Kaldheim- First Look and two new planeswalekrs

[5colorsrainbow]

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2020-12-14

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2020-12-14

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2020-12-14

-Kaldheim a snow planes based on Norse Mythology and Viking Fantasy

-Four walkers in this set, Kaya and Tibalt as the returning ones, Tyvar Kell a native elf and Niko Aris an athlete from Theros are the new walkers.

-Niko is MtG first human non-binary planeswalker character.

[void_nothing]

Double axes are hardly an assassin's weapon (apart from the one Morag Tong guy) but Kaya's Kaldheim look is rad.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Oh, fabulous. Another Tibalt. Let's see if they can print a version worth half a fart this time.

[Guardman]

-Four walkers in this set, Kaya and Tibalt as the returning ones, Tyvar Kell a naive elf and Niko Aris an athlete from Theros are the new walkers.

I think Tyvar is more of an Egotistical Party Animal Warrior (with a good heart) than naive (at least if I am reading his bio right).

Double axes are hardly an assassin's weapon (apart from the one Morag Tong guy) but Kaya's Kaldheim look is rad.

I have this weird thing with Kaya in this set. She looks badass. And her axes are probably the coolest weapons I've seen in a long time. But everytime I think about I have to ask, why Kaya? She is a ghost assassin. She doesn't make a lot of sense in this set with the themes we've seen so far. Part of me is afraid she is just going to be shoehorned in. But I am taking the optimistic approach.

Oh, fabulous. Another Tibalt. Let's see if they can print a version worth half a fart this time.

I look at it this way, they would have to actively try to print a worst version. And his War of the Spark was actually pretty good out of the sideboard. I even play it in my mono-red deck in the sideboard as additional copies 4&5 of Rampaging Ferocidon. But overall, I look at it as there is no place to go but up.

This biggest thing I take away from this is that this set seems to have a pretty good roster of planeswalkers, with a thought out story, and we won't be getting a repeat of Ikoria with Lukka and Vivian. It's been over a half a year and I still can't believe how awful the story was. This is me digressing, but this past year and a half for lore (i.e. starting with War of the Spark) has been a little weak overall. And Ikoria was a culmination of all that is wrong with the lore. That's not to mention that the most interesting story, Elspeth escaping the underworld, was given a sparknotes treatment. And one last thing, but I hope to never see Lukka in a story again, and Vivian only if she is full on villain, like she is supposed to be... Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

@Guardman

I concur completely, but I'm too cynical to yield any faith up yet. Tibalt is a bit of a career loser (WotS version was playable, but not enough for redemption imo), so I'd like to see a version that makes Chandra, Torch of Defiance's tour through standard seem benign. Anything less and that bitter taste shall persist.

[The Fluff]

nice that this new set seems to be another one filled with snow.

snow lands are beautiful.

[5colorsrainbow]

-Four walkers in this set, Kaya and Tibalt as the returning ones, Tyvar Kell a naive elf and Niko Aris an athlete from Theros are the new walkers.

I think Tyvar is more of an Egotistical Party Animal Warrior (with a good heart) than naive (at least if I am reading his bio right).

I meant native lol -shakes fist- Dyslexia!

Double axes are hardly an assassin's weapon (apart from the one Morag Tong guy) but Kaya's Kaldheim look is rad.

I have this weird thing with Kaya in this set. She looks badass. And her axes are probably the coolest weapons I've seen in a long time. But everytime I think about I have to ask, why Kaya? She is a ghost assassin. She doesn't make a lot of sense in this set with the themes we've seen so far. Part of me is afraid she is just going to be shoehorned in. But I am taking the optimistic approach.

1) Might be game play reasons. As a planeswalker card Kaya does exile/Flicker stuff which could be a (mechanical not flavorful) answer to dealing with indestructible gods or fun stuff with the MDFC since you can flicker them to change up the mode.

And looking at the walkers there seems to be a good color balance: Kaya WB, Niko U, Tibalt R and Tyvar G (they go for a rough balance so the three monocolor might have second colors).

1.5) They needed a white/black planeswalker, Sorin is likely gonna be in Innistrad 3 and Kaya is a gatewatch member so a main character and face of the game so they went with her instead of a new walker (more so as they put in 2 new ones already).

2) Norse has the thing with sprits of Vahallah and likely zombies based on draugr. So there is some stuff going on there.

3) Help keep Neo-Nazi and white supremacist from being attracted to this set as they have been appropriating Norse mythology and culture.

This biggest thing I take away from this is that this set seems to have a pretty good roster of planeswalkers, with a thought out story, and we won't be getting a repeat of Ikoria with Lukka and Vivian. It's been over a half a year and I still can't believe how awful the story was. This is me digressing, but this past year and a half for lore (i.e. starting with War of the Spark) has been a little weak overall. And Ikoria was a culmination of all that is wrong with the lore. That's not to mention that the most interesting story, Elspeth escaping the underworld, was given a sparknotes treatment. And one last thing, but I hope to never see Lukka in a story again, and Vivian only if she is full on villain, like she is supposed to be... Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system.

I loved Eldraine and thought Ikoria was fine. Lukka seems like a decent villain and I thought they handled Vivien character well.

[Ginuqu]

"Welcome to the Face-Melting World of Kaldheim"
🤐

"Kaldheim is coming to #*$&ing melt your mind hole."
🤐🤐🤐

I don't want either of those things to happen

[onering]

Looks like they're leaning heavy into metal

[Krishnath]

Looks like they're leaning heavy into metal

That's quite appropriate considering it is based on Scandinavia.

Anyway, some details from the stream:

Kaya is the main character, she is hunting something that is not a Ghost apparently (there is a hint as to what in her card art, looks like the art of a giant bird.)

Tibalt is the main villain, and for once he is badass. He is posing as a God.

Kaldheim is a collection of *many* worlds, each connected to each other via a world tree (Shades of Yggdrasil here), among which each world hangs as fruit. The story/set concentrates on ten of them, but there are more. One of the ten planes is Immersturm, it's primary inhabitants are demons.

Phyrexians have been confirmed to have found their way from New Phyrexia in some way. How, I can't fathom, as they do not have access to portal tech, and they can't have used Tezz's Planar Bridge, as that would require them to be covered in Lazotep or be rendered inert/killed, and Vorinclex doesn't look covered in blue in his art.

The Mcguffin is a really powerful sword.

There are a lot of legendary creatures apparently. Also, trolls and daugr.