Firja, Angel of Valor by Livia Prima

Livia Prima / Wizard of the Coast

With Kaldheim’s preview season finally over, Wizards of the Coast has now updated its online gallery to include every single card from the set. It looks like a great set full of flavor and powerful cards, with interesting new mechanics like Foretold and Boast to join old favorites like MDFCs and Sagas.

But with so much going on, knowing exactly where to start your deck building adventures in Kaldheim can be difficult. So I have compiled some archetypes that I think will be very powerful in the future and am putting them into a number of guides.

Note that these are not complete decklists and I only use cards from the Kaldheim set. How you integrate these ideas into your favorite format is entirely up to you!

Check back every day for a new guide!

Orzhov angel | Azorius Foretell | Rakdos Berserker | Sultai snow | Izzet Giants

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Orzhov (black and white) clerics were my go-to for the standard season of Zendikar Rising. I loved the reckless path of life and withdrew creatures from my graveyard. But with Kaldheim the focus has shifted a bit away from them and more on the divine beings they worship. We have a whole new set of powerful angels to play with.

Orzhov angel

Kaldheim’s main angel is Firja, Judge of ValorThat said, we’re going to take a lot of cemetery love to get the most out of their skills. Whenever you play your second

As you spell each round, look at the top three cards in your library and choose one. That goes to your hand and the other two to your graveyard. With that in mind, there are two options: make the most of the creatures while they are in the graveyard, or find ways to bring them back.

Firja, Judge of Valor

Wizard of the Coast

For the former, Magnificent Marshal can ban creatures from your graveyard to give all creatures of the same type a + 1 / + 1 counter. It only triggers twice per life and costs two creatures, but if you already have a large board presence these + 1 / + 1 counters add up.

Alternatively there is Robust valkyrie. Once you’ve banished a creature from your graveyard, you can play Stalwart Valkyrie for two generic mana less than normal. On the one hand, a 3/2 flyer for two mana is very good, on the other hand, you already need creatures in your graveyard to do this, and so there’s a good chance you’ll be outdated by the time you get the chance to get it to play. It might work in a pinch, but I wouldn’t make Stalwart Valkyrie a key component of my deck.

If instead you’d rather bring things back from the cemetery, there are a few options. Raise the draugr is a moment when up to two of the same creature types can return to your hand from the graveyard for just two mana. Being able to pick two angels for just two mana is incredible, though the lack of recursion slightly limits their usefulness.

Draugr Recruiter

Wizard of the Coast

That’s where Draugr Recruiter come in. When you attack, you can boast one black and three generic to return every creature from your graveyard to your hand. It’s certainly more expensive, but it’s a repeatable action to keep these angels going. Give it to Deathtouch with the Rune of mortality and you should have at least a couple of safe brags.

Another good addition would be unique Shepherd of the Cosmos. It’s expensive, but when it comes into play you can bring any other creature straight back into play from your graveyard with a mana cost of three or less. Again, keeping up with Firja isn’t easy to repeat, but it’s a great way to build a bigger board presence.

Righteous Valkyrie

Wizard of the Coast

And a big board presence is exactly what Kaldheim’s angels want, thanks Righteous Valkyrie. A cornerstone of the entire deck archetype, more so than even Firja in my opinion. Any other angel or cleric that enters the battlefield will make you win

Life equals its toughness, and as long as you have seven or more than your starting life, each creature gets + 2 / + 2. Additionally, being a 2/4 Flyer for just three mana is a lot on its own.

Herein lies the strategy: use Firja to gain access to the angels, be it through your hand or the graveyard, and let the Righteous Valkyrie give you life to play. Once you have enough life, they all automatically get + 2 / + 2, which makes your horde of angels a great threat.

While this isn’t central to this strategy, there are some interesting black angels in Kaldheim that make it harder to build a defense against your hordes. Vengeful reaper is a 2/3 flyer with deathtouch and rush, but the best part is that it can be predicted so you can only play it for two mana from exile. Either it comes out before Righteous Valkyrie to get a nice, threatening blocker for the early game, or it comes out after that by predicting a cheap three-lives and a blocker.

There are also Eradicator Valkyrie, a 4/3 with Flying, Lifelink and Hexproof from Planeswalkers. Whenever it attacks, you can boast two mana and sacrifice a creature to force your opponent to sacrifice one too. Considering we’re filling our deck with graveyard recursion, that sacrifice cost isn’t too bad. Attacking Recruiter at the same time as him and Draugr can stack your swagger so that you sacrifice the creature to pay for one and then return it to your hand with another.

The Valkyries rampage

Wizard of the Coast

Eradicator Valkyrie isn’t the only angel who forces your opponent to sacrifice a creature. With the enchantment The Valkyries rampageYour opponent must sacrifice for every angel under your control that dies. That is, if you do

If the eradicator Valkyrie can continue to sacrifice angels, they will have to sacrifice two of their own creatures! Anything keeping you on board is a good thing, and some clever games featuring Rampage of the Valkyries could be absolutely deadly.

The other black angel from Kaldheim is Hailstorm Valkyrie. Not much on its own, an expensive 2/2 with flying and trampling and the ability to pay two snowman (any snow land regardless of color) to give it + 2 / + 2 by the end of the turn. But combined with Righteous Valkyrie and Rally the rankswhich gives + 1 / + 1 to any creature of a selected type, and you have a creepy 7/7 with trample on your hands.

We can’t talk about a white deck without mentioning it Doomskar. A full dab of creatures that you can predict and then only play for three mana (two white, one generic) is a ridiculously good value, although it does mean you’ll kill all of your forces too. Consider to mitigate this Magnificent protector exile all of your non-angel creatures (especially your draugr recruiter) until Doomskar disintegrates. That will kill Glorious Protector, but you can almost instantly bring back the powers you just sacrificed for the common good.

Starnheim unleashed

Wizard of the Coast

Doomskar is great, but no Kaldheim Orzhov Angels deck is complete without it Starnheim unleashed. While it costs two whites and two generics to play normally, and only gives you one 4/4 angel warrior with flight and vigilance, you can make several of these if you predict it for two generic X-mana and one white. A fantastic ending when you have 13 mana to play with you can get six 4/4 flyers. Combine it with Righteous Valkyrie and they get + 2 / + 2 and give you a whopping 36 lives. Starnheim Unleashed is ridiculously powerful, and I expect there is plenty of play in a lot of different white decks.

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Outside of Kaldheim Limited, there is of course plenty of room to expand this even further. My brain instantly went to a combination of Speaker of Heaven, Requiem Valkyrie, Angel of Vitality, and Shining Angel to generate 10 lives every turn just by tapping your speaker. There is also the Sephara Sky Blade, which you can use to make all your angels indestructible and make Doomskar even easier to use.

Since the first previews I was very excited to do an Orzhov Angels deck with Kaldheim. It will likely be the first thing I brew, and I hope I pull out some of the key cards in my already pre-ordered booster packs. Extinguish the sun with feathered wings and devastate the bare mortals below!

Kaldheim starts on January 28th in Arena and MTG Online and on February 5th in paper form.

The post ‘Magic The Gathering’ Kaldheim Deck Information, Half One: Orzhov Angels first appeared on DECKS AND FENCES DAILY.