One of my other solutions to helping out Kaalia was better and more equipment. Like I said earlier, getting some swords would really pump her up as well as giver her protection from those derned removal/tucking spells. I would include Mystic Stoneforger and Stonehewer Giant if I did.
Basically it was going to be a minor version of a "Voltron Build", only I was going to call it the "Megazord Build". With a Voltron deck, everything goes on the general and you swing until game. Similarly, Kaalia would become pimped out with equipment to protect her and keep swinging, but other "zords" would be flashed into play to aid in the attack with etb support for Kaalia, or other useful effects. Too bad I can't find a way to combine Kaalia the Vast with Akroma, Angel of Wrath and Dragon mage for a Super-Megazord like the Power Rangers can. XP
I wanted to help the deck get a little faster and take some of the burden off of Kaalia a bit. Yosei can help lock people down, but I'd rather have a way to clear the air for Kaalia and get an extra attacker out than jump through hoops to try and get Yosei-lock. I also feel like we have enough flicker/blink effects to re-use Thundermaw a couple of times, so we'll see how this change works out.
I'm getting really tired of being targeted for Bribery, especially with two esper decks in my meta. Dawn Charm looks like a nice, easy, way to not only get some protection against it, but it's modular with regenerate and fog effects that are relevant with the deck. As of right now, I'm just taking a stab at what to take out for it. The other option I considered taking out was Cloudshift, but it's just such a great way to re-use ETB effects, especially if we get the Sunforger engine online.
After reviewing my deck, I realized just how little spot removal I have for enchantments/artifacts without Orim's Thunder. I'm still trying to find room for Dawn Charm, but OT is not the right card to cut for it.
How have I not been playing with Strip Mine until now? We run MLD spells, but sometimes we need to snipe someone's mana base or get rid of an annoying Maze of Ith to knock someone out. At least, that's usually the case with my playgroup.
While I've found that Kuro's spot removal has been pretty good in my meta (Zur, tokens, and Merieke), he takes too much of a toll on my life total, and the upkeep costs has been quite the burden.
Baneslayer's a pretty small card in EDH, but since I'm trying to lessen the burden off of Kaalia, I think she's a good, cheap option. Plus, she helps pay for Hall of the Bandit Lord, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, and pays for five cards off of the Necropotence that I'm looking to include.
I needed another "Board Wipe", but one that would take advantage of my current meta. The other players are playing very creature-lite these days, while my graveyard's filled with all sorts of huge beaters. It's easy on the cost and gives me a clear advantage when all they've got is a Solemn Simulacrum.
People (and especially my friends) are going to think I'm crazy for doing this. But I feel Land Tax deserves the cut because:
1) The number of basics I run keep getting cut down.
Thanks to the FTV: Realms, I've got some pretty good lands to use, and basics were the first things to get cut for them. I don't like running Land Tax with fewer than 9 cards to tutor, and I'm sure to draw into them or tutor for the plains with the various land tutors I already run (Eternal Dragon, Tithe, etc). On top of that, to be relevant for the speed I want, I'd have to draw it within the first few turns. I'd rather use Enlightened Tutor to search for equipment, and Academy Rector is better used to grab one of our "aggressive" enchantments.
2) I haven't had trouble hitting my land drops and would prefer straight-up draw power.
Although Skeletal does a great job of scaling, I've found that I don't really want to exile anything from my graveyard. Even if I wanted to exile lands, the only way to do so and get sufficient value out of it would be late in the game after I've done some MLD. Even then, I usually don't have the mana to full utilize it. Necropotence at least has the benefit of being tutorable off of Enlightened Tutor and Academy Rector. It also lets me get the cards incrementally, rather than as a one-shot effect. I thought about taking out Promise of Power for 'potence, but it's much more consistent than what I would normally get from Skeletal. Sorcery vs. instant isn't a factor here.
More often than not, I've found that I wanted to wipe the whole board because of how strongly everyone else made their board position. I feel fine taking out a MLD spell because of the tutors available, and my tendency to hold onto them until I can clinch the win, which tends to happen later in the game. Jokulhaups requires a lot of mana and a good set-up in order to be the game winner I want our MLD spells to be.
Akroma's Vengeance helps get rid of ALL problem permanents, unlike the more modular wraths like Austere Command. It also gives the option to cycle it away for a new card, which is never a bad thing if I can't/don't want to wrath the board.
Vivids -> Basics
The ETB Tapped lands finally got on my nerve after I had the chance to marathon a day of games with Kaalia. They're great at the start of the game, but most of the time I drew them mid-to-late game, and they threw off my rhythm or delayed my game plan. I'll probably get filter lands at some point, but until then, basic will do just fine.
When I search for equipment to protect Kaalia, the first one I'm usually grabbing is Lightning Greaves. Aegis requires that I target Kaalia in order to make her indestructible. The two are like oil and water: They are PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to mix together. So given the choice to cut either the greaves or the angel, I cut the angel and moved her to my Mayael, the Anima deck where she'll be much more effective in protecting my general.
With that said, Akroma's a meta choice I'm testing out right now. Although she lacks several things that made White'kroma so good (first strike and haste among them), being uncounterable and untouchable by Swords to Plowshares make her a strong contender in an Esper heavy playgroup. I don't know how relevant her "fire breathing" will be, but it's a mana sink late game when we usually only have one or two cards in hand anyway, so why not give it a go?
Unfortunately for Twilight, she was never around when I wanted to blow up the land bases, and I couldn't tutor for her given how often I've had to tutor up equipment for Kaalia or MLD spells. I've found myself going for Avacyn much more often than Twilight, so her spot goes up in the air as far as functionality goes.
Serenity is an angel I've been looking forward to using for a while now, and from what I hear, she's been getting some really good results. Aggressive versatility is something that we stress in this decklist, and she provides plenty of that. She's a big body that serves up removal/recursion/graveyard hate in one convenient package and gives new life to a Cloudshift that'd I'd started to doubt in a wrath-heavy meta. (She's clearly a Boros angel as well, given that only the legion and the Orzhov have angels, which I find to be a major bonus flavor-wise. If you squint, you can even see the Boros insignia on the buckle piece of her hip plates.)
Sunhome was a mana sink that never really worked for me. The lifelink from the vault is a lot more valuable to this deck since it helps pay for Necropotence, keeps me in the game longer, and does some nice stuff with Balefire Dragon.
I've actually been using Maze for a while now, but it's been pretty decent in keeping someone from smacking me with a single beater over and over again, which happens a LOT in my meta. Hurts Kaalia's fast starts because it doesn't tap for mana, but Urborg helps with that.
The modular wraths are really getting on my nerves these days. With a deck like Kaalia, when I need to wrath I need to wrath EVERYTHING because I often have NOTHING. Austere's good when you have a board position, but our deck's good enough with it's creatures that they can take care of a board almost by themselves. I need hard wraths, dag nabbit!
I finally got around to ordering a couple of the filter lands. Didn't have enough to include Fetid Heath, but that's going to be added soon enough. With all of the heavy triple-mana cost cards I have in here (such as True Conviction and Necropotence), they've really helped to smooth out the mana base.
There are times when the deck just REALLY needs quantity over quality, and wheel effects are the way to go. I don't have a Wheel of Fortune, but I like the things you can do with the miracle mechanic, particularly with Sensei's Divining Top and Vampiric Tutor. It can even be used to disrupt your opponent's strategy with top's draw ability or used to get rid of annoying stuff that just got bounced to someone's hand. It's a lot more value than a tutor ever gave me.
Continuing with the theme of adding a couple of wheel effects, DM is a card that falls into the Rakdos-tier of cards that have the chance to just utterly backfire if things don't slant your way. But if anyone's going to go all in, it might as well be Kaalia.
I like Reya as a reanimation card, but she's much too slow to get any true value from her and is strictly worse than Debtor's Knell at times. At least Debtor's Knell can grab anybody's creature and can be played defensively rather than attacking. This move helps to bring down our curve a bit and works as anti-spot/counter tech to protect Kaalia when she's busy suiting up. Can be another uncounterable creature if we plan on using Cavern of Souls for Kaalia since they share the same race/class.
This was the big change for me in that this was the first time I was looking outside the angel/demon/dragon race for big effects. I realized that the deck desperately needed some form of recursion for its lands/equipment/enchantments/etc, and I kicked myself for not playing the titan earlier. The titan does ALL of that for us. Add in that we have ways to reuse his trigger, and he pulls more than his fair share of weight for the deck in terms of recursion.
The Great Gatecrash update has heralded in a new chapter in Kaalia. The smaller utilities of Defense, animate dead, and reclamation help streamline Kaalia SO much more easily than the obscenely bulky spells did. I really like that all three can be brought back with Sun Titan too! The new dragon and demon are finally pushing out one of my pet cards, Tariel (RIP...), and Hoarding Dragon which never did much for me and fought with Kaalia over the open sac outlet. Magus of the Moat is a most brilliant replacement for a certain multi-hundred dollar enchantment, and replaces the rector who's job has been outsourced now that bulky enchantments aren't our thing anymore.
Creatures - This deck relies heavily on its creatures to not only be massive beaters, but to provide utility and value as well. A horde of ETB effects means that Kaalia’s flashing in more than just pain whenever she attacks.
Aegis Angel - Aegis has always been good for me when I get her. Using her to protect Kaalia is usually the way to go, but she can also protect our equipment or one of our lands if we’re getting ready to use a MLD spell.
Akroma, Angel of Wrath - Hands down, Akroma is one of the best creatures in our deck. After the initial summoning by Kaalia, she becomes a great shield even when she’s on the attack. This is important since swinging out on every turn leaves us vulnerable to counter-attacks from other players. Having protection from red and black is also relevant to avoid Threaten effects and black based removal.
*As a side note, I use the Legions version purely because I think the art fits her personality better than the awkward DvD version does.
Angelic Arbiter - Arbiter is a great defensive card that helps shield us from attacks when our opponents need to cast spells, and keeps them from casting spells if they try to keep up with us in a damage race.
Angel of Despair - A staple for the build, Angel of Despair destroys anything when it hits the board, even potential blockers that would otherwise try and block Kaalia. Goes great with a sac outlet and Debtor’s Knell.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope - If you manage to play Avacyn before dropping a MLD spell, expect everyone else to scope up their cards and hate you in the next game. A phenomenal card for our build through and through. Whether or not she’s better than Akroma really depends on your meta. With the Threaten effects and black generals in my meta, Akroma is more effective at protecting my life total than Avacyn would be.
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight - Gisela quickly ends games, and even gives Kaalia a chance to win through general damage, especially if she’s swinging the Sunforger or a sword. Forget about a chance to play politics with her, since our aggressive strategy already paints a huge target on our chest.
Iona, Shield of Emeria - Iona single-handidly shuts out players and saves us from wrath effects/spot removal/etc. She receives a lot hate and social shaming, but she’s one of the necessary cards needed to help us maintain a lead until we can seal the game in our favor.
Karmic Guide - Helps us get back our other creatures and comes with protection from black. She’s cheap enough to cast on her own too, so Kaalia isn’t necessary for her to see play.
Reya Dawnbringer - RBW is a color combination that doesn’t get a lot of card advantage. Reya helps bring back our other creatures and combos well with a sacrifice outlet to get more uses out of our ETB effects to helps us get that value.
Tariel, Reckoner of Souls - Tariel’s ability can’t target any of our creatures, but our opponent’s will usually have some good targets for us, particularly if they play a lot of ETB effects like Solemn Simulacrum or Fierce Empath. Her 4/7 body with vigilance is also relevant to protecting ourselves while we attack.
Twilight Shepherd - Twilight breaks our MLD if she comes into play after a board wipe. Flash her in with Kaalia or let Jokulhaups enable her persist ability. Either way, you’ll be able to hit your land drops while your opponents are trying to catch up.
Bloodgift Demon - He’s actually cheap enough to play without Kaalia’s help, which is a plus, but he’s here to give us some much needed card draw. Good sized body means that we can still be aggressive with him too.
Kuro, Pitlord - Paying the [mana]BBBB[/card] can be a little hard for this deck, especially in the early game. His 9/9 body is fantastic though, and he works well as spot removal while he’s out. Unless you have life gain available, conserve his ability to clear paths for Kaalia or to take care of annoying utility/combo creatures or he’ll run your life down rather quickly.
Rakdos the Defiler - A lot of people were talking about him when Kaalia was first spoiled, but I’m still experimenting with him. I originally threw him in as a replacement for the recently banned Griselbrand, but a 7/6 flier with trample is nothing to sneeze at in its own right either. With Kaalia, we get one free shot at someone before we’re forced to make a decision.
Do we use Rakdos to attack, or do we use him to defend and save our permanents?
That depends. If you’re in a position where you can keep using Rakdos’s effect to whittle everyone’s resources away and win the game by flashing in other creatures with Kaalia, then go for it. But if you’re in a tight battle and you desperately need to keep mana ready, then it’s better to hold him back. Unless you can sacrifice Rakdos and get him back into your hand for Kaalia to flash in, I feel like the lost resources aren’t worth damage he can do.
Rune-Scarred Demon - Becomes a free tutor when flashed in with Kaalia, potentially searching out our MLD spells for us to use during post-combat main phase. An absolute boss of a card, and EXTREMELY budget friendly.
Balefire Dragon - Fantastic creature wipe, and has the potential to lock creature-based decks out of the game if he connects while answers are unavailable. I’ve had plenty of games where one of the players scooped after Balefire hit the board because the dragon locked out his general with its constant burn-wipe.
Bogardan Hellkite - ETB scattershot-esque is very strong and is great for getting things out of Kaalia’s way. Has flash on his own, so if the game goes long and you have the mana for it, he can be treated as expensive, but flexible, spot removal.
Eternal Dragon - He’s here primarily for the plaincycling, which in an aggressive deck like ours, helps a lot. He can search out our duels and shocks easily, as well as Mistveil Plains for use with Sunforger.
Hoarding Dragon - Best played with a sac outlet available, Hoarding Dragon helps search out our swords, Sunforger, or even our signets if we desperately need ramp.
Ryusei, the Falling Star - Given that all of our creatures either fly or are big enough to survive otherwise, Ryusei’s essentially a one-sides red wrath effect. It’s a fantastic effect to have when you’re playing against token decks or decks that use a lot of small to medium sized creatures. Combos with a sac outlet and a consistent recursion ability for a “once a round” wrath effect.
Steel Hellkite - Being able to wipe out ANY permanent the turn he hits the table makes the metal dragon an all-star for this deck. A great way to wipe out creatures with shroud, problematic enchantments, and a free wrath effect against tokens. It’s also colorless so as long as we get to six mana we’ll have the option of hard-casting him, regardless of what colors we have availble.
Yosei, the Morning Star - Flash him in early, then sacrifice to essentially time-walk an opponent and get another turn to try and knock them out of the game. Also discourages wrath effects. A bit slow though, in my opinion. Decent card, but I feel like a some faster plays are needed.
Stoneforge Mystic - Can tutor up our protection for Kaalia, a sword that she can carry, or a Sunforger that she’s perfectly fine with swinging around herself.
Baneslayer Angel - I really like this card. First strike and lifelink are very relevant to this deck, and she’s cheap enough to cast on her own. But there are much more powerful options that Kaalia allows us to cheat into play that she has to compete with, especially with Avacyn Restored out. If the deck decides to play some cheaper creatures though, she’ll be the first one back in the list.
Akroma, Angel of Fury - Akroma’s alternate universe version was good for a while, but I feel like she just got outclassed with the new angels avaible. Because we’re cheating her in with Kaalia, being uncounterable doesn’t mean much, and our deck rarely has the ramp power to hard cast her anyway, even with her morph cost. Unless I desperately need an answer for white and blue, she’ll enjoy a new home in my Mayael the Anima deck. *However, recent meta shifts have called her back into Kaalia's services. We'll see how long this lasts.
Razia, Boros Archangel - I really, really like Razia. She the first angel I had in my favorite color pairing, and I ran her in the list for a long time. But I eventually realised that flashing her into play tapped was too much of a liability since her strength comes from being untapped in order to redirect lethal damage. Like red Akroma, she’s enjoying her new home with Mayael.
Thundermaw Hellkite - I’m keeping an eye on this guy. If fliers become a thing in my meta then he offers a clear way for Kaalia to swing and flash one of my opponents. Being a one-time shot might sound bad, but I feel like we have enough ways to manipulate ETB effects that he could be worth it.
Angel of Serenity - A versatile body just big enough to get our beats on while serving as a proverbial swiss army knife for our deck. Recursion, removal, graveyard hate, she's got it all, including Boros flavoring.
Dragon Mage - Another wheel effect that Kaalia can flash in that's reusable too. He's like Rakdos in that I don't know if using him mutliple times will be good or not, but he's a great option when we need to refill our hand.
Grand Abolisher - Keeps people from pulling any shenanigans while we try to get Kaalia online, like spot removal, counters, or Top&Terminus. Really mana-intensive if you want to play him the turn before Kaalia comes out, but with our mana base that shouldn't be a problem anymore. Also carries the bonus of being a human, which means that if we plan to use Cavern of Souls for Kaalia, it'll make him uncounterable too.
Sun Titan - This guy gets back our lands, equipment, signets, and so much more! Very easy to get multiple triggers off him, and gives us a big wall to defend with as well. For this deck, he carries a TON of weight.
Artifacts: Most of our artifacts either help us ramp or protect Kaalia. Other than that, there's not a lot going on.
Boros Signet /Orzhov Signet/Rakdos Signet - All three of our signets give us much needed ramp, and are at their best when played on turn two to help Kaalia come out a turn early. They’re also relevant in helping us produce mana after MLD has taken place.
Sensei’s Divining Top - Easily one of the best cards in EDH by itself, the top is one of our few sources of library manipulation. It can help us dig for our lands after MLD, give us something to flash in with Kaalia if need be, and is just useful overall.
Sol Ring - Not sure why this is in here. I mean, I GUESS it’s pretty good. It’s no Island though. #Sarcasm
Darksteel Plate - Kaalia’s personal suit of armor lets her swing without worrying about dying in combat, and helps her survive wrath effects. It’s not my first choice when I’m tutoring for equipment, but it’s never been a bad card to have either.
Lightning Greaves - Play a turn before dropping Kaalia and enjoy. Once Kaalia’s got her kickin’ new heels on, the only thing she’ll have to worry about are wrath effects and creatures that are bigger than she is. But it’s worth it to avoid spot removal, spot tuck, and any other targeting effects in general. Keep in mind that they DO prevent Aegis Angel from protecting Kaalia though.
Sunforger - The quintessential R/W hammer, once Kaalia starts wielding the mighty Mjolnir she becomes a most fearsome warrior. The toolbox she gets access to is flexible and provides answers for all sorts of situations. She even gains the power to knock someone out with general damage, something she’s not known for.
Swiftfoot Boots - The boots with the fire are much more flexible, and Kaalia’s preferred choice of footwear. Hexproof let’s her suit up other equipment while maintaining protection. The 1 mana it takes to equip isn’t a problem once it’s on her, and she’s the only one you’ll really need them on.
Sword of Fire and Ice - Not only a great source of card advantage from it’s draw/burn capabilities, but it also gives Kaalia the evasion she needs to get past the dragons and sphinx’s that rule the skies. Usually one of the first things I search for.
Sword of Light and Shadow - The second best sword in the deck, Light and Shadow brings back creatures that Kaalia can flash in the next time she attacks. The life gain is nice, but the protection saves her from the two colors with the best spot removal and provides evasion against big fliers.
Nim Deathmantle - If you want to try and abuse ETB effects, this is one of the best cards to use. Combining with a sacrifice effect let’s you do it at will. Using it with Phyrexian Tower means that half of the effect is paid for already. For the aggressive deck we’re trying to run though, it can still be a little too costly.
Crucible of Worlds - Nice and cheap for an extraordinary effect. It’s a great way to get your lands back after MLD, or just to reuse your fetch lands. It’s a good card to help out in the long game, but it’s hard to figure out what to cut out in order to test it out.
Enchantments: This deck tries to go light on the enchantments since they tend to be expensive and we only have one Academy Rector.
Debtors’ Knell - Even though it’s expensive, it can be cheated in with Academy Rector. The Knell helps our long game by recycling ETB creatures that have already hit the graveyard and gives us access to any bodies our opponent’s have lost.
Land Tax - Being able to drop this in the first four turns when we’re not going first means that we’ll be able to fix our colors appropriately and play Kaalia on schedule. The worst thing for this deck is getting a slow start and missing early land drops. Land Tax prevents that. (Glad I got it when it was still cheap. ^^; )
Phyrexian Arena - Constant card draw is never a bad thing, especially since two of our colors lack the power of card advantage.
Stranglehold - We need to keep our opponent’s off of any advantage we can. Stranglehold keeps our opponents from tutoring for answers/combo pieces and makes their fetch lands null. If we can’t play Kaalia on turn four, this is always a good back-up plan. It’s also asymmetrical, meaning that we aren’t affected by it.
True Conviction - This card is the best enchantment for what the deck wants to do. It enhances our ability to be aggressive, kill people dead, and give us a buff on life. With the life draining effect we have though (such as Kuro, Pitlord), the life gain becomes a fuel line.
Instants: Just about all of our instants are chosen because they're Sunforger compatible.
Chaos Warp - Easily the best permanent removal we have in this deck. With so much being crammed into the deck already with our betters, we need our removal be as flexible as possible and Chaos Warp is as flexible as they come, even breaking the color pie to do it. The random card revealed MIGHT come back to bite you, but the chance of that happening is pretty slim.
Oblation - In a deck that has more opportunities for card advantage I’d probably use it. As it is though, unless you’re playing in a voltron-heavy metagame this card can do more harm than good. The sudden two card draw means that your opponent has a better chance of drawing into an answer for our threats than they did before. But it’s up to you whether or not its worth the risk. My meta is especially powerful in one-card effects, so it may hurt you less than it would for me.
Cloudshift - This card. Is. AMAZING. I’ve been putting it in all and any of my decks that use white. It can save Kaalia from spot removal, reuse an ETB effect, bluff a spot removal, and perform combat tricks. Flicker really DOES do it all! If you play in a wrath heavy meta, though, it certainly loses some appeal/power. But thankfully, Angel of Serenity makes it a plus again.
Enlightened Tutor - A staple tutor for decks that want consistency at instant speed. Searches up our swords, boots, and can even find the super tutor that is Sunforger. Early game it can ramp by getting us our top, Sol Ring, signets and Land Tax.
Ghostway - This is Cloudshift’s big brother. It let us mass reset our ETB effects, avoid wrath effects, and it’s another way to protect Kaalia from being tucked.
Hide//Seek - The ‘Hide’ side helps us deal with enchantments and artifacts. At instant speed, we can mess with combat math if our opponents have buff effects out. The ‘Seek’ side is less used in my meta, but it’s great for removing combo pieces.
Mortify - More flexible spot removal. It gets rid of creatures, it gets rid of enchantments, and it can be cast with the mighty Mjolnir.
Orim’s Thunder - There are a lot of high cost artifacts in Commander. Orim’s Thunder let’s us 2-for-1 our opponent by not only taking out an artifact, but by taking out any other creature on the board with the damage it produces. It should be noted that while Orim’s Thunder can be cast with Sunforger, the kicker cost has to paid separately to activate the burn effect.
Path to ExileSwords to Plowshares - For this deck, cheap removal is the most efficient. Both Path and Swords are the best forms of creature removal we have. In an emergency, they can even be used to save Kaalia from being tucked. Putting her in the command zone won’t gain you life or a land, but it’s better than losing our life line.
Tithe - At instant speed, this card let’s us grab our duals and shocks that share the ‘Plains’ type. Also? Sunforger.
Skeletal Scrying - It’s a good one-shot effect at drawing. Without Crucible of Worlds or Mistveil Plains, we don’t have anyway to recur our non-creature spells. But at least they can fuel this potentially powerful draw spell.
Vampiric Tutor - Instant speed tutor for B is the best tutor we have. Enough said.
Wild Ricochet - For an aggressive deck that’s actively spending its mana, there’s little left over to hold reactive spells like this one. But it’s still tutorable with Sunforger, and still a powerful effect.
Dawn Charm - An experiment at this point, I added it in because I got really sick of getting targeted by Bribery. But it also does work by saving one of our creatures from a board wipe, or by fogging when someone tries to hit us back.
Sorceries: Our sorcery support is for powerful board-wipes. Otherwise, our non-creature spells need to be cheap with their big effects.
Armageddon - The cost makes this the best MLD spell we have.
Austere Command - Being modular means we can wipe out problems (such as tokens) without taking our creature, or without our equipment in the process.
Boom//Bust - Another modular effect, it CAN be worthwhile to use the ‘Boom’ side as spot removal for problem lands like Maze of Ith or Gaea’s Cradle.
Catastrophe - Modular land destruction gives us a creature wrath if that’s what we need.
Jokulhaups - This card is absolute destruction. Sometimes the game’s running long and we need to destroy everything. Lands, creatures, and everything else in-between. Being able to have enough mana to float for Kaalia’s cost (if she’s not protected by Darksteel Plate) is the only way we can take a definitive lead afterwards. If we can’t, we’ll be racing with everyone else to get back in the game, and that’s a battle I’m not confident we’ll win.
Demonic Tutor - I rarely pimp out my decks. But when I do, I do it for aesthetic reasons. For this one, I had to use the Divine Vs. Demonic version featuring Liliana. It’s just fitting.
Increasing Ambition - It curves out well with our deck since we’re playing Kaalia on turn four, and it lets us search for double when we flash it back, which is great since if we have the mana to flash it back, then we desperately need the cards we’ll be tutoring for.
Promise of Power - Five cards for the price of one gives our colors some much needed card advantage. The title pretty much describes what we’re hoping to draw too.
Akroma's Vengeance - Sometimes you just need the whole board reset. That's when this baby comes in. Cycle it if you desperately need something else, but otherwise it's a perfectly good option and fits on theme, particularly with both Akroma's on the list.
Diabolic Revelation - A quicker option for tutoring multiple cards, including our MLD combo. Sometimes Increasing Ambition is a turn to slow for a couple of cards too few. But it's also hard to get really value out of this card. For a deck like ours, we need quantity more often than we need quality.
Reforge the Soul - A much more budget friendly counterpart to Wheel of Fortune, we can even use Vampiric Tutor or Sensei's Divining Top to set it up for its miracle cost. This fits into our need to get mass card draw when we've only got one or two cards left to use. Potential to backfire is high, especially if your opponent's are running low too, but if there was a deck that needed to go all in, Kaalia's the one to do it.
Planeswalkers: I only use one planeswalker at the moment, but I’m usually looking for others who help aggressive builds.
Liliana Vess - I use her primarily as a one-shot tutor effect since she’s often knocked out by my next turn. If not, she gets me a second card and discards my opponents’ cards afterwards. As for aesthetics, my choice would be the media insert version, but I’m still hunting for that one. ^^;
Liliana of the Dark Realms - She’s one I’m interested in using, but I feel she’s less effective in an aggressive build like ours than in most other decks, especially in three colors. She can fix our colors by searching for lands, which is awesome. But I’d want to be running Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in order to maximize her -3 ability.
Ajani Vengeant - He can shoot something when he first comes out, and he can keep voltron generals tapped down for as long as we can target them. But his real value comes with his ultimate MLD ability. Of course, that’s rarely going to happen. It’s easier just to cast a spell.
Sorin Markov - Really helps an aggressive build like ours, but can make some people feel 'cheated' when they get hit by his -3. If you can find room for him though, he's definitely worth a slot and helps us one-shot someone if Kaalia flashes in something with power +8.
Land: Our lands need to help color fixing for quick starts and sustained finishes. You could run off-color fetches to fix mana better, but I'd prefer to run basics and utility lands in their place.
Arid Mesa/Bloodstained Mire/Marsh Flats - Fetch lands search up any of our shocks/duals and really help our color fixing. You could run off-color fetches, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth whenever I think about it.
Clifftop Retreat/Dragonskull Summit/Isolated Chapel - The M12/Innistrad “tap lands” are a lot better in three-color decks than I think some people give them credit for, especially if you’re running duals and/or shocks. Just having one of them lets all of the tap lands enter play for free. If we can’t put them into play untapped, it’s early enough where coming into play tapped won’t hurt us.
Blood Crypt/Godless Shrine/Sacred Foundry - I got the shocklands when they were pricey. I’ll still be happy if/when they’re reprinted though. They’re fantastic cards that are easy to search for to properly fix our colors.
Badlands/Plateau/Scrubland - The original duals....are way to expensive for me. The Revised editions were just cheap enough though. Just don’t buy the “Collector’s Edition” like I did though.....eh heh heh heh.....
Vivid Crag/Vivid Marsh/Vivid Meadow - Normally I’d say these cards are too slow for the speed we want, and I'd be right. Too often these lands annoy the heck out of me, not only because they enter the battlefield tapped when we need mana now, but because the dice I use to keep track of their charge counters get really irritating to work around.
Darksteel Citadel - Usually colorless mana in a three-color deck like ours is a bad thing, especially if it doesn’t have any utility effect. But it IS indestructible. That means it can survive MLD to power our signets, which puts us ahead of our opponents from the get go.
High Market - This one’s an essential sacrifice outlet to keep Kaalia from getting tucked. Always leave it untapped if you can help it.
Homeward Path - I play with a lot of Threaten effects in my meta. This card is another utility land that needs to be left untapped to discourage those effects from being used against us.
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion - Our big creatures love having double strike, especially if one of them has a sword of X and Y equipped.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - This one makes our MLD spells UNCOUNTERABLE. That’s a really good thing to have.
Hall of the Bandit Lord - Hall gives Kaalia haste so that she can attack the turn she comes out. That’s a really good thing to have.
Phyrexian Tower - While the primary purpose is to sacrifice Kaalia in case there’s a tuck spell, it can also give us that extra mana if we really need it. Magic’s a game of inches, and the tower can give us that inch.
Bojuka Bog - Exiles an entire graveyard. Graveyard hate is a feature that most decks should have but often gets overlooked. The bog is the easiest way to sneak in some of that graveyard hate.
Cavern of Souls - I only ever declare “human” with it, even though Kaalia and Academy Rector are the only humans in the deck. It still keeps Kaalia from being countered, or tuck-countered by Hinder and Spell Crumble. Plus, it gives us whatever color we need to cast her, so it counts as mana fixing. But it's great as color fixing for angels if you find yourself playing a counter-free game.
Command Tower - Easily one of best mana fixing lands in the Commander format. I still use the original that Kaalia came with.
Flagstones of Trokair - This card’s another way to take advantage of our MLD spells. It fetches up any plains (duals/shocks/Mistveil) when it’s destroyed, and any advantage we can grab helps us after a landwipe.
Mistveil Plains - Part of our Sunforger combo. Let’s us recycle any instants we need, like spot removal and
Shadowblood Ridge - Signet lands are alright. At the very least, it let’s our utility lands produce colored mana, which is very helpful.
Forbidden Orchard - Taps for any colored mana, and the 1/1 token isn't a problem because it doesn't fly. Really helps out big time.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Gives all of our lands the ability to tap for B, essentially turning them into duals or even tri-lands. If someone else has it already in play, I've got the option of putting them back a land or holding mine back until I MLD the field. Options!
Strip Mine - A must have for every commander deck. Taps for mana until we need to get rid of something. Fantastic to have against all of the Maze of Ith's I see on a regular basis.
Rugged Prairie/Graven Cairns - I was a bit sketchy about using filter lands, but they've been pretty good in my Jenara deck so far. With some of the triple cost cards in the deck, mana fixing is really important and these cards help us get there.
Acknowledgements - Seeing as how I’m using his template for this thread, credit goes to ISBPathfinder for the format this primer is using, as well as clearing up the space in the thread needed to link up the primer posts together. You sir, have my thanks.
***Note***: This thread is to build a very powerful aggro deck that uses land destruction and other means to stay ahead. I try to keep an open mind to others’ opinions, so if you feel strongly for or against a card please voice it and we can discuss. Feel free to ask any questions about card choices as I would love to review any past experience I have had with other options. If you are looking for a deck that combos out on turn 4-6, or find land destruction offensive, this is not the deck for you.
Deck History –
I started playing Commander in the spring of 2011’, so I was still relatively new to the format when the commander pre-cons came out. As such, Kaalia is the oldest deck I have and has changed the most out of any of the decks I still have.
This deck is a physical manifestation of my growth as a magic player, going from being a newer player fumbling with his first pre-constructed deck to playing big creatures on a modest budget, to being able to afford more expensive cards and optimizing my list. Although my meta currently makes it harder to play Kaalia then I'd like, she’s still my favorite general and this is still my favorite deck out of all the ones I’ve built since buying her.
The first version of the deck followed along with the pre-con since I simply upgraded the creatures available, and swapped out a couple of the lesser cards for strictly better ones.
In an effort to protect Kaalia though, I tried loading up on equipment to the point where Kaalia looked like an Oros version of The Geist of Saint Traft. This wasn't particularly efficient, though, since the extra equipment tutoring was gumming up the aggro strategy I wanted to play. At this point, I was also having problems with my mana base and needed help from my friends to fix it up.
Through trial and error, I was able to figure out (for the most part) which creatures were working and which ones weren't. But I was still getting picked off by players who had answers to my board position. When I was looking for answers to keep the lead, I decided that massive land destruction was a natural fit for Kaalia's unique skill set.
The deck is currently in what I consider to be it's "Fourth Phase" of development where I start to look beyond my original intent in terms of optimization. For example, I cut a couple of angels/demons/dragons in order to add in non-ADD creatures that synergize well with what Kaalia does, and exploring options provided by people outside of my friends who helped with the original rebuild in phase three.
This is the current model that Kaalia uses, and I've been quite pleased with how effective it is at ending the game.
Why play Kaalia? –
You might consider playing Kaalia if you like being an aggressive player. You might like that she lets you cheat in big, powerful creatures for free. You might even enjoy that her color combination gives you an excuse to play "deck optimizing cards" like Sensei's Divining Top without causing your deck to feel overpowered.
But I love playing Kaalia simply because she marries my love for all things angel, demon, and dragon.
I have in innate love for angels. I collect them whenever I can. To a lesser extent, I love dragons in the same way. Even though I already have a Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund deck that hosts a dragon tribal theme, Kaalia lets me combine my two favorite creature types into a single archetype. The demons are just icing on the cake (and I do enjoy frosting).
More importantly, Kaalia makes it a lot easier for these creatures to see the battlefield. There's nothing I love more than seeing a turn five Akroma, Angel of Wrath, using Steel Hellkite for a surprise air strike against an army of tokens, or getting a free hit with Rakdos the Defiler. All of that is pretty hard to do when your opponent gets a chance to see you play a creature before you swing with it. Just casting these cards like normal gives them the chance to counter it. Kaalia circumvents that from happening.
Kaalia is very narrow as far as what she can do as your general, but she does it VERY well.
Personal Bio –
I started playing Commander in the spring of 2011, and I started playing magic as a whole during the Rise of the Eldrazi set (though I wouldn’t discover blocks and sets until Scars of Mirrodin). I started attending pre-releases with M12, and I’ve only recently started attending FNM’s. So why am I making a primer and why should you listen to me?
What I lack in experience, I’ve made for with other players who’ve helped me learn the game of EDH via ‘Trial by Fire’. My playgroup is fairly spikey, and have been a great resource in growing up quickly and becoming a very competent magic player. I still make mistakes, but I’m leaps and bounds better now than I was when I first bought my Kaalia deck.
As for why I’m made a primer, I did so to both note the changes in my deck as well as help anyone else who was trying to run Kaalia as effectively as possible, while promoting discussions on how to build aggressive builds that heavily rely on her.
That, and this was my chance to have the first listed multiplayer primer thread for Kaalia on the commander decklist database. I'll admit to a little vanity on my part.
Phase I - Playing Kaalia
Kaalia wants to play fast, and she wants to hit hard. It is crucial that she hits the board no later than turn four, and is suited-up and swinging no later than turn five. If you can’t, you’ll have a much harder time getting Kaalia to stick for more than a round.
Savvy players won’t wait for you to get her trigger off, and as soon as you enter combat, there’s the risk of someone dropping spot removal before we can flash anything in, which can set us back another two turns in the best case scenario, tucking her completely in the worse case scenario. Playing aggresive is not without risk, but its worth it for the power we’re trying to get in play.
The signets are vital to getting an accelerated start. A turn two signet sets up a turn three Kaalia, at a time when most players aren’t prepared to deal with her. If we’re playing before the blue player does, this helps us avoid a potential Spell Crumple or Hinder.
Phase II - Using Kaalia’s Trigger
The actual attacking portion of Kaalia’s strategy is fairly straightforward: Pick the player most likely to give us problems and take them out first, which usually happen to be the combo player. Hopefully this discourages other players from interfering with our game plan, letting us do all the dirty work to take a player out for them. Chances are that we’ll face a board wipe once a player has been eliminated.
Unfortunately, players familiar with our deck know that once Kaalia starts dropping creatures, she can lock people out, especially if cards like Iona, Shield of Emeria and Steel Hellkite see the board. They’ll be sure to stop any early attacks as soon as we try something. This is part of why the importance of having protection for Kaalia increases as the game goes on.
Phase III - Seal Kaalia’s Victory
So you’ve managed to keep Kaalia safe, and you’re on the offensive. Everything’s going great. Problem is, someone just miracled into a Terminus, or dropped the Hallowed Burial on you. Now you’ve lost all momentum, and without Kaalia the deck comes to a screeching halt.
Fortunately, there are simple preventive measures we can take known as “Blowing up everyone’s lands”, otherwise referred to as “Mass Land Destruction”, MLD for short.
While there are plenty of groups that have a social taboo on MLD, there are few ways for aggressive decks to maintain an advantage in a format where card advantage is king, and board wipes of any sort are extremely crippling to certain types of decks, ours included.
As of right now, I only play with four cards that destroy all lands in play (Jokulhaups, Cataclysm, Boom//Bust, and Armageddon), but you can easily tutor for one, get your board set up, and wrath as early as turn five or six.
Depending on how many creatures you’ve flashed in already, this is usually the game ending move since people rarely have lands left to play by turn six, or aren’t able to catch up regardless. This may result in bitter groans if you’re playing with a group that’s not used to MLD.
A Public Service Announcment on MLD:
MLD (Mass Land Destruction) is often frowned upon in social settings of MTG, especially of the Highlander variety. Preventing people from playing their spells is said to create an un-fun atmosphere, and will likely cause you to be hated by your fellow card slingers.
To this I say: “BALONEY”.
Land destruction has always been one of the few things that red brings to EDH, and to cut it out is to cut off a leg that is the already three-legged chair of red’s Commander playable card pool.
As you use land destruction as a legitimate means to win, people will adapt. They’ll learn to hold back a few lands if they can’t directly deal with your MLD cards, as well as learn to avoid over committing on lands while playing against whatever deck you have.
But keep in mind, WHEN you use an MLD card matters too. Using it for the sake of doing something without rhyme or reason is what will earn you the most ire. When you’re casting it to win, the other players can take comfort in that a new game will start shortly. When you cast it in defense (which I’ve been known to do), it can be seen as a last-ditch resort to keep yourself alive long enough to try and win the game.
So don’t shy away from MLD. If your game plan can benefit from some severed mana bonds, by all means, introduce your friends to the magic and wonder of Mass Land Destruction!
Before you use a MLD card though, try to obtain the following as they make rebuilding your own board position THAT much easier:
1) Protection for Kaalia. This can come in the form of either of her boots, a sword, or even Darksteel Plate.
2) Creatures to flash in. While they don’t have to be on the field, Kaalia won’t be kill an opponent by herself. Be sure to have a couple of other creatures to back her up.
If all goes well, the match should be quick, easy, and you will now have shown everyone why they should check their closet for Kaalia before they go to bed.
HOWEVER!!!
This is not always the case. In fact, more often than not, I don’t have the protection Kaalia needs by the time I need to start swinging, nor do I have the MLD to seal victory. When this happens, the deck needs to change gears and get ready for the long haul. I offer a few tips for such an event.
1) Conserve a tutor.
Without protection, the chance of someone trying to tuck Kaalia becomes deadly. If I feel that there’s a chance of that happening before I can close the win, I try to hold onto a tutor effect like Vampiric Tutor or Increasing Ambition to get Kaalia back as quickly as possible.
2) Watch those counter and bounce effects.
If you play with someone who uses blue, even an open 1U holds the threat of having Kaalia countered. I generally try and play around it, setting up my board for Kaalia while waiting for them to tap out so I can safely cast her.
Similarly, mass bounce effects can be problematic since they keep Kaalia from attacking (preventing any sort of ETB effect flashed in), and gives everyone the heads up that Kaalia’s probably going to be dropped again. Replaying her from your hand means you avoid paying her general tax (which can get pricey if you’re casting her more than three times a game), but the rules still apply when watching for any potential counter spells.
3) Floating mana can be your best friend.
If the game goes on long enough, you probably have a MLD effect available to you. Waiting for the right players to be tapped out will give you the chance to tap all of your lands for mana. Figure out what you want to use for Kaalia, and what you want to use for MLD spell, and cast the MLD spell first. If it resolves and none of the other players tapped for mana, it’s safe to cast Kaalia and start beating face with her on your next turn.
If someone DID float mana though, check their board position. Do they have something they can use mana for? Spot removal is a possibility. Hence why being able to rebuild your land base faster than your opponent's becomes key.
Using Kaalia –
Kaalia is the heart and soul of the deck. Without her, the deck slows down. Unless we have one of our draw accelerators (Phyrexian Arena, Bloodgift Demon), or one of our fixers (Sensei’s Divining Top, Tithe), we typically have a slow developing board position.
This is why I can’t stress protecting Kaalia enough. But learning when to cast Kaalia is just as important. Don't be afraid to go conservative if you feel that counterspells are a real threat. While playing fast and aggressive is our goal, we’ll set ourselves up for a huge fall if we over commit before we’re ready to handle retaliations.
As a side note, I typically include sacrifice outlets like High Market as protection since they prevent Kaalia from getting tucked.
Synergy and Combos –
Since the deck focus is on being aggressive, there aren’t a lot of explicit combinations that earn crazy advantage for us. With that being said, the deck isn’t without SOME tricks.
Twilight Shepherd + Any MLD card.
Twilight Shepherd gives us back the lands we’ve just lost, but requires us to either float the mana to cast her (meaning that this will occur later in the game), or by flashing her in with Kaalia. The latter is easier, but depends on having a clear avenue for Kaalia to attack through to ensure that we stay ahead of everyone else.
Blades of Velis Vel allows you to steal any 2 creatures with Karrthus and they will have +2 / +0 and haste. I have used it several times to smash someone for like 30+ damage its sick.
That's DEFINTELY a cool and jerk-like thing to do. I'm adding it!
Well, not just yet. I update the deck list corresponding to the irl deck and it's in a transition as I hunt for appropriate cards to proxy to modify it. I know I'm adding Primeval Titan for sure, for example, I just havn't proxied it yet to test him out.
Rith is actually my favorite general, since the deck has a lot of power and pretty good speed.
Also another card to look into might be Pandemonium or the safer more expensive version Warstorm Surge. Adds that much more damage if you hit with Rith or pull off any big token producing spell.
Also like FponkDamn said Skullclamp can be really nasty in a deck like this but if you use if I would recommend finding room for Reliquary Tower in your mana base so you can keep all the cards you end up drawing.
Yup, I definetly need to add a Reliquary Tower. I've had that problem in a game or two so far, and I DO hate discarding due to size. Glad to see that Warstorm Surge is still comparably cheap though. If I have power ups (like Eldrazi Monument) or stuff that gives my tokens counters (like Sigil Captain) will it deal damage equal to the total power, or their original power?
Mana Echoes might help with getting some of your bigger stuff out and is an endless combo with Sprout Swarm. Also if you hit with Rith and you have echoes out you can get some insane mana for an instant like comet storm.
And for a little control Glare of Subdual and Aura Shards are great.
You sir, have officially BLOWN MY MIND!!! I was looking at Sprout Swarm but I wasn't sure how practical it would be until you showed up. These are great suggestions, so thanks!
Just like the other deck I posted, this is a deck that was inspired by Kelly Digges's article "Confessions of a Deck-Building Addict" with my modifications and updates.
I've had great success with a dragon-themed casual deck before in multiplayer, so naturally I wanted to try something similar in Commander/EDH. When I saw Kelly's list I knew I could improve on it.
Kelly writes that his deck took inspiration from the Dragonstorm decks and created it for quick mana to quickly cast Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund and smash face with it.
While this is a stratedgy that I can appreciate (prefering straight up brawn as my go-to problem solver), I don't think the quick mana flow would last in the mulitplayer games I get into. So my goal was to train Karrthus to be a marathoner, not neccesarily a sprinter.
After a few playtests, I took out the instant gratification from cards like Seething Song and Manamorphose in favor of stuff that would ramp my mana for the long-haul with cards like Coalition Relic and Sol Ring (Thank you Commander re-prints!), while leaving in cards that searched out my basic lands.
Wild Pair and Tooth and Nail really help me swarm the field quickly, which is key in helping me tutor dragons with "enter the battlefield" abilities like Thunder Dragon and Bogardan Hellkite. I'd LOVE to get Defense of the Heart in there too, but I'm not sure what to take out. A little help, fellas?
I've had fun with it so far, but I feel that the deck still has a lot of tweaking left to go, so any help would be much appreciated! Thank you!
This deck was based off of one I read about by Kelly Digges in his "Confessions of a Deck-Building Addict" article. I originally started with a jumbled mess of my best red/white/green spells, but that was back when I was still learning the basics of EDH/Commander deck building. Got the cards and put together what I felt was a good updated version of what Kelly did. I havn't play-tested it yet (as of this post), but I'd like some comments and suggestions on how token production could be more effecient and/or more of.
The deck is meant to swarm, and swarm BIG. This is why Rith, the Awakener is my general. Green and White both have some of the best token producing cards, and I just love any combination involving red/white. An earlier version of this deck had red support giving my cards haste, but I took that out. Part of what concerns me about this deck is the lack of red, and a little too much green and white. But at the same time, what red cards I DO have are doozies that I feel help this deck and really work for it. Any red suggestions are very much appreciated.
At first stage I thought I'd go with a pure Saproling army, but there weren't enough cards that made saprolings consistently and were versatile enough for EDH (hence why I went with Selesnya Guildmage over the slightly cheaper Jade Mage). Cards like Elspeth Tireal and Hour of Reckoning are for bombing everything BUT my tokens, but sometimes a true board wipe, such as Akroma's Wrath are needed.
This is also the FIRST deck I've built that has actually mana-alternative lands, like Battlefield Forge and Sunpetal Grove. Rith's Grove is one of those rare cards that color arcs have access too and really helps enable whatever color I need.
I'd love to add Sarkhan Vol, but I'm not sure what to take out for him at the moment.
Comments, suggestions, and critiques much welcomed! Thank you.
P.S. Doubling Season was the only card I was willing to go over $15 for. ^^; I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon.
I've been playing MTG since only spring of 2010, and I'm only just now dipping my toes into the deeper depths of magic complexity, so I was real glad when a friend referred me to this site!
I just looooove token decks! There's just something about lining up all of those token cards and getting a bird's-eye-view of your entire army, ready to march on command. I know using dice and maybe one or two tokens is what's space efficient, but you just don't get that same "swarmy" feel to it.
I play casually (albeit with high-level players), but all of decks have some sort of token them, from my Khemba equipment to my recently finished Rith EDH/commander. So it's one of my hopes that I'll be able to learn how to really swarm while I'm on here.
I've also started making a card or two, so you can expect me to be lurking around that portion of the boards.
Finally, My favorite colors are R//, or just R/W if you wanna be bare bones about it with White holding top priority over everything else.
Cool deck! Gave me some good ideas for my own deck, mine was too dependent on kaalia.
Some cards I play that work realy well for me are: volrath's stronghold, cauldron dance, moat, glory, living death and sneak attack.
I was thinking of including: Necropotence + word's of worship/word's of waste (+geth's grimoire) as a tech, but I'm not sure if it will be effective.. Anyone have any experience with that tech?
Moat IS a great card for this, but I've found it's a little too pricey for guys like me who're building on a budget. ^^;
Alas, as I also pointed out, the better swords are too far out of my price range unfortunately. I'd totally use Sword of Light and Shadow, Sword of War and Peace, Sword of Feast and Famine and possibly Sword of Fire and Ice.
Basically it was going to be a minor version of a "Voltron Build", only I was going to call it the "Megazord Build". With a Voltron deck, everything goes on the general and you swing until game. Similarly, Kaalia would become pimped out with equipment to protect her and keep swinging, but other "zords" would be flashed into play to aid in the attack with etb support for Kaalia, or other useful effects. Too bad I can't find a way to combine Kaalia the Vast with Akroma, Angel of Wrath and Dragon mage for a Super-Megazord like the Power Rangers can. XP
Ah.
But what are these "shock lands", and "fetch lands"? I've been trying to search them, but I can't find them.
*provided by deckstats.net
Change Log –
8/20/2012
Yosei, the Morning Star -> Thundermaw Hellkite
I wanted to help the deck get a little faster and take some of the burden off of Kaalia a bit. Yosei can help lock people down, but I'd rather have a way to clear the air for Kaalia and get an extra attacker out than jump through hoops to try and get Yosei-lock. I also feel like we have enough flicker/blink effects to re-use Thundermaw a couple of times, so we'll see how this change works out.
8/27/2012
Orim's Thunder -> Dawn Charm
I'm getting really tired of being targeted for Bribery, especially with two esper decks in my meta. Dawn Charm looks like a nice, easy, way to not only get some protection against it, but it's modular with regenerate and fog effects that are relevant with the deck. As of right now, I'm just taking a stab at what to take out for it. The other option I considered taking out was Cloudshift, but it's just such a great way to re-use ETB effects, especially if we get the Sunforger engine online.
8/31/12
Dawn Charm -> Orim's Thunder
After reviewing my deck, I realized just how little spot removal I have for enchantments/artifacts without Orim's Thunder. I'm still trying to find room for Dawn Charm, but OT is not the right card to cut for it.
Swamp -> Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Tomb makes ALL of my lands swamps! Happy days!
Plains -> Forbidden Orchard
The orchard makes any mana, and the token's pretty much a non-factor against us. There's no reason not to run it in here.
Mountain -> Strip Mine
How have I not been playing with Strip Mine until now? We run MLD spells, but sometimes we need to snipe someone's mana base or get rid of an annoying Maze of Ith to knock someone out. At least, that's usually the case with my playgroup.
9/12/11
Kuro, Pitlord -> Baneslayer Angel
While I've found that Kuro's spot removal has been pretty good in my meta (Zur, tokens, and Merieke), he takes too much of a toll on my life total, and the upkeep costs has been quite the burden.
Baneslayer's a pretty small card in EDH, but since I'm trying to lessen the burden off of Kaalia, I think she's a good, cheap option. Plus, she helps pay for Hall of the Bandit Lord, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, and pays for five cards off of the Necropotence that I'm looking to include.
Land Tax -> Living Death
I needed another "Board Wipe", but one that would take advantage of my current meta. The other players are playing very creature-lite these days, while my graveyard's filled with all sorts of huge beaters. It's easy on the cost and gives me a clear advantage when all they've got is a Solemn Simulacrum.
People (and especially my friends) are going to think I'm crazy for doing this. But I feel Land Tax deserves the cut because:
1) The number of basics I run keep getting cut down.
Thanks to the FTV: Realms, I've got some pretty good lands to use, and basics were the first things to get cut for them. I don't like running Land Tax with fewer than 9 cards to tutor, and I'm sure to draw into them or tutor for the plains with the various land tutors I already run (Eternal Dragon, Tithe, etc). On top of that, to be relevant for the speed I want, I'd have to draw it within the first few turns. I'd rather use Enlightened Tutor to search for equipment, and Academy Rector is better used to grab one of our "aggressive" enchantments.
2) I haven't had trouble hitting my land drops and would prefer straight-up draw power.
See above.
9/22/12
Skeletal Scrying -> Necropotence
Although Skeletal does a great job of scaling, I've found that I don't really want to exile anything from my graveyard. Even if I wanted to exile lands, the only way to do so and get sufficient value out of it would be late in the game after I've done some MLD. Even then, I usually don't have the mana to full utilize it. Necropotence at least has the benefit of being tutorable off of Enlightened Tutor and Academy Rector. It also lets me get the cards incrementally, rather than as a one-shot effect. I thought about taking out Promise of Power for 'potence, but it's much more consistent than what I would normally get from Skeletal. Sorcery vs. instant isn't a factor here.
Jokulhaups -> Akroma's Vengeance
More often than not, I've found that I wanted to wipe the whole board because of how strongly everyone else made their board position. I feel fine taking out a MLD spell because of the tutors available, and my tendency to hold onto them until I can clinch the win, which tends to happen later in the game. Jokulhaups requires a lot of mana and a good set-up in order to be the game winner I want our MLD spells to be.
Akroma's Vengeance helps get rid of ALL problem permanents, unlike the more modular wraths like Austere Command. It also gives the option to cycle it away for a new card, which is never a bad thing if I can't/don't want to wrath the board.
Vivids -> Basics
The ETB Tapped lands finally got on my nerve after I had the chance to marathon a day of games with Kaalia. They're great at the start of the game, but most of the time I drew them mid-to-late game, and they threw off my rhythm or delayed my game plan. I'll probably get filter lands at some point, but until then, basic will do just fine.
10/23/12
Aegis Angel -> Akroma, Angel of Fury
When I search for equipment to protect Kaalia, the first one I'm usually grabbing is Lightning Greaves. Aegis requires that I target Kaalia in order to make her indestructible. The two are like oil and water: They are PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to mix together. So given the choice to cut either the greaves or the angel, I cut the angel and moved her to my Mayael, the Anima deck where she'll be much more effective in protecting my general.
With that said, Akroma's a meta choice I'm testing out right now. Although she lacks several things that made White'kroma so good (first strike and haste among them), being uncounterable and untouchable by Swords to Plowshares make her a strong contender in an Esper heavy playgroup. I don't know how relevant her "fire breathing" will be, but it's a mana sink late game when we usually only have one or two cards in hand anyway, so why not give it a go?
Twilight Shepherd -> Angel of Serenity
Unfortunately for Twilight, she was never around when I wanted to blow up the land bases, and I couldn't tutor for her given how often I've had to tutor up equipment for Kaalia or MLD spells. I've found myself going for Avacyn much more often than Twilight, so her spot goes up in the air as far as functionality goes.
Serenity is an angel I've been looking forward to using for a while now, and from what I hear, she's been getting some really good results. Aggressive versatility is something that we stress in this decklist, and she provides plenty of that. She's a big body that serves up removal/recursion/graveyard hate in one convenient package and gives new life to a Cloudshift that'd I'd started to doubt in a wrath-heavy meta. (She's clearly a Boros angel as well, given that only the legion and the Orzhov have angels, which I find to be a major bonus flavor-wise. If you squint, you can even see the Boros insignia on the buckle piece of her hip plates.)
11/11/12
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion -> Vault of the Archangel
Sunhome was a mana sink that never really worked for me. The lifelink from the vault is a lot more valuable to this deck since it helps pay for Necropotence, keeps me in the game longer, and does some nice stuff with Balefire Dragon.
Mountain -> Maze of Ith
I've actually been using Maze for a while now, but it's been pretty decent in keeping someone from smacking me with a single beater over and over again, which happens a LOT in my meta. Hurts Kaalia's fast starts because it doesn't tap for mana, but Urborg helps with that.
Austere Command -> Rakdos Charm
The modular wraths are really getting on my nerves these days. With a deck like Kaalia, when I need to wrath I need to wrath EVERYTHING because I often have NOTHING. Austere's good when you have a board position, but our deck's good enough with it's creatures that they can take care of a board almost by themselves. I need hard wraths, dag nabbit!
11/19/12
Plains/Swamp -> Rugged Prarie/Graven Cairns
I finally got around to ordering a couple of the filter lands. Didn't have enough to include Fetid Heath, but that's going to be added soon enough. With all of the heavy triple-mana cost cards I have in here (such as True Conviction and Necropotence), they've really helped to smooth out the mana base.
Diabolic Revelations -> Reforge the Soul
There are times when the deck just REALLY needs quantity over quality, and wheel effects are the way to go. I don't have a Wheel of Fortune, but I like the things you can do with the miracle mechanic, particularly with Sensei's Divining Top and Vampiric Tutor. It can even be used to disrupt your opponent's strategy with top's draw ability or used to get rid of annoying stuff that just got bounced to someone's hand. It's a lot more value than a tutor ever gave me.
Ryusei, the Falling Star -> Dragon Mage
Continuing with the theme of adding a couple of wheel effects, DM is a card that falls into the Rakdos-tier of cards that have the chance to just utterly backfire if things don't slant your way. But if anyone's going to go all in, it might as well be Kaalia.
Reya Dawnbringer -> Grand Abolisher
I like Reya as a reanimation card, but she's much too slow to get any true value from her and is strictly worse than Debtor's Knell at times. At least Debtor's Knell can grab anybody's creature and can be played defensively rather than attacking. This move helps to bring down our curve a bit and works as anti-spot/counter tech to protect Kaalia when she's busy suiting up. Can be another uncounterable creature if we plan on using Cavern of Souls for Kaalia since they share the same race/class.
Akroma, Angel of Fury -> Sun Titan
This was the big change for me in that this was the first time I was looking outside the angel/demon/dragon race for big effects. I realized that the deck desperately needed some form of recursion for its lands/equipment/enchantments/etc, and I kicked myself for not playing the titan earlier. The titan does ALL of that for us. Add in that we have ways to reuse his trigger, and he pulls more than his fair share of weight for the deck in terms of recursion.
2/11/13
IN: Magus of the Moat, Hellkite Tyrant, Lord of the Void, Animate Dead, Phyrexian Reclamation, Defense Grid
OUT: Tariel, Reckoner of Souls, Hoarding Dragon, Academy Rector, Debtors' Knell, True Conviction, Living Death
The Great Gatecrash update has heralded in a new chapter in Kaalia. The smaller utilities of Defense, animate dead, and reclamation help streamline Kaalia SO much more easily than the obscenely bulky spells did. I really like that all three can be brought back with Sun Titan too! The new dragon and demon are finally pushing out one of my pet cards, Tariel (RIP...), and Hoarding Dragon which never did much for me and fought with Kaalia over the open sac outlet. Magus of the Moat is a most brilliant replacement for a certain multi-hundred dollar enchantment, and replaces the rector who's job has been outsourced now that bulky enchantments aren't our thing anymore.
Creatures - This deck relies heavily on its creatures to not only be massive beaters, but to provide utility and value as well. A horde of ETB effects means that Kaalia’s flashing in more than just pain whenever she attacks.
Aegis Angel - Aegis has always been good for me when I get her. Using her to protect Kaalia is usually the way to go, but she can also protect our equipment or one of our lands if we’re getting ready to use a MLD spell.
Akroma, Angel of Wrath - Hands down, Akroma is one of the best creatures in our deck. After the initial summoning by Kaalia, she becomes a great shield even when she’s on the attack. This is important since swinging out on every turn leaves us vulnerable to counter-attacks from other players. Having protection from red and black is also relevant to avoid Threaten effects and black based removal.
*As a side note, I use the Legions version purely because I think the art fits her personality better than the awkward DvD version does.
Angelic Arbiter - Arbiter is a great defensive card that helps shield us from attacks when our opponents need to cast spells, and keeps them from casting spells if they try to keep up with us in a damage race.
Angel of Despair - A staple for the build, Angel of Despair destroys anything when it hits the board, even potential blockers that would otherwise try and block Kaalia. Goes great with a sac outlet and Debtor’s Knell.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope - If you manage to play Avacyn before dropping a MLD spell, expect everyone else to scope up their cards and hate you in the next game. A phenomenal card for our build through and through. Whether or not she’s better than Akroma really depends on your meta. With the Threaten effects and black generals in my meta, Akroma is more effective at protecting my life total than Avacyn would be.
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight - Gisela quickly ends games, and even gives Kaalia a chance to win through general damage, especially if she’s swinging the Sunforger or a sword. Forget about a chance to play politics with her, since our aggressive strategy already paints a huge target on our chest.
Iona, Shield of Emeria - Iona single-handidly shuts out players and saves us from wrath effects/spot removal/etc. She receives a lot hate and social shaming, but she’s one of the necessary cards needed to help us maintain a lead until we can seal the game in our favor.
Karmic Guide - Helps us get back our other creatures and comes with protection from black. She’s cheap enough to cast on her own too, so Kaalia isn’t necessary for her to see play.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence - Linvala shuts down annoying utility creatures that we don’t have answers for and disables combos that require creature abilities, like Ghave, Guru of Spores.
Reya Dawnbringer - RBW is a color combination that doesn’t get a lot of card advantage. Reya helps bring back our other creatures and combos well with a sacrifice outlet to get more uses out of our ETB effects to helps us get that value.
Tariel, Reckoner of Souls - Tariel’s ability can’t target any of our creatures, but our opponent’s will usually have some good targets for us, particularly if they play a lot of ETB effects like Solemn Simulacrum or Fierce Empath. Her 4/7 body with vigilance is also relevant to protecting ourselves while we attack.
Twilight Shepherd - Twilight breaks our MLD if she comes into play after a board wipe. Flash her in with Kaalia or let Jokulhaups enable her persist ability. Either way, you’ll be able to hit your land drops while your opponents are trying to catch up.
Bloodgift Demon - He’s actually cheap enough to play without Kaalia’s help, which is a plus, but he’s here to give us some much needed card draw. Good sized body means that we can still be aggressive with him too.
Kuro, Pitlord - Paying the [mana]BBBB[/card] can be a little hard for this deck, especially in the early game. His 9/9 body is fantastic though, and he works well as spot removal while he’s out. Unless you have life gain available, conserve his ability to clear paths for Kaalia or to take care of annoying utility/combo creatures or he’ll run your life down rather quickly.
Rakdos the Defiler - A lot of people were talking about him when Kaalia was first spoiled, but I’m still experimenting with him. I originally threw him in as a replacement for the recently banned Griselbrand, but a 7/6 flier with trample is nothing to sneeze at in its own right either. With Kaalia, we get one free shot at someone before we’re forced to make a decision.
Do we use Rakdos to attack, or do we use him to defend and save our permanents?
That depends. If you’re in a position where you can keep using Rakdos’s effect to whittle everyone’s resources away and win the game by flashing in other creatures with Kaalia, then go for it. But if you’re in a tight battle and you desperately need to keep mana ready, then it’s better to hold him back. Unless you can sacrifice Rakdos and get him back into your hand for Kaalia to flash in, I feel like the lost resources aren’t worth damage he can do.
Rune-Scarred Demon - Becomes a free tutor when flashed in with Kaalia, potentially searching out our MLD spells for us to use during post-combat main phase. An absolute boss of a card, and EXTREMELY budget friendly.
Balefire Dragon - Fantastic creature wipe, and has the potential to lock creature-based decks out of the game if he connects while answers are unavailable. I’ve had plenty of games where one of the players scooped after Balefire hit the board because the dragon locked out his general with its constant burn-wipe.
Bogardan Hellkite - ETB scattershot-esque is very strong and is great for getting things out of Kaalia’s way. Has flash on his own, so if the game goes long and you have the mana for it, he can be treated as expensive, but flexible, spot removal.
Eternal Dragon - He’s here primarily for the plaincycling, which in an aggressive deck like ours, helps a lot. He can search out our duels and shocks easily, as well as Mistveil Plains for use with Sunforger.
Hoarding Dragon - Best played with a sac outlet available, Hoarding Dragon helps search out our swords, Sunforger, or even our signets if we desperately need ramp.
Ryusei, the Falling Star - Given that all of our creatures either fly or are big enough to survive otherwise, Ryusei’s essentially a one-sides red wrath effect. It’s a fantastic effect to have when you’re playing against token decks or decks that use a lot of small to medium sized creatures. Combos with a sac outlet and a consistent recursion ability for a “once a round” wrath effect.
Steel Hellkite - Being able to wipe out ANY permanent the turn he hits the table makes the metal dragon an all-star for this deck. A great way to wipe out creatures with shroud, problematic enchantments, and a free wrath effect against tokens. It’s also colorless so as long as we get to six mana we’ll have the option of hard-casting him, regardless of what colors we have availble.
Yosei, the Morning Star - Flash him in early, then sacrifice to essentially time-walk an opponent and get another turn to try and knock them out of the game. Also discourages wrath effects. A bit slow though, in my opinion. Decent card, but I feel like a some faster plays are needed.
Academy Rector - Helps our long game by cheating Debtors’ Knell or True Conviction into play. Also a human, so
the Cavern of Souls we use for Kaalia can help her too.
Stoneforge Mystic - Can tutor up our protection for Kaalia, a sword that she can carry, or a Sunforger that she’s perfectly fine with swinging around herself.
Baneslayer Angel - I really like this card. First strike and lifelink are very relevant to this deck, and she’s cheap enough to cast on her own. But there are much more powerful options that Kaalia allows us to cheat into play that she has to compete with, especially with Avacyn Restored out. If the deck decides to play some cheaper creatures though, she’ll be the first one back in the list.
Akroma, Angel of Fury - Akroma’s alternate universe version was good for a while, but I feel like she just got outclassed with the new angels avaible. Because we’re cheating her in with Kaalia, being uncounterable doesn’t mean much, and our deck rarely has the ramp power to hard cast her anyway, even with her morph cost. Unless I desperately need an answer for white and blue, she’ll enjoy a new home in my Mayael the Anima deck. *However, recent meta shifts have called her back into Kaalia's services. We'll see how long this lasts.
Razia, Boros Archangel - I really, really like Razia. She the first angel I had in my favorite color pairing, and I ran her in the list for a long time. But I eventually realised that flashing her into play tapped was too much of a liability since her strength comes from being untapped in order to redirect lethal damage. Like red Akroma, she’s enjoying her new home with Mayael.
Thundermaw Hellkite - I’m keeping an eye on this guy. If fliers become a thing in my meta then he offers a clear way for Kaalia to swing and flash one of my opponents. Being a one-time shot might sound bad, but I feel like we have enough ways to manipulate ETB effects that he could be worth it.
Angel of Serenity - A versatile body just big enough to get our beats on while serving as a proverbial swiss army knife for our deck. Recursion, removal, graveyard hate, she's got it all, including Boros flavoring.
Dragon Mage - Another wheel effect that Kaalia can flash in that's reusable too. He's like Rakdos in that I don't know if using him mutliple times will be good or not, but he's a great option when we need to refill our hand.
Grand Abolisher - Keeps people from pulling any shenanigans while we try to get Kaalia online, like spot removal, counters, or Top&Terminus. Really mana-intensive if you want to play him the turn before Kaalia comes out, but with our mana base that shouldn't be a problem anymore. Also carries the bonus of being a human, which means that if we plan to use Cavern of Souls for Kaalia, it'll make him uncounterable too.
Sun Titan - This guy gets back our lands, equipment, signets, and so much more! Very easy to get multiple triggers off him, and gives us a big wall to defend with as well. For this deck, he carries a TON of weight.
Boros Signet /Orzhov Signet/Rakdos Signet - All three of our signets give us much needed ramp, and are at their best when played on turn two to help Kaalia come out a turn early. They’re also relevant in helping us produce mana after MLD has taken place.
Sensei’s Divining Top - Easily one of the best cards in EDH by itself, the top is one of our few sources of library manipulation. It can help us dig for our lands after MLD, give us something to flash in with Kaalia if need be, and is just useful overall.
Sol Ring - Not sure why this is in here. I mean, I GUESS it’s pretty good. It’s no Island though. #Sarcasm
Darksteel Plate - Kaalia’s personal suit of armor lets her swing without worrying about dying in combat, and helps her survive wrath effects. It’s not my first choice when I’m tutoring for equipment, but it’s never been a bad card to have either.
Lightning Greaves - Play a turn before dropping Kaalia and enjoy. Once Kaalia’s got her kickin’ new heels on, the only thing she’ll have to worry about are wrath effects and creatures that are bigger than she is. But it’s worth it to avoid spot removal, spot tuck, and any other targeting effects in general. Keep in mind that they DO prevent Aegis Angel from protecting Kaalia though.
Sunforger - The quintessential R/W hammer, once Kaalia starts wielding the mighty Mjolnir she becomes a most fearsome warrior. The toolbox she gets access to is flexible and provides answers for all sorts of situations. She even gains the power to knock someone out with general damage, something she’s not known for.
Swiftfoot Boots - The boots with the fire are much more flexible, and Kaalia’s preferred choice of footwear. Hexproof let’s her suit up other equipment while maintaining protection. The 1 mana it takes to equip isn’t a problem once it’s on her, and she’s the only one you’ll really need them on.
Sword of Fire and Ice - Not only a great source of card advantage from it’s draw/burn capabilities, but it also gives Kaalia the evasion she needs to get past the dragons and sphinx’s that rule the skies. Usually one of the first things I search for.
Sword of Light and Shadow - The second best sword in the deck, Light and Shadow brings back creatures that Kaalia can flash in the next time she attacks. The life gain is nice, but the protection saves her from the two colors with the best spot removal and provides evasion against big fliers.
Nim Deathmantle - If you want to try and abuse ETB effects, this is one of the best cards to use. Combining with a sacrifice effect let’s you do it at will. Using it with Phyrexian Tower means that half of the effect is paid for already. For the aggressive deck we’re trying to run though, it can still be a little too costly.
Crucible of Worlds - Nice and cheap for an extraordinary effect. It’s a great way to get your lands back after MLD, or just to reuse your fetch lands. It’s a good card to help out in the long game, but it’s hard to figure out what to cut out in order to test it out.
Debtors’ Knell - Even though it’s expensive, it can be cheated in with Academy Rector. The Knell helps our long game by recycling ETB creatures that have already hit the graveyard and gives us access to any bodies our opponent’s have lost.
Land Tax - Being able to drop this in the first four turns when we’re not going first means that we’ll be able to fix our colors appropriately and play Kaalia on schedule. The worst thing for this deck is getting a slow start and missing early land drops. Land Tax prevents that. (Glad I got it when it was still cheap. ^^; )
Phyrexian Arena - Constant card draw is never a bad thing, especially since two of our colors lack the power of card advantage.
Stranglehold - We need to keep our opponent’s off of any advantage we can. Stranglehold keeps our opponents from tutoring for answers/combo pieces and makes their fetch lands null. If we can’t play Kaalia on turn four, this is always a good back-up plan. It’s also asymmetrical, meaning that we aren’t affected by it.
True Conviction - This card is the best enchantment for what the deck wants to do. It enhances our ability to be aggressive, kill people dead, and give us a buff on life. With the life draining effect we have though (such as Kuro, Pitlord), the life gain becomes a fuel line.
Chaos Warp - Easily the best permanent removal we have in this deck. With so much being crammed into the deck already with our betters, we need our removal be as flexible as possible and Chaos Warp is as flexible as they come, even breaking the color pie to do it. The random card revealed MIGHT come back to bite you, but the chance of that happening is pretty slim.
Oblation - In a deck that has more opportunities for card advantage I’d probably use it. As it is though, unless you’re playing in a voltron-heavy metagame this card can do more harm than good. The sudden two card draw means that your opponent has a better chance of drawing into an answer for our threats than they did before. But it’s up to you whether or not its worth the risk. My meta is especially powerful in one-card effects, so it may hurt you less than it would for me.
Cloudshift - This card. Is. AMAZING. I’ve been putting it in all and any of my decks that use white. It can save Kaalia from spot removal, reuse an ETB effect, bluff a spot removal, and perform combat tricks. Flicker really DOES do it all! If you play in a wrath heavy meta, though, it certainly loses some appeal/power. But thankfully, Angel of Serenity makes it a plus again.
Enlightened Tutor - A staple tutor for decks that want consistency at instant speed. Searches up our swords, boots, and can even find the super tutor that is Sunforger. Early game it can ramp by getting us our top, Sol Ring, signets and Land Tax.
Ghostway - This is Cloudshift’s big brother. It let us mass reset our ETB effects, avoid wrath effects, and it’s another way to protect Kaalia from being tucked.
Hide//Seek - The ‘Hide’ side helps us deal with enchantments and artifacts. At instant speed, we can mess with combat math if our opponents have buff effects out. The ‘Seek’ side is less used in my meta, but it’s great for removing combo pieces.
Mortify - More flexible spot removal. It gets rid of creatures, it gets rid of enchantments, and it can be cast with the mighty Mjolnir.
Orim’s Thunder - There are a lot of high cost artifacts in Commander. Orim’s Thunder let’s us 2-for-1 our opponent by not only taking out an artifact, but by taking out any other creature on the board with the damage it produces. It should be noted that while Orim’s Thunder can be cast with Sunforger, the kicker cost has to paid separately to activate the burn effect.
Path to ExileSwords to Plowshares - For this deck, cheap removal is the most efficient. Both Path and Swords are the best forms of creature removal we have. In an emergency, they can even be used to save Kaalia from being tucked. Putting her in the command zone won’t gain you life or a land, but it’s better than losing our life line.
Tithe - At instant speed, this card let’s us grab our duals and shocks that share the ‘Plains’ type. Also? Sunforger.
Skeletal Scrying - It’s a good one-shot effect at drawing. Without Crucible of Worlds or Mistveil Plains, we don’t have anyway to recur our non-creature spells. But at least they can fuel this potentially powerful draw spell.
Vampiric Tutor - Instant speed tutor for B is the best tutor we have. Enough said.
Wild Ricochet - For an aggressive deck that’s actively spending its mana, there’s little left over to hold reactive spells like this one. But it’s still tutorable with Sunforger, and still a powerful effect.
Dawn Charm - An experiment at this point, I added it in because I got really sick of getting targeted by Bribery. But it also does work by saving one of our creatures from a board wipe, or by fogging when someone tries to hit us back.
Armageddon - The cost makes this the best MLD spell we have.
Austere Command - Being modular means we can wipe out problems (such as tokens) without taking our creature, or without our equipment in the process.
Boom//Bust - Another modular effect, it CAN be worthwhile to use the ‘Boom’ side as spot removal for problem lands like Maze of Ith or Gaea’s Cradle.
Catastrophe - Modular land destruction gives us a creature wrath if that’s what we need.
Jokulhaups - This card is absolute destruction. Sometimes the game’s running long and we need to destroy everything. Lands, creatures, and everything else in-between. Being able to have enough mana to float for Kaalia’s cost (if she’s not protected by Darksteel Plate) is the only way we can take a definitive lead afterwards. If we can’t, we’ll be racing with everyone else to get back in the game, and that’s a battle I’m not confident we’ll win.
Demonic Tutor - I rarely pimp out my decks. But when I do, I do it for aesthetic reasons. For this one, I had to use the Divine Vs. Demonic version featuring Liliana. It’s just fitting.
Increasing Ambition - It curves out well with our deck since we’re playing Kaalia on turn four, and it lets us search for double when we flash it back, which is great since if we have the mana to flash it back, then we desperately need the cards we’ll be tutoring for.
Promise of Power - Five cards for the price of one gives our colors some much needed card advantage. The title pretty much describes what we’re hoping to draw too.
Akroma's Vengeance - Sometimes you just need the whole board reset. That's when this baby comes in. Cycle it if you desperately need something else, but otherwise it's a perfectly good option and fits on theme, particularly with both Akroma's on the list.
Diabolic Revelation - A quicker option for tutoring multiple cards, including our MLD combo. Sometimes Increasing Ambition is a turn to slow for a couple of cards too few. But it's also hard to get really value out of this card. For a deck like ours, we need quantity more often than we need quality.
Reforge the Soul - A much more budget friendly counterpart to Wheel of Fortune, we can even use Vampiric Tutor or Sensei's Divining Top to set it up for its miracle cost. This fits into our need to get mass card draw when we've only got one or two cards left to use. Potential to backfire is high, especially if your opponent's are running low too, but if there was a deck that needed to go all in, Kaalia's the one to do it.
Liliana Vess - I use her primarily as a one-shot tutor effect since she’s often knocked out by my next turn. If not, she gets me a second card and discards my opponents’ cards afterwards. As for aesthetics, my choice would be the media insert version, but I’m still hunting for that one. ^^;
Liliana of the Dark Realms - She’s one I’m interested in using, but I feel she’s less effective in an aggressive build like ours than in most other decks, especially in three colors. She can fix our colors by searching for lands, which is awesome. But I’d want to be running Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in order to maximize her -3 ability.
Ajani Vengeant - He can shoot something when he first comes out, and he can keep voltron generals tapped down for as long as we can target them. But his real value comes with his ultimate MLD ability. Of course, that’s rarely going to happen. It’s easier just to cast a spell.
Sorin Markov - Really helps an aggressive build like ours, but can make some people feel 'cheated' when they get hit by his -3. If you can find room for him though, he's definitely worth a slot and helps us one-shot someone if Kaalia flashes in something with power +8.
Arid Mesa/Bloodstained Mire/Marsh Flats - Fetch lands search up any of our shocks/duals and really help our color fixing. You could run off-color fetches, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth whenever I think about it.
Clifftop Retreat/Dragonskull Summit/Isolated Chapel - The M12/Innistrad “tap lands” are a lot better in three-color decks than I think some people give them credit for, especially if you’re running duals and/or shocks. Just having one of them lets all of the tap lands enter play for free. If we can’t put them into play untapped, it’s early enough where coming into play tapped won’t hurt us.
Blood Crypt/Godless Shrine/Sacred Foundry - I got the shocklands when they were pricey. I’ll still be happy if/when they’re reprinted though. They’re fantastic cards that are easy to search for to properly fix our colors.
Badlands/Plateau/Scrubland - The original duals....are way to expensive for me. The Revised editions were just cheap enough though. Just don’t buy the “Collector’s Edition” like I did though.....eh heh heh heh.....
Vivid Crag/Vivid Marsh/Vivid Meadow - Normally I’d say these cards are too slow for the speed we want, and I'd be right. Too often these lands annoy the heck out of me, not only because they enter the battlefield tapped when we need mana now, but because the dice I use to keep track of their charge counters get really irritating to work around.
Darksteel Citadel - Usually colorless mana in a three-color deck like ours is a bad thing, especially if it doesn’t have any utility effect. But it IS indestructible. That means it can survive MLD to power our signets, which puts us ahead of our opponents from the get go.
High Market - This one’s an essential sacrifice outlet to keep Kaalia from getting tucked. Always leave it untapped if you can help it.
Homeward Path - I play with a lot of Threaten effects in my meta. This card is another utility land that needs to be left untapped to discourage those effects from being used against us.
Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion - Our big creatures love having double strike, especially if one of them has a sword of X and Y equipped.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - This one makes our MLD spells UNCOUNTERABLE. That’s a really good thing to have.
Hall of the Bandit Lord - Hall gives Kaalia haste so that she can attack the turn she comes out. That’s a really good thing to have.
Phyrexian Tower - While the primary purpose is to sacrifice Kaalia in case there’s a tuck spell, it can also give us that extra mana if we really need it. Magic’s a game of inches, and the tower can give us that inch.
Bojuka Bog - Exiles an entire graveyard. Graveyard hate is a feature that most decks should have but often gets overlooked. The bog is the easiest way to sneak in some of that graveyard hate.
Cavern of Souls - I only ever declare “human” with it, even though Kaalia and Academy Rector are the only humans in the deck. It still keeps Kaalia from being countered, or tuck-countered by Hinder and Spell Crumble. Plus, it gives us whatever color we need to cast her, so it counts as mana fixing. But it's great as color fixing for angels if you find yourself playing a counter-free game.
Command Tower - Easily one of best mana fixing lands in the Commander format. I still use the original that Kaalia came with.
Flagstones of Trokair - This card’s another way to take advantage of our MLD spells. It fetches up any plains (duals/shocks/Mistveil) when it’s destroyed, and any advantage we can grab helps us after a landwipe.
Mistveil Plains - Part of our Sunforger combo. Let’s us recycle any instants we need, like spot removal and
Cloudshift/Ghostway to avoid removal ourselves.
Shadowblood Ridge - Signet lands are alright. At the very least, it let’s our utility lands produce colored mana, which is very helpful.
Forbidden Orchard - Taps for any colored mana, and the 1/1 token isn't a problem because it doesn't fly. Really helps out big time.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Gives all of our lands the ability to tap for B, essentially turning them into duals or even tri-lands. If someone else has it already in play, I've got the option of putting them back a land or holding mine back until I MLD the field. Options!
Strip Mine - A must have for every commander deck. Taps for mana until we need to get rid of something. Fantastic to have against all of the Maze of Ith's I see on a regular basis.
Rugged Prairie/Graven Cairns - I was a bit sketchy about using filter lands, but they've been pretty good in my Jenara deck so far. With some of the triple cost cards in the deck, mana fixing is really important and these cards help us get there.
***Note***: This thread is to build a very powerful aggro deck that uses land destruction and other means to stay ahead. I try to keep an open mind to others’ opinions, so if you feel strongly for or against a card please voice it and we can discuss. Feel free to ask any questions about card choices as I would love to review any past experience I have had with other options. If you are looking for a deck that combos out on turn 4-6, or find land destruction offensive, this is not the deck for you.
Deck History –
Why play Kaalia? –
Personal Bio –
What I lack in experience, I’ve made for with other players who’ve helped me learn the game of EDH via ‘Trial by Fire’. My playgroup is fairly spikey, and have been a great resource in growing up quickly and becoming a very competent magic player. I still make mistakes, but I’m leaps and bounds better now than I was when I first bought my Kaalia deck.
As for why I’m made a primer, I did so to both note the changes in my deck as well as help anyone else who was trying to run Kaalia as effectively as possible, while promoting discussions on how to build aggressive builds that heavily rely on her.
That, and this was my chance to have the first listed multiplayer primer thread for Kaalia on the commander decklist database. I'll admit to a little vanity on my part.
GENERAL: Kaalia of the Vast
Deck List –
1 Angelic Arbiter
1 Angel of Despair
1 Angel of Serenity
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Karmic Guide
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Lord of the Void
1 Rakdos the Defiler
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Bogardan Hellkite
1 Dragon Mage
1 Hellkite Tyrant
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Magus of the Moat
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Sun Titan
1 Boros Signet
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Sphere of Suns
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Sunforger
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Angelic Renewal
1 Legion's Initiative
1 Necropotence
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Stranglehold
1 Boros Charm
1 Chaos Warp
1 Cloudshift
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Hide // Seek
1 Mortify
1 Path to Exile
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Vampiric tutor
1 Wear // Tear
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Armageddon
1 Catastrophe
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merciless Eviction
1 Obzedat's Aid
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Liliana Vess
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Marsh Flats
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Blood Crypt
1 Godless Shrine
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Badlands
1 Plateau
1 Scrubland
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Graven Cairns
1 High Market
1 Homeward Path
1 Strip Mine
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Tower
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Shadowblood Ridge
2 Mountain
4 Plains
2 Swamp
Watch list –
Watch list for BANNED cards:
Griselbrand
Strategy –
Phase I - Playing Kaalia
Kaalia wants to play fast, and she wants to hit hard. It is crucial that she hits the board no later than turn four, and is suited-up and swinging no later than turn five. If you can’t, you’ll have a much harder time getting Kaalia to stick for more than a round.
Savvy players won’t wait for you to get her trigger off, and as soon as you enter combat, there’s the risk of someone dropping spot removal before we can flash anything in, which can set us back another two turns in the best case scenario, tucking her completely in the worse case scenario. Playing aggresive is not without risk, but its worth it for the power we’re trying to get in play.
The signets are vital to getting an accelerated start. A turn two signet sets up a turn three Kaalia, at a time when most players aren’t prepared to deal with her. If we’re playing before the blue player does, this helps us avoid a potential Spell Crumple or Hinder.
Phase II - Using Kaalia’s Trigger
The actual attacking portion of Kaalia’s strategy is fairly straightforward: Pick the player most likely to give us problems and take them out first, which usually happen to be the combo player. Hopefully this discourages other players from interfering with our game plan, letting us do all the dirty work to take a player out for them. Chances are that we’ll face a board wipe once a player has been eliminated.
Unfortunately, players familiar with our deck know that once Kaalia starts dropping creatures, she can lock people out, especially if cards like Iona, Shield of Emeria and Steel Hellkite see the board. They’ll be sure to stop any early attacks as soon as we try something. This is part of why the importance of having protection for Kaalia increases as the game goes on.
Phase III - Seal Kaalia’s Victory
So you’ve managed to keep Kaalia safe, and you’re on the offensive. Everything’s going great. Problem is, someone just miracled into a Terminus, or dropped the Hallowed Burial on you. Now you’ve lost all momentum, and without Kaalia the deck comes to a screeching halt.
Fortunately, there are simple preventive measures we can take known as “Blowing up everyone’s lands”, otherwise referred to as “Mass Land Destruction”, MLD for short.
While there are plenty of groups that have a social taboo on MLD, there are few ways for aggressive decks to maintain an advantage in a format where card advantage is king, and board wipes of any sort are extremely crippling to certain types of decks, ours included.
As of right now, I only play with four cards that destroy all lands in play (Jokulhaups, Cataclysm, Boom//Bust, and Armageddon), but you can easily tutor for one, get your board set up, and wrath as early as turn five or six.
Depending on how many creatures you’ve flashed in already, this is usually the game ending move since people rarely have lands left to play by turn six, or aren’t able to catch up regardless. This may result in bitter groans if you’re playing with a group that’s not used to MLD.
A Public Service Announcment on MLD:
MLD (Mass Land Destruction) is often frowned upon in social settings of MTG, especially of the Highlander variety. Preventing people from playing their spells is said to create an un-fun atmosphere, and will likely cause you to be hated by your fellow card slingers.
To this I say: “BALONEY”.
Land destruction has always been one of the few things that red brings to EDH, and to cut it out is to cut off a leg that is the already three-legged chair of red’s Commander playable card pool.
As you use land destruction as a legitimate means to win, people will adapt. They’ll learn to hold back a few lands if they can’t directly deal with your MLD cards, as well as learn to avoid over committing on lands while playing against whatever deck you have.
But keep in mind, WHEN you use an MLD card matters too. Using it for the sake of doing something without rhyme or reason is what will earn you the most ire. When you’re casting it to win, the other players can take comfort in that a new game will start shortly. When you cast it in defense (which I’ve been known to do), it can be seen as a last-ditch resort to keep yourself alive long enough to try and win the game.
So don’t shy away from MLD. If your game plan can benefit from some severed mana bonds, by all means, introduce your friends to the magic and wonder of Mass Land Destruction!
Before you use a MLD card though, try to obtain the following as they make rebuilding your own board position THAT much easier:
1) Protection for Kaalia. This can come in the form of either of her boots, a sword, or even Darksteel Plate.
2) Creatures to flash in. While they don’t have to be on the field, Kaalia won’t be kill an opponent by herself. Be sure to have a couple of other creatures to back her up.
3) A consistent source of card draw or land fixing. Land Tax, Sensei’s Divining Top, and Phyrexian Arena help make sure that we get our lands back after a mass LD attack.
If all goes well, the match should be quick, easy, and you will now have shown everyone why they should check their closet for Kaalia before they go to bed.
HOWEVER!!!
This is not always the case. In fact, more often than not, I don’t have the protection Kaalia needs by the time I need to start swinging, nor do I have the MLD to seal victory. When this happens, the deck needs to change gears and get ready for the long haul. I offer a few tips for such an event.
1) Conserve a tutor.
Without protection, the chance of someone trying to tuck Kaalia becomes deadly. If I feel that there’s a chance of that happening before I can close the win, I try to hold onto a tutor effect like Vampiric Tutor or Increasing Ambition to get Kaalia back as quickly as possible.
2) Watch those counter and bounce effects.
If you play with someone who uses blue, even an open 1U holds the threat of having Kaalia countered. I generally try and play around it, setting up my board for Kaalia while waiting for them to tap out so I can safely cast her.
Similarly, mass bounce effects can be problematic since they keep Kaalia from attacking (preventing any sort of ETB effect flashed in), and gives everyone the heads up that Kaalia’s probably going to be dropped again. Replaying her from your hand means you avoid paying her general tax (which can get pricey if you’re casting her more than three times a game), but the rules still apply when watching for any potential counter spells.
3) Floating mana can be your best friend.
If the game goes on long enough, you probably have a MLD effect available to you. Waiting for the right players to be tapped out will give you the chance to tap all of your lands for mana. Figure out what you want to use for Kaalia, and what you want to use for MLD spell, and cast the MLD spell first. If it resolves and none of the other players tapped for mana, it’s safe to cast Kaalia and start beating face with her on your next turn.
If someone DID float mana though, check their board position. Do they have something they can use mana for? Spot removal is a possibility. Hence why being able to rebuild your land base faster than your opponent's becomes key.
Using Kaalia –
Synergy and Combos –
Since the deck focus is on being aggressive, there aren’t a lot of explicit combinations that earn crazy advantage for us. With that being said, the deck isn’t without SOME tricks.
Debtor’s Knell or Reya Dawnbringer + High Market or Phyrexian Tower + any creature with an ETB trigger or dies effect.
This is a slow combo, and not one strong enough to go out of our way to tutor for, but when it does get set up, it gives us some much needed value out of trigger creatures like Bogardan Hellkite and Deathless Angel. With creatures that die like Ryusei, the Falling Star and Hoarding Dragon, we set ourselves up with a way to grab more cards or repeatedly wrath the board. This combination can actually be pretty strong if we set it up with Yosei, the Morning Star.
Twilight Shepherd + Any MLD card.
Twilight Shepherd gives us back the lands we’ve just lost, but requires us to either float the mana to cast her (meaning that this will occur later in the game), or by flashing her in with Kaalia. The latter is easier, but depends on having a clear avenue for Kaalia to attack through to ensure that we stay ahead of everyone else.
That's DEFINTELY a cool and jerk-like thing to do. I'm adding it!
Well, not just yet. I update the deck list corresponding to the irl deck and it's in a transition as I hunt for appropriate cards to proxy to modify it. I know I'm adding Primeval Titan for sure, for example, I just havn't proxied it yet to test him out.
Yup, I definetly need to add a Reliquary Tower. I've had that problem in a game or two so far, and I DO hate discarding due to size. Glad to see that Warstorm Surge is still comparably cheap though. If I have power ups (like Eldrazi Monument) or stuff that gives my tokens counters (like Sigil Captain) will it deal damage equal to the total power, or their original power?
You sir, have officially BLOWN MY MIND!!! I was looking at Sprout Swarm but I wasn't sure how practical it would be until you showed up. These are great suggestions, so thanks!
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Forbidden Orchard
5 Forest
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Graven Cairns
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Gruul Turf
1 Karplusan Forest
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Mosswort Bridge
6 Mountain
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Rupture Spire
1 Savage Lands
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1 Sulfurous Springs
4 Swamps
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Ancient Hellkite
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Bladewing the Risen
1 Bladewing’s Thrall
1 Bogardan Hellkite
1 Broodmate Dragon
1 Darigaaz, the Igniter
1 Dragon Broodmother
1 Dragon Mage
1 Dragonmaster Outcast
1 Dragonspeaker Shaman
1 Furnace Dragon
1 Flameblast Dragon
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Hellkite Overlord
1 Hoarding Dragon
1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
1 Jugan, the Rising Star
1 Kilnmouth Dragon
1 Knollspine Dragon
1 Malfegor
1 Mana-Charged Dragon
1 Mordant Dragon
1 Primeval Titan
1 Rorix Bladewing
1 Ryusei, the Falling Star
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Taurean Mauler
1 Thunder Dragon
1 Two-Headed Dragon
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Blades of Velis Vel
1 Coalition Relic
1 Death by Dragons
1 Demonic Collusion
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Dragon Breath
1 Dragonstorm
1 Dread Return
1 Fires of Yavimaya
1 Genesis Wave
1 Golgari Signet
1 Gruul Signet
1 Hull Breach
1 Insurrection
1 Kodama’s Reach
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Lurking Predators
1 Mana Geyser
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Regrowth
1 Rites of Flourishing
1 Sarkhan the Mad
1 Sarkhan Vol
1 Sol Ring
1 Stranglehold
1 Summoning Trap
1 Terminate
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Victimize
1 Violent Ultimatum
1 Where Ancients Tread
1 Wild Pair
I've had great success with a dragon-themed casual deck before in multiplayer, so naturally I wanted to try something similar in Commander/EDH. When I saw Kelly's list I knew I could improve on it.
Kelly writes that his deck took inspiration from the Dragonstorm decks and created it for quick mana to quickly cast Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund and smash face with it.
While this is a stratedgy that I can appreciate (prefering straight up brawn as my go-to problem solver), I don't think the quick mana flow would last in the mulitplayer games I get into. So my goal was to train Karrthus to be a marathoner, not neccesarily a sprinter.
After a few playtests, I took out the instant gratification from cards like Seething Song and Manamorphose in favor of stuff that would ramp my mana for the long-haul with cards like Coalition Relic and Sol Ring (Thank you Commander re-prints!), while leaving in cards that searched out my basic lands.
Wild Pair and Tooth and Nail really help me swarm the field quickly, which is key in helping me tutor dragons with "enter the battlefield" abilities like Thunder Dragon and Bogardan Hellkite. I'd LOVE to get Defense of the Heart in there too, but I'm not sure what to take out. A little help, fellas?
I've had fun with it so far, but I feel that the deck still has a lot of tweaking left to go, so any help would be much appreciated! Thank you!
Lands: 38
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Boros Garrison
1 Brushland
1 Command Tower
1 Forbidden Orchard
8 Forest
1 Gruul Turf
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Karplusan Forest
1 Krosan Verge
6 Mountain
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
6 Plains
1 Rith’s Grove
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Rupture Spire
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
1 Archangel of Strife
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
1 Dauntless Escort
1 Dragon Broodmother
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Fertild
1 Forgotten Ancient
1 Juniper Order Ranger
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Mirror Entity
1 Mycoloth
1 Nemata, Grove Guardian
1 Pallid Mycoderm
1 Rhys the Redeemed
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Selesnya Guildmage
1 Sigil Captain
1 Skullmulcher
1 Spike Weaver
1 Thelonite Hermit
1 Ulasht, the Hate Seed
1 Utopia Mycon
1 Verdant Force
1 Verdeloth the Ancient
1 Victory’s Herald
1 Akroma’s Vengeance
1 Austere Command
1 Beastmaster Ascension
1 Boros Signet
1 Condemn
1 Decree of Justice
1 Defense of the Heart
1 Doubling Season
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Faith’s Fetters
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Glory of Warfare
1 Gruul Signet
1 Harmonize
1 Hour of Reckoning
1 Hull Breach
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Martial Coup
1 Night Soil
1 Nomads’ Assembly
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Planar Cleansing
1 Pollenbright Wings
1 Praetor’s Counsel
1 Privileged Position
1 Return to Dust
1 Rith’s Charm
1 Seed Spark
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Titanic Ultimatum
1 True Conviction
This deck was based off of one I read about by Kelly Digges in his "Confessions of a Deck-Building Addict" article. I originally started with a jumbled mess of my best red/white/green spells, but that was back when I was still learning the basics of EDH/Commander deck building. Got the cards and put together what I felt was a good updated version of what Kelly did. I havn't play-tested it yet (as of this post), but I'd like some comments and suggestions on how token production could be more effecient and/or more of.
The deck is meant to swarm, and swarm BIG. This is why Rith, the Awakener is my general. Green and White both have some of the best token producing cards, and I just love any combination involving red/white. An earlier version of this deck had red support giving my cards haste, but I took that out. Part of what concerns me about this deck is the lack of red, and a little too much green and white. But at the same time, what red cards I DO have are doozies that I feel help this deck and really work for it. Any red suggestions are very much appreciated.
At first stage I thought I'd go with a pure Saproling army, but there weren't enough cards that made saprolings consistently and were versatile enough for EDH (hence why I went with Selesnya Guildmage over the slightly cheaper Jade Mage). Cards like Elspeth Tireal and Hour of Reckoning are for bombing everything BUT my tokens, but sometimes a true board wipe, such as Akroma's Wrath are needed.
This is also the FIRST deck I've built that has actually mana-alternative lands, like Battlefield Forge and Sunpetal Grove. Rith's Grove is one of those rare cards that color arcs have access too and really helps enable whatever color I need.
I'd love to add Sarkhan Vol, but I'm not sure what to take out for him at the moment.
Comments, suggestions, and critiques much welcomed! Thank you.
P.S. Doubling Season was the only card I was willing to go over $15 for. ^^; I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon.
I've been playing MTG since only spring of 2010, and I'm only just now dipping my toes into the deeper depths of magic complexity, so I was real glad when a friend referred me to this site!
I just looooove token decks! There's just something about lining up all of those token cards and getting a bird's-eye-view of your entire army, ready to march on command. I know using dice and maybe one or two tokens is what's space efficient, but you just don't get that same "swarmy" feel to it.
I play casually (albeit with high-level players), but all of decks have some sort of token them, from my Khemba equipment to my recently finished Rith EDH/commander. So it's one of my hopes that I'll be able to learn how to really swarm while I'm on here.
I've also started making a card or two, so you can expect me to be lurking around that portion of the boards.
Finally, My favorite colors are R//, or just R/W if you wanna be bare bones about it with White holding top priority over everything else.
Moat IS a great card for this, but I've found it's a little too pricey for guys like me who're building on a budget. ^^;