Baseline is commons & uncommons only, yes. This is a good competitive level for her, my Alesha & Traxos trounced all over the dinos so I'm glad I could hit a sweet spot here. We actually have a few that play, one is on "imperial animar" so there I would go all in, gloves come off.
Yes. Fire Covenant is the best! A bit painful against large creatures but so so good!
That looks like a really fun budget deck for newer players to play against. I'll have to include something similar to my own Kaalia Primer.
While the art on the new Rakdos is hella cool, it's a shame that he flips coins and possibly destroys Kaalia. It would be much cooler if the effect worked ONLY on opponents.
That looks like a really fun budget deck for newer players to play against. I'll have to include something similar to my own Kaalia Primer.
While the art on the new Rakdos is hella cool, it's a shame that he flips coins and possibly destroys Kaalia. It would be much cooler if the effect worked ONLY on opponents.
Thanks, I'm glad my "baseline" list can make an appearance in your thread!
To new Rakdos, you know what I'd have rather seen? If it was an etb Last One Standing. That'd be cool and on topic with it.
It occurs to me that it's feasibly possible to do an all white border Kaalia. Obv the power level of your threats will be lacking, and your removal is limited. But you've got 90% of your tutours, and most of the CA.
Hmmm. That could be an interesting concept to theorycraft. Just for fun, really. Oh, and English only - no cheating with those foreign "Savat" duel deck series, no Spanish WB Mana Crypt...you know. Keep yourself honest. 😎
So, I finally finished the "Kaalia White Border Challenge", and as such have added it to the Primer. I've also got it posted over @ tappedout.net, in case you wanted to source check my card selections.
Haha, nice challenge! It actually looks surprisingly decent as a casual/entry-level deck. Props.
I was surprised it came together as it did. I do wish I didn't need to lean so hard on reanimation, but it can't be helped. Threat density just isn't high enough without that.
Shame there's no WB print of Reya Dawnbringer. I thought there was. That would have really tied this all in together nicely.
Since I'm not on mobile, here's a sneak peak before the rest of the cards arrive. No, the prison cards aren't going in yet (she's not ready for that experience). But it is nice to have a bit of a "sideboard" or overrage allowance if I wanted to change this lineup a little bit.
VERY unique decision to build a full white border Kaalia.
Is it running well? You lose a lot of more recent and the better ADDs. But running cards like Serra Angel and [card}Shivan Dragon[/card] must feel nostalgic.
VERY unique decision to build a full white border Kaalia.
Is it running well? You lose a lot of more recent and the better ADDs. But running cards like Serra Angel and Shivan Dragon must feel nostalgic.
It's true, losing MoC, Lord of the Void, Rakdos, Iona, these things are all irreplaceable. And that makes the deck function more in a straightforward manner, although straightforward doesn't have to mean bad. Ultimately we're still playing to our strengths - circumventing CMCs or getting a discount (reanimation costs) on large evasive creatures. I find what helps out the most is that you keep most of your tutour suite, and you get to keep a hefty prison suite as it balances with your under powered (by today's standards) threat selection. I'd estimate it's power level to be higher than the "baseline" deck but [obv] less than the Fellowship or Dragonstorm lists. It's major benefit I wager is being easier for new players to pick up due to the nature of corre set cards being a more introductory level as far as their explanatory nature goes. And honestly, after going over what I have for it, plus the "overage pool" of other possibilities, I think it's a better suggestion to players unsure if Kaalia is the right deck for them. In fact if you crunch the numbers, baseline comes in at ~$480 - $530 while this list including the duals, grim tutor and the other big ticket cards hit just around ~$1300. I know an $800 difference is a helluva lot, but I don't consider it much when you consider what exactly that's getting you (the tutours, for instance, becoming a part of every deck that you build). Plus, with white border only, there's not any other new purchases you make since white border is discontinued - so that price cap is fixed. And yes it IS nostalgic to see all these iconic cards from Magic's history.
Another benefit you get is you won't get people auto-targeting Kaalia once they realize what your deck is due to the perceived nature of "white border = bad lolz". So, yeah, I think there's a lot of upside in persuing something like this. And hey, if you like what you bought into here, you don't even need to buy the blackborder versions...you can buy a pack of blackborder perfect fit sleeves from Star City Games for $10.
Makes sense, this give people more options and variants to build towards.
Though in my personal playgroup, Kaalia is not the threat it used to be; finally they have learned to target the flash hulk player instead of me.
Do you run any other commanders besides Kaalia and Alesha?
That's great news, I've harped for years that Kaalia isn't the threat, but the enabler that forces people to react rather than durdle around. To no avail, but your story gives me hope!
Yes, actually. In Duel-Commander i have a full pimp Kari Zev, and in traditional I also have Edgar Markov. For a modern FNM, I sleeved up Zurgo Helmsmasher, modern legal, 100 card singleton with a 15 card singleton sideboard and rocked that for the event. Put a Fish player on tilt after ripping a Wildfire off the top to seal g3. He was so salty he snatched up his cards and stormed out, muttering something about no one brings a commander deck to a modern event. That's how i became a sort of celebrity at my LGS, haha.
And may your games be decisive. Hope my meme format inspires you!
EDIT: Adding on here, I must have missed Angel of Deliverance. Have we talked about her? I feel like we can attain delirium pretty reliably which makes this a swords on deployment. How often in your games would this a sadface eight drop 6/6?
For those interested, I detailed a solid winning combination with Liliana's Contract and added it to the primer. Finally, my ideas of the demon deck have come to life! Mua ha ha.
3drinks, have you got a multiplayer list you like yet?
Since you're trying to beat multiple people at once, I recommend going with a combo finish. Both Dragonstorm and Liliana's Contract should fit your needs.
For the first time ever, Rakdos, Lord of Riots makes an appearance in this primer - in the contract combo list. I made a few tweaks to the list I posted a couple days ago. Like the Dragonstorm combo deck, I adopted a lighter answer ratio strategy with the goal being assembling (and protecting), the combo. To this end I added Cursed Totem to slow down many decks while we work, which is fine because the only threat this cuts off on our side is Doom Whisperer - totally reasonable.
Lastly I've given it some thought over the past few days, and I'm retiring the "SilverBlack" Kaalia in favour of the white border version. Both decks do a similar thing (present an entry level deck to get a feel for the archetype) while the WB actually behaves in a more conventional way, and is more powerful than the other. It's also less overhead for a player to buy since the cards are much more likely to be used in other decks while the SilverBlack list is going to end up a dead end investment after you upgrade. It's also an easier to maintain list for me since WB cards have been discontinued - once you have the cards, that's it.
I'll be leaving the SilverBlack list appended at the bottom of the primer for reference sake, but it'll no longer be getting any semblance of regular updates from me.
That's great news, I've harped for years that Kaalia isn't the threat, but the enabler that forces people to react rather than durdle around. To no avail, but your story gives me hope!
Yes, actually. In Duel-Commander i have a full pimp Kari Zev, and in traditional I also have Edgar Markov. For a modern FNM, I sleeved up Zurgo Helmsmasher, modern legal, 100 card singleton with a 15 card singleton sideboard and rocked that for the event. Put a Fish player on tilt after ripping a Wildfire off the top to seal g3. He was so salty he snatched up his cards and stormed out, muttering something about no one brings a commander deck to a modern event. That's how i became a sort of celebrity at my LGS, haha.
Haha, you legit brought a singleton deck to a Modern tournament?! That's ballsy as hell and hilarious. Even if you lost EVERY game, I would still give you mad props and respect. This might have made my day already, and it's not even 9am EST.
That's great news, I've harped for years that Kaalia isn't the threat, but the enabler that forces people to react rather than durdle around. To no avail, but your story gives me hope!
Yes, actually. In Duel-Commander i have a full pimp Kari Zev, and in traditional I also have Edgar Markov. For a modern FNM, I sleeved up Zurgo Helmsmasher, modern legal, 100 card singleton with a 15 card singleton sideboard and rocked that for the event. Put a Fish player on tilt after ripping a Wildfire off the top to seal g3. He was so salty he snatched up his cards and stormed out, muttering something about no one brings a commander deck to a modern event. That's how i became a sort of celebrity at my LGS, haha.
Haha, you legit brought a singleton deck to a Modern tournament?! That's ballsy as hell and hilarious. Even if you lost EVERY game, I would still give you mad props and respect. This might have made my day already, and it's not even 9am EST.
I did! I actually went 2-1 that evening (the other game being some sort of Athreos D&T brew) via a Rakdos Charm after my wrath with big Elspeth up ticking to victory. I lost0-2 in r3 to my introduction to Tron. That was cute...🙄 Afterward I kept the deck around and I changed it up to fit both Sowing Salt and Crumble to Dust in the main as well as an Aven Mindcensor and an Extirpate.
In fact I had another singleton i took, this time just 60 cards. BRed Deck Wins that just played a bunch of bolts and 1 drop 2/x guys, a Bob, Scooter, and Scrapheap Scrounger. That one didn't work so hot, I lost last round to the Finks/Vizier combo.
It's really not so bad tbh. It's all about testing your ability to find functional copies of the card you want to play. As a bonus, you make those Surgical Extraction/Memoricide effects look really silly on their end.
- Resolving Dregs of Sorrow feels fantastic (I did it for 2 which is a net 4 for 1. It scales really well.)
- I got to Fork a Disintegrate for 9. That was a turnaround moment in our game.
- Towards the end I'm sitting on an arrested Archangel, Kaalia, Fervor, and Two-Headed Dragon with lands for days. 7 life and under my own Phyrexian Arena. I think to myself "if I see my enlightened tutour on my upkeep trigger..." sure enough I did, and used it there to find my Lox Hammer (I should buy a Powerball ticket now haha), which as you imagine, fire breathing + trample at end game is enough to do anyone in. She had the win if I didn't rip the tutour or the hammer.
All-in-all this was a fun game, yet I didn't feel hampered. The game rocked back and forth, and yeah it was nice to relive all the historical nostalgia cards. Probably one of the most fun games I've played in years.
NICE, glad to hear you had such a nice game.
Forking any X spell when it was cast for more than 5 feels so good and most people dont see it coming from a non blue deck.
Btw, I'm sure it has been discussed before but what are your thoughts on Rakdos, Lord of Riots?
Is it too hard to cast without Kaalia? which means it mostly a win more card because if you can only cast it via Kaalia, u normally prefer to cast one of your game enders.
I actually just got to use him tonight actually. He's...weird. While I did get l to cast a Razaketh for BBB, you have to sequence your plays to get the most of his pain cast discount. And even then you're still paying some mana because of the colours. The minimum discount you can get however is 8 (Rakdos + Kaalia) which is good but....meh. He's fine where he is since type matters (contract), but I'd argue otherwise there's a long list of cards that should make the cut first.
Yes. Fire Covenant is the best! A bit painful against large creatures but so so good!
I need to update the baseline in this deck to reflect this: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kaalia-of-the-vast-the-baseline-list/?cb=1544933188
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
While the art on the new Rakdos is hella cool, it's a shame that he flips coins and possibly destroys Kaalia. It would be much cooler if the effect worked ONLY on opponents.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Thanks, I'm glad my "baseline" list can make an appearance in your thread!
To new Rakdos, you know what I'd have rather seen? If it was an etb Last One Standing. That'd be cool and on topic with it.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Hmmm. That could be an interesting concept to theorycraft. Just for fun, really. Oh, and English only - no cheating with those foreign "Savat" duel deck series, no Spanish WB Mana Crypt...you know. Keep yourself honest. 😎
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kaalia-of-the-vast-white-border-challenge/
It looks a bit different than how we expect, so any questions about my includes, just ask!
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
I was surprised it came together as it did. I do wish I didn't need to lean so hard on reanimation, but it can't be helped. Threat density just isn't high enough without that.
Shame there's no WB print of Reya Dawnbringer. I thought there was. That would have really tied this all in together nicely.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Is it running well? You lose a lot of more recent and the better ADDs. But running cards like Serra Angel and [card}Shivan Dragon[/card] must feel nostalgic.
It's true, losing MoC, Lord of the Void, Rakdos, Iona, these things are all irreplaceable. And that makes the deck function more in a straightforward manner, although straightforward doesn't have to mean bad. Ultimately we're still playing to our strengths - circumventing CMCs or getting a discount (reanimation costs) on large evasive creatures. I find what helps out the most is that you keep most of your tutour suite, and you get to keep a hefty prison suite as it balances with your under powered (by today's standards) threat selection. I'd estimate it's power level to be higher than the "baseline" deck but [obv] less than the Fellowship or Dragonstorm lists. It's major benefit I wager is being easier for new players to pick up due to the nature of corre set cards being a more introductory level as far as their explanatory nature goes. And honestly, after going over what I have for it, plus the "overage pool" of other possibilities, I think it's a better suggestion to players unsure if Kaalia is the right deck for them. In fact if you crunch the numbers, baseline comes in at ~$480 - $530 while this list including the duals, grim tutor and the other big ticket cards hit just around ~$1300. I know an $800 difference is a helluva lot, but I don't consider it much when you consider what exactly that's getting you (the tutours, for instance, becoming a part of every deck that you build). Plus, with white border only, there's not any other new purchases you make since white border is discontinued - so that price cap is fixed. And yes it IS nostalgic to see all these iconic cards from Magic's history.
Another benefit you get is you won't get people auto-targeting Kaalia once they realize what your deck is due to the perceived nature of "white border = bad lolz". So, yeah, I think there's a lot of upside in persuing something like this. And hey, if you like what you bought into here, you don't even need to buy the blackborder versions...you can buy a pack of blackborder perfect fit sleeves from Star City Games for $10.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Though in my personal playgroup, Kaalia is not the threat it used to be; finally they have learned to target the flash hulk player instead of me.
Do you run any other commanders besides Kaalia and Alesha?
That's great news, I've harped for years that Kaalia isn't the threat, but the enabler that forces people to react rather than durdle around. To no avail, but your story gives me hope!
Yes, actually. In Duel-Commander i have a full pimp Kari Zev, and in traditional I also have Edgar Markov. For a modern FNM, I sleeved up Zurgo Helmsmasher, modern legal, 100 card singleton with a 15 card singleton sideboard and rocked that for the event. Put a Fish player on tilt after ripping a Wildfire off the top to seal g3. He was so salty he snatched up his cards and stormed out, muttering something about no one brings a commander deck to a modern event. That's how i became a sort of celebrity at my LGS, haha.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
EDIT: Adding on here, I must have missed Angel of Deliverance. Have we talked about her? I feel like we can attain delirium pretty reliably which makes this a swords on deployment. How often in your games would this a sadface eight drop 6/6?
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Since you're trying to beat multiple people at once, I recommend going with a combo finish. Both Dragonstorm and Liliana's Contract should fit your needs.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Lastly I've given it some thought over the past few days, and I'm retiring the "SilverBlack" Kaalia in favour of the white border version. Both decks do a similar thing (present an entry level deck to get a feel for the archetype) while the WB actually behaves in a more conventional way, and is more powerful than the other. It's also less overhead for a player to buy since the cards are much more likely to be used in other decks while the SilverBlack list is going to end up a dead end investment after you upgrade. It's also an easier to maintain list for me since WB cards have been discontinued - once you have the cards, that's it.
I'll be leaving the SilverBlack list appended at the bottom of the primer for reference sake, but it'll no longer be getting any semblance of regular updates from me.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Haha, you legit brought a singleton deck to a Modern tournament?! That's ballsy as hell and hilarious. Even if you lost EVERY game, I would still give you mad props and respect. This might have made my day already, and it's not even 9am EST.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
I did! I actually went 2-1 that evening (the other game being some sort of Athreos D&T brew) via a Rakdos Charm after my wrath with big Elspeth up ticking to victory. I lost0-2 in r3 to my introduction to Tron. That was cute...🙄 Afterward I kept the deck around and I changed it up to fit both Sowing Salt and Crumble to Dust in the main as well as an Aven Mindcensor and an Extirpate.
In fact I had another singleton i took, this time just 60 cards. BRed Deck Wins that just played a bunch of bolts and 1 drop 2/x guys, a Bob, Scooter, and Scrapheap Scrounger. That one didn't work so hot, I lost last round to the Finks/Vizier combo.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Maybe one day I'll have the courage to try a singleton deck for a constructed format.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
- Resolving Dregs of Sorrow feels fantastic (I did it for 2 which is a net 4 for 1. It scales really well.)
- I got to Fork a Disintegrate for 9. That was a turnaround moment in our game.
- Towards the end I'm sitting on an arrested Archangel, Kaalia, Fervor, and Two-Headed Dragon with lands for days. 7 life and under my own Phyrexian Arena. I think to myself "if I see my enlightened tutour on my upkeep trigger..." sure enough I did, and used it there to find my Lox Hammer (I should buy a Powerball ticket now haha), which as you imagine, fire breathing + trample at end game is enough to do anyone in. She had the win if I didn't rip the tutour or the hammer.
All-in-all this was a fun game, yet I didn't feel hampered. The game rocked back and forth, and yeah it was nice to relive all the historical nostalgia cards. Probably one of the most fun games I've played in years.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Forking any X spell when it was cast for more than 5 feels so good and most people dont see it coming from a non blue deck.
Btw, I'm sure it has been discussed before but what are your thoughts on Rakdos, Lord of Riots?
Is it too hard to cast without Kaalia? which means it mostly a win more card because if you can only cast it via Kaalia, u normally prefer to cast one of your game enders.
I'd like him better as a commander really.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.