Angels, demons and dragons, oh my! (Kaalia Primer)

Commander / EDH Aggro Angels Competitive Demons Dragons RBW (Mardu)

Chickens_are_awesome

Land (37)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Haunted Fengraf
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 3x Mountain
• 3x Plains
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Rugged Prairie
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Slayers' Stronghold
• 1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Temple of Triumph
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of the Archangel

Reanimation (4)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Exhume
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Unburial Rites

Wrath (2)

• 1x Armageddon
• 1x Wrath of God

Dragons (9)

• 1x Balefire Dragon
• 1x Bladewing the Risen
• 1x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
• 1x Moonveil Dragon
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Stormbreath Dragon
• 1x Thunder Dragon
• 1x Thundermaw Hellkite
• 1x Utvara Hellkite

Angels (8)

• 1x Angel of Serenity
• 1x Archangel of Strife
• 1x Aurelia, the Warleader
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Baneslayer Angel
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
• 1x Tariel, Reckoner of Souls

Demons (7)

• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Demon of Wailing Agonies
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Lord of the Void
• 1x Master of Cruelties
• 1x Rakdos the Defiler
• 1x Reaper from the Abyss

Removal (5)

• 1x Crackling Doom
• 1x Dreadbore
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Vindicate

Planeswalkers (3)

• 1x Ajani Vengeant
• 1x Gideon Jura
• 1x Liliana Vess

Tutor (2)

• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon

Commander (1)

Ramp (8)

• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Mardu Banner
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring

Other (5)

• 1x Magus of the Moat
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Sneak Attack
• 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1x Underworld Connections

Buffs (5)

• 1x Fervor
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x True Conviction
• 1x Whip of Erebos

Draw (4)

• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Dragon Mage
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena

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Maybeboard

Other (12)

• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Hammer of Purphoros
• 1x Hellkite Charger
• 1x Mardu Banner
• 1x Mimic Vat
• 1x Nahiri, the Harbinger
• 1x Scourge of the Throne
• 1x Skyline Despot
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

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This is my Kaalia of the Vast edh deck.

key creatures Show

Iona, Shield of Emeria does amazing things for us, one of which is auto-winning against any mono-colored deck. She also allows us to hose a third to half of any multicolored deck. Be careful what you choose! Iona is basically a removal magnet and often will get hated off the table in multiplayer. It is very important to be political about your decisions with Iona in multiplayer. Allies are very important to this deck in multiplayer, and Iona can instantly grant you allies or make enemies.In 1v1, this card is basically a auto win,She is an auto-include in all kaalia decks

Rune-Scarred Demon is a Demonic Tutor that you can cheat into play with kaalia. Cheating him into play early can grant you the exact card you need for the next attack, or maybe grab you some Lightning Greaves or a removal spell if the need arises. It can also grab our good friend Gideon Jura to make our opponents attack steps less relevant. It is also a 6/6 flier that gets better every time we re-buy it with reanimation effects. Very good and perhaps under-rated card.

If you manage to cheat Master of Cruelties in play with Kaalia and your opponent can't block him, you win. It is a one time deal though, so you must be cautious about when you go for the instant kill. After the initial attack step this guy gets a lot less relevant, but it is still a amazing blocker. I still play him because of how great he is.

Disclaimer: This combo is extremely likely to annoy other players (I think this is both a good and a bad thing.). If your play group does not like this kind of thing, You might not want to play Master of Cruelties.

Thundermaw Hellkite is one of my favorite dragons ever printed. You cannot go wrong with a 5/5 flier with an awesome ability. Thundermaw is just an enormous threat against any token strategies (dead 1/1 spirits and Emeria Angel tokens). This is our token killer. We want him against Rhys, the Redeemed, Trostani, and any other token general. He is also kind of considered to be fair in a sense where all of our other cards arent. He is great and you always want him.

Rakdos the Defilerends games very quickly. Rakdos the Defiler comes with a pseudo-annihilator ability that just closes out games. We want to play him when we have additional draw cards like Phyrexian Arena, Dark Confidant, and Underworld Connections in order to keep up with the cost of attacking with him. The only downside to Rakdos is that he is also extremely likely to annoy people. Opponents really hate playing against him (which is good for us!).

Aurelia, the Warleader ends games so quick. She gives us additional attack steps, which means even more angels, demons, and dragons! There truly isnt anything like attacking with an active Aurelia, cheating a Rune-Scarred Demon in play, tutoring for another Kaalia target, and cheating it into play during the next combat step. Aurelia is also vigilant, which means we can block! Our deck doesnt really do a lot of blocking, so be sure to block well with Aurelia.

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight literally ends games by herself. One attack with an active Gisela can net us 20, 30, 40, even 50 damage. Combine her with Aurelia and watch our deck get super dirty. Gisela is basically a win-more card. Your deck is already super powerful, so there is no problem with adding in another card that makes our guys deal double the damage. Gisela is just super nasty.

Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury is barely used outside of this deck. I get excited every time I get to play Kolaghan. He can give all of our dudes a boost, especially if we have multiple dragons in play, which is not uncommon in this deck. Combine Kolaghan, Thundermaw Hellkite, and Gisela and you get to deal a bunch more damage every turn. He also has Dash, which can be relevant against control decks or anything with many removal spells. I love this guy.

Thunder Dragon and Balefire Dragon are easily the best dragons in our deck if we are facing down any other creature deck. goblins? Thunder Dragon and Balefire Dragon deal with it. Tokens? Thunder Dragon and Balefire Dragon deal with it. Elves? Thunder Dragon and Balefire Dragon deal with it. Thunder Dragon and Balefire Dragon are the sluggers of this Commander deck. They are the best beat-sticks we can have in our hands at literally any given point of the game. These are Auto-Includes

(I combined them because they basically do the same thing in a different way)

The best card in our deck to cheat out on turn 3 or 4 is Avacyn, Angel of Hope. She gives all of our permanents indestructible. She can only be dealt with using exile effects, and by that time we are already way ahead. She also closes out games like nobodies business, especially when our opponent has no hand. I have literally nothing else to write about her. She is a must have.

ramp Show

Alright, lets talk ramp. We arent playing green so that means we need artifacts. I play all of the good mana rocks I could come up with that produce colored mana. We have to have the colored mana in order to cast and connect with Kaalia earlier. One of these mana rocks means a faster Kaalia!

Ramp: Chromatic Lantern, Orzhov Signet, Boros Signet, Rakdos Signet, Sol Ring and Fellwar Stone.

card draw Show

I prioritize card draw the least. I just feel like we are already beating down with so many creatures that we dont really need it. Nevertheless, I have included four ways to draw extra cards in my list: Dark Confidant, Phyrexian Arena, Dragon Mage, and Underworld Connections. Lets talk about Dragon Mage for a minute. Dragon Mage is unique because it is a Wheel of Fortune effect on a flier that we can cheat into play. I would caution anyone who is playing this card to be thoughtful about their opponents before rushing into a Dragon Mage. We probably shouldnt be shoving Dragon Mage into play against Azami, Sen Triplets, or Mono Black. Other than that, he is good to go.

removal Show

Removal: Vindicate, Terminate, Dreadbore, Bonfire of the Damned, Mizzium Mortars, Wrath of God, Armageddon, Crackling Doom, and Swords to Plowshares.

All of these cards are extremely efficient in our deck. Mardu colors just have so much to offer when it comes to removal that we have tons of choices for cards. I love the sweepers in my deck because Kaalia can stall if we have a slow hand, and it is nice to Wrath the turn before you play Kaalia. Mizzium Mortars is a great card to have in the case of decks like Elves, Goblins, and anything else that has toughness less than 5.

Kaalia needs removal in order to function correctly. We need to be able to pick off problem creatures or efficient blockers in order to kill our opponents. We oftentimes leave our board completely tapped out, so diversifying our removal into sorcery and instant speed isnt that big of a deal.

buffs and protection Show

Buffs and protection are very important to this deck. We need to keep our general alive to keep our deck alive. For that reason I play the following: Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots,Fervor, True Conviction, Whip of Erebos, Ajani Vengeant, and Gideon Jura.

Most of these cards are win more cards. Fervor and Hammer of Purphoros let us have haste. True Conviction gives our guys double strike, and Whip gives our guys Lifelink. All of our reanimation is super relevant due to the sheer amount of huge creatures we play. Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves are must haves because of our general. If Kaalia is hexproof, we basically force our opponents to wrath or just die to our huge fliers. We also dont really care about our life total. As long as we have more than zero we can win.

planeswalkers Show

The three planeswalkers I have chosen are Gideon Jura, Liliana Vess and Ajani Vengeant. I chose Ajani and Gideon because they can take over a portion of the game. Ajani can just port our opponents blockers, then Armageddon them out of the game he also has removal. Gideon is just a beater that does a fantastic job of keeping our opponents blockers off us. Liliana can make players discard cards, tutor for any card in the deck and can take all cards from all graveyards. All of these planeswalkers are great. We need them.

reanimation Show

I don't have much to say about reanimation, but it is very important to this deck because of all of the big creatures that it has. You can reanimate cards with enter the battlefield effects like Rune-Scarred Demon to use them again

budget version Show

This is the budget version

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budget kaalia

Commander / EDH* Chickens_are_awesome

SCORE: 1 | 10 COMMENTS | 557 VIEWS

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Date added	7 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	23 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.35
Tokens	Dragon 6/6 R
Folders	Favorites, Ideas