MTG Salvation

Wel, I tried this list where I manage to include several of the valuable advices some people have given me

Somethings y suggested are not in the deck because I haven't found them yet at my LGS, I want to include agravated assault and seize the day, Olivia voldaren, and other cards suggested but I just don't have them yet.

But I played 2 games last night at my LGS with random people, and I want to share my experience

Game 1: Mono-blue teferi (PW), white black clerics, edgard markov and edgard markov (yes a mirror)

We start attacking the monoblue guy because... he is mono blue, the guy playing clerics, had a huge ammount of dudes in the field (6-8 I don't remember), I had 4 vampires, he started attacking everyone because he wanted to draw 3 cards a turn for Tymna the weaver and that just was too much, we switch targets, mono blue got to grasp some air and won.

I got to play in that game Guul draz assassin, I thought it would be good but it sucks badly, which is good because now I know at least one extra card to cut.

Game 2: (same decks as game 1)

The mono blue was the focus this time and this time the clerics guy understood that attacking the 3 of us for the greed of the draw doesn't pay so he attacked one or 2 at a time.

The other markov guy got manascrewed badly, but seriously bad, I mean we has the last man standing and when he died he had 4 lands in play.

The guy playing clerics was attacking the mono blue and so I was, the guy got at 5 life and I started attacking the clerics, I had Yahenni, undying partisan with Sword of light and shadow, 3 tokens and Malakir bloodwitch and a lord

In one attack I got him pretty low on life and the next attack Edgard Markov dealt the last hit, after that the last player was deleted in one attack

My toughts on the games

I missed, some card draw, I will add Phyrexian arena at least

Well of lost dreams seems bad, I don't know if I have enough life gaining in the deck to justify it

I also missed some boardwipes, when I build the deck I was counting on other people's boardwipes, so I didn't had mines, My plan is to drop 3 important vamps and get 6 bodies, while having 2-3 vamps always at hand to recover for the boardwipe.

In the games the clerics guy drew a lot of cards and had always an absurd amount of creatures in the field and no one had any boardwipes except for a single Cyclonic rift

Some cards I am thinking cutting are

New blood, I think I want Wrath of god or Damnation for the cost, the card seems sweet, is flavorful and can have some fun interactions, but the one time I had it in hand, the only sweet creature I wanted was of course protected with boots so... I got nothing.

Blood tribute, the effect is good, the cmc is not that awful but I don't think the impact is that good, I am considering cutting too.

Well of lost dreams, in my oloro deck this is the card I want to see in my starting hand, that was the reason I include it in this deck, but... I dunno, maybe I was out of luck.. what do you think, does it worth the slot in my list as is?

Blade of the bloodchief I haven't see this one in play, what do you think of it?

I missed some sacrife outlets so I think Ill add Indulgent aristocrat, I wanted to see Rakish heir in play but I didnt, I think adding Stensia masquerade for the same effect
Do you think Aurelia, the warleader and / or Gisela blade of goldnight are good inclusions?

I missed some evasion too


Current list

Your curve is way too high for what Edgar does. He works best when you're able to play multiple cheap vampires in quick succession to create a token army, generating good advantage quick, and having super efficient draw and combat evasion. The good side of this is that you're not paying a huge amount for bomb vampires like Olivia Voldaren, Blood Baron of Vizkopa and such, and the one-drop vamps you'll want are super super cheap. Then you'll want Necropotence, Ad Nauseam, Phyrexian Arena, Wheel of Fortune or Wheel of Fate, Skullclamp, Goblin War Drums, Shared Animosity, Reconnaisance, Cover of Darkness. You really want this deck lean and mean, as efficient as possible. If that's not what you want to play, you probably want to rethink with another Vampire commander at the helm, because this is how to make Edgar really shine.

Quote from toctheyounger77 »

Your curve is way too high for what Edgar does. He works best when you're able to play multiple cheap vampires in quick succession to create a token army, generating good advantage quick, and having super efficient draw and combat evasion. The good side of this is that you're not paying a huge amount for bomb vampires like Olivia Voldaren, Blood Baron of Vizkopa and such, and the one-drop vamps you'll want are super super cheap. Then you'll want Necropotence, Ad Nauseam, Phyrexian Arena, Wheel of Fortune or Wheel of Fate, Skullclamp, Goblin War Drums, Shared Animosity, Reconnaisance, Cover of Darkness. You really want this deck lean and mean, as efficient as possible. If that's not what you want to play, you probably want to rethink with another Vampire commander at the helm, because this is how to make Edgar really shine.

I only played 2 games with him and I agree that my curve is high, in this first build I wanted all my vamps to be relevant in the field, to make the combat better, but you are right that untill T3 I am rarely doing some damage.

If you have any more sugestion about cards to put in and out, please tell me. (I have taken notice of some of what you already given, some ones I have in the list)

My experience has been to push as much into the 1-3 mana cost. I run most of the playable 1-2 drop vampires. The idea most of us have moved to is to push as fast and low of a curve as possible while running super unfair burst draw. I would say just take a look at some of our lists as a good way to get some ideas. 4+ mana cards have been culled heavily and what is left has to be really kind of incredible to justify keeping.

Edgar Markov gives a lot better value for moving real cheap on the vampires. The free token per cast makes casting cheaper vampires much stronger as you can chain multiple free tokens in a turn rather than casting one big vamp and getting a single token. Getting a bigger swarm also plays better into potentially wanting to cast Edgar too as his buffing vampires plays a lot better with a bigger swarm than it does buffing some stronger value vamps. When I first built my list I did like you and tried more of the standalone value vamps and I found myself somewhat unwilling to cast edgar. Getting a faster smaller swarm actually pays off a lot better for edgar in that he becomes a stronger play later and gives you that big bomb play when you want it.

toctheyounger77 and my list both look similar in nature. I would say to jump to our lists given that each is in our sig. Move faster and lower the curve is the best advice I can give you.

I cannot reiterate Skullclamp enough. That card wins games, and Edgar Markov is one of the commanders who can use it best. Running Stoneforge Mystic to grab this card alone would be worth.
Consider Eldrazi Monument - evasion is something you can rarely give your guys, and this card also protects you from wraths. I don't think you'll ever run out of creatures to feed into this monster, so the drawback is negligible. You could also go for Akroma's Monument, but 7 mana is a lot.
I've also grown respect for Sword of the Animist - Rampant Growth is an effect you don't really have, and it thins out lands as well as allows you to make bigger plays.
I would also run effects like Land Tax, Tithe, or Oath of Lieges to make land drops more consistent.

My personal dislikes are Kheru Mind-Eater, Defiant Bloodlord, Forerunner of the Legion, Kindred Boon, Door of Destinies, Guul Draz Assassin.

Quote from shermanido37 »

I cannot reiterate Skullclamp enough. That card wins games, and Edgar Markov is one of the commanders who can use it best. Running Stoneforge Mystic to grab this card alone would be worth.
Consider Eldrazi Monument - evasion is something you can rarely give your guys, and this card also protects you from wraths. I don't think you'll ever run out of creatures to feed into this monster, so the drawback is negligible. You could also go for Akroma's Monument, but 7 mana is a lot.
I've also grown respect for Sword of the Animist - Rampant Growth is an effect you don't really have, and it thins out lands as well as allows you to make bigger plays.
I would also run effects like Land Tax, Tithe, or Oath of Lieges to make land drops more consistent.

My personal dislikes are Kheru Mind-Eater, Defiant Bloodlord, Forerunner of the Legion, Kindred Boon, Door of Destinies, Guul Draz Assassin.

I actually run Guul Draz Assassin 99% because its a 1 mana black vampire. I think that its bad if your plan is to level it up and I would still say its probably worse than at least 8+ other one drop vamps but right now I am more concerned with lowering his curve than moving a one drop to a more ideal one.

Quote from shermanido37 »

My personal dislikes are Kheru Mind-Eater, Defiant Bloodlord, Forerunner of the Legion, Kindred Boon, Door of Destinies, Guul Draz Assassin.

I actually run Guul Draz Assassin 99% because its a 1 mana black vampire. I think that its bad if your plan is to level it up and I would still say its probably worse than at least 8+ other one drop vamps but right now I am more concerned with lowering his curve than moving a one drop to a more ideal one.

I run it for the same reason. 95% of the time you're not levelling up. Its draw is that its a one drop, so really it could have any other ability and still be as relevant. The idea behind ISB's (and to some degree mine) build is to get a high saturation of cheap cost vamps and very efficient draw, and using combat modifiers to keep pressure on the board as early as possible.

I agree with all of the other dislikes you mention here. They're all high cost, low impact cards. I'd also cut:


A lot of these are either too cute and vampire flavourish, too expensive, or don't really add to a constructive game plan. I could see a place here for Sword of the Animist, too - it's a strong effect for cheap and you'll be swinging enough for it to do good work.

I'm on the fence about Eldrazi Monument - it's a strong effect, but my deck doesn't run enough recursion to want to feed weenies to it, even one a turn. I'd rather run cheaper evasion (Goblin War Drums, Shared Animosity, Cover of Darkness) and have opponents on the ropes early than wait for this and compromise my board presence. Our guys aren't big, so the only thing we have going for us is numbers and speed. As it is I'm not sold on Door of Destinies staying in my list long term, and it can blow out pretty well.

Thank you very much to all that have answer me.

I have now a lot of cool suggestions from you and I have modified my deck according some of your advices, I love the idea of more card draw such as wheel of fate and even magus of the wheel

I cutted a lot of the cards you have suggested to cut and it helped me a lot for making room to others.

In this second version of my deck I am still not going for a 40 creature deck, but I think I have managed to make it a little more consistent with the help of all of you

I will try it in my playgroup and if the deck is not going the way I want I will give it a try to the 40 creature decklist.