Finally, Innistrad: Midnight Hunt previews are here! Like a lot of people, Innistrad is probably my favorite plane and I've been very excited to get back to the classic horror setting. And while we knew Midnight Hunt would come with Werewolves because it's in the title, but we weren't sure how Vampire support we would be getting. After all, we knew Crimson Vow would focus on Vampires, so would Wizards hold them off from the first set?

The answer was an emphatic no - Innistrad has everything you thought it should have, and the new set so far looks absolutely perfect. So before we get too deep into Innistrad cards in the coming weeks, I wanted to complete the companion article to last week's Werewolves with Midnight Hunt and dig into the most crucial Vampires to keep an eye out for as Vampire decks are coming together over the next few months.

Whereas Werewolves got an entire mechanic overhaul with the new Day/Night changes - and while it's unfortunate it breaks several original Innistrad cards due to how the transform mechanic works differently between the two sets, it's undoubtedly a much cooler implementation of what they were always going for originally with Werewolves - Vampires haven't got a tribal-specific mechanic. The ones we've seen thus far from Midnight Hunt make it clear Wizards is holding the best Vampire stuff back for Crimson Vow, but we do have a few pretty cool teasers.

With that said, here are some of the best Vampire tribal cards to be on the lookout for when you're brewing with Innistrad!

I don't want to just list the most popular Vampire cards - odds are you know about most of them, so I'm going to highlight some of the neat ones that have flown more under the radar.

Vona fits that bill. While it could actually function as a commander- and a powerful one at that - it seems that most Vampires players have gone in a different direction with their commanders. But absolutely do not sleep on Vona in the 99. Seven life isn't nothing, but it's also pretty reasonable to throw away a few times in a Commander game, which would equal multiple permanents that Vona took out.

But the Ixalan Limited bomb actually goes a step further: it has lifelink itself, at four a turn. Throw in the lifegain theme among the Ixalan Vampires, and Vona quickly becomes a must-answer board leader.

There isn't some secret power with this Olivia, but I do really enjoy its set of abilities. The big returning mechanic in Shadows Over Innistrad was madness, which was pretty fun and definitely a flavorful way to convey what was happening on Innistrad at the time. In the Limited format, Olivia was the perfect enabler for madness cards, which gave her a neat niche.

That doesn't quite extend to Commander, but Olivia still has a lot of use, especially since we're seeing a renewed push toward +1/+1 counter synergies with the Vampires. I think a lot of times it's easy to pigeonhole a card like Olivia, Mobilized for War into a "discard/madness deck card," and forget that you don't have to get the perfect use out of the card to still get quite a bit of use out the card!

Because when you consider the other use cases for Olivia, where you get to pump all your creatures via discarding excess lands or most importantly utilizing Olivia as a haste enabler at the cost of just pitching a land, no extra mana required? That's an important role not filled by many other cards, much less Vampires with tribal and graveyard synergies.

The Vampire Lords

I know there are plenty of Vampire tribal cards that buff the team, from Vampire Nocturnus to Legion Lieutenant and so on, but what I really like is this subtheme of Vampire lords that have less traditional effects on the game.

Captivating Vampire is the best example. Mind Control-ing a creature is incredibly powerful, and while having five Vampires around to do it used to be a problem, Edgar Markov opened up Captivating Vampire to the world of EDH and it's just as powerful as ever as we see a new influx of Vampires.

Cordial Vampire has certainly flown under the radar since it was printed in Modern Horizons because Vampires never really got off the ground as a Modern deck. While Humans and Merfolk and Zombies and Elementals and Crabs who-knows-what-else were viable tribal Modern brews, Vampires never was and so Cordial Vampire was forgotten. But now in the context of Commander, I want to draw attention to this text: "Whenever Cordial Vampire or another creature dies." It's not just other Vampires dying that trigger it, and it's not even creatures that only you control. Any creature dying grows your Vampire team, and that's going to be huge in any new Commander brew.

Indulgent Aristocrat gets a shoutout here for being another forgotten Vampire "lord."

Sanctum Seeker and Champion of Dusk represent the other half of this alternate lord combination. They work well with a ton of Vampires, but do something more than the ol' +1/+1 plus [KEYWORD]. Champion of Dusk is an actual bomb - I've seen it take over in Constructed formats - and Sanctum Seeker has Craterhoof Behemoth-like ability to just end games on the spot. It's that good.

Another Ixalan rare long forgotten, Mavren actually got a little bit of run in Standard during her time. But if we get a chance to play White Vampires in this iteration of Innistrad, then it's time to dust off those Mavren Feins and dig out those tokens. Especially in combination with Sanctum Seeker, you can take an innocuous board and turn it deadly very quickly.

One more Ixalan block shoutout has to go to Forerunner of the Legion, which allows you to find any of the cards we've talked about so far. Sure, putting a card on top of the library is much different than putting it into your hand, but if it's good enough for Enlightened Tutor it's good enough for Forerunner of the Legion.

This one never quite delivered on its potential, as the Standard format shifted away from it and while it came in a Vampire-centric set, it wasn't really one geared at Commander. As such, Twilight Prophet kind of floated around the edges of playability, and was forgotten in many Commander decks.

But it's a must-include in any Vampire deck. The Vampire tokens you can generate make acquiring the City's Blessing trivial, and once you do the Prophet becomes a must-remove threat for your opponents. All while holding down the fort as a 2/4 flying blocker that will work wonders with your tribal synergy cards - cards that are good with synergy but powerful on their own are crucial in Commander tribal strategies.

The last one I want to highlight today, this odd Kaldheim Vampire Dragon actually puts in a lot of work in Commander, so much so I'm surprised I haven't encountered it outside of Vampire decks before. But a 3/3 flying package for four mana is good enough, and the Predator comes with two relevant abilities.

For starters, it's a free sacrifice outlet. That has value in itself, even if the Predator does not itself combo with the sacrifice in any way (outside of making itself indestructible). But sac outlets always have value in Commander, and Predator gets to do that at will.

And the first time it does, at least, it'll get even more value. Whenever it becomes tapped - whether that's by attacking or by sacrificing another creature or just crewing a vehicle - you'll get to exile a card from a graveyard. Incidental graveyard hate on a growing, flying threat that has additional utility and is indestructible half the time? Yeah, this should see more play, and Vampire decks with Innistrad are the perfect time to start.