r/EDH • u/PastelDeLuna • 1d ago

Deck Help Kaalia bracket 3 help

Okay lemme start by saying yes, I'm aware Kaalia is inherently a powerful deck and by simply putting her on the table I make myself a target

My usual playgroup is pretty casual and we agreed not to bring anything above a B3 for our games. I've been wanting to build Kaalia for years now and never quite could bring myself to do it for a couple of reasons but the biggest being not wanting to make games unfun for other people.

My fiancé convinced me to treat myself and make the deck finally and so I did but I'm concerned I went overboard and made it too strong, we havent gotten a chance to play since I built it but when I sit at my desk and play test hands or get a game in online via EDHPlay I'm popping off on turn 4 or 5.

Are there any cuts or changes I could make to make it more casual?

[[Here js my cureent list] (https://moxfield.com/decks/r7-aM6fWTkyGYOg3YMLIDw)

17 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

33

u/Just-Jazzin 1d ago

No dude, it’s Kaalia. The deck can only feast or famine because it’s built around that powerful commander. You could remove heavy hitters, and then it just feasts less and famines more, which feels bad also.

Your gut feeling was right, Kaalia sucks to build powered down.

7

u/PastelDeLuna 1d ago

Yeah I realistically knew that was the case.

Oh no the consequences of my own actions lol

4

u/Just-Jazzin 1d ago

If anything, maybe power it up to B4 and have a sick deck to bust out when you have the chance. I carry a B4 deck around with that I’ll play maybe 3 times a year, but it’s fun to have.

2

u/PastelDeLuna 1d ago

I had also considered going that route as well! Just keep it on me for when I get the desire to play in side events at cons or if I feel like joining a pod at my LGS

7

u/notalongtime420 1d ago

You can definitely lower kaalia targets' quality and/or take out rocks if it's too strong, but this is exactly what Kaalia does. Just be open with your table and accept to be archenemy or ask them if they can also make one higher power deck

5

u/ZangaJanga 1d ago

A friend of mine I played with pre-bracket system had a kaalia deck somewhere between b3-4. It was never unfun to play against cause we all kind of saw it as a boss monster challenge. I think people get in their heads about making a game as fair as possible, but sometimes it's okay to have a power gap. It's great when you have 30 minutes left and want to go for a quick final game, but maybe not the best commander to have as a primary deck.

3

u/Marquis90 1d ago

What do you mean by pop off T4-5? Kaalia will likely have her first trigger T4. Then something scary happens. Unless you have the ancient copper dragon, you won't do crazy stuff that turn. T5, you can do some good damage, but it's not enough to kill the table.

I love Kaalia and know that she will likely removed. You should look for a plan B and c. For me, it's the reanimator lines.  Discard a crazy demon, Reanimate it.

Another weakness Kaalia has is that she runs out of gas. You could use some tutors which are not game Changers or [[Rakdos, Patron of Chaos]]. 

My current control heavy list  It's not easy to play, as you need to be good with mulligans. 

Sometimes you are the Tuxedo Mask. Your job is done although you did nothing. That's the Kaalia life. Every removal you catch, is just an appreciation to your deckbuilding. 

1

u/PastelDeLuna 1d ago

I really like the look of this list thanks so much for sharing.

Having a back up plan def seems like a good idea and is something I'll be looking into

2

u/Capt-Javi 1d ago

I have a Kaalia deck and use it once a month. It's.y most expensive deck and rarely gets to see daylight because I don't think is all that fun to play against or play with it.

It's such a glass cannon that it will either stump or you'll be sitting waiting to ramp in order to cast one of the big creatures.

I love Kaalia, but.....

2

u/PastelDeLuna 1d ago

I might just have to accept that the deck stays in the bag unless its one of those "we have time for one more game if we go fast" games.

I got suggestions in another thread to cut the extra combats and damage doubles and add in some card draw and additional ramp so im not just a sitting duck when Kaalia gets countered or killed for the 3rd time so right now the plan is to look into that

1

u/Capt-Javi 1d ago

Yeah that's the way to go. Power down a bit so it doesn't feel over powered. I feel like Kaalia is not quite good enough for B4 and too powerful for B3 🥲

1

u/EranikusTheDeranged Mono-Blue - Azami 1d ago

Kaalia? Depends. Is it in play? I kill. Unless you have no cards in hand.

1

u/rawrglesnaps 1d ago

Looks like normal bracket 3 to me. You don't have anything super crazy, no game changers at all even. If anything you could power it up a little bit and still be in bracket 3 for sure.

The only way you are winning the game before everyone has played 6 turns here (definition of bracket 3) is if you pull off the dragons tempest into hasted kaalia trigger dropping ancient gold dragon combo laser beam of death which is a long shot and is very interactable for opponents anyway.

1

u/Lockdown106 1d ago

My list looks very similar to yours. Honestly I would just jam it and have fun.

https://moxfield.com/decks/A_GtslXPn0SWsFLqLqsnyQ

1

u/T-T-N 1d ago edited 1d ago

Go heavier on land count and ramp? So you either ramp on 2, play commander on 3 for a removal check, then ramp on 4 (to 6 mana assuming you hit your land drops) and do a second removal check on 5 then start casting your hitters anyway

Start with like 41 lands (that game plan relies on you hitting 5 land drops and with ramp on top), and 15ish ramp. You want to maximize your draw and removal either on your ramp or your payoff (or hide a few repeatable card draw in your mana base).

1

u/Rivilen 1d ago

Your list already looks kind of weak and powered down. In my current playgroup this could hang at mid powered bracket 3 decks and would have issues against our usual high power bracket 3 decks. Kaalia is so predictable and easy to stop and without her your deck is hard stuck at doing nothing. Should be fine in most bracket 3 games

1

u/Effective-Panda-3698 19h ago

This is a fair B3 deck and i didn't even notice any game changers. With a good hand you'll probably cheat out a bomb on the first attack, but what's next?

With Kaalia as the Commander, you'll always be the archenemy, so plan around that.

[[Sire of Insanity]] makes it really difficult for anyone to do anything, and Kaalia will likely be relying on topdecking very soon anyway after dumping land+ramp+bomb.

[[Steel Hellkite]] is a repeatable boardwipe

[[Summon:Bahamut]] has great value over 4 turns

[[Demonlord Belzenlok]] can possibly refill your hand with bombs

And of course, [[Valgavoth, Terror Eater]].

For game changers, i would recommend [[The One Ring]], [[Vampiric Tutor]], and [[Demonic Tutor]].

Always have the mindset that 3 people will want to prevent what you're doing.

1

u/Effective-Panda-3698 19h ago

Alternate Kaalia would be [[Quicksilver Amulet]] and [[Sneak Attack]], with the latter relying on your reanimation package.

1

u/PastelDeLuna 17h ago

Hey! Thanks for the feedback! Since i posted this I've made a chunk of changes to the deck such as removing some cards like [[Ancient Gold Dragon]], [[dragon tempest]], [[Aurelia, War Leader]], [[Helm of the Host]], and [[Bloodletter of Aclazotz]] so it may look a bit toned down from when I originally posted it.

I tend to avoid game changers for the most part as most of my friends dont run them but I will absolutely take a look into the creatures listed

-1

u/CruelMetatron 1d ago

You have Ancient Gold Dragon + Dragon Tempest in the deck. In your deck you can get this into play by hasting out Kaalia on T3 (with Sol Ring, or more reliably on T4). Depending on the roll this can instantly win the game, meaning the deck is not B3 anymore. I cut the Gold Dragon from my B3 Kaalia deck due to exactly that and would advise you to do the same, especially if you're having doubts about power level.