In my opinion Akroma, Vision of Ixidor and any partner with red in its identity is the way to go. Samurai is inherently boros, and combining with Godo, Bandit Warlord and Helm of the Host is basically going to be your wincon, even if he isn’t really a samurai. Maybe throw in Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa for free damage and “must be blocked” green enchantments for cards with big bushido.
Sure, Jin could be printed at that power level, and could be in the set easy. I get Wizards trying to complete simic-banned-card tribal. But I have a problem with the last two cards. Pore over the scrolls sounds awfully similar to another card draw blue spell aptly named Pore over the pages. I seriously doubt that we’d see a new card with a name that similar. And the wizard legend throws me off guard, mostly because golems with keywords have been dealt with on human artificers. With the coloration being WU, now we have to assume that either A) all human creatures in this set are Wizards if they’re in the school; B) the school of WU or whatever it’ll be deals with artifacts and Wizards specifically, ignoring the recent printings of the artificer creature type; or C) this card was deemed too weak with the artificer typing so Wizards through the wizard typing on to make it stronger. And of course blue was the first to be leaked when the only thing we really know about this set is “wizard school,” therefore our first speculated leaks are blue wizards.
Of all the known, non-native planeswalkers to expect on Innistrad, I admittedly didn't expect Teferi and Wrenn.
I can't immediately think of a time-related plot element associated with Innistrad right now, so here's my guess:
Teferi's mastery of time-magic will simply aid him in working to solve an Innistrad problem in a similar way that Kaya's ghostly magic was useful but central to Kaldheim's plot
And/or Teferi is there looking for solutions or managing problems well beyond Innistrad. Exiling ancient evil as opposed to destroying said evil is a common theme on the plane and maybe Teferi is researching phase and exile magic in an attempt to bring back Zhalfir and he gets caught up in local affairs?
Wrenn could be on Innistrad in an attempt to heal the plane post-Emrakul perhaps? We know that there are dryads on Innistrad.
I am glad that Arlinn is getting more emphasis in the story and maybe she or Wrenn will be recruited into the watch?
Is nobody going to talk about how Oko is on the first box? Last I checked Innistrad vampires had rounded ears rather than pointed ones, and it would make sense for 4 walkers, 2+2, to be on the plane. The question is why is he there, besides being on the run from Garruk.
Everyone is welcome to be wrong. But when you are so wrong and push an agenda your agenda gets lost in how wrong you are. What hasn’t always been weak.
I’ve got to agree with you here, white is definitely not ‘weak’ in a general sense in constructed formats. Nor is it necessarily ‘weak’ in EDH or Brawl formats. Like I said in my post, the idea of board balancing isn’t high powered because the board is equalized therefore no advantage is gained. Yes I agree white probably needs more defined ‘white’ cards in modern printings, and white needs stronger balance or ‘true white’ cards printed. But white doesn’t need Aggro, that’s not what it does. White doesn’t need card draw or ramp, it’s not what the color does. White PREVENTS the opponent from gaining an advantage, rather than out advantaging the opponent. And the problem is, players hate not being able to get advantage, thus Wizards won’t print the old ‘true white’ type cards in new sets so white gets less hate, so white becomes inherently weaker, gaining lame archetypes of life gain... and nothing much else. I mean seriously compare Path to Exile and Winds of Abandon, both are basically ‘true white,’ but in the early game where advantage is normally set, winds falls short of the path in almost any situation.
I think the biggest problem white faces is similar to the issue of confusion between the core functions of white and blue, Balance and Control. With hullbreacher, the mana is correct, in the sense that you’re replacing an action with another. If it was going to be white, it would be “for each card drawn create a treasure token,” rather than the replacement effect. Most cards that we see are rips or weaker versions of cards like the ones mentioned are either breaks in the identity of white, or are sorceries instead of instants, again enforcing balance rather than control. Equalizing the board is an extremely difficult mechanic to print, and on paper looks incredibly weak because it gives no player a specific advantage, which is why white was given the strength of locking out other boards or pillowforting so other players don’t attack. The issue with that is though, blue breaks identity frequently with board locking since it bridges the line between control and balance.
How can Wizards fix this? I don’t think they can. Looking at the most ‘white’ white cards I can think of, Balance, Land Tax and Wrath of God, again it’s about equalizing the board state, but it branches into the other color identities because in order to balance the board you have to affect all aspects of it. And it’s a problem for players. Nobody wants to be on equal footing, and Wizards recognizes this by limiting these balance cards by making them weaker (like in my opinion Ward of Bones could’ve been printed as a 2WW and been perfect.) It could also be said that the player base isn’t playing white as intended, in the sense that you’re not gaining advantage, rather equalizing advantage. White is weak by design, but it’s not flawed in its weakness.
Yes my initial toralf analysis does not read well. I’ll agree with you there.
But I still think Cosima is not as strong as you’re making her out to be.
Say perfect game scenario:
Turn 1 - Jeweled Lotus into Cosima, fetchland, Spellbook,Mana crypt => Contagion Clasp
Turn 2 - Exile Cosima, fetchland, Sol Ring, crack both fetches, proliferate with the clasp. (4 counters)
Turn 3 - play fetch, crack, proliferate with clasp, cast Throne of Geth, cast a 0 mana artifact of some type, then sac with the throne to proliferate (8 counters).
Turn 4 - play fetch, proliferate twice by sacrificing the throne (11 counters), crack => let Cosima etb => draw 11 for a 13/15 with no keywords, to smack a player?
Sure, you draw a tenth of your deck with the perfect hand and you have a meaty creature but you’re not killing anybody yet and Cosima will get blasted after the first attack, even if you have the mana open. For the absolute most perfect hand I can think of there are better options for turn 4.
I see what y’all mean about Toralf, but from a threat analysis the moment he hits the board a response is going to be looked for, or if the doubling effects hit the field a response is going to be sought. My own personal opinion on playability puts threat level quite high, which is why I put Toralf low. Should he be higher? Probably so.
Regarding Birgi, compared to Kykar, this card is stronger solely for the fact that creatures work as well for her ability. Plus, this card promotes effects like Mindmoil to cycle through a deck, essentially pulling 1 cost instants or 0 cost creatures to grapeshot for lethal or Aetherflux Reservoir. And I wanted to keep it brief and left out a bunch of info which is me being a beginner to card reviews.
For Cosima, she’s still not that good. Sure you draw a bunch of cards, but she doesn’t have haste, you have to run multiple fetches, for a payout that works really well... chancing that you pull lands. There are a bunch of other mono blue commanders that do that job better, and the boat god part was solely for comedy and the select few people that like dolphins.
I ranked Narfi high because you’re not going to expect an infinite from him if you aren’t careful, plus you’ve got good odds to combo off infinite or not with graveyard recursion.
Koll was the last card I did for the list at like 12 AM and I just looked at him compared to Reyev without regarding combos, which was again an error on my part.
Aralia’s mutate ability needs to be non-human specific, in accordance to mutate’s ability.
For the mob, it’ll die the next turn it’s out because you define it as “this turn,” hence the damage at the beginning of the next turn will be zero.
And the court, it’s a little weak. In my opinion, to make it more blue you can say “whenever a creature an opponent controls becomes the target of a spell.”
Life and Limb essentially states that all saprolings are lands, and Maskwood Nexus gives all creatures, including ones not on the battlefield all creature types. I have two questions regarding the rules. Does Life and Limb affect cards in the hand/library, and if so how to do rules of play work? Does the one land per turn include the new creature lands? Can you pull a creature from say a Misty Rainforest given that all creatures are now forest lands?
Creature search besides Captain Sisay isn’t in those colors, which she would work to pull Melira, Sylvok Outcast. It’s up to you what you’d want to pick tbh.
I thought I would jump in front of EDHREC and give out my own personal ranking of the new legends of Kaldheim, based on predicted frequency of play. Just a disclaimer that this is my own opinion, I’m open to hear conflicting opinions of my viewpoints, but I won’t be changing this list unless I happen to have forgotten a legend... and yes I apologize in advance if I did forget one there are a lot of these suckers in this set. And yes I bet there is a grammatical issue somewhere, I’m just reallly lazy and I’ll clarify if it makes zero sense.
All right, no more excuses, let’s get into it.
cEDH Worthy
Orvar, the All-Form
- Infinite combos for days, incredibly potent ramp potential, all around extremely powerful card. Need I say more? And yes, sorry Mistform Ultimas, you did good. Birgi, God of Storytelling
- This card is downright busted. Essentially every card you play has a reduced mana cost of one. Free Lightning Bolt? Why not. Pyroblast? Sure. This is the true god of storm, sorry Keranos.
Frequent play
Valki, God of Lies
- Even without Tibalt on the other side, Valki is still a very exciting card, and while the table may not like stolen cards, well sucks, they should be playing Valki. Oh and yes, that Tibalt is pretty nasty in multiplayer. Esika, God of the Tree
- I can feel the hate coming, but Esika isn’t cEDH material. Yes it’s polymorph that triggers on your upkeep, but the moment you get close to being able to cast, every blue player and their mother is holding mana to counter it, and realistically, when’s the last time an Ulamog took out all 3 other players in a game? Still, this card is going to be at a ton of tables. Vorinclex, Monstrous Rider
- The big man is back and as infamous as before, and instead of doubling mana you’re doubling counters... while clearly the design was to favor infect, planeswalkers are his best superfriends. Jorn, God of Winter
- Blizzards of the coast did it, finally a snow legend that...is actually quite strong. With the new dual snow lands, this legend is great to ramp like crazy and get out Marit Lage like it’s nobody’s business. Even the other side of this card is strong. Overall, the flavor and power of this card to me puts him on the table. Toksi, Bearer of Secrets
- Toksi is the hero everybody asked for and nobody thought they’d need. Being the first squirrel legend to be playable, I have no doubt in my mind for the sheer love of squirrels that he’ll see frequent play, and possibly the reason he’s a great shell for voltron or group slug strategies. Fynn, the Fangbearer
- Oh boy is Fynn one heck of a package. 2 mana deathtouch on a commander isn’t half bad, but giving deathtouch creatures infect 2.0? It doesn’t matter that he’s only mino green, for being uncommon this card is uncannily good. Koma, Cosmos Serpent
- I had a lot of trouble deciding where Koma should end up. Yes, he’s an incredibly powerful card, but he’s just another simic beater realistically. What saves him, like Toksi, is the flavor of a giant serpent and the army it creates. Sarulf, Realm Eater
- Sarulf is essentially a time bomb in any game. For 3 mana it creates hesitant sacrifices, reluctant blocks, and a whole lot of targeting towards the controller. Regardless, his viability is tremendous with token doublers making this puppy bark with a whole lotta bite. Narfi, Betrayer King
- Here we go our first uncommon mythic, Narfi is a brilliantly broken card that has potential to go infinite in games and all around brings an icy flavor to zombie tribal. Although not spending much time in the command zone, he will spend a lot on the table. Svella, Ice Shaper
- Uncommon mythic number 2. A mini Golos that creates manaliths? Yes please, with token doublers this card is quite the killer, and I’m sure it has the ability to go infinite one way or another. I’m so glad GR finally got good ramp. Aegar, the Freezing Flame
- This card is the epitome of an oxymoron. A 3/3 giant for 3, it’s in the name, he’s a mythic in an uncommon shell, this guy is the whole package. And man oh man does he pack a punch, there’s a lot of damage doubling or tripling effects plus multi target spells that will make this card draw cards like a curious Niv-Mizzet.
Infrequent play
Egon, God of Death
- 3 mana, 6/6, Deathtouch. This card screams voltron, and Yargle players rejoice because this card is quite the powerhouse. Sadly, compared to the other cards in this set, he’s not appealing enough to see play over some other legends. Reidane, God of the Worthy
- Well I’m not excited about this card, but it’s not strictly bad. It’s a good commander if you want the table to groan as hour 5 hits and the pillow fort has turned to concrete. Cosima, God of the Voyage
- This card isn’t entirely fantastic, the god side isn’t that great, but the thing that saves this card is... and I quote... BOAT GOD, BOAT GOD, BOAT GOD, BO-O-OAT GOD. Tergrid, God of Fright
- This card is a serious sleeper. Thoughtseize and other discard effects make this card ruthless, along with other targeted sacrifice options. This is a great card, that I sadly think won’t see a ton of play, even if it is incredibly potent. Magda, Brazen Outlaw
- This card is weird, not from a design point, but simply because there is only one dragon in this set. Besides the strange design Magda is a really interesting take on a dual tribal legend, that may not see a ton of play, but it will see some. Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire
- Varragoth is really interesting, and very problematic. He has a ton of synergy with library manipulation on not only your side but the opponents, yet his best upsides have the downside of only one combat step. Varragoth is going to make a home in RB aggro in the 99 without a doubt, and probably will see a little bit of play piloting 99. Vega, the Watcher
- Another story of an extremely strong card that just flies under the radar of some of the other power levels of legends in this set. Vega is a great all around card, but it just can’t compete with some of the other’s in frequent play. Kardur, Doomscourge
- Sure this card is fun, but the issue is once he hits the battlefield, attacks are going to slow until that one guy drops the craterhoof and none of his creatures can be killed. If his second ability involved defending creatures as well, he’d see more play. Maja, Bretagard Protector
- It pains me to rank Maja here, but I know she won’t see tons of play. Yes, she has the potential to go polyraptor and soft-lock the game with infinite tokens, but I don’t think enough players will see that potential. Definitely an incredibly strong uncommon when scute swarm is a rare. Koll, the Forgemaster
- Koll is competing with Reyav to lead boros artifacts, and while he probably is the better option, the two are interchangeable in a deck that’s being dominated by the partner legends. The dwarves will eventually be strong, I hope.
Little/No play
Alrund, God of the Cosmos
- While I believe that he’s significantly better than Halvar, there are better draw options as a commander, and Hakka is a little underwhelming as he can’t effectively be buffed each turn. Toralf, God of Fury
- If it were combat damage instead of non-combat, I’d rank him much higher, but he’s competing against 2 other spellslinger legends for a slot that should’ve been no contest against an uncommon* Even still, I feel a few niche warstorm surge lovers want him leading the 99. Inga Rune-Eyes
- Decent ETB ability with a reasonable death trigger, good in the 99, but not extremely powerful as a commander. Blink has more than enough options. Sigrid, God-Favored
- Mono-white with a really specific ability that isn’t too viable as a commander, but might see okay in the 99. Very underwhelming unless you happen to be going against the mighty morophon god rangers. Halvar, God of Battle
- If it weren’t for the double face I don’t think he’d be seeing any play as a commander, but in the 99 he’s viable in equipment decks. Kolvori, God of Kinship
- Disclaimer, this is not a 4 mana 6/6. This belongs in the 99 for a superfriends deck, and works fantastic there, but sadly being limited to green limits the selection of legends. Arni Brokenbrow
- We already have one great voltron commander in this set, and Arni is underwhelming to say the least. We get you head butted a troll and won, but the amount of brain cells lost amounts to how many players won’t be playing him. Firja, Judge of Valor
- Yeah no, this card is not very good. Second spell matters in BW is really gimmicky, and with that high mana cost is it really worth to run her over another commander in either a better identity for 2nd spell matters or realistically any other BW legend? Not really. Harald, King of Skemfar
- With the elf Previn legend being so strong, Harald just looks like a pitiful version of Muxus for elf tribal. Without the flavor, this card is about as bland as it gets. At least Wizards gave him abs, because they didn’t give him many opportunities to lead 99. Moritte of the Frost
- Until the reveal of it’s mono blue brother, I was excited for this card. But even then, it’s not super strong, and lord knows I’m not paying 5 mana for a land when I can copy one for just 1 mana.
Final Thoughts
God power creep is getting absurd, but honestly it doesn’t matter because the variety of the powerful cards makes edh fun. Overall this set has very strong legends, and I hope that Wizards continues to cater towards the edh players, but then again we don’t need this many legends in a set.
A few questions I think will be asked:
Why did you rank some of the MDFC mythic gods so low?
- I really don’t think people are going to want to buy them to be honest. When you have good odds of pulling a much better legend from a pack that costs less than the mythic might be, plus a few other goodies inside the pack, why would you buy these?
What’s with the humor? It’s super childish.
- Yes, it is... because there are way too many legends in this set and this post is extremely long and hard to read.
Why are there no card tags?
- I apologize, I reference a few cards here and there and don’t tag them, but that’s because I did this on mobile which really wasn’t the smartest choice and I’m really tired of typing.
Why do you hate my favorite legend in this set?
- I’m so sorry snowflake, but just because King Harald had a great body doesn’t mean he’s any good.
Anyways that’s my opinion, hope you found it somewhat interesting or infuriating or whatever. I’m just glad you got to this point after reading MTG’s War and Peace.
Is nobody going to talk about how Oko is on the first box? Last I checked Innistrad vampires had rounded ears rather than pointed ones, and it would make sense for 4 walkers, 2+2, to be on the plane. The question is why is he there, besides being on the run from Garruk.
I’ve got to agree with you here, white is definitely not ‘weak’ in a general sense in constructed formats. Nor is it necessarily ‘weak’ in EDH or Brawl formats. Like I said in my post, the idea of board balancing isn’t high powered because the board is equalized therefore no advantage is gained. Yes I agree white probably needs more defined ‘white’ cards in modern printings, and white needs stronger balance or ‘true white’ cards printed. But white doesn’t need Aggro, that’s not what it does. White doesn’t need card draw or ramp, it’s not what the color does. White PREVENTS the opponent from gaining an advantage, rather than out advantaging the opponent. And the problem is, players hate not being able to get advantage, thus Wizards won’t print the old ‘true white’ type cards in new sets so white gets less hate, so white becomes inherently weaker, gaining lame archetypes of life gain... and nothing much else. I mean seriously compare Path to Exile and Winds of Abandon, both are basically ‘true white,’ but in the early game where advantage is normally set, winds falls short of the path in almost any situation.
How can Wizards fix this? I don’t think they can. Looking at the most ‘white’ white cards I can think of, Balance, Land Tax and Wrath of God, again it’s about equalizing the board state, but it branches into the other color identities because in order to balance the board you have to affect all aspects of it. And it’s a problem for players. Nobody wants to be on equal footing, and Wizards recognizes this by limiting these balance cards by making them weaker (like in my opinion Ward of Bones could’ve been printed as a 2WW and been perfect.) It could also be said that the player base isn’t playing white as intended, in the sense that you’re not gaining advantage, rather equalizing advantage. White is weak by design, but it’s not flawed in its weakness.
But I still think Cosima is not as strong as you’re making her out to be.
Say perfect game scenario:
Turn 1 - Jeweled Lotus into Cosima, fetchland, Spellbook,Mana crypt => Contagion Clasp
Turn 2 - Exile Cosima, fetchland, Sol Ring, crack both fetches, proliferate with the clasp. (4 counters)
Turn 3 - play fetch, crack, proliferate with clasp, cast Throne of Geth, cast a 0 mana artifact of some type, then sac with the throne to proliferate (8 counters).
Turn 4 - play fetch, proliferate twice by sacrificing the throne (11 counters), crack => let Cosima etb => draw 11 for a 13/15 with no keywords, to smack a player?
Sure, you draw a tenth of your deck with the perfect hand and you have a meaty creature but you’re not killing anybody yet and Cosima will get blasted after the first attack, even if you have the mana open. For the absolute most perfect hand I can think of there are better options for turn 4.
Regarding Birgi, compared to Kykar, this card is stronger solely for the fact that creatures work as well for her ability. Plus, this card promotes effects like Mindmoil to cycle through a deck, essentially pulling 1 cost instants or 0 cost creatures to grapeshot for lethal or Aetherflux Reservoir. And I wanted to keep it brief and left out a bunch of info which is me being a beginner to card reviews.
For Cosima, she’s still not that good. Sure you draw a bunch of cards, but she doesn’t have haste, you have to run multiple fetches, for a payout that works really well... chancing that you pull lands. There are a bunch of other mono blue commanders that do that job better, and the boat god part was solely for comedy and the select few people that like dolphins.
Regarding Maja, the infinite is Life and Limb and Maskwood Nexus.
I ranked Narfi high because you’re not going to expect an infinite from him if you aren’t careful, plus you’ve got good odds to combo off infinite or not with graveyard recursion.
Koll was the last card I did for the list at like 12 AM and I just looked at him compared to Reyev without regarding combos, which was again an error on my part.
Aralia’s mutate ability needs to be non-human specific, in accordance to mutate’s ability.
For the mob, it’ll die the next turn it’s out because you define it as “this turn,” hence the damage at the beginning of the next turn will be zero.
And the court, it’s a little weak. In my opinion, to make it more blue you can say “whenever a creature an opponent controls becomes the target of a spell.”
Creature search besides Captain Sisay isn’t in those colors, which she would work to pull Melira, Sylvok Outcast. It’s up to you what you’d want to pick tbh.
All right, no more excuses, let’s get into it.
cEDH Worthy
Orvar, the All-Form
- Infinite combos for days, incredibly potent ramp potential, all around extremely powerful card. Need I say more? And yes, sorry Mistform Ultimas, you did good.
Birgi, God of Storytelling
- This card is downright busted. Essentially every card you play has a reduced mana cost of one. Free Lightning Bolt? Why not. Pyroblast? Sure. This is the true god of storm, sorry Keranos.
Frequent play
Valki, God of Lies
- Even without Tibalt on the other side, Valki is still a very exciting card, and while the table may not like stolen cards, well sucks, they should be playing Valki. Oh and yes, that Tibalt is pretty nasty in multiplayer.
Esika, God of the Tree
- I can feel the hate coming, but Esika isn’t cEDH material. Yes it’s polymorph that triggers on your upkeep, but the moment you get close to being able to cast, every blue player and their mother is holding mana to counter it, and realistically, when’s the last time an Ulamog took out all 3 other players in a game? Still, this card is going to be at a ton of tables.
Vorinclex, Monstrous Rider
- The big man is back and as infamous as before, and instead of doubling mana you’re doubling counters... while clearly the design was to favor infect, planeswalkers are his best superfriends.
Jorn, God of Winter
- Blizzards of the coast did it, finally a snow legend that...is actually quite strong. With the new dual snow lands, this legend is great to ramp like crazy and get out Marit Lage like it’s nobody’s business. Even the other side of this card is strong. Overall, the flavor and power of this card to me puts him on the table.
Toksi, Bearer of Secrets
- Toksi is the hero everybody asked for and nobody thought they’d need. Being the first squirrel legend to be playable, I have no doubt in my mind for the sheer love of squirrels that he’ll see frequent play, and possibly the reason he’s a great shell for voltron or group slug strategies.
Fynn, the Fangbearer
- Oh boy is Fynn one heck of a package. 2 mana deathtouch on a commander isn’t half bad, but giving deathtouch creatures infect 2.0? It doesn’t matter that he’s only mino green, for being uncommon this card is uncannily good.
Koma, Cosmos Serpent
- I had a lot of trouble deciding where Koma should end up. Yes, he’s an incredibly powerful card, but he’s just another simic beater realistically. What saves him, like Toksi, is the flavor of a giant serpent and the army it creates.
Sarulf, Realm Eater
- Sarulf is essentially a time bomb in any game. For 3 mana it creates hesitant sacrifices, reluctant blocks, and a whole lot of targeting towards the controller. Regardless, his viability is tremendous with token doublers making this puppy bark with a whole lotta bite.
Narfi, Betrayer King
- Here we go our first uncommon mythic, Narfi is a brilliantly broken card that has potential to go infinite in games and all around brings an icy flavor to zombie tribal. Although not spending much time in the command zone, he will spend a lot on the table.
Svella, Ice Shaper
- Uncommon mythic number 2. A mini Golos that creates manaliths? Yes please, with token doublers this card is quite the killer, and I’m sure it has the ability to go infinite one way or another. I’m so glad GR finally got good ramp.
Aegar, the Freezing Flame
- This card is the epitome of an oxymoron. A 3/3 giant for 3, it’s in the name, he’s a mythic in an uncommon shell, this guy is the whole package. And man oh man does he pack a punch, there’s a lot of damage doubling or tripling effects plus multi target spells that will make this card draw cards like a curious Niv-Mizzet.
Infrequent play
Egon, God of Death
- 3 mana, 6/6, Deathtouch. This card screams voltron, and Yargle players rejoice because this card is quite the powerhouse. Sadly, compared to the other cards in this set, he’s not appealing enough to see play over some other legends.
Reidane, God of the Worthy
- Well I’m not excited about this card, but it’s not strictly bad. It’s a good commander if you want the table to groan as hour 5 hits and the pillow fort has turned to concrete.
Cosima, God of the Voyage
- This card isn’t entirely fantastic, the god side isn’t that great, but the thing that saves this card is... and I quote... BOAT GOD, BOAT GOD, BOAT GOD, BO-O-OAT GOD.
Tergrid, God of Fright
- This card is a serious sleeper. Thoughtseize and other discard effects make this card ruthless, along with other targeted sacrifice options. This is a great card, that I sadly think won’t see a ton of play, even if it is incredibly potent.
Magda, Brazen Outlaw
- This card is weird, not from a design point, but simply because there is only one dragon in this set. Besides the strange design Magda is a really interesting take on a dual tribal legend, that may not see a ton of play, but it will see some.
Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire
- Varragoth is really interesting, and very problematic. He has a ton of synergy with library manipulation on not only your side but the opponents, yet his best upsides have the downside of only one combat step. Varragoth is going to make a home in RB aggro in the 99 without a doubt, and probably will see a little bit of play piloting 99.
Vega, the Watcher
- Another story of an extremely strong card that just flies under the radar of some of the other power levels of legends in this set. Vega is a great all around card, but it just can’t compete with some of the other’s in frequent play.
Kardur, Doomscourge
- Sure this card is fun, but the issue is once he hits the battlefield, attacks are going to slow until that one guy drops the craterhoof and none of his creatures can be killed. If his second ability involved defending creatures as well, he’d see more play.
Maja, Bretagard Protector
- It pains me to rank Maja here, but I know she won’t see tons of play. Yes, she has the potential to go polyraptor and soft-lock the game with infinite tokens, but I don’t think enough players will see that potential. Definitely an incredibly strong uncommon when scute swarm is a rare.
Koll, the Forgemaster
- Koll is competing with Reyav to lead boros artifacts, and while he probably is the better option, the two are interchangeable in a deck that’s being dominated by the partner legends. The dwarves will eventually be strong, I hope.
Little/No play
Alrund, God of the Cosmos
- While I believe that he’s significantly better than Halvar, there are better draw options as a commander, and Hakka is a little underwhelming as he can’t effectively be buffed each turn.
Toralf, God of Fury
- If it were combat damage instead of non-combat, I’d rank him much higher, but he’s competing against 2 other spellslinger legends for a slot that should’ve been no contest against an uncommon* Even still, I feel a few niche warstorm surge lovers want him leading the 99.
Inga Rune-Eyes
- Decent ETB ability with a reasonable death trigger, good in the 99, but not extremely powerful as a commander. Blink has more than enough options.
Sigrid, God-Favored
- Mono-white with a really specific ability that isn’t too viable as a commander, but might see okay in the 99. Very underwhelming unless you happen to be going against the mighty morophon god rangers.
Halvar, God of Battle
- If it weren’t for the double face I don’t think he’d be seeing any play as a commander, but in the 99 he’s viable in equipment decks.
Kolvori, God of Kinship
- Disclaimer, this is not a 4 mana 6/6. This belongs in the 99 for a superfriends deck, and works fantastic there, but sadly being limited to green limits the selection of legends.
Arni Brokenbrow
- We already have one great voltron commander in this set, and Arni is underwhelming to say the least. We get you head butted a troll and won, but the amount of brain cells lost amounts to how many players won’t be playing him.
Firja, Judge of Valor
- Yeah no, this card is not very good. Second spell matters in BW is really gimmicky, and with that high mana cost is it really worth to run her over another commander in either a better identity for 2nd spell matters or realistically any other BW legend? Not really.
Harald, King of Skemfar
- With the elf Previn legend being so strong, Harald just looks like a pitiful version of Muxus for elf tribal. Without the flavor, this card is about as bland as it gets. At least Wizards gave him abs, because they didn’t give him many opportunities to lead 99.
Moritte of the Frost
- Until the reveal of it’s mono blue brother, I was excited for this card. But even then, it’s not super strong, and lord knows I’m not paying 5 mana for a land when I can copy one for just 1 mana.
Final Thoughts
God power creep is getting absurd, but honestly it doesn’t matter because the variety of the powerful cards makes edh fun. Overall this set has very strong legends, and I hope that Wizards continues to cater towards the edh players, but then again we don’t need this many legends in a set.
A few questions I think will be asked:
Why did you rank some of the MDFC mythic gods so low?
- I really don’t think people are going to want to buy them to be honest. When you have good odds of pulling a much better legend from a pack that costs less than the mythic might be, plus a few other goodies inside the pack, why would you buy these?
What’s with the humor? It’s super childish.
- Yes, it is... because there are way too many legends in this set and this post is extremely long and hard to read.
Why are there no card tags?
- I apologize, I reference a few cards here and there and don’t tag them, but that’s because I did this on mobile which really wasn’t the smartest choice and I’m really tired of typing.
Why do you hate my favorite legend in this set?
- I’m so sorry snowflake, but just because King Harald had a great body doesn’t mean he’s any good.
Anyways that’s my opinion, hope you found it somewhat interesting or infuriating or whatever. I’m just glad you got to this point after reading MTG’s War and Peace.