Top 10 Kaldheim Commander Cards - By Bryan Smith

Kaldheim is billed as the most metal Magic set ever, but to be honest, I’m excited about the cardboard. While the year of Commander is technically over, this new standard set has some sweet additions for our favourite singleton format. Narrowing this list down was tough, but check out below for the 10 cards I think every Commander player should have in their collection. 

10. Ravenform

Joining the ranks of Rapid Hybridization, Pongify and Reality Shift Blue gets another single target removal spell - now being able to hit pesky artifacts like Sol Ring. Admittedly, Ravenform is limited by being sorcery speed and having a fairly high CMC, but between the Foretell bluff and being able to hit artifacts I think it is worth considering. Everyone will be anticipating counterspells from mono blue, but sorcery speed removal could catch some players off guard. 

9. Goldspan Dragon

A pseudo mana doubler in mono red - sign me up! This may not generate as much treasure as resolving a Dockside Extortionist, but there are still some cool things you can do with this engine. You can get infinite casts and infinite power with Memory Crystal and Haze of Rage (or any spell with Buyback 2), and add infinite mana if you add green or white to the mix for token doublers. Goldspan Dragon only gets better when you add more treasure synergy with the likes of Smothering Tithe or Hullbreacher.  

8. Rise of the Dread Marn

Board wipes in Commander can bring a game to a grinding halt, so what better way to build tempo and reposition yourself than with an army of zombies? Rise of the Dread Marn is fantastic at its normal CMC, but if you can Foretell it and resolve this for a single black mana, what a potential blowout. Whether it’s in response to an opponent’s board wipe or your own, being the only player with creatures can put you in a strong position. I’d recommend an instant speed cast Rout (or other instant speed board wipe) paired with this Foretold on turn 8 at your opponent’s end step for the biggest upset. 

7.  Glorious Protector

In a similar vein to Rise of the Dread Marn, Glorious Protector is another great tempo option. In some cases the protector will be net-better as you get to resolve all of those wonderful ETB triggers once again. There’s a bit more versatility in a flying creature with Flash compared to Rise, and with relevant tribes I’d expect this to be one of the best white cards for Commander in the set. 

6.  Tibalt’s Trickery

In true red fashion Tibalt’s Trickery gives us a risky answer to some threatening spells. Similar to Chaos Warp, the follow up may be worse than what you’re responding to, but I think it’s worth the risk. Countering a finisher like Rise of the Dark Realms or an early Mana Crypt for a random spell of the top is definitely worth it. 

5. Mystic Reflection

I love the versatility of Mystic Reflection. As a response to an opponent’s Planeswalker (sorry your Karn Liberated enters as an Elvish Mystic) or for your own shenanigans, this card does it all. Frank Karsten of Channel Fireball fame did the math on the amount of power you get with Master of Waves based on your current devotion - and it’s a little wild. The best part is it doesn’t need to be your creature. Facing down a Blightsteel Colossus? Makes a great target for Mystic Reflection following a Storm Herd (or any other mass token generator).I’m sure there’s some fun stuff you can do with Spark Double, but I’ll leave it to you to find out how to break it. 

4.    In Search of Greatness

Two CMC for a scry is great, but that same cost for a free cast every turn is unreal! Of course you may need to build with this card in mind to get the most value out of it, but this will be an all star in some decks. I can’t wait to pair this with Evolutionary Leap to search up some creatures that come into play for free. In Search of Greatness will also shine in reanimator and aristocrat decks. 

3. Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

Anything you can do to make your decks more consistent will help you win more games, and a repeatable Vampiric Tutor every turn is indeed something to Boast about. Varragoth lets you target any player, so you could make someone else an archenemy or you can steal things from their deck by following up with an Opposition Agent. Personally I’ll be putting one of these into my Atraxa group hug list, but it should go into any list that it can, as repeatable tutors are rare.

2. Axgard Armory

I’d highly recommend checking out all of the realms of Kaldheim as having spells in your mana base is like having a 101st card. The effects may be overcosted, but when you’ve got nothing to do or your flooding out, the extra cost is negligible. Axgard Armory is great for any RWx deck as tutoring up an Aura and Equipment for 4 is fantastic, and provides a lot of unexpected smoothing. Behind on lands? You can fetch up a Curse of Opulence or Shiny Impetus for your Aura and Sword of the Animist for your Equipment. Or maybe you need some card advantage, where Skullclamp and Gift of Immortality will do the trick.

1. Maskwood Nexus

Maskwood Nexus is the Birthing Boughs we’ve always wanted. The thing I’m most excited about by this card is the amount of decks it opens up. Having an Arcane Adaptation / Conspiracy outside of blue black means more support for the under-represented tribes such as Kithkin, Kavu and Dryads. Making a tribe member for three is a fair rate, and I’m sure this card will appear in a lot of strongly supported tribes such as Slivers, Allies and of course Party decks from Zendikar Rising. You should grab one of these if you think you’ll ever build a tribal deck.   

There we have it, 10 must-have cards from Kaldheim. While I’ve highlighted these ten, there are plenty of goodies in this set for Commander players. An honourable mention goes to the tapped snow duals. These are great budget alternatives and being fetchable by Farseek, Three Visits, Nature’s Lore and fetch lands means they add fantastic fixing to any multicolour deck. I can’t wait for this sets’ release so I can start upgrading my decks. If you’re jonesing for some Commander, Chimera Gaming hosts Commander night on Tuesday’s via SpellTable - maybe we’ll bump into each other for a game! Were there any cards you feel I’ve missed? Feel free to mention them in the comments below or you can hit me up on Twitter @negative_skew or you can find me in the Chimera Discord in the #commander channel coordinating games on off-nights.