Welcome back warriors of the hold! Join us as we share some of our favourite cards from Magic: The Gathering latest set, Kaldheim. So, grab your axe, down your mead, and let’s charge in!

What is Magic: The Gathering Kaldheim?

Kaldheim is set within The World Tree and the ten realms. In this upcoming set players will see heavy Norse influences as heroes, gods, beasts, and tales of heroism will be on the cards. Literally. In a beautifully crafted world, battles rage and powers are challenges as trouble boils in Kaldheim. What glory will you gain? And what lies will your discover?

Our Favourite Cards

First on the list is Sigrid, God-Favoured, artwork by Johannes Voss. Sigrid is a 3 mana 2/2 that has Flash and First Strike. It also has Protection from God creatures and an effect that exiles an attacking or blocking creature until she leaves the field. I love this card! The stats are not the best and can be removed quite easily. But, to remove an attacker or block in response is powerful. It can remove buffs, prevent the damage going through, and she can First Strike another blocker. This is essentially a Flash Banishing Light with a body. Much love for this card!

Next up is a Blue card, Mystic Reflection, artwork by Y W Tang. This is a 2 mana Instant with Foretell for 1 Blue mana. By selecting a non legendary permanent, creatures or planswalkers that enter as a copy of that creature that turn. This is big. It can not only buff your board but, also shut down an opponents turn. And I’m sure the big brains will concoct some insane combos with this card. Wonderful!

For the Black mana cards, it was really hard to chose just one. Feed the Serpent is good removal. Blood on the Snow has incredible removal and reanimate. But, I personally like the simplicity of Demonic Gifts, artwork by Kekai Kotaki. It is a two mana Instant that gives target creature +2/+0 until the end of turn. Also, if it dies then it is reanimated to the owners board. As a common, it is widely accessible and can work quite nicely with Golgari Black Green. Simple, cheap, and fun.

Another common card coming up in the form of the Red/Snow Instant Frost Bite, artwork by Caio Monteiro. For 1 Red mana, you can deal 2 damage to a creature or planeswalker. It becomes 3 damage if you control 3+ Snow permanents. Very cheap, accessible removal. With the amount of Snow cards available, it will be fairly easy to pull off the 3 damage. I can see this to be heavily played.

Now for Green with Old-Growth Troll, artwork by Jesper Ejsing. For 3 Green mana you get a 4/4 troll creature with Trample. Pretty good so far. However, when it dies it returns to battlefield as an Aura Enchantment on a land you control. This land can tap to add 2 Green mana or, pay 1 and sacrifice it to become a 4/4 troll token with trample. Love this card! A cheap threat that if removed can allow you to ramp faster. It can create some interesting win win scenarios… outside an exile effect. Big Green might love this card.

If you love tokens then you might love this next card. Waking the Trolls, artwork by Daniel Ljunggren, is a 6 mana, Red Green Saga. It has three effects: destroy target land; put a land from a graveyard under your control; create 4/4 troll tokens with trample equal to the difference in lands between you and your opponent. It can seem a bit expensive even for ramp at first. However, combine this with Ashaya, Soul of the Wild which makes all creatures count as lands, and you can be in for some big wins. Great value even for just a difference in two lands. Not for everyone’s playstyle but, ramping to a big Gruul win is exciting!

There are a plethora of Gods in Kaldheim all with a double faced card. The one that stood out to me was Tegrid, God of Fright, art by Yongjae Choi. On the front she is a five mana mono Black card with 4/5 and Menace. Her effect loads your board with cards that your opponent sacrifices or discards. This combines well with Mutate cards such as Cavern Whisperer and Chittering Harvester. On the flip side, Tegrid’s Lantern is a 4 mana mono Black Legendary Artifact with two effects. Tap, target player loses 3 life unless they sacrifice or discard. And, 4 mana untap the lantern. Having both of these on board makes for awesome combos.

One of two new mechanics in Kaldheim is Boast. Once a creature has attacked, this can be any time the turn it declared an attack, they can pay the Boast cost once to activate it’s effect. The one that I love is Arni, Brokenbrow, artwork by Dmitry Burmak. He is 3 mana mono Red Legendary creature with 3/3 and Haste. Good so far. It’s Boast costs 1 colourless mana and can change Arni’s base power to 1 plus the greatest power among creatures on the board until the end of turn. A great pressure card with the ability to best bigger creatures? Boast away!

The next mechanic is Foretell. By playing 2 mana you can exile it face down. Then you can play it for it’s Foretell at a later time.. This is great as it allows for better combos and even spring traps? Doomskar, artwork by Piotr Dura, is a five mana mono white Sorcery that destroys all creatures. You can pay 2 to exile it then only 3 mana to play it on a later turn. A board wipe for 3 mana on the turn its played has great uses. If you are up against aggro, you can foretell and drop it turn 3. Big threats? Drop it with mana to spare and flipping the board advantage. Love it!

Lastly, I want to share my favourite of the art in Kaldheim. All of the cards are beautiful and bring the world to life. Set after set the artists produce marvelous pieces that all come together to complete this wonderful mosaic of the game that we play in. But, if I had to pick one for this set it would have to be The World Tree, by Anastasia Ovchinnikova. It is an amazing display of gorgeous colours, depictions of the realms between the branches of The World Tree, and just generally mystifying. The more you look at it the more you are drawn in and the more details you notice. Outstanding!

And that is you lot! Thank you for joining us as we share our favourite cards from the upcoming Magic: The Gathering set Kaldheim. The set is due to release on January 28th for Magic Online and Arena with a tabletop release on February 5th. Stay tuned for more news, reviews, and guides. Until next time, smile and game!