Kaalia of the Vast - "Competitive Aggro"

Commander / EDH AlexRuzhyo

SCORE: 168 | 85 COMMENTS | 129103 VIEWS | IN 163 FOLDERS


Playtest Ramblings —Aug. 23, 2016

I've actually gotten to play this a bit more, though in a non-competitive environment. Still, the testing has let me try out the deck in its current form.

The addition of Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, and Mana Crypt has allowed some absolute silly plays. The ramp and fixing is insane and I've often had 4+ mana on Turn 2.

Conversely, the ability to cast Kaalia seems to have come at the cost of threat density. I often have the ramp and removal but lack something to drop when kaalia swings. My density of is currently on the low end, with 21 Kaalia-cheatables, compared to the 24~ that I had while running more casual creatures. Cutting a couple pieces of spot removal for a couple more bodies isn't too difficult, but that brings me to another issue.

There haven't been many good, recent additions to the Kaalia roster. A bulk of what's here comes from RTR and INN block, with honorable mention to some of the core sets. The most recent threats that this deck runs are Archfiend of Depravity and Ob Nixilis, Unshackled. It's honestly a little upsetting that Commander 2015, BFZ, CN2, and SOI, a set primarily about the machinations of demons and angels, failed to produce anything worthwhile for the deck.

Still, we'll see what Kaladesh and the C16 product bring in the coming months. If you have a creature you want to petition for, post a suggestion in the comments below.

Papabear77 says... #1

Have you thought of adding "Land Tax, Scroll Rack, Dolmen Gate, Kokusho, the Evening Star, or Yosei, the Morning Star?

July 7, 2016 2:17 a.m.

AlexRuzhyo says... #2

If my deck ran more basic I would consider Land Tax, though it was pretty underwhelming in some of the other decks I tried it in. It ensures you hit your land drops but can be a dead card a decent amount of the time.

Scroll Rack doesn't seem like it'd do too much work in the deck. It burns through it's hand pretty quickly, so refilling is more beneficial that cycling through. It might have some decent synergy with Top of the Wheels but finding a spot would be rough.

Both Dolmen Gate and Iroas, God of Victory were in the deck at one point or another but they didn't seem to do much. Kaalia was either active on the board or ate some kind of removal. Blocks were never quite an issue leaving menace and damage prevention kind of dead.

The Kamigawa dragons are underwhelming without sac outlets or fierce recursion. They've no immediate impact on the board state and need to be built around to abuse properly.

July 7, 2016 11:10 a.m.

freakingShane says... #3

Your avg. CMC really isn't that bad at all! I'm excited to test this out!

Once I mess around with this, I'll see if I can come up with any suggestions!

July 20, 2016 3:55 p.m.

freakingShane says... #4

Actually, I have something right off the bat. What about Rogue's Passage? In the off chance that you get Master of Cruelties off, making him unblockable through some means is nAaAaAsTy! Haha.

Anyway, just food for thought, at the moment!

P.S. When I went to submit this, it says Passage is under consideration or something, so, in this case I just want to reiterate it and help promote this card! In all honesty, it is useful with multiple cards you have, so all in all, is recommended it!

July 20, 2016 4 p.m.

AlexRuzhyo says... #5

Yeah, Rogue's Passage was something that gets suggested a lot. I might break down and try it out. It's difficult to fit in another utility land, as greedy as this mana base is, so it's difficult to make a cut.

July 21, 2016 11:08 a.m.

freakingShane says... #6

If you had to swap a land, I would suggest either Hall of the Bandit Lord or Vault of the Archangel. I definitely see where you are going with these, but I feel like unblockability is more supplemental than the possible haste for Kaalia or the "nice to have" deathtouch/lifelink.

As you absolutely know, however, you can totally snub my suggestions! It's completely up to you!

July 21, 2016 4:27 p.m.

Hello,

First off really love the deck and am currently testing it out in my playgroup.

I had a question. I read the part about the Austere command, but I am still confused as to why you use merciless eviction over Austere command.

August 9, 2016 12:16 p.m.

AlexRuzhyo says... #8

Hey there! Glad you like the deck, and thanks for the upvote!

I chose Merciless Eviction over Austere Command for a few reasons.

  1. Exiling Merciless Eviction to Chrome Mox provides more mana flexibility.

  2. It hits planeswalkers.

  3. It's a bit more selective. Command requires two modes to be selected, and it often caused a bit more collateral damage than I wanted.

  4. It exiles rather than destroys. Destroying often means nothing when facing reanimators and recursion.

  5. It answers stolen a Avacyn, Angel of Hope. I've not found reason enough to run Homeward Path in my meta, but running Merciless Eviction is a decent "compromise", I guess.

I'd like to have both, but the mulligan rule change and and already high curve forced me to cut one of them.

August 9, 2016 6:28 p.m.

Greetings again. Thanks for the response. I was also wondering if you put mother of runes on this list twice on purpose or if there was another card that took up this slot.

August 9, 2016 6:34 p.m.

AlexRuzhyo says... #10

Had to sort it all out, ha.

-1 Mother of Runes

+1 Karmic Guide

August 9, 2016 9:28 p.m.