Are we looking at a new Mutavault?
When I was looking over the Kaldheim spoiler in search of some inspiration, I was shocked by Faceless Haven. I hadn’t seen it before—there was no hype on social media about the card that was clearly designed to be a Standard staple. A colorless creature land, accessible to all five colors, and with a Changeling status? It’s the perfect card for any tribal deck, and draws obvious comparisons to Mutavault. A defining feature of the format during both of its runs in Standard, Mutavault is a card that needs little introduction.
Creature lands have always been key factors in the Standard metagame whenever they were around, from the era of Shambling Vent, to Celestial Colonnade, all the way back to Treetop Village. Mutavault was no different, but its colorless status has typically restricted its use to one-color decks that can afford the colorless land. Faceless Haven will function in much the same way, but its activation cost requiring multiple Snow mana also requires a heavy commitment to Snow lands. This means not playing typical dual and trilands, and because the Snow options for mana fixing are weak, Faceless Haven will be at its best in single-color decks.
I got curious about just how many Snow lands a deck will need to play to reliably activate and attack with Faceless Haven on turn four, so I consulted the most useful article in Magic ever written, Frank Karsten’s guide to manabases, and found that, like Cryptic Command, Faceless Haven will require 20 Snow lands to be used on turn four reliably, which Frank posits is 90% of the time. In theory, not being able to activate the land is not as devastating as not being able to cast a spell, so this number could be slightly relaxed, but it’s not ideal.
The thing about Faceless Haven is that, as a Snow land itself, additional copies can pay for the first, so a deck with four could count three of them towards that 20—it would only need 17 other Snow lands. That’s a minimum of 21 lands, which is a great number for a low-curve aggressive deck with something like Faceless Haven to sink mana into. It leaves a few slots available to utility lands or double-faced cards in decks that require more mana. It’s the loss of access to these cards, which are major staples of Standard, that are the real cost of Faceless Haven.
If you play a deck that contains many utility lands and double-faced cards, you may not find Faceless Haven worth giving them up for. Much of the value of a creature land is adding utility to your manabase, and things like the double-faced cards or Castle Ardenvale do this in their own powerful ways. Times have changed since Mutavault, and there’s more competition between great cards for slots in a deck. Nor will every deck want Faceless Haven strategically, as it will be best in aggressive decks, and best of all in those that can take advantage of its tribal nature or Snow status.
In those decks that do want Faceless Haven, it offers a massive dose of power locked into a land. While it costs much more than Mutavault to use, it hits twice as hard, and is twice as threatening for the opponent. Ability to synergize with tribal or Snow cards could push it over the top. While Faceless Haven won’t be as prevalent as Mutavault was, I’m confident it will find its place somewhere as a staple of Standard.
I’ve started exploring its potential by building some decks to make the most of it. With the goal of finding the best possible homes for Faceless Haven, my focus is on one-color decks, but I have one example of how two-color decks could work. I also looked for tribal decks and built them everywhere they had enough support.
Green
Green is a good place to start with Faceless Haven. It currently boasts a Mono-Green deck as one of the best in Standard, and Kaldheim is bringing Elves as a tribe with heavy support, including even a planeswalker.
Mono-Green Snow-Covered Food
Market Price:$313.69
Maindeck, 60 cards
Creature (28)
- 3Feasting Troll King
- 4Gilded Goose
- 1Ilysian Caryatid
- 4Kazandu Mammoth
- 2Kogla, the Titan Ape
- 4Lovestruck Beast//
- 4Tangled Florahedron
- 2Thrashing Brontodon
- 4Wicked Wolf
Planeswalker (1)
- 1Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate
Artifact (6)
- 4The Great Henge
- 2Witch’s Oven
Enchantment (3)
- 3Trail of Crumbs
Land (22)
- 3Castle Garenbrig
- 3Faceless Haven
- 16Snow-Covered Forest
Sideboard (15)
- 1Kogla, the Titan Ape
- 3Questing Beast
- 2Scavenging Ooze
- 3Tormod’s Crypt
- 1Trail of Crumbs
- 1Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
- 1Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate
- 2Wilt
- 1Witch’s Oven
Mono-Green Food suffers from the aforementioned issue of playing many double-face cards and utility lands, so Faceless Haven isn’t a seamless fit, but it plays so many lands in addition to them that it’s not a huge stretch. The deck even already plays some colorless lands (typically three Bonder’s Enclave), but some lists are replacing some with Crawling Barrens. Faceless Haven is much more efficient than Crawling Barrens as an immediate threat, and it could be supported if the deck prefers aggression over the ability to grow.
The thing getting in the way is the playset of Castle Garenbrig, which is a key card for fueling the deck’s six-drops. The current stock list plays 22 actual land, with 15 basic Forest that could easily become Snow, which with two or three Faceless Haven would require three or four more Snow land to hit the 20 required. Cutting Castle Garenbrig isn’t the best idea, but perhaps trimming one and making due with less Snow lands would get the job done if you really wanted it to.
I’m more excited about Faceless Haven in Elves, which Kaldheim makes a legitimate tribe with a ton of new support joining a few good cards we already had. It’s a Golgari tribe, and a Snow version with Faceless Haven might just work, but there is enough support for a Mono-Green version.
Mono-Green Snow-Covered Elves
Maindeck, 60 cards
Creature (36)
- 4Boreal Outrider
- 4Canopy Tactician
- 4Elvish Warmaster
- 4Llanowar Visionary
- 4Realmwalker
- 4Sculptor of Winter
- 4Tajuru Paragon
- 4Wildborn Preserver
- 4Wildwood Tracker
Planeswalker (3)
- 3Tyvar Kell
Land (21)
- 4Faceless Haven
- 17Snow-Covered Forest
Turns out, Elves mesh well with the Snow theme. Sculptor of Winter adds an aggressively-slanted mana source. Boreal Outrider is a powerful tool for an aggressive Elves deck filled with cheap creatures to pump, and one that might be a Standard staple good enough for other green creature decks.
The best new card for the tribe is Elvish Warmaster, a fantastic aggressive Elf that may even make it to Modern and Legacy. Like Boreal Outrider, it pushes the deck towards a ton of cheap and aggressive creatures, which it has access to plenty of. The secondary ability of pumping the team is an afterthought that’s hardly necessary, but it certainly is welcome, and helps make this two-drop excellent at all stages of the game.
The creature swarm plan is further cemented by Realmwalker, a Changeling that does a perfect impersonation of an Elf. It will generate incredible card advantage in a deck with many cheap ones to play. This quietly feels like one of the best cards in the set, one likely to find its way into all types of tribal Modern and Legacy in decks like Humans and Elves, and more fringe ones like Elementals and Slivers. I imagine it will feel pretty broken in Standard.
Kaldheim also brings Canopy Tactician, a part lord and part mana engine that feels like a watered down version of Elvish Archdruid. It will be a solid card in a deck with so many tokens to pump and sinks for mana, but it does feel a bit underwhelming at four mana.
It’s all topped off by Tyvar Kell, which brings a ton of useful abilities. A static ability that turns all Elves into mana sources feels quite powerful, especially alongside Elvish Warmaster’s ability to generate a ton of tokens. War of the Spark brought planeswalkers to the next level with static abilities, and Tyvar Kell is built in this new mold. This mana can all be sunk into more threats, especially with Realmwalker in play to generate them. It’s also a black mana fixer, which makes it an important part of any two-color Elf deck. Tyvar Kell also makes tokens of its own, so it’s a mana engine in itself. It can also make mana with its +1 ability untapping a mana Elf, which can be used to grow any Elf into a bigger threat. Add in a broken ultimate that acts as two Glimpse of Nature plus Concordant Crossroads, and it’s quite the planeswalker.
Elves seems like quite the tribe, and one that has the tools for a competitive deck. Getting the most out of Elves will require embracing two colors and perhaps putting Faceless Haven on the sideline…but I wonder if it’s possible to have your cake and eat it, too.
Golgari Snow-Covered Elves
Maindeck, 60 cards
Creature (34)
- 2Boreal Outrider
- 4Elvish Warmaster
- 4Harald, King of Skemfar
- 4Llanowar Visionary
- 4Realmwalker
- 4Skemfar Avenger
- 2Skemfar Shadowsage
- 4Tajuru Paragon
- 2Wildborn Preserver
- 4Wildwood Tracker
Planeswalker (3)
- 3Tyvar Kell
Enchantment (2)
- 2Harald Unites the Elves
Land (21)
- 4Darkbore Pathway
- 4Fabled Passage
- 4Faceless Haven
- 4Snow-Covered Forest
- 1Snow-Covered Swamp
- 4Woodland Chasm
Central to playing multi-color Snow decks in Standard will be Fabled Passage, which can fill in as a Snow-Dual. Woodland Chasm adds a true Snow dual, which is not ideal as a tapland, but a necessary evil for supporting Faceless Haven. Those eight lands plus a Snow-Covered Swamp to fetch is 9, so add four of the new double-faced dual Darkbore Pathway and you’d have enough black source for two-drops like Skemfar Avenger, another incredible new Elf.
Four Faceless Haven leaves room for 4 or so Snow-Covered Forest, and plenty of green mana. A Golgari Elf deck would want to play Fabled Passage anyways, and the mana fixing is poor. The next best thing would be a Zagoth Triome, so playing Woodland Chasm as a tapped land may not be as much of a cost as it seems, and Snow Golgari Elves is actually the ideal version.
Beyond Skemfar Avenger, Harald, King of Skemfar and Harald Unites the Elves are two more black pickups also bringing welcome card advantage. Skemfar Shadowsage is a strong variation on Shaman of the Pack that offers the option of gaining life instead of hurting the opponent, and may be worth playing in the crowded four-drop spot.
Red
Beyond Green, the most successful Mono-Color decks in Standard are Red. Mono-Red Aggro is the perfect home for an aggressive card like Faceless Haven, and wouldn’t be hard to support if it’s willing to give up some Castle Embereth or Shatterskull Smashing, which seems like a reasonable tradeoff.
A recent 6-0 list from an SCG Online Qualifier featured 17 Mountain, 3 Castle Embereth, and four Shatterskull Smashing as mana sources. Replacing 4 Mountain with Faceless Haven and the rest with Snow-Covered Mountain means the deck needs four more sources, so trimming some combination of these utility lands would get the job done. In this sense, Faceless Haven is directly replacing the other value lands, so it’s a question of whether or not it’s better than the existing options. Keep in mind Faceless Haven is better in multiples as a Snow mana source, so it’s ideally all 4 or none at all.
Mono-Red Snow Aggro
Maindeck, 60 cards
Creature (28)
- 4Anax, Hardened in the Forge
- 4Bonecrusher Giant//
- 4Fervent Champion
- 4Fireblade Charger
- 3Phoenix of Ash
- 2Rimrock Knight//
- 4Robber of the Rich
- 3Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
Sorcery (2)
- 2Shatterskull Smashing
Instant (4)
- 2Frost Bite
- 2Soul Sear
Artifact (4)
Land (22)
- 1Castle Embereth
- 4Faceless Haven
- 17Snow-Covered Mountain
Sideboard (15)
- 3Claim the Firstborn
- 2Ox of Agonas
- 3Relic Robber
- 3Roiling Vortex
- 2Soul Sear
- 2The Akroan War
By embracing Snow, red decks do gain a nice tool in Frost Bite, a super-charged Snow Shock that as a fixed Skred (or fixed Lightning Bolt) may be one of the best snow cards in the set. It can’t hit the opponent, but it seems great in a format with creatures like Soaring Thought-Thief and Kazandu Mammoth to kill.
Red also offers the possibility of the Dwarves tribe, one Kaldheim has brought back support for after many years. It’s admittedly a bit light on playables and doesn’t offer much in the way of choice, but it does have enough cards to make a deck work.
Mono-Red Snow-Covered Dwarves
Maindeck, 60 cards
Creature (29)
- 4Bonecrusher Giant//
- 4Fearless Liberator
- 1Goldspan Dragon
- 4Magda, Brazen Outlaw
- 4Rimrock Knight//
- 7Seven Dwarves
- 1Toralf, God of Fury
- 4Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
Sorcery (3)
- 3Shatterskull Smashing
Instant (4)
- 4Frost Bite
Artifact (2)
- 1Bearded Axe
- 1Embercleave
Land (22)
- 1Castle Embereth
- 4Faceless Haven
- 17Snow-Covered Mountain
The big incentive to play Dwarves is Magda, Brazen Outlaw, which is a lord plus mana engine in a two-drop, and makes for a fantastic card. Making the most of it means playing some Dragons and artifacts to find, so it opens up a small toolbox of them to find, like the new Goldspan Dragon that’s a new staple, and a great card in its own right. Bearded Axe adds some fun Dwarves flavor, and quietly feels like a pretty strong card as a sort of Cranial Plating for Dwarves.
White
Faceless Haven also has great potential in Mono-White, a color typically known for hyper-aggressive decks that offer a great home for a creature land. It’s not currently a top-tier Standard strategy, but they are out there, and are improved by this new threat. Kaldheim also brings a couple of excellent new tools for a white aggressive deck.
I’m extremely impressed by Clarion Spirit, which easily produces valuable flying tokens in a deck full of cheap cards that allow it to trigger the Clarion Spirit. Usher of the Fallen is even more impressive as a threat, and its ability to produce extra tokens is quite welcome in an aggressive deck.
Mono-White Snow Aggro
Maindeck, 60 cards
Creature (34)
- 4Alseid of Life’s Bounty
- 4Clarion Spirit
- 4Giant Killer//
- 4Luminarch Aspirant
- 2Lurrus of the Dream-Den
- 4Seasoned Hallowblade
- 4Selfless Savior
- 4Skyclave Apparition
- 4Usher of the Fallen
Planeswalker (2)
- 2Elspeth, Sun’s Nemesis
Artifact (2)
- 2Maul of the Skyclaves
Land (22)
- 1Castle Ardenvale
- 4Faceless Haven
- 17Snow-Covered Plains
Kaldheim also brings a nice new tribal tool in Rally the Ranks as an anthem, which would pump Faceless Haven. The white tribe in Standard most capable of making it work is Humans.
Mono-White Snow-Covered Humans
Maindeck, 60 cards
Creature (30)
- 4Archpriest of Iona
- 4Charming Prince
- 4Giant Killer//
- 1Heliod, Sun-Crowned
- 4Lavabrink Venturer
- 4Luminarch Aspirant
- 4Seasoned Hallowblade
- 1Shepherd of the Flock//
- 4Speaker of the Heavens
Planeswalker (2)
- 2Elspeth, Sun’s Nemesis
Artifact (2)
- 2Maul of the Skyclaves
Enchantment (4)
- 4Rally the Ranks
Land (22)
- 1Castle Ardenvale
- 4Faceless Haven
- 17Snow-Covered Plains
The Future of Faceless Haven
Neither Blue nor Black provide any existing clear Mono-Colored homes to slot Faceless Haven into, but it’s always possible! There’s also a whole variety of potential two-color decks that could try to make Faceless Haven work. It’s going to find a home somewhere, and when it does, it will excel as a dangerous threat and a new facet of Standard that must be respected.