Community

Apr 18, 2011 -- 10:22AM, rogoa86 wrote:

Currently i'm in the process of building a vampire deck, but  with zendikar dieing off in about 6 months, are the -1 life fetch lands really worth spending the 50 bucks on (10 a piece), or do you think there are some other cards that would be more beneficial at this point in time. I just started playing 2 weeks ago and i dont mind putting down some money on a good deck if its not gonna die on me in 6 months.

currently this is the exact deck i plan on buying card for card
magicgameplan.com/blog/br-vampires-aggro... 

the verdent catacombs and the marsh flats are the cards in question.

Thanks for the help 

 

First of all, where is Vampire Nighthawk ? Flying, death touch, life-link; everything black aggro should be. I would also consider mainboarding the Duress, and how much benefit you're getting from Dark Tutelage would seem suspect to question. You're running an aggro deck, so mild card advantage vs. Captivating Vampire and Flying Beatstick for your three drop should be a pretty obvious choice. Card advantage is great. Heck, look at Necropotence . But how much does it really sync with your strategy? Is the slight card advantage it's getting you worth not bringing out another creature, or leaving mana open for Kalastria to wreak havoc with? Heck, any card advantage you need should be there in the form of Viscera Seer.

Now the land. Dragonskull Summit is definite, but the Blackcleave cliffs aren't doing a lot for me. They will in most likely come in tapped, which you don't want in an aggro. Lavaclaw reaches looks like it could be a good finisher, and in the least provide utility; that being said, I see something more in the range of two. And the Fetchlands will only grab you swamps, and... eh. They just don't seem to be doing a lot. Here's how I would construct the mana:
4x Dragonskull Summit
2x Lavaclaw Reaches
12x Swamp
4x Mountain

You have seven cards mainboard that require red mana in any way, shape, or form. And each of those only require one. Balancing mana is always something that requires play testing, but this may provide a good starting point.

And if you take just one piece of advice from all this, mainboard Nighthawk.

Apr 19, 2011 -- 3:08PM, ThirdDayMiracle wrote:

So I went ahead and got both 1x more Bloodghast and 2x Kalastria Highborn, 2x Bloodchife Ascension. Don't exactly know what I should take out of my deck, but this is what I am thinking I should do.  Please let me know what you think and if I should still make changes to what I got. 

(I took out 1 Anown the Run Sage, 1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief, and 2 captivating vampires, and 1 Blade of the Bloodchife)

My current build:
4 Nighthawk
4 Gatekeeper of Malakare
2 Captivating Vampire 
4 pulse Tracker
3 Bloodghast
2 Malakar Bloodwitch
2 Kalastria Highborn

2 Bloodchife Ascension
4 Sign in Blood
4 Doom Blade
4 Duress
3 Blade of the Bloodchife
2 Urge to Freed

19 swamps
3 Dread Statuary

Side Board
4 feast of Blood
4 Marsh Casualties
4 Vampire Hexmage 
2 Captivating Vampire

This looks pretty good, really. Although I'm still not sure what the Dread Statuary is doing for you. You'll find the Bloodghasts and Kalastria Highborn to be real MVP's though, definitely.

When you play Legacy/Casual, I would take out the Cap Vamps for Vampire Nocturnus . It will raise the mana curve slightly, but the boost effect is significantly more powerful, so I would consider an even trade. And looking at it, their boost effect is rather similar, so you would have two cards doing basically the same thing.

As for cost effective lands, I run Crypt of Agadeem , which mid to late game gives me an extra bit of mana to play with.

And to everyone, with the new set, we're getting some cards that could run with our vamps. An equivalent to Duress that hits just creatures and planeswalkers (probably a sideboard), and then there's Geth's Verdict. Two mana, target player sacs a critter, and you gain 1 life.

I am Just getting back into magic and I want to enter a tournament, I want to build a Mono Vampires Deck and heres what I have so far. If anyone could help me to figure out the most competative deck I would really appreciate it. These are the cards That I own at the moment. I am willing to buy whatever else i need.

CREATURES
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Malakir Bloodwitch
4 Vampire Nocturnus

4  Kalastria Highborn

4 Child of the Night
4 Nirkana Cutthroat
2 Anowon the ruin sage
2 Kalitas bloodchief of ghet

Spells
4 blood tribute
4 sanguine bond
4 doom blade
4 blade of bloodchief 
4 feast of blood
4 disfigure 
4 sign in blood
4 duress
2 tendrils of corruption
2 urge to feed

Land
24 swamps

I like the idea of using sanguine bond and blood tribute to do big damage and life gain but is it practical? what can i use to ensure i get nocturnus out and what other creatur cards should i consider? bloodghast, should i use sorin markov? how can I make this type of deck absoutely killer?

thank you so much any help i appreciated!

Kevin.

i dont see any reason for vamps to not run red. arc trail and lightening bolt are enough reason really. plus, you have the option to side shatter, which is huge with all the stupid artifacts that black cant deal with. i can see not running it if you dont have dragonskulls or lavaclaws, but if you can get a hold of them they would definitely make the deck.

youll probably run 4 highborn, 4 pulse trackers, 4 nighthawks, 4 gatekeepers, and 4 seers, and 4 bloodghasts. anything over 3 mana is too much.

also consider running phyrexian rager. its not a vamp, but the draw effect is huge, plus youre getting a 2/2.

for spells you want to main bolts and arc trails. how many will probably be determined by what your land distribution is. maybe 2-3 of each is my guess.

then youll want to throw some kills in there. you have the gatekeepers, so you dont need zomgmillionkills. you have doomblade and go for the throat. doomblades hit artifacts, throat gets manlands. maybe go 2 of each mained and 1-2 each in the side.

other stuff to consider is inquisition of kozilek, sign in blood, disfigure, and shatter.

personally i like phyrexian rager better than sign because it puts the creature i want to draw onto the field for an extra mana. its not a vamp, but it keeps that early game effect going without losing hand advantage.