Welcome to the most definitive Kaalia of the Vast Primer ever written for one-on-one Commander games.
Table of Contents
~~Analysis of the Commander~~
Kaalia of the Vast has three immediate points to note which defines how I built the deck:
Her Converted Mana Cost: At a cost of that put's her at a medium level cost. This means she can be aggressive, but will play out better in a midrange shell with some pinpoint hand disruption to “go off” first and keep her protected.
Her Ability: This is the “meat and potatoes” of our deck, and the primary reason for choosing her. She allows us to function like an Elvish Piper, but only for Angels, Demons, and Dragons – so keep those Praetors, Titans, and Primordials at home.
Mardu “Dega” Wedge: We’re in White, Black, and Red, otherwise known as the “Dega” or Mardu Wedge. This means we have access to the best tutours, respectable draw, and some of the most premiere removal available, able to answer any and every type of permanent. However, we can't interact much with spells that are on the stack trying to resolve, and we don't get to play ramp spells. Artifact mana will be our "bread and butter" acceleration, and will be important for our other tactics (i.e. Armageddon effects), although there's some contention about the use of artifact mana competing with hand disruption at the same slot. Most would say the hand disruption is far more important than the acceleration, although this is not scientifically proven to be statistically superior. YMMV. However, as this primer is suited to 1v1 games, I will be speaking from the viewpoint of hand disruption > artifact mana.
Other Commanders: I remember a time when your only choices to play Mardu was Kaalia, a 7 drop, and a Dragon. I remember playing that Dragon in a rather confused identity crisis about what it actually wanted to do. Nowadays there are a lot more options so let's address some of these choices!
Zurgo Helmsmasher - he's big, he's fast, and he loves to...obliterate you. He's oftentimes a 1 card engine but...what does he really do? Zurgo is typically the poster child for good stuff decks that eschew central themes and instead string together strong card after strong card to overwhelm an opponent. There's nothing wrong with that...but it's not as "interesting" to play. Often you can fit the "partner" commanders (usually Vial Smasher the Fierce/Tymna the Weaver) into this category as well.
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death - My second queen, indeed another deck I have thoroughly explored. Even similar to Kaalia as it can a also make use of Master of Cruelties. But that's where the similarities end. While Alesha uses the graveyard to dig up value creatures for value-over-time, like Imperial Recruiter or Stoneforge Mystic. Alesha is like the poster girl for Reveillark decks. I love both her, and Kaalia, so while I can't really advise you to choose one over the other, your choice depends on if you want a grave deck with small dudes, or a combo deck with all the fiery dragons, angelic guardians, and demonic gatekeepers of Magic history. Alesha typically, while capable of powerful plays that can swing the tempo of a game back in your favor, isn't really known for the crazy big flashy plays the commander format as a whole is known for. Thus, you won't find a lot of interest in her on the internet, it seems. Speaking from experience again, she is powerful of course, just to the average player not conducive to the commander experience they are looking for.
Edgar Markov - One of the newest inclusions to our wedge, and far, far different from what we're doing here. (Source: I built this deck too). Edgar's game plan is to gum up the board as much as possible with every cheap vampire you can find because, well, spending 1 mana for two bodies is pretty good. And he doesn't even need to be cast to do this (but when he enters the board, things just got deep)! He's not really related to what we're doing here though, (please, no e-mails or replies about how Vampiric Dragon could just as easily fit either deck based on typeline) and as such, you need to decide if you want to swarm with this, or want to smash with a draconic roar, angelic fury, and demonic scream in the deck building process.
Other commanders - Licia, Sanguine Tribune, Mathas, Fiend Seeker; Oros, the Avenger; Tariel, Reckoner of Souls; these also exist but don't really have an easily identified niche to fall into. But in the interest of inclusion, I felt it worth at least mentioning.
Reasons you would enjoy piloting this deck:
- You want to use a plethora of the most Angelic, Draconic, and Demonic creatures in the history of this game.
- You like the idea of playing a combo deck that doesn't utilize a traditional combo finish.
- You like using a lot of tutours to find the perfect tool for the job.
- You don't want an "S-Tier" commander deck like Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, Edric, Spymaster of Trest, and Zur the Enchanter because you still want to have friends. The irony here is that many players are afraid of what Kaalia might do and will hold your choice of deck against you from game-to-game. But hey, at least we're not touching those filthy islands, right?
Reasons you might not enjoy piloting this deck:
- You prefer the safety net of superior control of the stack that a deck would provide.
- You're one of the people who still believes is the worst colour in the format.
- You're done having friends and just want to lock down entire tables with Derevi Stax.
- You believe the only way to play this format is at the "cEDH" level.
~~Personal Bio~~
Who am I? I am 3drinks, THEmtg3drinks, that Mardu Guy, lover of all things draconic, and mana denial-y. "Answer me or lose" is my motto and my decks being smash-mouth and in-your-face is testament to that. Some of my favourite decks are , and I pioneered [s]Zurgo Bellstriker[/s] Kari Zev, Skyship Raider AiR and Drana, Liberator of Malakir Sui Black decks to the Duel-Commander metagame. I wrote this original Primer [s]seven[/s] about nine years ago, and in that time, this has become one of my greater joys, I've even heard this Primer referred to as "the bible of Kaalia players", which is a distinction I take a great deal of pride in.
But that's me. I'm sure you want to know who is Kaalia anyway, and what exactly gives her this power. As it turns out, she's from Alara (the Bant shard specifically, ironically enough) where she was a powerful cleric. Her birth name was Lia, and her past is one tormented by the scars of devastation.
Born as Lia, she was the crippled daughter of a farmer in Bant after the Conflux. She was born near the ruined castle of Eos. Although bullied by her peers, she hid her emerging magical abilities, which for the time being were limited to the power to destroy pebbles. When the village was destroyed by servants of the Grixis Demon Nefarox (irony here, I once played Nefarox' card in the earlier iterations of this deck. Awkward...), Lia was saved by the Nacatl Nira. Recognizing her magical abilities, Nira needed her to destroy the "keystone" of the dragon skeleton that the servants of Nefarox were reanimating. To rouse her, she named the girl Kaa (Nacatl for "power") Lia.
Although Kaalia was successful in destroying the dragon skeleton, Nefarox rose and killed her family, all the villagers and Nira too. When she awoke, Kaalia felt empty. Like her insides had been ripped out, and there was just shadows left instead. Somehow she had survived, but her soul was fractured, and a growing hatred soon grew in the cracks. Now, driven by a righteous fury and an unholy thirst for revenge, Kaalia broods feverishly, amassing her vast power, waiting to unleash her apocalyptic might upon any who stand in her way. - https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Kaalia#History
I chose Kaalia because I love my demons and dragons, and I wanted something I could tune to be competitive (circumventing mana costs with big, powerful creatures is a pretty competitive strategy) but not something that would make other players feel hopeless because, let's be honest, the average Commander player is not playing an S-Tier "cEDH" deck and pubstomping precon/modified precon level decks with a scumbaggery Zur deck is only fun once (Source: I used to play a Zur deck, it truly is an awful, awful experience for everyone involved). Kaalia allows me to play hard, and be strong but without crushing the average player's spirit with a wall of countermagic and combos that can only be interacted with on the stack. But also, because I have a very large collection of Angels, Demons, and Dragons in my collection (aka my "Shrine to Mardu") and that just-so-happens to be what Kaalia enjoys the most. What a lucky coincidence...
~~The Deck List~~
Deck stats: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kaalia-of-the-vast-2019/
Now, as would normally be expected of a list one has worked on for nine years, I have run a lot of different cards, in and out, always trying new things, and have settled on the current list that I have. I do feel a lot of the cards I am running, like Vindicate or Moat are fairly self-explanatory in their reasoning for inclusion, however, I would like to touch on some cards that I haven’t seen in other Kaalia of the Vast lists, or that other people may not agree upon. So without further ado, some of those cards which I feel may merit more discussion include;
Master of Cruelties- At first glance this looks like he's merely okay-ish, a five mana 1/4 with first strike and deathtouch seems decent. But he doesn't even fly! Oh wait, he can only attack alone! Why 3drinks, just why would you ever consider this guy in an aggressive deck?
Baneslayer Angel/Thundermaw Hellkite/Doom Whisperer- The aforementioned "five drop cycle" (a mythic five drop of each creature type and colour showing what the deck does). The benefits of these are twofold. Their primary purpose is, at five cmc, they are very castable on their own which is useful if, for whatever reason despite our best efforts, Kaalia isn’t able to get going. However that’s not all as they each have secondary uses. Since this deck will eat up a large chunk of its life total, Baneslayer’s lifelink will help to not outright kill us from doing what we need to do. Bloodgift is a Phyrexian Arena with a relevant typeline (and probably one of our best Kaalia target at this CMC range), while Thundermaw’s purpose is to clear the skies to and allow us to alpha strike unopposed. You can make similar arguments for the other 4-5 drop range of creatures a la; Stormbreath Dragon, Lyra Dawnbringer, Doom Whisperer, Butcher of the Horde and etc. These are important because if you play a deck where your curve starts at seven, you're overly reliant on Kaalia which breeds inefficiency and bad times when people do answer your commander.
Steel Hellkite- What’s not to love about this guy? He doesn’t need a specific colour of mana to play, nor does his Firebreathing care what colour is pumped into it. But his real strength is being a one-sided Engineered Explosives on damage dealt. Yes, you read that right. That’s strong – very strong. This is one of the guys I would consider a “Core” piece, right next to Rakdos the Defiler and Master of Cruelties. As a bonus, he’s even searchable via Enlightened Tutor.
Lord of the Void- Like to steal other's threats? Want to eat into someone's deck? Exile certain key cards maybe sometimes? This guy has literally no downside, and all upside, I can't believe he's a demon tbh. But he is. And Kaalia hasn't ever been happier. This is like the gold standard "good stuff" creature for us.
Thunder Dragon- I have a sweet, sweet Starter 99 copy of this guy with BB perfect fit sleeves to hide the one eye sore to an otherwise great art, but his effect is also pretty good anyway. Fry some tree hugging elves, get some face damage in the skies. You could run Hellkite Tyrant instead, either or would be a meta choice. I find where Hellkite Tyrant would be good, typically those artifact decks have ways to make sure he doesn't connect.
67% of our sweepers get underneath Gaddock Teeg. I don't get what the big deal is about Teeg, he never seems to inhibit my own deck...
Rune-Scarred Demon- It’s a body that gives us an extra Demonic Tutor. While I wouldn’t quite classify him as a “Core” piece, he’s still really, really good, and the closest single card to “Core” without actually being “Core”. And I don’t know about you, but I love to have an extra universal tutor that puts the card directly into my hand, while also not revealing the card.
Dark Confidant- YOU’RE PLAYING WHAT?! Why would anyone play this card in a Kaalia deck?! While on the surface Confidant looks rather painful, in actuality it’s as the old saying goes; The better your deck, the better Confidant becomes.” Indeed this is why we don’t play thirty some-odd Angels, Demons, & Dragons. Because of the speed at which he comes down, we are drawing an extra card as early as turn three.
Sire of Insanity- This guy is like a Mind Twist who bashes for six on his own; and also a respectable early-game Kaalia target. While it looks very symmetrical, take a look at his rules text again "At the beginning of each end step, each player discards his or her hand.". This actually works exceedingly well in our favour. Who cares if we don't have a hand when no one else does and we have eight plus power on the board (and a commander who is quite capable of applying more power quickly and easily). Additionally, cheat this out on t3 on the play, for example. Now, your opponent needs to top deck each removal spell, land drop, threat, and ramp spell, each turn. But they only draw one card a turn at this point. the other important bit about this guy, and this is my personal favourite reason; nobody can sandbag answers anymore. Everyone draws, plays everything they can, and then discards the rest. Pretty sweet, if you ask me. Yes, he's that good, and you can't justify any reason why you shouldn't be playing him. Nope.
Teferi's Protection- It's the ultimate in protection, covering you, your board, uhh...everything, really. Can combo with Ravages of War for the low, low cost of . I mean, okay, I wouldn't play it just to phase out my lands in response to a 'Geddon. But like...it could happen. And it's a good protective spell in and of itself.
Earnest Fellowship- The key Enchantment. It’s like, a Mother of Runes that doesn’t need to target and is protecting multiple creatures at the same time. Indeed having a Kaalia with protection from 60% of the color pie is scary. But it’s not without its own quirks. In order to minimize the symmetrical nature of this card, you need to switch out all of your multicolored removal because such spells have twice as much of a chance to get blocked by this Enchantment. For this list, the only multicolored creature removal is the sorcery-speed Vindicate, because hitting any kind of card is pretty good. Note that I removed Mother of Runes from this deck for Fellowship as one blocks the other, and typically Fellowship is more survivable. In my experiences, of course.
Necropotence- Ah. The iconic bread-and-butter card. I don’t feel this needs justification, but I will add a disclaimer. If you don’t have the best of the best mana, then do yourself a favor and don’t stress your manabase for this; Stick with Phyrexian Arena instead. Additionally, if you prefer to move through your deck with loot effects, then I really don't think you want Necro - honestly, a Jalum Tome would serve you just as well (as I discovered in the white border version).
Moat- A very, very pricey card that is very, very hard to acquire. But if you can, you will see how this absolutely shuts down a myriad of decks. If you don’t have one of these and/or can’t afford to spring for this, then consider Sneak Attack in its place (I have a love-hate relationship with it here because I find my threat density is a bit low [~13%] for SA to be at peak efficiency). Stranglehold is another reasonable option that I feel is criminally underplayed, even by myself.
Balefire Dragon- Wraths are good. Dragons are good. Wraths on Dragon bodies are even better, right? Right. You're playing this. No, no arguments. It's here.
Cavern of Souls- Since we want to make sure our Kaalia resolves, every game, this Land is of the utmost importance. In 98% of games, you will name Human (which also helps to make our Confidant and Abolisher uncounterable too), but occasionally you might have the game where you draw this late and you use it to force through some big scary Dragon. This Land is absolutely what I would consider a “Core” piece.
Hall of the Bandit Lord- This our second most-important Land, right behind Cavern of Souls. This makes sure, when we play Kaalia (or any other threat), that threat will get to attack. Summoning Sickness is Kaalia’s second Achilles Heel (the first being ), so having access to Haste, on a Land, is well worth the three life it costs us to use. Just like Cavern, this Land is also what I would consider a “Core” piece.
I’m not going to touch on every piece of removal, as I feel they are self-explanatory. But I will touch on some whose value is not immediately visible.
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale- Turns out when you have a commander that puts large creatures on the board, you don't need a large board presence to be a threat. This means we can use Tabernacle to keep pesky heavy creature decks moving at the speed of slow while we're barely inhibited by an upkeep of - . This card does require a mild degree of deckbuilding alteration though, such as fewer dorks on board such as Grand Abolisher or Mother of Runes, you can replace them with say...Glory or Defense Grid. See how that works? Or, assuming you're like most [sane] players that can't/refuse to afford the $1.6k Tabernacle, you can just as easily invert these changes to the pre-Tabernacle state.
[s]Council’s Judgment- This card. Like holy crap, what was R&D smoking to print this?! You pay three mana and get to exile something an opponent controls, and it bypasses Shroud and Hexproof because it doesn’t target. You will either name one thing, and your opponent will name the same thing, or your opponent will name something else and thus loose two cards. Is worth “Exile target nonland permanent.” Or “Exile two target nonland permanents.”? I'd only play this in single player though as you can't fully control will of the council in multiplayer.[/s]
Red Elemental Blast/Pyroblast - Gone is the long-standing Council's Judgment as I make the deck more adaptable. Rather than spend three on my turn, I've moved to these two Blasts to protect my board rather than remove one card on board. There's nothing wrong with council's, and it could be more correct over vindicate (though giving up the ability to hit lands is a tough sell, for me anyway). Anyway, times change, deck's change, but our ideals never change. And that ideal, like any other Kaalia deck ever, is "ruin the player's day before the player ruins yours." Have you ever tried these two in games? You'd be shocked at how often they're live and just how many "oops" moments you can stop with these cards. And the stories they create, the table will have quite the shock when the counterspell comes from the Kaalia deck.
Unexpectedly Absent- It’s like, someone made an Oblation that doesn’t give the recipient of it a Divination. You can spend in response to a fetchland or any sort of shuffle effect to get rid of any nonland permanent. Or you can just buy time by shipping a problematic nonland permanent some number of cards from the top. Alternatively, you can even use it defensively by returning a card of yours you want to keep (such as protecting Kaalia herself from impending doom) to the top of your library, ready to draw again next turn.
Liliana of the Veil- This performs a number of roles for me here. The first, is it allows me to grind out your hand, and the second is an edict effect every other turn. All in the package of a three mana planeswalker. Sometimes, she just goes on to win the game on her own. Her best friend is Ajani Vengeant, and together, they like to take over a game. I only play planeswalkers in single player as they need to be protected, that's hard to do in multiplayer, and even harder to do in a deck like Kaalia that doesn't protect herself well anyway. Admittedly, I'd like to add a third planeswalker to the deck; Nahiri, the Harbinger (even if she doesn't play so nicely with my Earnest Fellowship).
Wildfire- So we get to sweep mana sources and creatures smaller than Kaalia's threats? Because that's fair...and oh, hey, Kaalia is even protected from it by our own Earnest Fellowship. Low-key this is my favorite sweeper ever and I'll always try to find some justification to play it anyway but...it's just extra good here.
Rakdos Charm- The ultimate in silver bullet cards. It’s common use is as a Shatter, however I picked it up as I felt I wanted another piece of graveyard hate. But it even has a third (sometimes relevant) function where it can stop the Kiki-Mite or other similar setups involving the creation of an arbitrarily large number of creatures. But here’s the best part about it, you don’t even need an arbitrarily large number of creatures to make it work either – what if an opponent just resolved an Avenger of Zendikar, or an Ezuri, Renegade Leader just vomited it’s hand on the table? You can even use it as burn for the last few points of life. Rakdos Charm is a true hidden gem in every sense of the word.
Tainted Pact/Demonic Consultation - Yeah, you could exile the named card in the top six and punt the game. That is a legitimate concern. But you know what these really are? Cheap, one and two mana instant speed universal tutours that we can use in response to Kaalia's trigger. With the Pact though you do have to build your deck in a certain way to be able to use it (seven basics max; three basic, three snow basic, one wastes) but doing so enables you to find the exact card you need at the exact time you need it. That's fantastic.
Orim's Chant - I wouldn't have added this on it's own merits, but since I looked at our answer suite I saw our cmc range was quite low. Low enough to include the stick. With "the stick" in place, adding chant was a no-brainer to me.
“Flameblast Syndrome” is a term I coined in the creation of this list after the notable Flameblast Dragon. It refers to creatures that have abilities in the format of “Whenever ~ attacks, do [insert really cool action here]”. These creatures should be relegated to low-level picks if at all for Kaalia decks as their ability won’t trigger when our commander puts them onto the board that turn. So they don’t add anything except their combat damage to our gameplan unless we get to untap with them. However, if their effect is powerful enough, they may be worth considering…but that power level must be extremely high. Currently there is only one creature with such a distinction in this list, and it is the only creature we have that has a beneficial form of “Flameblast Syndrome”. He is Rakdos the Defiler, one of the signature combos of the deck.
For years and years the single biggest request I've received from posters coming into this primer, is a dedicated multiplayer list. And in those years, I never had a true answer. Well, towards the end of 2018, I started experimenting with a few dedicated archetypes - specifically you may remember the brief discussions user Shiroe the Enchanter and I had here about Dragonstorm and it's validity. You might also remember my epiphany I had over Liliana's Contract too. In the months that followed, I learned valuable things.
- Dragonstorm is not viable here. it requires a lot of other slots in order to storm off, and more slots devoted to the dragons I'm fetching and kill conditions to amplify the chain so I could actually make this effort a winning one. This resulted in me playing a deck with very few answers and adopting the mantra "remove players, not threats". I didn't like that, and it wasn't a high enough pay off to compensate the storm not actually going off the way it was intended in most games even though mathematically, it was sound and the numbers were right. I moved away from it.
- Though it's true in 1v1, it's doubly true in multiplayer with more opponents. Commander games are often won by combo because this is the most efficient way to eliminate all opponents at the same time. The simplest way to do this is to resolve some kind of "you win the game" effect. To this end, I was happy to put together Liliana's Contract with a slant towards demons in my creature base and a couple more lands to compensate losing some of my lower cost non-demon base creatures. I still believe in the validity of the alt win here, but in order to not be a one trick pony, I needed something more than Contract + Kaalia beats.
- I realized the last combo route wasn't directly related to Kaalia, but could be incorporated into the deck easily enough and enough of the other parts that make it work, also work with the deck in general. That idea was Worldgorger Dragon combo - which really only needs one other card to "go off" with. I mentioned this combo about a month ago from the date of this edit (5-20-2019), and until now, I hadn't made any real progress. Now, I believe between the Contract and protection of it, WGD and the couple of cards to go off with it, and the straight forward beat you up plan (and let's not forget we still have Master of Cruelties), I believe we have enough win chances here to set this up for multiplayer officially.
So here's what we can do;
- Liliana's Contract is straight forward. You get demons on the board, four of them to be precise, and you keep them there. This is helped by Boros Charm and Teferi's Protection, and - in the event of someone wisely sweeping the board, Patriarch's Bidding (demon, of course) to rebuild effortlessly. There's also Obzedat's Aid to bring back the enchantment should someone try to get smart and take that away from you, and hey you'd even get another draw4 off that.
- Worldgorger Dragon combo is a bit trickier, but this can savagely be done on someone else's end step which is much more rewarding to execute. I won't go into details of how "the loop" works, because if you're reading this far, you're probably familiar with WGD combo anyway (if not, hit me up in this thread and I can elaborate for you). So, once you've established the loop and have an "arbitrarily large amount of mana", I've chosen two options to kill. Either Aurelia's Fury to do it all from the stack and kill everyone else with a single spell, and Shivan Hellkite which makes for both a great end to your WGD chain (and as I recall, was the original combo) but on it's own it's not so bad as it makes for a reaonable mana sink creature that often goes overlooked in the a-typical game of commander. Oh and he's compatible with our commander too. What a delightful coincidence.
Both versions of this combo are three card (dragon, reanimation aura, mana sink effect) I win the game combos and can all go off instant speed (if you used Necromancy in place of Animate Dead on WGD). Deck stats: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/3drinks-approved-multiplayer-option/
Now, WGD isn't for everyone, and the combo certainly has it's risks (you know, the whole blown out of the game by a well timed removal spell...). While I opted for it as a backup "shortest distance between two points is a straight line", or for those looking to a different approach, you should take a read through benjameenbear's Kaalia list. Differences include a more STAXy approach to my own which, differences aside, I'm not fully with that strat as I don't think Kaalia compliments the idea to the best as opposed to, say, Helmsmasher (indestructible, hasty, three turn clock) or Markov (Smokestack fodder for days and days) but nevertheless I don't disregard it as an alternative entry for the commander itself. I leave that opinion to you to decide if it's worth going the stax route as Kaalia, or if it's more beneficial to you to dedicate slots to player elimination instead, or which ever mixture of the two leads you to the most efficient player elimination. You can check out that primer here: https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/779071-kaalia-destroyer-of-hope-stax-reanimator-decklists.
Also to be known as "The Baseline Kaalia", this is a non-changing list of cards for the starter player to begin their journey with and determine if this deck is for them or not (white border are compartively cheaper than their black border cousins) but the main point is that once you have this, you're done. And if you even like the cards, you can buy a pack of black border perfect fits from a retailer like SCGames to hide the atrocious white borders and mix them well with the rest of your collection. This list replaces the former "baseline" deck that was just commons and uncommons as it 1) could still be edited even today, and was ~$460 for a visibly lower power level deck. The white border deck, sans grim tutor, could be had for just over $200, but most of that is in your "evergreen" cards - the tutours and basic essentials you would play in other decks even if you decided Kaalia wasn't for you.
FWIW, this is not the first white border challenge I've completed, so full disclaimer, I have some experience with what I'm looking for. See here: (3drinks co-builds White Border Chromium!). Now, of course Kaalia herself isn't white border. So we're either making an exception since she isn't in the 99 card stack anyway, or commissioning an alter. Take your pick.
So, if you know me, you know white border cards trigger me to no end. So WHY would I ever subject myself to this? The answer, is challenge. Back in the day when corre sets had white borders, creatures sucked and instants ruled the world. We're not really reinventing the wheel here, but this is a different style of Kaalia with the basic threats from 3ED - 9ED and a stronger noncreature mix. Note when I say "basic" in regards to our creature suite, that doesn't mean "bad" (although, yes, some of these cards are far below par especially by today's standards) but rather it means they are more straight forward in their application. There is less reliance on etb effects (lawd, if only Torpor Orb was a WB print...but I digress) and more emphasis on the punch and the ability to maintain your CA while your mediocre beatsticks do their job. Plus, you can put people on tilt as they watch themselves get their butts kicked by a stack of what they believe to be "white border trash". You'll smile as they remark "whoa, that was printed in corre?!" and they'll look on in fear as they realize the consistency you have since all your tutours are still available (less tainted pact/consultation and gamble, which is perfectly serviceable). People got a faster start than you? Never fear, you still have six sweepers main deck including three ways to wipe lands (with mana rock support, of course).
In the end, this challenging project has taught me that this could serve as a stronger "baseline" deck as it will never change (white border production has been discontinued) while offering a showcase of the general effects you want in the deck should you want to improve it. Or, at the very least, this stands as the go to list should you just want to "troll" your opponents with a white border stack.
One last note; this deck features only English printed cards (no Spanish Mana Crypt guys, sorry) and no to the "Salvat" deck series, to maintain the integrity of the concept. I also opted not to include P3K cards since their reprints are black border (see Ravages of War), and their otherwise not reprinted cards (such as False Defeat and Zodiac Dragon are prohibitively expensive for what you'd otherwise get. The idea of WB commander is both a challenge with the more straightforward corre set cards, and an exercise in usability based on budget, and P3K fails on all of these prerequisites.
One last thing, do yourself a favour and make sure you get the sweet 7ED art for Fallen Angel. It's easily superior to all the rest of her arts.
Sideboard is your "overage pool" of cards to swap out be it 1v1 or multiplayer or any other archetype you want to try. One thing of note, is that you don't have a lot of options for enchantment removal specifically. You have disenchant, and purify, and plenty of artifact removal...but not really enchantment. So you're going to need to make sure what you're really hitting is truly a troublesome target for you. Make your answers count.
Second note: You do not have the mana base to support Necropotence in any degree of consistency. You might think you do. It's a trap. You don't. Save yourself the $6 and use Jalum Tome instead.
And again, happy reading, and may your games always be decisive!
1
Good: Any control with no lifegain outs (grixis, izzet, dimir, mono blue), animar, maelstrom wanderer
Bad: titania, karlov, atraxa, gitrog, Kalitas monoblack control
Neutral: Mirror match, MonoW aggro (we have additional avenues for offense in burn, but they have superior combat presence with first strike. Tie breaker comes down to how much life gain they have in the deck), partner decks
These matchups to me are variable, which means they can range from bad to good to neutral depending on how the deck is built.
Queen Marchesa control: If it's a superfriends control with a lot of mana rocks, zurgo's gonna have a fiesta. But if the deck plays with less rocks and more spot removal, mini-sweeps and lifegain (timely reinforcements, blessed alliance, etc), i would say the matchup is more balanced, though still slightly in zurgo's favor.
Ojutai: If authority of the consuls comes down early, GG. But outside of that, if no lifegain is prioritized, zurgo is at a heavy advantage.
Long story short: Outside of the inherently bad matchups mentioned, whether or not the matchup is good or not depends a LOT on how well prepared the deck is for monoR. Decks that are built totally ignoring the damage output of monoR will most likely be unable to take a best of 3, and are free wins regardless of how the matchup is on paper. Flip side, supposedly good matchups that find ways to compensate for red's damage output (playing blue elemental blast and hydroblast for example) can give us a hard time.
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Here's the thing.. he actually plays a bit more smoothly. Let's go over the bans 1 by 1:
1.) PoP is not as useful in mono colored decks. Titania is one of our worst matchups, and most of their nonbasics end up in the grave anyway. Another bad matchup where Price is not so useful is karlov. They can just fetch for basics all day without screwing themselves, and they have life gain outs. So losing PoP for another card that can function equally well across all matchups (AKA any generic burn spell) actually added consistency.
2.) If you replace [card sulfuric vortex[/card] for a rampaging ferocidon, the pros of a 3 power body with evasion, a decent passive and the identical can't gain life clause hurts as much as vortex. Here's where the difference lies actually. Vortex requires a bit more timing than one would think. If the titania matchup turns out into a straight up brawl, vortex helps them more than it helps us. Same situation with karlov if he somehow gets big enough to escape burn range (probability of this goes even higher the less burn the deck has) and starts hitting like a truck. Casting vortex with an 8/8 karlov in play hurts your clock as much as it hurts theirs. The difference is, you're the one who tapped 3 mana for it. With ferocidon on the other hand, you just cast it and let them deal with the 3/3 body however they please, with minimal detriment to your own life total in case the race doesn't turn out in your favor. There's much less risk.
3.) Eidolon of the great revel is the card most likely to backfire on us especially agianst titania. I apologize for bringing up titania every 2 sentences, but she and karlov are 2 of the most well-positioned meta decks today, and are coincidentally terrible matchups for zurgo. Anyway, when the midrange-y threats start coming out, there will come a point where eidolon will be dealing way more damage to us than to them. Same concept applies to karlov. Though their curve is lower than titania's, they can gain life. Point is, I wasn't so sad to see this go, as good as he is.
4.) Which leaves us with fireblast. Losing fireblast is an obvious nerf, but this is one card, in a deck that has no tutors and does not rely on a single card to win anyway.
Bottomline: Overall, zurgo as a whole was not nerfed, but rather a single aspect of his game was: burst. It's harder to win out of nowhere now via PoP for 14 damage against a 4 color deck, or by tapping out to all your burn and then dumping 2 lands for a fireblast. But losing access to 4 cards makes way for less burst-y but more consistent picks. Combined with the Edgar Markov ban, this announcement actually buffed MonoR's position in the meta.
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The zurgo nerfs too. Wow. Dc shifting the meta towards green it seems. Ironic considering they were vocal about B/G dominance way back.
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Fire covenant is less than a dollar lol, the problem is finding one.
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let's not forget ancient tomb lol.. but it's more than just those unbans. titania's board state in general gets scarier than edgar's 1-2 turns after she shows up. the resilience of said board state may be a tie, but in the end 5/3's >>>> 1/1's, and that's hard to deal with, unless edgar gets her down to less than 10 life before the first cast.. even then, zuran orb is a lethal out in a race.
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zurgo in your veins lol. but for this build i'd definitely play boros charm over pulse. it cracks the dome, can hit walkers too, costs 1 less, and is almost a wincon if you leave 2 mana up and telegraph a sweep.
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well in theory you'd think zo-zu would be the better choice, but you'll need to get damage in as early as humanly possible, making bellstriker even more essential to the gameplan.
As for the impact, well let's put it this way. MonoR bellstriker is painfully simple, it's about counting to 20 ASAP with cheap burn and cheap creatures. Take note i said simple, not easy. There is a lot of micromanaging and math involved figuring out where to point your burn spells, or what to cast first. One simple miscalculation with the offense could actually cost you the entire game. By adding 10 life points it just destroys the math of everything, and you'll need more sustained offense to close out games. It gets harder to calculate damage output because the game is guaranteed to last longer. And with weenie hasty creatures, they are not likely to go through blocks during the midgame onwards. So punisher cards like zo-zu etc (in the 99) become more important, and more value-for-mana 4 drops like chandra, torch of defiance, even chandra, pyromaster become more viable. Overall though, the power level is definitely not tier 1 anymore at 30.
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They still are, but zurgo bellstriker at the helm as a consistent 2 power turn 1 option with zo-zu in the 99 has been established as the optimal choice in duel commander. It's also a budget build anyway. As for a zo-zu build, just get any zurgo decklist and put zo zu at the helm. If you want it on theme and make your damage output more of a punisher build, just play pyrostatic pillar, ankh of mishra spellshock, etc and you're good to go. Problem is, with a 3 drop commander, your deckbuilding options become tighter. you need to fill in that 1 drop spot with goblin guide variants like monastery swiftspear or god forbid firedrinker satyr. No consistent one drop in the command zone significantly nerfs the deck.