
“Oh, so you think darkness is your ally? But you merely adopted the dark, I was born in it, molded by it. The shadows betray you because they belong to me.”
Queen Kalima, in my opinion, is the best darkness card in Kaijudo. She utilizes two of the best qualities that the darkness civilization has; destruction and discard pile retrieval. The only drawback, which is really a strength in the long run, is that in order to make her Gaze into the Abyss ability consistent the majority, if not all, the deck has to have darkness cards in it. She was released in Shattered Alliances along with Eternal Haven. I believe most people were attracted to Haven more than Kalima because of her ability that allows her not to be targeted by your opponents spells and abilities. When you put Eternal Haven and Queen Kalima head to head, Kalima will come out of top most of the time. Kalima decks are amazing counter decks to the popular LWD control that has been around ever since the release of Evo Fury. Many control decks that use Light use cards like Keeper of Laws and Eternal Haven because it is difficult to get around them, but a Queen Kalima deck has many answers like, Ripper Reaper, Gregoria’s Fortress, Mark of Kalima, and Queen Kalima herself. If Queen Kalima is so good why is it not as popular as other control decks? I am going to try my best to counter all the Myths people have believed about Queen Kalima decks.
Myth #1 It can’t beat aggressive decks
When building a deck around Queen Kalima you have to find a very fine line of cards that you can use that will help you against both aggressive decks and control decks. The whole key to building a good deck in Kaijudo is to build it to where it can answer the most answers against both of these match-ups. There are many cards you can use in a Kalima deck that will help you out against aggression. To name a few: Skeeter Swarmer, Scaradorable of Gloom Hollow, Scavenging Chimera, Dream Pirate, Sickly Larva. I especially like Dream Pirate and Sickly Larva because they can help you out in late game when you have a Serpens or a Gregoria Fortress out and you need a shield or if you want your opponent to banish a creature, all you have to do is attack with them. Another route you could go is a Chimera based engine and use Hydra Medusa to stop your opponents creatures from breaking all your shields. There are many options to help Kalima beat aggressive decks, you just have to test cards out and find what works best.
Myth #2 It has no draw power
This is the reason I struggled so much with building the right Kalima deck for a while. Darkness does have draw power, but instead of drawing from your deck, you may have to retrieve cards from the discard pile instead. One of the best cards I think that can be used in Kalima is Scavenging Chimera, you can fill your graveyard up with creatures from Queen Kalima’s ability or cards like Gloom Tomb and that makes your Scavenging Chimera live. What I like to do is have Scavenging Chimera in the battle zone when I play Queen Kalima, then I am able to attack with Scavenging Chimera the turn I play Kalima and that way I do not have to wait a turn to get the creature that I want back from my discard pile. It may not be much but it can be very effective. Now if you want actual draw power, you have that option, it just might take a little setting up. Both Black Feather of Shadow Abyss and Curse-Eye Black Feather have great abilities, choosing which one you use just depends what your focus of your Kalima deck is. I always have been a fan of Curse-Eye because I always like the idea of drawing cards when my opponent has to discard cards but it does not work out sometime because it requires my opponent to have cards in their hand to work. Black Feather of Shadow Abyss works more often because in order to win your opponent will need to eventually play creatures in the battle zone so you can rely on that ability more often than not. Draw power is there, it just may not be as much or as fast as other decks, you could be like Mark Woodin and splash Reverberate in the deck, just hope you don’t mill it with Kalima’s ability!
Mono Dark or Mostly Dark?
When it comes down to it, it just depends on how much you are willing to risk on the consistency of Queen Kalima’s ability to banish 3 creatures. I prefer mono dark because it gives me access to Scavenging Chimera. That card gives the deck the extra push against aggression and control. It helps against aggression because it only costs 2 mana and has a power of 3000 and against control it helps because you can retrieve all the creatures that they may have discarded from your hand. I also think it is really cool how you can use multi-civ cards and still be considered mono dark because they are technically darkness cards. That gives you access to many amazing shield blasts like Panic and Disorder and Grip of Despair and creatures like Squillace Scourge and Twilight Archon.
Best Cards to Reanimate
There are two cards in the deck that I think are almost always the best creatures to retrieve when you use her Reanimate ability and they are Squillace Scourge and Queen Kalima. Being able to attack over almost anything with the 16000 power or breaking 3 shields and getting back one of those two creatures can be devastating for your opponent. After attacking your opponent you now have a creature that will discard their hand and prevent them from attacking or blocking or a creature that can banish up to 3 creatures in their battle zone. There is not much they can do about it either, because if they try to discard them from your hand, you can just attack the next turn and get them right back. In some cases the Reanimate Ability is more powerful than her Gaze into the Abyss.
This has been a brief look at to why this Monarch is one of the most powerful ones out there. Queen Kalima is definitely deck to watch out for and I believe will be around for a while. I am not a huge supporter of giving people deck lists to use because part of the fun of Kaijudo is going out and building decks and see what works and what does not. So I encourage you to try to build your own Kalima deck and show that is not all about Eternal Haven and that there are ways to stop that deck.
"She's the card that Kaijudo deserves, but not the one it needs right now... and so we'll hunt her... because she can take it... because she's not a hero... she's a silent guardian, a watchful protector... a Dark Queen..."
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