If a nontoken creature an opponent controls would die, instead exile that card and create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
, Sacrifice another Vampire or Zombie: Put two +1/+1 counters on Kalitas.
Kalitas grinds the table out by turning every opponent's creature death into a 2/2 Zombie for you while exiling their bodies away from graveyard recursion. You play removal, sweepers, and aristocrats payoffs to manufacture deaths, build a Zombie army, and either go wide or pump Kalitas into a lifelinking voltron threat. The lifelink keeps you safe while you assemble a closing line.
Hard-locks reanimator and graveyard strategies by exiling opponents' nontoken creatures
Generates free 2/2 Zombies that fuel his own sacrifice ability and aristocrats engines
Lifelink plus a big body makes him hard to race and strong in attrition
Mono-black gives access to the best tutors, removal, and ramp in the format
Single-color means no access to blue counterspells or green ramp/recovery
Vulnerable to exile-based removal and board wipes that hit him before you rebuild
Token generation only triggers on opponents' creature deaths, so passive boards starve the engine
Can be slow to actually close games without dedicated payoffs
Ramps mono-black into the explosive mana that fuels tutors and big drains.
Add fast mana and ramp like Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and Cabal Coffers plus Nykthos to power out tutors and sweepers earlier. Lean into a tight aristocrats combo package—Phyrexian Altar, Gravecrawler, and a Blood Artist effect—for a deterministic kill, and run premium tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor) to assemble it. Round out with efficient interaction and recursion-proof board wipes that maximize Kalitas's asymmetry.
Legendary Creature — Vampire Warrior
