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Kaldheim's Shifting Standard

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Hello everyone. With the addition of Kaldheim to Standard, new and innovative decks have been created. Each and every week, I try to showcase some of these decks. This week, I have a few decks that have recently gone 6-0 on Magic Arena by a Mythic or Platinum ranked player. Let's get started.

Naya Warriors

We start this week with a deck that is all creatures and lands, with no other types of spells. Let's take a look at the deck.


In a deck filled with Warriors, you can expect to find Kargan Warleader, and this deck includes a playset of this Human Warrior. With the ability to give all other Warriors a +1/+1 bonus, you can pump up your forces considerably. Combine that bonus with the +1/+1 bonus Maja, Bretagard Protector provides to all other creatures you control, and your battlefield can become quite beefy. Maja also creates a 1/1 Human Warrior creature token whenever you achieve landfall, which helps your forces grow in number as well.

In addition to the tokens you can make with Maja, Usher of the Fallen also has the ability to create 1/1 Human Warrior creature tokens. By using its Boast ability, you'll be able to create an additional Human Warrior each time Usher of the Fallen attacks (a maximum of once per turn). Another way of creating additional Warrior tokens is with Elvish Warmaster. With a copy of Elvish Warmaster on the battlefield, whenever one or more Elves enters play under your control, you'll create a 1/1 Elf Warrior token, however, you can only use this ability once per turn. By casting an Elvish Warmaster while you have another copy on the battlefield, you'll be able to create an Elf Warrior token with each of them.

This deck also takes advantage of a couple of abilities that allow you to increase the number of creatures you have in play easier. Realmwalker makes you choose a creature type when it enters the battlefield. You'll want to choose Warrior, since every creature in this deck is a Warrior except for Selfless Savior. Realmwalker will then allow you to cast Warrior spells from the top of your library. With a little bit of luck, you can cast multiple creatures in this way. Winota, Joiner of Forces also allows you to put additional creatures into play for free. The best part is that you can look at the top card of your library at any time while you have Realmwalker in play, so you are able to know with a little more certainty whether you'll find a Human that Winota can put into play.

Orzhov Sacrifice

Next, we have a deck that makes your opponent sacrifice for your greater good. Let's take a look at it.


This deck is built to take advantage of the ability of Tergrid, God of Fright. With Tergrid on the battlefield, whenever your opponent sacrifices a nontoken permanent or discards a permanent card, you get to put that card into play under your control. That means your opponent can no longer find a basic land to put into play with Fabled Passage unless they want to give you the ability to do so as well. They can no longer make one of their creatures indestructible with Selfless Savior without allowing you the same possibility. They can no longer utilize Dream Trawler's ability to become hexproof by discarding a permanent spell without giving you access to that permanent.

When you combine Tergrid's ability with Pelakka Predation, you get a truly absurd result. Pelakka Predation allows you to look at your opponent's hand and discard a card that has a converted mana cost of three or more. This basically allows you to choose the most expensive permanent in their hand and put it into play for yourself for free. You can also get extra value from Tergrid when you use the +1 loyalty ability of Liliana, Waker of the Dead. You'll either see your opponent discard a permanent that you can take control of, a nonpermanent spell that would probably benefit your opponent if they were allowed to play it, or they'll lose three points of life. It's a win-win-win situation.

With Tergrid in play, Rankle, Master of Pranks goes from being merely annoying to downright deadly. Rankle can force both players to discard a card as well as sacrifice a creature. With this, you can gain a double dose of benefits. It's even possible that you'll already have gained control of one of your opponent's creatures, which you can choose to sacrifice if you should desire. Rampage of the Valkyries is another card that has terrific synergy with Tergrid. When you cast it, you'll create a 4/4 Angel creature token. You can use that creature token to block an opponent's creature, and if your Angel should die, Rampage of the Valkyries will force your opponent to sacrifice a creature, which you'll likely gain control of. This makes it possible to destroy two of your opponent's creatures with a single Angel.

5-Color Runes

The final deck I have for you harnesses the power of the Kaldheim Runes. Let's check it out.


If you're a fan of playing Bogles in Modern, you'll want to give this deck a try. The objective is to load as many enchantments onto a copy of Seasoned Hallowblade as you can. This will allow you to attack, likely with multiple bonuses and keywords. By combining these Runes with All That Glitters, you'll create a massive attacker that can with the game with very few attacks. By placing these auras on Seasoned Hallowblade, you'll create an attacker that is difficult to destroy; just watch out for effects that will exile it.

Even if your opponent somehow manages to deal with a decked out Seasoned Hallowblade, you still have another way to win unexpectedly. Storm Herald allows you to attach any number of auras from your graveyard to your creatures in any way you would like. This attachment only lasts for this turn, though, and those auras will be exiled afterwards, but the first time you do this, you'll likely catch your opponent off guard. Storm Herald also has haste, so even if you have no other creatures in play (perhaps thanks to an opponent's Doomskar), you can attach those graveyard-dwelling auras to it and swing in for some damage.

This deck features a couple of cards that will make casting your enchantments easier. Runeforge Champion allows you to put a Rune card from either your library or your graveyard into your hand when he enters the battlefield. He also allows you to cast Rune spells for a single generic mana. Transcendent Envoy also has an ability that reduces the cost of any aura spell you cast by one generic mana. Therefore, if you have both Runeforge Champion and Transcendent Envoy on the battlefield at the same time, all of your Rune spells can be cast for free.

Wrapping Up

Each of the decks I've shown you today intrigues me. I'm looking forward to creating them on Magic Arena and seeing how I can do with them.

What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below. Also, feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!

-Mike Likes

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