Benedict Kalitas, Infection on the Down-Low

Commander / EDH Counters Infect Mono-Black Tokens Voltron

Azzman4u

Artifact (23)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Blade of the Bloodchief
• 1x Bolas's Citadel
• 1x Cloak of the Bat
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1x Lashwrithe
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Liquimetal Torque
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Nightmare Lash
• 1x Prowler's Helm
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Trailblazer's Boots
• 1x Vorpal Sword
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Land (36)

• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 27x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Terrain Generator
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x War Room

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Blood Money
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Grim Tutor
• 1x Innocent Blood
• 1x Make an Example
• 1x Nature's Ruin
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Perish
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Virtus's Maneuver
• 1x Yahenni's Expertise

Instant (10)

• 1x Hagra Mauling  ^Flip
• 1x Liliana's Triumph
• 1x Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip
• 1x Malicious Affliction
• 1x Plumb the Forbidden
• 1x Rise of the Dread Marn
• 1x Soul Shatter
• 1x Tainted Strike
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Vona's Hunger

Commander (1)

Creature (12)

• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Demon's Disciple
• 1x Fell Stinger
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Gravelighter
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Morbid Opportunist
• 1x Murderous Rider
• 1x Undead Augur
• 1x Walking Atlas
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• 1x Zombie Trailblazer

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Dystopia
• 1x Glistening Oil
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyresis

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I've always been a huge fan of Benedict Kalitas. He was one of the first cards I ever acquired when I began playing MTG in 2019, and I've always been surprised by the lack of EDH decks he commands (137 on EDHREC at the time of writing).

I'm not a very experienced Magic player, but this card seems to provide so much value. An affordable 4 CMC cost, solid 3/4 combat stats, lifelink, graveyard hate, token generation and a Sac-outlet to top it off. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe my affectionate nostalgia for BK is clouding my perception of this card, and he's really not all that great...Regardless, I decided to endeavor in building an effective and enjoyable deck around this underappreciated vamp.

~Brief Aside~ I do not play cEDH and do not intend for this deck to perform at a cEDH level.

I first embarked on building BK as a zombie tribal deck; however, I don't really dig tribal playstyles (It makes for too linier of a gameplay experience in my opinion), and I felt that zombie tribal didn't really maximize BK's potential. I briefly pivoted to a discard strategy hoping to capitalize on the graveyard hate this card provides, but this proved ineffective and underwhelming. Next, I tried out a token build. The strategy was simple : Get BK onto the field early and load the deck with cheap removal to maximize BK's static ability - kill opponents creatures and to generate my zombie token army.

As I continued to tinker with this plan I learned that it often led to a really beefed up BK, as I would sack my zombie tokens to buff up Kalitas. So I decided to lean into the beefy BK idea. Gradually, it became clear that the deck was becoming Voltron-esque, and I began throwing in protections for my beefy Voltron commander with the likes of lightning greaves, whispersilk cloak, swiftfoot boots, etc. However, I lacked wincons and so, I turned to the insidious wiles of infect.

In my play experience, I've always found Infect to be underwhelming. Everyone sees it coming from a mile away, you immediately become public enemy #1 and it greatly impairs your ability to politic with the other players. But.... what if it wasn't so obvious? What if I could disguise my secret infect strategy behind the veneer of zombie tribal? This became the purpose of this deck — to appear as if I'm cruising along with my zombies and just so happen to stumble upon a tainted strike or glistening oil for the one shot knock out. To this end, I have included numerous cards which make BK difficult to block: Shizo, Death's Storehouse, Whispersilk Cloak, Suspicious Bookcase, Zombie Trailblazer, etc.

This deck has not been thoroughly tested yet and I'm looking for feedback and suggestions. Any commentary from the community would be greatly appreciated.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 31 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.69
Tokens	City's Blessing, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Berserker 2/2 B
Folders	Current Decks