With Kaalia, the best thing to do is run all the creature types that she can play. Just the best of each type. That way you have more options. I'd also throw an Isshin in here for 2 Kaalia triggers per swing. Then run tutors and wheels. After that, focus on Ramp and protection spells. You could probably fit a few mass reanimation spells in there. That's gonna give you the most efficiency to get Razaketh into your hand and onto the field for free. Then, tutor for Avacyn. After that, you can't lose unless your opponent exiles everything. But that why you run Deflecting Swat and Teferi's Protection. I think it's a pretty busted deck. The only time I've ever beaten it is when Kaalia is targeted for removal multiple times.
4:27 referring to your point about not always running the second partner if your deck doesnt need the colors, commander legends gave us several mono color partners, so it would be pretty easy to grab a red or blue partner that does *something* to generate a resource for you even if it isn’t necessary. Like for this kraum deck, it would cost zero additional mental real estate to slap a toggo in the command zone and then just have a pile of rocks that you can throw if you need to shock something real quick (like your kaalia) if it’s gonna cause you a problem. Essior would protect kraum for a whopping two mana, alena is a dork if you need it, Malcolm to just passively ramp you if youre swinging, sakashima because whats better than one kraum? Two kraums! Dargo for a giant beater, jeska to close games faster, keddis for the same, rogakh because its literally just a 0cmc blocker, like i agree with keep it simple if you have a focused idea, but theres next to no opportunity cost to running a partner commander without partnering up.
For sure. Its a powerful card that goes in and out of my angel tribal deck quite often. At times I felt like it gets a little too combo centric with it, but it is a powerful effect.
You should add Dihada imo, it's very good at both protecting kaalia and yourself and eventually catching some good stuff if you lack material for the trigger. I mounted an ETB focused Kaalia deck, with destructive demons, and adragons, but mainly Angels anyway. With a good starting mana it scares the hell out of any opponent, even the most cEDH decks.
I think you should take out things like Urza's Incubator since you're trying to cheat the creatures onto the battlefield more than you're trying to cast them. It also wouldn't hurt to throw maybe 1 or 2 Dragon's in the deck. Like Dragon Mage or Knollspine Dragon. That way you don't have to rely on drawing spells. I'd also put some tutors in the deck.
I think one thing you could have done this game is use the Pyre of Heroes on Kaalia. You had Kaalia in your hand for a long time, and sure, missing the commander tax is nice, but you HAD a ton of mana to spend, and getting some creatures out IMMEDIATELY feels like it would have been more useful than just holding Kaalia in your hand and hoping you draw another angel. You had the ramp and two sets of boots, so I think you could have easily re-cast Kaalia even after some commander tax. Just a small thing, but with how rough the land flood had been on you, chucking Kaalia onto the pyre would have given you more action. Though, I suppose that Kaalia is a Human Cleric huh? So depends on if your deck has anything that works off of Kaalia.
After having played with Kaalia a decent amount myself.. Going angel tribal is defo a neft for her. So many of the demons in particular really help with card draw and tutoring.. Blinking Runescar Demon with sword of Hearth and Home.. Even Conjurors Closet. You can just get insane ETB value with a few very strong cards. Giada is just way more efficient as an angel tribal commander from my experience now. But yeah. Mass land destruction also helps with Kaalia but its nasty of course. I don't run it anymore. Briefly was enough for me to see that it wasn't fun for me or my opponents.
I always wondered about Kaalia Angel tribal, it's certainly the best mardu option for angels (sorry Tariel, just not good enough). I believe the right strategy would be straight up the angel count to around 30 (there's a bunch of toolbox angel that could replace removal, recursion slots), and go heavy on looting/rummaging to make sure you have good creatures to drop or reanimate. One thing I noticed the builder didn't use here is equipment and as you said tutors. Having white and not using equipment and black without tutors is a waste imho. Mask of memory/animist/Feast and Famine package here would be awesome. Thanks for the upload PJ, although it didn't go particularly well it's good to see the idea of the deck in action.
I built a tariel deck once, can confirm. Shes not good enough. Even in tap creature tribal which can use it multiple times her ability is pretty underwhelming. Decent beat stick with 4/7 flying vigilance though and the jegantha cost reduction gets her in quickly. Yeah Im gonna take another look through and try to get their deck purring like a kitten. I think its close but maybe like another 5-7 changes and i think it will get there. Yeah taking advantage of some powerful black cards will be good. I personally would add equipment cause thats just me, but I understand wanting to run without just because they do eat up a lot of card slots, but they also bring a lot of consistency. Im gonna have a fresh draft of revisions for them afterwork.
I personally prefer the ETB Kaalia with Sneak Attack and Lifeline or Sneak Attack with Sundial of Infinite (activating second main phase, of course). A good second option is Cryptic Gateway with a way to make Angel creature tokens. The third way that I play Kaalia is Angel Reanimator, with cards like Buried Alive and Entomb, and then reanimation spells like Reanimate, Buried Alive, and Angels that bring back more Angels. I don't like the attacking Kaalia, because she is a "Kill On Sight" commander. Though, to be fair, I also use Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, and Maskwood Nexus, so I can cast Angels from the yard. By the way, PJ, why would you not get a Kaalia drop by attacking a planeswalker? Her ability doesn't care who or what you're swinging at, as long as you're swinging.
Kaalia's ability actually does care about what you are swinging at, she says "attacks an opponent" which a planeswalker is not, so it won't trigger if you attack an opponent's planeswalker. You can confirm by checking the rules on gatherer, one of them is "Kaalia's ability doesn't trigger if it attacks a planeswalker."
@@AviarkXIII : Yep, you're right. I checked my Magic app, looked at the wording of the ability. It says "attacks an opponent." But even then, what you drop from the hand is under no such restriction.
@@isaiahwelch8066 This is not correct, the creature that you put into play enters attacking "that opponent" meaning that it needs to be attacking the target that you declared Kaalia attacking. This is also on the gatherer rules for Kaalia.
was gonna post an account of a brutal Kaalia reanimator de,ck i used to get stomped by when i first started playing. End of vid basically went there anyway. Hmmm, I wonder if there are any good red cards for churning through your deck.....
Yeah Id personally go ham with the wheels in my own version of kaalia. Sure lll take a look at it, im always curious to see how people put their kaalia lists together.
Yeah there are definitely options available with black. I like things the idea of churning through as many cards as possible with Kaalia deck. Wheels and big draw are what i tend to prefer.
With Kaalia, the best thing to do is run all the creature types that she can play. Just the best of each type. That way you have more options. I'd also throw an Isshin in here for 2 Kaalia triggers per swing. Then run tutors and wheels. After that, focus on Ramp and protection spells. You could probably fit a few mass reanimation spells in there. That's gonna give you the most efficiency to get Razaketh into your hand and onto the field for free. Then, tutor for Avacyn. After that, you can't lose unless your opponent exiles everything. But that why you run Deflecting Swat and Teferi's Protection. I think it's a pretty busted deck. The only time I've ever beaten it is when Kaalia is targeted for removal multiple times.
4:27 referring to your point about not always running the second partner if your deck doesnt need the colors, commander legends gave us several mono color partners, so it would be pretty easy to grab a red or blue partner that does *something* to generate a resource for you even if it isn’t necessary. Like for this kraum deck, it would cost zero additional mental real estate to slap a toggo in the command zone and then just have a pile of rocks that you can throw if you need to shock something real quick (like your kaalia) if it’s gonna cause you a problem. Essior would protect kraum for a whopping two mana, alena is a dork if you need it, Malcolm to just passively ramp you if youre swinging, sakashima because whats better than one kraum? Two kraums! Dargo for a giant beater, jeska to close games faster, keddis for the same, rogakh because its literally just a 0cmc blocker, like i agree with keep it simple if you have a focused idea, but theres next to no opportunity cost to running a partner commander without partnering up.
There's an argument to be made for alter of dementia. You can use the sacrifice to prevent exiles, and it will fill your graveyard to reanimate.
For sure. Its a powerful card that goes in and out of my angel tribal deck quite often. At times I felt like it gets a little too combo centric with it, but it is a powerful effect.
You should add Dihada imo, it's very good at both protecting kaalia and yourself and eventually catching some good stuff if you lack material for the trigger. I mounted an ETB focused Kaalia deck, with destructive demons, and adragons, but mainly Angels anyway. With a good starting mana it scares the hell out of any opponent, even the most cEDH decks.
You raise a very good point. Ill mention it to the decks owner. Good thinking.
Got a decklist? Sounds like fun
I think you should take out things like Urza's Incubator since you're trying to cheat the creatures onto the battlefield more than you're trying to cast them. It also wouldn't hurt to throw maybe 1 or 2 Dragon's in the deck. Like Dragon Mage or Knollspine Dragon. That way you don't have to rely on drawing spells. I'd also put some tutors in the deck.
I think one thing you could have done this game is use the Pyre of Heroes on Kaalia. You had Kaalia in your hand for a long time, and sure, missing the commander tax is nice, but you HAD a ton of mana to spend, and getting some creatures out IMMEDIATELY feels like it would have been more useful than just holding Kaalia in your hand and hoping you draw another angel. You had the ramp and two sets of boots, so I think you could have easily re-cast Kaalia even after some commander tax. Just a small thing, but with how rough the land flood had been on you, chucking Kaalia onto the pyre would have given you more action.
Though, I suppose that Kaalia is a Human Cleric huh? So depends on if your deck has anything that works off of Kaalia.
After having played with Kaalia a decent amount myself.. Going angel tribal is defo a neft for her. So many of the demons in particular really help with card draw and tutoring.. Blinking Runescar Demon with sword of Hearth and Home.. Even Conjurors Closet. You can just get insane ETB value with a few very strong cards. Giada is just way more efficient as an angel tribal commander from my experience now. But yeah. Mass land destruction also helps with Kaalia but its nasty of course. I don't run it anymore. Briefly was enough for me to see that it wasn't fun for me or my opponents.
I always wondered about Kaalia Angel tribal, it's certainly the best mardu option for angels (sorry Tariel, just not good enough). I believe the right strategy would be straight up the angel count to around 30 (there's a bunch of toolbox angel that could replace removal, recursion slots), and go heavy on looting/rummaging to make sure you have good creatures to drop or reanimate. One thing I noticed the builder didn't use here is equipment and as you said tutors. Having white and not using equipment and black without tutors is a waste imho. Mask of memory/animist/Feast and Famine package here would be awesome. Thanks for the upload PJ, although it didn't go particularly well it's good to see the idea of the deck in action.
I built a tariel deck once, can confirm. Shes not good enough. Even in tap creature tribal which can use it multiple times her ability is pretty underwhelming. Decent beat stick with 4/7 flying vigilance though and the jegantha cost reduction gets her in quickly. Yeah Im gonna take another look through and try to get their deck purring like a kitten. I think its close but maybe like another 5-7 changes and i think it will get there. Yeah taking advantage of some powerful black cards will be good. I personally would add equipment cause thats just me, but I understand wanting to run without just because they do eat up a lot of card slots, but they also bring a lot of consistency. Im gonna have a fresh draft of revisions for them afterwork.
I absolutely love Patriarchs Bidding. It just sucks when you're playing against a tribal deck, also lol
I know glass houses and stones are a thing but there are a lot of questionable decisions in this battle. I can definitely understand your frustration!
Love the video! Are you going to a updated video of feather soon with the MOM new cards that make it insane ?
Id really like too, but the to do list is looking pretty long right now. No promises!
I personally prefer the ETB Kaalia with Sneak Attack and Lifeline or Sneak Attack with Sundial of Infinite (activating second main phase, of course). A good second option is Cryptic Gateway with a way to make Angel creature tokens. The third way that I play Kaalia is Angel Reanimator, with cards like Buried Alive and Entomb, and then reanimation spells like Reanimate, Buried Alive, and Angels that bring back more Angels.
I don't like the attacking Kaalia, because she is a "Kill On Sight" commander. Though, to be fair, I also use Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, and Maskwood Nexus, so I can cast Angels from the yard.
By the way, PJ, why would you not get a Kaalia drop by attacking a planeswalker? Her ability doesn't care who or what you're swinging at, as long as you're swinging.
Kaalia's ability actually does care about what you are swinging at, she says "attacks an opponent" which a planeswalker is not, so it won't trigger if you attack an opponent's planeswalker. You can confirm by checking the rules on gatherer, one of them is "Kaalia's ability doesn't trigger if it attacks a planeswalker."
@@AviarkXIII : Yep, you're right. I checked my Magic app, looked at the wording of the ability. It says "attacks an opponent."
But even then, what you drop from the hand is under no such restriction.
@@isaiahwelch8066 This is not correct, the creature that you put into play enters attacking "that opponent" meaning that it needs to be attacking the target that you declared Kaalia attacking. This is also on the gatherer rules for Kaalia.
Is there an Isshin in this deck for Double Kaalia triggers?
was gonna post an account of a brutal Kaalia reanimator de,ck i used to get stomped by when i first started playing. End of vid basically went there anyway. Hmmm, I wonder if there are any good red cards for churning through your deck.....
Yeah Id personally go ham with the wheels in my own version of kaalia. Sure lll take a look at it, im always curious to see how people put their kaalia lists together.
@@CommanderReplay I hear faithless looting is pretty good.....
Just wanted to clarify that Dreamscape Artist puts the lands into play untapped.
Ooo does it? That seems pretty good.
It is literally the best monoblue ramp card.
Add Diabolic Revelation, it's a multi-tutor card
Yeah solid card, Ive used it in mono black quite a bit.
I used scroll rack, villis and necropotence and things like sign in blood for draw in kaalia.
Yeah there are definitely options available with black. I like things the idea of churning through as many cards as possible with Kaalia deck. Wheels and big draw are what i tend to prefer.
@@CommanderReplay I hear faithless looting is pretty good.....
@@CommanderReplay maybe something like cut of the profits
Since her ability is an attack trigger, I would throw Isshin in the deck just to get that extra value
Not First 👍🏼
Lol nice try :)
I just realized...Kaalia is not an angel. Even though she has wings. And flys. Logic?
I think shes a human, but yes, I dont know any humans with wings. Might be a good time though.