A while back, there was a Tribal focus on the league I am part of. I took this opportunity to build a Vampire deck. My original thought was for a Zombie deck, but my friend already had a Tribal Zombie deck built around Thraximundar and I didn't like my first Zombie deck built around Skullbriar (which means mine would have been built around Thrax as well) that I decided to go the route of Vampires.
I also decided that this was a good deck to be used as a "test deck" for a new meta. I can always pull out this deck in an unknown meta without worrying about being too overpowered. If it is too underpowered I can switch to a different deck in the next game.
The deck so far has actually played out better than expected. I am able to flood the board with vampires pretty well and while the curve is a little higher than it would be for Zombies it is still fast enough for what I want it to do. Bloodline Keeper has been an all-star in getting a bunch of vampires out. This works great with Captivating Vampire to steal creatures and Malakir Bloodwitch to drain life.
Necropolis Regent is also really good. Every time I deal damage, the creatures get counters so they deal more damage next time and then get more counters. I like if the most with Kalitas and Chancellor of the Dross to gain a bunch of life.
I plan on adding a Dark Depths once I get a FtV version. I will also add Thespian's Stage. I think it will work pretty well, especially with Vampire Hexmage to help get the token.
Lol Chandra's Ignition could be cool to pump counters on Garza. Also, those are two very appropriately-named Talismans.
Tribal Vamps, I like it!
Private Mod Note
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"It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes... Three generations of imbeciles are enough."
--Buck v Bell, 1927. This case, regarding the compulsory sterilization of inmates at mental institutions, has -- somehow -- never been overturned. Just a wee PSA for ya.
That is an interesting interaction I never thought of. It potentially wipes my board too, but it does get rid of most creatures and then I should be able to attack someone for lethal. The only hang up I have is the double red in the casting cost as my mana base is built around black mana. It is actually the reason I don't run Jace, the Mind Sculptor or Mana Drain since the double blue is inconsistent in the early game.
However, since this is more of a late game play, I think it is alright since I should be able to produce double red by that point. I am going to try to find a spot for this card and I will see how it goes.
I used to run Myriad Landscape in a lot of decks (one or two still have it) but I just never wanted it. It doesn't really fix colors since I have to get the same basic for both lands and since it comes in tapped I feel that in most cases it is just too slow. It is the reason I have been moving away from the Bounce Lands too.
In its place, and in place of a Swamp, I have added the Depths/Stage package. Since I am running Vampire Hexmage already (as hate against planeswalkers and because it is a vampire) this gives me a couple ways to cheat out a 20/20 Indestructible flyer.
I liked Calvin Schwa's suggesiton of Chandra's Ignition so I decided to make room for it. The best cut I could find was Falkenrath Noble. The main reason I had it but not Blood Artist was because the Noble flies. However, the effect just isn't that good. I have other ways to gain life and 4 mana for a 2/2 flyer is not good enough for this deck.
I don't play this deck all that often, so I wanted to highlight a few plays from last night when I finally pulled it out to play.
I started fairly slow and had a hard time getting lands. Even so, I started with 2 Talismans and a Dark Impostor and eventually got to 6 lands in play. I used this for a few rounds to exile a couple of bigger threats (though my first target was a Burnished Hart to slow that player down and to potentially ramp if I needed it).
I dropped down Drana, Liberator of Malakir and was able to swing a couple times with her and the Impostor to put counters on both. I attacked into Marath, Will of the Wild quite a few times due to a Purphoros, God of the Forge on the table and exiled Marath at least twice with the Impostor's ability so they couldn't get too many triggers from Purphoros.
Eventually, Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund cast Duplicant removing my Impostor, but I had already dropped down a Necropolis Regent to help keep me going. At the time, I had only cast those 3 creatures and with the attacks I made, Drana was a 16/16 thanks to the Regent.
Marath killed off Vela the Night-Clad and I killed off Marath with my two flyers.
So, next turn it came down to Karrthus being at 24 life and me being at some low life total. I needed to kill him next turn or find a way to survive his attack into me (I forget his board state, but it was enough to kill me even with my blockers), so I cast Mystical Tutor to see what I had in my deck. As I was searching I came across Chandra's Ignition and did the math and found I could win next turn.
I grabbed Chandra's Ignition and drew it next turn. I attacked in with my flyers (16/16 Drana and 6/5 Regent). My opponent used Maze of Ith on Drana so 6 damage made it through and 6 counters went onto Regent.
Now my opponent is at 18. Then, I cast Rakdos Charm to deal 2 damage to both of us (we each had 2 creatures). Opponent is at 16. Then, I cast Chandra's Ignition targeting Drana so he took 16 damage so I was able to kill him with exact damage as he wasn't able to stop it.
I had Malakir Bloodwitch in hand to have him lose an additional 3 life if needed (before casting Ignition obviously) but luckily I didn't need it.
I wanted to report this game as I was able to overcome quite a bit to end up winning the game with this deck and it showed a resiliency I didn't expect from this deck. This deck is meant to be the lowest power level deck I have but it came through in Spades last night
I've built this deck (with some concessions for budget), and I'm loving it. I even threw in Gargoyle Castle and Hedonist's Trove for flavour. Everyone seems to underestimate the strength of Vampires! I feel like Crypt of Agadeem could almost be a second (third?) Cabal Coffers in this deck, though.
I finally played this deck again the other night and man did it do a lot. I do't remember the entire game, but here are a couple of interesting plays (most revolved around Dark Impostor):
The first big play was a player had played Tree of Perdition fairly early (turn 5 or 6). I had a Dark Impostor out as well with mana to use it. The Tree player made the mistake of going after me with the Tree, so I exiled it in response to the activated ability. Since the Tree was no longer around, the Exchange couldn't happen and I remained at my life total. And, I ended up with a 3/3 "Tree of Perdition" of my own. I had no plans to ever use it since it was early, it was a 5 player game, and it would have kicked one player out of the game while the rest of us played on. Looking back, I should have just killed someone with it so we could play a normal 4 player game because that game dragged on forever. Eventually, the Tree player left, so I never got a chance to activate its ability.
I also exiled a Mirror Entity and a Sigil Tracer from the Sygg, River Guide player. I never used it as I never really had the mana to spend on the two abilities, but it would have been cool if I found an opportunity to do it.
At one point, the Sygg player cast Dovescape as a way to shut off our noncreature spells. My hand was mostly creatures along with a Sorin Markov. I cast Sorin into the Dovescape to get 6 Birds and then dropped down Voldaren Pariah. I transformed her right away making the Sygg player sac three creatures and then attacked to get rid of them.
Towards the end of the game, the Mizzix of the Izmagnus player cast a Jace's Archivist. Of course, I exiled it and waited on it. On the fateful turn, I Skullclamped my 3 Birds and a Saproling token I made off Druidic Satchel to draw 8 cards. I then activated Impostor/Archivist to have everyone discard their hands and draw 13. I drew into a Windfall so after casting Mana Crypt and something else, I Windfalled for 11. Karametra lost right away and Mizzix still had a couple cards in their library. Mizzix scooped at this point, but I drew into a Reforge the Soul so I could have made them lose pretty quickly as well. I had never expected to win with milling in this deck
At this point, I am still tweaking the deck and I am looking to get rid of the following cards:
I found that Blood Artists was not doing nearly enough. It is the reason I cut Noble a while back. The deck doesn't want things to die and, when they do die, the 1 life lost from each opponent is often irrelevant.
Mirko Vosk just doesn't work in a deck without a dedicated mill strategy. Even in the example above of milling an opponent, a lot of pieces had to fall together, the game had to go long enough, and Mirko Vosk still wasn't part of it. He fits the theme of being a vampire, but his ability is often irrelevant.
Bloodghast I am on the fence about. On one hand, it is great Skullclamp fodder, but on the other it doesn't do my much to end the game. It is small, it can't block, and is often not a card I want to see.
Soul Collector has never once worked. It is trying to be a "gotcha" card but it is often not worth the mana to cast it face down and then wait a turn to turn it face up. And it is small enough that it often won't get anything of value anyway.
I do want to comment on Mercury01's comment above (even though it is 7 months later): I have been looking a little closer at Crypt of Agadeem as a potentially playable card and this is probably the best deck I have for it. All the creatures I have except for 3 are black (and one shuffles the graveyard back in anyway) so I have 23-27 (depending on what I do with the creatures above) potential cards in my graveyard. If I have 4 or more creatures in the graveyard, it nets me mana. If I don't, it still taps for B so the cost of running it seems very minimal (other than coming into play tapped).
I have decided to finally cut Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker. Of the 4 cards above (all of which I want to find replacements for) it is the one that has the least utility. I added in Crypt of Agadeem in its place. Normally I would cut a land, but this deck is already taxing on the mana base since it is tough to ramp and I really just want to get rid of the cards above.
Well, after a discussion with RedPro and after a recent night playing EDH, I have decided to make some significant cuts and additions to the deck.
I have decided to try to limit the deck more so to Vampires. This means that of the 3 non-vampire creatures in the deck, I have cut 1 of them. I am still holding onto Solemn Simulacrum and Burnished Hart for now, but I would like to find a replacement for them so every creature in the deck is a Vampire. I just need ones that help me ramp early if possible and I don't want to add in a non-creature in its place as I am already down to 23 creatures (not counting the general).
The biggest change I am making is adding counter magic. I had originally liked the idea of a deck that had blue that didn't play counterspells, but Vampires are big expensive creatures and I often have a tough time against players casting counterspells since I can't really run them out of counters very well. The main issue with this approach is that the deck doesn't do well with double mana of a color that isn't black. I know I have Chandra's Ignition and Reforge the Soul as double red, but those are later game spells so it usually isn't that hard to get to double red by that point.
As for the card additions, I added the following counterspells:
Arcane Denial is in here because it draws me cards and it only requires one blue mana to cast. The others all require two blue, but are good at that they do and can cover a few different circumstances. The double blue is a concern though so I added an Island to help offset the additional requirement of double blue for the new spells.
Silumgar's Command is kind of the odd one out, but I do feel that the modes can often be relevant in EDH and I wanted to give it a try. Besides, I didn't know what other counterspell I wanted in its place as I don't like generic Counterspell and Cryptic Command, while good, would never be cast due to its intensive three blue mana requirement.
I also decided to add in Skeletal Vampire, Kindred Discovery, and Patron of the Vein as ways to make the deck more resilient. Skeletal Vampire is there to get me a creature that, over time, produces a fairly substantial army. Kindred Discovery helps keep my hand full (though it doesn't really work with the bats from Skeletal Vampire). And, Patron of the Vein gives me removal as well as a way to buff up my army of Vampires over time.
I also added in Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh because he is a Grixis Planeswalker and really good. It gives me a way to deal with my opponents and their stuff in the colors of the deck.
To make room for all these changes, I cut the following cards:
As mentioned above, Blood Artist has just been underwhelming and not really worth a slot in the deck. I don't have any way to really abuse him so he just ends up being a 0/1 Vampire for 2 mana. Kalastria Highborn is being cut for the same reason. I don't have any way to force the trigger and I often either can't pay for it or it just doesn't do enough.
Kozilek is being removed because he is not a vampire. I ultimately want to cut Solemn and Burnished Hart, but I have no idea what I want in their place. If Wizards every prints a Vampire that can get basics, that will be the slot it takes :). As for Kozilek, he is awesome, but not a Vampire. Somewhat interestingly, the first game I played after removing him, I lost due to Traumatize and Fraying Sanity. Mill is one of the best matchups with an Eldrazi in the deck, but it comes up so infrequently that I don't want to dilute the deck for it at this time.
Gatekeeper usually just sits in my hand. Having 1 player out of 3 sacrifice their worst creature almost never makes any impact. Sangromancer is often just a 3/3 flyer for 4 that might gain me some life later on. I want Vampires that impact the board more than Sangromancer does.
Bloodghast is a great creature that sticks around, but I am also cutting Skullclamp because this is basically the only card it really "works" with (though the bats from Skeletal Vampire make it a little better). As such, I feel that Bloodghast doesn't do enough in the deck. I know there are some arguments for its inclusions on its own, but I just don't feel like it is enough or what this deck wants to do.
Soul Collector has literally only ever worked once and it just took too much to get him to work. Once he is turned face up, no one blocks or attacks into him and he just eats a removal spell. Chancellor is pretty good in my opening hand to start the game at 49 life and everyone else at 37. But, later on, he takes 7 mana for a lifelink flyer. Again, he doesn't impact the board on his own so I felt it worthwhile to cut him.
Druidic Satchel is slow and I really only wanted it for the potential land ramp. But I didn't often get it to work that well so I figured it was worthwhile to cut for something else.
Corpse Dance was cut because it was often stuck in my hand. I already didn't have a high creature count and now it is a little lower so it doesn't feel that this is a deck Corpse Dance shines in. Maybe as I play a little more I will miss it, but the last couple of games I played, it did nothing.
So, the deck still might have a problem with the mana base and I may be tweaking that a little more. After making the current changes, I may need to step back and find a few more Vampire creatures to add in to get the creature count higher and then find a way to ramp or mana fix a little better to help cast some of the new counterspells. For now, I will see what these changes bring.
I didn't see any other Vampires that stood out to me, but this one did. It works well with an aggro theme, puts opponents down on life and gains me life. It seems better than Sangromancer mainly because it encourages attacking (which is what the deck wants to do) whereas Sangromancer encourages removal and discard, so I decided to give it a shot.
I was talking about tutors in general the other day with my brother-in-law and I mentioned that I have slowly been moving away from them. The context was regarding Survival of the Fittest (which I no longer run in any deck though I probably should run it in Sidisi, Brood Tyrant). This led to the discussion of this deck. Since I have added counter-magic and a few other cards, this deck feels much more powerful and resilient when I play it. In fact, even though it is still my go-to deck when playing in an unknown meta or to have a more casual game, I don't think it is as weak as it once was.
This is important because that inherent weakness of being tribal and having a 7 mana general led me to include a number of cards including Demonic Tutor. I included Vampiric Tutor on the basis of it being thematic and it is generally worse than Demonic Tutor anyway. My aversion towards tutors (specifically in black as they are unconditional) led me to the conclusion that perhaps this deck no longer needs Demonic Tutor.
So, I have cut Demonic Tutor in favor of Sanctum Seeker.
I also decided that this was a good deck to be used as a "test deck" for a new meta. I can always pull out this deck in an unknown meta without worrying about being too overpowered. If it is too underpowered I can switch to a different deck in the next game.
The decklist:
1 Garza Zol, Plague Queen
Lands
1 Badlands
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Towe
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Dark Depths
1 Diamond Valley
1 High Market
2 Island
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Mountain
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Steam Vents
1 Sunken Hollow
8 Swamp
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Unclaimed Territory
1 Underground Sea
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Volcanic Island
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Watery Grave
1 Winding Canyons
1 Arcane Denial
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Disallow
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Insidious Will
1 Mana Drain
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Silumgar's Command
1 Summary Dismissal
1 Vampiric Tutor
Sorceries
1 Ashes to Ashes
1 Chandra's Ignition
1 Damnation
1 Day's Undoing
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Painful Truths
1 Read the Bones
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Time Spiral
1 Timetwister
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
Artifacts
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Mana Crypt
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Sol Ring
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Kindred Discovery
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
Planeswalkers
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Sorin Markov
Creatures
1 Anowon, the Ruin Sage
1 Ascendant Evincar
1 Bloodline Keeper
1 Burnished Hart
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Captivating Vampire
1 Dark Impostor
1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
1 Falkenrath Aristocrat
1 Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Necropolis Regent
1 Nirkana Revenant
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Patron of the Vein
1 Skeletal Vampire
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Stromkirk Captain
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Vampire Nocturnus
1 Voldaren Pariah
The deck so far has actually played out better than expected. I am able to flood the board with vampires pretty well and while the curve is a little higher than it would be for Zombies it is still fast enough for what I want it to do. Bloodline Keeper has been an all-star in getting a bunch of vampires out. This works great with Captivating Vampire to steal creatures and Malakir Bloodwitch to drain life.
Necropolis Regent is also really good. Every time I deal damage, the creatures get counters so they deal more damage next time and then get more counters. I like if the most with Kalitas and Chancellor of the Dross to gain a bunch of life.
I plan on adding a Dark Depths once I get a FtV version. I will also add Thespian's Stage. I think it will work pretty well, especially with Vampire Hexmage to help get the token.
Tribal Vamps, I like it!
--Buck v Bell, 1927. This case, regarding the compulsory sterilization of inmates at mental institutions, has -- somehow -- never been overturned. Just a wee PSA for ya.
However, since this is more of a late game play, I think it is alright since I should be able to produce double red by that point. I am going to try to find a spot for this card and I will see how it goes.
Thanks for the suggestion
-Myriad Landscape
-Swamp
+Dark Depths
+Thespian's Stage
I used to run Myriad Landscape in a lot of decks (one or two still have it) but I just never wanted it. It doesn't really fix colors since I have to get the same basic for both lands and since it comes in tapped I feel that in most cases it is just too slow. It is the reason I have been moving away from the Bounce Lands too.
In its place, and in place of a Swamp, I have added the Depths/Stage package. Since I am running Vampire Hexmage already (as hate against planeswalkers and because it is a vampire) this gives me a couple ways to cheat out a 20/20 Indestructible flyer.
-Falkenrath Noble
+Chandra's Ignition
I liked Calvin Schwa's suggesiton of Chandra's Ignition so I decided to make room for it. The best cut I could find was Falkenrath Noble. The main reason I had it but not Blood Artist was because the Noble flies. However, the effect just isn't that good. I have other ways to gain life and 4 mana for a 2/2 flyer is not good enough for this deck.
I started fairly slow and had a hard time getting lands. Even so, I started with 2 Talismans and a Dark Impostor and eventually got to 6 lands in play. I used this for a few rounds to exile a couple of bigger threats (though my first target was a Burnished Hart to slow that player down and to potentially ramp if I needed it).
I dropped down Drana, Liberator of Malakir and was able to swing a couple times with her and the Impostor to put counters on both. I attacked into Marath, Will of the Wild quite a few times due to a Purphoros, God of the Forge on the table and exiled Marath at least twice with the Impostor's ability so they couldn't get too many triggers from Purphoros.
Eventually, Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund cast Duplicant removing my Impostor, but I had already dropped down a Necropolis Regent to help keep me going. At the time, I had only cast those 3 creatures and with the attacks I made, Drana was a 16/16 thanks to the Regent.
Marath killed off Vela the Night-Clad and I killed off Marath with my two flyers.
So, next turn it came down to Karrthus being at 24 life and me being at some low life total. I needed to kill him next turn or find a way to survive his attack into me (I forget his board state, but it was enough to kill me even with my blockers), so I cast Mystical Tutor to see what I had in my deck. As I was searching I came across Chandra's Ignition and did the math and found I could win next turn.
I grabbed Chandra's Ignition and drew it next turn. I attacked in with my flyers (16/16 Drana and 6/5 Regent). My opponent used Maze of Ith on Drana so 6 damage made it through and 6 counters went onto Regent.
Now my opponent is at 18. Then, I cast Rakdos Charm to deal 2 damage to both of us (we each had 2 creatures). Opponent is at 16. Then, I cast Chandra's Ignition targeting Drana so he took 16 damage so I was able to kill him with exact damage as he wasn't able to stop it.
I had Malakir Bloodwitch in hand to have him lose an additional 3 life if needed (before casting Ignition obviously) but luckily I didn't need it.
I wanted to report this game as I was able to overcome quite a bit to end up winning the game with this deck and it showed a resiliency I didn't expect from this deck. This deck is meant to be the lowest power level deck I have but it came through in Spades last night
The first big play was a player had played Tree of Perdition fairly early (turn 5 or 6). I had a Dark Impostor out as well with mana to use it. The Tree player made the mistake of going after me with the Tree, so I exiled it in response to the activated ability. Since the Tree was no longer around, the Exchange couldn't happen and I remained at my life total. And, I ended up with a 3/3 "Tree of Perdition" of my own. I had no plans to ever use it since it was early, it was a 5 player game, and it would have kicked one player out of the game while the rest of us played on. Looking back, I should have just killed someone with it so we could play a normal 4 player game because that game dragged on forever. Eventually, the Tree player left, so I never got a chance to activate its ability.
I also exiled a Mirror Entity and a Sigil Tracer from the Sygg, River Guide player. I never used it as I never really had the mana to spend on the two abilities, but it would have been cool if I found an opportunity to do it.
At one point, the Sygg player cast Dovescape as a way to shut off our noncreature spells. My hand was mostly creatures along with a Sorin Markov. I cast Sorin into the Dovescape to get 6 Birds and then dropped down Voldaren Pariah. I transformed her right away making the Sygg player sac three creatures and then attacked to get rid of them.
Towards the end of the game, the Mizzix of the Izmagnus player cast a Jace's Archivist. Of course, I exiled it and waited on it. On the fateful turn, I Skullclamped my 3 Birds and a Saproling token I made off Druidic Satchel to draw 8 cards. I then activated Impostor/Archivist to have everyone discard their hands and draw 13. I drew into a Windfall so after casting Mana Crypt and something else, I Windfalled for 11. Karametra lost right away and Mizzix still had a couple cards in their library. Mizzix scooped at this point, but I drew into a Reforge the Soul so I could have made them lose pretty quickly as well. I had never expected to win with milling in this deck
At this point, I am still tweaking the deck and I am looking to get rid of the following cards:
Blood Artist (which I realized I implied in a comment above that I didn't play; I don't know why I forgot I had this in the deck)
Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker
Bloodghast
Soul Collector
I found that Blood Artists was not doing nearly enough. It is the reason I cut Noble a while back. The deck doesn't want things to die and, when they do die, the 1 life lost from each opponent is often irrelevant.
Mirko Vosk just doesn't work in a deck without a dedicated mill strategy. Even in the example above of milling an opponent, a lot of pieces had to fall together, the game had to go long enough, and Mirko Vosk still wasn't part of it. He fits the theme of being a vampire, but his ability is often irrelevant.
Bloodghast I am on the fence about. On one hand, it is great Skullclamp fodder, but on the other it doesn't do my much to end the game. It is small, it can't block, and is often not a card I want to see.
Soul Collector has never once worked. It is trying to be a "gotcha" card but it is often not worth the mana to cast it face down and then wait a turn to turn it face up. And it is small enough that it often won't get anything of value anyway.
I do want to comment on Mercury01's comment above (even though it is 7 months later): I have been looking a little closer at Crypt of Agadeem as a potentially playable card and this is probably the best deck I have for it. All the creatures I have except for 3 are black (and one shuffles the graveyard back in anyway) so I have 23-27 (depending on what I do with the creatures above) potential cards in my graveyard. If I have 4 or more creatures in the graveyard, it nets me mana. If I don't, it still taps for B so the cost of running it seems very minimal (other than coming into play tapped).
I have decided to finally cut Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker. Of the 4 cards above (all of which I want to find replacements for) it is the one that has the least utility. I added in Crypt of Agadeem in its place. Normally I would cut a land, but this deck is already taxing on the mana base since it is tough to ramp and I really just want to get rid of the cards above.
- Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker
+ Crypt of Agadeem
I have decided to try to limit the deck more so to Vampires. This means that of the 3 non-vampire creatures in the deck, I have cut 1 of them. I am still holding onto Solemn Simulacrum and Burnished Hart for now, but I would like to find a replacement for them so every creature in the deck is a Vampire. I just need ones that help me ramp early if possible and I don't want to add in a non-creature in its place as I am already down to 23 creatures (not counting the general).
The biggest change I am making is adding counter magic. I had originally liked the idea of a deck that had blue that didn't play counterspells, but Vampires are big expensive creatures and I often have a tough time against players casting counterspells since I can't really run them out of counters very well. The main issue with this approach is that the deck doesn't do well with double mana of a color that isn't black. I know I have Chandra's Ignition and Reforge the Soul as double red, but those are later game spells so it usually isn't that hard to get to double red by that point.
As for the card additions, I added the following counterspells:
Arcane Denial is in here because it draws me cards and it only requires one blue mana to cast. The others all require two blue, but are good at that they do and can cover a few different circumstances. The double blue is a concern though so I added an Island to help offset the additional requirement of double blue for the new spells.
Silumgar's Command is kind of the odd one out, but I do feel that the modes can often be relevant in EDH and I wanted to give it a try. Besides, I didn't know what other counterspell I wanted in its place as I don't like generic Counterspell and Cryptic Command, while good, would never be cast due to its intensive three blue mana requirement.
I also decided to add in Skeletal Vampire, Kindred Discovery, and Patron of the Vein as ways to make the deck more resilient. Skeletal Vampire is there to get me a creature that, over time, produces a fairly substantial army. Kindred Discovery helps keep my hand full (though it doesn't really work with the bats from Skeletal Vampire). And, Patron of the Vein gives me removal as well as a way to buff up my army of Vampires over time.
I also added in Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh because he is a Grixis Planeswalker and really good. It gives me a way to deal with my opponents and their stuff in the colors of the deck.
To make room for all these changes, I cut the following cards:
As mentioned above, Blood Artist has just been underwhelming and not really worth a slot in the deck. I don't have any way to really abuse him so he just ends up being a 0/1 Vampire for 2 mana. Kalastria Highborn is being cut for the same reason. I don't have any way to force the trigger and I often either can't pay for it or it just doesn't do enough.
Kozilek is being removed because he is not a vampire. I ultimately want to cut Solemn and Burnished Hart, but I have no idea what I want in their place. If Wizards every prints a Vampire that can get basics, that will be the slot it takes :). As for Kozilek, he is awesome, but not a Vampire. Somewhat interestingly, the first game I played after removing him, I lost due to Traumatize and Fraying Sanity. Mill is one of the best matchups with an Eldrazi in the deck, but it comes up so infrequently that I don't want to dilute the deck for it at this time.
Gatekeeper usually just sits in my hand. Having 1 player out of 3 sacrifice their worst creature almost never makes any impact. Sangromancer is often just a 3/3 flyer for 4 that might gain me some life later on. I want Vampires that impact the board more than Sangromancer does.
Bloodghast is a great creature that sticks around, but I am also cutting Skullclamp because this is basically the only card it really "works" with (though the bats from Skeletal Vampire make it a little better). As such, I feel that Bloodghast doesn't do enough in the deck. I know there are some arguments for its inclusions on its own, but I just don't feel like it is enough or what this deck wants to do.
Soul Collector has literally only ever worked once and it just took too much to get him to work. Once he is turned face up, no one blocks or attacks into him and he just eats a removal spell. Chancellor is pretty good in my opening hand to start the game at 49 life and everyone else at 37. But, later on, he takes 7 mana for a lifelink flyer. Again, he doesn't impact the board on his own so I felt it worthwhile to cut him.
Druidic Satchel is slow and I really only wanted it for the potential land ramp. But I didn't often get it to work that well so I figured it was worthwhile to cut for something else.
Corpse Dance was cut because it was often stuck in my hand. I already didn't have a high creature count and now it is a little lower so it doesn't feel that this is a deck Corpse Dance shines in. Maybe as I play a little more I will miss it, but the last couple of games I played, it did nothing.
So, the deck still might have a problem with the mana base and I may be tweaking that a little more. After making the current changes, I may need to step back and find a few more Vampire creatures to add in to get the creature count higher and then find a way to ramp or mana fix a little better to help cast some of the new counterspells. For now, I will see what these changes bring.
So, to summarize, here are my changes:
CUTS
ADDS
Sanctum Seeker
I didn't see any other Vampires that stood out to me, but this one did. It works well with an aggro theme, puts opponents down on life and gains me life. It seems better than Sangromancer mainly because it encourages attacking (which is what the deck wants to do) whereas Sangromancer encourages removal and discard, so I decided to give it a shot.
I was talking about tutors in general the other day with my brother-in-law and I mentioned that I have slowly been moving away from them. The context was regarding Survival of the Fittest (which I no longer run in any deck though I probably should run it in Sidisi, Brood Tyrant). This led to the discussion of this deck. Since I have added counter-magic and a few other cards, this deck feels much more powerful and resilient when I play it. In fact, even though it is still my go-to deck when playing in an unknown meta or to have a more casual game, I don't think it is as weak as it once was.
This is important because that inherent weakness of being tribal and having a 7 mana general led me to include a number of cards including Demonic Tutor. I included Vampiric Tutor on the basis of it being thematic and it is generally worse than Demonic Tutor anyway. My aversion towards tutors (specifically in black as they are unconditional) led me to the conclusion that perhaps this deck no longer needs Demonic Tutor.
So, I have cut Demonic Tutor in favor of Sanctum Seeker.
-Demonic Tutor
+Sanctum Seeker
Unclaimed Territory
This type of deck is one that definitely wants that card. I decided to cut a Swamp for it.