Well, first I was going to wait and build this deck after Innistrad was released and I got my hands on some of the new Vampires. Then, I got impatient and built it anyway. Then I was going to wait and post the decklist after I'd polished it up a bit. But, here I am, typing up the decklist as it stands... but I do have a good reason, besides my impatience. I wanted to leave myself some notes on what to cut for which new card after ISD drops. I was going to jot down some notes in a notebook, but then I figured: "Eh, might as well post it. Content is content."
Anyway, the mission statement is simple: Vampires. Lots of them. As many as I can realistically fit into the deck while still making it somewhat playable. I am cutting ubiquitous staples and good-stuff inclusions where possible to cram more thematic and flavorful stuff in. And as for the good-stuff that does make the cut, I try to at least justify most of those choices from a thematic perspective.
Slave of Bolas? Torrent of Souls? Barter in Blood? Sure, these cards definitely aren't specifically concepted as "Vampire" cards, but the names and what they do fit the flavor. Slave to Bolas might be named after a Dragon Planeswalker, but taking control of your enemy, using him, and then discarding him when you're through... definitely a classic Vampire move. Barter in Blood has "blood" in the name! What more do you want?
Okay, okay... I know there's no way in hell I can stretch the theme enough to make Skullclamp, Wheel of Fortune or Rite of Replication seem vampiric in flavor, but I do still want to win games with the deck. One mantra I try to keep in mind is "don't be a slave to your theme". Meaning, once your deck's theme starts to cost you games and actually makes the deck LESS fun to play, well, it's time to revisit your priorities.
I'm not saying winning should come at the cost of making your deck interesting - that's the last thing I want to impart. But, I feel the reverse is also true - the "theme" shouldn't completely neuter your deck to the point of unplayability.
So, by that logic, I feel the inclusion of a small number of cards that are just strictly in the deck to help me win games if more than fair, and still gives the deck enough room to make the Vampire theme felt through and through. But, to be honest, I'm hoping for a functional reprint of Solemn Simulacrum as a Creature - Vampire, because he's the one guy in my deck that is STRICTLY not a Vampire. But frankly I don't dare cut him - he's just too crucial to a deck without access to Green. The other 4 creatures that don't specifically say "Vampire" anywhere on the card all have the ability to become Vampires via their own innate abilities (Adaptive Automaton, Duplicant, Phyrexian Metamorph and Vesuvan Doppleganger).
So yeah, I fudged a little here and there, but only where it was important and felt like the right call. The only issue I have so far is a complete and utter inability to deal with Enchantments. I could easily run Chaos Warp, All is Dust, Karn Liberated and Steel Hellkite... but of those only All is Dust has a vampire-y enough name to kinda sorta fit the deck... the others are all huge misses on that end. But including one single card to deal with Enchantments and then having to rely on drawing it when needed... that doesn't sound like a good strategy to me. No, I prefer, in this case at least, to go with the strategy of "kill the player with the problematic Enchantments first, and hope that my Plan A is better than whatever it is they're doing".
Yeah, we'll see how that goes... right then, on to the list.
Creatures
Garza Zol, Plague Queen
Guul Draz Assassin --> Stromkirk Noble
Bloodghast
Kalastria Highborn
Gatekeeper of Malakir --> Rakish Heir
Vampire Nighthawk
Captivating Vampire
Mirri the Cursed
Sangromancer
Vampire Nocturnus
Sengir Nosferatu --> Falkenrath Noble
Anwon, the Ruin Sage
Malakir Bloodwitch
Soul Collector
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Fallen Angel --> Bloodline Keeper
Vein Drinker --> Falkenrath Marauders
Mephidross Vampire
Nirkana Revenant
Skeletal Vampire
Butcher of Malakir
Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
Chancellor of the Dross
Phyrexian Metamorph
Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Solemn Simulacrum
Duplicant
Adaptive Automaton
Blood Tyrant
Vampiric Dragon --> Olivia Voldaren
Spells and Stuff
Deep Analysis
Rite of Replication
Treachery
Time Spiral
Wheel of Fortune
Vampiric Tutor
Demonic Tutor
Go for the Throat
Feast of Blood
Barter in Blood
Damnation
Patriarch's Bidding
Living Death
Beacon of Unrest
Life's Finale
Sorin Markov
Profane Command
Exsanguinate
Terminate
Torrent of Souls
Slave of Bolas
Spinal Embrace --> Cackling Counterpart
Skullclamp
Blade of the Bloodchief
Nim Deathmantle --> Curse of Stalked Prey
Sol Ring
Talisman of Dominance
Talisman of Indulgence
Izzet Signet
Rakdos Signet
Dimir Signet
Obelisk of Grixis
38 Lands
Other stuff:
Vampiric Fury needs to go in somewhere... oh dear.
EDIT: Holy shit, how the hell did I forget Blood Tribute?!
Showing posts with label let the right one in. Show all posts
Showing posts with label let the right one in. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Monday, September 20, 2010
Vampires! (Don't roll your eyes at me like that!)
I've been cooking this one for a good long while. It started out as a straight up Vampire aggro deck, with as much removal I could pack in amongst the throngs of fanged freaks. However, I always ended up playing it in 4-way multiplayer games, and I could pretty much be guaranteed to wipe one play out before anyone played a board-sweeper, but one I dropped the blood-soaked hammer on my first victim, one of the survivors would suddenly realize "Oh, shit!" and Planar Cleanse, Godly Wrath or otherwise spend the Day passing Judgement on my evil little blood-suckers.
So.
I've been trying to re-tune the deck to function better in the 4-player arena. Spoiler: I've had some success, but it won't truly be complete until I get my hands on a few Exsanguinates. This card is absolutely PERFECT for this deck, and my chances of killing the whole table with one spell seem pretty good to me!
Enough pomp and circumstance. Here's the deck:
2 Bloodthrone Vampire
4 Bloodghast
3 Kalastria Highborn
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Captivating Vampire
3 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Vampire Nocturnus
3 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodcheif
2 Nirkana Revenant
2 Phyrexian Arena
4 Tendrils of Corruption
2 Sanguine Bond
1 Sorin Markov
2 Cabal Coffers
4 Leechridden Swamp
18 Swamp
Let's discuss the mana first, to get it out of the way. Cabal Coffers are good in any mono-black deck, and here they really shine. Combining Coffers with Nirkana Revenant will make Exsanguinate and extremely potent kill spell. Having a Sanguine Bond on the field when you do this pretty much ensures you will kill anyone who poses a threat to you, if not the whole table. The Leechridden Swamps are great, because they count as Swamps for your Coffers and Tendrils of Corruptions. They're better than they look, though. They were instrumental in my victory in a 3-way game just last night.
Tendrils of Corruption is a great removal spell, as anyone who played in Time Spiral era Standard can attest to. It's instant speed, variable to the number of swamps you control, so late game they can kill just about anything and gain you a nice chunk of life as well. They have great synergy with Sanguine Bond too.
Bloodghast, Bloodthrone Vampire and Kalastria Highborn form a nice little loop of 2-point life drain effects. If you have a land in hand, you can sac the Bloodghast, pay a black to Blind Hunter somebody and then drop the land to get the Ghast back, wash, rinse and repeat as often as you have a land to drop!
Gatekeeper of Malakir and Vampire Nighthawk are your early line of defense. They should both probably be 4-ofs, but I can decide what to cut... :/ As an aside, I must say that Vampire Nighthawk is, in a vacuum, the best Vampire printed to date. What it does for its cost is just amazing. Sure Nocturnus is peachy keen, and Highborn is usually the back bone of my strategy, but the Nighthawk is just a phenom, playing a defensive role or an offensive role with equal aplomb.
Back on topic: Captivating Vampire is silly, and probably will get cut soon enough, but I WANT to make it work, so I'll give them the ol' college try. Nocturnus is a no-brainer, but could easily be cut back to a 2x as he is almost strictly an offensive player and this deck isn't really that Aggro... still, if you have 4x a $20 Mythic it's HARD to cut them!
Malakir Bloodwitch is a conundrum. She's fan-fucking-tastic at doing what she does, but at 5 mana she usually comes down on an empty board the turn after a Day of Judgement. Day late and a Vampire short? Still, her synergy with Sanguine Bond (man, that card is an all-star!) and ability to take me from near-death back to 18-20 life in one swoop makes here worth the risk.
Drana is pretty "meh" here, but I have a huge soft spot for her ever since she helped me to an utterly undefeated record at the Rise prerelease. I first-picked her in a prerelease draft at Castle, and I didn't loose a single game in which I cast her. Then I opened her again in the Sealed portion, and played a deck that was nearly identical to my draft deck. Again, ever single game in which she hit the table I won. She's not as good in Constructed as she is in limited but with the Coffers and Revenant, she can kill 2 or 3 medium-size creatures in one turn and swing for 15 or more at the same time.
Nirkana Revenant should be a 4x, because she wins games if she lives, but she's also the biggest removal magnet in the whole deck. No sane player will ever willingly let you untap with her in play. If you untap with the Revnant you probably just won. So yeah, 4x for redundancy, but don't EVER play more than one at a time, that's just asking for a Wrath to kick you in the ass.
Phyrexian Arena. Because this deck needed to draw extra cards. Originally I had 4 Sign in Bloods, which I like just fine, but I find that two Arenas are likely to draw me more cards over the course of a game than 4x Sign in Blood will, so that frees up 2 whole card slots whilst still giving me EXCEPTIONAL card-drawing. The life-loss is insignificant as you'll likely gain plenty, what with the Nighthawks, Highborns, Bloodwitches, and Tendrils.
Oh, yeah and there's Sorin Markov too. The totally bad-ass Vampire Planeswalker. Yeah, he's not terrific but he's not terrible either. I definitely think he's worth running as a singleton. His -3 ability to suddenly turn on Haste for all your Bloodghasts can sometimes win you the game on the spot. His +2 ability will synergize nicely with Sangine Bond (I sound like a broken record I know, but seriously folks Sanguine Bond. Play it!).
I'd also love to get a Liliana Vess up in this bitch, because tutoring is pretty good, I hear. Especially when you absolutely HAVE to have a black card on top for your Nocturnus, accept no substitutes. But seriously, she deserves a slot, but I just can't find where to squeeze her in.
Enjoy you bloodsuckers!
So.
I've been trying to re-tune the deck to function better in the 4-player arena. Spoiler: I've had some success, but it won't truly be complete until I get my hands on a few Exsanguinates. This card is absolutely PERFECT for this deck, and my chances of killing the whole table with one spell seem pretty good to me!
Enough pomp and circumstance. Here's the deck:
2 Bloodthrone Vampire
4 Bloodghast
3 Kalastria Highborn
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Captivating Vampire
3 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Vampire Nocturnus
3 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodcheif
2 Nirkana Revenant
2 Phyrexian Arena
4 Tendrils of Corruption
2 Sanguine Bond
1 Sorin Markov
2 Cabal Coffers
4 Leechridden Swamp
18 Swamp
Let's discuss the mana first, to get it out of the way. Cabal Coffers are good in any mono-black deck, and here they really shine. Combining Coffers with Nirkana Revenant will make Exsanguinate and extremely potent kill spell. Having a Sanguine Bond on the field when you do this pretty much ensures you will kill anyone who poses a threat to you, if not the whole table. The Leechridden Swamps are great, because they count as Swamps for your Coffers and Tendrils of Corruptions. They're better than they look, though. They were instrumental in my victory in a 3-way game just last night.
Tendrils of Corruption is a great removal spell, as anyone who played in Time Spiral era Standard can attest to. It's instant speed, variable to the number of swamps you control, so late game they can kill just about anything and gain you a nice chunk of life as well. They have great synergy with Sanguine Bond too.
Bloodghast, Bloodthrone Vampire and Kalastria Highborn form a nice little loop of 2-point life drain effects. If you have a land in hand, you can sac the Bloodghast, pay a black to Blind Hunter somebody and then drop the land to get the Ghast back, wash, rinse and repeat as often as you have a land to drop!
Gatekeeper of Malakir and Vampire Nighthawk are your early line of defense. They should both probably be 4-ofs, but I can decide what to cut... :/ As an aside, I must say that Vampire Nighthawk is, in a vacuum, the best Vampire printed to date. What it does for its cost is just amazing. Sure Nocturnus is peachy keen, and Highborn is usually the back bone of my strategy, but the Nighthawk is just a phenom, playing a defensive role or an offensive role with equal aplomb.
Back on topic: Captivating Vampire is silly, and probably will get cut soon enough, but I WANT to make it work, so I'll give them the ol' college try. Nocturnus is a no-brainer, but could easily be cut back to a 2x as he is almost strictly an offensive player and this deck isn't really that Aggro... still, if you have 4x a $20 Mythic it's HARD to cut them!
Malakir Bloodwitch is a conundrum. She's fan-fucking-tastic at doing what she does, but at 5 mana she usually comes down on an empty board the turn after a Day of Judgement. Day late and a Vampire short? Still, her synergy with Sanguine Bond (man, that card is an all-star!) and ability to take me from near-death back to 18-20 life in one swoop makes here worth the risk.
Drana is pretty "meh" here, but I have a huge soft spot for her ever since she helped me to an utterly undefeated record at the Rise prerelease. I first-picked her in a prerelease draft at Castle, and I didn't loose a single game in which I cast her. Then I opened her again in the Sealed portion, and played a deck that was nearly identical to my draft deck. Again, ever single game in which she hit the table I won. She's not as good in Constructed as she is in limited but with the Coffers and Revenant, she can kill 2 or 3 medium-size creatures in one turn and swing for 15 or more at the same time.
Nirkana Revenant should be a 4x, because she wins games if she lives, but she's also the biggest removal magnet in the whole deck. No sane player will ever willingly let you untap with her in play. If you untap with the Revnant you probably just won. So yeah, 4x for redundancy, but don't EVER play more than one at a time, that's just asking for a Wrath to kick you in the ass.
Phyrexian Arena. Because this deck needed to draw extra cards. Originally I had 4 Sign in Bloods, which I like just fine, but I find that two Arenas are likely to draw me more cards over the course of a game than 4x Sign in Blood will, so that frees up 2 whole card slots whilst still giving me EXCEPTIONAL card-drawing. The life-loss is insignificant as you'll likely gain plenty, what with the Nighthawks, Highborns, Bloodwitches, and Tendrils.
Oh, yeah and there's Sorin Markov too. The totally bad-ass Vampire Planeswalker. Yeah, he's not terrific but he's not terrible either. I definitely think he's worth running as a singleton. His -3 ability to suddenly turn on Haste for all your Bloodghasts can sometimes win you the game on the spot. His +2 ability will synergize nicely with Sangine Bond (I sound like a broken record I know, but seriously folks Sanguine Bond. Play it!).
I'd also love to get a Liliana Vess up in this bitch, because tutoring is pretty good, I hear. Especially when you absolutely HAVE to have a black card on top for your Nocturnus, accept no substitutes. But seriously, she deserves a slot, but I just can't find where to squeeze her in.
Enjoy you bloodsuckers!
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