MTG Salvation

I found this via the search for BR Vampires. I wasn't looking for BR Midrange, so that is why I probably didn't find it.

B/R aggro is not the same as midrange, and B/R midrange is not vampires. Having four different deck archetypes in one thread sounds like a mess. I was looking specifically for Rakdos Vampires. I'll look at the other thread and move my posts over if it is what I'm looking for, but it kinda sounds like a mess from what you're saying.

I had a long post written out, but apparently the internet ate it so here's round 2.

Senseless Rage is good, I missed it during my gatherer search, I will definitely include it most likely taking out Alms. Insolent neonate is good, I'll have to give it a try. I'm still not sold on Incorrigible Youths I feel Olivia, Mobilized for War since she gives all your vamps haste, enables your madness cards, and fits nicely at 3 cmc.

Markov Dreadknight just seems like it's a win more card. If you're ahead enough to be able to drop cards to pump this guy then you've probably already got the game in the bag, if you're behind though and you top deck this it comes down as a 3/3 for five that will cost you your next drop to pump and give the number of lands you're running it seems likely that the next drop would be something more useful than giving a dude +2/+2 assuming it lives that long. I'm feeling Drana, Liberator of Malkir Would be a better closer as you can drop it in buff your whole team with Olivia on the field.

Here's version 2.0

Here's a quick list I came up with tonight after doing a draft on MTGO. The goal is to make things dead quickly by abusing madness to push out instant speed and cheap vampires. The spells give you the reach needed to close out games and enable madness, or remove any pesky blockers that might get in your way. I know it doesn't have any fatties, and I thought about adding Guul Draz Overseer, but that seems to be taking this to a place I don't want it to go and late game he may not bring enough value to the table, although he could give you the extra little bit to push it home. Also only running 24-25 lands may make dropping him and getting any use out of him be a lot of miss.

I'm also only running two Asylum Visitor, although it seems good, I think that it is something that you would probably only want to see one of as being a /1 it will die to anything, and I see it as more of a draw engine that can get in their to close out games if necessary. I may be wrong though, and this could be a four of if it tests well. Drana, Liberator of Malakir might seem like a strange choice as I see no one mentioned here. She seems to reward the aggressive strategy though by pumping your team every time she connects. Four of Olivia as legendary may also seem strange, but given that you can discard any extras you might happen to draw, and being Olivia I suspect she will die frequently against any deck that has a way to kill her I wanted to start with four.

Insolent Neonate and Incorrigible Youths seem like they could possibly find a home in here as well, but giving all my vampires madness that don't already have it seems stronger than a 1/1 with menace that can draw a card. Stensia Masquerade could also possibly fit in here, but it seems to me like it might just be a bit too much good stuff and I'm not sure what I would cut for it.

This is a quick list, and I haven't played standard since the Theros block, so I appreciate any input you might have or recommendations for changes.

I admit that keeping track of the board state can be a hassle, and I've been playing this deck about a year as well and I still miss triggers. The way I keep track of everything is with token cards and lots and lots of little glass bead tokens. That way I can at least keep track of what has just etb and what is trapped.

My best suggestion is just to play slowly, don' durdle for 10m trying to look through everything, but I arrange all my sac outlets together, sort my lands by what they do, and just play it out as best I can. In multiplayer games this can get pretty mind wracking as you don't just have to keep up with your things, and then lots of people I play with run token decks so things are dying en masse all the time.

Basically, yes, practice makes better. Then, practice some more, then practice again. I run this deck every week two or three times a week. It definitely requires focus and you can't let people get you distracted by talking during your turn and such.

I admit that keeping track of the board state can be a hassle, and I've been playing this deck about a year as well and I still miss triggers. The way I keep track of everything is with token cards and lots and lots of little glass bead tokens. That way I can at least keep track of what has just etb and what is trapped.

My best suggestion is just to play slowly, don' durdle for 10m trying to look through everything, but I arrange all my sac outlets together, sort my lands by what they do, and just play it out as best I can. In multiplayer games this can get pretty mind wracking as you don't just have to keep up with your things, and then lots of people I play with run token decks so things are dying en masse all the time.

Basically, yes, practice makes better. Then, practice some more, then practice again. I run this deck every week two or three times a week. It definitely requires focus and you can't let people get you distracted by talking during your turn and such.

Thanks Darth, I'm terrible at remembering cards names. I have most of the mana rocks in my deck already. I am currently running every tutor I can except Vamp and the four mana one because I can't find a Vamp besides the judge promo. I have a cruel tutor in his place.

I'll definitely try to find these today when I'm at the shop. I also added the Sanguine Bond +Blood Pact combo just because it seems having either card out helps grind the game faster. Extort is awesome, and everything in the deck seems to work one way or another with them.

If you think of anything else let me know, I've been researching myself, but I've been super busy so I haven't really had a chance. Thanks again.

I personally don't use the Grim, he was just bad for me. I never got any value out of him, and I can tutor a skull clamp usually so drawing cards isn't a big deal.

Ophiomancer Is amazing, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. With Teysa and a Sac outlet it pretty much says, make a white spirit token during each players turn. Add in Gravepact or Martyr's Bond and it just gets worse. In a 4 player pod you can make everyone sac 4 creatures and exile one fatty every turn cycle. I know it requires four cards, but I get this set up almost every game. Usually it is back breaking, but occasionally I die in a blaze of glory after taking lots of creatures with me.

[Blood Ghast[/c] Is pretty weak, but he's not terrible. Sometimes you just don't have to the 1B to bring him back when he dies, then he's just stuck sitting in your yard until you get a recursion spell.

I only run RtB, the only time I'm hurting to draw cards is when someone drops a Jin-Gitaxis or some similar non-sense.

Liliana,Defiant Necromancer Yeah, that's a card. The only way this could be sweeter is if we could ramp up the counters to get there faster, 5 turns is an eternity in EDH, but if you manage to get there then the dream is real.

Xathrid is still in my deck, but he's probably going to be replaced soon. Tokens are nice, but it seems I never get more than one from him.

I pretty much agree that Plunge into Darkness and Spirit Bonds are garbage, they seem good on paper, but when you start playing them they seem to just hang out in my hand, or on the board and make me wish they were something else. Most of my creatures that die are tokens though so I don't get much mileage from them.

Meekstone can be hit or miss, if you're playing with a bunch of G mages, then it probably won't do much, but it can be a goo tempo play to slow everyone down a turn or two. Sometimes I've had it still for several turns while I just used GP to wreck everyone's creatures while I got myself set up.



I also have a question for my Orzhov fellows, I'm playing in a new LGS and pretty much everyone runs some kind of degenerate combo that ends the game by like turn 10. What cards should I consider to make this more degenerate? I've been trying to play fair, but when everyone else is doing dirty, degenerate ***** I need to take the fairness down about 10 levels just so I don't sit around watching them play with themselves. I already added in Darkest Hour, but it isn't enough. Any suggestions on how to either disrupt the combo players, or add some faster combos to my deck. I've played the fair version of this deck for almost a year now, but I'm tired of losing to combo kids that think commander should be over in like 15 minutes.

I wanted to comment on the wraths debate above, I run Martial Coup and Retribution of the Meek, sometimes you just need to kill everything and start over, usually after the table decides that Martyr's Bond or Gravepact is impeding their efforts to kill you and they have a bunch of huge monsters and you've just got a few pathetic tokens, no Teysa, and the only hope you have is to kill everything. I'm also giving some serious thought to Rout because I really do like the instant speed which could have saved my ass more than once while I got beat down waiting for my turn to come back around so I could wrath.

I definitely see Zulaport Cuttthroat finding a way in as another Blood Artist, I don't really like Vampiric Rites paying to sac isn't good, some might even say it is bad. Ymmv of course, drawing cards is a thing, and I've been wrong about cards before. I'd rather run Phyrexian Arena, Dark Confidant. or Skull Clamp even if it does cost 1 you get two cards for 1, and it takes colorless. I'm usually using all my colored mana to extort.

Gaining life also isn't a big problem for me. I usually hit over 100 life in a game, before someone notices those 5 spin downs in front of my are my life total and not just sitting there. I think I'm most excited about the Smothering Abomination, although Quarantine Field could be fun if you absolutely need to make something go away for a few turns. Or, with an altar and a lot of tokens you could potentially make everything go away! *evil cackling*

Sorry for the double post, but expeditions! The bw looks amazing.

I saw the Eldrazi and had a little eye twitch too, 4 mana really isn't that bad for what he can do for us. The only real problem would be getting him back if he's killed since most of recursion won't hit him.

Still, this seems really good.

I like your Teysa schondetta, I want yo get mine altered, but I haven't found anyone who I think would do a decent job.

I just want to say omg Liliana, Heretical Healer . I play the stax version and I picked up a blacked out one for this deck because /12yolittlegirlnoises. This does everything I could want in a Planeswalker and screams abuse me. Creature? Check. <3CMC? Check. Disruption? Check. Recursion? Double Check. Top that off with the fact it is retardedly easy to flip and this is my new favorite Planeswalker it is that sweet.

The only real downside is that with Teysa, you might not get the best enemy creatures bc you're exiling them, which does happen. However, with Grave Pact or Martyr's Bond this card is the nuts.

Also, anyone hoping for some new goodies in the next commander set? Enemy generals, maybe we can get a swanky new Teysa? I'm personally hoping for a new some cards that are worth including if we're lucky enough to get an orzhov deck.

Thanks for your input.

Elspeth was on my original list, and she may return.

I had forgotten about Read the Bones. I was thinking Erebos would be a decent draw engine, but after more thought it really never would be as good as RtB or even Sign in Blood so I will most likely cut him.

All the removal you've mentioned is in the hunt for a final spot, I just need to actually get on MTGO and test it out to find the best package.

Ram can be cut easily enough for Arashin Cleric .

I will consider a splash, this is a WiP right now and this is the first draft. At first glance blue seems to support my overall game plan most efficiently, but I will see if I can find some of the decks you mentioned. My cursory Google search turned up a few bant lists, but I will dig deeper when a get a chance.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

Hello Everyone,
I am working on an Orzhov deck list using Ojutai Exemplars, I haven't been able to play test it yet, but I'm posting this list up to get some input before I get the missing pieces I need for this deck. I don't really know how to explain it, is a tempo/control deck I suppose. The list follows.



The removal I think is pretty self explanatory, the numbers may need adjusting once I actually get a chance to test.

I'm not wild about Damnable Pact, but besides Erebos, God of the Dead and Defiant Strike it is the only other way to draw cards I found in Orzhov. Although, I'm just getting back into Standard having missed most of the Tarkir Block so there may be options that I haven't discovered yet.

Resolute archangel works as reset if you somehow get low to an aggro deck or you've been pumping your life into Erebos or Pact to draw cards. I'm not sure it will work or not, but it seems worth testing.

As I've stated, I'm not intimately knowledgeable about the current state of standard, so any input that is provided will be appreciated. I'm also working on sideboard, I will try to get it up this weekend.

I'm kinda sad this thread is so slow, but with the new set I saw a card that really jumped out at me. Harsh Sustenance

This seems like it could be really good late game in several scenarios. At worst it would be something like a helix, at best it could 5+ and maybe more. This is definitely going in as an 2-3 of for testing if nothing else.