Kaldheim Limited Set Review: Multicolored, Artifacts, and Lands

Drifter

I’ve been enthralled by Limited ever since I began playing Magic, almost ten years ago now. With a particular fondness for flashback and cube drafts, I’ve drafted more sets than I can count on every platform through wildly different eras. On Arena I draft infinitely, having profited 40k or so gems from it at this point, and have made top 100 mythic many times. Self-reflection and forming good habits are paramount to Limited improvement, and those themes feature in many of my articles and in each session of the Limited coaching service I provide; consider booking a session today if you’d like feedback tailored to you that you can really put into practice!

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Drifter: B-

With the common Red burn spells, I think you should be able to get enough to trigger this reliably, and it’s a great rate as soon as it draws you one card. Still those burn spells are going to be high picks, especially since Red will be splashing them a lot, and this card isn’t a godo splash itself, so I’m not inclined to start it too highly.

Drifter: B-

This is a powerful combination of effects, but I do think this card will play more awkwardly than it looks – it might well be turn 4 or 5 before you’re able to set a good fight up, and the counters will be less relevant by that point in the game. The lifegain is a nice add-on, as long as you can live long enough. I’m a bit concerned that neither Red nor Green has amazing early creatures for fighting purposes this set – neither colour has great 2 and 3 drops for that purpose; there’s a lot of top-heavy statlines, and this will be a lot less exciting if your creature has to die to set it up. Still it’s cheap enough to slot well into a late game turn, even if this second ability isn’t as good there.

This card is a mediocre splash, unless you really have tons of sources (and at that point, you’re more like three-colour), so this is a purely in-colour grade. These effects just don’t scale as well into the late game – a saga almost always has to have a really strong immediate effect to be worth splashing.

Drifter: D+

So you essentially sacrifice a creature to get your other creatures through/set up a good block, you do that potentially twice (you usually want to put it on your smallest creature to protect the bigger ones), and then the payoff is you get your best creature back with flying two turns from now. The trouble with this is that you won’t always have a good creature to bring back, and it’s pretty bad to sacrifice one to these first two abilities unless you’re getting good value in protecting your other creatures, which I think is very situational at best. Still, it can be really good if you have a creature locked down by an enchantment or that’s especially disposable, since at that point they may not want to block or attack into you!

This is a Saga where the third mode is great, but it takes ages to get that and the first two modes don’t do all that much, and it has the further requirement of needing you to have a good creature in your graveyard, because again it’s card disadvantage if you sacrifice something to the first abilities… it’s a really weird card and I suspect it’s too many hoops to jump through for a lot of decks – you can just do better for high end/recursion mostly.

Drifter: B-

Four 1/1s over three turns is solid, and if you do get some more exciting tokens to copy (which is mostly just off other Sagas this set), then great. This is another Saga that’s good in colour but pretty much no deck should splash – even if you can make better tokens, it takes too long to do that late in the game, and often when you’re splashing, that’ll be the first opportunity for you to cast this.

Drifter: A

Fantastic board wipe, and then scry 3 to set up a great third ability if you can find anything (not that you always will) is enough that I’m happy to call this a low-end bomb. Sometimes, it’ll be awkward to have to wait around with your 5-cost spells, but the payoff is well worth waiting just one turn and you might be able to scry into a second one anyway.

Drifter: B

I think this is another Saga that suffers from taking a long time to have a good effect, but there are enough other Shapeshifters in the set that I’m willing to take that risk. Ideally, you have another one in play already, and Green/Blue have enough to make that realistic. This is a saga I might splash if I had 6+ Shapeshifters.

Drifter: A-

An absurd first effect, coupled with two additional good ones (including one that produces card advantage) makes me very happy. This final deathtouch mode can enable some really good attacks, or combine great with the red pinger Hagi Mob. I think both of these effects are fantastic to get for free on an already good card.

Now, this is a splashable saga! It’s a bit worse if you’re splashing it in Black, since you might not have a Forest left to go get, but the snow duals having basic land types helps a lot.

Drifter: B

This will be a 2/3 Menace for 3 that draws a card enough of the time that I’m happy with it, and Red has a ton of Berserkers at common to help it out. I don’t think the ramp mode will be a massive deal since it only happens two turns after you play this card, but it’s certainly solid upside and can lead to some really devastating turn 5s.

This is another Saga I would very rarely splash, since it’s a lot worse in the late game.

Drifter: B

This takes a long time to have the real effect you’re playing it for, but getting a couple of counters in the short-term is definitely nice. Altogether, this adds up to a really solid package, and the last ability will usually kill whatever you most want to kill anyway.

This is another Saga I wouldn’t splash – it takes too long to get the exile, and the counters matter a lot less in the late game.

Drifter: B

This is a gamewinning card if it stays in play for very long, since you can start holding spells to cast your second one, and you’ll know this is coming out – the dream is to flip up a one-mana Foretell alongside this on turn 6. It also has a fantastic body, holding off your opponent’s entire squad a lot of the time – they won’t want to mess around with those lifelink double blocks, and presenting a very real clock.

I would splash this card in Golgari a lot of the time, but it’ll happen elsewhere too – this set just has very good fixing, between the snow duals and Shimmerdrift Vale, and this is a great card even in the late game.

Drifter: A

That first mode is totally nuts by itself. Your Angel will often die, preventing you from using the other modes, but hey your Changelings will still work – not that they’re in Black or White, but you’ll often be splashing this card in a White deck anyway. If you can pull off that second mode, it’s totally absurd: I can confirm that Angels make the best Ravenous Chupacabras. The last mode is some nice little gravy, since it’ll deal an extra 4 damage if your Angel is still alive by then, and can enable some Changeling attacks.

It is nice that most aura removal spells don’t stop this second ability, at least the White and Black ones (though Witherform will get the job done too, unless you’re able to buff the Angel!).

Drifter: D

This card sucks – even if you have a couple of reasonable Equipment, having to spend this long waiting around in your Boros deck, by far the most aggressive colour combo, is a really bad idea. Play it if you have Halvar (note that the other creature/equipment Gods don’t work with this, since they count as creatures in your deck and hand) and stay away otherwise. I’m kind of shocked that this doesn’t at least put the Equipment into play – it would’ve been nice to search up Valkyrie's Sword and immediately be able to pay for it on turn 5, but alas.

Any Saga that takes absolutely ages to have a reasonable effect is going to get a big knock from me.

Drifter: B-

There are enough Elves, Warriors, and Changelings in Black and Green that I’m happy to take this card highly – 3/2 Menace for 3 with the potential to draw you a good card is a good rate, whether that happens 70% of the time (in a deck with 8 hits – learn how to calculate this here) or 58% (6 hits).

Drifter: B-

There are enough Elves and Changelings in the set that getting something back with this shouldn’t be too much of a problem, even if you do have to wait a bit, but I think it’s worth it because this second and third abilities are so powerful with even a few. Elderleaf Mentor is a combo with this at common, after all – that card dies easily and reanimating it is good when you get these other two effects.

Drifter: A+

Ah, unkillable, growing Dragon bomb that rewards you for just playing the game, and gives you free graveyard hate. Even Auras aren’t that good an answer, since then you have a sac outlet and graveyard hate in play, and if you’re splashing this card in Green, then you might well have some way to get rid of the aura later on and one-shot them. Even if they can block you, they can’t stop the Dragon from growing if you have a disposable creature you don’t mind getting rid of, and Rakdos is the colour combination for those, with several Red token generators.

Play this card, splash this card, do unreasonable things to your opponents, whatever the Vampire Dragon compels you to do.

Drifter: C-

Omen of the Sea was a reasonable card in Limited, and this has a lot of potential upside if you do have Giants, but this has one major downside – it doesn’t draw the turn you play it, so it’s a horrible topdeck. There aren’t tons of good 6-drop giants to ramp out on turn 4, but I would be happy to play this card in any deck with 6 or 7 (Changelings definitely still help), and it’d be fine filler otherwise.

There are only 3 Giants (one of which isn’t very good) and 2 Changelings that work with this (so don’t cost 7) at Common, so I don’t think getting the count will be trivial, and just casting random 3 or 4 drops with this isn’t as exciting (though double-spelling is still great). This seems like a slow format, so a lot of games will be attritiony, and being a bad topdeck is just too much I think.

Drifter: B+

Kardur will be able to eat 1-2 small things enough of the time that I’m high on the card – the first ability will work even if they kill him. His second ability works well with the first, and will add up to a lot of pings if he sticks around – he’s a pretty annoying card to have in play, or to enchant with an aura.

Drifter: B

So you trade your worst creature for a slightly better creature, you get a slightly net positive effect or you (since you know before your opponent that you’ll both be discarding and can set it up better), and then you get your worst creature back at worst, but more likely a better creature? Sounds good to me! This takes a lot of time to get going, but I’d be happy to splash it in some decks since it does have a good immediate effect.

Drifter: S

Kaya is nigh unbeatable, the best Limited card in the set.

She starts at 5 loyalty, ults two turns after you play her, and then just brings herself back with her own ability – I think that sequence will be something you go for on any board where you have parity or are ahead because it gives them a very short window before they lose the game. Her first ability protects herself well, because it’s pretty much always awful to remove whatever blocker you put it on, and her second ability is absurd if you do happen to be behind. Did you have a problem? Not anymore!

Drifter: C+

This card is kind of like a very weird Divination – it allows you to pick the best cards from among you and your opponents’ graveyards and gives you a couple of turns to play them.

That restricts your turns a lot whereas drawing normally gives you more options, and can be really awkward when you miss a creature, but I think the power is here nonetheless since, as with a normal Soul Salvage effect, you can wait till there are targets present already. It’ll be especially great when you do manage to snag a bomb or whatever, but I think it’s enough better than Soul Salvage for you to want to take the first kind of this effect highly, and lower if you already have late game recursive cards.

Drifter: B-

This is a set with enough equipment and auras that I’m pretty excited for this card. The creature token buff isn’t going to matter too much, but your opponent is absolutely going to want to kill this before anything else if you do have an equipment or aura – so you’re protecting your naturally high value creatures.

Drifter: S

Ah, another entrant into the Questing Beast school of design – if you give a card enough abilities, it’s probably going to be pretty good. In this case, the second ability coupled with the third ability make this card pretty much unbeatable – you must exile it immediately to have any hope of continuing the game.

This is just one of those annoying Kiora Bests the Sea God level of mythics which make the game entirely about them as soon as they’re played, but this one at least costs 7 unlike Kaya. Still, Green is full of ramp and fixing so I don’t foresee that being too much of a problem. For some reason, it’s uncounterable too, just in case you were silly enough to try one of the few axes of interaction that would actually have been good against it! Just be relieved that you won’t see this card very often.

Drifter: A-

A creature that buffs all your other guys is great, oftentimes enabling immediate and powerful attacks, and this has a fantastic late game effect. It’s a bit expensive and vulnerable, and I kind of want to wait till t6 and play a land immediately, but well worth it.

Drifter: B

Moritte only copying your own stuff can be a bit awkward, but whatever you copy will become a much more real threat. Any flier is a real problem for them, and it being snow and a Changeling is definitely some nice gravy. Being able to copy powerful other permanents is solid upside.

Drifter: A-

There are enough snow creatures that this buff will matter, but I’m even more excited about the recursion ability. This has a good enough statline that you can trade it off early and then bring it back over and over and win the late game.

It gets a lot worse if you’re not a snow deck, but I think you’re happy with this even if you only have 5-6 snow sources, since it always does something even in the games where it doesn’t crush them – every blue deck is likely to have some snow creatures. This is a good splash card too, since you want the lands with it anyway!

Drifter: A

Niko offers a range of powerful versatile options – paying X to make shard tokens is fantastic and will win late game scenarios, it can immediately come down and shoot a creature (one with up to 4 toughness if you already have 6 mana no less), and then it makes his own and provides incremental value.

It’s not hyper-efficient in anything it does, it starts at a low loyalty, and its + isn’t amazing, but it does more than enough anyway.

Drifter: D

This card has two pretty mediocre starting effects, and takes far too much time to get the one good one. Having spent 3 mana on this, getting 2 mana back isn’t that exciting unless you have a really big foretell card you can ramp to, and gaining a few life isn’t enough of a first ability.

Drifter: C

This is often a 1/1 flier that draws a card, but the times when it gets stopped by another flier or reach creature are going to be really rough, and even Blue doesn’t have really tons of fliers in the set to get much of an extra advantage from this second ability. The payoff of 1/1 flier that draws a card is good but Skyscanner wasn’t breaking any formats.

This final ability is pretty weird because it doesn’t produce card advantage, and merely lets you get the best card from your sideboard – you probably weren’t playing those cards main for a reason, so that’s not necessarily an upgrade. Where it’s nice is when you’re playing dual lands that give you access to other colours or have good sideboard cards for the specific spot, but it’s rarely going to be a massive deal and it takes ages to get there.

Drifter: B+

This first ability will happen a lot in Limited – you can certainly make it so it’s hard for your opponent to avoid trading, and all your removal spells are great with it. After you stack up a few, you can start just Blast Zoning away whatever’s bothering you and even so that multiple times sometimes. Mainly, this card rewards you just for playing the game on top of its already decent statline, and will be very annoying for them over time.

Drifter: B+

This is a lot of card advantage, even if you only end up playing two of the cards, and getting potentially a lot of free +1/+1 counters is pretty busted. You do need to have the time to play those cards, it does limit your subsequent turns, and you do need a creature in play to get value, but this is still an amazing effect.

Drifter: B+

This card gives you a good way to use your mana, produces solid value especially with the cards that cares that care about snow permanents in the set, of which Green has a good few, and makes up for missing your land drops, and then just wins a late game scenario. It even has a solid statline to boot! At some point or another, they are going to end up having to kill it, and it might well already have produced some value before then. This card is a fine splash, although far better in Green splashing Red rather than in Red splashing Green, since Green has a lot of ramp to reach that second ability faster and cares far more about snow permanents.

Drifter: D+

This is a late game value card that is very restrictive in the value it gives you, and that’s a pretty bad place to be. The problem is that you’re unlikely to have loads of snow permanents to get back, and they won’t necessarily be the ones you want, so you’ll spend a lot of time waiting around for this to do something. Bringing back a land late is rarely going to be an exciting use of this card.

The fact that it’s a delayed draw means in the late game, you won’t be able to use your mana that turn. All in all, the failcase of this card is really bad and the ceiling isn’t amazing, but if you can mitigate that failcase by having a lot of snow permanents in your deck, and some especially good late game ones, then this does become worth playing. If you have some of the other Green cards that want stuff in your graveyard, then you’re a little happier since the mill will be more relevant, but I suspect this won’t go well into the majority of decks.

Drifter: A-

Creature swap effects tend to be very good in Limited, since your 2 drops that are lying around not doing much are something you’re happy to upgrade into their best creature – it’s like a 1.5 for 1, since you gain that creature and they lose it, and you lose a card that wasn’t doing much in the exchange. That doesn’t factor in truly disposable creatures, like Elderfang Disciple, even. A six point life swing at the end of this is some pretty huge value on an already good effect – it’ll take a long time for you to get it, but this will end some games and keep you in others.

The second ability is the most situational, and you won’t always have something to exchange, but you can always swap this Saga itself for another enchantment if they have the better one, and just accept that you’re going to get drained for 3! When this effect is good, this card will be utterly game-breaking. I would be happy to splash this card a lot of the time, though you do need to make sure you do have some disposable creatures and a decently high creature/2 drop count.

Drifter: B+

There’s enough Foretell in Blue and White that this is absolutely going to demand a removal spell, and drawing even one card off it is very good. It’s a bit understatted and it dies to a stiff breeze vs Red, but it also threatens to run away with the game in short order, and interacts very favourably against enchantment-based removal, of which there’s a lot in the set.

Drifter: C

The good case scenario with this card is fantastic – that in a few turns, you get to make 2+ 4/4 Trolls (even two is just good rather than gamebreaking on turn 8), but I also think the failcase is very real. On turn 6, destroying their land isn’t a massive deal unless they have splash colours (and to be fair splashing will be amazing this format, especially in Green), and the land you get back won’t necessarily be able to fix your spells or be worth that much to you (unless maybe you steal Shimmerdrift Vale). On average, you should be two lands ahead if you’ve stolen one of their lands, but sometimes they’ll just draw more lands than you (especially if they’ve drawn more cards overall) – you’re not guaranteed to get any Trolls, and it’s pretty bad if you just get one. This is also a complete dead card against aggro – spending 6 mana to destroy a land is a good way to die. Getting to snag an uncommon sacrifice land can be pretty big, but they can sometimes just sac it in response by turn 6, and you won’t necessarily be able to use it yourself.

Basically, the failcase is very real on this card, and it’s also just glacial – having to wait till turn 8 (if you even hit your land drop on 6) to have a decent effect is miserable. Still, what saves this card a bit for me is that it goes very well with Green’s plan, which is all about ramp this set, so I’m hoping you will be able to consistently outland your opponents, and hopefully by a lot so this is making like three trolls and actually wins the late game.

Drifter: C+

This is the kind of card that I wouldn’t believe in in most sets, but Kaldheim has enough creature type homogenisation that I’m willing to be excited for it this set. It starts off pretty slow, as a 3 mana 2/2, but when it gets its first counter, it’s at a fine rate and it’ll sit there threatening to get more. Spellgorger Weird was a good card when you had minimum around 8 noncreature spells in your deck (a feat made easy because War of the Spark was a weird format), and I think enough decks this format will be able to come close to that, since other Changelings count for whatever you name with this. This strikes me as a fine card in most Blue/Green decks, and sometimes in other colours too.

Most of the tribal payoffs are at uncommon, but this being a Changeling itself will matter every so often too.

Drifter: F

Crew 6 is too big a restriction unless you have exactly Giant Ox, and you really need a bunch of them. When you get there, when you have 5 Oxen, this card doesn’t even attack particularly well or have abilities that are that good – on turn 3, they can still have a 3/x to block it. In the games where you draw your Oxen without this, or this without htem, you’re going to feel pretty miserable.

Drifter: C-

I think this card has too many failcases for me to be excited. The problem is that it requires you to be at parity or ahead to do anything – I don’t want to spend my turns just gaining 2 life with it, and that’s going to happen a lot of the time. Spending 4 mana on such a small effect will put you really far behind against beatdown decks – if you’re trying to beat decks from behind, you need to be interacting with the board, not wasting so much mana just to gain 2 life a turn. Once a ton of turns have passed, and this has actually been sort of worth it – there is a point where enough life alongside this other effect is worth it – the draw ability isn’t a may, so you might be in very real danger of decking. Just because you have a few extra cards late in the game doesn’t mean you have the mana, or enough other good cards in your deck to win with.

Even if you are at parity or ahead, the situation can easily swing back before you can start drawing cards – just a flier pecking away at you will prevent this from drawing, and this card looks pretty bad against any card that scales up over time, or a card like Raven Wings, where it’s hard to prevent them hitting you. Certainly, this is a better card in Sealed and to board in against slow matchups.

Drifter: D+

There aren’t easy ways to crew this card this set, and it doesn’t do enough to persist into the late game. I really have to have 1 drops lying around, cards like Fearless Pup or Codespell Cleric, or token producers (of which there are barely any) to make good use of this card. I suspect it’s only decent if I am aggressive, and it doesn’t provide late game reach so not even that much so.

I think the window where this is a good card is just very low, especially in a format where Blue has common 1/4s running around, and there are 3 mana 3/2s everywhere. Crewing this is just a very real cost without support.

Drifter: C-

I think this is a pretty bad set for Short Sword, since the Foretell creatures coming down early means you won’t always be able to set up good attacks with just +1/+1, and Giants will laugh in the face of that.

Still, this is a pretty good card nonetheless, because the Runes really need commons like this, and most of the Foretell creatures aren’t really big at least. The Treasure token upside is pretty valuable, since it’ll help out your splashes and let you ramp into stuff sometimes, but ultimately this is a medium rate, you won’t want to take it highly, and it’s unlikely you’ll want multiples.

Drifter: C-

I think 7 mana to make the first 2/2 is way too rough for me to be excited about this card, when it doesn’t also do something else relevant – this first ability is not worth giving up a card for at all, so I really need to rely on the combination. It would’ve been amazing in Limited sets of old, where nothing happened for a million turns, but modern Draft is quicker and has better ways to use mana late, and I would need to make three 2/2s before I was happy about what I’d gotten (maybe two 2/2s if I had a lot of synergy).

Still, it’s not the worst card to throw into a deck that really needs something for the attrition games, and has some good ways to use the bodies – certainly anthem effects, cards like Raven Wings, and the set’s few good tribal payoffs that really want you to keep spitting out creatures would make me more likely to pay this card, but I’m still not going to be that excited. I think if the Shapeshifters weren’t Changelings, this would be worse than Whirlermaker from Kaladesh, since flying tokens devour stalls. The format does seem slow, and I think the Green decks especially may want this card since they have a lot of ramp and no high end, so I am going to give this a reasonable grade, but I could see going down or up, depending on format speed. I think you will win more games with card draw and other such tools to beat attrition though.

This is a much better card in Sealed, and a good sideboard card against some slow decks in best-of-three.

Drifter: D-

I suspect there are some decks where this will do something – with multiple 2s, 3s, and 4s of the requisite type – but that the effect won’t be too impressive even in them. This is Limited, where you’re not going to have tons of enter the battlefield creatures, or cards that you actively want to sacrifice. Upgrading them isn’t worth it unless you have bombs of the right type, and at that point it’s still a lot of work and we’re talking very few decks.

Drifter: C-

Crew 3 is a huge cost, and I suspect it’s one Kaldheim decks aren’t especially good at paying – heck, Kaladesh decks weren’t good at paying for the 4 mana 6/6 Vehicle, and that set had a lot more synergy and ways to help you do so. The 40% to hit a land is nice, but I doubt you’re going to be able to get loads of attacks in with this. There are more 3 mana 3/2s this set than usual, and this does dodge a bunch of removal while outsizing most of the format, but I definitely won’t want to take this card too highly or want multiples.

Drifter: C-

This card would be medium in other sets, but it’s actually the real deal with Runes and the good Boast creatures. 2 mana every time isn’t a trivial sum to have to pay, but the +1/+0 on this makes whatever you put it on a significantly scarier threat. That being said, this card will look absolutely awful when you’re being beaten down, so if the format is faster than I think right now, I could definitely see lowering it a bunch.

This card gets tons worse when you have one copy, so I wouldn’t take it highly unless I already had a lot of synergy.

Drifter: C-

I’m not fond of this card. Manalith isn’t a good card in most Limited formats, and this just isn’t enough upside on top of that. In fact, I would never count on this splitting ability mattering because it’s a full eight turns after you play it and you’ll almost always be out of stuff to do by then – at that point, your cards that use snow mana probably get pretty absurd at least! I would play it if I really wanted to buff my snow permanent/snow mana producer count, or I had splashes to fix and didn’t have much fixing, but would never be over the moon.

Drifter: B-

This is a bad card if you don’t have a Rune, and you can’t guarantee that you’ll get one when you pick it, but most of the Runes are totally absurd on equipment. The Green and White Runes are especially nuts with this, but you get your card back so you’re happy with whatever you get. I would take this really highly, and maybe even splash a Rune if I had this, because this card really is that good and it searches everywhere so I’d still be able to play it if I had put it on a creature and had it die, or had it milled, or even if it was stuck in my hand because I hadn’t drawn the right mana source.

There is substantial risk when you pick this, but I’m happy to start it high, and it’s a total slam dunk if you already have a Rune.

Drifter: C-

Be aware that “cast it on a later turn for its foretell cost” is very relevant on this card. Still, it’s close enough to a 2 drop nonetheless – you may not be able to attack with it on turn 3 or block with it on turn 2, but 2 damage or gaining 2 life (because you didn’t take 2 damage from their creature) isn’t worth a truly massive amount anyway. The important thing with 2 drops is that you get to use your mana on turn 2 to affect the board, and this does do that even if it’s a little later.

2 mana 2/3 isn’t a super exciting rate though, and I wouldn’t play it without synergy if I had other 2 drops – still, the double spell mechanic provides plenty of synergy this set. One problem is that the double spell payoffs don’t really restock your hand, and 2 drops will be invalidated faster by Foretell cards this set, so I see this as a medium card overall. Still, there are some common 3 mana 3/2s in Green and Red, and this trades for them just fine.

Drifter: F

The combination of these abilities is almost never worth a card in Limited, and actual never in this set.

Drifter: C

The Pathways are actually worse than the snow duals in this set, if you’re not particularly aggressive – just having to pick 1 mode makes your splashes a lot worse, and will hamstring your ability to play some games. That’s not even considering all the snow synergies, which have the potential to push snow duals way over.

Drifter: B- for Rimewood Falls, C+ for the rest

Snow duals are amazing – they’re the best fixers in the set, at a pretty low cost for most decks, and they enable all the Snow synergies – which will be really important in some decks. Every deck will want a couple, even if they’re not using Snow – having consistent mana is very important. Splashing is going to be amazing this set, which pushes them significantly higher – this is a mostly free way to enable your splash if you get a few, and it works even outside Green.

Drifter: Between B and C+

You’re taking these pretty highly if you’re in both colours, but I’d also be pretty happy to splash some of them – they will only tap for your splash colour, but if you were going to play an Island as an extra source in your Black deck anyway, it’s free and potentially very powerful to play Port of Karfell. Where this falls apart a bit is if you have basic land searchers, especially in Green – you’ll still need at least one splash basic then.

Some of these effects are better than others – namely Immersturm Skullcairn, Axgard Armory and Surtland Frostpyre fall a bit short, and I would only give C+ to. The Great Hall, Port of Karfell, and Bretagard Stronghold are especially good and I give B to, and the rest I’m looking at about B- for. Remember that they can only be activated as sorceries – that is very relevant, and hurts them all significantly.

Drifter: C-

I think this is a little too hard to activate and low impact in the late game for me to be really excited, especially since it produces colourless mana and hurts my deck. Needing three other Snow Lands is just a huge deal even in the late games of dedicated snow decks, and the body isn’t going to break many stalls, even if it does win some attrition games by dodging sorcery speed removal.

Drifter: B-

This is a solid way to enable your splash cards, but remember that you’re still hurting your mana in doing so – choose 1s are rough, because sometimes you have hands where you really need to name one of your main sources. Being a snow land is great, and it’s even fetchable with some of the snow searchers, which certainly helps since you don’t then have to play off-colour basics. This is a really high pick in snow payoff colours, and still a C+ outside of those, since you don’t want to turn down free fixing and splash potential. Even aggro decks should play at least a couple of taplands in Limited – you won’t have that many 1 drops, so some of the downside is gone.

Drifter: C

This is playable if you get a few Legendary creatures and a few Changelings, but it stretches your mana and is terrible everywhere else. There aren’t enough Legendaries that you’re realistically going to get 3 very often, but being able to make Changelings indestructible in the late game can be very annoying, especially with Mistwalker. Beware their instant speed removal – they might well be waiting for you to activate this, to remove your creature in response.

Drifter: C+

I plan to play The World Tree in basically every deck if I draft it and can use Green mana – sometimes even in the late game, you don’t draw double Red or whatever, and it will save your life, allowing you to empty your whole hand. I think Green will pretty much always be splashing this set, and this card enables all of your splashes, any other weird colour requirements that your cards might have, and whatever else you want to do at a very low cost. If you have a card like Esika, God of the Tree, then you should take the World Tree over almost anything (and not because it will tutor it for 10 mana).

10, T: to get every Changeling out of my deck can be very good too, especially if you’re playing ramp sources and such which is a major part of Green’s identity this set – games do often go long in Limited, and you do flood really hard in some of them, and having that extra equity for free is nice. The cost of one extra tapland is just very small. This card doesn’t do enough to be a really early pick, but I will snap it up whenever I get the chance in a weaker pack.

Drifter: Forest/Island C+, Swamp C, Mountain C-, Plains D+

Sometimes, if you’re very dedicated to the snow strategy, you’ll play these even when they’re producing colourless mana, but that’s sort of rare. Mostly, you’ll want a couple in a lot of different decks, and potentially a lot in your average Green or Blue deck. If you’ve read the rest of this review and just through common sense, it should be obvious when you want to take these higher or lower than their grades, so I won’t say too much else about them!

Drifter

Kaldheim looks like a really interesting and intricate format! I was worried during spoilers that it would be too tribal-focused, since that can sometimes make drafting decisions feel trivial, but I was totally wrong – Tribal is very limited in application this set really, and it looks to be more about building around the busted uncommons, splashing, and building up specific synergies.

I think the fixing is going to be amazing, and the payoffs for splashing really are out there more in this set than most, in fact that should be a major part of Green’s identity since it’s a bit lacking in power outside of that, but borrowing the best parts of the other colours will be a great way to go.

Kaldheim seems very uncommon-dominated compared to other sets – the card quality at uncommon is high almost across the board, and most of the colours have much weaker commons. I think Blue is likely to be the strongest colour, just because it has good common in spades, and is better able to account for its normal weaknesses in this than most sets. Playable counts may end up more of an issue than in most cases, especially for the snow decks.

I’ve reviewed with the idea that this is mostly a slow set in mind, since I don’t see the powerful common 2 drops, good tricks, late game reach, and really efficient cards that aggro needs to really take over formats, but I do think there will be good paths for beatdown decks to shine – punishing people who cut too many 2 drops for foretell cards and play too many of the slower durdlier sagas is probably going to be a good way to go, especially at the start of the set when builds will be all over the place!

If the format ends up faster or slower than I think, you’ll be able to see those changes in my tier list, which I plan to update regularly as usual.

Thanks for tuning in for my fifth review in a row, everyone. As always, they’re a lot of work but your insightful comments, great feedback, and those of you who make it clear to me that I’ve helped you in some way are a huge reward!