EDH ARTICLE: Kaalia of the Vast - How to Build It

[Coffee Vampire]

{Kaalia of the Vast} is a very powerful and iconic general in the Commander (EDH) format. Cheating out giant creatures is a force to be reckoned with. However, even though it seems like a simple concept, building a Kaalia deck is not as straightforward as one might think. There are many factors to consider when building your demon army, and I shall hope to help you in that process with this article.

Kaalia needs to do 2 things: get your general out ASAP, and disrupt your opponent. First let's focus on getting Kaalia out. Since you are in the colora of BWR, lands will not be your source of ramp. Rather, artifacts will be. First, let's talk about the 3 "big broken" artifacts:
{Mana Crypt}
{Mana Vault}
{Sol Ring}
You have sol ring, so that's good. Sol ring is the second most powerful of the three, the first being mana crypt. Now the ol' crypt is pretty expensive, but if you are really into EDH I recomend getting one even before an original dual land. It definitely pushes any EDH dark far up in power. Now, {Mana Vault} on the other hand, is only about 5 dollars, so you should definitely pick that one up. It does 2 things: it gives you a colorless {Black Lotus} for {1} early game, to help you cast other mana rocks or your general a turn early. And, it helps you hardcast a fatty late game.
Now the next most important mana rocks will be the signets. Signets let your general come down a turn early, and when combined with {Mana Crypt} or {Sol Ring}, make for a devastating turn 2 general. Their ability to make colorless mana into colored mana is very important.
Another good mana rock to include is {Darksteel Heart}. Colored mana is important for ramping into your general. Coming in tapped doesn't really matter. A turn 2 signet might as well come in tapped anyways. Though not colored mana rocks, {Mind Stone} and {Everflowing Chalice} stand out. They enter tapped and are both useful in the early game as a colorless signet, or late game as either card draw or a large source of colored mana.
Larger mana rocks to include come by the names of {Thran Dynamo} and the beloved {Gilded Lotus}. Dynamo taps for 3 mana for just 4 up-front, which is a fantastic statistic. The lotus gives you valuable colored mana in the quantitiy of 3, at a reasonable cost of 5 mana. {Mana Vault} can help you power these two out extremely early.
Lastly, I would like to suggest {Voltaic Key}. Though it's only good if you have a critical mass of mana rocks that yield at least 2 more mana than the amount that was used to activate it. When combined with {Sol Ring} or {Mana Crypt}, it is a useful extra mana. When combined with {Mana Vault} or {Thran Dynamo}, it's a {Sol Ring}. When combined with {Gilded Lotus}, it's a rainbow {Sol Ring}. Enough said.

Now I would like to focus on the disruption aspect of a good Kaalia deck. The mana rocks that yield a turn 2 Kaalia will not always be in your opening hand, and sometimes turn 3 isn't fast enough. Oftentimes, you must first disrupt your opponent before you unleash your creatures onto the battlefield. There are two kinds of disruption that you need to focus on: hand disruption and battlefield disruption. First let's focus on hand disruption.
The first few turns of a game are crucial. A perfect hand without its turn 1 play is now a disaster. This is why you must include cards such as {Thoughtsieze} and {Duress}. Take your opponent's {Sol Ring} or {Swords to Plowshares} before things get ugly for you. But don't stop at 1 mana sorceries. {Hymn to Touarch} os devastating, and so is {Mind Twist} combined with things like {Mana Vault}, {Mind Twist} becomes a real game ender. Random discard is truly devastating.
But don't even stop at sorceries! Creatures like {Tidehollow Sculler} are fantastic additions as they provide both disruption and board presence. I highly recomend using both {Mesmanic Fiend} (I spelled that wrong) and {Tidehollow Sculler}.

Now let's talk about board disruption. The two most important things to remove in EDH are creatures and artifacts. I recomend a good variety of creature removal spells and a small amount of artifact hate (2 or so should do the trick).
Creature removal should be cheap and efficient. Don't run boardwipes like {Decree of Pain}. You want to be the reason people need boardwipes, not the one one wants an empty battlefield.
Some examples pf cheap and efficient removal in your colors are:
{Terminate}
{Swords to Plowshares}
{Path to Exile}
{Go for the Throat}
There are more, but that's a good place to start. Noq I won't deny that sometimes you really do need to kill everything, and that's why wizards kindly printed the best boardwipe in EDH: {Toxic Deluge}. It's easy to cast, can kill virtually anything, and kills everything at once. It's versatile, because you can keep your demons and angels and dragons while annihilating edric and friends. This card is the definition of efficient. Note that a few cards I have suggested make you pay life, or damage you. Don't cringe at these cards! Life is a resource, and you start with a lot of it. A grenade that you never use won't kill the enemy. A toothbrush that never gets wet won't clean your teeth. Life that you still have at the end of the game better have a good reason for being there. That is what it means to play the color black.
Now for artifact/enchantmet disruption. {Shattering Spree} and {Vandalblast} really shine hers, and {Seal of Cleansing} is good too. If you feel the need, go ahead and add {Aura of Silence} so you can disrupt those pesky enchantment decks. Don't let artifact/enchantment hate take up a lot of slots. 1-3 slots shouls be fine if you have the right tutors (later discussed).

There. We have covered the basics. However there are still three factors we should discuss: protection, tutors, and card draw. First let's talk about protection.

Kaalia has a big red target on her head 24/7. People knoq her power and will remove her with righteous fury. Let's not let that happen to your deck.
Protection comes in many forms. We have already covered discard and hand-disruption by means of exiling. But you can also use artifacts and instants. Mostly artifacts though. Enter:
{Lightning Greaves}
and {Swiftfoot Boots}
...these two artifacts will help protect kaalia, and let her swing a turn early. I don't know where else to put this, so I'll just say it here: while it does not protect kaalia, {Hall of the Bandit Lord} is worth considering because of the haste it gives to Kaalia.
Alright, now there are also some spells I want to go over that protect Kaalia. Do not include cards that directly protect her, such as {Brave the Elements}. Instead, use versatile cards like {Silence} and {Aurelia's Fury}. Fury may be a bit slow but it is useful in multiple ways. Note that you don't want protection to be your main focus, so the spells are not needed as the artifacts are. They are just a side-thought.

Now let's talk about tutors. Good deck building skills can help to create a consistent deck, even in a format of 100 card singleton decks. However, a 100 card deck is still a 100 card deck, and as a result will be lacking in the consistency delartment no matter how good you are at building Magic decks. That's where the tutors come in. Just like your disruption spells, you want your tutors to be cheap and efficient. I wouldn't run a tutor that costs more than 3 mana. Here are some good tutors for any Kaalia deck:
{Vampiric Tutor}
{Demonic Tutor}
{Enlightened Tutor} (most of the time getting you a {Sol Ring} or something similar)
{Grim Tutor}
{Cruel Tutor} (omit this one if you run out of room. Useful but not the best.)
{Beseech the Queen} (The triple black won't be a problem given your mana rocks. However, this is also a weaker tutor an should be cut if you lack the room. Worth considering though.)
As you can see, all of these tutors are at the mana cost of 3 or less, are not restrictive in what cards you can get, and some are instants. These tutors will give you a serious edge in the EDH world.

Now for card draw. Even a fast and disruptive deck like Kaalia needs some card draw! And if you think blue is the only color good at creating card advantage, my friend BLACK would like to have a word with you. Or assasinate you, rather.
You want your card-drawing spells to draw you the most amount of cards for what you payed for in mana. Here are some good examples:
{Skeletal Scrying} - you don't use your graveyard, so this instant is right up your ally!
{Phyrexian Arena} - Wonderful card is wonderful. But really, why is it good? Well it draws you an extra card every turn for the mere cost of a life point, and even if it gets removed right away, your opponent wasted a removal spells, which means you effectively cantripped at least.
{Night's Whisper} - 2 cards for 2 mana and 2 life. We must be on bargain island because that's a bargain.
{Greed} - similar to {Phyrexian Arena}. Life for cards. Another way to say that is "living the dream". Remember what I said about life. It's meant to be used. Don't kill yourself though, seriously.
{Necropotence} - this one's a monster. The triple black mana is rough, so don't run this unless you have a good enough mana base. What is good enough? I would say 3 black mana sources by turn 5 without hurting thw rest of your colors. This probably means fetches, shocks, and original dual lands.
Two notable disclusions from this list are {Dark Confidant} and {Dark Tutelage}. Because you run so many high-costed demons and friends, you really don't want to run these cards. I said use life as a resource, true, but I never said to be a reckless fool. Extra cards don't help you when you're at 5 life and just hoping you don't die before your next draw step.

That pretty much covers what a good {Kaalia of the Vast} deck should try to do. Good luck and have fun beating face with all of your monsters!

[DimirOverlord1300]

Great article! I'd love to see some more like these on how to build popular generals. There were a few conventional errors which I think matter in articles, but they didn't impair the clarity of the article. I feel like you should've had some suggestions for creatures to put in the deck, but overall, +1!

[Coffee Vampire]

Thanks for the input. I'll definitely edit this before it can be considered for the articles section, and include creatures too!

[MuggyWuggy]

 {Angelic Chorus}
{Proper Burial}
{conspiracy}
{patriarchs bidding}

Thoughts on these cards for the deck? If I were to make a kaalia deck I'd consider these

[Moneekahh]

{blood speaker}

Amazing synergy in a Kaalia deck!

[Coffee Vampire]

{Angelic Chorus}
{Proper Burial}
{conspiracy}
{patriarchs bidding}

Thoughts on these cards for the deck? If I were to make a kaalia deck I'd consider these

On the first 2: lifegain is irrelevant, especially in EDH. On {Conspiracy}, I wouldn't run it. There are plenty of good creatures that Kaalia can cheat in already. I wouldn't run non Demon/Dragon/Angel cards on the off chance that I draw conspiracy. Plus, it costs too much. By the time you have that out, you want to have already swung with kaalia.

Howevet the last card, {Patriarch's Bidding}, is reasonable. But only if you run a lot more of one of the creature types kaalia cheats out than the others. Otherwise you might as well go with targeted reanimation.

[MarduArrow]

I would say exploit her ability to the max,  {Strionic Resonator} duplicates her ability, putting an extra beastie on the battlefield, extra combat phases also help pump out more creatures ( {Aurelia, the Warleader},  {Savage Beating},  {Seize the Day}, etc.) another good tutor to have is {Rune-Scarred Demon} which with kaalia's ability becomes a 6/6 flying {Demonic Tutor} for free (works great with extra combat phases, cheat him in phase 1 and search for something bigger and nastier to cheat in on phase 2)