Draft Trainer

Kaldheim Limited Quiz

Answered: 0/20
Accuracy: 0
Niko Aris
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: One thing I really like here, is that if you are able to pump some mana into X, Niko Aris will have a permanent effect on the board, even if they die right away. And those Shard tokens are no joke -- I loved Clue tokens, and these are basically better versions of those! It is also nice that you don’t have to put any mana into X -- you can just cast Niko Aris for three mana, and even without Shards, Niko is pretty nice. The +1 is pretty interesting -- making a creature unblockable is nice, having it bounce back to your hand won’t always be ideal, but sometimes you can make that into upside thanks to ETB abilities. In a weird way, you can also make that effect into protection for Niko, since, if it bounces to your hand, you can play it again and now it can block on your opponent’s turn. Then, the -1 is a nice removal effect -- Niko will usually be able to do 2 damage to a tapped creature right when they come down, and if you have some Shards lying around, or other ways to draw cards, Niko can really threaten to kill them. Niko can then, of course, make more Shard tokens too. Overall, I like Niko -- seems like a card-drawing engine, and I’m always on board for that.
Pilfering Hawk
Average Picked At: 10.50
Total Times Picked: 258
Average Last Seen At: 8.63
Total Times Seen 3372
Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: This is a snow creature that can loot for a single snow mana, and that seems pretty alright to me! Looting is always a solid effect in Limited, as it lets you drastically improve your card quality over the course of the game. On top of that, It is evasive, which means it can chip in some damage early, and it of course will be well-positioned in any deck that cares about Snow. I think this is a solid card.
Crippling Fear
Average Picked At: 2.06
Total Times Picked: 52
Average Last Seen At: 2.40
Total Times Seen 93
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This can often be a one-sided board wipe, especially against aggressive decks. Since you choose the creature type, you can choose whatever hurts you the least and hurts your opponent the most. Sometimes your opponent will have Changelings, and that can be annoying, but this is still very strong.
Alrund's Epiphany
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: Well, Time Walk effects are always super strong -- but they are also always pretty expensive. Alrund’s Epiphany does a couple of things that make it better than your typical 7-mana Time Walk, though. One of these is that it actually adds to the board -- and sure, it just adds a couple of Bird tokens, but adding to the board is a big deal -- we have seen other time walks that make creatures, like the one with Awaken, and it was pretty nice. The other nice thing about Alrund’s Epiphany is that with Foretell, you can actually cast this a little earlier. Now, note that unlike some cards with Foretell, this one doesn’t cost the same total mana -- it actually costs one more between the 2 mana to foretell it and the foretell cost of 6-- but that will usually be worth getting it down a turn earlier. I don’t think this is a bomb -- after all, for a Time Walk to do its job it does generally need to have an at least decent board state, but it is really good.
Deathknell Berserker
Average Picked At: 8.99
Total Times Picked: 377
Average Last Seen At: 7.96
Total Times Seen 3060
Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: There are a decent number of ways in this format to get the Berserker to 3 power, so he makes that 2/2 Zombie way more often than you might think! And when he does that, he feels quite good. That’s nice upside to have on an already okay creature stats-wise.
Squash
Average Picked At: 5.40
Total Times Picked: 490
Average Last Seen At: 5.49
Total Times Seen 2086
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: This is a very powerful removal spell if you’re in a Giant deck. 1R for 6 damage at instant speed is pretty incredibly efficient.. What’s nice is, 5 mana for 6 damage at instant speed isn’t completely horrendous either -- it isn’t great, mind you -- but it is the kind of removal that you’ll end up running one of a decent amount of the time. The goods news is, most Red decks will have at least a few Giants without even trying to take them, but the better news is, Giants is a very well-supported tribe in this set, and in those decks, this costing 1R won’t be that hard to achieve.
Forging the Tyrite Sword
Average Picked At: 12.24
Total Times Picked: 102
Average Last Seen At: 9.11
Total Times Seen 1481
Pro Rating: 0.5
Pro Comment: You mostly don’t want to be playing this. It has little impact on the board early, and that’s not something RW is interested in – and neither is Treasure for the most part. The one situation where you do consider playing this is if you have Halvar in your deck, as he is one of the best cards in the format, and giving up some tempo to search him up in a couple turns is worth it.
Rise of the Dread Marn
Average Picked At: 3.58
Total Times Picked: 52
Average Last Seen At: 3.58
Total Times Seen 173
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: This kind of card is often very awkward -- it is just hard to manufacture the necessary turn for this to do a whole bunch. You can use it pretty reasonably if you can get two zombies out of it, but you’d be surprised how often combat doesn’t exactly go the way you want it to to make that happen, especially because you have to have three mana lying around to do it. That said, this is more efficient than most versions of this we’ve seen, even if you just cast it normally, so it is a reasonable card even without Foretell. However, adding Foretell here is a big deal, because it will allow you to find that window a little more easily. Only having to pay one Black for it means it will be easier to use it in an advantageous situation. I think it is likely going to most effective when you’re the one blocking, since you have far more control over how combat goes as the blocker. And yeah, sometimes there will be board states where this gives you like 10 zombies, and those will be amazing, but I think you have to imagine that getting 2-3 is the norm – while also accepting sometimes it will just be a dead card.
Icebreaker Kraken
Average Picked At: 5.05
Total Times Picked: 43
Average Last Seen At: 3.98
Total Times Seen 246
Pro Rating: 1.0
Pro Comment: It is pretty rough that this Kraken only cares about Snow LANDS for reducing its mana cost – snow permanents would be nice, only checking for snow lands means this will be very hard to make work in Limited, even if you draft like 7+ Snow lands, that doesn’t mean you’ll get all 7+, and he will still likely cost 8 or 9 mana, which is still going to be too slow in far too many games. Don’t get me wrong, his eTB ability is pretty good – but I feel like, as hard as it is to cast this guy, he should at least lock down lands too or something! Or maybe tap all their artifacts and creatures in addition. It will just be super hard to cast this, and its ability while good, will be kind of underwhelming a little too often. Oh, and the “return this kraken to your hand” part of it is just silly, because it is pretty darn likely you’ll never be casting it again if you do that, since you’ll very likely need to get those snow lands back in play to cast it, and that will take several turns which you probably don’t have in the late game.
Return Upon the Tide
Average Picked At: 8.95
Total Times Picked: 99
Average Last Seen At: 6.48
Total Times Seen 1049
Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: So, most of the time, if you’re reanimating an Elf with this, you’re probably not getting the largest creature -- probably a 3/3 at the most, so it is nice that if you do go for an Elf you get those tokens, which will make the 5-mana investment a little bit less of a burden. Then, if you reanimate something big, you won’t get the tokens, but you’re probably still getting your 5 mana’s worth. So, basically, if you’re in an elf deck at least, Return Upon the Tide helps you get around the downside of 5-mana reanimation spells, by giving you a wider variety of options that will feel like you are doing an okay job with the card. It also has Foretell, which means that you can pay for it in installments, though with this one you end up paying one additional total mana if you go that route -- but that will sometimes be worth doing.
Kaya the Inexorable
Pro Rating: 5.0
Pro Comment: It is a general rule of thumb that if you have a planeswalker that can protect itself AND act as removal, it is going to be amazing in Limited, and Kaya does both of those things. Now, her +1 does require you to have a creature in play for it to work, but it makes life for your opponent super difficult. Sure, maybe they can kill what gets the counter -- but then you get the card back and you also get a 1/1 to protect Kaya! So, she may need something in play already for that ability to really work, but she makes it very likely that something will be able to protect her thank to that token. Her -3 doesn’t require nearly as much analysis -- it kills pretty much everything, no questions asked, and that’s awesome. Her ultimate is a little challenging to make work in Limited, but it doesn’t really matter -- the +1 and -3 are enough for her to dominate games in Limited. Kaya is super powerful, even by bomb standards.
Goldspan Dragon
Average Picked At: 1.27
Total Times Picked: 37
Average Last Seen At: 1.63
Total Times Seen 41
Pro Rating: 4.5
Pro Comment: So, a 5-mana 4/4 with Flying and Haste is already a very high pick, and obviously this has way more going on! First, it makes you treasure, which are good for fixing of course, and second, it upgrades all of your treasure to add two mana, and that could come in handy. The fact it has Haste AND makes treasure when it is targeted also means that your investment will almost always net you at least some damage and treasure, even if the Dragon does die quickly. Now, there will be times in the late game where the treasure doesn’t really matter, and we do have to keep that in mind. I think between its aggressive stats and its ability to give you a bunch of extra mana, it is a bomb. This set will be able to benefit more than normal from a bunch of treasure that produce more mana as a result of both Boast and Foretell.
Karfell Kennel-Master
Average Picked At: 9.55
Total Times Picked: 405
Average Last Seen At: 8.96
Total Times Seen 3388
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: This has been solid top-curve in Black decks. It often comes down and enables 1-2 attacks that you just couldn’t have done before, and a 4/4 body is pretty good in this format.
Frostpyre Arcanist
Average Picked At: 8.02
Total Times Picked: 131
Average Last Seen At: 6.08
Total Times Seen 945
Pro Rating: 1.0 // 3.5
Pro Comment: This type of design always interests me -- and by “this type” I mean cards that pay you off for having multiple copies of some card in your deck. The Giant deck -- which is UR -- is a spells deck, so this fits in very nicely -- it costing 4 won’t be that far-fetched, and a ⅖ isn’t too shabby for that kind of mana. You probably need at least two sets of duplicate spells, and ideally, cheap ones, so that is more likely when you play this that one of them is in your graveyard. If you can get this to draw a card for you even like half the time, you’re going to be pretty happy with this card. But yeah, if you don’t have any duplicates, it is probably best to steer clear.
Brinebarrow Intruder
Average Picked At: 12.88
Total Times Picked: 221
Average Last Seen At: 10.41
Total Times Seen 3981
Pro Rating: 1.0
Pro Comment: This doesn’t seem especially good. It is easy to imagine situations where you flash it in and killed a 3/1 or something, but it is mostly too situational to be worth playing. That decrease to power just doesn’t do enough often enough. You mostly won’t play this.
Dogged Pursuit
Average Picked At: 12.59
Total Times Picked: 281
Average Last Seen At: 10.04
Total Times Seen 3978
Pro Rating: 1.0
Pro Comment: Draining one life gives you inevitability, and because it is also gaining you life, it helps you to survive longer -- which in turn helps you drain more life. If you are a control deck, this seems like a decent win condition to me. Now, tapping out to play this on turn four will not always be smart, because you need to be building your board in the early game to not die, and that is a pretty significant downside. You’ll be cutting this a lot, it really takes the right deck for it to be worth it.
Tibalt's Trickery
Average Picked At: 7.31
Total Times Picked: 39
Average Last Seen At: 5.68
Total Times Seen 317
Pro Rating: 0.0
Pro Comment: This is too hard to effectively use in Limited since its so random, and you won’t have a deck constructed to abuse it.
Kaya the Inexorable
Average Picked At: 1.11
Total Times Picked: 37
Average Last Seen At: 1.10
Total Times Seen 40
Pro Rating: 5.0
Pro Comment: It is a general rule of thumb that if you have a planeswalker that can protect itself AND act as removal, it is going to be amazing in Limited, and Kaya does both of those things. Now, her +1 does require you to have a creature in play for it to work, but it makes life for your opponent super difficult. Sure, maybe they can kill what gets the counter -- but then you get the card back and you also get a 1/1 to protect Kaya! So, she may need something in play already for that ability to really work, but she makes it very likely that something will be able to protect her thank to that token. Her -3 doesn’t require nearly as much analysis -- it kills pretty much everything, no questions asked, and that’s awesome. Her ultimate is a little challenging to make work in Limited, but it doesn’t really matter -- the +1 and -3 are enough for her to dominate games in Limited. Kaya is super powerful, even by bomb standards.
Kardur, Doomscourge
Average Picked At: 6.07
Total Times Picked: 161
Average Last Seen At: 5.31
Total Times Seen 808
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: Kardur is strong, so it is kind of unfortunate that BR collectively isn’t really. You’ll mostly play him off a splash in other decks. Forcing all of your opponent’s creatures to attack you can make a big impact, not only because you can set up blocks to kill their creatures -- which, with Kardur in play, also means you’ll drain them 1 life -- but also because it opens your opponent up for a crack back that might just be lethal. In other words, Your opponent will have to attack in what is likely a less-than-optimal situation, while you’ll be able to attack in a pretty good one. Now, if your opponent’s board is significantly better than yours, things might not go so well, but if that’s true, well -- they were probably going to attack you with everything anyway! Note, by the way, that it doesn’t matter who controls an attacking creature for the drain life trigger, so it matters when you attack and when your opponent attacks.
Svella, Ice Shaper
Average Picked At: 3.24
Total Times Picked: 176
Average Last Seen At: 3.27
Total Times Seen 429
Pro Rating: 4.5
Pro Comment: Svella comes with reasonable stats for the cost, and the ability to make snow artifacts that provide fixing and snow mana. The late game ability to choose a card from the top four cards of your library to cast is nice additional upside, and Svella can get there surprisingly quickly thanks to the Icy Manaliths. It is definitely an amazing late-game mana sink. Svella is a bomb that, if she isn’t killed, will simply win you the game.
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