Welcome all to another edition of the Daily Dose of Kaldheim. Today, I’ll be looking into the future and predicting a popular new mechanic from Kaldheim. I'm going out on a limb here and predicting that the new Foretell mechanic will be very popular. Foretell is a new mechanic where cards can be exiled for two generic mana and be cast on a later turn at often a reduced cost. These cards are not only creatures and can see be in other card types such as instants and sorceries. Time will tell if we see other card types with the Foretell mechanic as well. Foretell is a combination of Suspend and Morph, letting you spread the cost of a spell over two turns. Just remember that you can’t Foretell a card and cast it in the same turn. At that point, you might as well just pay the full casting cost of the card.
Let’s start off by seeing a creature with Foretell. Here is Sarulf’s Packmate.
Sarulf's Packmate
This common gives you a solid 3/3 with card draw on turn four. Not a bad common and one that I would probably play in draft. With Foretell, it allows you to break up that cost over two turns and be able to cast it on turn three. What you need to judge and build your decks around is what spells you might have to cast on turn two instead of Foretelling it for two mana. On turn three, will you play this for two mana or maximize your mana usage and cast a different three drop? If you do that, it allows you to potentially play two two-drops for turn four. Foretell gets you thinking and gives you flexibility when you cast your cards.
I believe that some of the most powerful design space around the new Foretell mechanic is with Instants. Here is the new instant Behold the Multiverse.
Behold the Multiverse
One of the great things about Foretell is that your opponent doesn’t know what it is! This means it could be a Creature, Instant, Sorcery, etc. This allows you to mess with your opponent a bit and get them thinking about what could possibly be exiled. What makes it better is that there are Instants like Behold the Multiverse available to make your opponents’ anxiety about what your foretold card is even higher. We have seen drawing two cards with an uptick ability at instant speed for four mana on multiple occasions before. Where Behold the Multiverse differs is that if you Foretell the card it allows you on future turns keep mana up for removal or counterspells. You can cast it when you have two mana available and reap the benefits. If needed you can cast it one turn earlier on turn three as well.
Finally, I have a Sorcery that will help you take an extra turn! Here is Alrund’s Epiphany.
Alrund's Epiphany
Taking extra turns is one of the most powerful things you can do in Magic. It allows you to play extra lands, draw an extra card, and play more spells. Sometimes one of the issues with extra turn spells is that they have a heavy casting cost. Alrund’s Epiphany helps you with that by giving you two 1/1 Blue bird tokens with Flying that you can start attacking with during your extra turn. This is of course on top of all the wonderful extra bonuses I already talked about. If you Foretell the card, you can also cast it one turn earlier for only six mana. This could be used in control decks to get some birds dealing damage and works great if chained together to create even more birds.
Now that we can predict the future of what we will cast thanks to Foretell, it opens your deckbuilding to allow for flexibility in your early turns by Foretelling cards with mana you wouldn’t have normally spent to cast spells in the early game. Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Kaldheim. Join me again next week as the fun continues and we delve into more mechanics and more cards from the new set!
