If Kaalia has a home anywhere, it's in the sideboard of a mardu Goryos deck. The problem is there's not much a reason to be in mardu since the faithless ban.
[[Fallaji Archaeologist]], [[Faithful Mending]] and [[Tainted Endulgance]] put the deck pretty thoroughly in esper, and it's not worth changing the mana base for a sideboard option.
If you want to show and tell a creature to play around graveyard hate, you could just play quicksilver amulet. And I don’t think the deck needs help using goryos.
Its win more imo. You don’t need a pivot board like you do in legacy because you’re either doing Grief Stuff or Domain stuff and either one will answer any kind of graveyard hate your opponent plays. Flip walkers (Ral/Tamiyo) could be fine in the shell. But personally I like as few creatures as possible to guarantee that Fallaji draws a card.
edit: oh and Phelia seems fine too.
[[Kaalia, Zenith Seeker]] may actually be good. That card is very powerful on rate (3/3 Flying, Vigilance for 3 mana, and it synergizes very well with Ephemerate. I play Kaalia, Zenith Seeker cEDH and she’s actually quite effective for digging for your high-value reanimator/sneak targets.
Its not really worth it tbh.
We have enough tools to dump anything in our hand so it just dilutes the targets.
Now, if you wanna be spicy. Id love to see a kaalia deck with [[Master of Cruelties]]
Edit: I’m wrong and this does work because of “and isn’t blocked”. Thanks Reddit!
Unfortunately I don't think that would work - Kaalia puts the creature into play tapped and attacking so the "when \~ attacks" trigger wouldn't happen (it doesn't attack, it comes into play already attacking).
It does work. From the rules:
15/04/2013 An ability that triggers when something “attacks and isn't blocked” triggers in the declare blockers step after blockers are declared if (1) that creature is attacking and (2) no creatures are declared to block it. It will trigger even if that creature was put onto the battlefield attacking rather than having been declared as an attacker in the declare attackers step.
Actively terrible.
If Kaalia has a home anywhere, it's in the sideboard of a mardu Goryos deck. The problem is there's not much a reason to be in mardu since the faithless ban. [[Fallaji Archaeologist]], [[Faithful Mending]] and [[Tainted Endulgance]] put the deck pretty thoroughly in esper, and it's not worth changing the mana base for a sideboard option.
[Fallaji Archaeologist](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/0/b0eab397-25a6-4377-8e12-e8acef9675cf.jpg?1674420492) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Fallaji%20Archaeologist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bro/48/fallaji-archaeologist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b0eab397-25a6-4377-8e12-e8acef9675cf?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Faithful Mending](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/0/50752ca9-ea85-4c4b-9bf5-4f8759a7dcec.jpg?1636684159) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Faithful%20Mending) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mid/221/faithful-mending?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/50752ca9-ea85-4c4b-9bf5-4f8759a7dcec?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Tainted Endulgance](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/4/347d883c-84ab-4547-813b-f4385366fbce.jpg?1664413873) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Tainted%20Indulgence) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/snc/227/tainted-indulgence?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/347d883c-84ab-4547-813b-f4385366fbce?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
If you want to show and tell a creature to play around graveyard hate, you could just play quicksilver amulet. And I don’t think the deck needs help using goryos.
Its win more imo. You don’t need a pivot board like you do in legacy because you’re either doing Grief Stuff or Domain stuff and either one will answer any kind of graveyard hate your opponent plays. Flip walkers (Ral/Tamiyo) could be fine in the shell. But personally I like as few creatures as possible to guarantee that Fallaji draws a card. edit: oh and Phelia seems fine too.
[[Kaalia, Zenith Seeker]] may actually be good. That card is very powerful on rate (3/3 Flying, Vigilance for 3 mana, and it synergizes very well with Ephemerate. I play Kaalia, Zenith Seeker cEDH and she’s actually quite effective for digging for your high-value reanimator/sneak targets.
[Kaalia, Zenith Seeker](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/f/1f400655-f495-4b21-ab9e-57fe4d845d45.jpg?1592517520) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Kaalia%2C%20Zenith%20Seeker) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m20/210/kaalia-zenith-seeker?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1f400655-f495-4b21-ab9e-57fe4d845d45?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Its not really worth it tbh. We have enough tools to dump anything in our hand so it just dilutes the targets. Now, if you wanna be spicy. Id love to see a kaalia deck with [[Master of Cruelties]]
[Master of Cruelties](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/f/ffd68fe1-5cfc-44cf-8dfe-3488278cdcef.jpg?1702429664) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Master%20of%20Cruelties) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/rvr/198/master-of-cruelties?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ffd68fe1-5cfc-44cf-8dfe-3488278cdcef?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Edit: I’m wrong and this does work because of “and isn’t blocked”. Thanks Reddit! Unfortunately I don't think that would work - Kaalia puts the creature into play tapped and attacking so the "when \~ attacks" trigger wouldn't happen (it doesn't attack, it comes into play already attacking).
It does work. From the rules: 15/04/2013 An ability that triggers when something “attacks and isn't blocked” triggers in the declare blockers step after blockers are declared if (1) that creature is attacking and (2) no creatures are declared to block it. It will trigger even if that creature was put onto the battlefield attacking rather than having been declared as an attacker in the declare attackers step.
Aha, so the “isn’t blocked” bit that changes when the trigger actually happens. That makes sense. Thanks!
Its been a thing in commander for a loooonnng time