> Notes about some cards

> Lands

• Command Beacon = If you cast Kaalia from your hand, the additional cost based on the number of times you’ve cast it from your Command Zone (called Commander Tax) doesn’t apply. Additionally, that casting won’t add to the tax if you later cast her from the Command Zone.
• Clifftop Retreat / Dragonskull Summit / Isolated Chapel = These lands check for lands you control with the land type Plains, Swamp or Mountain, not for lands named Plains, Swamp or Mountain. The lands they check for don’t have to be basic lands.
• Maze of Ith = This card can target an untapped attacking creature. It will still prevent damage in that case. The creature isn’t removed from combat; it just has its damage prevented. It’s still an attacking creature until the combat phase is complete. You can activate Maze of Ith’s ability targeting an attacking creature you control during the combat damage step or the end of combat step. It’ll be untapped and the damage it had already dealt won’t be undone.
• Shizo, Death's Storehouse = A creature with fear can't be blocked, except by artifact creatures and by creatures that are black.
• Vault of the Archangel = This card's last ability affects only creatures you control when that ability resolves. It won’t affect creatures that come under your control later in the turn. Multiple instances of deathtouch or lifelink on the same creature are redundant.

> Artifacts

• Chromatic Lantern = Lands you control won’t lose any other abilities they had. They also won’t gain or lose any land types.
• Lightning Greaves = You are not allowed to “unequip” equipment from a creature. If this card is attached to the only creature you control, you won’t be able to attach other equipment to it (or target it with anything else) until you have another creature onto which you can move Lightning Greaves.
• Swiftfoot Boots = If a creature enters the battlefield under your control and gains haste, but then loses it before attacking, it won’t be able to attack that turn: this means that you can’t use one Swiftfoot Boots to allow two new creatures to attack in the same turn.
• Helm of the Host = Combo: Aurelia, the Warleader + Helm of the Host for an "additional" additional battle phase.

> Enchantments

• Dragon Tempest = The two abilities aren’t mutually exclusive. If a Dragon with flying (e.g., Balefire Dragon orDrakuseth, Maw of Flames) enters the battlefield under your control, both abilities will trigger.
• Reconnaissance = One of the most useful cards that I have: it does not undo any effects which triggered on declaration of attackers or blockers. This means that if Kaalia would be blocked and destroyed by a creature, with Reconnaissance you can put a big guy onto the battlefield and remove Kaalia from attacking your opponent (keeping her alive).

> Instants

• Anguished Unmaking = If the nonland permanent becomes an illegal target, Anguished Unmaking doesn’t resolve. You won’t lose 3 life.
• Cloudshift = Once the exiled permanent returns, it’s considered a new object with no relation to the object that it was. Auras attached to the exiled permanent will be put into their owners’ graveyards. Equipment attached to the exiled permanent will become unattached and remain on the battlefield. Any counters on the exiled permanent will cease to exist. Note that the returned card won’t be the target of any spells or abilities that targeted it before. Any spells that don’t target, such as Damnation, will still affect it. This card is the Commander lifesaver !
• Swords to Plowshares = The amount of life gained is equal to the power of the targeted creature as it last existed on the battlefield. If the creature’s power is negative, its controller doesn’t lose or gain life.

> Sorceries

• Vindicate = This card is a good alternative to Dreadbore. Even if Vindicate has a CMC = 3 and Dreadbore a CMC = 2, the first one is a better choice, in my opinion, because of the extension of the removal effect. Dreadbore is limited to only creatures and planeswalkers, while Vindicate also targets artifacts, enchantments and lands.

> Creatures

• Angel of Serenity = You choose the targets as part of putting the ETB (ETB stands for Enters The Battlefield) trigger on the stack. You choose up to three total targets from among other creatures on the battlefield and creature cards in graveyards. You could also choose zero targets.
• Angelic Arbiter = During your turn, Angelic Arbiter’s abilities have no effect on the game. During an opponent’s turn, that opponent may either cast spells or attack with creatures, but not both (assuming that Angelic Arbiter is on the battlefield for the entirety of that turn). The player may perform other actions, such as activating abilities and playing lands. If Angelic Arbiter leaves the battlefield during an opponent’s turn, its abilities cease to affect the game. For example, if an opponent casts Mortify to destroys Angelic Arbiter, that player may then attack with creatures. The last ability applies if an opponent attacked with at least one creature during the current turn.
• Archangel of Thune = Archangel of Thune’s last ability triggers just once for each life-gaining event. Each creature with lifelink dealing combat damage causes a separate life-gaining event. For example, if two creatures you control with lifelink deal combat damage at the same time, Archangel of Thune’s last ability will trigger twice. However, if a single creature you control with lifelink deals combat damage to multiple creatures, players, and/or planeswalkers at the same time (perhaps because it has trample or was blocked by more than one creature), the ability will trigger only once. Note that if a creature you control is dealt lethal damage at the same time that you gain life, it won’t receive a counter from Archangel of Thune’s last ability in time to save it.
• Archfiend of Despair = This card’s last ability counts only how much life was lost. It doesn’t care whether a player also gained life.
• Aurelia, the Warleader = You untap all creatures you control, including ones that aren’t attacking. You don’t have to attack with any creatures during the additional combat phase. If Aurelia is put onto the battlefield attacking with Kaalia’s ability, the triggered ability won’t trigger for this attack phase.
• Avacyn, Angel of Hope = A permanent with indestructible can’t be destroyed (even from a creature with deathtouch), but it can still be sacrificed, exiled, put into a graveyard, and so on. Creatures with indestructible still have damage marked on them, even though that damage won’t destroy them. If Avacyn leaves the battlefield, creatures that lose indestructible and have lethal damage marked on them will be destroyed.
• Drakuseth, Maw of Flames = You can’t choose the same target multiple times to have it be dealt 6, 7, or 10 damage.
• Gisela, Blade of Goldnight = Gisela doubles damage dealt to opponents and permanents your opponents control from any source, including sources controlled by those opponents. If damage dealt by a source you control is being divided or assigned among multiple permanents an opponent controls or among an opponent and one or more permanents they control simultaneously, divide the original amount and double the results. For example, if you attack with a 5/5 creature with trample and your opponent blocks with a 2/2 creature, you can assign 2 damage to the blocker and 3 damage to the defending player. These amounts are then doubled to 4 and 6 damage, respectively. You can’t double the damage to 10 first and then assign 2 to the creature and 8 to the player.
• Giver of Runes = Protection from a color means that the target creature can’t be blocked by creatures of that color, can’t be the target of spells of that color or abilities from sources of that color, can’t be enchanted or equipped by Auras or Equipment of that color, and all damage that sources of that color would deal to it is prevented. Nothing other than these events is prevented or illegal. Similarly, protection from colorless means that the target creature can’t be blocked by colorless creatures, can’t be the target of colorless spells or abilities of colorless sources, can’t be enchanted or equipped by colorless Auras or Equipment, and all damage that colorless sources would deal to it is prevented. A permanent gaining protection may cause a spell or ability on the stack to have an illegal target. As a spell or ability tries to resolve, if all its targets are illegal, that spell or ability doesn’t resolve. None of its effects happen, including effects unrelated to the target. If at least one target is still legal, the spell or ability does as much as it can to the remaining legal targets, and its other effects still happen.
• Grand Abolisher = This creature doesn’t stop your opponents from activating abilities of artifact, creature, or enchantment cards in zones other than the battlefield. This creature doesn’t affect triggered abilities or static abilities.
• Kaalia, Zenith Seeker = You can put up to three cards into your hand this way: one Angel card, one Demon card, and/or one Dragon card.
• Lord of the Void = This creature’s ability isn’t optional. If there is a creature card among the seven cards you exiled, you must put one onto the battlefield under your control.
• Master of Cruelties = 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. Master of Cruelties’s last ability won’t trigger if it attacks a planeswalker. Assigning no combat damage isn’t the same as preventing that damage. Effects that make damage unpreventable will have no effect if no combat damage can be assigned.
• Steel Hellkite = Steel Hellkite’s last ability destroys only nonland permanents whose converted mana cost is exactly equal to X, and only those controlled by players who have been dealt combat damage by Steel Hellkite this turn. If Steel Hellkite’s third ability is activated with X equal to 0, it will destroy each nonland permanent with converted mana cost 0 the appropriate players control. If a permanent is copying something else, its converted mana cost is the converted mana cost of whatever it’s copying. In all cases, ignore any alternative costs or additional costs (such as kicker) paid when the permanent was cast. If the mana cost of a permanent includes X (colorless), X is considered to be 0. If a nonland permanent has no mana symbols in its upper right corner (because it’s a token that’s not copying of something else, for example), its converted mana cost is 0.
• Vilis, Broker of Blood = A player loses life if they pay life. If you pay life to cast a spell or activate an ability, you don’t draw cards until after you’ve finished casting that spell or activating that ability. You draw those cards before that spell or ability resolves, but after targets are chosen for it.

> Planeswalkers

• Nahiri, the Harbinger = You can activate Nahiri’s first ability with no intention of discarding a card just to add loyalty to Nahiri. If the artifact or creature put onto the battlefield with Nahiri’s third ability leaves the battlefield before the next end step, it won’t be returned to your hand from its new zone.

> Counterproductive Cards

In this section I briefly enumerate the cards I included in the first versions of this deck but that I removed.

• Benevolent Bodyguard: the interaction of Reconnaisance with Kaalia on the battlefield is mind-boggling. The Bodyguard is a one-time use, Reconnaisance can be used throughout the game.
• Debtors' Knell is cheaper and extends Reya Dawnbringer's ability to other graveyards. Unfortunately, in recent times I also removed Reya (maybe she can be substituted with another angel with a high CMC).
• Demonlord Belzenlok: too low probability of drawing a “> CMC 4” card.
• Dragon Mage: there's too much risk with this card. What if my opponents only have 1-3 cards each? What if I'm holding two key removal spells that could be lost due to the Mage? Let's use a more controlled structure of one-sided card draw, and that is where Necropotence shines (exceed seven cards, discard a biggun or two, recur the later).
• Generator Servant. Hall of the Bandit Lord: paying 3 lives for each activation could be pricey in the long-run, but the potential of utilizing it multiple times over the course of a game provides greater value than a tap-and-sacrifice effect of Generator Servant.
• Orim’s Chant: unfortunately this card doesn't work as a counter.