Magic The Gathering Arena Kaldheim – Top 5 Picks

I have to admit this was the first card in the set I was instantly drawn to and knew I had to build a deck around her. Not only is the art freaking amazing, but she’s an amazing creature to boot! 1 generic 2 green for a 1/4 with Vigilance. She taps for one mana of any colour and gives all other legendary creatures the same ability. Fill your deck with legendary creatures and suddenly everyone is both attacking and tapping for mana each turn. Easy early game 1/4 blocker that buffs your other legendary creatures. Honestly, if she stopped there I would’ve been perfectly happy. However, that isn’t all… she’s a modal card! So on the flip side rests The Prismatic Bridge.

This legendary enchantment that sits on the back of Esika costs 1 of each colour to cast. At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal cards from the top until you reveal a creature or planeswalker and then put it on the battlefield. Yes, that is right. It goes straight onto the board with no casting cost. The rest goes to the bottom of the library. Cheating cards onto the battlefield is a personal favourite strategy of mine. Elvish Piper was a deck I played for years and it would bring such glee to pay a single green cheat massive creatures onto the battlefield. Now it might seem impossible to cast, especially in a standard deck but I’ve had this out in most of my games. Adding 2x Jegantha, the Wellspring into the deck taps for the casting cost of the Bridge. And if you have Esika out, you can attack with him for 5 and then bring the Bridge out in your second main phase. It’s a win/win!

Another way to bring in The Prismatic Bridge is to call upon The World Tree. As a rare land, it comes into play tapped and adds a single green. However, if you control 6 or more lands, all of your lands tap for any colour. Any. Colour. Now my mind went a little chaotic building this deck thinking of the possibilities. Having The World Tree and Prismatic Bridge go off could mean you could put whatever colour creatures you want. Feel like a 5 colour God stuff deck? World Tree. Need a new Superfriends deck? World Tree. Just want to be ‘That Asshole?” World Tree. Wait, I didn’t even tell you the rest of the card yet! If you pay 2 of each colour you can sacrifice The World Tree and put any number of Gods onto the battlefield. All of them. I expect to seem some janky God Tree decks soon enough!

For a 1 generic 1 green mana 1/3 deathtouch, this is an instant add to any green deck. However, his cool abilities don’t end there. He brings poison counters to the set! Now, we haven’t seen poison counters since New Phyrexia in 2011 so if you aren’t aware, once a player has 10 poison counters, they lose the game. It might just be me, but I love a game that ends differently from the normal beat down to 0 health. Whether it be mill or poison It is worth noting that he is the only card in the set with poison abilities but don’t let that discourage you. Fynn can be pumped with another of my favourite cards, Vorinclex. It’s a very, very silly combo that is a lot of fun to play. You’ll have your opponent screaming, “Thanks I hate it!” soon enough.

It is seemingly unusual to find a single Phrexian in a set, but Vorinclex does not disappoint. For 4 generic 2 green, they are a 6/6 with Trample & Haste. If that isn’t enough for you, listen closely to the added ability.

“If you would put one or more counters on a permanent or player, put twice that many of each of those kinds of counters on that permanent or player instead. If an opponent would put one or more counters on a permanent or player, they put half that many of each of those kinds of counters on that permanent or player instead, rounded down.”

Yeah, that is a LOT of text. But what does that mean? It means double the counters on planeswalkers and all your pump spells. It also means, your opponent will not like you very much. Sagas, planeswalkers, pump spells, upkeep counters and every other counter imaginable, just doesn’t work anymore. I’ve had many an opponent absolutely confused as to why their saga’s aren’t ticking up, why their instants to add +1 counters do nothing. Why Ajani’s stupid lifelink buff stopped working. All the while I sit here giggling maniacally to myself. Oh yes, dear reader, I am that player. It is one downfall to MTG Arena at this stage, I wish I could just communicate with my opponent like I could on MTGO. One day, maybe. Until then, they’ll never get to read my typed chaotic laughter when the tide turns in my favour.