Given the ever evolving state of edh, from card power level to increased awareness from youtube channels and deck databases, it can be hard to not include some of the best cards in the format into your deck.
But what if they didn't exist yet? This deck is part of a series attempts to imagine what it would be like to build back when it first came out, but with the knowledge and deckbuilding strategies I've built over the years.
It's 2011 and while in town I pop into a card and comic shop. Magic isn't particularly well stocked here but front and centre by the register I see five beautiful boxes sitting in front of me. Emblazoned on them is MAGIC COMMANDER (Subtitle Heavenly Inferno, Mirror Mastery, Counterpunch, Political Puppetry, and Devour for Power depending on which was in your direct eyeline.) I'd been in college by a year by that point and had joined the games society and reiginited my love of magic, having only ever really played it kitchen table style with my brother before that. To me it was still called EDH (I'd even built a terrible Nicol Bolas deck to honour the origins of the format). I recall running a Patron of the Orochi big green deck back when Pelakka Wurm was still a good play and also a Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker deck because I loved the idea of locking a person out with a Chimney Imp loop. But here were custom made three colour decks from Wizards themselves ready to change the whole format and begin the domination of Commander as the casual format. I left with Heavenly Inferno, Couterpunch, and Political Puppetry that day and 11 years later I'm still playing commander and making far, far too many decks.
Ghave, Guru of Spores, the face of the Counterpunch deck, is the only Commander deck from the original bunch I've kept to this date (Mostly for how easy it is to combo off regardless of what you do, but also because a friend had given it a full art altar and it holds a special place in my heart). However even all the way back then I remember it was Kaalia of the Vast who drew the ire of the table, and if you didn't get her down turn three and slap a Lightning Greaves on her, she'd never survive a full turn cycle for the rest of the game. Even with my lackluster cards and deckbuilding at the time, I still did enjoy playing her when she could actually do something, even if it was just sneaking in an Akroma, Angel of Wrath to twat someone about the head on turn 7 then drop an Avatar of Slaughter the next turn and just see what happens. But was it just our collective inexperience or the volatile nature of commander as these new bespoke products entered the format that made Kaalia of the Vast such a threat, or given the proper time and energy, could she pose a real threat then, and maybe even today?
The first thing I found during deckbuilding is that despite being such a threat at the table back in the day, there wasn't that many good angels, demons, and dragons to actually cheat in (Although at a casual table, a massive beaststick can be impressive enough). I didn't include Iona, Shield of Emeria as I want this deck possible to play today, but if I was rigidly sticking to the 2011 cardpool and environment she'd be in there.
Not having access to cards from sets from just a year or two after such as the Innistrad and Return to Ravnica block was really felt during this part of deckbuilding. Cards such as Aurelia, the Warleader, Angel of Serenity, Hellkite Tyrant, Utvara Hellkite, Master of Cruelties, Balefire Dragon, Angel of Jubilation, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Restoration Angel, and most crucially Avacyn, Angel of Hope.
I really felt the weight of card design and philosophy in 2011 when it came to card draw. Black still has some staples such as Necropotence and Phyrexian Arena, but we are in a time before red's access to impulse draws and white's access to well, card draw at all. Considering how devastating a board wipe can be to this deck, I tried to find repeatable sources of card draw, but had to settle on some lackluster cards such as Farsight Mask which could do literally nothing. Modern cards such as Jeska's Will and even Tome of Legends would be appreciated, but Mardu really has two of the three colours doing the heavy lifting with card draw even in 2022.
Removal both single target and mass were perfectly fine back in 2011. Some upgrades such as Anguished Unmaking, Utter End, Despark, and Vandalblast would improve the deck but I think even in in today's environment it could keep up.
Ramp and Mardu don't really work together, but there was a good mass of cost mana rocks to help get Kaalia of the Vast out on turn 3. The other talismans released in modern horizons would slot in nice, but you fall behind modern decks playing powerhouses such as Smothering Tithe and Dockside Extortionist.
And just as a final little interesting snapshot, at time of writing this (13/1/22), of the 14 top cards listed for Kaalia of the Vast on edhrec, 2011 Kaalia can't use ten of them, two of them are in the deck (Lightning Greaves and Angelic Arbiter), and two have been omitted (Mother of Runes and Akroma, Angel of Wrath). Though perhaps it is telling of either Mardu's poor commander selection or Kaalia's staying power that she still sits as the second most build Mardu commander out of 41 options.
