I have a deck put together that I was pretty happy with. I haven't made it in paper yet but I plan to soon so I was hoping to get some suggestions on cards to add/remove. Here is what I put together https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kaalia-of-the-flyers/
pretty straightforward deck, just use Kaalia to cheat stuff out dealing damage to opponents
You have 24 basics in a 3 colour dec.
You do not have Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot boots, easily the two most important cards.
Why do you have Noxious Gearhuk in the deck?
Mardu Banner? What about Commander's Sphere?
Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact don't do anything. Or Butcher of Malakir. You have 3 sac outlets in the entire deck, and no creatures you actually want to sacrifice.
Akroma's Memorial seems bad when your creatures are already huge and intimidating. I would definitely play something like Kolaghan's command in your deck.
You have 24 basics in a 3 colour dec.
You do not have Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot boots, easily the two most important cards.
Why do you have Noxious Gearhuk in the deck?
Mardu Banner? What about Commander's Sphere?
Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact don't do anything. Or Butcher of Malakir. You have 3 sac outlets in the entire deck, and no creatures you actually want to sacrifice.
Akroma's Memorial seems bad when your creatures are already huge and intimidating. I would definitely play something like Kolaghan's command in your deck.
Thanks, this is actually super helpful. I'm just getting back into magic so I'm likely throwing in cards that I think are cool or sound good.
I took out Dictate grave pack and butcher. Added Commander's Sphere and Kolaghan's Command
as for the land its mostly a cost issue for me right now, I'll look into some of duals but they just run more expensive than I can put in right now
Perhaps more importantly than the (spot-on) criticism above, I have noted a much larger, more fundamental flaw: there is exactly 1 (ONE) creature in this entire deck whose cmc is lower than your commander's. Considering that, due to your lack of cheap Haste givers (like the aforementioned Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves), your commander is going to come out on turn 4 and attack for the first time (thus giving you your first chance to put something from your hand onto the battlefield) on turn 5, what are you planning to do until then? It seems to me that, in its current form, this deck would essentially sit there for 5 turn doing nothing, and even then it wouldn't be particularly explosive or rewarding anyway, as a result of the cards you do put onto the field with Kaalia not having that much synergy with one another. I understand that there' nothing worse than posting a deck list that you feel good about on a forum, only to have it bashed and criticized mercilessly, is the worst feeling in the world, I've been there before and I absolutely sympathize with you... But yeah, this list is a mess. If you're serious on liking Kaalia and wanting to play her effectively, there's a lot of work to do.
Yeah it sucks but its the reason I came here. I'm still really new to deckbuilding so this criticism is needed and it shows me stuff that after putting it together I completely overlooked. I'll look more into costs and see what I can do about changing the curve.
Ok so, as a (somewhat) more seasoned EDH player, allow me to teach you the most fundamental rules of building a deck for this format (for most formats really, but particularly for this one):
1) Don't worry about costs in terms of money. This is a more casual format, and realistically you're more likely to play it with your friends at home, rather than in an official tournament: as such, nothing forbids that you start with a deck that includes proxies of the more expensive cards, which you will then slowly acquire over time. Of course, subscribing to this mentality would still mean using proxies of card you think you can realistically acquire sooner or later, so yeah, nobody is expecting you to include the original dual lands... But as things are you're exaggerating in the opposite direction. There is such a thing as being TOO budget. Don't assume that every good or even decent card in the format is going to be horribly expensive: I mean yeah, most are, but some might positively surprise you.
2) Decide how you want to win, and how your commander will contribute to your winning strategy. In Kaalia's case, the answer to this is pretty straightforward: you want to win by bashing face, and Kaalia will help you do so by putting on the field the cards that will bash face. Thus, it must be your absolute priority to enable her to do that: she must enter the field as soon as possible, attack as soon as possible, and get her trigger as soon as possible, preferably while not getting killed in the process. What this means is that you must include all and only the cards that help with this: as yourself, "does this card help Kaalia come on the field sooner and/or attack faster and/or not die?", and if the answer is yes, the card must be in your deck. And if the answer is no, the card must be cut. For example, the previous poster noted a slight tribute sub-theme in your deck: what does that accomplish? Do cards related to tribute help Kaalia enter sooner, attack faster, or avoid removal? Obviously the answer is no, so those cards don't belong in your deck.
3) Think about synergies: once the big beaters are put onto the field by Kaalia, what do they do outside of beating face? How do they support one another? Kaalia is related to 3 different tribes, but it might be ineffective to just lump together representatives of all tribes at random. It is much more efficient to focus mainly on one tribe, with cards that actively support each other and benefit from each other's presence, with minor contributions from other tribes to cover the weaknesses of the main one. As a general rule of thumb, Angels have synergies (in that their effects support one another and/or all work towards the same goal, accomplishing similar things), Demons have utility (with many of them having effects that draw you cards or let you search key combo pieces), and Dragons have raw power: choose which of these three aspects you want to be your primary focus, which one you want to be the secondary, and which one you want to be the tertiary.
4) Do NOT prioritize "when this card attacks" kind of effects. It might seem counter-intuitive, but think of it this way: Kaalia puts your creatures on the field "tapped and attacking", meaning that when they enter they are already attacking, meaning that, for all intents and purposes, there never was a moment when you DECLARED them as attackers and turned them sideways. As such, they will NOT get "when this card attacks" triggers, hence why I said you should not focus on those. On the other hand, "when this card enters the battlefield" kind of effects are immensely helpful to you given how Kaalia works, so yeah, you should mainly focus on those.
These are the main things to keep in mind: if you want, I can give you detailed pointers as to how to craft a deck that follows the above rules, I.E. which card would be best for you and why
I really appreciate the advice and especially you taking the time to help me out. I would love to get some help putting the deck together. Do you happen to be on discord so I could run stuff by you if I had questions?
Kaalia can't cheat Withengar into play. Just saving you that.
You want more than one way to grant hexproof (or for that matter indestructible).
Finally, if you're going to be convictedofacrime, I say at least be guilty of it. Kaalia paints a huge target on your head, so you'll need a lot of control cards.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
My friend helped me put together my first deck since coming back to magic which was a mono white angels and he suggested putting Iona in and I had to take her out because I just felt like it was too mean against my friends but its something I may put on the sideboard
As someone above mentioned, you have very little early game plays. This doesn't mean you should be playing a lot of cheap creatures. One way around this is to play more ramp spells and more removal. Wrath of God, Day of Judgment, Damnation, Toxic Deluge are all great cards when you don't do much early in the game. I know you have a few boardwipes already, so adding a few more will help you be a control deck in the early game and then dominate the late game. I would play at least 3 more board wipes, so if some of these are out of your budget you can include things like Rout and Crux of Fate.
I personally advice against using Iona. I mean sure, she IS the strongest card this kind of deck can run... But it is also one that will make you lose all of your friends. Play Iona once, be the sole target of everyone at the table for the rest of your life.
I actually just played a game against Kaalia deck with Iona. He decided to drop her and name Black (I was playing mono black) but I have Scour from existence in my hand..lol
I think Iona reputation is slightly over-rated ( I never play Iona) imo. As long you bring colorless removals in your mono-color deck it should be fine. However I agree to not include her in your deck yet since you just make the deck, maybe wait till the power level of your play-group start to creeping up then slot her in.
I actually agree about Iona being somewhat overrated. I mean, yeah, she's good, but as you said, Scour from Existence and Spine of Ish Sah both exist. Plus, multiplayer; I doubt every opponent is playing a monocolor deck with the same color.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I personally advice against using Iona. I mean sure, she IS the strongest card this kind of deck can run... But it is also one that will make you lose all of your friends. Play Iona once, be the sole target of everyone at the table for the rest of your life.
I actually just played a game against Kaalia deck with Iona. He decided to drop her and name Black (I was playing mono black) but I have Scour from existence in my hand..lol
I think Iona reputation is slightly over-rated ( I never play Iona) imo. As long you bring colorless removals in your mono-color deck it should be fine. However I agree to not include her in your deck yet since you just make the deck, maybe wait till the power level of your play-group start to creeping up then slot her in.
do you happen to have a list of your Bruna Fading light deck? My first deck is/was Bruna and i'm interested to see what other people include in decks with her
I have a deck put together that I was pretty happy with. I haven't made it in paper yet but I plan to soon so I was hoping to get some suggestions on cards to add/remove. Here is what I put together https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kaalia-of-the-flyers/
pretty straightforward deck, just use Kaalia to cheat stuff out dealing damage to opponents
Hi, allow me to chime in here, as I consider myself somewhat (to be modest) of an expert here as the primer in my sig has been cited by many of Sally here and beyond (Reddit, and even the occasional pilot in the twittersphere), as the "Kaalia Bible" so to speak. We also have a lot of players there who would enjoy helping you, as well as a thread boasting of thousands of replies and general strategy discussion to consume, a must for any aspiring Kaalia pilot as she is not such the straight forward deck she would appear to be. So drop by, take a look.
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kaalia-of-the-flyers/
pretty straightforward deck, just use Kaalia to cheat stuff out dealing damage to opponents
You have 24 basics in a 3 colour dec.
You do not have Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot boots, easily the two most important cards.
Why do you have Noxious Gearhuk in the deck?
Mardu Banner? What about Commander's Sphere?
Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact don't do anything. Or Butcher of Malakir. You have 3 sac outlets in the entire deck, and no creatures you actually want to sacrifice.
Akroma's Memorial seems bad when your creatures are already huge and intimidating. I would definitely play something like Kolaghan's command in your deck.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
Thanks, this is actually super helpful. I'm just getting back into magic so I'm likely throwing in cards that I think are cool or sound good.
I took out Dictate grave pack and butcher. Added Commander's Sphere and Kolaghan's Command
as for the land its mostly a cost issue for me right now, I'll look into some of duals but they just run more expensive than I can put in right now
Yeah it sucks but its the reason I came here. I'm still really new to deckbuilding so this criticism is needed and it shows me stuff that after putting it together I completely overlooked. I'll look more into costs and see what I can do about changing the curve.
I really appreciate the advice and especially you taking the time to help me out. I would love to get some help putting the deck together. Do you happen to be on discord so I could run stuff by you if I had questions?
You want more than one way to grant hexproof (or for that matter indestructible).
Finally, if you're going to be convicted of a crime, I say at least be guilty of it. Kaalia paints a huge target on your head, so you'll need a lot of control cards.
On phasing:
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
I actually just played a game against Kaalia deck with Iona. He decided to drop her and name Black (I was playing mono black) but I have Scour from existence in my hand..lol
I think Iona reputation is slightly over-rated ( I never play Iona) imo. As long you bring colorless removals in your mono-color deck it should be fine. However I agree to not include her in your deck yet since you just make the deck, maybe wait till the power level of your play-group start to creeping up then slot her in.
Gaddock Teeg Hatebears
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic Control
Zacama, Primal Calamity Naya Control
Erebos, God of the dead Mono-Black Superfriends
On phasing:
do you happen to have a list of your Bruna Fading light deck? My first deck is/was Bruna and i'm interested to see what other people include in decks with her
This is My Bruna the Fading Light deck. I am in the process on breaking it a part for now, to make Akroma, angel of Wrath deck.
Gaddock Teeg Hatebears
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic Control
Zacama, Primal Calamity Naya Control
Erebos, God of the dead Mono-Black Superfriends
Hi, allow me to chime in here, as I consider myself somewhat (to be modest) of an expert here as the primer in my sig has been cited by many of Sally here and beyond (Reddit, and even the occasional pilot in the twittersphere), as the "Kaalia Bible" so to speak. We also have a lot of players there who would enjoy helping you, as well as a thread boasting of thousands of replies and general strategy discussion to consume, a must for any aspiring Kaalia pilot as she is not such the straight forward deck she would appear to be. So drop by, take a look.
Hope to see you around.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.