THE Definitive Kaalia of the Vast

[RowanKeltizar]

I've been absolutely adoring my Zenith Seeker build. Probably my second favorite deck at this point. I will post an updated list soon. Latest addtion has been a scroll rack, land tax package with lots of fetches.

Zenith seeker allows me to go for what I always wanted to do with Kaalia which was a high density of A.D.D, reanimation, and blink.

Lots of new cards to try out from new sets too

[3drinks]

I keep looking at the shell for zenith seeker and it's amazing I accidentally created a decent start to an Archangel of Thune deck 🤔

And Im kinda intrigued by it. Hmm, probably gonna add a Sunbeam Spellbomb to it once I tune around that further.

[3drinks]

Hmm. The more I analyze Kaalia, Zenith Seeker, the more I keep coming back to life strats since we have to still cast our threats, conventionally anyway. Since mana curves matter, this makes cards like, say, righteous valkyrie look more appealing with their size::cost ratio. Therefore, adding similar cards to proc these life matters cards should be a top concern - you want either cheap and effortless that does the thing with no further cost or direction from you after casting it (i.e. Sun Droplet|mrd), or cards that are overwhelmingly powerful when doing what you want (i.e. Archangel of Thune).

Then, since we are gaining life, we want lots of ways to turn that life into a resource. By that token, I'm not completely sure of this, but I think that suggests we should be building our own laser cannon. That might be a bit too heavy on the extrapolation, but it sounds at least reasonable to my estimation.

[RowanKeltizar]

Yeah, I do think lifegain is important in the deck. I try to put some lifegain in all my decks as it can mean the difference between living another turn or not.

Archangel of Thune is really good I think, and I will probably pick one up. I think cards like Lyra Dawnbringer and Righteous Valkyrie could be really strong here as well IF you are going heavier into angels, however, then you lose out on the efficiency of Kaalia's trigger.

Liesa, Shroud of Dusk is more the direction I would take personally, since we aren't really a spellslinging deck. This really hurts most competetive builds while giving us that sweet lifelink.

Shadowspear is a very efficient way to give ANY creature lifelink with some other nice bonuses.

Aetherflux Reservoir . Now this one I'm not too sure about for Kaalia, Yes, it can probably kill one player, but then what? In my experience we just don't have enough lifegain in the deck to make this reliable, nor are we casting enough spells. I could be wrong though.

[3drinks]

These are just my cursory thoughts at a very fundamental level. Maybe we're not a laser cannon deck, maybe we are but not in the traditional sense and more in the scope of "4: target player loses the game" every few turns or so. Or maybe it's a bit heavy on extrapolation.

But you know what else is good with extra life as a resource? Bolas's Citadel....

[3drinks]

A bit of an update.

Verge Rangers --> Archaeomancer's Map
Tresserhorn Sinks --> Sulfurous Mire
Snow-Covered Mountain --> Snowfield Sinkhole
Snow-Covered Swamp --> Alpine Meadow

I had thought I had added these type duals in already. There's no reason not to, they don't have cycling to get nullified by Tsabo's Web. They're just three more lands that are also snow (though the snow count doesn't go up). As for the rangers, they had all the time in the world to try and they just aren't it. Archaeomancer's Map is so many levels above. It's also a three drop, for those of you with a sun titties fetish, as well as an artifact, for those of you (re: me) that try to shove a Goblin Welder into every xr deck. Pretty head and shoulders above upgrade.

[3drinks]

Note to self; Obsidian Charmaw, Angel of the Ruins. Literally custom-made for Kaalia, Zenith Seeker.

[RowanKeltizar]

I've been liking Obsidian Charmaw in my list as the nonbasic hate was definitely needed in my playgroup. An efficient flyer with an abusable and useful ETB.

[3drinks]

I've been liking Obsidian Charmaw in my list as the nonbasic hate was definitely needed in my playgroup. An efficient flyer with an abusable and useful ETB.

If it were just a wasteland on etb it'd have already made the cut. Being easily castable for 2-3 mana value because people are too liberal with their nonbasic lands is just gravy on the biscuit. But then you add zenith Kaalia being an astral slide deck, and......

Whoaboy, someone hose me down 😂😂

[3drinks]

Kinda thinking around replacing the heavy slot commitment with a smaller salvaging station package with disciple of the vault and mayhem devil. Since everyone loves their treasures (and we can do revel in riches + smothering tithe), disciple holds those people back a little. Or at least makes them think. Meanwhile I can make use of this with my station clawing back a capsule or Spellbomb, that also happens to proc disciple. Hoarding Dragon even finds the station, and with enough artifacts I can play cranial plating to finish. Maybe even make use of trash for treasure and the angel above with that.

Now I'm not in that awkward spot of playing over costed spells that cycle, while attacking a known quantity of the format now.

Yep.....we've gone full 3drinks now. 😂

[RowanKeltizar]

Hmm, I'm going to try Hellkite Tyrant in my list. Sure, its a 6 cost, but it's also a win con and steals ALL the rocks. Makes opponents sac their treasures if they have any.

[3drinks]

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/Bn98gq7fFUyikf13SSPrSw

That's the most recent I'm starting from. obviously Glory's Rise is the bread and butter combo here, but I'm also going in for a revel in riches build, which yes means I need a smothering tithe (I hate that card, but it's correct here). I'm also shifting to an artifact package to 1) make hoarding dragon a toolbox card, 2) incorporate salvaging station as an engine, and 3) justify cranial plating as a legit clock with Kaalia. With enough of a critical mass of artifacts, I believe I can safely cut vandalblast for scrap mastery...

There's a bit of a life theme here with archangel of thune, and while I'd normally slot a sun droplet and be done with it, I think I'm better off with sunscorch regent which can also be found off Kaalia.

But, yes it is otherwise a bit sloppy and all over the place as I analyze a lot of different metrics of usability.

As alluded to earlier, I dropped the astral slide package as it's just too many slots to justify, though there's great cycling targets a la eternal dragon (and the new one with eternalize), and angel of the ruins off the top of my head. This Kaalia just demands a large number of slots to optimally use her ability, and as such you can't incorporate outside packages that also take up a lot of space.

Hmm, I'm going to try Hellkite Tyrant in my list. Sure, its a 6 cost, but it's also a win con and steals ALL the rocks. Makes opponents sac their treasures if they have any.

It's only good off Kaalia [of the Vast]'s trigger. Lack of haste + six mana value ensures players with at least half a brain never let you untap with it. Additionally, watch as more players shift from conventional rocks to treasures which you'll never steal with this guy.

[RowanKeltizar]

Meh, i can give things haste relatively easily in the deck. Sneak Attack being the first and foremost tutor target. There's Dragon Tempest too. I avoid hard casting creatures whenever possible so his cost is either 1. reduced 2. circumvented by reanimation or sneak attack

Balefire Dragon has a similar mechanic and he's been a house.

[JGMW]

Hey 3drinks, been following your Kaalia primer since the early mtgsalvation days. You still running Kaalia? Noticed the thread has kind of died off

[3drinks]

Hey 3drinks, been following your Kaalia primer since the early mtgsalvation days. You still running Kaalia? Noticed the thread has kind of died off

I am. I do more in the Kaalia specialized discord channel though, and find things easier to maintain on moxfield rather than some forum. It also has to do with having originally designed for 1v1 and now everyone wants cDH but I don't have such an environment so there's a disconnect as we're talking different languages.

There's just not a lot of traffic via traditional forums as people use subreddits or specialized channels, but this is something we already knew. Sign of the times.

[3drinks]

Just a hard update for the first time in ~18 months, but I updated the entire Primer with a new facelift + strategy options. Ten years strong, thank you everyone for ever engaging with this, me in games, on Twitter, because I couldn't have kept going for a decade without hearing that what I'm doing is valuable to some people.

[aliciaofthevast]

It was a pleasure to help you work on this stuff off-site, thanks so much @3drinks! Always a pleasure! To another decade of Kaalia 🥂

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Howdy, I was just passing through and saw your title had a typo. Figured you might wanna know!

[3drinks]

Check the very top of the OP for 2023.

[3drinks]

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/_mPORXJtWk6xT9veTeNIag

Being the math guy i am, i like to look at numbers. so on a whim I pulled the "average" Kaalia brew without big ticket cards. I am actually impressed with the numbers as far as playability goes. This actually clocks in below my "baseline" deck by a significant margin and plays pretty well out the box. It's not perfect, there's some questionable picks I probably wouldn't play, but overall that's a helluva good entry point I think.

Anyway, I was just impressed with the numbers and how far we've come in regards to barrier to entry. Looks like that "magic race to zero" theory is in full effect, I'd imagine. I hope others can be entertained by the numbers too.

[3drinks]

Nice to know Kaalia v2.0 still slaps. I've made 0 updates in months and this took over a game involving The One Ring.

Sorry if the quality is unreadable. Nexus has tiny image caps.