Will Reidane, God Of The Worthy Fix Standard?

I didn’t know what it would take for me to write a preview article about a white card. Now I do. 

Reidane, God of the Worthy solves basically all the problems Standard had. The Great Henge, Embercleave, Genesis Ultimatum, and Into the Story are nearly uncastable when Reidane is on the battlefield. It can even protect your creatures from a sweeper like Doomskar or Shatterskull Smashing, which is midrange’s best removal spell.

Of course, Reidane is “only” a tax. If the game goes on long enough, your opponent will eventually be able to cast their cards. The point is to disrupt their gameplan enough to win before they can cast their game-breaking spells or at least generate a large enough tempo advantage that their big cards can’t save them.

Some decks, like Gruul Adventures, don’t necessarily rely on those cards. They give them free wins and a powerful late-game but they can win without them. Reidane cuts off their most powerful cards but you still need to beat Edgewall Innkeeper and Kazandu Mammoth. 

Old Yorion, Sky Nomad decks didn’t have many cards to disrupt outside of Shatter the Sky, Doom Foretold, and the occasional Emeria’s Call, but that might change. Kaldheim is chock-full of powerful Sagas to blink with Yorion, several of which cost four mana. Binding the Old Gods and Showdown of the Skalds will certainly see play. Somehow, Reidane’s effect seemed better the more I thought about it.

Having a hate card for snow decks is nice. It makes deckbuilding in Standard more interesting. You have to decide whether it’s worth playing Frost Bite or Shock or if it’s worth it to play Snow-Covered basic lands for bluffing purposes. 

Reidane isn’t symmetrical, which is unusual for a white disruptive card. On one hand, I appreciate the power boost but worry that it will make games silly. The best thing to be doing is probably pairing Reidane with one of the broken cards. 

What about Valkmira, Protector’s Shield?

Unlike Egon, God of Death and Throne of Death, you will cast Reidane far more than you’ll cast Valkmira. However, in the situations where Valkmira is good, it’s going to be incredible. If you’re involved in creature combat, your opponents removal is damage based, or you’re in a damage race, Valkmira will carry you. It also taxes their spot removal and things like Wicked Wolf, which is less impactful than Reidane’s tax, but still relevant. 

Overall, Valkmira is only something you’ll cast once the game is well underway. It can slow your opponent down if you’re behind and will typically be exceptional when you’re at parity or ahead in the right matchups. Those situations are rather specific but Valkmira has enough relevant abilities that they could add up to something massive. 

I’m a fan of slightly bigger aggro decks with some disruption and card advantage. You apply pressure, disrupt your opponent, and win before their more powerful cards can take over. Ideally, you’ll have some card advantage to fight attrition battles. 

There were already some powerful white cards like Skyclave Apparition and Seasoned Hallowblade but it wasn’t enough to make a Tier 1 deck. Reidane, Usher of the Fallen, and the new Pathways make me excited to finally build some white decks. 

Usher is a Warrior, so Archpriest of Iona is less embarrassing. Unfortunately, we’re still short of a full party. There are some other reasonable cards you could play to get closer but I’d rather focus on raw power level. Isamaru, Hound of Konda is a fine card. 

Cosima, God of the Voyage is worthy of several articles. You will usually start with The Omenkeel in this deck, although future Cosimas are welcome. 

Why Cosima, God Of The Voyage Is The Card I’m Most Excited About From Kaldheim

Glass Casket and Skyclave Apparition can help clear the way for The Omenkeel. Luminarch Aspirant helps too. 

If The Omenkeel starts connecting, you probably won’t have to play lands from your hand for a while. That means you save them to protect Seasoned Hallowblade or ensure you can save your DFCs to cast as spells. In fact, the entire genesis of Cosima in an Azorius Midrange shell was to use it alongside Felidar Retreat, even though I eventually shaved copies of the enchantment. 

Felidar Retreat and Cosima give you plenty of action in the mid-game but you still want a little something extra. I’ve found myself regularly including a couple of copies of Alrund, God of the Cosmos at the top-end. In theory, drawing one card from it sounds reasonable.

You can use Hakka, Whispering Raven to set up Alrund’s trigger but you won’t always have the mana to invest into that sequence. Most of the time, you’ll have to hope that naming creature nets you a card. I’m sure if I find myself constantly missing, Alrund won’t stick around in my decks for long. 

There are several blue cards I’d be interested in playing if we had a heavier blue investment. Brazen Borrower is the first that comes to mind but Ascendant Spirit would be powerful as well. In the end, I decided that the mana was too strenuous and we had enough power staying relatively close to mono-white.

Niambi, Esteemed Speaker is interesting as a potential engine. The Gods give us several potential discards but they’re also our best cards in many situations.

Concerted Defense will mostly be Spell Pierce in this deck. It can be slightly stronger if you have a Warrior and a Cleric, which gives it the edge over Negate. Plus, our mana curve is tight and holding open two mana isn’t ideal. 

What if we wanted to use Reidane to stop our opponent from doing broken things while trying to do our own? Boros has some options, including Winota, Joiner of Forces and Embercleave.

This is still more of the same, except we have Reidane. Unfortunately, there isn’t a powerful Human (or changeling!) to find with Winota in Kaldheim except for maybe Maja, Bretagard Protector.

Basri’s Lieutenant is my choice for the powerful Human to find with Winota that happens to be castable, mostly because of how well it works with Luminarch Aspirant.

Cosima would be an interesting splash. Having a solid Vehicle would certainly help solidfy your strength against sweepers.

Now we have more off-color Pathways for Kenrith if we want them. Green is still the most relevant but there are few reasons to not play them. 

Finally, we have this masterpiece.

Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy works alongside Esika, God of the Tree to create disgusting amounts of mana. From there, we can deploy our hand full of Gods, but then what?

The World Tree is easy enough to activate in a deck with Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy and Esika, God of the Tree. Thanks to the single copy of Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded, you’re able to put over twenty power on the battlefield and immediately attack.

Assuming you face interaction, you’re going to want some amount of card advantage. Again, Alrund makes an appearance but it’s not a perfect solution. Thankfully, there are other sources of card advantage like Cosima, Kolvori, and Nylea. They aren’t as powerful as some of the other options in Standard but any deck full of Gods isn’t well-equipped to utilize them. 

The Great Henge makes an appearance even though we can’t jam it on Turn 4 consistently. My hope is that you can generate enough mana to make it easy enough to cast. Once it’s on the battlefield, The Great Henge is one of the best things you can be doing. 

Maybe this is a meme deck but it looks powerful. 

Will Reidane hit older formats? Realistically, it depends on what spells you’re trying to punish. Wilderness Reclamation; Nissa, Who Shakes the World; Cryptic Command; and Collected Company are very relevant in their respective formats, so reaching back to Modern seems likely. Legacy is less likely, especially since Reidane doesn’t actually stop Terminus, unlike something like Gaddock Teeg. 

Reidane, God of the Worthy lives up to its name. It will certainly alter the face of Standard but it could take some time before the best builds are found. We haven’t had to figure out what good white decks look like for a while, so I look forward to what everyone comes up with.