MTG Salvation

Quote from sefenvold »

Quote from Tears of Tomorrow »

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.

Quote from Tears of Tomorrow »

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

Quote from Tears of Tomorrow »

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.

Quote from Dunharrow »

Your deck is very far from finely tuned.

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.

Quote from cryogen »

From my experience playing Animar, you are going to draw hate, so you want to be the fastest at the table. This means your primary goal is to get him out on turn 2, turn 3 at the absolute latest. From there you want to be ramping and drawing cards with your ETB effects. I would try to stick to creatures that have single color requirements when at all possible, and be focused on your wincon. As already mentioned, Deadeye Navigator does great things especially with Peregrine Drake which you're already running (there's also Great Whale, Palinchron, and Cloud of Faeries in the cycle). You've also go Purphoros, God of the Forge, and although it's going to be a bigger purchase, Cloudstone Curio will do crazy things in your deck. Panharmonicon should also be considered a must for your decl.

In my signature I have a link to my very old Animar list. I retired it after it was too consistently winning in my EDH league so the list itself is very out of date but still worth checking out.