You might like these: Woebringer Demon, Colfenor's Urn, Lapse of Certainty, Sunforger, Mistveil Plains, Rakdos the Defiler, Karmic Guide

While bloodmoon is good way to stop many non basic land heavy decks, you can also screw yourself over here too especially considering how many nonbasic lands you have. I’d consider changing it and magus of the moon out for something else.

king-saproling, thanks for your suggestions! I have used Rakdos the Defiler and Karmic Guide before in a version of this deck that was focused on reanimation. I’m going in a more control direction with this build. Sunforger and Lapse of Certainty are interesting possibilities I will explore more.

The_Gobfather, you have a good point, thanks for the comment. The trick with Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon is using them at the right time. Moon cards should be saved until you are confident you can lock down the board without screwing yourself over in the process. You can tutor for Blood Moon when the time is right. If you have Kaalia on the board already and big creatures in your hand, you don’t need lands. You can also use fetchlands/tutors (Tithe) to make sure you have at least a basic swamp and plains before you drop a Moon. There are also many ramp artifacts that provide backup. Hellkite Tyrant steals your opponents’ ramp artifacts too. Against a deck which runs 0 red mana, the lockdown from a Moon means certain victory, which is why I have chosen to include them.

I came here just to see if you had the FTV version of Cataclysm. Probably my favorite art in MTG. Cataclysm

epic

kdglenny, I have an oldschool weatherlight Cataclysm, but you are right, the new version has awesome art! I will have to pick one up soon.

And thank you casual_competitive!!

Why not necropotence?

Hey XinZhao, that’s a good question. I have been hesitant to run Necropotence because it can be hard to reach the 3 black mana necessary to cast it. I used to run it in an earlier version of this deck and often drew it at the wrong time. But since you mentioned it, I cut Aven Mindcensor (replaced by Opposition Agent ) to make room for Necropotence and give it another try.

zAzen7977 you could run dark ritual too help you get there if need be

probably remove lotus petal for it

With the reanimation version of the deck that you mentioned in a previous comment, why did you move away from that strat?

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/xPXLjpaiWkOxuxfqEOcktA Here is my take on your deck and as I play it will be making changes that suite my play group and Ill give you my opinion. So far I like your deck concept and build and I think you did an amazing job weeding out alot of cards to consider in current meta. I would still like to hear why you moved away from Reanimator

Thanks for your comments XinZhao! I appreciate the compliments. I have been working on this deck for years. When Kaalia was first released, I ran a super aggro reanimator-based build, and I would usually win if my opponents had no responses to Kaalia and a couple of my big creatures. But if Kaalia was killed or neutralized, or if my graveyard was exiled, suddenly I was paralyzed and had little chance of recovering.

So gradually I shifted my strategy to Stax so I could cover Kaalia’s weaknesses. Eliminating the reanimation aspect makes me impervious to graveyard hate. If Kaalia dies, I can lock down the board with stax cards and stall until I can recover. This is critical in a highly competitive environment, where everyone will be running lots of removal and counterspells, and Kaalia is a huge target. Other decks can be more efficient than Kaalia, who can be a glass cannon if piloted purely aggressively.

That’s a good suggestion to run Dark Ritual . I want to make room for it, but that Lotus Petal has been very useful, so I would rather cut something else. I’ll think about it.

Also, I like your interpretation of my build! It inspired me to add Deadly Rollick for additional removal. I’m also considering Deflecting Swat as well.

No problem man you got a great deck. I've removed some cards as they would not affect my play group too much, Most people in my play group run green and there for dont run too many rocks so I removed stony silence, However blind obedience is a super good answer to current meta with Dockside and Hullbreacher in mind. if you can resolve razaketh you can use him like a sun forger even going so far as to sac Kaalia with her trigger on the stack to grab another one of ya bois, so running deflecting swat with that capability in mind can be a huge boon.

So I Know I inspired you too run Deadly Rollick however after play testing I think there is enough removal in the deck to justify cutting. dont know what to put in its stead but deflecting swat is a pretty nice card to run if you want to play test it. Not sure how deadly rollick has worked out for you.

So as far as land destruction goes I have been running catastrophe because in all honesty I don't want too buy ravages of war lol. However in your experience would you say impending disaster is better or no?

Hey XinZhao, lately I have been too busy with work to play, so I can’t tell you whether I would rather keep Deadly Rollick or swap it for Deflecting Swat . I appreciate your input, I will consider that the next time I play and I’ll let you know!

Regarding Ravages of War , yes it is pricey, I just happen to come across one many years ago. As an alternative I would definitely suggest Impending Doom . I used to run it in a previous version of this build and I considered making room for it in this current version. The pros are that it is only 2 mana, and in a multiplayer game it can be triggered very early on. The cons are that it takes until your next upkeep to resolve, and the other players can see it coming and it could get removed. Personally I don’t like Catastrophe because it is too expensive mana-wise, but it does have its uses as an alternative Wrath, if you think this will be advantageous in your meta.

zAzen7977

Are you the same guy with the Tiny bones deck? Regardless, +1

Thoughts on swapping Tithe with Land Tax or is there something I'm missing? I read part of the above discussion for Deflecting Swat and absolutely believe Deadly Rol should be swapped with it. WAY too much utility to ignore counter counterspells, redirect targetted removal, targetted draw, targetted extra turns, etc.... Given your entire deck is based on your commander and you are playing the colors for best permanent removal, it would be in your best interest.

Thoughts on swapping Exotic Orchard for Forbidden Orchard ? The token doesn't fly, "politics" and actually gives you a guaranteed color, although I suppose that's meta dependent.

Hey Profet93, I am in fact the same guy with the Tinybones deck.

Thanks for your suggestions, I will take your advice and swap out Tithe for Land Tax , and Exotic Orchard for Forbidden Orchard , as soon as I obtain copies of them. I like Tithe because I can cast it on the opponent’s turn for an immediate payoff, but Land Tax is reusable, and I get a better payoff when it triggers. I had been hesitant to run Forbidden over Exotic Orchard, since my meta is creature-heavy, and my opponent can take advantage of the token. But I’m going to try running it and see what happens.

I’m also going to listen to you and XinZhao and go with Deflecting Swat once and for all. Swat has so many pros and I’m running enough removal to justify not running Deadly Rollick .

zAzen7977

So why not wheel of fortune?

XinZhao, good question. I have chosen to exclude Wheel of Fortune , Dragon Mage , Lion's Eye Diamond , and other cards that discard my hand because I am not running any reanimation cards - I am going all-in with stax effects instead. Most other Kaalia decks which utilize WoF have a reanimation package to bring back discarded creatures and are typically more aggro than this build.

Discarding my hand is usually disadvantageous for me, and I especially do not want my opponents to draw a new hand of cards too. Against certain decks like The Gitrog Monster , WoF helps them more than me. Apart from a deck building perspective, I personally do not own a WoF, so I tried to design this deck around that. I’m running Planar Void and Rest in Peace as a weapon against other decks which use WoF or similar self-discard spells, to prevent my opponents from utilizing reanimation or graveyard recursion.

Do you not run grand abolisher due to lack of room or is it because you have no infinite combos in the deck id imagine the later but id like your perspective on it.

XinZhao, I had the opportunity to play a few games recently, and I’ve decided to swap Cursed Totem with Grand Abolisher , since I encountered two situations in which I had Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Totem at the same time, and I wish I had Abolisher instead. In the past I ran Abolisher, but I took it out because my meta was less control-heavy and I was dealing with more creature abilities.

While I don’t run any infinite combos, I do run the Possibility Storm + Rule of Law / Drannith Magistrate hard lock, so Abolisher protects me while I assemble the combo.

I also dropped Fellwar Stone and Rakdos Signet and added Grim Monolith and Mana Vault , to help with hard-casting big creatures or the Possibility Storm combo if Kaalia is neutralized.

Grand Abolisher also adds an addition sac fotter for razaketh. I was able to play a few games myself and won most games, I found the strat too be effective and also noticed that more often than not cursed totem sat in my hand for a variety of reasons one such as linvala was already in play or I didnt want to shut down Razaketh, Doom whisperer, or Vilis as these abilities were needed to close out games. Removing cursed totem for Grand Abolisher is a good idea. As for the rocks changes I find myself in agreeance as well, another good option could be sneak attack in a pinch, not something id use on Avaycn but vilis or razaketh to get more ramp or threats in your hand for example. I personally dont think you need 3 cards that contribute to mass land destruction as we have access alot of good search however I dont know which id recommend cutting(most likely ravages of war) however i wouldnt know what to replace it with quite yet, that being said Ill need to play the deck more to get a better feel for it, Just a thought though

It’s great to know we’re on the same page XinZhao! Excellent points.

I have considered Sneak Attack in the past, but it’s pretty much a dead card unless Kaalia is neutralized, and most of the time I can keep Kaalia in play. Plus I have enough ramp to hard-cast most creatures. But I haven’t played with Sneak Attack before, so I can’t say for sure. As far as what to cut for it, I guess I’d cut Ravages of War as you suggest.

The reason why I run both Armageddon and Ravages of War is because I’d really like to draw into at least one of them organically, and running two copies makes that more likely. I don’t want to waste a tutor on Armageddon/War if I don’t need to, since land destruction is secondary to the deck’s strategy. Plus there’s a good chance my first copy will be countered. But ultimately it comes down to personal preference and your meta if you want to run one or both cards. Ravages is very expensive nowadays so that’s another issue to consider.