As someone that plays a version of this deck, I would recommend swapping out Terminate for Rakdos Charm. Same mana cost, but the ability to kill an opponent that dropped a mass of tokens, destroy a problematic artifact, or (don't hate me Joey 😥) blow up an opponent's graveyard at instant speed make this the much better option.
@@dannyphantom1036 Haven't been playing much EDH with COVID, but my version does struggle with it. If I don't get my artifacts or Tithe out early, I'm hoping to just play on curve. Going to relook at it with the newest cards, there's much more Treasure generation these days (really want to get a Dockside Extortionist too).
Kaalia has risen up on the ranks of the top commanders list on EDHREC. Any chance of doing an Upping the Average Redux on her? She's got new toys to play with and it would be nice if you could share some of your opinions on the new batch of angels, demons and dragons that were added to her recommendations list, like Liesa 1.0 and 2.0, Piru, just to name a few.
Some (mostly) inexpansive cards I would throw in the mix: Dragon Mage ---- Reloads your hand when it deals damage Nightmare Shepherd -- Since there is barely any reanimation theme in this deck, we don't care if creatures get exiled + we get a 1/1 token that triggers etbs and still gets the full effect when it attacks or deals damage etc or other static abilities. Sire of Insanity -- Because it's my favorite card. Also when you get ahead, it makes it very hard for others to catch up if they have to rely on topdecks Strionic Resonator -- because some effects can't trigger often enough
@@Audico2 Dragon Mage is easily one of the best cards in a Kaalia deck. If there is a situation where it would be bad to wheel, the answer is simple - don't attack with Dragon Mage.
I'd like to mention Jewelled Amulet as budget-friendly pseudo mana rock, that makes a good turn 1 play, that is a good way to guarantee dropping Kaalia early (Simian Spirit Guide, is also good). I often find that you have to choose between casting either a mana accelerant or a haste enabler (greaves, dragon tempest etc) on turn 2. This opens up the possibility of turn 3 Kaalia with Haste
@@drt4527 Idk, i've tried using it before, but he's always just there not attacking. If it works for you, more power to ya, but never worked on my pods.
@@Audico2 so why not run one yourself? That and a Hellkite Tyrant can get you the game. You can cheat it into play with a Sneak Attack or a Quicksilver Amulet before your next upkeep. No one will pay 14 mana for you to not put Treasures unless it’s a green deck or have infinite mana.
An Upping the Average for my favorite deck. Thank you greatly, this was informative and gave me the impetus to tear her down and make sure I have her all set up properly. It's been too long since I took a proper look through my deck
Ever since I played commander kaalia is one of my favorite commander.. And I always love the reanimate/necromancy + worldgorger + cauldron familiar combo 😆😆
Wow I’m really surprised no one else runs counterspells in theirs! Well everyone listen up and I’m about to completely change your life with Kaalia FOREVERRR... Mana Tithe Pyroblast Rebuff the Wicked Thank you, that is all. You’re welcome!
Kaalia is my Baby. I personally play her as a legendary creature tribal, with a lot of protection and recursion. So she can keep on playing even in the lategame. I also use quicksilver amulet and thran temporal gateway. Cheating out the big boys in opponents endstep ist quite strong in this deck
I prefer Scourge of Kher Ridges as a fun budget alternative to Balefire as well, dealing 2 damage to everything on the board absolutely eats token decks without having to swing and you can keep paying into it and Kaalia is safe in the air. If need be he can body many flyers as well
Three cards I feel should be in Kaalia and are missing here: - Rakdos Charm: So versatile, efficient, deals with Token decks and graveyard shenanigans (sorry Joey). - Dolmen Gate: A 2-drops artifact to protect Kaalia when she's attacking! - Sneak Attack: This can be used to close a game quickly; or to enable ETB/response to a threat; but also helps replacing Kaalia if she got removed too many times by your angry opponents.
Kaalia, as an insane ramp commander, dumps their hand really fast. So I always recommend Dragon Mage as a way to refill your hand. I often tutor for this card as way to churn through my deck and find more creatures.
Yo, I'm a little older of a player at this point. I put kaalia together from a daretti deck, multiple Kahn's block packs and a few choice buys back in 2015. You need boros charm, sunforger, and steelshapers gift. Steelshapers gift is a budget stoneforge mystic in instant form. Sunforger is nutty. Just absolutely nutty. And boros charm lets you make your board indestructible at instant speed. With an aggro deck like this, one protection from a board wipe can spell the end for your opponent. Also sunforger. It lets you cast any red or white instant with below cmc4 in your deck for red and white, and you get to search it out. Every turn you can pop a path, then a swords to plowshares. It's dirty but I was in a very competitive playgroup - with Marath, Oloro, Sheoldred, and a Sliver Overlord, and Daretti just didn't keep up.
Resolution archangel has saved me more times than I can count. When im being im low on health I either try to tutor for her or if she's in my hand just play her. She'll hit the battlefield and you'll go back to your starting life total. Pretty nifty if i say so myself. Phyrexian arena I use for card draw and my sensei's diving top. My planeswalker is sorin markov which has the -3 ability to target opponents life total becomes 10. Quicksilver amulet is always good to cheat in creatures. And as removal goes i run mostly exile so my opponents can't use their nasty creatures again. But lmk if any of this helps anyone. Or would like to know more about what I have in my deck just @ me. I have spent alot time and effort into my kaalia deck and it is my most prized possession.
Mass land destruction is really underrated, in 3-4 color decks it is a bit of a salt card but in white decks that don’t get any help late game they are perfect and should be played more
Yeah, I have a God eternal Oketra deck and MLD is one of my main wincons, I play them too in my Sigarda Voltron deck and Kaalia. I think the bad reputation it has is due to players just cast them for the lolz
I like that you suggest Crux of Fate, but sort of on the same note I’m surprised you didn’t mention Earthquake or Magmaquake. Both seem like they could be good for Kaalia as they can wipe every non-flyer and also dish out some damage to players and planeswalkers respectively
I recomend bigger card draw spells such as promise of power or necrologica,i would also like to point out world slayer and decree of anilation for mass land destruction and if you can aford it hell kite charger and aggeravated assault pairs real well with a sword of feast and famon
1. Cut 2/3 point removal and add protection like: Deflecting Swat, Flawless Maneuver and Boros Charm 2. Add more creatures with removal etb like Overseer of the Damned
Very nice and helpful videos. Thanks so much. But as I saw in the rulings the trigger of Aurelia the warleader and other creatures that have whenever.. Attacks doesn't work.. Sadly...
Would like to see the scarab god in one of these videos. He is very versatile and fun to play. Aaand he just got reprinted so many people might be looking to build one. I would like to see how I can improve mine!
Correct me if I'm wrong - wouldn't creature abilities that proc on "when [creature] attacks" NOT proc when Kaalia brings them in? My understanding is that "attacks" specifically means when a creature is declared as an attacker, which doesn't happen from Kaalia's ability, as they enter the battlefield already attacking. If that's true, then how would the Master of Cruelties combo work in this deck? Sure it can attack with her, but its last ability wouldn't proc on that attack. Right?
I think found an answer. '508.3d: An ability that reads “Whenever [a creature] attacks and isn’t blocked, . . .” triggers during the declare blockers step, not the declare attackers step. See rule 509.5g.' So it doesn't matter that Master of Cruelties isn't on the battlefield for the Declare Attackers step because its ability triggers during Declare Blockers. This makes the combo with Kaalia work.
@@dylangavron3729thank you! I've actually been trying to figure that out for myself. Had enough more experienced players tell me that I believed them, but I wanted to know the reasoning
What do you think about Helm of Hosts? I know it costs a bit to equip, but you could potentially get more expendable Kaalias to pump out creatures if you got a full hand of them or possibly get more Aurelias for multiple combats phases, right? Since the tokens aren't legendary, combo with mirror march and/or molten echoes and you get temp expendable Kaalias and/or Aurelias for combats. Forgive me if there are conflicting rules with the above. I'm pretty new to MTG and have only recently been interested in getting more involved. My friend let me play with his Kaalia Anthology deck my first time playing and I've been in love with Kaalia ever since.
How would multiple Aurelias work btw? Could you attack with three at once and get three additional attack phases or would you have to add an attacking Aurelia to each attack phase to keep the extra phases going until you run out of Aurelias that haven't attacked at least once?
I completely disagree with cutting Phyrexian Reclamation only to put in 1 shot card draw. The ability to constantly bring back some big baddie seems much more potent than a drawing 2 cards.
Master of cruelties is an auto include unless running this in cEdh and even then I’d argue for it because of value. With kaalia it will knock an opponent out of the game entirely if cheated into play. Plus I’d run more reanimation and fuel my graveyard. Hitting underworld breach or sevinne’s reclamation is huge to throw some demons on the field quickly or worldgorger dragon combo with animate dead.
You lost me at swapping out Razaketh. That's the most powerful demon in the deck and a wincon in itself. He is not that expensive and absolutely amazing.
I'm running 43 in mine, and in varying counts for each type. Idk off the top of my head how many of each, because that's not really that important the way I run mine, but yeah. If I'm wheeling my hand, I wanna get 2-4 new potential drops per wheel, and the odds of ever whiffing on that are essentially nil
Oh dude. I love mine in there, if I'm low on cards in hand, go get dragon mage, if I need a specific answer to a threat, I go get it. Plus got a beefy 6/6 flier on the board. I run a few reanimate effects in mine, so if he's in the graveyard, I still essentially have him to use again. Love him
Regarding the tutors: What I usually see is my opponent only tutoring twice. The first tutor for Avacyn, the second for Armageddon. If no one can stop that, it's over anyways. That's basically how my friend plays the deck and I hate it. This deck alone warped my deckbuilding to combat this deck massively, pushing the power of our meta. Now I got a pretty fast Arixmethes Sea Monster tribal deck, that basically cares less about sea monsters and more about getting Arixmethes out, on the field and using overrun effects to kill the Kaalia player in a single strike. Making me the arch enemy. :D
Because it already comes in attacking. In order for it to trigger, it needs to be declared as an attacker during battle. It's a weird rule but the same goes for other creatures like Utvara Hellkite.
oh wait a second...you can drop three creatures into play with her ability at once? or am I missing something? it is stated here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-siZD5aOeZRo.html
horn of greed and debt to the deathless I've found to be priceless cards in my kaalia build. I also run Linvala, Keeper of Silence. Each give kaalia a bit more of value-town/utility, which is good because she is a glass cannon. I've won more games with Debt to the deathless than with Master of Cruelties. Linvala can hurt you, but can disrupt the board for other even more which keeps you ahead. Celestial mantle and Coat of arms can be great sideboard items to consider for certain playgroups. If you're mostly one of the 3 tribes coat should be an autoinclude as it gets outta hand quickly. I haven't added the new stuff that's been put into it recently but here is the main bulk of it (It is a budget friendly kaalia. or 'was' when I put it originally together, some things have gone up in price.) tappedout.net/mtg-decks/death-from-above-to-your-butt/
dude ... remember your audience ... you can't make sports ball references all willy-nilly in a magic video. But the all three of us that caught it .... you smash for pay dirt, not the red zone. The red zone is the 20 yards in front of the goal line. If you'r goal is to smash the red zone you are basically saying you want to go hard towards your goal, but be content with not actually scoring.
I like Ilharg as a backup version of Kaalia. Sure the creatures don't stick around, but its a great way to keep your opponents busy and blow their removal while you wait to re-cast Kaalia a second (or third) time.
I don't really feel like this deck needs this much permanent removal when really it thrives off Player removal. And, a good way to do that if you have a high enough density of extra combat steps and double strike is Phyresis and Tainted Strike. ...or maybe I just love Infect too much.
Demon of Dark Schemes works stangely well with kaalia, yes, he kills her unless you buff her, but the amount of creatures you can reanimate, with the token wip you made, worth it