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Sometimes I Wish I Had Wings

Commander / EDH Bracket 3 RBW (Mardu)

boba2989

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Creature (28)

Enchantment (2)

Land (38)

Sorcery (13)

Commander (1)

Commander: Kaalia of the Vast

Artifact (14)

Instant (4)

Deck concept: the deck was initially built as a Bruna, the Fading Light     mono-White deck focused primarily on Angels and Humans. It was a solid mid-power list that relied on many Wrath of God effects to compensate for its lack of speed and explosiveness. I decided to convert it to a more classic Kaalia of the Vast list, to gain access to Black and Red, acquire a bit more speed, while maintaining the strict focus on Angels as the only creatures in the deck – outside of the Commander itself.

Restrictions: Angels are the only creature type allowed in the list. There is no other restriction currently in place, although some pet cards of mine are prominently featured in the deck, despite not necessarily being the most powerful options available. The truth is I just like to play Angels and having almost thirty of them in the list just brings a smile to my face.

Strengths and weaknesses: having Kaalia of the Vast as your Commander means the deck can be quite explosive. It is not uncommon to see a large-scale Angel in play on the fourth turn of the game and an unchecked Avacyn, Angel of Hope or Gisela, Blade of Goldnight can pack quite a punch. The deck is great at applying early pressure, but I am well aware that Kaalia of the Vast has historically been a kill-on-site Commander. So, instead of fighting through a barrage of removals with once-shot cards Flawless Maneuver or Malakir Rebirth  , I’ve decided to set the deck up with a number of Angel-based recursion effects, making sure rebuilding a board would be fairly easy after the inevitable Day of Judgment or Toxic Deluge. The main weakness of the deck comes from its very restriction: having no access to cards like Master of Cruelty means that your opponents’ life totals need to be taken down through multiple attacks, leading to longer, grindier games. Fortunately, cards like Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and Aurelia, the Warleader can speed up the process quite easily, if left unchecked.

How to play the deck: the gameplan is extremely easy, as it just focuses on deploying Kaalia of the Vast as quickly as possible, dropping as many Angels as you’re able to and keeping up the attack for as long as you can sustain it. Priority should be given to Angels ensuring some form of protection, such as Breathkeeper Seraph, Twilight Shepherd, Sephara, Sky's Blade and, of course, Avacyn, Angel of Hope. Card draw and Wheel effect keep your flow of Angels as steady as possible, ideally making sure that no Kaalia of the Vast attack trigger goes unused. Should your entire board be removed, cards like Bruna, the Fading Light    , Emeria Shepherd, Reya Dawnbringer and Karmic Guide will help you rebuild.

Key cards and notable interactions: Bruna, the Fading Light     and Gisela, the Broken Blade   are not necessarily the best Angels to sustain your aggressive strategy, but being able to meld them into Brisela, Voice of Nightmares       is a fantastic accomplishment at casual tables. Giada, Font of Hope is probably of the best ”quiet” cards in the deck: while it doesn’t pack the punch of an Avacyn, Angel of Hope, the support it provides in the form of +1/+1 counters can really add up to a menacing board presence. Finally, Emeria Shepherd works wonders with Wayfarer's Bauble as you can keep pulling basic lands out of your library to smooth your draws.

Evolving the deck: Traditional Kaalia of the Vast lists make great use of cards like Rune-Scarred Demon, Master of Cruelties and Scourge of the Throne. It is very easy to build a good deck running powerful Demons and Dragons, but I always felt like fully powered Kaalia of the Vast lists felt very ”solved” and, frankly, quite boring. I think the typal restriction I applied provides a little bit of a challenge, while maintaining the essence of the Commander. And Angels are just cool. Should you want to go for a more traditional Angel-themed deck, Giada, Font of Hope is an excellent Commander, although you are missing out on powerful multicolour cards, like Aurelia, the Warleader.

Origin of the deck's name: a verse from "Heavy Heart" by Periphery.

Last updated: August 6th, 2025.

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