Kaalia is one of the original Commander's legendaries and I have been playing her ever since the set released. There are various strategies to play Kaalia, from focusing on her ability and supporting her to not entirely depend on Kaalia. I know, she is the best when you can put a creature in the battlefield with her, but you are always telegraphing your opponents what you will do. These are some strategies that you can use, ordered for crescent power level:
- Aura/Equipment-based: You have a lot of auras/equipments (e.g., Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Swords, Mask of Avacyn, Darksteel Plate) and you fetch them with other cards (e.g., Stoneforge Mystic, Open the Armory, Steelshaper's Gift). You also include a Sunforger package to have some card advantage. Also, add Grand Abolisher, Reconnaissance and Maze of Ith to give more protection to Kaalia.
- Reanimation-based: It has the best budget/viable approach in my opinion. It takes the focus out of Kaalia and helps you to deploy threats much easier. You have nice looting (e.g., Cathartic Reunion, Faithless Looting, Tormenting Voices), tutor to grave (e.g., Entomb, Buried Alive) and reanimation spells (e.g., Reanimate, Animate Dead, Necromancy, Dance of the Dead, Beacon of Unrest). You can easily drop big fellas easily with that. You can also add a infinite mana combo worldgorger + reanimate enchantment (e.g., Animate Dead). The mana can be spent on a Walking Ballista. Don't forget your Pull from Eternity to deal with GY Hate! Be sure to add good boardswipes so that you can fill everyone's graveyard and work with that too.
- Combo-based: You can add some combos that win you the game on the spot instead of grinding for a victory with combat damage. You have a lot of combos with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker like it + Restoration Angel/Zealous Concripts/Felidar Guardian/Combat Celebrant/Village Bell-Ringer. You also have a Doomsday combo with Hellcarver Demon.
- Stax-based: This is the most competitive approach, yet the most expensive. There are a lot of good creatures (e.g., Aven Mindcensor, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Ethersworn Canonist, Hokori, Dust Drinker, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Magus of the Moon, Spirit of the Labyrinth, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben), artifacts (e.g., Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst, Trinisphere, Winter Orb) and enchantment (e.g., Blood Moon, Stranglehold, Tectonic Instability, Price of Glory) stax pieces. There are some nice locks, like Stranglehold + Maralen of the Mornsong. Stax/combo is usually the best strategy where you use your creature-based combos to break the parity of your stax pieces that increment the cost of noncreature spells.
I have tried all these strategies and I have reached a few conclusions:
- The protection strategy based on Auras/Equipments is not worth because it turns your deck into a glass cannon. The strategy allows you to play a semi-voltron approach where you power-up Kaalia so that she doesn't get killed easily and swing with her deploying big bois.
- The graveyard-based approach is the funniest because you don't rely only on Kaalia and you can cheat big bois from your hand and graveyard, so you usually do not spend any mana to cast them.
- While the combo-based approach gives you a faster clock, it starts to be off theme. You still use Kaalia to drop big hitters, but that isn't your main game line because you do not need aggro damage to in. Again, it's faster that the previous two, but keep in mind that competitive decks will be much faster. Nonetheless, if your meta isn't competitive, this allows you to be really strong.
- The main problem with Kaalia is that she is too slow. To counter that, you have to drag opponents to your tempo and break parity on the stax to go over them. This is the best and most competitive approach to run Kaalia, but you are not really running Kaalia because the deck has no A/D/Ds. So you just play Mardu and you do not need to cheat big bois because the combos that win you the game are all composed by specific combinations that win the game instantly. If you want to run stax, I suggest you run Queen Marchesa and you will shine with the monarch mechanic.
With this in mind, I aim to create a graveyard-based deck that lets me cheat big bois while at the same time keeping Kaalia's theme. Any suggestions are welcome!
Updates
4/May/20
In: Thrill of Possibility
Out: Cathartic Reunion
Rationale: Instant speed is stronger, in spite of losing one card. Will try it.
13/Apr/20
In: Savai Triome and Mythos of Snapdax
Out: Snow-Covered Mountain and Hallowed Burial
Rationale: A tri-land is really cool for the fetches and Mythos is a really strong removal for all the table. As we pay BR so easily, it's a really strong spell.
03/Aug/19
In: Vilis, Broker of Blood
Out: Iona, Shield of Emeria
Rationale: Iona was banned, so we need a new strong ADD to put in the deck. Since we have a lot of effects that require paying life, I decided to add Vilis. Will test it as soon as I acquire one.
