looking for cards to include into the deck. Its monoblack and i have looked through every vampire printed in color and already have a good idea on what to include. I have built the deck once before but being the second deck i built i want to revisit and revamp the decklist (pun slightly intentional). Here is a lost of what i have. Im looking for the non Vapmpire auto includes and hidden gems that will help the deck really click. General is slightly undecided but down to four that i know might make the cut, Mirri the cursed - cheap and haste decent ability, Anawon, the ruin sage - controlish and very tribal based, Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief - decent ability and can get in damage while serving as removal, Baron Sengir - maybe the most tribal legendary and offers regen. Advice on which general also appreciated
Definately Drana. I started off with Anowan...he has his uses....but they ended up being few. As soon as I switched to Drana it was WOW....so that's what tribal vampire is suppose to be like.
You are welcome to the link in my sig if you want ideas...
I don't run a vamp tribal, but in my Nath elf tribal deck i switched Konda's Banner for Door of Destinies. The banner let's your opponents profit and your commander doesn't benefit at all, which really sucks. You really need a ton of critters more than your opponents to make it work. cheers
From the Gatherer rulings:
•12/1/2004: The equipped creature shares a color with itself, as long as it has one or more colors.
•12/1/2004: The equipped creature shares a creature type with itself, as long as it has one or more creature types. "Artifact" is not a creature type.
If you run anything other than the Baron. you just failed at making vampire tribal. Its not the best. but it certainly is the coolest.
Not only is it not the best, it's among the worst. Baron Sengir, unfortunately, is incredibly over-costed and clunky, and he does much less than any number of cheaper vampires. Drana is a vastly better choice.
I'm all about flavor, especially in theme/tribal decks, but you don't want bad cards in the flavor mix, any more than you want to use rotten ingredients if you're trying to cook a flavorful dish. And, sadly, the Baron is bad. It would be really great to get a new version of the Baron someday, because conceptually, he should be the perfect vampire lord, but as is, he is much more bad than badass.
And just a matter of personal preference, I prefer Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter for tribal vamps. The splash of white makes those artifacts and enchantments SO much easier to deal with.
Have you considered Olivia Voldaren? She's cheap, gives you red, and is a powerful swiss army knife. Seriously, she kills utility guys, steals big guys (that you can later sacrifice), and can grow to be a huge, evasive threat on her own.
On top of that, she has excellent synergy with Deathtouch and Lifelink, particularly Basilisk Collar. Her pinging ability also allows her to grow alarmingly fast with Blade of the Bloodchief.
Lord of Lineage is a solid card and potential wincon on its own, but Olivia's ability to turn your other creatures into Vampires make it much more theatening. It can also randomly protect your creatures from Victim of Night, and lets them get twice the benefit from Blade of the Bloodchief.
Finally, don't discount the value of being able to steal other Commanders at instant speed. It's a great rattlesnake and it can keep the troublesome ones under control.
They don't just work well together...They are an infinite loop win condition. I have them in my Vamp tribal deck but I don't like actually playing both cards in a friendly game (we frown on infy loops among my main group of friends).
OT: I used to run my vamp tribal as mono black but found that there are a lot of limitations to doing so. Especially if people have a deck with a lot of pro-black. Control decks also are a problem against mono vamps because they can do a good job of preventing you from getting your creatures out. Since the win condition for most tribal decks is getting creatures out that can be a problem.
So I've started using a UBR Vampire deck with Garza Zol, Plague Queen as the Commander. The U let's me run denial and card draw, while the B and R let me run a bunch of removal.
The Bloodlord of Vaasgoth is great because he can give all your creatures Bloodthirst 3 if you do things right. So if you have the Captivating out, the Lord of Lineage out and make sure you summon a creature after doing combat damage it automatically is +6/+6 in addition to its normal power and toughness the second you summon it. Plus then you can get a +2/+1 from the Nocturnus if you have a top deck black card showing.
So, basically I've given you all the creatures I run...lol
I find Grave Pact to be incredible with the deck along with other cards previously mentioned like Blade of the Bloodchief and the Izzet, Dimir and Rakdos special lands. Also, I'm of the opinion that Necropotence is a must in all decks that have B. In a vampire deck that has a ton of lifelink it is even better because you don't have to worry as much about taking the damage to draw cards. Getting it out with a Reliquary Tower can be dominating.
I'd love to be able to run the WB vampires because all 3 (Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter, Tithe Drinker and Blood Baron of Vizkopa) are absolutely nasty. One day I make a Vish Kal deck but then I won't be able to run creatures like Olivia.
There is nothing stopping you from switching between the commanders in between games, I do it in a couple of decks either to modify the power level or just for its own point.
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EDH BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern: RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
I've got a Marchesa, the Black Rose Grixis Vampire Tribal that's fun 75% deck. Many vampires have a +1/+1 aspect that pairs really well with Marchesa's ability. As mentioned above, critters like Olivia Voldaren and Captivating Vampire steal your opponents' critters which you could then place +1/+1 counters on and keep indefinitely. It is a shame she's not a Vampire herself but still a solid choice.
What i have so far
Cryptic gateway
Brass Herald
Konda's Banner
Nightmare, Nightmare lash, lashwrithe, strata scythe
Blade of the bloodchief
Sig by Rivenor at miraculous recovery and Avatar by Ace5301 at five handed lizard
EDH
Ghave
Phelddagrif
Omnath
You are welcome to the link in my sig if you want ideas...
| B Erebos, God of VampiresB | GYeva SmashG | RBosh ArtifactsR | GURAnimar +1 BeatsGUR | RBVial's Secret Hot SauceRB | UBRNekusar, Draw if you DareUBR | RGBDarigaaz'z DragonsRGB | GBSlimeFEETGB | UBOn-Hit LazavUB | URBrudiclad's Artificer InventionsUR | GUBMuldrotha's ElementalsGUB | WUGKestia's EnchantmentsWUG | GUTatyova - Draw, Land, Go!GU | WGArahbo's EquipmentWG | BUWVarina's ZOMBIE HORDESBUW | WLyra's Angelic SalvationW | WBChurch of TeysaWB | UAzami...WizardsU
From the Gatherer rulings:
•12/1/2004: The equipped creature shares a color with itself, as long as it has one or more colors.
•12/1/2004: The equipped creature shares a creature type with itself, as long as it has one or more creature types. "Artifact" is not a creature type.
But I still fully Support Door of Destinies. It's amazing.
Other non-Vampire cards that fit well imho are Bloodchief Ascencion, Adaptive Automaton and maybe Exquisite Blood and the the one that's the other way round.
Not only is it not the best, it's among the worst. Baron Sengir, unfortunately, is incredibly over-costed and clunky, and he does much less than any number of cheaper vampires. Drana is a vastly better choice.
I'm all about flavor, especially in theme/tribal decks, but you don't want bad cards in the flavor mix, any more than you want to use rotten ingredients if you're trying to cook a flavorful dish. And, sadly, the Baron is bad. It would be really great to get a new version of the Baron someday, because conceptually, he should be the perfect vampire lord, but as is, he is much more bad than badass.
Door of Destinies is great, though.
My vamp tribal general is Garza Zol, but mono-B is also quite workable.
And just a matter of personal preference, I prefer Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter for tribal vamps. The splash of white makes those artifacts and enchantments SO much easier to deal with.
On top of that, she has excellent synergy with Deathtouch and Lifelink, particularly Basilisk Collar. Her pinging ability also allows her to grow alarmingly fast with Blade of the Bloodchief.
Lord of Lineage is a solid card and potential wincon on its own, but Olivia's ability to turn your other creatures into Vampires make it much more theatening. It can also randomly protect your creatures from Victim of Night, and lets them get twice the benefit from Blade of the Bloodchief.
Finally, don't discount the value of being able to steal other Commanders at instant speed. It's a great rattlesnake and it can keep the troublesome ones under control.
Mono Red's Strengths and Mono White's Strengths
They don't just work well together...They are an infinite loop win condition. I have them in my Vamp tribal deck but I don't like actually playing both cards in a friendly game (we frown on infy loops among my main group of friends).
OT: I used to run my vamp tribal as mono black but found that there are a lot of limitations to doing so. Especially if people have a deck with a lot of pro-black. Control decks also are a problem against mono vamps because they can do a good job of preventing you from getting your creatures out. Since the win condition for most tribal decks is getting creatures out that can be a problem.
So I've started using a UBR Vampire deck with Garza Zol, Plague Queen as the Commander. The U let's me run denial and card draw, while the B and R let me run a bunch of removal.
I also get to run a lot of sweet creatures like the Stromkirk Captain, Olivia Voldaron (BEST VAMPIRE EVER), Markov Warlord, Blood Tyrant, Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker and Szadek, Lord of Secrets (Mirko, Szadek and a few other vamps allow you to add a mill win condition to the deck).
The black only vampires I consider key to the deck are the Bloodline Keeper (transforming him into the Lord of Lineage is almost a win condition on its own), Mirri the Cursed, Anowon, the Ruin Sage, Captivating Vampire, Vampire Nocturnus, Blood Artist, Falkenrath Noble, Blood Seeker (those last three combined with Anowon make a very unpleasant situation for opposing creature decks...the Blood Artist can completely neuter token decks like a Ghave, Guru of Spores deck).
I also like putting a lot of one and two drop creatures like the Pulse Tracker and the Vampire Hexmage along with the Artist and Seeker.
Lifelink vampires like the Vampire Nighthawk and Markov Patrician are awesome and are also cheap drops. Vampires that allow you to sacrifice other creature cards like the Hexmage, the Bloodflow Connoisseur and the Bloodthrone Vampire go great with the Anowon, Artist, Falkenrath combo.
The Bloodlord of Vaasgoth is great because he can give all your creatures Bloodthirst 3 if you do things right. So if you have the Captivating out, the Lord of Lineage out and make sure you summon a creature after doing combat damage it automatically is +6/+6 in addition to its normal power and toughness the second you summon it. Plus then you can get a +2/+1 from the Nocturnus if you have a top deck black card showing.
I also like some big drops and level up creatures like:
Butcher of Malakir, Mephidross Vampire, Necropolis Regent, Nirkana Revenant (also servers to mana ramp your black a little), Sangromancer, Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet, Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief, Malakir Bloodwitch and Nirkana Cutthroat
So, basically I've given you all the creatures I run...lol
I find Grave Pact to be incredible with the deck along with other cards previously mentioned like Blade of the Bloodchief and the Izzet, Dimir and Rakdos special lands. Also, I'm of the opinion that Necropotence is a must in all decks that have B. In a vampire deck that has a ton of lifelink it is even better because you don't have to worry as much about taking the damage to draw cards. Getting it out with a Reliquary Tower can be dominating.
I'd love to be able to run the WB vampires because all 3 (Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter, Tithe Drinker and Blood Baron of Vizkopa) are absolutely nasty. One day I make a Vish Kal deck but then I won't be able to run creatures like Olivia.
EDH Decks:
WUBOloro, Combo ControlWUB
UBOona Reanimator ComboUB
BRGProssh, Eater of the Blue MageBRG
UBRGrixis StormUBR
Rebuilding Jenara (stealyourstuff.dec)
Pauper Deck:
UBInspired SirenUB
BRGKresh the BloodbraidedBRG, A box of lands and ideas.
Modern:
RG Titanshift. A deck made of cards too stupid for EDH.
Retired: Lots. More than I feel you should suffer through or I should type out.
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg