Kaldheim is a picturesque place filled to the brim with references to Norse mythology and the Viking age. Its storytellers narrate timeless sagas of wondrous beings and mighty heroes fulfilling their foretold destinies across the World Tree. Three of those heroes are worth focusing our deck-building attention on.
Lessons in Lore
Kaldheim is a very peculiar plane. It's composed of ten separate sub-planes, called realms, constantly shifting around and sometimes . They reside on the branches of (inspired by Yggdrasil, the World Tree). In between the realms, there's a void called Cosmos, which even planeswalkers can't traverse without mystical help. Each realm hosts a different population representing a specific dual-color alignment.
The Angels, stylized as Valkyries, along with the deceased who have fallen in battle, have their home on (inspired by Asgard). This realm is located on the top branches of the World Tree and is the source of all Kaldheim's daylight (since the plane has neither sun nor moon). The most notable Angel is , who is simultaneously a white Shepherd and a black Reaper, so she ferries the worthy dead to Starnheim and the unworthy to Istfell.
The Humans live on (inspired by Midgard). They are divided into five clans. The white-aligned Beskir, the Defenders of the Code, are led by and . The blue-aligned Omenseekers, the Navigators, are led by . The black-aligned Skelle, the Raiders, are led by the Demon . The red-aligned Tuskeri, the Hedonists, are led by . The green-aligned Kannah, the Wanderers, are led by .
The Elves inhabit the shadowy (inspired by Álfheimr for the wood elves and Svartálfar for the dark elves). They are the deposed gods who preceded the current pantheon. Their king is .
The Dwarves are found on the mountainous (inspired by Niðavellir). Notable Dwarves include the master smith and the outcast .
The Giants dwell on (inspired by Jötunheimr for the frost giants and Muspelheim for the fire giants). Kaldar, the king of the fire giants, had an affair with a frost giantess that engendered the half-blood , who dreams to unite the two races one day.
The Trolls occupy Gnottvold (also inspired by Jötunheimr). They're not very organized, and the larger ones can sleep for years at a time before being awakened to destructive results. is the odd artist of the family.
The Shapeshifters are the inscrutable presences of the ever-changing (inspired by Vanaheimr). It's a strange realm created by the Elves back when they were still gods. The most prominent Shapeshifters, the water-based and the wandering , are themselves living enigmas.
The Demons rule , a fiery realm of constant war (inspired by the infernal Muspelheim). was one of the fiercest demonic berserkers; now trapped deep beneath the surface, he's working his way up to renew his appetite for devastation.
The Zombies, styled as Draugr, roam the icy wasteland of (inspired by Niflheim). The lich is their king. Their design betrays more than a shade of A Song of Ice and Fire among its source material.
The Spirits haunt the mist-shrouded (also inspired by Niflheim), which is Kaldheim's afterlife for nonsentient creatures and people who didn't die in battle. They have no social structures. The spy owl is a resident of the Gods' Hall, which was accidentally moved to Istfell from the elusive realm of the Gods.
Now let's look at the builds that three of these fearsome characters have the honor of helming.
Fynn Poisons the Enemies
Golgari Deathtouch
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is the only human being who ever managed to wound , absorbing the titanic monster's venomous blood in the process. In game terms, the card is the excuse to revive the old alternate win condition of poison, now associated with deathtouch rather than infect. It's not hard to figure out what a Fynn-centric deck needs and which colors satisfy those requirements. Both black and green have one-drops with deathtouch (green has two, actually, with being the most recent), so that's eight chances for us to have an attacker ready to inject its lethal toxins into the opponent come turn two, when Fynn is already potentially online.
Of course we can't really count on Fynn being in every opening hand, or sticking around for too long for that matter. (Though the list has the means to bring him back via or .) A second win condition is present in the form of "deathtouch lord" , which should be able to drain a serious amount of life, considering the deck packs 23 creatures capable of triggering its abilities. With so many deathtouchers, fight spells and bite spells become an obvious choice for the removal suite, with both and, once the snow clause is fulfilled, safe ways to perform a kill without endangering the killers.
The general high chances of sending opposing creatures to the graveyard also perfectly fit the skill set of , another solid two-drop for the archetype. A further consequence of running a deathtoucher team is that the opponent will be often discouraged from blocking our attackers, which plays into 's card-drawing ability, giving us another refueling system.
Other specialized deathtouchers include , which can tutor up Fynn, and the evasive to add the last couple of poison counters from the sky. Among the discarded options, 's self-milling could play into the reanimation spells; always makes for a compelling presence, though the build benefits from having a relatively low curve.
Magda Breeds the Dragons
Monored Treasures
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is a treasure hunter who discovered a batch of ancient eggs and became the dwarven Mother of Dragons. The list here is a peculiar double tribal concoction, with the base host of Dwarves creating enough Treasures to summon a few powerful Dragons—and , which still attaches itself ambushing a defender at instant speed even when it's Magda that fetches it. Aside from , the Dwarf tribe in Standard doesn't have a ton of amazing members, but the form a workable core group, while other two-drops like and can tap themselves to create a Treasure with Magda (or two, in case of the Robber) without having to attack. does the same trick for the whole team, since it can be crewed multiple times; it might not be , but it's at least effective in a Magda deck.
Among the targets of Magda's tutoring, is a way to create more Treasures while also doubling their mana value should we decide to use them to ramp. is a surprise finishing move akin to Embercleave but potentially even more devastating. plays nicely into the theme, and is just a good blocker to field on turn three.
As far as monored builds go, this is by far the most whimsical we can currently put together in Standard, but it's not without its power moves.
Harald Unites the "Elves"
Sultai Mill
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has brought together all the Elves of Kaldheim: the wood elves, the dark elves, and, incidentally, .
This is a combo build devised by Luca Van Deun (you can watch the deck in action here). It exploits the fact that is an Elf. This means is able to reanimate Moritte, which can in turn copy the Saga itself, with the difference that this new Moritte-flavored instance of Harald Unites the Elves will be legendary. Now, should this Moritte Saga reanimate yet another Moritte, the latter could be made into a second legendary copy of Harald Unites the Elves. Consequently, one of the Morittes will be sent to the graveyard by the legend rule, to be reanimated once again by the one remaining on the battlefield. It's an infinite loop that will promptly mill our entire library. In order to win, we need a fourth combo piece, , which is triggered by each iteration of Harald Unites the Elves and can empty the opponent's library.
The rest of the deck helps assemble the combo. We need two Morittes (ideally both in the graveyard, although you can absolutely copy Harald's Saga with a Moritte from hand at a turn's delay) so self-mill is the name of the game. , , and play into that plan, with the latter able to retrieve a milled copy of Sage of Mysteries, while the valuable gives us back either the Sage or the Saga. Triton and also muster up some board presence to buy us time.
And this is the conclusion of the story of the deadly Human, the ambitious Dwarf, and the uncanny Elf—an inspiring parable of counters, tokens, and milling.
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