Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Kaldheim. Today I’ll be talking about how Green and Black spells will be looking to mill yourself to gain value in your graveyard. In Zendikar Rising, Blue/Black rogues focused on milling your opponent for value, but the flip is switched in Kaldheim. Green/Black has had a self-mill archetype before as seen in Guilds of Ravnica, so this isn’t a new strategy. The new part comes from the sweet new cards to help take advantage of it, specifically what is seen in some new Green and/or Black cards.
To start off I have two helpful commons. Here are Koma’s Faithful and Roots of Wisdom.
Koma's Faithful and Roots of Wisdom
Koma’s Faithful gives you a three-power creature for three mana that helps mill yourself (and your opponent). I would have liked this at two mana with less power but gaining back three life is not bad after a combat trade. It’s also an Elf that will work well with synergies on other cards, including Roots of Wisdom. This helps you on a couple of accounts as you get a land card (even non-basic) or Elf from your graveyard into your hand. What I like about this card and how it provides more value than some other cards before it is that even if you whiff and have no lands and no Elves in your graveyard you still to get to draw a card. Two solid commons to help build this deck with.
Next up is a Saga, that provides three cups of value! Here is Harald Unites the Elves.
Harald Unites the Elves
Let’s start off with Chapter One as you mill three cards. This gives you a better chance to put an Elf card or Tyvar planeswalker card straight onto the battlefield from your graveyard. You could already have some in there, but this mill will give you more options to choose from. Being able to bring back a planeswalker directly to the battlefield is rare and considering the strength of Tyvar Kell this Saga makes it more valuable in this deck build. For Chapter Two, all the Elves you’ve assembled in the first four turns get pumped with +1/+1 counters. You should have at least one Elf in your graveyard thanks for Chapter One. I think the overall value of this is quite high, and if you can keep your Elves on the battlefield for a couple of turns, you should be able to start taking over the game.
Finally, I have the God that has brought along his own chair to sit in. Here is Egon, God of Death // Throne of Death.
Egon, God of Death // Throne of Death
Anytime you get a 6/6 creature with Deathtouch for only three mana, you become suspicious of what drawback it has. This creature wants you to have a loaded-up graveyard so it can exile two cards a turn. Six damage is a quick clock for your opponent, and they’ll have to deal with it if you are able to pay the upkeep cost for a few turns. If you can’t pay the upkeep cost at some point (please note you must) it will be sacrificed, but you get to draw a card to replace it as well. Early in the game if you have an empty graveyard you can even cycle it.
On the literal flip side of this card, you are given an artifact to help you mill yourself and even help with Egon, God of Death later in the game. Enough about Egon though, Throne of Death can give you repeated value all game long. Each of your dead creatures can turn into food for this artifact to help you refill your hand. It works well with any self-mill strategy in Kaldheim. The fact that you can play this on turn one allows you to get value into your graveyard early.
I’ve enjoyed self-mill strategies before, and I look forward to building a nice deck around these and using that graveyard as a strong resource. Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Kaldheim. Join me again tomorrow as I finish off the week looking at how Giants are going to take over Standard.
