This is a few weeks late, since it’s taken me a while to gather the cards, and because I’ve been busy with life, but I finally got to play Thalia in a few games at EDH night. I’m missing quite a few key cards, so this wasn’t anywhere close to my optimal build, but it let me get a better idea of how I’d like the deck to play out, and what cards would be good or bad.

When I previously wrote about the deck, without having done much research, I was debating between taking it in a Stax direction or a White Weenie direction – after looking at the cards available to me, it seemed like a combination of the two would be relatively straightforward – there are a lot of disruptive 2 and 3 drop White creatures, and although they’re all pretty dorky, I figured that I could counteract that with Crusade effects and, ideally, Crusades on legs.
As I was listing out potential card choices, I had a lot of Null Rod style effects that turned off activated abilities, which led to me choosing not to include any Equipment, very few Artifacts, and few Creatures with abilities. After going back and cutting down to 100 cards, most of those Null Rod effects were gone, which makes me think I can probably fit in at least a small Equipment package. If nothing else, I’d like to include Sword of Feast and Famine to counteract my Winter Orb effects and Quietus Spike, because if I’m going to be a jerk I might as well go all the way, right?
I also made a conscious decision not to run any Wraths at all – not even Sunblast Angel – on the basis that all of my lock pieces were creatures, so Wraths were the absolute last thing I wanted to happen. After losing to *another* White Weenie deck (basically handing him the win by taxing everyone else out of the game while he got an aggro nut draw) it occurred to me that I might want at least one. Few things in Magic make me happier than casting a Wrath of God… That having been said, getting Wrathed really *is* miserable for this deck. I need more ways to prevent that from happening, or else more ways to help mitigate the damage.
I’m also still trying to figure out a proper mana curve – if everything goes according to plan, no one (including you) should have more than 3 or 4 mana to work with at any given time, which means you don’t want many expensive spells. On the other hand, if things don’t work out, you are stuck drawing infinite two-drops (and only one per turn, ugh…) while your opponents are playing Avenger of Zendikar, Consecrated Sphinx, and Grave Titan. And they are probably super pissed at you.
Finally, I want to work in at least a bit more Artifact (and possibly Enchantment) destruction, since there are some pretty irritating permanents that people play. But again, that’s why you want them to just not play anything at all in the first place.

As far as how the deck plays out, I’m fairly certain that drawing an Armageddon, or even a Winter Orb, would be enough to close out quite a few games. Considering most people don’t start to do anything particularly relevant before turn 4, you should in theory be able to drop 3-4 guys, hopefully a Crusade effect, and then just lock out their lands as you kill the most threatening players first.
Playing Thalia on turn 2 every game is pretty awesome, since no one is ready for it, and so you basically Time Walk.
The title of today’s entry comes from the hilarity that ensues when you slam down either Leonin Arbiter or Aven Mindcensor (in response to Vampiric Tutor, obviously). And by “hilarity” I mean how you cackle with glee and everyone else cries inside.

If you’re curious, here is the deck as it currently stands:
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

There is a lot of filler at the moment, and a few land choices (Ancient Den?) that make basically no sense at all. Off the top of my head I know I want to add Glowrider, Elesh Norn, Grand Abolisher, Spelltithe Enforcer, and Sphere of Resistance. I’ll probably end up proxying a Ravages of War at some point as well…

In any case, that is where I am at the moment. Any suggestions would be very welcome!
As always, thanks for reading!