So, I have mixed feelings about Kaldheim's story. I think that it was written well enough and told a good story. However, I can't get over how much they handed Kaya the idiot ball in order to set the story in motion (I'm not saying she acted like an idiot in story, although one part kind of stands out).
-Why is Kaya accepting contracts from mysterious benefactors in the first place? Did she learn nothing when she got burned on her deal with Bolas to at least check that a client is on the up and up?
-How much time passed between Episode 4 & 5? It feels like Kaya should have made at least a token effort to bring the Gatewatch in on this.
EDIT: Not to mention that we're just going to ignore that Kaya was all geared up to go back home to deal with the broken sky with Teyo and company. Not even a passing mention.

Additionally, I don't like how everything gets abridged because we only get five stories. Tibalt's story was cute but stands out as being short and glosses over what should be major plot beats. Both of Harald's "Story Spotlights" (King Harald's Revenge and Struggle for Skemfar happen off screen. So yeah, definitely a mixed bag.

Feeling similar sentiments to VLW. Even stepping out of being critical, I just don't feel Kaya had any decent reason to be our protagonist in the entire thing. She had no stake here and without personal goals, it's really hard to find investment in her role. I have a lot of complaints about Kaya as a character, but those actually aren't relevant here. She's just copy-pasted as the hero in much the same way Tibalt is copy-pasted as the antagonist.

But probably my biggest beef with the story is the epilogue. I simply do not like any of it and maintain the phyrexian presence here was bad and everything to do with it was repulsive. And weirdly, that sentiment crystallized purely because I don't like that they decided to kill Esika. It's gratuitous, and that's without actually having much reason to be attached to her.

Esika may live, she's only half dead when Vorinclex left.

Oh, only mostly dead, well that's different.

Upon further reflection, the more I'm of the opinion that planeswalkers did nothing to enhance this story at all. It would have been a decent locals story, but having walkers in it just artificially props them up. Now, I know, the reality of marketing and everything, but I can't ignore that it did nothing to make any of this better.

Unless Vorinclex got to Toski too.... yeah, she's SO dead. Man... that epilogue was SKURRY.

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I don't think I have the right to complain about the writing (as it is not my "expertise") but like, Eldraine and Dominaria before... I just feel that they are not doing these new planes favor in putting them as one expansions, both gameplay wise and lore-wise. They just feel lacking in the end of the day.

ps. I'm happy that my Himbo prince decides to go off plane... I thought he was gonna be plane bound.

The final Kaldheim story:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-02-05

*gasps for air*

After several weeks, I've finally caught up with the story enough to feel safe reading this thread. I have to say, as someone who has trouble doing a lot of reading in one sitting, I wish they'd space out the stories more evenly between sets instead of dumping 10 of them in the span of a month.

Anyway, I agree with the sentiment that this story had a bit of the War of the Spark problem, in that it crammed so many things in that a lot of it ended up feeling underdeveloped. (Why Kaya is here, how Tibalt defeated Valki, Struggle for Skemfar not really happening.) Still, the worldbuilding here was great, and the story was a fun little romp through that world at least. I really liked the epilogue, personally. I'm looking forward to seeing how this Phyrexian story develops through future sets.

Regarding Kaya's powers, her initial starting powerset always included ghostforming both herself and her daggers, so I'm willing to accept that ghostforming other objects is within her reach. What I see as Kaya's limiting factor is the amount of strain her powers put on her system. Unlike most characters, we've repeatedly seen Kaya in situations where she's too drained to use her powers at the moment. Presumably she couldn't just ghostform some giant enemy because of this. (I'm also personally treating Forsaken and the Kaldheim trailer as non-canon regarding Kaya's abilities.)

I liked it. Honestly wish we got more stories like this than the interminable slog of Kaya doing nothing worth noting.