armageddon
Ravages of War
Devastating Dreams

May work well in an eggs deck, especially if that deck can go off instant speed, i.e. in the end step when all the permanents have come back from Cosmic Intervention. However, Cosmic Intervention is a replacement effect so Chromatic Star et al won't get their draw triggers. Note that Cosmic Intervention will only bring back the permanents that were on the battlefield as it resolved. 

A lot like Windfall. If you can dump your hand well before your opponent can, this can draw ~4 or more cards; Very possible in storm combo and decks with Lion's Eye Diamond.

Giant tribal is a giant leap from playable, but this is one small step towards that. 
This would be a sideboard card against decks which tap out and don't run much removal.

MISCELLANEOUS

All tutors are noteworthy in Highlander. 
To makeup for the tempo loss of three mana, you need to be searching for a turn4 immediate-win combo.

Over the years I've built many decks that rely heavily on Skullclamp to compete against grindy midrange and control decks. Proactive cards that can return Skullclamp from the graveyard are good. To ensure that you have a powerful equipment or aura that's worth the 2 mana to return, you'll want plenty of tutors for said card, e.g. Steelshaper's Gift, Stoneforge Mystic and Open the Armory.
A good 1drop for Spirits and Warriors. Spirits are especially low on 1-drops, so this and Ascendant Spirit are welcome additions.

Immersturm Raider is a 'cheap' demon for Liliana's Contract, imagine how sweet that would be. Kaldheim has a few cheap demons. Demon tribal may not be a fantasy.
Creature type aside, would be good in a Recurring Nightmare deck.

Quite a slow tutor. You wouldn't run this in a pure combo deck because you would expose yourself to creature removal. However, you could run this in a hybrid deck with a midrange plan and a combo sideplan. For example, persist combo using Murderous Redcap, Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit and Cartel Aristocrat, which are all half decent by themselves.

Tibalt's Trickery broke Modern for a short period before it was banned. Luckily Highlander doesn't have the same problem by virtue of being a singleton format.
The randomised amount of mill (1, 2 or 3) makes it tricky to cheatcast an Emrakul, the Aeon's Torn. You could Insidious Dreams, but that would require a large amount of cards in hand. If you do have 6 cards in hand you could Insidious Dreams stacking a cascade spell into Tibalt's Trickery into 3 lands into Emrakul. 
Scroll Rack is a good way to set up 'land land land Emrakul'.
Against combo decks, this could simply be a counterspell in the sideboard of red decks (that aren't already running blue). For most combos there will be a better answers, e.g. Tormod's Crypt, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Torpor Orb or Mogg Salvage, but some combos e.g. Scapeshift Valakut need weird answers.

2/2 first strike is respectable in Highlander; Holds back many aggro creatures, can attack into Snapcaster Mage and Trinket Mage. The first strike combines well with burn to take down bigger creatures.
That boast ability is huge. A must answer threat going into the mid-late game. Cheap cards that scale well late are always worth considering.

Has already been adopted across several formats. If your deck contains counterspells, then Goldspan Dragon provides the mana to protect itself against removal. And from then on it nets more mana and pulls you ahead.
4power haste flying is great at chonking planeswalkers.

Even though this is powerful enough, I don't think you can justify the heavy green commitment (please prove me wrong). In this era you need creature removal and therefore another colour, and once you add another colour the triple green gets too hard to do. You'll want a basic of your second colour and there are probably other threats that are about as good but easier to cast.

Human or warior tribal will value the removal. 
If you have several ways of pumping her power up, then she will perform very well.
2/2 first strike flash is great for picking off 'chip attackers', e.g. Snapcaster Mage.
Flash helps against counterspells.
Legendary with an ETB opens up Karakas abuse.

These lean towards an aggro strategy, not only because of their effect but also because they want to be surrounded by cheap spells.
If you want a trigger on turn two, you'll need to be running some zero mana spells or play a mana dork turn one and another 1-drop after the Clarion Spirit on turn two. The zero mana spells you can happily cast turn two are:
Mishra's Bauble
Urza's Bauble
Gitaxian Probe
Moxes could technically be cast turn two, but most of the time you'll cast them turn one. They'll still help though because you'll get Clarion Spirit out faster, making it easier to get 'second spell' triggers on following turns.
Jori En, Ruin Diver is the other 'second spell matters' card but playing four colours in aggro could be tricky.

Vulnerable to Lightning Bolt and Fatal Push, but not as vulnerable as Gisela, the Broken Blade. A little discard to protect her from removal and she can race most opposing creature(s).
The boast ability could be game winning against Reanimator, Tinker or Show and Tell.

Very powerful. It's a bit like Aether Vial. Obviously you'll want a nice progression up the curve. 
Note that In Search of Greatness (iSoG) says "other", so you don't get a free 3drop on turn3, but you do get a free 1drop because you'll have lands. You really want a good number of 1drops.
iSoG Would be best in decks with permanents that tutor when they enter, or draw cards. That way you're more likely to be tapping out and casting things with iSoG.
Imperial Recruiter into Felidar Guardian blinking Recruiter into Kiki-Jiki is pretty cool.

'Cat Car' or 'Cat-illac'
Good threat which leaves behind value even against sweepers. Amazing in Mishra's Workshop decks. Green is a good pairing for Workshop because you have access to Crop Rotation, Sylvan Scrying and Ancient Stirrings.
Could even go in a Lukka deck.

Even though pumping him doesn't give more poison counters, I think Fynn is decent in an infect deck. 
I wonder if deathtouch could ever be a viable strategy: Hooded Blightfang, Vraska, Swarm's Eminence and all the best ways of giving creatures the Prodigal Sorcerer ability. The deck would be slow, therefore it would need disruption against combo. Probably too many pieces to have all at once.

Close to Blossoming Defense for infect and double strike decks. Haven't seen a succesful one yet, but it could happen.

Reminds me of Falkenrath Aristocrat. 
Sacrifice abilities that don't cost mana are good for persist combo, Academy Rector + Pattern of Rebirth and a lot of other little tricks.
This is actually instant speed graveyard hate, which is very important against Underworld Breach, Gifts Ungiven, Reanimate, Uro and much more. Immersturm Dragon is very good.

Very clunky but just effective enough. Best in decks with lots of cheap blockers, preferably ones that gain some value, e.g. Baleful Strix.
Her ultimate comes quickly, and once it's active you can cast Kaya herself from the graveyard, hence "Inexorable" in her name.

Fringe playable in Serra's Sanctum decks perhaps. 
You can say "smoke a shard" when you sacrifice the shard tokens, if you're so inclined.

Draws your deck with Food Chain combo. 
Might be some shinanigans with Uba Mask.
May not be playable because you'll probably need to wait for more mana next turn, and by then Vega will likely die.
Red seems to have a lot of decent ways to cast cards from exile. Perhaps there's a Jeskai burn control deck with the powerful See the Truth. Below are some Jeskai cards that cast from not-your-hand.
Decks with equipment are typically aggressive, so entering tapped is a huge drawback. Despite this, a land which tutors for pointed cards and creates card advantage is worth considering.
I happily ran this card at prerelease and thought it was just "or", but it's actually "and/or"!
I mentioned that aggro decks don't want ETB tapped lands, but you don't have to be aggro to run equipment; I've seen midrange and control decks successfully run Stoneforge Mystic for Batterskull.
I like Skullclamp so much that I've stretched to running Open the Armory as well, which led me to search for cool Auras: On Thin Ice, Chained to the Rocks, Wheel of Sun and Moon, Curse of Exhaustion.

Very slow but if you can generate a lot of mana, there are a lot of powerful lands that need killing. I've been meaning to revisit my Thran Turbine deck.

Entering tapped sucks, but if your deck is having a lot of trouble with Hullbreacher and other disruptive creatures, then these could be worth it.

With the advent of companions, my evaluation of the monocolour Kamigawa Legendary land series has gone up. Tyrite Sanctum is on average worse due to being colourless, but the ability is stronger.
As with all colourless lands, try to avoid running this with triple colour three drops.

Grandma forgot her lawn bowl last season.
Very similar to Grafdigger's Cage, one of the best sideboard cards in Highlander. Two mana is obviously much worse but it's still excellent.
Weathered Runestone also stops non-creatures from entering. This means it stops Tinker from getting Bolas's Citadel, it stops Academy Rector from getting X, it stops Transmute Artifact et al from getting Time Vault. These are significant and there's probably many others I'm forgetting...Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek.
Funnily it lets through Dryad Arbor from Green Sun's Zenith and fetchlands, whereas Grafdigger's Cage does not.

Goes infinite with a zero cost creature and an equipment that equips for zero and a sacrifice outlet that gains value. The deck is probably bad, but it's cool!

CONCLUSION


Ok! That concludes my Kaldheim set review. Kaldheim feels a bit like Modern Horizons with the snow and changeling themes. Here are my picks for best cards of the set in rough oder of power. Congratulations WotC for not printing any pointable cards. I am very relieved.


Looking forward to RL tournaments ramping up as the Covid threat lessens.

Far vel.

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