Is Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet Going to Be Explorer’s Best Creature?

Hello everyone!

While the full Explorer Anthology 1 list is going to be released next week, we have 3 previews to work through with Favored Hoplite, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and Supreme Verdict.

For this article, we’re going over the extremely powerful Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet.

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So what makes Kalitas so good? Let’s break it down.

First off, it’s a 4 mana 3/4 lifelink which isn’t a terrible stat line by any stretch, but by itself wouldn’t see play. However, it obviously doesn’t stop there. Kalitas is a graveyard hoser and Zombie producer all in one! With each creature that dies on the opponent’s side, it gets exiled permanently on top of you getting a 2/2 out of the deal! Being able to convert cheap removal into bodies is an amazing ability.

To top it all off, you can sacrifice the Zombies your produce or Vampires to grow Kalitas and make its lifelinking body that much more threatening.

So clearly this card does a lot, but where does it fit?

(E) Rakdos Midrange

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Explorer

best of 3

7 mythic

42 rare

8 uncommon

3 common

0

1

2

3

4

5

6+

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Planeswalkers (3)

3

Chandra, Torch of Defiance

$16.47

Creatures (16)

4

Bloodtithe Harvester

$1.56

2

Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger

$13.98

4

Bonecrusher Giant

$2.36

4

Graveyard Trespasser

$7.16

2

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

$27.98

Instants (7)

4

Fatal Push

$11.96

2

Heartless Act

$0.70

1

Kolaghan’s Command

$2.29

Sorceries (6)

4

Thoughtseize

$87.96

2

Bloodchief’s Thirst

$0.70

Enchantments (4)

4

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker

$71.96

Lands (24)

2

Mountain

$0.70

1

Swamp

$0.35

2

Castle Locthwain

$7.98

4

Blightstep Pathway

$21.96

2

Den of the Bugbear

$18.98

2

Hive of the Eye Tyrant

$13.98

4

Haunted Ridge

$71.96

4

Blood Crypt

$95.96

1

Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

$4.49

2

Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

$18.98

60 Cards
$500.42

Sideboard

2

Chandra, Awakened Inferno

$37.98

1

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

$13.99

1

Kolaghan’s Command

$2.29

2

Duress

$0.70

2

Anger of the Gods

$0.78

3

Go Blank

$2.07

1

Extinction Event

$2.29

3

Unlicensed Hearse

$32.97

15 Cards
$93.07

The most natural home for this deck is Explorer Rakdos Midrange. Considering how many pieces of removal the deck naturally wants to play, Kalitas is a humongous threat in this deck. While the creature matchups were already good, Kalitas is going to make it that much better and push Rakdos even further ahead of other decks.

While Rakdos Midrange or any heavy removal deck will love to play this, another deck that gets a huge boost from this inclusion is actually Explorer Mono Black Vampires! Vampires hasn’t seen too much play in Pioneer, but it was a reasonably strong deck at one point, and with a lot of Pioneer’s best decks still out of the format, it may have a chance to shine again. Kalitas is great, but Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is even more ridiculous.

VERDICT

Kalitas is truly the whole package. It can help you stabilize if you’re behind or launch you hilariously ahead if you have additional removal spells to work with. As powerful as Kalitas is, you do need some additional removal to make Kalitas shine, but that isn’t too tall of an ask. However, you do also want to be facing a deck that plays creatures as, if you’re facing a Control deck, this will be an overcosted beater. Nevertheless, I do believe that this will be the best creature in Explorer as it just does so much for the cost.

Thank you for reading! Agree or disagree? Come join our Discord community, discuss the new spoilers, and more.