Tibalt may be infamous for being one of the worst Planeswalker cards in Magic: The Gathering's history, but his latest Modal Double-Faced Planeswalker card from the new set Kaldheim set is already being considered overpowered and "broken" by Magic players, mostly those who play eternal formats like Modern, Pioneer, Legacy, and Vintage.
Valki, God of Lies // Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor is a mythic rare Modal Double-Faced Card (MDFC) from Kaldheim, meaning you can play either side of the card when you cast it.
The front side is a black 2/1 Creature God type that costs two mana (one black and one generic), and when it enters the battlefield, each opponent reveals their hand, and for each opponent, they exile a creature card revealed this way until Valki leaves the battfield. The front side of this MDFC looks balanced.
The back side of this MDFC shows Tibalt's true identity: Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor, a red and black seven-to-cast (one red, one black, and five generic) Planeswalker card that gives you an emblem that lets you play cards exiled with Tibalt's Cosmic Impostor, and that you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast those spells. With 5 starting loyalty, its first ability reads, "+2: Exile the top card of each player's library"; its second ability: "-3: Exile target artifact or creature"; and its ultimate, "-8: Exile all cards from all graveyards. Add 3 red mana".
It's a ridiculously powerful Planeswalker card that lets you play anything it exiles, but it costs 7 mana, so that shouldn't be a problem, right? However, players are already calling Wizards of the Coast to make a substantial rule change for a certain mechanic, following the release of Kaldheim, because of what Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor can do in various MTG formats.
The problem is the way this new Kaldheim mythic rare MDFC interacts with the Cascade mechanic. When you play a Magic card with Cascade, you exile the top card of your library until you find a nonland card whose converted mana cost is less than the spell's converted mana cost, then you may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Introduced in the 2009 set Alara Reborn, Cascade has always been a powerful mechanic that can let you cast powerful spells for cheap. Cards with Cascade are used in the Living End Modern deck, but none of the Cascade cards have been considered overpowered. However, since the release of Kaldheim, one word in the official ruling of Cascade is causing problems in three difffent formats.
Since Cascade only lets you cast the next nonland spell with lower mana cost, that means that once you find Valki, God of Lies // Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor in your library, you can then play either side of the double-faced card without paying its mana cost, so if a three-mana spell with Cascade finds Valki // Tibalt, you can cast the Tibalt side for free, way earlier than you typically could.
This powerful interaction is making an impact in eternal formats like Vintage, Modern, and Pioneer, creating a new combo archetype that can efficiently bring out "Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor" before your opponents can even interact with it. In a recent YouTube video, Mefolk Master Nikachu explains why this Kaldheim card is broken.
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One solution to this problem would be adjusting a single word in the Cascade rules: "card" to "spell" so players will be limited to just playing the Valki side unless you play a Cascade spell that costs eight or more mana.
It seems fitting that Tibalt is causing chaos in various formats even though fans are calling to either ban the card or change the Cascade rules. This is one of the main reasons why the new Tibalt is still one of the most expensive cards in Kaldheim.
Do you think Valki, God of Lies // Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor should be banned in eternal formats? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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