Welcome back Zoners! Today i've got a treat for you. It's an old spin on a popular Commander that is notorious for her tribes. Tribes you say? why yes, Kaalia of the Vast loves her Angels, Demons and Dragons. Now Primarily Kaalia has been a strong 1v1 general.
Having only one target to focus her wrath on makes for quick games and smashed faces. This unfortunately doesn't transfer well into Multiplayer, Usually the Kaalia player is focused out quickly and their tempo is lost.
So the question is, How can we make Kaalia multiplayer "friendly" and have the endurance to power through 3+ players? The answer is Reanimation, Kaalia Style. Some of you Zoners know I have a Karador deck that focus' on "hyper-Reanimation" meaning cards that keep a chain of effects bringing other creatures out, But for Kaalia she asked for something different.
Kaalia tends to lend herself to a heavy mana curve just by playing into her effect. So looking for reanimation effects that require little to no mana to provide the service. Looking at the permanent based reanimation i've chosen Phyrexian Reclamation as the headliner. It Brings the big creature back into your hand, can be played even when you dont have or are not allowed to have a hand, and can be activated on the stack of Kaalia attacking for added suspense.
Moving through the Reanimation mana curve we've got; Animate Dead - a well known spell that is very Sun Titan Friendly, Gift of Immortality - Very useful both on your general and any ETB creature, Karmic Guide - An awesome angel to drop and recycle, Sun Titan, and topping our curve is Sheoldred, Whispering one. It's always nice to get Sheoldred out early, not just for the sacrifice and reanimating but because it can draw more hate than your general forcing your opponents to make the difficult choice of who to blow up.
The second half of the Reanimation package is the Non-permanent based side. This was the harder choice to make due to so many of the effect exists. So lets look at the Cream of the crop for Kaalia. First up we've got Reanimate, Its straightforward and while it may take out a heafty chunk of life out it's always worth it. With so many beefy Creatures you've always got something worth the life.
Continuing with our mana curve progression; Exhume - Now this can be heavily situational, if you have the advantage go for it, nothing beats hitting your good stuff while your opponents gain mana fetchers and utility creatures, Victimize - Sac one to bring back two, nuff said, and Unburial Rites - Itself is a 2 for one and the flashback being cheaper is always a plus.
Combining all of this not only gives her the stamina needed for longer games in multiplayer but it also transfers well into 1v1. How did we do that? weren't we trying to build multiplayer? Truth is Kaalia really shines in 1v1 no matter how you build her. What this build does do is gives her some staying power, keeps the threats coming and can become utterly Relentless.
But I'm interested in where you, Our Community of Zoners would take this from here. Leave comments below and in a Future article I will revisit and talk about some of your ideas.
And with that, May your vengeance come swiftly and on the wings of Demons. JC
Kaalia's Reanimation Building Blocks
Creature
Karmic Guide
Sun Titan
Sheoldred, Whispering one
Enchantment
Phyrexian Reclamation
Animate Dead
Gift of Immortality,
Sorcery
Reanimate
Exhume
Victimize
Unburial Rites
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