April 27th Deck Tech [B/R Vampires]

April 27, 2012

This week we’re going Tribal. We take a popular tribe and build around that idea.

With the Dawn of Avacyn fast approaching, let’s give a shout-out to the lords of the night. Vampires.

BR vampires is a pretty fast and straight forwards aggro setup that has good tribal synergy. I’ll first go over the deck-list I included, then go over a few notable additions that synergize well with the rest of the deck.

If you’re on a budget a fairly large portion of this decks cost is in the mana base. Luckily it’s a fairly forgiving mana base. Most cards only require one source of a give color making it easier to run with minimal color fixing. Without budget limitations we can run a full set of our dual lands. Blackcleave Cliffs is usually the superior option compared to Dragonskull Summit, our fist 3 turns are quite important, and having access to both of our colors is very beneficial.

As an aggro deck, you need a good start, and Stromkirk Noble does that wonderfully. With the most popular 1 drops in standard being human, (or a utility creature like birds) having human evasion becomes quite relevant letting you connect to start gaining counters. Even as a later drop Noble can still work in your favor. It can put your opponent in a position where they have to decide how to use their blockers, to stop Noble or some other beater.

Our tribal buffs come mostly out of two main creatures. Stromkirk Captain is our vampire lord, buffing our other vampires and giving First Strike is no minor feat. In our aggro strategy first strike means our opponent usually has to blow removal or drop expensive fatties to deal with them. Do watch out though, as soon as captain goes away his buffs go with him. This means attacking in only to have Captain hit with Vapor Snag can put your in a terrible situation if your aren’t careful. Rakish Heir is a pseudo-lord in this deck. He’s Curse of Stalked Prey just for our vampires, on a stick. While the buff isn’t instant and doesn’t give the big advantage of first strike, having Heir snagged back to your hand doesn’t completely foil your blocks, he’s just an awesome bonus for our tribe.

Now we need some big vampire bombs to win before things get too out of hand. Bloodline Keeper is our first threat, as a good flyer, he also spams out extra vampires for us every turn. Should we ever hit that 5 vampire mark he’s ready to flip and pretty much win us the game on the spot. When he flips we get at least +10 on our side of the board making it very difficult for our opponent to deal with if they don’t have a good sweeper. Olivia Voldaren is our blood-bending flying beater. She can ping down your opponent’s threats while growing larger herself, and if you can’t ping them down you can take them for your own. As a general rule of thumb, you should usually kill before you control, if Olivia leaves your side for an instant everything under her control goes back to it’s owner. Falkenrath Aristocrat is our last big finisher, a 4/1 Flyer with haste isn’t bad, but with the option to sac your creatures to make her Indestructible you’re ready to start trading up your creatures. The clause for human snack-rifice to get a +1/+1 counter doesn’t come up too often, but its handy when it does.

Our 2 drop slot is pretty vacant, and we don’t have a lot of options. Vampire Interloper has evasion, and helps us beat down, yes, you’ll do nicely. The other option that comes up pretty often is Bloodcrazed Neonate, a potentially dangerous 2 drop similar to Stromkirk Noble; unlike Noble, Neonate doesn’t have any sort of evasion and must attack each turn, this can make her more of a liability than an asset if you don’t drop it right on turn 2. Basically a waste of 2 mana and a card if there’s no way for it to get in. And since it’s attacking each turn, it can’t block except for the turn right after it gets played. I’m much happier running Stormblood Berserker, it functions very well in our aggro plan. While not a vampire it does hit hard and has a fair number of synergies with our deck. Olivia can ping our own Berserker turning it into a vampire later, and we have the option of sacrificing it to Aristocrat for +1/+1 counters later. Falkenrath Noble is our last creature, while not a 2 drop he isn’t quite a finisher, but does give us good advantage. Each combat trade is greatly in our favor, and as a 2/2 flyer he can even do some of the attacking himself. With the on command sac outlet of Aristocrat, when paired up with noble you get even more value out of each creature fed into the Indestructible machine.

As an aggro deck that needs to combo a bit to hit full strength, we need some removal. Shock is our cheapest out against small utility creatures and chump blockers. Doom Blade and Go for the Throat are our generic kill spells for bigger threats we can’t burn down or attack around. Volt Charge has a good amount of Synergy with this deck. Counters from Rakish Heir, Stromkirk Noble, Stormblood Berserker, Olivia Voldaren, or Falkenrath Aristocrat will all be good targets to proliferate. Though because each counter is situational we can’t rely on them 100%, making it difficult to recommend going all in on Proliferate.

Another powerful option for vampires is splashing White for Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. A vampire generator, and a great emblem should you require it, and a huge ult should you get there. Falkenrath Marauders can be a huge asset, it grows quickly and has evasion. With the large amount of spirit tokens flying about keeping the skies clear for this expensive vampire to start growing is a little difficult. Markov Blademaster is a card a really want to break because Double Strike can be amazing. Without any sort of evasion it’s difficult to get this card to connect, but if she can get through she does a lot of damage very quickly, getting a counter after each set of damage (first strike and normal combat damage) makes her growth and damage output quite huge. With Rakish Heir being good, Curse of Stalked Prey can be a good inclusion, more of the +1 counters effect allows you to take over games and win-more to victory. Blocker-removal such as Markov Warlord, Crossway Vampire, or Nightbird’s Clutches can open up the path to you to connect your creatures for Stalked Prey hits. You can also go in on frontloading your damage with first strike, Vampiric Fury can be a neat combat trick and big boost if you go in to Alpha Strike your enemy. with going heavy on the first strike, Markov Patrician should not be overlooked, dealing decent damage and winning you the life race through life-link she’s worth consideration.

update: post Avacyn and M13 vampires got some new toys to play with. Here’s an updated decklist.

The most notable new addition is Vampire Nocturnus. This big baddy is an awesome finisher, and encourages a very black heavy deck. To go with that idea most of our speedy red creatures go away and we drop the red burn for black removal. Murder certainly carries it’s weight as non restricted targeted removal. We also need a quick answer to turn 1 delver, and tragic slip is ready and waiting. The other awesome vampire to join the party is Batman himself, Vampire Nighthawk, a serious workhorse in our aggro deck. We also take a page from Kamikaze Zombies and run Blood Artist, giving us a total of 6 blood artist effects.

If you have any comments, concerns, recommendations, or questions about B/R vampires please post either here or on Reddit.