Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Kalamax, the Stormsire!

Kalamax is a four mana 4/4 with whenever you cast your first instant spell each turn, if Kalamax is tapped copy that spell and you may choose new targets for the copy, and whenever you copy an instant spell put a +1/+1 counter on Kalamax.

Copying instant spells can be a fun way to have a Storm type of Commander, and having Kalamax needing to be tapped adds another interesting wrinkle to make the deck a bit more interesting to play and provide a couple of directions for us to take.

The first thing we need to do is have a reliable way to tap Kalamax so we can have a way to copy our first instant each turn, get enough mana so we can cast a lot of spells, and have other payoffs for casting copies of spells.

The first thing that we need are ways to get Kalamax tapped, ideally in a way that provides value for us and other than attacking.

Larval Scoutlander is perfect because when it enters, we may sacrifice a land or Lander and if we do we can search our library for two basic lands and put them on the battlefield tapped. What’s more ideal for us is that it has Station, which means we can tap a creature, Kalamax ideally, to put charge counters on it until it has enough counters to become a creature.

Once we get at least one +1/+1 counter on Kalamax, then we can also consider Extinguisher Battleship, which when it enters we destroy target noncreature permanent and then deal 4 damage to all creatures, which can help us clear the board if it gets too clogged and can become a 10/10 with flying and trample.

The best Station cards are the Planet Lands, all of which enter tapped and add a single color, which are Kavaron, Memorial World which adds red mana and for two mana and tap it and sacrifice a land to make a 2/2 Robot and give all of our creatures +1/+0 and haste, Uthros, Titanic Godcore which adds blue mana and then adds blue mana equal to the number of artifacts we control, and Evendo, Waking Haven which adds green and then adds green mana equal to the number of creatures we control.

There are also of course Vehicles, of which we can use something like Esika’s Chariot in order to get some more bodies in play since when it enters we get two 2/2 Cat tokens and when it attacks we get to make a copy of target token we control.

The next thing we need are spells that we want to copy with Kalamax, ideally rituals that make more mana or ways for us to get more cards in our hand.

Desperate Ritual is a solid way for us to cast a two mana ritual to get three red mana, which when copied by Kalamax gives us another three red mana, which we can continue to use with other red rituals that we have access to.

Manamorphose is also a great spell for us to copy with Kalamax since we can add two mana in any combination of colors and draw a card, and with two instances of that we have four mana of any color to do with how we please, as well two additional cards in our hand.

Planar Genesis is a roundabout way for us to get mana since it let’s us look at the top four cards of our library and put a land from among them onto the battlefield tapped and if we don’t then we get to put a card from among them into our hand, which means we can either get two mana for later, or we get two cards in our hand, or one land and one card in our hand.

Since Kalamax only targets instants the number of sorceries we have will be lower, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get value from them. For instance, we can cast a Mana Geyser to add red mana for each tapped land our opponents control and along with that we can cast something like Twincast or Reverberate, which can copy an instant or sorcery spell, which will then trigger Kalamax so we get three instances of Mana Geyser being copied.

If we want to keep all of that floating red mana, then we can also make use of Electro, Assaulting Battery, which has it so that we don’t lose unspent red mana as steps and phases end, and can himself add a red mana whenever we cast an instant or sorcery spell and when he leaves the battlefield we can pay X to deal X damage to target player so that mana doesn’t go to waste.

We can also make use of any additional land drops by using Consult the Star Charts, which let’s us look at the top X cards of our library where X is the number of lands we control and put one into our hand, but if we Kicked the spell, then we get to put two cards in our hand, and copying that with Kalamax can help us sculpt the ideal hand that we need.

The last thing we need are ways to make additional uses of us casting and copying spells.

Magecraft is going to be the primary ability that we use for this, and Deekah, Fractal Theorist is excellent because whenever we cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, we make a 0/0 Fractal creature token and put X +1/+1 counters on it where X is the mana value of the spell and for four mana we can make a creature token unblockable for a turn.

Veyran, Voice of Duality also has a great interaction for us because whenever we cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, Veyran gets +1/+1 until end of turn, but more importantly has it so that if casting or copying an instant or sorcery spell causes a triggered ability of a permanent we control to trigger, it triggers it again, meaning that we can get an additional copy of an instant and get another +1/+1 counter on Kalamax for doing so.

Storm-Kiln Artist gets us Treasures whenever we cast or copy an instant or sorcery, Archmage Emeritus draws us a card whenever we trigger Magecraft, and Karok Wrangler has it so we can put a +1/+1 counter on a creature we control when we trigger Magecraft.

Since we are in the business of copying spells, we can make use of something like Double Vision which copies the first instant and sorcery spell we cast each turn, and being able to choose new targets for the copy or Swarm Intelligence which has it so that whenever we cast an instant or sorcery we may copy that spell, again able to choose new targets for the copy.

There is even a tricky way to get an infinite damage combo by having Kalamax tapped, casting something like Chandra’s Ignition, which has it so target creature we control deals damage equal to its power to each other creature and opponent, and a copy spell like Increasing Vengeance, which can copy an instant or sorcery we control or copy it twice if we cast it from the graveyard.

The way it goes is that Kalamax will create a copy of Increasing Vengeance, which we choose the first one to target Chandra’s Ingnition, then put a +1/+1 counter on Kalamax, then copy Increasing Vengeance, then keep copying Increasing Vengeance to keep putting +1/+1 counters on Kalamax until we choose to end the loop by letting Chandra’s Ignition resolve and have Kalamax deal an absurd amount of damage due to its now incredibly high power.

Kalamax is a value Commander through and through, and us being able to make incredible use of copying the first instant we cast each turn can definitely make the game swing in our favor.

The first issue is making sure that Kalamax is protected. Since Kalamax needs to be tapped in order for us to copy our instants, we are leaving a potentially massive blocker or attacker in a vulnerable position, especially for removal spells that destroy tapped creatures.

The next thing that we need to worry about is making sure we have the mana to cast our spells, which while we have access to rituals and ways to generate a lot of mana, a lot of it is in specific colors, and if we can’t filter it to colors that we need, then we may be in spot of trouble.

There is also the fact that a lot of our payoffs require us to have the right cards in hand, which is a lot tougher than you may like because we also happen to have lands in our deck, which despite having access to some really good draw spells and additional land spells, it can only allow us to get a certain number of lands out of our hand and we may fizzle out of a game winning turn.

Still, Kalamax is a fun Commander to play, adds a fun restriction for spell slinging and potential Storm decks by needing to be tapped, and allows us to copy an instant on any turn, not just our own, to allow for some pretty interesting plays.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual