Commander Collection: Abyssus

Commander / EDH RBW (Mardu)

Jurrane

Land (36)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Foreboding Ruins
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Inspiring Vantage
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mountain
• 2x Plains
• 1x Rugged Prairie
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Savai Triome P
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Sunbaked Canyon
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Vault of Champions

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Smothering Tithe

Creature (26)

• 1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
• 1x Angel of Despair
• 1x Angel of Serenity
• 1x Angel of the Ruins
• 1x Archangel of Strife
• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Archfiend of Despair
• 1x Aurelia, the Warleader
• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Bloodletter of Aclazotz
• 1x Burning-Rune Demon
• 1x Demonlord Belzenlok
• 1x Drana and Linvala
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Infernal Sovereign
• 1x Isshin, Two Heavens as One
• 1x Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
• 1x Master of Cruelties
• 1x Piru, the Volatile
• 1x Rakdos, Lord of Riots
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Sephara, Sky's Blade
• 1x Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire
• 1x Vilis, Broker of Blood

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Damn
• 1x Demonic Tutor P
• 1x Mythos of Snapdax
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Painful Truths
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Vindicate

Commander (1)

Artifact (14)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mask of Avacyn
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Conviction
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Instant (12)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Crackling Doom
• 1x Dawn's Truce
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Excise the Imperfect
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Stroke of Midnight
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Vampiric Tutor P

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{W}{B}{R} Deck Concept: Demonic Packed {W}{B}{R}

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I was once told that I was a bit of a Timmy player so, for the Mardu deck in my EDH collection, I’ve decided to embrace my calling and build one of the very Timmiest of decks. The concept is about as simple as it gets: play our commander Kaalia of the Vast and use her to cheat as many high impact Angels and Demons into play as quickly as possible before she gets removed (she’s a removal magnet so expect this to happen quite fast).

The deck is made more exciting by including Isshin, Two Heavens as One, who functions as Kaalia’s deputy commander by doubling the number of attack triggers she gets. If we’re going to full Timmy, we might as well do it properly and spew out two giant hosses each turn rather than just one. Strionic Resonator is here too and does the same thing but we have to pay {2} to activate it.

That’s basically it. Nothing especially subtle here but we don’t have to worry about being subtle when we’re wrecking face with some of the biggest, baddest creatures the Mardu colour combination has to offer.

Why No Dragons?

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Kaalia of the Vast’s triggered ability means we can cheat out Angels, Demons or Dragons from our hand. So why aren’t there many dragons in this list? Two reasons: (1) I already have a Jund dragons deck and most of my strongest B/R dragon cards are in there; and (2) I decided to go with a heaven and hell theme, focusing on Angels and Demons only. Even with this restriction, fortunately we have no shortage of badass creatures to choose from.

That said, I've been converted to playing Piru, the Volatile in this list, because of her sheer power. Her mana cost is pretty prohibitive but the value we get from cheating her into play with Kaalia is amazing and she can often be a one-sided boardwipe if sequenced correctly. Definitely worth breaking my no-dragons rule for.

Deck Elements

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The majority of the cards in this deck fit into five categories. Most of our creatures are angels and demons; we try to keep Kaalia and the team on the board with a bunch of different protection spells; we run plenty of removal cards to eliminate opposing threats; and we have various card draw effects to ensure our hand is nicely stocked with big beefy creatures for Kaalia to cheat into play. Finally, we’ve loaded up on different mana sources so we have the option of hard casting our horde of angels and demons when Kaalia’s not around.

Angels & Demons

In a deck packed with angelic and demonic denizens of the highest (and lowest) order, one creature stands out and it’s the one with the lowest power (at least on paper). Master of Cruelties’ synergy with Kaalia of the Vast is nasty, to the point where I wonder if should even be including it in a casual EDH deck. It might only have a power of 1, but if Master of Cruelties is cheated into play from Kaalie’s attack trigger ability and both attackers connect with an unfortunate opponent, that player instantly loses the game. How? Here’s the MtG Judges website:

“… One of Kaalia’s best Demon buddies is Master of Cruelties, the marquee Rakdos mythic from Dragon’s Maze. Master of Cruelties has a very particular attacking restriction: if he attacks, he can only attack alone, which means no other creature can legally be declared as an attacker with him. (However, he doesn’t have to attack each turn.)

Kaalia’s ability, however, provides savvy players a way around this. When Kaalia attacks and her ability resolves, you can put Master of Cruelties “onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.” Because you never declared him as an attacker, his attacking restriction is ignored.

That’s well and good, but what about Master of Cruelties’ last ability? As we can see by the word “whenever” at the beginning, it’s a triggered ability. The trigger condition is met if “Master of Cruelties attacks a player and isn’t blocked.” We already said that Master of Cruelties was never actually declared as an attacker, so you might think that this ability cannot trigger. However, this trigger’s wording is deceptive. It actually cares about whether or not the Master is blocked.

If your opponent neglects to block the Master of Cruelties, his ability will trigger and promptly reduce your opponent’s life total to 1. Then, when combat damage is dealt, Kaalia will deal 2 damage herself.”

Ding ding! One-hit KO!

The rest of the creatures I’ve chosen for this deck generally fulfill at least one of several criteria: (1) they’re Angels or Demons so they can be put into play when Kaalia of the Vast attacks; 2) they hit hard and are capable of swifting causing damage to our opponents; or (3) they can result in advantageous board states for us if they remain on the board. Archangel of Strife, Bloodletter of Aclazotz and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight are some of the all-stars, as they can cause a lot of damage very quickly if left unchecked. Isshin, Two Heavens as One is the only exception to this as he synergises so well with Kaalia of the Vast.

Protection Spells

Kaalia of the Vast is feared and hated by opposing players because of the degenerate board states she creates. Our goal therefore is to keep her on the board for as long as we can so we can get the most out of her triggered ability. Veilstone Amulet, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Whispersilk Cloak, Mask of Avacyn and Darksteel Plate are all included to protect her, and we also run several cards to help Kaalia and her friends dodge removal. These are Flawless Maneuver, Boros Charm, Deflecting Swat Dawn's Truce and Teferi's Protection.

Removal Cards

Because we’re in Mardu colours, our removal is absolutely top drawer. White/black gives us versatile spot removal like Vindicate, Utter End, Anguished Unmaking and Excise the Imperfect, as well as the usual range of creature destruction cards (Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Terminate etc). Damn and Mythos of Snapdax give us boardwipe options if we fall behind when other players generate threats faster than us.

Card Draw

Our deck’s success relies on being able to get Angels and Demons on the board as regularly and consistently as possible. To achieve this, we run a series of card draw effects that allow us to keep our hand stocked with threats for our opponents to answer. We have Painful Truths, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper and Read the Bones as one shot deals, and supplement these with Necropotence, Phyrexian Arena, Bloodgift Demon, Infernal Sovereign, Harvester of Souls and Kothophed, Soul Hoarder. We also have access to various tutors to find us right cards at the right time: Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire, Rune-Scarred Demon and Burning-Rune Demon. Demonlord Belzenlok acts as a pseudo-draw effect too.

Mana Sources

This is a pretty resource hungry deck. Our average CMC is around 4 and we can’t always rely on Kaalia of the Vast to cheat out our high cost creatures. Because of this, we run nine mana rocks alongside our land base, and we include Smothering Tithe to generate Treasure tokens to be used for hardcasting our high CMC creatures. Finally, Kaalia will get removed frequently so Command Beacon is an auto include in a deck like this.

Power Level

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I categorise decks in my collection according to four tiers of power, from 1 (most powerful) to 4 (least powerful):

Tier 1: Higher powered decks with fast mana, free spells, and infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors.
Tier 2: Well tuned decks which may have infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors, but not many fast mana sources and/or free spells.
Tier 3: Reasonably well tuned casual decks that are capable of powerful plays. May occasionally have infinite combos or instant wins but don't generally use tutors to find them.
Tier 4: Lower powered or linear decks, weak enough to play against other casual decks.

This is a fair/casual Kaalia list, if that isn't too much of a contradiction in terms. Other than Master of Cruelties, it doesn't run any of the nasty combos found in competitive Kaalia builds and aims to win the old-fashioned way, ie. through combat. I'd therefore call it one of my Tier 3 decks as it's pretty well optimised apart from fast mana, which I'd like to add later. As it stands though, it's fine for casual tables although expect to become the archenemy as soon as people see which Commander you're playing.

Budget

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Budget-wise, Kaalia can be quite an expensive deck as (a) it's a 3-colour mana base; and (b) ideally you want {W}{B}{R} as early as possible in the first few turns. You therefore want all the shocklands, as many of the relevant fetches as you can get hold of, plus the rainbow lands like City of Brass, Mana Confluence etc. Unfortunately you're probably looking at about $200 just for the lands. Although my version is about $600 to buy on Card Kingdom, I'd still call it a relatively budget list as it's a bit light on WBR staples (it has Teferi's Protection, Smothering Tithe and Deflecting Swat, which are all pretty expensive, but doesn't run any of the tutors eg. Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor etc).

If I was to upgrade - which is something I'd like to do - I'd add the tutors as mentioned above, plus fast mana sources like Ancient Tomb, Jeweled Lotus, Chrome Mox, Mox Amber, Mana Crypt and Mana Vault to ensure Kaalia can come out of the blocks a bit faster. I'm aiming to add all of these at some point.

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All My EDH Decks

{W} Giada, Font of Hope {W}
S(i)erra Sidewinder: Mono-White Angel Tribal

{U} Talrand, Sky Summoner {U}
Blue Streak: Mono-Blue Spellslinger

{U} Orvar, the All-Form {U}
Clone Zone: Mono-Blue Shapeshifters Combo

{B} Sidisi, Undead Vizier {B}
Swamp Thing: Mono-Black Goodstuff

{B} Syr Konrad, the Grim {B}
Black Hole: Mono-Black Sacrifice/Aristocrats

{R} Torbran, Thane of Red Fell {R}
Red Force: Mono-Red Group Slug

{R} Rionya, Fire Dancer {R}
Firebird: Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

{G} Titania, Protector of Argoth {G}
Timber Terror: Mono-Green Stax

{W}{U} Grand Arbiter Augustin IV {W}{U}
Control Freak: Azorius Control

{W}{U} Elminster {W}{U}
Crystal Wing: Azorius Skies & Scry

{U}{B} Oona, Queen of the Fae {U}{B}
Dreamcatcher: Dimir Faeries Tribal

{U}{B} Narfi, Betrayer King {U}{B}
Ice Breaker: Dimir Snow/Zombies

{B}{R} Rakdos, Lord of Riots {B}{R}
Steamin’ Demon: Rakdos Life Loss

{B}{R} Juri, Master of the Revue {B}{R}
Pandemonium: Rakdos Sacrifice

{R}{G} Hallar, the Firefletcher {R}{G}
Trailblazer: Gruul Kicker

{R}{G} Wort, the Raidmother {R}{G}
Barnstormer: Gruul Conspire

{W}{G} Sigarda, Heron's Grace {W}{G}
Stampida: Selesnya Humans Tribal

{W}{G} Captain Sisay {W}{G}
Legendia: Selesnya Legendary

{W}{G} Sythis, Harvest's Hand {W}{G}
Diamondback: Selesnya Enchantress

{W}{B} Daxos the Returned {W}{B}
Curse of Novgorod: Orzhov Constellation

{W}{B} Kambal, Consul of Allocation {W}{B}
Oblivion: Orzhov Lifegain & Lifedrain

{U}{R} Firkraag, Cunning Instigator {U}{R}
Dragon’s Fury: Izzet Dragons/Goad

{B}{G} Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons {B}{G}
Scorpion Express: Golgari Deathtouch

{B}{G} Nath of the Gilt-Leaf {B}{G}
Outlaw Run: Golgari Elves/Discard

{W}{R} Bruenor Battlehammer {W}{R}
Steel Force: Boros Equipment

{W}{R} General Ferrous Rokiric {W}{R}
Gatekeeper: Boros Multicoloured

{U}{G} Prime Speaker Zegana {U}{G}
Wicked Twister: Simic +1/+1 Counters

{U}{G} Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres {U}{G}
Toxic Garden: Simic Infect

{W}{U}{B} Tivit, Seller of Secrets {W}{U}{B}
Steel Vengeance: Esper Artifacts

{W}{U}{B} Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign {W}{U}{B}
Riddler’s Revenge: Esper Topdeck

{U}{B}{R} Marchesa, the Black Rose {U}{B}{R}
Revenge of the Mummy: Grixis Dethrone/Combo

{B}{R}{G} Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire {B}{R}{G}
Dragon Wagon: Jund Dragons Tribal

{W}{R}{G} Pantlaza, Sun-Favored {W}{R}{G}
Raptor Attack: Naya Dinosaurs Tribal

{W}{U}{G} Galadriel, Light of Valinor {W}{U}{G}
Vapour Trail: Bant Flicker

{W}{B}{G} Karador, Ghost Chieftain {W}{B}{G}
Hair Raiser: Abzan Reanimator

{W}{U}{R} Kykar, Wind's Fury {W}{U}{R}
Storm Runner: Jeskai Tokens

{W}{U}{R} Hinata, Dawn-Crowned {W}{U}{R}
Phantom’s Revenge: Jeskai Spirits Tribal

{U}{B}{G} Yarok, the Desecrated {U}{B}{G}
Boomerang: Sultai ETB Triggers

{W}{B}{R} Kaalia of the Vast {W}{B}{R}
Abyssus: Mardu Angels & Demons

{U}{R}{G} Omnath, Locus of the Roil {U}{R}{G}
Boulder Dash: Temur Landfall

Date added	4 years
Last updated	2 days
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.91
Tokens	Human 1/1 W, Incubator, Phyrexian 0/0 C, Treasure
Folders	Tried