Dies to Removal

Any thoughts on adding [card]patriarch's bidding[/card]? You can bring back all the angels, dragons, or demons. I found one in the $1 bin and could not pass it up.

First you have to get them in the yard. If they're in your yard, you've probably already missed your best shot at winning. In a highly tuned build, I wouldn't run it over something to actively assist at racing, disrupting, or scoring very quick, very cheap kills on T4 or sooner.

If your plan A isn't strong or consistent enough, then it's certainly one of the more decent plan Bs in Kaalia's limited repertoire.

Azrael, what's your list of mana rocks?

I like your "moar tutor" approach to Kaalia. It's seems like the more tweaks I make, the more I'm headed in that direction also. Being able to toolbox for the correct A/D/D at the right time is invaluable.

Nothing too surprising or advanced, IIRC.

Sol Ring
Mana Crypt
Talisman of Indulgence
Boros Signet
Rakdos Signet
Orzhov Signet
Coldsteel Heart
Everflowing Chalice
Fellwar Stone
Fire Diamond
Charcoal Diamond
Mind Stone / Marble Diamond

Something like that. Obviously, colored rocks are much preferred, but I'll take a couple of the colorless variety in a pinch and count on my land base to feed me fetches and duals.

I suppose another way to take it would be to cram
in Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond and gun really hard for the T3 kill scenario. Could be interesting. The colors certainly leave it weaker on late-game mana accel than its rivals, so seizing the initiative early at the cost of cards and consistency might be more viable here than it normally is in this format.

I've tried my hand at Kaalia, and went so far as to cram in even the 5cc cost tutors, Increasing Ambition, Demonic Collusion: when they can fetch an insta-kill or soft lock with Kaalia, it's good value. Even Brainspoil has been known to make an appearance. Insidious Dreams, Gamble, Beseech the Queen, and Diabolic Revelation, too.

I've kept the hand disruption, and it's been great for helping clear the way for those combo kills. The trade off I've made in return for all those slots is cutting a lot of the demons/dragons/angels (better to have the tutors), and dropped land destruction and removal.

15 Demons/Dragons/Angels, and ten tutors. Master of Cruelties, Rakdos, Iona, Scourge, Avacyn, Balefire, Mordant, Angel of Despair, Gisela, Lord of the Void, Bloodgift, Rune-Scarred, Admonition, Steel Hellkite, Hellkite Tyrant, that's it. 12 mana rocks. 10 Land disruption. 5 dedicated card draw, and Enlightened Tutor and
Idyllic to fetch Necro, mostly. Only four removal slots, aside from critters. 38 land, 1 Greaves.

It's been good. You don't flame out and die like a lot of normal Kaalia decks, since you're much, much better at knocking out mana, insta-killing, locking them out, and giving yourself Wrath protection with Avacyn, and the hand disruption keeps the board wipe at bay pretty well. And if you do run out of gas, all those extra tutors can fetch a card draw spell to set you back up.

Sol Ring/Mana Crypt into mana rock t1, t2 Kaalia, t3 kill happens more than it should, and T4 single-player kills are pretty common. Not too hard to get a mana rock and one of 11-15 kill cards, after seeing 11 or more cards by turn 4.

Really? Hmm... I've got Bloodgift Demon, Phyrexian Arena, Skeletal Scrying, and Disciple of Bolas for card draw. As for tutors, I have Rune-Scarred Demon, Vampiric Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and Tithe (yes, it counts).

It's never been an issue for me, really. This is a very fast and aggressive deck. The main goal is to establish a massive presence and an insurmountable offense early in the game to leave your opponent back-pedaling and unable to recover.

It's worked pretty well so far.

Though, I have been toying around with the idea of removing Merciless Eviction and Balancing Act in this version for Sign in Blood and [card]Night's Whisper[/card]. Thoughts?

Ah, I
was looking for Vampiric Tutor in the wrong place. Gotcha. That helps a lot. Still, I wonder if Diabolic Tutor and possibly a few other options like Demonic Collusion and Increasing Ambition to help generate the lockout combinations (Rakdos, Iona) more consistently would help. Sans Kaalia, not very good at all. But if you can resolve one pre-swing, they probably win you the game on the spot. Moves you towards a more combo-esque direction, and away from a more vulnerable, straight aggro clock -which is a good way to go, if you have problems with your opponents still being able to successfully interact with you *after* Kaalia has attacked. If your problem is more often that Kaalia herself is getting murdered pre-attack, and you never get an attack off in the games that you lose, then that might just clog up your hand and kill tempo, unless there are some other packages of stuff that could be helpful to spend an entire turn's worth of mana grabbing.

For multiplayer at least, packing in more card draw is
pretty important. I'm not as familiar with the card choices of the meta in competitive 1v1, but it would make sense that you can't afford to worry about resiliency versus wrath effects quite as much.

Do you think some extra haste effects might be worth it? Fervor, maybe? It doesn't really add a lot of value on the first casting of Kaalia if you are able to ramp and play her turn 3, but it does protect better against sorc speed removal, and it provides an edge if you're casting Kaalia multiple times, or hard-casting big guys.

Seems light on draw and tutor effects. Are you ok with that?