Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

Legendary Creature — Vampire Warrior

Lifelink

If a nontoken creature an opponent controls would die, instead exile that card and put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.

, Sacrifice another Vampire or Zombie: Put two +1/+1 counters on Kalitas, Traiter of Ghet.

Discussion (50)

mistarilledawn on RB Vampires HELP

2 weeks ago

I love and have been running Vampires for a while:lagotripha's comment is a great way to go, build with those ideas in mind and you've got a fantastic deck to pilot. There are some cards and strategies I'd on to it, to make for different playstyles.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is great, and you can see him do work in many versions of Jund that run him in the sideboard and mainboard. He's just fantastic as he is, but you can certainly build more around him. Stromkirk Noble and Vampire Lacerator are good 1-drops, if you want to go for a wider strategy. Lacerator can be a bit rough sometimes, and is kinda a preference/build choice. Asylum Visitor 's a strong hitter with card draw, and acts a sorta pseudo- Dark Confidant that fits in the tribe. Drana, Liberator of Malakir is also a powerful flying 3 drop, and the built-in first strike and evasion are incredibly useful.

A great utility piece to consider, as well, is Kolaghan's Command . So much choice on that one, it lends itself to quite a variety of situations.

Squirrelbacon on Dripping-Gargadon

2 weeks ago

Another way to get some value off of your Zubera idea is to run 3 or 4 Viscera Seer or even Hidden Stockpile for fun. Lets you scry and get some extra value over time. However, in terms of your sideboard there's a few options you can go with... I think the most broad I'll put below with small explanations and then it can be altered as needed? Maybe?

4x Leyline of the Void --> "Best" graveyard hate since it can come down turn zero and help to hose out dredge, all versions of Phoenix decks while also slowing down a few other strategies.

2x Destructive Revelry --> The card is good, however, not needed as a 4 of. Leyline of Sanctity isn't played nearly as much, Leyline of the Void is awkward to bring in against you since you still get Zubera value from the death trigger and Rest in Peace is the same. Other key artifacts or enchantments you can try to go around/under due to smaller creatures being annoying.

2x Damping Sphere --> Slows down both tron and storm and just helps for the most part...

4x Death's Shadow --> Honestly, I don't know if I like this selection but it does give you another angle of attack... Speaking of angles, Gurmag Angler may also be worth considering due to the nature of Greater Gargadon doing his thing. May also want to consider other wincons here in split numbers ( Liliana of the Veil , Liliana, the Last Hope , Kaya, Orzhov Usurper , Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet etc.)

3x Path to Exile --> Kill it, kill it dead.

This is 15, and it should be broad enough to help in several match ups, but it can also be tuned to be better/stronger for what you need. I feel that the options here are easy enough to understand when you'd bring them in and makes choices easy when playing against opponents, however, I also threw this together real quick before work so I'm sure I missed a few things. Either way, this gives an idea of a few cards to look into. Other options include Surgical Extraction , Crumble to Dust , Fulminator Mage , Thoughtseize , Nihil Spellbomb and it can just keep on going.... Rakdos Charm is a personal favorite of mine for Sideboards in X decks!

Squirrelbacon on Esper Control

2 weeks ago

Fair enough, thanks for walking me through the reasoning. Been out of modern for a few months now, so I haven't kept up the best.

That said, is Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet better than Liliana, the Last Hope in the sideboard? Lili has a game winning ultimate and while I'm a huge fan of Kalitas, she doesn't have as much use in my opinion.

Sweech on Nath of the STAX-Leaf | cEDH | Primer

2 weeks ago

Hey just saw that you're running Ravenous Slime for the grave hate and was wondering if Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet wouldn't be a better card? Similar grave hate effect, but Kalitas just overall seems better. I know it's more expensive though, but otherwise I can't see the downside.

ToolmasterOfBrainerd on Mono Black ramp optimization

3 weeks ago

It looks to me like the top end of your deck is too heavy. Most modern decks don't play anything above cmc 3. The midrange and control decks will have only 4ish cards with cmc 4 or 5. Basically, you should only need to draw 1 card with cmc 4 or 5, which means you only need to run at most 5 such cards. Exquisite blood and sanguine bond are overkill. You are very unlikely to get the combo off. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is a great option for a finisher. He turns the corner vs aggro decks.

I highly highly recommend playing 4 Fatal Push and 4 Cast Down for your removal. Doom Blade misses Gurmag Angler and Death's Shadow (among other relevant creatures too). Cast Down only misses Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and the 1-of Lyra Dawnbringer from UW Control sideboards.

ArchonBlue on Dracu-Leeeee, Dracu-Laaaaa!

3 weeks ago

Another card you might consider if you're going for a midrangey token style build is Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip which closes the game pretty fast. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is usually too expensive for an aggro build but would be great in midrange. I also would recommend Malakir Bloodwitch in the sideboard against Path to Exile decks. It's another card that doesn't make sense in an aggro build, but is great if you are trying to be disruptive and play the long time.

_Delta_ on Your Signature Spellbook

3 weeks ago

8 cards? Well My choices are as follows, it's certainly a hard choice to narrow all of my favorites down. I have been playing since Journey into Nyx.

Prophet of Kruphix - Was one of the leading cards in my first ever Magic deck that I built to play casually and for a time I played it in my first commander deck led by Vorel of the Hull Clade until it's later banning.

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - One of my favorite planeswalker cards of all time that I play both in my modern tron deck as well as Atraxa, Praetors' Voice commander deck. Can turn a game around so easily, his power cannot be denied.

Omniscience - One of the reason I always liked this card was simply for it's art, and I enjoy doing splashy, big plays in commander especially in decks like my Kruphix, God of Horizons .

Westvale Abbey  ^Flip - Was a card that I built an earlier casual standard deck around involving Blisterpod , Cryptolith Rite , and other eldrazi scion generators to flip this card into Ormendahl, Profane Prince . If that wasn't possible, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger was another card that you could ramp into from tapping and then sacrificing the scions.

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger - I had one of these first in my above mentioned casual deck that was mostly simic goodstuff, and even after that I made a place for it in a Vorel of the Hull Clade , Atraxa, Praetors' Voice deck alongside the other praetors for flavour and now he resides in my Kruphix, God of Horizons deck where one of my favorite things to do with him is cheat him into play with Natural Order to make tons of mana for cost cards or Helix Pinnacle .

Winding Constrictor - Led a former standard deck of mine between Aether Revolt up until the later rotation all around +1/+1 counters. decks were all that I played in standard between Kaladesh to Guilds of Ravnica, only now with Ravnica Allegiance have I finally played a deck in different colours. I still have one in my Atraxa, Praetors' Voice deck for now until I convert it to superfriends fully with War of the Spark.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - I played this card a ton when it was in standard and I have held onto my two copies of the card which see a bit of commander play in my Edgar Markov and Oloro, Ageless Ascetic decks. Definitely one of my favorite black mythics of all time. I might in the future consider using them in a modern deck mainboard / sideboard if I ever build some deck in modern.

Cabal Coffers - There were so many cards besides this one I could still pick but this one really appeals to me as it embodies the power and greed that is black. Alongside Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth this is such good value, and I now use the card in two commander decks, Lord Windgrace and Gonti, Lord of Luxury .

Honourable Mentions of mine,

Dragonlord Ojutai , Hydra Broodmaster , Horizon Chimera , Bearer of Silence , Roil Elemental , Managorger Hydra , and Slivers!

YamishiTheWickedOne on Mardu Vampires

3 weeks ago

Might be too many lords, 4 Captivating and 4 Stromkirk seems like overkill. I'm not a fan of Bloodline Keeper due to him being slow and Indulgent, I feel should probably be lower. More utility creatures are a good idea. If you want tempo then things like Viscera Seer , Bloodghast , Gatekeeper of Malakir , Olivia Voldaren and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet are all great. Worth mentioning: Stromkirk Noble is a crazy good 1-drop, despite not being black. I also feel like 4 Fatal Push is obligatory here. Kinda prefer Asylum Visitor over Zealots because I like hitting hard.

Land recommendations: Go big on fetches and run 1-2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth . The Ghast and Nocturnus synergy is unreal. Could probably cut a Cavern or 2, perhaps a mutavault. 8 feches is plenty but if you can go to 9 or 10 do so.

Good luck, have a nice drink tonight if you know what I mean.