Table of Contents – Ultimate Guide to Kaldheim Limited and Prerelease
Chapter 1 - Top Commons for Prerelease and Limited
Chapter 2 - Top Uncommons for Prerelease and Limited
Chapter 3 - Guide to Combat Tricks and Removal Cards by Colour
Chapter 4 - Guide to Playing Foretell
Chapter 5 - Guide to Building a Snow Deck
Welcome all to Chapter 5 of the Ultimate Guide to Kaldheim Limited and Prerelease. It's time for a little snow! I’ll be going colour by colour to see which Snow cards are set up for success. Snow spells are made more powerful than a corresponding non-Snow spell because of the need for Snow permanents and mana to make them successful.
For Constructed, it would seem easier with the number of Snow lands you can just put in your deck, but there is still a limit to playing multicolour decks based on what Snow lands are available. For Limited there is even more of a limit on what you have, and I’ll talk more about this in a moment. Either way, I think there is some excitement on building Snow decks in Limited and Constructed, so let’s see what we have available in Kaldheim to make it work. Not all the cards you see will be Snow cards, but they all help with a Snow themed deck.
Snow Lands
For Constructed you have access to all the Snow Basic Lands you want. But when it comes to lands that produce more than one type of mana you are restricted to Snow Dual Lands and Shimmerdrift Vale. The good news is that with cards like Fabled Passage, you can still search and get Snow Basic Lands. Playing four colours in constructed could be taxing, as you would have to spread your colours wide with multiple Snow Dual Lands.
For Limited it could be harder to play a solid Snow deck, but doable. In Sealed, you will be getting at minimum six Snow Lands, but they could be of any colour and most likely not the colour combination that you will build your deck with. When it comes to Draft it becomes a bit more interesting.
There are eight players and at minimum twenty-four Snow Lands available for the taking. Snow lands are like any other card in the pack and must be drafted. At the start of the draft, you will be looking to prioritize the best cards. This will make Snow Lands in pack one less of a priority. You will be drafting forty-five cards and you are looking for twenty-three playable cards for your deck. That means you will need seventeen lands. Out of those twenty-four lands, there will most likely be twelve Snow Basics and twelve Snow Dual Lands based on variance. If you are playing a two-colour deck, that means about four-five of the Snow Basics will be in the colours you are playing. There will be seven-eight of the Snow Dual Lands that have one of your two colours. That means if you are just sticking to your two colours you could maximize out at eleven-thirteen Snow Lands for your draft deck.
Realize though, that that is half the Snow lands available between eight players. Not all players will want them for their decks. Where the draft experience over time will come in handy is knowing when you are at a stage of the pack where you know that there are no cards you would play in your deck and can take a Snow Land. This will be easier as the draft progresses into pack two and three.
Don’t forget about the Snow Land Creature Faceless Haven. If you’ve got enough Snow Mana it can start to take over games and help you finish off your opponent.
White Snow Card (One Card)
It is odd that the Snow tutor card is in a colour that only has one Snow card in it. The spell itself is strong and can help you get a land or your best Snow permanent. The issue is trying to splash White to make this work. If you have acquired enough Snow Dual Lands that contain White, I could see adding this in.
Blue Snow Cards (Nine Cards)
As you can see, Blue is loaded with Snow cards that you would want to use. Ascendant Spirit has the possibility to be the most powerful but requires a heavy Snow commitment. If you can get nine or more Snow lands this becomes great in Limited. If you are ever stuck with no Snow mana though it becomes stuck a 1/1. Avalanche Caller is one of the best Snow creatures and doesn’t even require snow mana to activate its ability. It just starts turning your Snow lands into Hexproof creatures that can help you win the game. Berg Strider is an okay lockdown creature, but not your best choice for Blue creatures. Frost Augur is the card advantage engine you want to have for your Snow deck. Frostspeak Yeti is a fine 3/3 unblockable creature, but not the best for four mana.
Graven Lore is an amazing card drawing spell at instant speed that gets even better the more Snow mana you have to cast it. This would be a great Snow pickup in the rare slot for Limited. Icebind Pillar is a cheap lockdown Snow artifact that can help you attack or hold back your opponents’ biggest threat. Icebreaker Kraken is a beast of a creature, but with the math on Snow lands for drafting, on average you will have this on the battlefield on turn eight. Still, a nice creature to have to finish off an opponent. Pilfering Hawk is great at helping you with your card selection and has a cheap activation cost to go with it.
Black Snow Cards (Five Cards)
Black is in the middle when it comes to the number of Snow cards available, but it does have some of the best. Blood on the Snow is a premier sweeper card that moves to the next level if you can cast it with some Snow mana and reanimate something onto the battlefield. Draugr Necromance is one of the most powerful Snow permanents in the set. It allows you to recast your opponents’ nontoken creatures using Snow mana. This will be one of the Snow permanents you seek out in Drafts. Grim Draugr is a nice common creature to have with evasion. With enough Snow mana, you can pump it multiple times for extra damage. Hailstorm Valkyrie is a great flying creature but making it more than a 4/4 will be tough. If you have enough Snow lands though to make it a 6/6 it can start to take over games. Priest of the Haunted Edge is a nice blocker in the early game with four toughness and can be used as a removal spell later in the game once you control enough Snow lands to make it worthwhile.
Red Snow Cards (Two Cards)
Red doesn’t have any Snow permanents, just two Snow spells. Although they both gain advantages from having Snow mana put into casting them, it will be hard to justify adding these into a Snow themed deck. Frost Bite is a cheap removal spell that can upscale to three damage if you have three Snow permanents on the battlefield. Tundra Fumarole deals four damage and can add some generic mana for you to use to help cast other spells if you use Snow Mana to cast it.
Green Snow Cards (Seven Cards)
Green is loaded with some sweet Snow spells to play around with. Blessing of Frost is an amazing pump spell that can also help you draw some cards. If you can distribute the counters around enough to draw two or more cards it will be worthwhile. Blizzard Brawl is a great removal spell that will turn one-sided if you can get three Snow permanents on the battlefield. Boreal Outride is great as it also adds a +1/+1 counter to non-Snow creatures just as long as you’ve spent some Snow mana to cast its coloured part of its casting cost. Glittering Frost is great for Snow decks as it adds one more Snow permanent to the battlefield for you and helps you ramp for future turns.
Icehide Troll can be extremely hard to kill if you’ve got two Snow lands kicking around to protect it. With enough Snow mana, you can also pump it up multiple times for extra damage. One of the best ways to get Snow mana for all those spells that need it is with Sculptor of Winter. It helps you ramp for extra mana and get more of that key Snow mana that you need. Spirit of the Aldergard has a chance to be a sleeper card in Snow decks. It can help you increase your Snow permanent count and helps itself out by getting more and more power as the game progresses.
Multicolour Snow Cards (Five Cards)
The Saga The Three Seasons isn’t a Snow permanent, but it does help you in your Snow deck. In Chapter Two, it allows you to get two Snow permanents from your graveyard back to your hand. The only Modal DFC Snow permanent is also probably the most powerful in the set, Jorn, God of Winter // Kaldring, the Rimestaff. Jorn God of Winter allows you to use your Snow Lands in both your first and second main phase when it attacks. It also gives all your Snow creatures pseudo-Vigilance by untapping them when they all attack. When it comes to Kaldring, the Rimestaff, once a turn you get to play a Snow permanent from your graveyard. This means you can get back Snow lands or creatures and reuse Snow permanents from your graveyard repeatedly.
Moritte of the Frost is an interesting Clone creature that can add a Snow permanent to your battlefield and make a larger version of one of your creatures. Narfi, Betrayer King is one of the most interesting in that it is the Snow lord, pumping up all your other Snow creatures. It becomes more interesting in that it can keep coming back from the dead as long as you have three Snow mana to activate it. This can be done at instant speed, so something to watch out for. Svella, Ice Shaper is an interesting Snow card in that it can create Snow mana artifacts that can tap for any colour. This could help you play more than just two colours for your Snow deck. The interesting part of this is that it requires Red mana, which isn’t a strong Snow colour to begin with. If you are going for three, four or even five colour Snow, this might be the card you need to help you do that.
Artifact Snow Card (One Card)
There is just one Snow artifact that you can play and that is Replicating Ring. If you have it around long enough it can create eight additional Snow permanents. You could use the mana for some of the creatures that have pump abilities that you can use repeatedly. It’s also a nice artifact to have if you want to splash into White or Red to play their Limited number of Snow spells.
There you have it folks, everything you need to know to play Snow cards in Kaldheim. Thanks for reading the final Chapter of the Ultimate Guide to Kaldheim Limited and Prerelease. Thanks for joining me on this and I’ll see you again in Strixhaven!
Table of Contents – Ultimate Guide to Kaldheim Limited and Prerelease
Chapter 1 - Top Commons for Prerelease and Limited
Chapter 2 - Top Uncommons for Prerelease and Limited
Chapter 3 - Guide to Combat Tricks and Removal Cards by Colour
Chapter 4 - Guide to Playing Foretell
Chapter 5 - Guide to Building a Snow Deck
