Animar vs. Kaalia
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on April 1, 2018, 3:41 p.m. by KINGofORESKOS
I have an Animar, Soul of Elements deck and a Kaalia of the Vast deck. I'm not sure which one is better. I'm looking for a deck that's fun to play and play against, while still giving me a good chance to win in a multiplayer setting. Suggestions for both decks are also appreciated, as well as a simple vote on which one is better. Feel free to link your own Kaalia or Animar deck, as it might give me some inspiration. Many thanks!
I would definitely agree with Animar, for all the reasons previously noted, as well as the optimized deck designs in general. Without counter magic available in Mardu colors, the most optimized competitive decks are going to lean heavily on mass land destruction, which is almost always the most hated play in commander.
Additionally, the number of optimized Angels, Demons and Dragons for Kaalia are significantly fewer than the number of synergized creatures available to Animar, leaving you many more directions to build that deck.
I play fairly competitive builds of both commanders, and Animar is by far the more explosive of the two, while Kaalia is simply more hateful, and the responses of my opponents have definitely supported that view.
April 1, 2018 4:52 p.m.
rockleemyhero says... #4
Hey there, I play almost exclusively cEDH and have experience piloting both generals. They are pretty evenly matched imo; kaalia gets a bad rap but shes brutal as a stax heavy build with some fast combo you can easily pivot into. Ironically, animar actually does significantly worse without the general, but can consistently win by turn 4 in my build. These are no where near complete and not my main decks that I play but Ill link them regardless for another viewpoint.
Im a bit hipster and vote Kaalia, as shes more adaptable imo and less general dependant if you build her right.
Arvail says... #2
In the grand scheme of things, Animar has the potential to head a stronger deck, but power is relative in EDH. A lot depends on who you play against. If I were to pick one, I'd go with your Animar list. Still, both are pretty far from what the most competitive versions of these deck can look like. I also have to point out that pushing either of these decks to their limits in terms of power will likely lead to less fun for bothh you and most groups as pretty much anything that's been expertly tuned will wreck face at an average pod. Shooting for raw power is almost always a terrible idea when building an EDH deck.
Still, if you're looking to improve your animar list, I highly recommend adding in just a few hyper efficient counters to protect against board wipes. The deck currently has 0 instants. Stuff like Stubborn Denial, Swan Song, etc. will help you protect your boardstate once you've built one up while also not slowing you down too much. The thing with stuff like Mystic Snake is that if you want to keep them up as options to interact, they often eat your entire turn early on.
April 1, 2018 4:26 p.m.