I actually got to play a few games with my mono-Red vampires list (featured way back here) over the weekend. They were three-way multiplayer games, which is NOT the ideal environment for such a dedicated aggro deck. The deck has little in the way of late-game reach, and theoretically should roll over and die to a single mid-game board sweeper (running out that Wrath too fast usually only slows me down a bit, but waiting until I’m down to two cards or less means I’m probably dead in the water).
This is the list as it stands today:
4x Stromkirk Noble
4x Bloodcrazed Neonate
4x Falkenrath Exterminator
3x Rakish Heir
3x Erdwal Ripper
2x Crossway Vampire
3x Markov Blademaster
2x Falkenrath Marauder
4x Vampiric Fury
4x Volt Charge
2x Curse of Stalked Prey
1x Blade of the Bloodchief
1x Reforge the Soul
23x Mountain
My opponent to my left was playing a really rough-looking Red-White humans list, basically an AVR limited deck expanded to 60 cards by way of more Innistrad-block commons and uncommons. He had zero rares in the deck, and no cards outside of INN block. Janky as hell, right? SPOILER: It was brutal, actually.
My other opponent was playing a Naya Wolf Tribal deck, bolstering a fairly mediocre tribe with awesome buffs like Armadillo Cloak and Behemoth Sledge. After a while, she switched to a homebrew W/B mish-mash of tokens, control and discard.
Anyway, the games went about like I expected them to, in that I got trounced in the end, but I actually came a lot closer to winning than I expected to (which isn’t saying a lot, but still…). The deck definitely had the reach issues I mentioned and the very built-in weakness to board sweeps. My one and only concession to these issues was, right before playing the first game, I grabbed a single Reforge the Soul out of one of my EDH decks. Then, in one game I actually Miracle -ed Reforge the turn after my board got wiped out, whilst having no cards in hand. I was in top deck mode, with no permanents save Mountains, and BOOM! Reforge off the top, Miracle for two, then I end the turn with three creatures in play and three more cards still in hand! Woot.
I still lost, but man did it feel good to reload like that after a devastating sequence of turns. Anyway, the R/W Humans deck turned out to play more like a combo deck than an aggro deck, setting up for explosively lethal turns featuring Battle Hymns, Thatcher Revolts and assorted mass-pump options. He could have two 2/2 critters on one turn, and on the next, he’s attacking with 36 power out of nowhere. Despite being rare-less and the epitome of janky-ness, Humans were kicking Wolf and Vampire ass all night long.
The fact that the deck failed less badly than I expected it to in a three-way game, and the fact that several times during my games I thought of very specific cards I’d loved to have had access to, I decided to see if I could reconfigure the decklist just a bit, to try and make it slightly more viable in a multiplayer setting, without diluting its 1v1 potential too much. I don’t want to slow it down - just give it a bit more reach and resilience.
Two cards that I actually wished for out loud during my games were Burn at the Stake and Ring of Valkas. Both cards are fantastic in a situation that is exceedingly common in multiplayer matches. You know when everyone has a solid board position, but they all just sit and stare at each other because no one can profitably attack without losing too many resources or leaving themselves open to counterattack from other opponents? Right.
So, Ring of Kalonia is good here, first because like all of the Rings in the M13 cycle, it’s good for breaking stalemates like that. Eventually, the equipped dude is just gonna get big enough to crash through your opponent’s pillow fort. It’s also particularly synergistic with the Innistrad vampire mechanic. They like to grow organically, by dealing combat damage, but when THAT isn’t possible, Ring of Valkas helps them out. The one Vampire in particular that really needs the help is Falkenrath Exterminator. This little Vampire Archer is quite the bomb, or would have been. I never could get more than one +1/+1 counter on her, though, and so pinging 1/1’s was the best I could hope for. But she stayed alive long enough that, with a Ring of Valkas equipped, she easily could have been shotgunning much, much bigger critters.
Meanwhile Burn at the Stake just lets us “alpha strike” one player without having to worry about pesky blockers. It’s like a very Red-flavored take on Overrun, in a sense. At one point I had 7 Vampires and couldn’t afford to attack. Burn at the Stake would have outright killed one opponent, though it’s possible I’d have died to the other player from having tapped all 7 guys…
The problem is, there are a few other pieces of equipment that all seem really good here, Skullclamp being the best and most obvious, but I want to avoid that one for a number of reasons. I definitely need the draw, but I can’t usually afford to sac my own guys, as I don’t have Bloodghast and other Black reanimation stuff. Also I don’t really want to turn this deck into a Red version of my Mono-Black vampire deck – you’ll remember that that deck started out as a straight-up Aggro Vamps deck, and as I tuned it to be more and more multiplayer-viable it eventually turned into a Gravepact control engine with an Exsanguinate/Coffers win-con. I want the deck to stay firmly in the realm of Aggro, centered on attacking with Vampires as it’s Plan A. Plus I’m using ALL of my Skullclamps already, in EDH decks that sorely need them.
Another piece of Equipment is already in the list: Blade of the Bloodchief. I own two copies and have already cut one copy from Vampires to slot into my Ghave deck, and I’m seriously considering dropping the remaining Blade so my Vish Kal EDH deck can have one. But it seems a shame for a dedicated Vampire deck, not to have at least one copy of the only Equipment that specifically cares about being in a Vampire deck. I might just have to order one for Vish Kal so this deck can have one too.
Finally, Basilisk Collar came up as a worthwhile inclusion, Mainly for its interaction with Falkenrath Exterminator, but also because the lifegain would have been quite relevant in a couple of the closer games.
The problem is one of space. I could probably make room for one copy of each, but I have no Stoneforge Mystic to ensure I draw the right piece of Equipment for the situation. Sure, there is Godo in Red, but he’s A) too expensive for this deck, and B) not a Vampire. Thinking about Stoneforge Mystic made me think, briefly, of going Red/White Vampires (style points alone, it’d almost be worth it) because I’d also have access to Ajanie Goldmane, who would be great for putting counters on all my Vampires without having to attack! But no, that’s not really the road I want to go down, for now. Maybe someday.
Anyway, I need to boil down my options, so I think I’m just going to go with 1x Blade of the Bloodchief and 3x Ring of Valkas. If the lifegain Basilisk Collar keeps being something I long for in actual games I will revisit the decision later. But for right now, the Ring seems more useful on almost any creature in the deck, while the Collar is mostly useful on the Exterminator.
Another thing I needed in several games was more removal. In the initial theory-crafted list, I had Lightning Bolts and Volt Charges. I also had a Valakut that I just forgot to throw in when the deck finally came together, but currently I’m running just the Volts, without the Bolts. I really think that’s a mistake. The Bolts have been sorely missed. I love the synergy of Proliferate with this deck, but the number of times I’ve had to cast Volt Charge while getting zero benefit from the Proliferate is unacceptable.
4x Lightning Bolt and 3x Volt Charge: That’s where I started, and I think that was the right call to begin with; I shouldn’t have messed with the formula.
Curse of Stalked Prey wound up being useless. It’s kinda win-more in that if you’re benefiting from it, then you’re probably already winning. It’s great at snowballing that early momentum into inevitability, which is fine, but that’s the ideal use. Usually it comes down after your momentum is already petering out, and you just wind up helping one of your other opponents more than yourself. I was hoping the political aspect – rewarding your opponents for attacking each other instead of you – would help the deck’s survivability, but really it just annoyed the cursed player, while giving the rest of your opponents more and more power with which to kill you eventually.
I am definitely digging Vampiric Fury, while Reforge the Soul seems like a clear winner as well. Adding in the aforementioned Burn at the Stake, we get the following for our non-creature package:
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Vampiric Fury
3x Volt Charge
1x Reforge the Soul
1x Burn at the Stake
1x Blade of the Bloodchief
3x Ring of Valkas
The creature base is largely unaffected, simply requiring a few tweaks to accommodate the increase number of spell slots. I was never happy casting Bloodcrazed Neonate, as the “Must Attack” clause just caused her to die ineffectually 9 times out of 10. I’d have expected there to be one player open more frequently in a multiplayer game, but it just never happened that way. And she’s a terrible late-game draw to boot. Unfortunately, there aren’t any two-drop Vampires to replace her with, but adding the Lightning Bolts back in, plus the Rings of Valkas means we should still have plenty of action on turn 2.
Erdwal Ripper has proven to be somewhat ineffectual as well, though he at least makes a better chumpblocker than the Neonate. But the number of times his Haste was relevant is roughly zero. On the flip side, Crossway Vampire has been surprisingly effective, often allowing a turn two Exterminator a free pass to acquire her first +1/+1 counter. I need 21 creatures to round it out, and we have this:
4x Stromkirk Noble
4x Falkenrath Exterminator
4x Crossway Vampire
4x Rakish Heir
3x Markov Blademaster
2x Falkenrath Marauder
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Vampiric Fury
3x Volt Charge
1x Reforge the Soul
1x Burn at the Stake
1x Blade of the Bloodchief
3x Ring of Valkas
1x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
22x Mountain
I realize I still haven’t solved the card-draw problem, so this list is still pretty weak against board sweepers, but I suspect that’s a flaw I’m just going to have to live with for now. The only real solution I see is to add Skullclamp, which I’ve already outlined the various issues with, and upping the number of Reforge the Souls. That option is somewhat undesirable as well. I think 1x is the right number here. I’m not gun shy about Wheel of Fortune effects in EDH, but allowing your opponents to refill their hands is much riskier in 60-card decks.
But at the same time, I think this deck is more complete than the initial version. It definitely has more potential to break through blocking stalemates, so at least one of the two major weaknesses has been addressed. Bumping the removal back up to where it should have been to begin with is also likely to be a significant boon. Bolt-ing a Watchwolf in response to a Behemoth Sledge getting Equipped would have made miles of difference in that first game, but I was stuck with Volt Charge and not enough mana.
I hope to play the deck more and continue to beef it up, but there’s not really much more I can do without fundamentally altering the nature of the deck, as I did with my mono-Black Vampire deck. My biggest gripe right now is the lack of quality two-drops for the deck. Neonate just didn’t cut it, leaving Exterminator as literally the only option. Hopefuilly, someday, WotC will revisit Innistrad and we'll get at least one more playabe Red, two-drop Vampire.
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