If anything, I would be more interested in the new pre-release promo angel or demon. The angel could reset our life total since we tend to cannibalize it pretty quickly. The demon is easy to cast on his own and could either be Bloodgift #2 or additional pressure on whoever you're attacking. Of course, I'm not a fan of cards that defer to your opponent, so it's probably better in one-on-one than in our multiplayer environment.
Okay, suffice it to say that Ob Nixis unshackled is going in. In fact, he's the reason I'm finally cutting Akroma. =( I've had to cut so many pet cards lately. Oh well. At least I can still use them on mtgo while my deck there's still bad and cheap.
The whip is definitely doing a LOT of work. Lifelink is very important to this deck, especially with the way I keep cannibalizing my life total (at one point I had done over 20 pts of damage to myself with Ancient Tomb w/o anyone bothering to touch me because I wasn't drawing my fourth land). But even the one-shot reanimations with haste have been proving worthwhile. Whipping back an ETB effect, strapping it up with a sword and getting in for some quick beats is a much better use for them than letting them sit in the graveyard where they're a prime reanimation target for anyone running Sepulchral Primordial.
I got a chance to try out Iroas for the first time. He definitely helps the Whip-quick-beats game plan. Concerns of him fighting Kaalia for the four drop slot is actually incorrect. More often, he's a 5 or 6 drop card since the correct play is often to play Kaalia, then play him so that she can get a free swing in. I need to try him more, but he facilitates the aggro strategy I want quite well.
Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been around. I've been spending the better part of my year playing two-color decks and mono-coloreds some good playtesting time.
Iroas is someone I actually want to consider for this deck. Him and Athreos, actually.
Right now I'm giving me deck a thorough look over and I'm going to be doing some retooling. The list I currently run has already cut out some of my favorites like sunforger and Cloudshift. =(
Of the cards I'm looking to add in, the two new gods actually seem very strong for an aggressive build so I'm going to test them both the next time I go into my lgs.
What do you think about the possibility of going even deeper down the rabbit hole with land destruction?
I was playing around in my various deck building programs with lists that go as low as 9 creatures including Kaalia. The rest is all mass and targeted land removal, mana rocks, tutors, removal and indestructibility packages.
How many slots for land destruction is to many? Even if I'm going for that as the deck archetype.
Hmmm....well, if your playgroup is okay with not playing magic while you punch them in the face over and over, then by all means go for it. Personally, I feel 2-3 land wraths are perfectly acceptable if you're using them as wincons and have a good suite of tutors.
For you though? I honestly couldn't say. If that's your primary goal, then by all means continue to toy around with it.
I'm not a big fan of going that creature light in a Kaalia deck, but if you always have a fatty then it may work out. I'd try and add in some more beats though.
After falling in love hard with her and Iona I'm starting to feel the same way. I'm starting to think that maybe she would be best served run in a deck with some MLD packages run around her. Last night I had this crazy idea of running a Kaalia MLD deck built around keeping my stuff with things like Avacyn and a Darksteel Forge Mycosynth Lattice type combo.
Wellllll, if MLD is your jam, might I direct your eyes toward my primer good sir?
Regarding Conjurer's Closet: This is a card I've always loved in blink/flicker/value decks. It's not as fast as, say, a Deadeye Navigator, but it's great to have something that auto-flickers for you every round. I use it to great effect in Sharuum and Lavinia.
What is everyone's opinion on Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon? I know he doesn't work towards a common win condition as Kaalia or rest of her deck but, it might be a good way to deal with a life gain deck that has gotten out of control late game. Since we don't want to run something like big Sorin and Kaalia's commander damage takes a forever to finish a player off.
I think with the amount of recursion we run he might be worth running testing because he is always a 3 turn clock and can be given haste and regeneration. Not to mention he only cost 5 mana and is easily castable without Kaalia.
I just got my hands on a copy of him recently and I think I'll test him in the deck for a while since I like the art so much.
The problem with running Skittles is that, like you said, he doesn't really help with Kaalia's primary game plan. Because of that, he eats up a slot that you could be using to play someone who gives you much more versatile removal. If life gain is a problem for you, I heavily suggest running Erebos since he acts as an indestructible way to draw cards and has the neat side effect of denying life gain for your opponents.
I wouldn't play MoC in multiplayer at all. It's just not strong enough to be worth a slot for "Whenever ~ kills a player, ~ gains Defender for the rest of the game."
I actually go back to playing Avacyn in that scenario, heh.
No, I totally believe preach that. I'm just saying I'd consider him a little more if he had natural evasion....of course, that'd be a little TOO crazy.
It is a great threat tool. Almost an on-site-required-kill. I use it mainly to slow down whoever is pumping out creatures or ramp. Aiming for the little guy does nothing.
My problem is that he doesn't really have any sort of evasion. If they're already pumping out guys, isn't it likely that he'll just be chump blocked? If he naturally had flying, I'd consider him a little more because then he'd just block everything all day.
infact, liliana's specter is more reliable, but it doesn't do much with many players on the table. i'm really interested in punishing players drawing a lot of cards, because rakdos can't do that most times. the same is valid for liliana's reaver, order opf yawgmoth and fiend of the shadows and okiba-gnga shinobi (he's beter but you don't have a lot of creatures to ninjutsu into)
i dunno about you money restraints, but my idea is to search for a mass discard, which is sire of insanity or mindslicer and cast as fast as possible, then win with grindy stuff. note that vampiric tutor's card disadvantage is neglected by the mass discard.
after you wipe hands, olivia can control the board given sufficient mana, which is provided by liliana of the dark realms, thawing glaciers, phyrexian arena.
of course, you could go in direction of a less opressive build, but since you did not specify a lot your goal, this is my take on olivia (i don't have it, just my plans)
also, some cards that i think that just don't do much:Skullcage, wheel of torture, quietus spike, annihilating fire, undercity plague, lavaborn muse, pain magnification, painful quandry, sulfuric vortex: note that vortex hurs you too, and you have few ways to defend yourself early. i'd add some, thoguh i don't know a lot of cards to do that (one is phyrexian rager, maybe?)
My goal isn't to punish players who draw a lot of cards, so much as it's to slowly nickel and dime them for damage because I've destroyed their hands entirely.
I love Sire of Insanity a lot in this deck, and I've since gotten a second one to go in here after the first got upgraded to Kaalia's deck.
The general idea of the deck was to create a slow and torturous game for everyone else as I get rid of their answers and options and let Olivia control the board. All of the cards you don't think do much actually pull a ton of weight for me and have won me plenty of games. They're deceptively good for this build.
That reminds me...I need to update this deck at some point. ^^;
I haven't kept up with this thread so I don't know if he has ever been considered but what about the Master of Cruelties?
I see him in a lot of Kaalia decks.
I really like him in 1-v-1 builds, no question. I don't particularly care for him here just because getting to one-shot somebody isn't really enough to justify him when I have 2-3 other people to kill. It's a handly little trick, but I prefer to get more utility out of my card slots than to have a guy who's just going to end up blocking for me the rest of the game.
That said...I could see myself trying him out in the future if I could figure out what I'd cut...
I play a very similar zedruu the great hearted list. My deck has been tuning for a relatively short time (since June), but I play it a lot.
I run a heavy control raka build.
I wanted to offer a few constructive criticisms. Take from them what you will.
1. Dawn charm is better than safe passage. It counters spells like mind twist, bribery, and the like. It also fogs! Last but not least it can regenerate a creature.
Personally, I prefer Safe Passage because it allows an opponent to kill everyone else BUT me when they go off with Molten Psyche or Insurrection. I ran the charm before, and I like it plenty. I just enjoy watching everyone else die more.
2. Ith, high arcanist should be swapped out for skull clamp. Skull clamp plus assemble the legion, elspeth, and mobilization is a boss. Though I recommend running more elspeth variations over mobilization. Don't even try sacred Mesa it sucks because it eats our mana.
I haven't updated the list in quite a while, but Ith was cut a while ago. I don't run the clamp though. At times it seems like the deck draws more cards than I can play, and other times it doesn't draw nearly enough. I'm still tinkering when I get a chance to play this deck again (currently focusing on Gatecrash guilds/mono color decks).
3. Cut spell book for library of leng, leng synergies with best red card in our colours: wild research! It is also good with gamble.
I did end up cutting the book, but I do like this suggestion. I'm going to see if I can work it in somehow...
4. Your build is control heavy like mine. You should consider things like goblin welder, wurmcoil engine, and sun titan.
The Welder is a cool idea I hadn't seen before. I currently run Hanna for a similar purpose, but I like the redundancy. I have added the wurmcoil engine, but I was surprised to find Sun Titan wasn't in the list already. ._. I've been on a mission to put him in every white deck I have, but I guess I missed one. I'll need to pick one up later.
5. Land tax plus scroll rack is a thing.
Unfortunately, not for me as I have a lack of Racks atm. Even then, my Riku/Maelstrom deck would get first dibs.
6. Archaeomancer plus capsize is a thing
Yes, but why do I want to spend six mana to get back something? I'd rather put out a Conjurer's Closet or use Dead-eye Navigator to recur my cards...how am I not already running that though...
7. Aethersworn canonist, pure steel paladin, and copy artifact are all very good in your build.
Copy Artifact is something I like a lot, but I don't actually feel like I want Ethersworn or the Paladin in this build. I don't really use artifacts as my main theme so the canonist hurts me more than I'd like and I don't run as much equipment as I currently do. I REALLY need to update this list...
8. Stonecloaker is a white edh auto include. Wait tell they says target and exile it, bounce stonecloaker back to your hand. Controls all day.
HOLD IT!!! Did you just call something an "auto-include"? That's a no-no, my friend. There are plenty of white decks that do not need nor want stonecloaker. Granted, my deck would benefit from some more graveyard hate, but if you're pairing white with cards of other colors that are already very strong in graveyard hate, I'd rather not be leaving three mana open for a source of graveyard hate that can be killed in response to its own trigger, especially when my ways of getting it back are very little.
The kinds of cards I DO count as auto-includes are very, very small. Stonecloaker is a good card, but I would never consider it an auto-include or a staple.
I've recently built my own Numot deck and your list looked like a good starting point. However, I've made a few changes. I'm super excited for this Commander 2013 card:
Yes, I haven't gotten around to updating ANY of my wedge decks with the new Theros cards. It's a project that usually goes on for a month or two. But there are definitely plenty of cards I want to run, no doubts about it.
The Elesh Norn thing isn't bad, but the rest doesn't seem as big a deal. If they're trading against Kaalia with a 2/2 we still have some large guy who just landed on the table, so she did her job. The fixing aspect I feel depends on the quality of your landbase; I decided to invest heavily in my Kaalia so pretty much every land is dual, fetch, or utility, so the mana fixing isn't necessary. If you're on a more budget Kaalia then you're more likely to appreciate the fixing and more likely to not be going for the explosive turn 3/4 Kaalia swing.
I think you exagerate about Opal Palace, mana is a challenge in Kaalia as it is, especially when trying to maximize ability to get Kaalia out by turn 4 consistently and 3 sometimes with all 3 colours. This is not only a filter land, but outside your commander, who will die often, it's win more, it makes Kaalia cost one more each time than it should.
The angel may have a role, but the palace is not meant for this deck. If Elesh Norn is killing Kaalia then you have other issues to deal with, including why cant deal with it or have a stable position by the time it happens.
I actually don't want to be trading Kaalia with anything, truth be told. Hence why I've given her a suit of swords (may be adding Feast/famine in the future
) to help up her body/give her evasion. I run Legion's Initiative primarily because it gives her that one extra bonus in toughness. The wrath evasion is just a bonus. Elesh Norn is quite rampant in meta. I can have the answer to one, but as soon as someone gets rid of it, another is sure to show up, and I don't always have a sword/LI to pump her. At that point, it becomes very annoying because momentum has been disturbed and it locks me out of Kaalia until LI comes into play.
As for land bases, you can see that I'm clearly running as many duals/fetches/etc as I can be (minus the off-color fetches because those leave a horrible taste in my mouth). I still have games where I have a problem getting mana set right, but I more often find games where I go from having 3 to 5 mana, and always feel like I have some sort of missed opportunity. Truthfully, I don't mind paying an extra mana if it means she gets a better chance at surviving.
I don't see Ravages of War anywhere. I think it would be much better than Catastrophe because I don't see many situations where you'd want to destroy all creatures, since you're the one who should be swarming with them. And you're already running Armageddon, so why not add Ravages, a really ridiculously redundant reprint?
Woah. I never saw the price of that card. I thought it was just a functional reprint, not a Portal Three Kingdoms functional reprint. Did they have mass burnings of boxes of that set or something? Well, regardless, the card something that with a huge budget might be worth it, but now I understand why I don't see it much.
Pretty much. It'd be an AMAZING card to have in this deck and I'd run it without a second thought if I had that kind of money to blow on a single piece of cardboard. Of course, the recent reprints in the new precons give me hope that Wizards will find a good place to reprint RoW in the future.
The reason any given PTK card is worth so much is because it was exclusively a release in the asian market to drive up interest there, from what I understand. It's (I believe) the only set to reference real world events, and to use actual guns. It is much hunted and cherished by collectors anywhere who can get an original PTK print. Hell, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed is leagues cheaper as a JUDGE PROMO than it's original printing.
Something that I've been using to great effect recently is Knollspine Dragon. You can Cloud Shift it for immense value. It's not uncommon that I'm drawing 10-20 cards with this baby. Note that you must discard your hand that the ability is a may.
For lockdown and mana control you can try Winter Orb, Global Ruin, or Desolation. All budget friendly, efficient and effective.
I like Necrologia better than Necropotence in Kaalia. Reason being that the discarded cards aren't exiled. With cards like Living Death, this can be a huge difference. It's also less heavy on the B. BBB can be hard to get early on when you need it.
Woah, woah, woah, woah there man. I like you, but I have one major problem with something you just said. I'm a strong proponent that there is very rarely something that "just goes in every X deck" because of different metas/play styles/etc. Allow me to go through why I personally choose to avoid reanimation as a sub-theme for my deck so you can understand where I'm coming from.
1) Graveyard hate is very strong in my meta
Some playgroups have the luxury of doing anything they please because their meta is lighter than they should be on graveyard hate. My meta doesn't have that problem. It's not to the point where graveyard based decks are completely hosed (I still do well with Karador), but using it as a back up or sub theme becomes a lot harder when you have people readily using Tormod's Crypt. That and Bojuka Bog is one of the few cards that I do consider a "staple", as in every black deck ever runs it.
2) It disrupts the flow of my game plan
Because the deck wants to hit hard and fast, I find I usually play one of two ways depending on my opening hand:
A) Super fast aggressive where I've dropped my entire hand by turns 4-5
B) I can't get a fast start, so I sit back and wait for initial removal to be gone and I can protect Kaalia with same-turn equipment suit ups.
I use reanimation to get things back just like everyone else, but it's more for utility purposes than as a sub-theme so that I'm not as hurt when graveyard hate gets directed towards me. Not only that, but then I'm not as hurt when somebody decides they want to loot my graveyard (which does happen quite often) for what's usually the best body around.
3) I only have so many card slots
This fits in with #2, but I'm so focused on voltroning up Kaalia and being aggressive that I don't have a lot of flexibility with this deck. I could definitely rework it to be that way, but the way I like to play Kaalia is that "all-in" game plan that comes from spitting out an angel/demon/dragon every turn. Any major sub themes take away from that plan's effectiveness. Yes, it means that I'm usually hosed if Kaalia gets tucked and I can't get her back, but I'm willing to take that risk.
With that said, I certainly DO encourage other players to try reanimation builds and I reference reanimation quite a bit when looking at new cards because I understand that a number of players really like that sort of thing. I do too, just not for my deck.
You mention a lot of good cards worth running. Obzedat's Aid is in the list because it literally gets back anything the deck needs back, including enchantments, Liliana, equipment, in addition to the regular fatty. I like the flexibility more than speed, but it's been worth it so far. Winter Orb isn't a card I'd like to run, period. Although it's usually just as effective as a land wipe at slowing down opponent's, I don't care for how it just "grinds the game down". Yes, I'm still cheating dudes into play with Kaalia, but I'm usually focusing on one player while I do that. Meanwhile, the other 1-2 players have untapped enough lands to deal with it and will punish me with whatever's been building in their hands. Land wipes get rid of their resources completely and force them to top deck ways to play. I also find that the land wipes tend to get more "wins by concession" than a winter orb does because the land wipes can be so demoralizing or game deciding. The same can be said about your other suggestions. Fine cards, but not what this deck wants to use for any of the above.
I also just happen to think of the orb as a "douchey-card" in general, but I know my opinion isn't shared by everyone either. That's just my personal preference.
I don't play 1-v-1 in my store, so I don't really care for one-shot effects most of the time when they canabalize my life and are less than recurable. Necropotence might be a bad thing to have when I'm using Sire of Insanity, but at least I can get it back with Obzedat's Aid or Sun Titan. It's also tutorable with Enlightened Tutor, turning one card into a full hand. It's mana intensive, yes, but actually don't want it early game so much as mid-to-late when I need more gas, so I'm fine with this.
Thanks for all the comments guys. I appreciate having debates on this thread, as well as general feedback. It's a good exercise in justifying why I'm running certain cards over others.
Good news, blueram! I've been looking at the decklist on the first page, and it looks like you have 99 Cards including Kaalia. So you can slot in a Theros card of your choice without making any cuts.
Wait...what?! Gimme a sec... *goes off to count cards in deck*
No, I definitely have 100 cards IRL. I'm probably just missing one on the list. ^^; Oh boy, figuring out which one is gonna be fun....
Speaking of fun, I LOVE some of the new cards that got spoiled! =D The two I like so far:
Angel of Finality - DEFINITELY gotta find a spot for this beauty! Graveyard hate all day~ Turn Cloudshift into insta-speed Bojuka Bog? Angelic Renewal? Karmic Guide? I can play easily w/o Kaalia? INNISTRAD BASED ART HRRRRRNGGGGG. *ahem* Yes, seems quite good.
Opal Palace - getting a +1/+1 counter might not seem like a big deal for most generals, but on Kaalia, that's HUGE. One casting means that she can survive Elesh Norn! A bigger body means she can fly into more things without worrying about trading with a chumper. Not only that, but I've frequently been finding that I have 5 mana on turn three or four anyway, so the downside is nominal, especially since it can fix for any color. Thoughts?
Hey gang! It's been a while since the last update, but now that I've had a chance to thoroughly look over Theros stuff, there are really only three cards that I'm considering looking atm.
Gift of Immortality - It feels kinda like Angelic Renewal, but AR has the ability to bring any creature that hits the graveyard back, not just the enchanted one. It'd probably be better if I wasn't running a pair of pro-white swords in Kaalia's equipment package.
Erebos, God of the Dead - Let me make this clear: If I run this guy, I'm NEVER planning on his devotion being active. I'd be running him purely because it's an indestructible greed and Kaalia loves card draw. The downside being that it's another way to cannibalize our life, but if Baneslayer, War and Peace, or Vault of the Archangel are online, that can be mitigated. The potential to shut down life gain that just fights our aggro is a nice bonus.
Whip of Erebos - I like being able to give all of our huge guys lifelink and just make the crackback from other players that much easier to endure. It's a great way to re-use some of our ETB creatures, and cloudshift makes sure that the guy gets to stick around (though Angel of Serenity also works here).
What do you guys think? Anything worth cutting for one of these?
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The whip is definitely doing a LOT of work. Lifelink is very important to this deck, especially with the way I keep cannibalizing my life total (at one point I had done over 20 pts of damage to myself with Ancient Tomb w/o anyone bothering to touch me because I wasn't drawing my fourth land). But even the one-shot reanimations with haste have been proving worthwhile. Whipping back an ETB effect, strapping it up with a sword and getting in for some quick beats is a much better use for them than letting them sit in the graveyard where they're a prime reanimation target for anyone running Sepulchral Primordial.
I got a chance to try out Iroas for the first time. He definitely helps the Whip-quick-beats game plan. Concerns of him fighting Kaalia for the four drop slot is actually incorrect. More often, he's a 5 or 6 drop card since the correct play is often to play Kaalia, then play him so that she can get a free swing in. I need to try him more, but he facilitates the aggro strategy I want quite well.
~Cheers!
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Iroas is someone I actually want to consider for this deck. Him and Athreos, actually.
Right now I'm giving me deck a thorough look over and I'm going to be doing some retooling. The list I currently run has already cut out some of my favorites like sunforger and Cloudshift. =(
Of the cards I'm looking to add in, the two new gods actually seem very strong for an aggressive build so I'm going to test them both the next time I go into my lgs.
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Olivia Voldaren
Hmmm....well, if your playgroup is okay with not playing magic while you punch them in the face over and over, then by all means go for it. Personally, I feel 2-3 land wraths are perfectly acceptable if you're using them as wincons and have a good suite of tutors.
For you though? I honestly couldn't say. If that's your primary goal, then by all means continue to toy around with it.
I'm not a big fan of going that creature light in a Kaalia deck, but if you always have a fatty then it may work out. I'd try and add in some more beats though.
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Olivia Voldaren
Wellllll, if MLD is your jam, might I direct your eyes toward my primer good sir?
Regarding Conjurer's Closet: This is a card I've always loved in blink/flicker/value decks. It's not as fast as, say, a Deadeye Navigator, but it's great to have something that auto-flickers for you every round. I use it to great effect in Sharuum and Lavinia.
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Olivia Voldaren
The problem with running Skittles is that, like you said, he doesn't really help with Kaalia's primary game plan. Because of that, he eats up a slot that you could be using to play someone who gives you much more versatile removal. If life gain is a problem for you, I heavily suggest running Erebos since he acts as an indestructible way to draw cards and has the neat side effect of denying life gain for your opponents.
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Olivia Voldaren
No, I totally believe preach that. I'm just saying I'd consider him a little more if he had natural evasion....of course, that'd be a little TOO crazy.
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My problem is that he doesn't really have any sort of evasion. If they're already pumping out guys, isn't it likely that he'll just be chump blocked? If he naturally had flying, I'd consider him a little more because then he'd just block everything all day.
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My goal isn't to punish players who draw a lot of cards, so much as it's to slowly nickel and dime them for damage because I've destroyed their hands entirely.
I love Sire of Insanity a lot in this deck, and I've since gotten a second one to go in here after the first got upgraded to Kaalia's deck.
The general idea of the deck was to create a slow and torturous game for everyone else as I get rid of their answers and options and let Olivia control the board. All of the cards you don't think do much actually pull a ton of weight for me and have won me plenty of games. They're deceptively good for this build.
That reminds me...I need to update this deck at some point. ^^;
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I really like him in 1-v-1 builds, no question. I don't particularly care for him here just because getting to one-shot somebody isn't really enough to justify him when I have 2-3 other people to kill. It's a handly little trick, but I prefer to get more utility out of my card slots than to have a guy who's just going to end up blocking for me the rest of the game.
That said...I could see myself trying him out in the future if I could figure out what I'd cut...
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HOLD IT!!! Did you just call something an "auto-include"? That's a no-no, my friend. There are plenty of white decks that do not need nor want stonecloaker. Granted, my deck would benefit from some more graveyard hate, but if you're pairing white with cards of other colors that are already very strong in graveyard hate, I'd rather not be leaving three mana open for a source of graveyard hate that can be killed in response to its own trigger, especially when my ways of getting it back are very little.
The kinds of cards I DO count as auto-includes are very, very small. Stonecloaker is a good card, but I would never consider it an auto-include or a staple.
Yes, I haven't gotten around to updating ANY of my wedge decks with the new Theros cards. It's a project that usually goes on for a month or two.
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Olivia Voldaren
I actually don't want to be trading Kaalia with anything, truth be told. Hence why I've given her a suit of swords (may be adding Feast/famine in the future
) to help up her body/give her evasion. I run Legion's Initiative primarily because it gives her that one extra bonus in toughness. The wrath evasion is just a bonus. Elesh Norn is quite rampant in meta. I can have the answer to one, but as soon as someone gets rid of it, another is sure to show up, and I don't always have a sword/LI to pump her. At that point, it becomes very annoying because momentum has been disturbed and it locks me out of Kaalia until LI comes into play.
As for land bases, you can see that I'm clearly running as many duals/fetches/etc as I can be (minus the off-color fetches because those leave a horrible taste in my mouth). I still have games where I have a problem getting mana set right, but I more often find games where I go from having 3 to 5 mana, and always feel like I have some sort of missed opportunity. Truthfully, I don't mind paying an extra mana if it means she gets a better chance at surviving.
Pretty much. It'd be an AMAZING card to have in this deck and I'd run it without a second thought if I had that kind of money to blow on a single piece of cardboard. Of course, the recent reprints in the new precons give me hope that Wizards will find a good place to reprint RoW in the future.
The reason any given PTK card is worth so much is because it was exclusively a release in the asian market to drive up interest there, from what I understand. It's (I believe) the only set to reference real world events, and to use actual guns. It is much hunted and cherished by collectors anywhere who can get an original PTK print. Hell, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed is leagues cheaper as a JUDGE PROMO than it's original printing.
Woah, woah, woah, woah there man. I like you, but I have one major problem with something you just said. I'm a strong proponent that there is very rarely something that "just goes in every X deck" because of different metas/play styles/etc. Allow me to go through why I personally choose to avoid reanimation as a sub-theme for my deck so you can understand where I'm coming from.
1) Graveyard hate is very strong in my meta
Some playgroups have the luxury of doing anything they please because their meta is lighter than they should be on graveyard hate. My meta doesn't have that problem. It's not to the point where graveyard based decks are completely hosed (I still do well with Karador), but using it as a back up or sub theme becomes a lot harder when you have people readily using Tormod's Crypt. That and Bojuka Bog is one of the few cards that I do consider a "staple", as in every black deck ever runs it.
2) It disrupts the flow of my game plan
Because the deck wants to hit hard and fast, I find I usually play one of two ways depending on my opening hand:
A) Super fast aggressive where I've dropped my entire hand by turns 4-5
B) I can't get a fast start, so I sit back and wait for initial removal to be gone and I can protect Kaalia with same-turn equipment suit ups.
I use reanimation to get things back just like everyone else, but it's more for utility purposes than as a sub-theme so that I'm not as hurt when graveyard hate gets directed towards me. Not only that, but then I'm not as hurt when somebody decides they want to loot my graveyard (which does happen quite often) for what's usually the best body around.
3) I only have so many card slots
This fits in with #2, but I'm so focused on voltroning up Kaalia and being aggressive that I don't have a lot of flexibility with this deck. I could definitely rework it to be that way, but the way I like to play Kaalia is that "all-in" game plan that comes from spitting out an angel/demon/dragon every turn. Any major sub themes take away from that plan's effectiveness. Yes, it means that I'm usually hosed if Kaalia gets tucked and I can't get her back, but I'm willing to take that risk.
With that said, I certainly DO encourage other players to try reanimation builds and I reference reanimation quite a bit when looking at new cards because I understand that a number of players really like that sort of thing. I do too, just not for my deck.
You mention a lot of good cards worth running. Obzedat's Aid is in the list because it literally gets back anything the deck needs back, including enchantments, Liliana, equipment, in addition to the regular fatty. I like the flexibility more than speed, but it's been worth it so far. Winter Orb isn't a card I'd like to run, period. Although it's usually just as effective as a land wipe at slowing down opponent's, I don't care for how it just "grinds the game down". Yes, I'm still cheating dudes into play with Kaalia, but I'm usually focusing on one player while I do that. Meanwhile, the other 1-2 players have untapped enough lands to deal with it and will punish me with whatever's been building in their hands. Land wipes get rid of their resources completely and force them to top deck ways to play. I also find that the land wipes tend to get more "wins by concession" than a winter orb does because the land wipes can be so demoralizing or game deciding. The same can be said about your other suggestions. Fine cards, but not what this deck wants to use for any of the above.
I also just happen to think of the orb as a "douchey-card" in general, but I know my opinion isn't shared by everyone either. That's just my personal preference.
I don't play 1-v-1 in my store, so I don't really care for one-shot effects most of the time when they canabalize my life and are less than recurable. Necropotence might be a bad thing to have when I'm using Sire of Insanity, but at least I can get it back with Obzedat's Aid or Sun Titan. It's also tutorable with Enlightened Tutor, turning one card into a full hand. It's mana intensive, yes, but actually don't want it early game so much as mid-to-late when I need more gas, so I'm fine with this.
Thanks for all the comments guys.
www.commandercast.com
Commandercast on Tumblr!
My EDH/Commander List:
Wedges:
Numot, the Devastator RWU
Damia, Sage of Stone GUB
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
Olivia Voldaren
Wait...what?! Gimme a sec... *goes off to count cards in deck*
No, I definitely have 100 cards IRL. I'm probably just missing one on the list. ^^; Oh boy, figuring out which one is gonna be fun....
Speaking of fun, I LOVE some of the new cards that got spoiled! =D The two I like so far:
Angel of Finality - DEFINITELY gotta find a spot for this beauty! Graveyard hate all day~ Turn Cloudshift into insta-speed Bojuka Bog? Angelic Renewal? Karmic Guide? I can play easily w/o Kaalia? INNISTRAD BASED ART HRRRRRNGGGGG. *ahem* Yes, seems quite good.
Opal Palace - getting a +1/+1 counter might not seem like a big deal for most generals, but on Kaalia, that's HUGE. One casting means that she can survive Elesh Norn! A bigger body means she can fly into more things without worrying about trading with a chumper. Not only that, but I've frequently been finding that I have 5 mana on turn three or four anyway, so the downside is nominal, especially since it can fix for any color. Thoughts?
www.commandercast.com
Commandercast on Tumblr!
My EDH/Commander List:
Wedges:
Numot, the Devastator RWU
Damia, Sage of Stone GUB
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
Olivia Voldaren
Gift of Immortality - It feels kinda like Angelic Renewal, but AR has the ability to bring any creature that hits the graveyard back, not just the enchanted one. It'd probably be better if I wasn't running a pair of pro-white swords in Kaalia's equipment package.
Erebos, God of the Dead - Let me make this clear: If I run this guy, I'm NEVER planning on his devotion being active. I'd be running him purely because it's an indestructible greed and Kaalia loves card draw. The downside being that it's another way to cannibalize our life, but if Baneslayer, War and Peace, or Vault of the Archangel are online, that can be mitigated. The potential to shut down life gain that just fights our aggro is a nice bonus.
Whip of Erebos - I like being able to give all of our huge guys lifelink and just make the crackback from other players that much easier to endure. It's a great way to re-use some of our ETB creatures, and cloudshift makes sure that the guy gets to stick around (though Angel of Serenity also works here).
What do you guys think? Anything worth cutting for one of these?
www.commandercast.com
Commandercast on Tumblr!
My EDH/Commander List:
Wedges:
Numot, the Devastator RWU
Damia, Sage of Stone GUB
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
Olivia Voldaren