I got the idea of this deck when I realized vampires had some really good lords especially with the printing of 2cmc lord and they were all mono black which works with vampire nocturnus. So this deck is all about attacking all the time and just playing lord after lord where my 0/1 Blood artists are 3/4's or better. I'd love some input as some of the creature selections are still iffy to me and I'm not exactly sure how many Sanctum Seekere I should be playing and Bloodwitches.
Considering the number of black mana symbols in cards you play, I think you lose more than you gain by adding a third color (white)...you have plenty of good vampires to choose from without going for a 3rd color...you could run Metallic Mimic instead of Legion Lieutenant for example.
Vampiric Fury could be nice...saves your attacking creatures, is a nice finisher and can be played at instant speed.
For the manabase I'd rather see something like 10x Swamp, 4x Unclaimed Territory, 4x Exotic Orchard, 4x Nomad Outpost. Note, Exotic Orchard is like under a buck, so I'm always surprised when I see multicolor decks playing fewer than 4. It's a really, really, really broken multiplayer Magic card. From there there's lots of ways to build the overall shell.
One option is to go for burn. If you want drain you want to max out on cards like Pulse Tracker, Vicious Conquistador, Sanctum Seeker and Malakir Bloodwitch. Toss in some Leechridden Swamps , Exsanguinates, Cut // Ribbons and Crackling Dooms and you suddenly have a viable way to drain the table out while beating them into submission. This strategy pairs well with lords in general because Lords are aiming to take people from 20 - 0 which lends itself naturally to a global lifeloss strategy. Think something along the lines of:
You could also add things like Exsanguinate but Cut // Ribbons doubles as removal. I love having access to Cut // Ribbons and Crackling Doom in my Mardu decks because later yon you can kinda "oops I win" a lot of games even if you're flooding out. It's also one of your best counters to removal-heavy metas which are problematic for Tribal decks in general. After all, even if you can't win with creatures you can simply double Ribbons everyone out after dropping them all to ~10 early on.
Another option is to build the "go wide, go big" Legion's Landing, Indulgent Aristocrat, Bloodghast, Captivating Vampire, Legion Conquistador, Call to the Feast, Patron of the Vein deck. The synergies should mostly be obvious but I'll run through a couple. First, Indulgent Aristocrat + Bloodghast is an obvious combo that scales wildly out of control over time. Legion's Landing can also be used to fuel it past a certain point but not until much later on. There's also the [ANYTHING] -> Captivating Vampire -> Call to the Feast + tap to steal the best creature curve that can cement games as early as turn 4. That curve is also insane when your deck has a whack of lords in it because giving 6+ creatures +1/+1 or +2/+1 is ridonkulous. Otherwise Patron of the Vein is a "kill or lose" threat in these types of builds because your adversaries cannot possibly hope to beat that card outside of removing it and even then it's still a removal spell that pumps your entire board.
There's also solid midrange cards like New Blood, Door of Destinies, Champion of Dusk, Living Death, Patriarch's Bidding and Kindred Dominance that can feel utterly back-breaking for fair decks to play against. After all, In Garruk's Wake is already an extremely powerful card and casting it for 7 mana is rather outrageous. It's almost Cyclonic Rift! Control Magic is bonkers so playing one that can't be interacted with + one that works with your tribal synergies is awesome. These cards don't need to have specific homes per say, but they're great ways to go over-the-top of your adversaries.
My only gripe? I reeeeeeally wish that the deck had a "Grave Defiler style 4 drop. Things like Syphon Mind work fine in bigger games but what I wouldn't give for a Goblin Ringleader :(. There's also Crackling Doom which is amazing, but hard to cast unless you have a very strong manabase. That card is busted though and you could easily justify running 4 assuming that you can support the manacost.
+1 for the full four Malakir Bloodwitches. It's basically a 4/4 flying pro-white Gary in this deck.
My meta has had a lot of Superfriends and Atraxa decks running around in it of late, and I got a hold of some copies of Thief of Blood for a lark... oh my, that thing hoses hard. I know it's a big, fat 6-drop, but I've made Atraxa players scoop with it. If you've got similar decks running around, I'd consider tossing a singleton in, just to see what it does.
+1 for the full four Malakir Bloodwitches. It's basically a 4/4 flying pro-white Gary in this deck.
My meta has had a lot of Superfriends and Atraxa decks running around in it of late, and I got a hold of some copies of Thief of Blood for a lark... oh my, that thing hoses hard. I know it's a big, fat 6-drop, but I've made Atraxa players scoop with it. If you've got similar decks running around, I'd consider tossing a singleton in, just to see what it does.
Was that sarcasm that didn’t translate?
DD is hard to find and really expensive.
On topic:
As you run a lot of boosts (and a critter that likes to tap 5 vampires), how about Call to the Feast?
The Captivating one is unthreatening when he has one friend. Play the feast and you’ve got an instant steal...
(Ah. Prid3 said as much. I agree.)
In my vamp deck I also run 4 Tithe Drinkers which never disappoint.
And two Teysa, Orzhov Scion which generates a lot of flyers and exiles frequently...
(I know, she’s not a vampire, but maybe she’d like to be.)
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My meta: 3 or 4 player free for all, anything goes but boring games or broken decks cause a vote to end that game.
Thanks for all the help everyone. I really like the "burn" style of vampires as I already have an EDH vampire deck that is more "mid rangey" style. Great suggestions on the mana base as well. Much appreciated.
Well, the idea of these decks is usually to kill the opponent(s) before they can install any efficient kind of control. But it's true that this deck wouldnt fare well in any long game.
Well, the idea of these decks is usually to kill the opponent(s) before they can install any efficient kind of control.
Literally not possible. Turn 2 Signet, turn 3 Wrath. You're incapable of dealing 60 damage before that happens. If you're playing a deck like this it's because your meta doesn't field much mass removal.
2x Indulgent Aristocrat
3x Vampire Lacerator
4x Dusk Legion Zealot
4x Blood Artist
4x Gifted Aetherborn
4x Legion Lieutenant
4x Captivating Vampire
4x Stromkirk Captain
2x Sanctum Seeker
4x Vampire Nocturnus
2x Malakir Bloodwitch
4x Dragonskull Summit
4x Concealed Courtyard
4x Mountain
2x Plains
9x Swamp
Vampiric Fury could be nice...saves your attacking creatures, is a nice finisher and can be played at instant speed.
One option is to go for burn. If you want drain you want to max out on cards like Pulse Tracker, Vicious Conquistador, Sanctum Seeker and Malakir Bloodwitch. Toss in some Leechridden Swamps , Exsanguinates, Cut // Ribbons and Crackling Dooms and you suddenly have a viable way to drain the table out while beating them into submission. This strategy pairs well with lords in general because Lords are aiming to take people from 20 - 0 which lends itself naturally to a global lifeloss strategy. Think something along the lines of:
10x Swamp
4x Unclaimed Territory
4x Exotic Orchard
4x Nomad Outpost
4x Vicious Conquistador
4x Pulse Tracker
4x Blood Artist
4x Legion Lieutenant
4x Captivating Vampire
4x Stromkirk Captain
4x Sanctum Seeker
4x Vampire Nocturnus
4x Malakir Bloodwitch
2x Cut // Ribbons
You could also add things like Exsanguinate but Cut // Ribbons doubles as removal. I love having access to Cut // Ribbons and Crackling Doom in my Mardu decks because later yon you can kinda "oops I win" a lot of games even if you're flooding out. It's also one of your best counters to removal-heavy metas which are problematic for Tribal decks in general. After all, even if you can't win with creatures you can simply double Ribbons everyone out after dropping them all to ~10 early on.
Another option is to build the "go wide, go big" Legion's Landing, Indulgent Aristocrat, Bloodghast, Captivating Vampire, Legion Conquistador, Call to the Feast, Patron of the Vein deck. The synergies should mostly be obvious but I'll run through a couple. First, Indulgent Aristocrat + Bloodghast is an obvious combo that scales wildly out of control over time. Legion's Landing can also be used to fuel it past a certain point but not until much later on. There's also the [ANYTHING] -> Captivating Vampire -> Call to the Feast + tap to steal the best creature curve that can cement games as early as turn 4. That curve is also insane when your deck has a whack of lords in it because giving 6+ creatures +1/+1 or +2/+1 is ridonkulous. Otherwise Patron of the Vein is a "kill or lose" threat in these types of builds because your adversaries cannot possibly hope to beat that card outside of removing it and even then it's still a removal spell that pumps your entire board.
There's also solid midrange cards like New Blood, Door of Destinies, Champion of Dusk, Living Death, Patriarch's Bidding and Kindred Dominance that can feel utterly back-breaking for fair decks to play against. After all, In Garruk's Wake is already an extremely powerful card and casting it for 7 mana is rather outrageous. It's almost Cyclonic Rift! Control Magic is bonkers so playing one that can't be interacted with + one that works with your tribal synergies is awesome. These cards don't need to have specific homes per say, but they're great ways to go over-the-top of your adversaries.
My only gripe? I reeeeeeally wish that the deck had a "Grave Defiler style 4 drop. Things like Syphon Mind work fine in bigger games but what I wouldn't give for a Goblin Ringleader :(. There's also Crackling Doom which is amazing, but hard to cast unless you have a very strong manabase. That card is busted though and you could easily justify running 4 assuming that you can support the manacost.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
My meta has had a lot of Superfriends and Atraxa decks running around in it of late, and I got a hold of some copies of Thief of Blood for a lark... oh my, that thing hoses hard. I know it's a big, fat 6-drop, but I've made Atraxa players scoop with it. If you've got similar decks running around, I'd consider tossing a singleton in, just to see what it does.
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Vampire Hexmage and Thief of Blood also boast immense synergy with Dark Depths which is, if nothing else, an extremely affordable Magic card.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
DD is hard to find and really expensive.
On topic:
As you run a lot of boosts (and a critter that likes to tap 5 vampires), how about Call to the Feast?
The Captivating one is unthreatening when he has one friend. Play the feast and you’ve got an instant steal...
(Ah. Prid3 said as much. I agree.)
In my vamp deck I also run 4 Tithe Drinkers which never disappoint.
And two Teysa, Orzhov Scion which generates a lot of flyers and exiles frequently...
(I know, she’s not a vampire, but maybe she’d like to be.)
My meta: 3 or 4 player free for all, anything goes but boring games or broken decks cause a vote to end that game.
Hmm? No, I was being 100% serious.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Ah, I'm Canadian so I get to pay CAD prices as opposed to USD when I'm purchasing cards.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I know, I just really enjoying screwing with people.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Literally not possible. Turn 2 Signet, turn 3 Wrath. You're incapable of dealing 60 damage before that happens. If you're playing a deck like this it's because your meta doesn't field much mass removal.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I don't see anything indicating that this is specifically designed for 2HG play.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold