Kalitas - Traitorous Control
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 3 | 1 COMMENT | 1154 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS
Commander night results + changes from suggestions —July 15, 2016
Had some suggestions from Reddit, and used them to try to refine the deck a bit. Added protection for Kalitas (Lightning Greaves, Darksteal Plate) and some value Voltron equipment (Sword of Feast and Famine, Lashwrithe). Several other changes as well. Tried it out at commander night at a LGS, 3 games in a 4-man pod.
Results were mixed. My mana was not running very well at all - I was land-screwed multiple times, and one of my opponents was ramping like mad consistently. I still made a decent showing, but lost every game.
Closest game was a massive (not infinite, but enough) Exsanguinate that would have killed everyone except an Oona player, who would have been left with nothing but some land and 1 life. He counterspelled, and then the Prossh player (who went immediately after me) took game. The Exsanguinate was powered by repeatedly saccing Gravecrawler to Ashnod's Altar, saccing all creatures on my board except Kalitas.
The Voltron aspect was just not working. Any time I could make Kalitas grow a little, he'd be removed (targeted removal or board wipe when I had Greaves). Was not able to get any of the three Grave Pact effects on the board either.
Deck currently feels inconsistent. If I can get good mana accelerators on board I can do decently well. Without them, I flounder. I've tried to include more effects on creatures rather than sticking with enchantments and sorceries because they're easier to recur, but I actually don't have a ton of graveyard play either (some, but not enough to consistently have the option). I think I need to find room for more tutors, but not sure what I'd cut.
Disappointed with how conditional Kalitas feels. He's powerful, his abilities are effective, but they require multiple things to be happening. I need nontoken enemy creatures to die to spawn zombies. I need zombies and a lot of mana up to make Kalitas grow. Kalitas doesn;t grow quickly, so I need protection on him so that he can stick around long enough to do anything. I find it really hard to have him stay alive for ~2-3 turns once I have the resources to make him grow a little. Pumping him enough to get lethal commander damage is just not working (I think I did a maximum of ~11 commander damage to a single player in one game).