How's Kaldheim Looking to You? Pt. 1
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Jan. 20, 2021, 10:54 a.m. by Sultai_Sir
In my humble opinion, Kaldheim is looking like an amazing set. We haven't gotten any broken things, but they all look fun. Let's go over some of the future commanders of our hearts! I'm skipping over commanders that use fortell, as we don't have many cards for them. Oh, and the cards that don't interest me. My post, my rules!
- Magda, Brazen Outlaw: The dwarf commander we've all been waiting for! Dwarven Recruiter is finally good, and you can add in some spicy treasure/dragon synergies, too! I-I think we did it guys. We broke Dockside Extortionist. Oh, and Hellkite Tyrant is a must.
- Halvar, God of Battle Flip: While pretty good in Voltron decks, he makes for the first artifact commander we've ever had, and I know my Inner Johnny is tickled at that fact. The Equipment side is also super cool, with being able to pay 4 mana to resuscitate one of your creatures. With some Phyrexian Altar + Ashnod's Altar janks, we can make a fun mono-white combo deck! Oh, and Batterskull says hi.
- Lathril, Blade of the Elves: I'm really psyched for this general. She looks like a way to make Golgari Elfball more viable, has a crazy, but not broken, activated ability, and is one of the only generals to make a usually too-competitive strategy fit for more casual tables. She has synergy up the wazoo with cards like Immaculate Magistrate and Timberwatch Elf. Oh, and one card that should be in every one of her decks, but is in zero so far, is Elder of Laurels. This card = broken in this deck, often turning your Lathril, Blade of the Elves into a four-digit power commander. Run it!
- Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider: Finally, Superfriends has some support! But seriously, this is just another Doubling Season with an upside on a stick for Atraxa, Praetors' Voice. If you want to be cruel and run this bad boy as a commander, stax/superfriends seems the way to go. Say hello to Smokestack!
- Toski, Bearer of Secrets: And people said Green couldn't draw cards! Why did they have to print another Edric, Spymaster of Trest? This card is also an indestructible blocker with cards like Seedborn Muse and Quest for Renewal. Oh, and it can't be countered. Why? Because green.
- Valki, God of Lies Flip: This card is super fun. It's like a Lazav, the Multifarious but you get to use your opponent's creatures. But where this 'lil trickster god really shines is in the 99. But more specifically, in the 99 of The First Sliver. See, you can cascade into Valki, God of Lies Flip, but instead of casting the small side, you can just windmill-slam Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor on Turn 4. Fun!
- Sarulf, Realm Eater: Golgari Control is a thing, I guess? Stack your deck like card:Skullbrair, the Walking Grave does, but instead of going for the voltron combos, instead, you wipe your opponent's board every turn. Evolutionary Escalation is a must. Who cares about an 8/8 on your opponent's side when it's dead?
- Kolvori, God of Kinship Flip: Man, Sisay, Weatherlight Captain sure got a lot of new goodies in this set! This card is unfortunately not great as a commander. If I'm playing mono-green legends, I'd rather play Reki, the History of Kamigawa.
- Tergrid, God of Fright Flip: I love this card. There. I've said it. I'm done. This goes in so many different decks: Nekusar, the Mindrazer, Tinybones, Trinket Thief, Malfegor, Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, the list goes on and on! As a commander, she's kill-on-sigh. A single Smallpox just wins you the game.
- Vega, the Watcher: I'll say it: This is probably the most powerful uncommon commander ever printed. This triggers off of so many things: Elsha of the Infinite
, Flahsback, Cascade, Retrace, Future Sight, Suspend, Adventure, Foretell, Impulse Draw, etc. Need I say more?
- Jorn, God of Winter Flip: ... Sigh. I know this is a fun card, but why is it sultai? Oh wait, it's generic value. EVen from a sultai-loving man as myself, this seems like overkill. Oh, you want me to talk about the commander? Stuff your deck full of snow lands. Attack. Repeat. Etc. So uninspiring.
Sultai_Sir says... #3
I see what you mean. I've built a deck around Maskwood Nexus, and while it's super fun, Maskwood Nexus is completely broken.
January 20, 2021 11:16 a.m.
I think this set is going to be awesome and it only makes me more sad because I currently have no spare money to buy a box...
January 20, 2021 11:21 a.m.
Tribal sets in general to me are always fun. I'm an elf playing timmy at heart so I love this. But wish other tribes were as well supported.
January 20, 2021 11:50 a.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #6
I have an Atla Palani, Nest Tender deck (I know I don't need to say it anymore, you all know, but whatever), and I'm not running the Nexus. It's too slow, too vulnerable, and too "scary" to play, IMHO. But I do think it deserves to see play, just that it isn't as amazing as it may seem.
MOVING PAST THAT, Kaldheim seems ok, they made a mistake printing In Search of Greatness but whatever, they fixed 0 problems with Cosmos Elixir but so what, and they did well with Orvar, the All-Form. That's the comprehensive Omniscience opinion ;)
January 20, 2021 12:16 p.m.
Sultai_Sir says... #7
Omniscience_is_life: Personally, I don't see what's too broken with In Search of Greatness, it seems like a repeatable Neoform without the sacrifice clause, but it's limited to your hand. You'd have to build your deck around it, and even then, in EDH, good luck finding it! Maybe I'm not seeing it's full possibility, though. Oh, and Orvar, the All-Form is amazing. Finally, blue ramp is a thing!
January 20, 2021 12:24 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #8
Tibalt's Trickery is the most Commander auto-playable card in the set, and I think it's a fun card for red to get. Answers being more pushed isn't necessarily a bad thing for Commander.
A few commanders are likely to be very popular, and as a consequence very annoying for most players. This means that playing them will likely lead to a lot of attention being sent your way. The three (off the top of my head) that I think fit into this category are The Prismatic Bridge, Tergrid, God of Fright Flip, and Toralf, God of Fury Flip.
All-in-all, a lot of goodies for a lot of different archetypes and not too heavy or direct with auto-playable/must-run cards, so this set gets a 9/10 from me!
January 20, 2021 12:26 p.m.
TriusMalarky says... #9
Trickery is AMAZING -- Red now has "Counterspell, but only on win conditions". I mean, you don't want to counter ramp spells or more simple effects . . . but hitting Ad Naus is like "Boom, I replaced your I Win spell with something random that's probably not nearly as good as winning the game". Course, gets worse a the power level gets lower. But that's fine.
I like Magda, she's an interesting commander with 'card draw', mana advantage and also a built-in wincon in one card. I think she'll be attempted in more tuned lists and maybe even see cEDH play.
I also like that one commander that reads "when you cast a spell and add 1 mana" bc now we have monored storm.
Nexus is not going to break anything. I mean, it's a 4-mana artifact that reads "3, tap: make a 2/2" and also it has some interesting interactions with tribal effects. I'd literally rather cast Storm Crow.
January 20, 2021 4:13 p.m.
LittleBlueHero says... #10
I preordered the Commander Decks for this set before seeing any of the spoiled cards, just based on name alone because I knew one of them would be elves.
The full lists were revealed today and while i'm still all in on golgari elves I gotta say I'm looking forward to the Foretell Deck with Ranar. Morph was always fun at my casual tables and I think Foretell will be too. They added just enough new "not in the set" cards to the deck to make foretell matter, while giving it the good ole fashioned UW fliers treatment at the same time as a wincon.
January 20, 2021 5:30 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life maybe Maskwood Nexus isn't optimal for cEDH Atla. But at mid/upper mid it is quite solid. When you have one of your free sac outlets on the board (usually there are many) you basically get to repeatedly pop an "egg"...then the next..then the next. Until you find what you want at instant speed. Do it in response to Atla or Nexus removal.
January 20, 2021 10:40 p.m.
Omniscience_is_life says... #12
Gleeock it's true that it allows for some chains, but ideally you don't want to have random bad creatures lying around that you can sac for benefit. Usually spinning the wheel isn't worth binning a Kodama of the East Tree, unless you've manipulated the top of your library.
January 20, 2021 11:21 p.m.
Depends on if you are looking for utility & how you've built. I can think of a good amount of circumstances... Bin until you hit hexproof for all, bin until Avacyn for boardwipes, Bin until Gisela when someone does infinite 1 dmg. You are not binning a bad creature depending on the deck... you are binning a creature that is bad for this moment & getting one that makes more sense for the present. Also making targeted removal more pointless. Then again awful for cEDH Atla, where you are ultra reliant on more set creatures. Regarding this set... all I need from it is the squirrel. The rest is more generic WUBRG mythic-chase crap or tribal stuff - which I'm not in to
January 21, 2021 9:07 p.m.
I'm honestly more excited for the replicating ring more or less on a short explanation one of my decks is already ready for something like this honestly it's my flicker trigger deck and it would honestly put that deck over the top I have a way of already copying artifacts in the deck and a possibility of making 40+ maybe even 80+ rings so.....kinda think it's over powered but I want it fir shenanigans reasons honestly I could flicker cards about 40 times a turn with this and doing that would down right mean as heck man just honestly dont know what they were thinking when making a card like that people are just gonna abuse the crap out of it really honestly the biggest funny thing I'm gonna do it make hundreds of squirrel tokens XD which I know for a fact not many people do imagine if I used a cryptolithe rite with this.....the possibilities
plakjekaas says... #2
I think Maskwood Nexus is a mistake. Card restrictions for tribal decks are exactly what makes building a tribal deck fun, removing restrictions from a deck type that's shaped by them feels like a wrong turn to me.
We already had Conspiracy, Arcane Adaptation and Xenograft to help tribal decks of a specific tribe to fit in creatures from outside it. If Maskwood Nexus was that, but colorless, I'd be all for it, but the next step, the "Screw it, everything is all tribes now" breaks the game a little bit.
January 20, 2021 11:12 a.m.