These guys are the obvious "I like to win" cards. Vampire Nocturnus is a non-legendary beast that overruns your opponents by making all your vampires +2/+1 and flying if the top card of your library is black. The deck uses Marsh Flats, Sign in Bloods, and Relic of Progenitus to help draw or shuffle your library to increase the chance of a black card. Malakir Bloodwitch is the best "F Baneslayer" card ever made. She can block Baneslayer all day AND can't be Path to Exiled or Doom Bladed AND syphons life for each vampire you control upon entering the battlefield.
These are the guys that get the job done while waiting for the deck to explode. Bloodghast is my favorite card in the set. He is a recursive, possible haste 2/1 for 2 mana that returns to play at each land drop. He is amazing. Most control and burn decks have a hard time dealing with him. Vampire Nighthawk is the best limited uncommon in the set and is an amazing standard card as well. Black can't get any happier than an uncommon 2/3 flyer, lifelink, deathtouch creature for 3 mana. Gatekeeper of Malakir is an amazing card as well. He causes your opponent to sacrifice a creature upon entering play ("F you Great Sable Stag, Sphinx of Jwar Isle, Wall of Denials, and everyone else.") Vampire Hexmage is an awesome 2/1 first strike creature that can kill planeswalkers and reset quests.
Sorin is an amazing card that most other Vampire decks aren't using (which perplexes me greatly). He is AMAZING. Typically he will kill creatures or players while gaining you life or drop your opponent's life to 10, which is amazing vs the mirror or other lifegain decks (last night I beat the mirror with Sorin; with Tendrils of Corruption and Vampire Nighthawk he had his life at 28...I played Sorin, dropping it to 10 and alpha striked for the win). His 3rd ability is amazing especially vs control, but typically he will win the game with his 1st ability. Tendrils of Corruption is the deck's power spell. It is an instant kill spell that gains you X life for 4 mana.
The deck also uses these 2 sideboarded cards that give it a huge edge in certain matchups. Fleshbag Marauder acts as another Gatekeeper of Malakir ("F you again Great Sable Stag, Sphinx of Jwar Isle, Wall of Denials, and everyone else.") When he comes into play both players sacrifice a creature. Typically I will sacrifice Bloodghast and return him to play at the land drop. Relic of Progenitus is a great card vs the Bloodghast mirror and any other graveyard deck including Pyromaner Ascension and Hellspark Elemental. It helps get rid of those pesky recursive creatures and can be sacrificed to remove all graveyards from the game to draw a card (which can help ensure the library's top card is black for Vampire Nocturnus.)
Maindeck
4 Bloodghast
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Vampire Nocturnus
3 Vampire Hexmage
3 Malakir Bloodwitch
3 Duress
3 Disfigure
2 Sorin Markov
4 Sign in Blood
3 Tendrils of Corruption
2 Marsh Flats
21 Swamp
Sideboard
3 Deathmark
3 Mindsludge
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Marsh Casualties
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Malakir Bloodwitch
This deck is a blast to play and can restabilize itself the longer the game lasts with card draw in Sign in Bloods and 13 lifegain cards (Sorin, Tendrils, Malakir, and Nighthawk). It is a blast and can win. Enjoy!!!
Big fan of vampires!
ReplyDeleteSo I've been reading your site for awhile and love most of your builds. I was wondering if it was cool if posted a build if you'd give some feedback. I can do it through email if you like. I just have this build I was playing with and wanted an "expert" opinion :)
cheers
-Ryan
AIM: Ryan Raze
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteYeah...go ahead and send us an email with your deck idea and we will look it over. Thanks again for following the site.
We also sell cards and decks on ebay. So if you are looking for any cards for building a deck or just looking for a new deck, let us know.
Thanks again
Definitely. I've been eyeing the Wilt-Leaf Liege deck and the Elemental decks for some time now.
ReplyDeleteI almost bought one of those, but I opted to start putting cards together to replicate your Chandra Control deck.
Thanks again guys, always looking forward to the next article!
Ryan Raze
Have a bit of a ruling question and I feel you guys could answer.
ReplyDeleteI have a Spellstutter Sprite in play, my buddy has a Waterfront Bouncer.
He attempted to use the Bouncer's ability and I responded by playing Scion of Oona.
His belief is that the creature would still get bounced, even though it was just given Shroud since it was already targeted.
My belief is that the playing of the Oona would resolve before the Bouncers ability, thus meaning his attempt at a bounce would fail.
Can you guys help?
Ryan
When played or activated, a spell / ability looks for a target when it is cast / triggered and again when it resolves.
ReplyDeleteSo...Spellstutter Sprite is a legal target when Waterfront Bouncer's ability is activated, and the bounce ability will go on the stack. Scion of Oona is then played and placed on the stack. She resolves 1st making the Spellstutter a shrouded, untargetable creature. The Waterfront Bouncer's ability will then resolve; at resolution, the Bouncer's ability checks again for legality of targets, and since its orginal target has shroud, the ability will fizzle and do nothing.
Fantastic! That's exactly the way I was looking at it. We weren't sure how to look that up, and the fact that he's been playing longer then me trumped my ability to argue the fact.
ReplyDeleteThe other one we debated about was the following:
Enchanted Evening is in play, as is Garruk.
During my turn, I activate Garruk's second ability to generate a 4/4 Beast Creature.
In response to me playing that ability, I cast Patrician's Scorn to effectively wipe the board.
I believe that Garruk's second ability would resolve after Scorn wipes the board, giving me a 4/4 creature and a board free of everything.
His belief is that the ability would never trigger, since Garruk was effectivly destroyed before it's ability could resolve.
I think that since the ability is on the stack, and an ability has to resolve, it's like a spell hanging in limbo.
As always sir, thank you!
Garruk's ability would still resolve. You can think of a spell or an ability as a rock that's been thrown into the air. Once another spell is played on top of it, even if the second spell destroys the source of the first ability, the rock will still fall to the ground. The only thing that would prevent the beast from coming into play is if your opponent countered the ability in some way. I hope that makes sense.
ReplyDelete