Welcome to Deck Diaries, the series where I tune an EDH list over the course of several weeks. Today I'm starting on the journey to rebuild an old favorite. Back before I took my hiatus from Magic, I had built a Kaalia deck that I thoroughly enjoyed. I've wanted to rebuild Kaalia since I started playing again. Unfortunately, many of the pieces have become expensive in the intervening years. I went with Varina as my first deck since there was a pretty easy path to getting the precon and updating the deck over time.
When I built Kaalia of the Vast there wasn't a term for it, but its come to be known as Group Slug. The goal is to play a variety of hate pieces to disrupt the game. Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, Torpor Orb. The deck included a number of Armageddon effects since Kaalia can shortcut mana. It used Necropotence as its primary engine. Necro has the unique property of not actually drawing cards, letting it get around Spirit of the Labrynth and Chains of Mephistopheles. It also provided constant fuel, letting Kaalia drop threat after threat until the table buckled. What makes Kaalia the best for group slug is that many Demons/Angels/Dragons are themselves hate cards. Prior to her banning, Iona was a great example. She was simultaneously a threat and a hate piece.
However, there's a problem here. The problem isn't one in game, its one in real life. That deck was expensive when I had it, and has only gotten more expensive over time. I doubt I'll ever own chains or moat or nether void again. Kaalia herself is 30 dollars, which is probably half of what I want to spend in a given week. I'm getting around that problem by going with a basic deck and using the new Kaalia. The plan is to transition to Kaalia of the Vast in a future update, probably week 3. This will let me play a deck with the same structure I want to use for its final form. The initial deck is a mix of the old decklist and cards I happen to own. I am avoiding cards specifically for Kaalia, Zenith Seeker since she's going to be demoted to the 99 in short order.
Where Varina's tagline was, "Powerful but Fair," Kaalia's game is decidedly unfair. It isn't unfair in the combo sense. In fact, the deck's genesis was from having played many combo decks. People complained about combo a lot, so I decided to build the anti-combo deck. I built it with the intention of shutting off as many combos as I could and winning with big dude beats. Its unfair in that Kaalia represents 5-8 free mana every turn. That lets you get away with mana denial plans where other decks can't keep up.
The first and most important part of building a deck like this is being aware of the anti-synergies you are creating. Torpor Orb is a great hate piece. Tainted Aether is a great hate piece. Torpor Orb turns off Tainted Aether. So the challenge is minimizing the anti-synergies and having ways to find the right piece of the right time. The goal with Varina was to build a deck that I could take to just about any table. Kaalia is a bit...different. Like Stax or other competitive decks, I won't be playing Kaalia a lot once it gets tuned up. In the intervening stage I think its fine to throw into any game.
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kaalia-week1/?cb=1573422029
This is the initial list I'm going to start playing this week. Its a bit more...haphazard than the precon I started from for Varina. I am hoping for the first update to smooth out the mana and drop some of the ineficient cards for better Fatties and to pick up some of the engine pieces. I'll lay out how the experiment is going next week, till then Cheers!
