As Magic: The Gathering’s Week of Metal continues, the Kaldheim spoiler season is bringing two new powerful cards for players to brew with. These Kaldheim spoilers also confirm the return of Sagas as a card type. Players additionally have a new artifact to play with, one that feels very similar to the incredibly powerful, and frequently banned Birthing Pod. Let’s take a look at how these two cards might impact Magic: The Gathering once they release.
This Kaldheim spoiler honors the dead
Historically, cards like Pyre of Heroes tend to be extremely powerful. Turning a player’s deck into a toolbox to go grab any creature for any situation creates some powerful synergies that are hard to beat. Pyre of Heroes has more restrictions on it than other iterations but still has the potential to be a dominating card in Kaldheim. American metal band Torche shared Pyre of Heroes as part of Magic’s Week of Metal.
Pyre of Heroes allows players to sacrifice a creature to search their library for a creature of the same creature type, and that costs one more to cast and put it into play. While Pyre of Heroes forces players to commit to a tribal deck there can still be opportunities for combo shenanigans. It may be difficult for it to find a place in Standard, Pyre of Heroes may do better in Historic or Modern formats. Decks like Elementals, Humans, or Goblins will likely benefit the most. These decks don’t have a lot of card draw, but they have a wide range of answers.
Tell stories with new Sagas
Kaldheim has a long history told through Sagas, a fancy type of enchantment last seen in Theros Beyond Death. With each turn, a counter is added to the card, symbolizing the story being told. As more counters are added different effects can occur. Showdown of the Skalds is a new saga that rewards decks that play plenty of cheap creatures. This spoiler comes as part of Magic‘s Week of Metal, giving Brazilian metal band Angra the reveal.
The extra card draw from Showdown of the Skalds gives players a quick way to temporarily refill their hands. On the next turn, as they start casting spells, Showdown of the Skalds gives a +1/+1 counter to a creature. Each spell cast turns your smaller creature into a bigger threat, symbolizing their story growing over time.
The Week of Metal is still going on, with more spoilers coming through out the week. Kaldheim releases on Magic: The Gathering Arena and Online on January 28.
