The Good, The Bad and The Furious
This deck is designed for mostly casual games among experienced players. It is not fully optimized, but like any Kaalia deck, it can create a truly terrifying board presence if left unchecked.
Commander
Kaalia of the Vast
is a powerful commander. Even the most inexperienced players will know that after reading the card. And there is really only one way to play Kaalia:
Attack with her, drop huge creatures for free and smash your opponent's face. The tricky part is that everyone knows your strategy, and will actively try to stop you from executing it. Unless another player has a very strong start, Kaalia will quickly become the biggest target in the game. However, if you manage to keep her on the board, attacking, and you're able to drop even a couple of those massive winged friends of yours, you'll be able to start picking of your opponents from the air.
Doom From Above
The Good
Angels are some of the most powerful creatures in Magic's history. The ones I have included in this deck excel in both offense and defense. Most notable ones include
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
,
Iona, Shield of Emeria
and
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
.
Note:
Iona, Shield of Emeria
is a banned card. Always make sure that your opponents are okay with her before the game starts. If not, replace her with
Baneslayer Angel
.
The Bad
Demons are also exceptionally powerful creature, but they offer a larger variety of abilities than Angels. There are many different Demons available, but the ones I have selected are mostly focused on card draw and tutoring. The most potent ones are
Griselbrand
,
Vilis, Broker of Blood
and
Razaketh, the Foulblooded
.
Note:
Griselbrand
is a banned card. Always make sure that your opponents are okay with him before the game starts. If not, replace him with
Bloodgift Demon
.
The Furious
Dragons are often extremely powerful, but they can't quite match the power of Angels and Demons. Instead these winged beasts will destroy your opponent's creatures and Planeswalkers with direct damage or create large amounts of Dragon Tokens. The most monstrous Dragons in this deck are
Hellkite Tyrant
,
Utvara Hellkite
and
Balefire Dragon
.
Gear Up
Everyone knows what Kaalia decks want to do. They also know that without Kaalia on the battlefield, the rest of the deck is largely neutralized. That's why the power level of Kaalia decks are not measured based on firepower. It is measured in resilience. Kaalia is a game-winning card, but she need a lot of protection to do her job.
The Boots
Some of the most popular cards in Kaalia decks are
Lightning Greaves
and
Swiftfoot Boots
, and for a good reason. These boots give Haste, allowing Kaalia to attack the same turn she hits the battlefield. The also protect her from being targeted by your opponents, giving her a solid layer of protection.
The Sidekicks
There are also several creatures that can protect Kaalia with their abilities. There are 3 of these in this deck:
Mother of Runes
,
Giver of Runes
and
Bastion Protector
. As creatures, they can be killed quite easily if left unprotected, so it's usually a good idea to give some of Kaalia's protection to them.
The Stick
Isochron Scepter
is a very powerful tool in almost any deck that can use it. This deck has 5 targets for it, 2 of which are tutors.
Vampiric Tutor
and
Enlightened Tutor
on a Stick can give you a massive advantage if they are not destroyed.
Boros Charm
can be used to protect your permanents, and if its protection is not needed, it can just deal damage to opponents.
Dawn Charm
is also a versatile form of protection, being able to prevent combat damage, regenerate creatures and counter spells that target you. This is especially important if your opponents try to force you to sacrifice creatures. Finally,
Swords to Plowshares
is a very potent removal spell. While arguably the weakest spell to put on a Stick, it can still warp the game around itself if not destroyed.
Touch Me Not
Becoming the Archenemy of the table is inevitable when playing a Kaalia deck. The most effective way to neutralize a powerful creature is killing the player that controls it. Your chances of winning the game increase exponentially after you can drop your first big creature on the board, so the first challenge in the game is to survive the first 5 turns.
Blind Obedience
and
Ghostly Prison
can really slow down your opponent's ramp and attacks, while
Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
can snipe troublesome creatures and artifacts and create blockers.
Grand Abolisher
can also protect you indirectly, but most of the time it functions as removal bait.
Ranger-Captain of Eos
can find one of the 1 CMC creatures in this deck, and it can also be sacrificed to protect you from interference.
Once Kaalia hits the battlefield, your opponents will start to actively disrupt you. One of the most effective ways to shut down all resistance is by targeting your opponents' mana. This will draw a lot of hate from the table, but the advantage that Kaalia provides should be enough to overpower everyone else in a couple of turns.
Deafening Silence
can shut down combo decks and slow down others and
Armageddon
will annihilate all lands on the battlefield, giving you a significant advantage if Kaalia is on the battlefield. Lastly, this deck's board wipe is
Tragic Arrogance
. This board wipe allows you to spare your most important permanents while giving you massive leverage in negotiations. You can either take down most of the threats on the board, or team up with a player, spare their most valuable and then strike down the remaining players together. This deck truly excels in 1v1 combat, so creating alliances can be vital to your survival.
Going Infinite
This deck also has one Infinite Combo, Animate Dead + Worldgorger Dragon
. The fastest way to set it up is using
Final Parting
to put
Worldgorger Dragon
into graveyard and
Animate Dead
into your hand. Be wary though, experienced opponents will recognize this and might want to disrupt it.
This combo can create infinite mana and infinite ETB triggers.
Dragon Tempest
can convert the ETB triggers into damage, which will kill all of your opponents instantaneously. This combo can be very fast and very lethal, but it's also very risky. If your opponents can remove
Worldgorger Dragon
before its ETB trigger resolves, its LTB trigger won't do anything and the ETB trigger will exile your entire board with no way to get it back.
If
Dragon Tempest
is not on the battlefield, you won't be able to kill all your opponents at once. However, this combo can still offer a large advantage with the right setup. Make sure you have another creature in your graveyard so you can stop the combo at some point. Then let the combo generate infinite mana for you, and use it to cast all the spells you want. Once you're done, target the other creature in your graveyard with
Animate Dead
and end the loop.
The End
Kaalia is one of the most popular Commanders, but she is not very versatile. It's safe to assume that all of your opponents know what you're doing, so its important to take that into account. No tricks, no surprises. Its all about speed and survival. That's all for now, I hope you enjoyed this deck tech. The deck will most likely be updated when new Angels, Demons and Dragons are released, so feel free to point them out to me.
- C
