Lord of the Skies

Commander / EDH* Aggro Angels Demons Dragons RBW (Mardu)

Androstosity

Creature (26)

• 1x Admonition Angel
• 1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
• 1x Angel of Despair
• 1x Angel of Serenity
• 1x Aurelia, the Warleader
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Balefire Dragon
• 1x Blast-Furnace Hellkite
• 1x Drana and Linvala
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Giver of Runes
• 1x Junji, the Midnight Sky
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Liesa, Forgotten Archangel
• 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1x Master of Cruelties
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
• 1x Rakdos the Defiler
• 1x Rakdos, Lord of Riots
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Sephara, Sky's Blade
• 1x Terror of the Peaks
• 1x Vilis, Broker of Blood
• 1x Yosei, the Morning Star

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Oblivion Ring
• 1x Reconnaissance
• 1x Sneak Attack

Land (38)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Eiganjo Castle
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x High Market
• 1x Miren, the Moaning Well
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 8x Plains
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Slayers' Stronghold
• 1x Spinerock Knoll
• 1x Strip Mine
• 6x Swamp
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Windbrisk Heights

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Beacon of Unrest
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Damn
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Unburial Rites
• 1x Wrath of God

Commander (1)

Artifact (13)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Quicksilver Amulet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Conviction
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

Instant (9)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Disenchant
• 1x Doom Blade
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Mortify
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Rend Flesh
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Terminate

---

Sideboard

Creature (17)

• 1x Ancient Brass Dragon
• 1x Ancient Copper Dragon
• 1x Angel of Finality
• 1x Angel of Jubilation
• 1x Archangel of Tithes
• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Bruna, the Fading Light  ^{Flip  Meld}
• 1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
• 1x Kaalia, Zenith Seeker
• 1x Rakdos, Patron of Chaos
• 1x Resolute Archangel
• 1x Reya Dawnbringer
• 1x Scourge of Kher Ridges
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Thundermaw Hellkite
• 1x Twinflame Tyrant
• 1x Valgavoth, Terror Eater

Instant (3)

• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Crackling Doom
• 1x Return to Dust

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Stranglehold

Artifact (1)

• 1x Helm of the Host

---

Maybeboard

Creature (18)

• 1x Akroma, Angel of Fury
• 1x Aurelia, the Law Above
• 1x Basandra, Battle Seraph
• 1x Bladewing the Risen
• 1x Burning-Rune Demon
• 1x Crypt Angel
• 1x Demonlord Belzenlok
• 1x Dragon Mage
• 1x Dragon Tyrant
• 1x Liesa, Shroud of Dusk
• 1x Lyra Dawnbringer
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Razia, Boros Archangel
• 1x Rimescale Dragon
• 1x Sire Of Insanity
• 1x Tariel, Reckoner of Souls
• 1x Twilight Shepherd
• 1x Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

Artifact (2)

• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

---

Updating my kaalia deck into a sleek, efficient machine.

Some of the deck choices will be explained here. Some of the other choices that could go in this deck will be in the sideboard and maybeboard. Trying to make this as explained as I can without getting too wordy. Might do the other half and turn it into a primer, but that is a lot of work on top of what was already done.

-Mainboard Choices:

Admonition Angel is repeatable removal that doesn't cost you a card to remove threats.

Akroma, Angel of Wrath is an aggressive beatstick that is hard to remove. A little outdated, but still pretty good.

Angel of Despair is removal on a body that Kaalia can drop. Exiles something and then is just a body.

Angel of Serenity is triple removal that also lets you grab something from your grave to stuff back into your hand.

Aurelia, the Warleader lets you get double a turn out of Kaalia, vastly expediting your plan. Doubles your beatdown speed with two combats.

Avacyn, Angel of Hope is one of your best options. Makes everything difficult to remove and protects Kaalia on the attack.

Balefire Dragon is a big attacker that clears fields so you don't have to worry so much about getting slapped back or creature combo. Large field removal in a way.

Blast-Furnace Hellkite is a big beater that gives everything double strike. Just kinda make the game so much quicker. Swings in for a lot of damage. Also gives your opponents doublestrike as long as they're not attacking you.

Drana and Linvala slows down the opponents through preventing creatures from activating abilities. Also allows you to use those abilities, which might be useful in narrow use cases. Cheap and castable on it's own.

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is a huge swing in how damage works in the game. Doubles all outgoing and halves all incoming damge. Big on offense and decent in helping your creatures survive combat.

Junji, the Midnight Sky is a great beater that your opponents won't want to live but definitely won't want to die. Replaces himself as a threat when he dies or makes all opponents discard 2 is really strong and gives you options for where you are standing in the game.

Karmic Guide lets you grab something out of the grave without a restriction. Super useful and almost never a bad thing to do. Will die to it's own echo cost, but that is fine. It is too small to really do anything else anyways.

Kokusho, the Evening Star is much like Junji in that your opponents don't want him alive or dead but he has to be one. Decent beater when alive and a huge life swing when he inevitably dies. Usually bring you 15 life, which is great. Also you have plenty of options to sacrifice him out to in the event you need the life.

Liesa, Forgotten Archangel keeps graveyard recursion decks in a harder place while keeping your threats cycling into your hand where they are easily thrown onto the field through Kaalia.

Linvala, Keeper of Silence keeps activated abilities from working which is great again. Cheap and castable on her own if need be. A little small, but still a threat when necessary.

Master of Cruelties is a one hit kill. Boot someone out of the game with just him and Kaalia. Drop him off of a Kaalia trigger to avoid his attack alone requirement then he hits setting your opponent to 1 right before Kaalia swoops in for the final hit.

Ob Nixilis, Unshackled will heavily punish deck searching for your opponents, making them play by the spirit of the format while you ignore that as you please. Also snowballs into a large threat as soon as everything starts dying.

Rakdos the Defiler is a one shot field ruiner. Avoid his attack trigger with Kaalia and then let the opponent sacrifice half of their field. Then he's a big blocker.

Rakdos, Lord of Riots gives you a different way to play your fatties out when Kaalia has been killed too many times to be a viable game plan with cost reduction.

Rune-Scarred Demon is a simple deck search that can be dropped from Kaalia triggers. Replaces himself with another, probably better threat in hand, or with the answer you need. Also a decent beater once that has been done.

Sephara, Sky's Blade is a smaller, weaker Avacyn. She's great with lifelink and the protection she offers. Be careful about blasphemous act though.

Terror of the Peaks makes your pressure go through the roof and he's annoying to remove. Drop a fatty, they loose a bunch of life before attack damage has even happened. Seems decent.

Vilis, Broker of Blood keeps your hand full while being a massive body. Be careful as he can flood your hand fairly easily. He does double duty as small creature removal, but your life could disappear rather quickly that way (But it also draws you cards.)

Yosei, the Morning Star is another Kamigawa dragon that works in similar ways. Tap stuff out and they basically lose a turn when he dies.

-Sideboard choices (things that I find sometimes useful or things that have some issues that can be avoided by the choices in the mainboard):

Ancient Brass Dragon is super swingy. Hit a good roll and you can get a couple of your threats back. Hit a low roll and get basically nothing. Consistency isn't there. Big beater though.

Ancient Copper Dragon gives you a ton of mana. A super good choice for this deck. Really helps you power out your bigger threats without having to rely on Kaalia. He suffers when Kaalia is up and running and giving you free stuff as your hand drains so quickly. Inconsistent with how many treasures he'll give you but that is less of a problem than his brass counterpart.

Angel of Finality is super good when she's good, but does little when she's not. Devastating to grave play decks, but not big enough to do much when your opponent doesn't care much about their grave. She's rather cheap and castable without Kaalia though.

Angel of Jubilation buffs most of your threats nicely but doesn't give your most crucial target, Kaalia, any help. She stops everyone from paying with life and sacrificing, which can throw a huge wrench in the plans of some decks. This hurts you on some rare occasions though. Decently cheap, but kinda specific to try to cast without Kaalia and her body isn't very big.

Archangel of Tithes gives you a bit of a pillowfort allowing you to survive better against slap backs and token swarms and also makes blocking more complex for your opponents. Not the most impactful all the time and doesn't have the biggest body in the event that that happens. Decently cheap again, but kinda specific to try to cast on her own.

Bloodgift Demon is simply a Phyrexian Arena with a body. He gets you an extra card a turn in exchange for a life. Doesn't cost too much. He keeps you rolling with Kaalia triggers a little better. He's good, but maybe there are some better things that the deck could do.

Bruna, the Fading Light   is a big, tough beater that plays defense well. She's expensive and not all that useful in the early game. Her reanimation targets are narrow, but they tend to be some of the strongest options. And in an small edge case, she can even grab Kaalia out of the grave if you let her go there.

Iona, Shield of Emeria is one of the best angels you can drop off of Kaalia. Works in a huge way to prevent your opponents from doing something you usually don't want them to. Sometimes that is even just playing the game if they didn't pack any removal to get rid of her and they are in a single color. She has a big body, but is super expensive. She just has one problem... She's banned. (Unfairly, IMO)

Kaalia, Zenith Seeker is a nice enabler for her better, alternate version that you are playing as your commander. She digs down and hopefully grabs something for your commander to cast when she enters, but it is only once. Cheap, quick early game option, but she lacks the beats or protection capability necessary to earn a spot, IMO.

Rakdos, Patron of Chaos is another powerful option and Rakdos always seems to perform well. He puts a mean amount of pressure on someone to either sacrifice or let you draw and refill for Kaalia. He is a lightning rod that will draw hate and removal.

Resolute Archangel can be an absolute game saver in the right circumstances. Resetting your life to full is really good when you're on the ropes and could help stabilize you. But she is expensive and fairly small for her cost.

Reya Dawnbringer is a monster at her best and an almost nothing burger at her worst. She's excruciating expensive with little punch from her body. She is fantastic when you can just keep getting threats out of your grave and keep the recursion going. But she is useless as an early game drop and is an absolute lightning rod for removal and hate. She usually ends up being a win more card more often than a stabilizer for a board that is behind.

Scourge of Kher Ridges is an old school option that still works, but is a bit outdated. He does exactly what he used to do which is beat face while offering to keep opposing boards clear enough of threats to keep you safe. He is expensive to cast and a bit expensive to keep clearing the threats out of the way. He also usually ends up clearing your own field of useful pieces more often than you'd like.

Steel Hellkite is an interesting way to get your removal. He is a decently costed body with decent stats. His removal can be finicky and expensive in cases, but it is also wide sweeping. A fairly good choice, there's just some better stuff you could usually be doing.

Thundermaw Hellkite is neat, but kinda outdated. He will ensure that Kaalia will safely get through on a crucial swing if used correctly. Decent cost for stat effectiveness. Not too expensive. Just lacks a bit of punch once he has done his thing the first time.

Twinflame Tyrant works kind of like a lesser Gisela. Smaller, less expensive, but doesn't offer you the defensive side of Gisela. He competes more with Blast-Furnace Hellkite than with Gisela, but not a bad choice for some of the less powerful spaces.

Valgavoth, Terror Eater is super expensive but is worth it. A big, expensive to remove body with flying and lifelink is good as it is. Keeps opposing graveyards from really filling up for recursion and allows you to use those cards for a cost of your life. Just gotta keep that lifelink rolling. Could be a real backbreaker in the right circumstances, but once again, could also do very little other than be a big body in the wrong ones.

-Maybeboard Choices (Things that I find interesting but are really not strong enough for consideration into the deck. Could be used to detune the deck down for weaker play groups.):

Akroma, Angel of Fury is an expensive beater but has decent protection. Not much going for her other than that. She's a worst version of her other form.

Aurelia, the Law Above is a quick body that can do some work, but has some weird restrictions. An interesting thing of note is that any player, even yourself, attacking with the prerequisite number of creatures, aimed anywhere, tips off her abilities. That is a good way to slow down your opponents in combat as you will benefit from bigger combats. It doesn't come into play in every game, though. So she would be spotty on how often her abilities fire when not triggered by you.

Basandra, Battle Seraph is kinda small, decently cheap and keeps combat tricks from being played for the most part. She can also somewhat control the flow of combat. She's just sort of underwhelming as an option to drop off of Kaalia. Good for lower power decks, I suppose.

Bladewing the Risen is overly expensive and fairly narrow for a small body. His reanimation is fairly narrow but there are some good options in there. He's old tech that has become fairly obsolete.

Burning-Rune Demon is a tutor on a body that can be dropped by Kaalia. The issue starts with giving your opponent the information on what you picked and letting them tell you what you get. He does drop something into the grave to let your reanimation cards work though. He's sort of a worse Rune-Scarred Demon.

Crypt Angel is old tech that works to put some of your threats in your grave back to your hand for Kaalia to drop again. She's decently cheap but not overly big. And her recycling isn't as good as straight reanimation.

Demonlord Belzenlok is a useful hand refill that could cost you significant life on a bad run. It is sometimes worth it, but it could kill you if ill prepared. Refills your hand for Kaalia to have more targets to drop and digs through your deck for the useful things you need.

Dragon Mage is another old tech card that resurfaces every now and then. He is great for keeping your hand full, but he also refills your opponents' hands as well, possibly giving them the answers they need.

Dragon Tyrant is, once again, old tech that is super punchy but not very efficient. You drop him with Kaalia, he beats down for a decent chunk of life, then he disappears. Rarely do you pay for his expensive, recurring upkeep cost, which makes him worth just about a single shot and then he is spent. Prohibitively expensive to cast without Kaalia, as well.

Liesa, Shroud of Dusk gives you some taxing on opponents. She'll attract attention and work as a lightning rod. The flying, lifelink is nice. She's decently costed and has a fair body.

Lyra Dawnbringer does decent in combat and makes some of your Kaalia targets slightly better. Not overly useful other than as a baseline body.

Razaketh, the Foulblooded is big and expensive. He will put the hurt on people and has a search, which is always desirable. The deck doesn't have many targets for that ability though. So he ends up being mostly just a large body with trample and flying.

Razia, Boros Archangel tends to be expensive and underwhelming. Her redirection is a neat trick especially when you can pair her with Gisela. She is also underwhelming in her toughness. Works well at lower power tables.

Rimescale Dragon is a weird control form that works if you build for it. It gets expensive and you need specific lands to get it to work. Definitely catches people off guard when you get him running though. Too slow for higher power tables though.

Sire Of Insanity puts everyone on the same playing field. You will have a better chance at top decking than decks that haven't been built for such a situation. Strong but draws a lot of hate. Also punishes you, just maybe not as much as everyone else.

Tariel, Reckoner of Souls usually is in a weird spot. It requires you to rely on an opponent filling their grave with things that are desirable to you and then relying on luck to get them. Expensive and not overly good on the power stats. Fine for lower power tables, but almost useless in higher power matches.

Twilight Shepherd will help you recover from a board wipe decently well. However, now you are stuck with a lot of expensive things in your hand and have to rebuild. The cost and body aren't terrible. The persist is nice as well. But it just plays out worse than it would appear.

Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire is small and low to the ground. He is a repeatable source of tutoring... if he can survive. He's not terrible, but there are usually better ways to do what he does or just an easier way to set yourself up to win the game.

Date added	1 year
Last updated	15 hours
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 9 Mythic Rares 34 - 10 Rares 20 - 3 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.06
Tokens	Copy Clone, Treasure