Commander Collection: Abyssus

Commander / EDH Angels Bracket 4 Demons Flying RBW (Mardu)

Jurrane

Land (37)

• 1x Ancient Tomb PGC
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Flooded Strand P
• 1x Foreboding Ruins
• 1x Gemstone Caverns P
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Inspiring Vantage
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mountain
• 2x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta P
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Sunbillow Verge
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Vault of Champions
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold P
• 1x Wooded Foothills P

Tutors (3)

• 1x Demonic Counsel
• 1x Demonic Tutor PGC
• 1x Vampiric Tutor PGC

Kaalia Cheat Package (24)

• 1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
• 1x Angel of Despair
• 1x Angel of Serenity
• 1x Angel of the Ruins
• 1x Archangel of Strife
• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Archfiend of Despair
• 1x Aurelia, the Warleader
• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Bloodletter of Aclazotz
• 1x Drana and Linvala
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
• 1x Master of Cruelties
• 1x Neriv, Heart of the Storm
• 1x Pestilence Demon
• 1x Rakdos, Lord of Riots
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Sephara, Sky's Blade
• 1x The Speed Demon
• 1x Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire
• 1x Vilis, Broker of Blood

Removal (8)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Damn
• 1x Damnation P
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Mythos of Snapdax
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vindicate

Extra Kaalia Triggers (2)

• 1x Isshin, Two Heavens as One
• 1x Strionic Resonator

Cheese (1)

• 1x Armageddon

Commander (1)

Protection (10)

• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Dawn's Truce
• 1x Deflecting SwatGC
• 1x Dragonfire Blade
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mask of Avacyn
• 1x Mithril Coat
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Teferi's ProtectionGC

Ramp (9)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox PGC
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Mana Vault PGC
• 1x Smothering TitheGC
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Conviction
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

Card Draw (5)

• 1x Black Market Connections
• 1x NecropotenceGC
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Sign in Blood

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{W}{B}{R} Deck Concept: Demonic Packed {W}{B}{R}

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Welcome to my primer for "Abyssus", a medium to high-powered Kaalia of the Vast aggro deck for EDH.

I was once told that I was a bit of a Timmy player so, for the Mardu deck in my EDH collection, I’ve decided to embrace my calling and build one of the very Timmiest of decks. The concept is about as simple as it gets: play our commander Kaalia of the Vast and use her to cheat as many high impact Angels and Demons into play as quickly as possible before she gets removed (she’s a removal magnet so expect this to happen quite fast).

The deck is made more exciting by including Isshin, Two Heavens as One, who functions as Kaalia’s deputy commander by doubling the number of attack triggers she gets. If we’re going to full Timmy, we might as well do it properly and spew out two giant hosses each turn rather than just one. Strionic Resonator is here too and does the same thing but we have to pay {2} to activate it.

That’s basically it. Nothing especially subtle here but we don’t have to worry about being subtle when we’re wrecking face with some of the biggest, baddest creatures the Mardu colour combination has to offer.

Why No Dragons?

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Kaalia of the Vast’s triggered ability means we can cheat out Angels, Demons or Dragons from our hand. So why aren’t there many dragons in this list? Two reasons: (1) I already have a Jund dragons deck and most of my strongest B/R dragon cards are in there; and (2) I decided to go with a heaven and hell theme, focusing on Angels and Demons only. Even with this restriction, fortunately we have no shortage of badass creatures to choose from.

That said, I've been converted to playing Neriv, Heart of the Storm in this list, because of its damage doubling ability for any creature that enters the battlefield that turn (including itself if it's cheated in with Kaalia). Definitely worth breaking my no-dragons rule for.

Deck Elements

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The majority of the cards in this deck fit into five categories. Most of our creatures are angels and demons; we try to keep Kaalia and the team on the board with a bunch of different protection spells; we run plenty of removal cards to eliminate opposing threats; and we have various card draw effects to ensure our hand is nicely stocked with big beefy creatures for Kaalia to cheat into play. Finally, we’ve loaded up on different mana sources so we have the option of hard casting our horde of angels and demons when Kaalia’s not around.

Angels & Demons
In a deck packed with angelic and demonic denizens of the highest (and lowest) order, one creature stands out and it’s the one with the lowest power (at least on paper). Master of Cruelties’ synergy with Kaalia of the Vast is nasty, to the point where I wonder if should even be including it in a casual EDH deck. It might only have a power of 1, but if Master of Cruelties is cheated into play from Kaalie’s attack trigger ability and both attackers connect with an unfortunate opponent, that player instantly loses the game. How? Here’s the MtG Judges website:

“… One of Kaalia’s best Demon buddies is Master of Cruelties, the marquee Rakdos mythic from Dragon’s Maze. Master of Cruelties has a very particular attacking restriction: if he attacks, he can only attack alone, which means no other creature can legally be declared as an attacker with him. (However, he doesn’t have to attack each turn.)

Kaalia’s ability, however, provides savvy players a way around this. When Kaalia attacks and her ability resolves, you can put Master of Cruelties “onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.” Because you never declared him as an attacker, his attacking restriction is ignored.

That’s well and good, but what about Master of Cruelties’ last ability? As we can see by the word “whenever” at the beginning, it’s a triggered ability. The trigger condition is met if “Master of Cruelties attacks a player and isn’t blocked.” We already said that Master of Cruelties was never actually declared as an attacker, so you might think that this ability cannot trigger. However, this trigger’s wording is deceptive. It actually cares about whether or not the Master is blocked.

If your opponent neglects to block the Master of Cruelties, his ability will trigger and promptly reduce your opponent’s life total to 1. Then, when combat damage is dealt, Kaalia will deal 2 damage herself.”

Ding ding! One-hit KO!

The rest of the creatures I’ve chosen for this deck generally fulfill at least one of several criteria: (1) they’re Angels or Demons so they can be put into play when Kaalia of the Vast attacks; 2) they hit hard and are capable of swifting causing damage to our opponents; or (3) they can result in advantageous board states for us if they remain on the board. Archangel of Strife, Bloodletter of Aclazotz and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight are some of the all-stars, as they can cause a lot of damage very quickly if left unchecked. Isshin, Two Heavens as One is the only exception to this as he synergises so well with Kaalia of the Vast.

I've provided a full list of all our angelic allies and demonic denizens in the "Heaven and Hell" section below.

Protection Spells
Kaalia of the Vast is feared and hated by opposing players because of the degenerate board states she creates. Our goal therefore is to keep her on the board for as long as we can so we can get the most out of her triggered ability. Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Dragonfire Blade, Mask of Avacyn and Mithril Coat are all included to protect her, and we also run several cards to help Kaalia and her friends dodge removal. These are Flawless Maneuver, Boros Charm, Deflecting SwatGC Dawn's Truce and Teferi's ProtectionGC.

Removal Cards
Because we’re in Mardu colours, our removal is absolutely top drawer. White/black gives us versatile spot removal like Vindicate, Anguished Unmaking and Generous Gift, as well as the usual creature destruction cards (Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile etc). Damn, Damnation and Mythos of Snapdax give us boardwipe options if we fall behind when other players generate threats faster than us.

Card Draw
Our deck’s success relies on being able to get Angels and Demons on the board as regularly and consistently as possible. To achieve this, we run a series of card draw effects that allow us to keep our hand stocked with threats for our opponents to answer. We have Sign in Blood and Night's Whisper as one shot deals, and supplement these with Black Market Connections (which also doubles as a ramp source and threat generator), NecropotenceGC, Phyrexian Arena, Bloodgift Demon, Infernal Sovereign, Harvester of Souls and Kothophed, Soul Hoarder. We also have access to various tutors to find us right cards at the right time: Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire, Rune-Scarred Demon and Demonlord Belzenlok acts as a pseudo-draw effect too. Finally I’ve recently added proxied versions of Demonic TutorGC and Vampiric TutorGC as I have multiple copies of each in other decks.

Mana Sources
This is a pretty resource hungry deck. Our average CMC is around 4 and we can’t always rely on Kaalia of the Vast to cheat out our high cost creatures. Because of this, we run nine mana rocks alongside our land base, and we include Smothering TitheGC to generate Treasure tokens to be used for hardcasting our high CMC creatures. Finally, Kaalia will get removed frequently so Command Beacon is an auto include in a deck like this.

Heaven and Hell

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Here is a full list of all the angels and demons we can summon with Kaalia of the Vast's triggered ability. Each has been chosen for their power, the value they offer and their potential impact on the game.

• Akroma, Angel of Wrath: More keywords than you can shake a stick at. We'll very rarely hardcast her for her mana cost but putting a 6/6 flying, first striking, trampling, vigilant creature with protection from two relevant colours into play for free is insane.
• Angel of Despair: A 5/5 flying body which doubles as excellent targetted removal that can destroy any permanent on the board. Not much more to say,
• Angel of Serenity: I've found from experience that we usually use her exile ability to clear out blockers or other problematic permanents but occasionally she'll help with graveyards. Otherwise another nice evasive threat.
• Angel of the Ruins: Very good exile removal for artifacts and enchantments, attached to a hefty 5/7 flying body. It's always good to have an answer to The One RingGC.
• Archangel of Strife: We're almost always choosing War. She therefore becomes a mighty 9/6 on ETB and powers up the rest of our horde by 3 also. Usually a must-answer threat.
• Archfiend of Depravity: Punishes go-wide and other creature-heavy decks. Its real strength is acting as a pseudo-boardwipe for the first turn cycle that its in play.
• Archfiend of Despair: One of our best finishers. Hit opponents for a lot of damage and then watch them lose that same amount life all over again in the end step. Note this is EACH end step so it isn't solely reliant on us attacking. Games rarely go long when he's around.
• Aurelia, the Warleader: Her stats are nothing to write home about, although she has some good relevant keywords. However extra combats are exactly what we want, whether it's flying in for more damage or getting more Kaalia of the Vast attack triggers. Staple for this deck.
• Bloodgift Demon: Not one of our biggest hitters but 5/4 flyer still isn't bad. We like him because he draws us an extra card each turn.
• Bloodletter of Aclazotz: A bit like Archfiend of Despair, he's one of our damage doublers. Only works during our turn but that's usually fine as we'll be doing most of our damage during the combat step.
• Drana and Linvala: One of the few Stax-y cards we run. We like it for its dual ability to switch off opposing creaturs' activated abilities while gaining those activated abilities for itself. Fun card.
• Gisela, Blade of Goldnight: Another of our damage doublers. I've used her to win games in very short order. Halving any damage dealt to us is also very useful, especially as we're usually the archenemy. In an handful of rare-but-wonderful instances, she'll stack with our other damage doublers too.
• Harvester of Souls: One of our few non-evasive creatures, he makes the grade because he'll usually help us draw plenty of cards.
• Kothophed, Soul Hoarder: Another card draw creature. This is one of our best as it triggers when any permanent goes to the graveyard. A 6/6 flying body isn't bad either.
• Master of Cruelties: Already covered in the previous section. Our classic one-two punch with Kaalia of the Vast.
• Pestilence Demon: Punishes go-wide decks with its activated damage ability and can only be a one-sided boardwipe if we use it carefully. Like most of our demons, it also comes with good stats and evasion.
• Rakdos, Lord of Riots: We get round his casting restriction by cheating him into play with Kaalia. If he sticks around, his cost reduction ability means our other big hitters become trivially easy to cast. Plus he's a 6/6 flying trampler.
• Razaketh, the Foulblooded: One of our biggest, nastiest Demons. An 8/8 flyer that also tramples is already very good but he's a repeatable tutor on a stick too.
• Rune-Scarred Demon: Another tutor, this time as an ETB with a 6/6 flying body attached.
• Sephara, Sky's Blade: It's very rare that we'll actually be casting her but her ability to give the rest of our team indestructable is fantastic. Helps Kaalia dodge removal, which is important.
• The Speed Demon: I hate nearly everything about Aetherdrift, especially its stupid "start your engines" mechanic, but I'm trying out The Speed Demon here. It's another source of card draw and will usually be connecting for damage.
• Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire: Another reusable tutor although we have to pick our shots with his boast ability as his stats are nothing to get excited about. Deathtouch is useful though.
• Vilis, Broker of Blood: A mighty 8/8 flyer with an explosive card draw ability. Sometimes quite high risk but definitely high reward.

Strengths

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Very few decks can match our raw power if Kaalia sticks around on the table and is able to attack. Cheating out game-breaking creatures is an excellent strategy in EDH and we can reduce opposing life totals to zero very quickly if opponents are light on interaction. If we can give her haste with Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots etc, she becomes even stronger, especially as she'll also be granted hexproof or shroud by those cards.

There are very few decks I would play Armageddon in, as mass land destruction tends to be frowned on in casual EDH. However I've added it here, mainly from the perspective of it being a viable win condition in its own right. All you need is Kaalia and another threat or two on the battlefield (ideally with Equipment protection for her in case of Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile etc, and then the coast should be clear to cast Armageddon to close out the game. But I would only use it in Bracket 4 pods where MLD is permitted.

If you haven't piloted a Kaalia of the Vast deck before, you'll generally find it's either boom or bust. When it goes off, it goes OFF and can take out the whole table in very short order. However it's highly susceptible to interaction and can be thwarted relatively easily. The following section outlines our main weaknesses.

Weaknesses

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I've seen Kaalia decks described as glass cannons, which seems about right. Our main weakness is that our strategy is pretty one-dimensional ie. play Kaalia, attack with her, profit. That's basically it. We're therefore liable to disruption and are incredibly reliant on Kaalia to do our thing. If she's countered or removed, we're just a clunky midrange deck with a high mana curve that usually means we'll only be playing one big threat a turn (if we're relying on casting all our angels and demons the "fair" way).

Because of this, it's only worth casting Kaalia if we've got one or more ways to protect her as, otherwise, she probably won't survive a turn cycle. She definitely fits the category of a kill-on-sight Commander and most EDH players will be aware of this. Unless we have free spells like Deflecting SwatGC or Flawless Maneuver in hand, I would never tap out to cast her, as the risk is too great.

The other weakness in a Kaalia strategy is that we have to attack with her to get her benefit. Anything that stops us attacking (including bigger flying blockers) is a big problem for us and should be considered a priority target for removal. Fortunately we have no shortage of flexible, versatile options for removal, with tutors to find them if needed.

Watch for boardwipes too. In any Kaalia deck, there's the inherent danger that we just spew out our hand, only to be thwarted by mass removal that leaves with an empty board and very few other resources. I would always recommend keeping some threats in reserve, unless you think you can close out the game imminently and/or you have boardwipe protection spells in hand like Flawless Maneuver, Teferi's ProtectionGC, Dawn's Truce etc.

Power Level

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I categorise decks in my collection according to four tiers of power, from 1 (most powerful) to 4 (least powerful):

Tier 1: Higher powered decks with fast mana, free spells, and infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors.
Tier 2: Well tuned decks which may have infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors, but not many fast mana sources and/or free spells.
Tier 3: Reasonably well tuned casual decks that are capable of powerful plays. May occasionally have infinite combos or instant wins but don't generally use tutors to find them.
Tier 4: Lower powered or linear decks, weak enough to play against other casual decks.

This is a fair/casual Kaalia list, if that isn't too much of a contradiction in terms. Other than Master of Cruelties, it doesn't run any of the nasty combos found in competitive Kaalia builds, avoids the nasty Stax elements and Armageddon, and aims to win the old-fashioned way, ie. through combat. I'd therefore call it one of my Tier 3 decks as it's pretty well optimised apart from fast mana. As it stands though, it's fine for casual tables although expect to become the archenemy as soon as people see which Commander you're playing.

In terms of WotC's new EDH power brackets, I'd say this is a Bracket 4 deck. It currently has six game changer cards (Demonic TutorGC, Vampiric TutorGC, Teferi's ProtectionGC, Deflecting SwatGC, NecropotenceGC and Smothering TitheGC; plus I've recently added Armageddon, which well and truly pushes it into B4 territory. I've seen it argued that Kaalia should be categorised as a Bracket 4 strategy on its own but personally I think she's a bit outclassed these days and is not quite the dominating force she once was.

Budget

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Budget-wise, Kaalia can be quite an expensive deck as (a) it's a 3-colour mana base; and (b) ideally you want {W}{B}{R} as early as possible in the first few turns. You therefore want all the shocklands, as many of the relevant fetches as you can get hold of, plus the rainbow lands like City of Brass, Mana Confluence etc. Unfortunately you're probably looking at about $200 just for the lands. Although my version is about $700-$800 to buy on Card Kingdom, I'd still call it a relatively budget list as it's a bit light on WBR staples (it has Teferi's ProtectionGC, Smothering TitheGC and Deflecting SwatGC, which are all pretty expensive, but runs proxies versions of a couple of tutors: Vampiric TutorGC and Demonic TutorGC).

As a higher-powered Kaalia, I've also recently added proxied versions of fast mana sources including Ancient TombGC, Mana VaultGC and Chrome MoxGC. I'm using proxies as I have own multiple copies of these cards but have them in other decks, and I use proxies to avoid swapping cards in and out each game. Obviously using the real versions would push the price way up but proxies are fine if your group is OK with that.

Closing Thoughts & Future Improvements

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For the most part, it could probably said this is a fairly typical Kaalia deck, albeit one that has hopefully been fairly well optimised. I've found it's pretty fun to play and, while not being inordinately strong, it can definitely go off in casual pods and punish decks that are light on interaction. Although Kaalia is a powerful strategy, builds like this one tend to be self-regulating as other players usually treat her as a kill on sight Commander and we're therefore liable to disruption.

Thanks for checking out this primer :) I hope it inspires your own Kaalia lists.

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All My EDH Decks

{W} Giada, Font of Hope {W}
S(i)erra Sidewinder: Mono-White Angel Tribal

{U} Talrand, Sky Summoner {U}
Blue Streak: Mono-Blue Spellslinger

{U} Orvar, the All-Form {U}
Clone Zone: Mono-Blue Shapeshifters Combo

{B} Sidisi, Undead Vizier {B}
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{B} Ayara, First of Locthwain {B}
Black Diamond: Mono-Black Aristocrats Combo

{R} Torbran, Thane of Red Fell {R}
Red Force: Mono-Red Group Slug

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Firebird: Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

{G} Titania, Protector of Argoth {G}
Timber Terror: Mono-Green Stax

{W}{U} Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC {W}{U}
Control Freak: Azorius Control

{W}{U} Elminster {W}{U}
Crystal Wing: Azorius Skies & Scry

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Pandemonium: Rakdos Sacrifice

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Barnstormer: Gruul Conspire

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Stampida: Selesnya Humans Tribal

{W}{G} Captain Sisay {W}{G}
Legendia: Selesnya Legendary

{W}{G} Sythis, Harvest's Hand {W}{G}
Diamondback: Selesnya Enchantress

{W}{B} Daxos the Returned {W}{B}
Curse of Novgorod: Orzhov Constellation

{W}{B} Kambal, Consul of Allocation {W}{B}
Oblivion: Orzhov Lifegain & Lifedrain

{U}{R} Firkraag, Cunning Instigator {U}{R}
Dragon’s Fury: Izzet Dragons/Goad

{B}{G} Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons {B}{G}
Scorpion Express: Golgari Deathtouch

{B}{G} Nath of the Gilt-Leaf {B}{G}
Outlaw Run: Golgari Elves/Discard

{W}{R} Bruenor Battlehammer {W}{R}
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{W}{R} General Ferrous Rokiric {W}{R}
Gatekeeper: Boros Multicoloured

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Phantom’s Revenge: Jeskai Control

{U}{B}{G} Yarok, the Desecrated {U}{B}{G}
Boomerang: Sultai ETB Triggers

{W}{B}{R} Kaalia of the Vast {W}{B}{R}
Abyssus: Mardu Angels & Demons

{U}{R}{G} Omnath, Locus of the Roil {U}{R}{G}
Boulder Dash: Temur Landfall

{U}{R}{G} Eshki, Temur's Roar {U}{R}{G}
Thunder Striker: Temur Power Matters

Date added	5 years
Last updated	3 weeks
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	17 - 0 Mythic Rares 58 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.76
Tokens	Elephant 3/3 G, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Start Your Engines!, Treasure
Folders	Tried