Katilda, Dawnhart Prime – Midnight Hunt
Date Reviewed: November 8, 2021
Ratings:
Constructed: 2.83
Casual: 3.25
Limited: 3.83
Multiplayer: 2.75
Commander [EDH]: 2.83
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
David
Fanany
Player
since
1995
Katilda has a few things going on, including some abilities that are more for flavor – obviously I include protection from werewolves in that, but also how the mana production ability hits several Innistrad concepts, such as humans sticking together against monsters, covens, and tribal armies appearing out of nowhere. In constructed, you’ll likely be trying to leverage her mana production, which is quite easy to do when you start adding other planes’ representatives. Humans being the most common sapient creatures in Magic makes any human tribal effect worth a second look. In draft, you’ll likely win games off her activated ability. We talked about how devastating this kind of effect can be when we reviewed Ajani Goldmane recently, and if she stays in play long enough to use it even once, you will most likely be in very good shape indeed.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander: 3/5
Katilda’s an interesting enough tribal lord of sorts; while she’s not strictly support for Humans, she obviously pairs well with the ability she grants to turn all of them into mana dorks! Given their go-wide tendencies, you can easily turn a board into a massive headache if you have the mana to start dumping into her 6-mana Gavony Township ability. Protection from Werewolves is largely an ancillary bit of text, but seeing as how it’s not actively bad, I’ll take it, and it can even pull its weight every now and again.
She’s definitely a card suited for a longer games, and she can be vicious in Limited if you let her be, but I do think she’s not much more than a fun fringe option in Standard. That said, she’s a two-mana mana dork for her colors, which is at least remarkable enough, and a deck that proceeds more deliberately won’t mind her talents.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.75
Limited: 4.5 (I think she can be nasty in Limited, since games go long and she can make your army insurmountable)
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander: 3.5
Katilda, Dawnhart Prime
Bad rare in my honest opinion. Outside of limited and standard this card maybe will work in modern 5 color humans but even then I can think of what I’d swap out for it. Protection from werewolves only works in limited and ‘maybe’ standard but outside of that werewolf tribal is not really a thing. I think limited is where it shines if you’re going the humans route, but again, it’s just not great. The granting mana ability is nice but you’re limited to the mana that the specific human can produce. If you’re in 5 colors and can’t draw that red mana this card won’t save you if you have no red creatures. The 6 mana ability to add a +1/+1 counter on each creature is too slow. To speed things up you’d ideally use the humans to produce the mana but then you have a bunch of tapped humans with positive counters on them and that won’t help you until next turn. In Commander it could work and help win but your opponents will see that coming a mile away. Hard pass outside of limited and that’s only if you’re getting lucky with human draws or need that blocker against werewolves. I wouldn’t make this your commander either, unless your playgroup all plays werewolf tribal that is!
- Constructed 2/5
- Casual 2/5
- Limited 3/5
- Multiplayer 2/5
- Commander 2/5
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Magic the Gathering Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
Click here to read over 4,000 more MTG Cards of the Day! Daily Since 2001.
