It seems I voiced my typical "Expansion Update" in a Reddit post. I'll add one to this page soon.

• Herald of Anguish - He's "not bad" but there's definitely better. The only real value you're getting out of him is the discard effect as the improvise and the activated ability being irrelevant in most builds. He's one of those cards I'd recommend for a casual player as a competent placeholder, though his price will stop me from doing that for a couple of years.

• Exquisite Archangel - There's better. It doesn't phase most combo decks. Lab maniac only needs to draw another card, most other infinites only need do what they've been doing one more time. If you really want the effect there's always Platinum Angel if you have a way to ditch it at the right time.

• Freejam Regent - Firebreathing and improvise. Nothing to give a second glance.

I'm really hoping for something juicy soon. I feel as though Kaalia's two or three bombs from having a "definitive" competitive creature roster. This last round of creatures, while interesting, focus around the mechanics of the set. Energy, improvise, and fabricate really don't gel well with what the deck wants to do. It's been sometime since they made an angel, demon, or dragon that's capable of standing on its own. They're still making competent creatures just not on Kaalia relevant bodies. Hell, I'd love if any of the Kaalia-colored Gearhulks were on Kaalia-relevant bodies.

Gemstone Caverns?

Also how do you like strionic resonator? Try savage beating yet?

Does Archfiend of Depravity affect the board as much as you wish it did? The more competitive the meta, the less reliant decks are on a post-end step established board state.

The Caverns can definitely give you a leg-up, but I'm hesitant to try it with the number of utility lands that I already run. That paired with my foil obsession has made me slow to adopt it.

I've admittedly not gotten to play in the last month or so. Work, a woodworking project, and my buddy's (non MTG) Twitch streaming have eaten up most of my free time.

Depravity is definitely in the "not bad though there's not much better" camp. He's on the shortlist should we get another game warper, as few as they've been the last couple of years. I will say he's a hell of a silver-bullet/must-answer to creature-based decks that need some tempo, namely slivers, Krenko, Rhys, and some less combo-centric token decents.

After reading the comments, i do not believe it has been brought up, how come you don't run Chancellor of the Annex?? So far for me it seems like a powerful card.

Chancellor was in a past version of the deck. It's a hit-or-miss card depending on the game state.

She's great in your opening hand, great if you can get her out early, great for fighting some combos, but falls short as a top-deck or even if a troublesome opponent can afford to buy past their win condition.

As far as lock pieces go you're probably better to rely on MLD, winter orb, and the like, but I can definitely see if in place of/comparable to Angelic Arbiter in my list.

If you really want to mess with their mana Blood moon is great, also another control is Conqueror's Flail 2 drop can't cast spells during your turn :) Pretty great

Have you considered Kolaghan from Dragons of tarkir? haste to all creatures and that nifty 10 damage for single planeswalker... Jace... heavy decks

Except for a few fringe cases, her second effect is irrelevant in EDH ("name" and "type" are two different things).

Unfortunately, this leaves her little more than a beat-stick sporting a Fervor effect, leaving something to be desired. Haste is at its most valuable for when Kaalia hits the board, and given Kolaghan's CMC, you're not likely to have the dragon out before her.

I am excited about the possibilities for Razaketh as well in a competitive Kaalia build. What do you think about Razaketh in combination with Second Sunrise or Faith's Reward that would let you sacrifice your team to fetch the recursion piece plus a lockdown piece to close out the game?

Faith's Reward was in the deck at one point, though I think I swapped it out for Ghostway. Ghostway offered more creature-specific protection and at-will ETB abuse, where Faith's Reward either required a sac outlet of an opponent to use a "destroy" to maximize value. In the rare cases you had the 8 mana to cast it and a MLD spell it was pretty neat but games rarely ran on that long.

Razaketh does add more value to Second Sunrise and Faith's Reward, even if you're only sacrificing Kaalia to tutor for a lock piece. Obviously sacrificing more generates more value, but at the same time, you may not always have 2+ other creatures on-board, and sacrificing that much opens you up to a bigger hit should SS/FR get countered.

If you are in a position to abuse SS/FR, I believe the best time to cast would be at the end of an opponent's turn. You could tutor/abuse ETBs and un-tap with Kaalia ready to swing. I think if I were to tutor with Razaketh on my turn with enough mana to cast SS/FR, I'd wrath from the lock piece that turn instead. In that case you'd definitely want something other than Kaalia to use for tutor fodder and keep your value engine going. Losing one beater isn't huge if it means securing the board.

I'll definitely revisit both cards once I have a copy of Razaketh. There's a lot I want to test with him. For one, he pairs greatly with Angel of Serenity - sacrifice her in response to her ETB to permanently exile three cards. In rare cases, can also see swinging with Kaalia and sacrificing her with her trigger on the stack, tutoring for something to bring down on the board.

Phyrexian Reclamation also pairs well with Razaketh, and say, Rakdos the Defiler. Four life, 1B, to get a tutor and another "free" trigger off Rakdos.

Question about Winter Orb: When would you consider it the best time to play it? You obviously want to use it to bring your opponents to a crawl, but not so early that you'd end up putting yourself at a disadvantage.

Rule of thumb, for lock pieces in general, is to drop them after after you swing with Kaalia. Most time they'll either answer Kaalia or her threat. If they can't/don't, you're usually in the clear to do what you want.

With the above criteria, I'd drop winter orb post-combat if Kaalia's still on-board. Usually this means spending 2 of 4-5 mana, allowing you to keep some open for an instant-speed answer. You'll obviously get more value if your opponents lands are tapped and you've a healthy amount of artifact ramp on-board, but those often back-seat the ability to stall/seal a game.

Hey dude, I run Dragon Tempest in my Kaalia deck, and it is only ever a positive. Curious of your thoughts on the matter.

I've haven't seen anyone using Cryptic Gateway. I have been trying it in my Kaalia deck it seems to be useful when I draw it.

If you play in a competitive meta you definitely need Red Elemental Blast/Pyroblast in there. I also see some stax elements in there and would highly recommend running Trinisphere effects to slow fast combo down.

@AlexRuzhyo have you thought about Mana Web ?

@canderson107 Having the Gateway, two creatures on board, with a third in hand that all share a type is a tall order in Kaalia, who's essentially a "split" tribal deck.

One could also argue that being in such a position means you're already ahead. Tapping down those creature slows your clock, so you may be much better off with an answer, lock piece, or blowout.

I'll note that Strionic Resonator provides a similar force multiplyer effect when paired with Kaalia, and is much more flexible when it comes to generating value off of your creature's ETBs/Triggers.

@Enral The mono-red counters have been on the fringe of the list for awhile. I'd sincerely recommend them to anyone in a blue/counter heavy meta, but my biggest offenders are Prossh, Mono Sidisi, Selvala, and Breya. If I faced more U or Mono-U threats I'd consider them, but for the moment, I can't personally justify them.

As for Trinisphere... well, I don't know. There's a lot arguing for and against it. It have it in a Derevi stax and I still haven't quite figured out it's time and place. I'm open to advice on it.

@DirtySouth I've considered it and probably should test it. I've gone down a handful of instants since I last thought it.

So this deck seems to have a solid footing to be very dangerous. That being said though there is some improvement in the 'focus' of your creatures that I'd recommend.
Basically if you run kaalia it is natural to want to splash MANY angels, demons, and dragons into the deck but my experience tells me it is best to choose 2 of these. For example I run basically angels and dragons, but only a couple demons (demons tend to have some serious drawbacks for yourself, so be weary there).

Thran Dynamo, Bruna, the Fading Light and her gisela counterpart, a disk, Whispersilk Cloak, Dark Ritual, Strionic Resonator, Debt to the Deathless, Platinum Angel, Angel's Grace, Entreat the Angels, are all cards I'd highly consider.

Here is the main look of my kaalia deck atm. I can't afford the lands, but the creatures and such are real solid. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kaalia-upgraded-budget-version/

Ive spotted a few mistakes e.g most of your lands runs a colour that you cant use. Soo all together this deck you cant use anyways cos its not legeal

Hi DeathsHero,

The deck shows as Commander/EDH Legal. I looked through AlexRuzhyo lands they all look good.

Maybe your thinking of lands like Flooded Strand or Verdant Catacombs as an example? A cards color identity is based on its mana symbols (). Flooded Strand is just "Land" it's not a Plains or an Island so it does not tap to add either mana symbol (). However, it does say the word "Island", the word "Island" does not become part of the cards color identity, because it is not a . It's honestly a little confusing but perfectly legal, hopefully the explanation makes it clear.

If you're looking for some info on Kaalia of the Vast commander, I'm also a Kaalia of the Vast player Kaalia, Mirror Breaker EDH, if your interested. I have quite a bit of discussion, combos and synergies listed in my description.

Best of luck.

You should get Razaketh, the Foulblooded in there. Since adding him to my deck Kaalia, Mirror Breaker he has been my best Demon, and probably the best creature... period. Only once did I have him ETB and not win the game (was at 4 life) that turn, he did win it for me the next game pulling my Whip of Erebos, super-star. He even pulls mana sources if you need then to win. I usually pull Buried Alive + Reanimate to win with "Tutor Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Restoration Angel + Karmic Guide Infinite Haste Angels" then sac an angel for Goblin Bombardment if I've already attacked that turn which I usually have because I free play with Kaalia of the Vast triggered ability. So much utility in this guy.

Any silver bordered cards that are interesting? Now that they're legal

Would you consider Teferi's Protection? Seems better than Ghostway to me? Great deck btw! Upvoted.

Thanks for all of your explanations and in-depht analysis, Kaalia is one of my favorite, and your list inspired me a lot since I've got my own deck with the same approach now. I've tested your list first, and the point that annoyed me was the lack of draw and my LP were falling pretty quickly (I've fund myself often with empty hands quickly), but I precise that I evolve in a non-competitive meta like you, but still spiky. Now I think about some cards for my list :

Kothophed, Soul Hoarder : He can be dangerous but the card advantage can be insane, and a 6/6 body with flying is totally ok

Read the Bones : Cheap spell who digs in potentially four cards

Promise of Power : high impact on draw with an rare entwine in the theme. The 3 black mana is not so annoying since we have a solid manabase fixing.

Shizo, Death's Storehouse : Act as a swamp who can provide evasion for Kaalia if we encounter an opponent heavy with flyers.

Twilight Prophet : A conditionnal more busted Dark Confidant with flying and an ok body. The ascend scares me a little bit since we do not run many lands and drop creatures one by one, but the return on investment can be high.

True Conviction : Feel this is my weaker proposal, cause it's expensive and seems to be a win-more, but double strike with our flying creature can help us to seal the deal earlier and gain a ton of life for the long run.

That's all for me, what do you think about those ?

(forgive me if you see some bad english there, I'm french)