A number of returning and new card types are represented within the Magic: The Gathering Standard-legal set, Kaldheim.
Card types are a staple in Magic. All sets include standard card types such as Creature, Artifact, Enchantment, Sorcery, Instant, Land, Legendary, and Planeswalker. Within the KHM set, there are returning card types like Sagas and the supertype Snow. Two new enchantment types are included: Rune and Shard. There are also Viking-themed creature types such as Warrior and Berserker.
Here are four KHM card types MTG players need to know.
Saga
For the first time in Magic’s history, the KHM set includes multicolored Saga enchantments. Saga was first introduced to MTG via the Dominaria set. A saga contains three chapters that feature triggered abilities, which tell a story or follow a theme. Upon entering the battlefield, a lore counter is put on the first chapter. Immediately after a player’s draw step on the following turn, a lore counter is placed on the next chapter.
Within KHM, there are 10 rare Sagas and 10 uncommon multicolored Sagas. The Raven’s Warning, for example, is a rare UW Saga with three chapters that have a Flying tribal theme.
- Chapter one: Create a 1/1 blue Bird creature token with Flying. You gain two life.
- Chapter two: Whenever one or more creatures you control with Flying deal combat damage to a player this turn, look at that player’s hand and draw a card.
- Chapter three: You may put a card you own from outside the game on top of your library.
Snow
The supertype Snow is unique in that it doesn’t have an individual function on its own. Permanents that have the Snow supertype have will have payoffs that can activate abilities or supplement mana cost. There’s a cycle of 10 common Snow dual lands within KHM, along with a number of spells that gain an added bonus when cast with a player has Snow permanents.
Jorn, God of Winter is a legendary Snow God within KHM who untapped each Snow permanent that the player controls when Jorn attacks. There is also the Snow Artifact, Replicating Ring, that can tap to add one mana of any color. And there is a Snow Sorcery called Search for Glory. It allows a player to search their library for a Snow permanent card, a legendary card, or a Saga card.
Rune
Rune of Flight is an Enchantment Aura Rune within KHM. A Rune functions like other auras, providing additional abilities to the permanent it enchants. In the case of Rune of Flight, players reap three abilities when enchanting a permanent.
“The cycle of Runes now each enchant a permanent, said head MTG designer Mark Rosewater. “It gives a specific ability to an enchanted creature and allows an enchanted Equipment to grant the same ability.”
- When Rune of Flight enters the battlefield, draw a card.
- As long as enchanted permanent is a creature, it has Flying.
- As long as enchanted permanent is an Equipment, it has “Equipped creature has Flying.”
Shard
Shard is a new subtype in Magic introduced via the KHM set. Created by the planeswalker Niko Aris when they enter the battlefield, a Shard token has an ability that states: “Pay 2, Sacrifice this enchantment. Scry one, then draw a card.” They can also create a Shard token with their minus-one ability.
Niko Aris can create (X) number of Shard tokens upon entering the battlefield. Since the Shard token is an enchantment, it can trigger Constellation on a card like Archon of Sun’s Grace, an MTG ability word used in Theros Beyond Death and first introduced via Journey into Nyx.
