With the release of Zendikar I was really hyped for the unveiling of the Vampire tribe in earnest. We'd been teased with them in M10 what with Vampire Nocturnus and the like but we were still waiting for the big release, the one that many people were claiming would mark mono-black as a major contender in Standard.

Now I'm sure you'll have read tons of articles now waxing-lyrical about the potential awesomeness of the vampire tribe so I'll get straight to the point. They win games, lots of games.

That’s because pound for pound vampires simply out match almost any other creature present, sure Steppe Lynx is powerful with lands but it never has the consistency of Vampire Lacerator, similarly blue might get the most fliers but it certainly hasn’t had anything as tasty as Vampire Nighthawk [Ed. Note: Vampire Nighthawk was the ManaNation exclusive preview card for Zendikar. Just saying. - Trick] in a long while.

What I've found to be the key to playing with mono-black vampires is to have a solid curve of cheap monsters with a bomb at the end around the five mana mark. I say this because people keep asking me why I don't run Sorin Markhov in my deck. The main reason is because he’s just too slow next to the other vampires; his +1 ability will be useful but his second ability is probably useless by the time he is dropped and his final ability will probably only be powered up when you're moving in for the killing blow. In essence, a "win more" card when it comes to vampire decks.

Now setting up the mana base was easy, after some thought I opted for a full playset of both black fetchlands: Marsh Flats and Verdant Catacomb. After that it was simply fourteen swamps bringing me to a land count of twenty two. The fetchlands help us thin out our library while also providing us with swamps that we need, the life loss is irrelevant since we’ll have won the game long before that becomes a problem.

Now I’ll run through the creatures and other spells and explain my choices.

The Creatures

• Vampire Lacerator: One of the best one-drops in Standard right now, he can muscle his way in for damage early on in the game and then act as a chump-blocker later if needed. The only creatures able to take him on in the first couple of turns are Steppe Lynx and Goblin Guide; Goblin Guide is probably tapped and attacking back while the Steppe Lynx isn't capable of trading with you since it needs lands.
• Vampire Nocturnus: This bad boy is a brilliant anchor for the deck and really propels Vampires into the competitive zone, he's very efficient too, provided his ability is switched on, even with the volume of spot-removal in Standard a 5/4 flier is still hard to deal with. One thing, watch out for red players that might be packing Lightning Bolt and/or Burst Lightning (read: all of them) the Nocturnus is easy pickings if his Unholy Strength isn’t switched on. Finally, late in the game the Nocturnus has a neat little synergy with the fetchlands as you can use one as a means to re-shuffle your deck and get another shot at getting a black card on top.
• Gatekeeper of Malakir: An edict with a body this guy is a black staple regardless of whether or not you’re running Vampires. His ability allows you to capitalize on damage in the early turns by removing potential blockers while also getting around cards that your other removal struggles to hit, typically creatures with protection (Great Sable Stag) or shroud (Wall of Denial).
• Bloodghast: When I first saw this guy I’ll be honest I didn’t really think much of him. His ability seemed rather underwhelming on a 2/1 body and to top it off he couldn't block. How wrong was I this guy is freakin' amazing! He provides you with an insurance against sweepers; something which vampires can suffer from given their fairly low toughness ratings. Also, this guys works nicely with Malakir Bloodwitch; usually giving you more bodies on the field, giving her ability more oomph.
• Vampire Hexmage: Think of this girl as a two mana sorcery which reads "Destroy target Planeswalker" seriously, this is good, incredibly good even. Don't stop there though – she does a very good job at stop other threats as well. Take a look at the new quest cards for instance, she can rip the counters right off of those too which should be seriously considered as Bloodchief Ascension and Pyromancer Ascension are deadly in the right deck and black is famous for struggling to deal with enchantments. To top all that off she also has first strike, making her very difficult to block against and trade. Many vamp decks I've seen place this card in the Sideboard but I genuinely think she has a regular place in your main sixty.
• Vampire Nighthawk: I'll put my neck out here and say this is the best vampire printed, with a body and a cost like that I'd have settled for deathtouch or lifelink but the combination is astounding. Of course, all this awesomeness comes at a cost; he generally ends up being the favorite target of all your opponents red burn and white removal such as Path to Exile and Oblivion Ring. Still this can also work to your advantage – using him as a "lightning rod" to weed out your opponent’s removal spells making it safer for things like Vampire Nocturnus. Providing he does stick around however he is one amazing creature, capable of dealing his damage relatively unmolested (there are very few cheap fliers worth playing in Standard at the moment) and is incredibly difficult for your opponent to race against.
• Malakir Bloodwitch: This is the bomb, the culmination, what could well be described as the climax of the deck (bet you’ll never see that comparison again). Oh and Baneslayer Angel, say hello to your new best friend. This card is incredibly difficult to play around, Doom Blade doesn’t work, neither does Path to Exile or Oblivion Ring/Journey To Nowhere and its toughness is too high for Lightning Bolt to bring down, nothing short of a kicked Burst Lightning is hitting this baby and even that won’t work if Vampire Nocturnus is switched on. And just in case that wasn’t enough its ability is incredible, providing the vampire deck with some reach just in case you’re running out of steam and your opponent has begun stabilizing the board. In short an incredible card that counters a lot in the current Standard metagame.

The Spells

• Doom Blade: One decision I had to make was to pack either Doom Blade or Feast of Blood. The main reason I chose Doom Blade was for the flexibility, being able to play this when your opponent begins their attack can be critical and it can be a safety net against some possible surprises your they may have. Granted if most people are playing Aggro decks in your area you may want to play feast but if people are packing plenty of board sweepers ala Day of Judgment or Pyroclasm then the blade is probably your safer bet.
• Disfigure: I loved Last Gasp and I love this even more in fact, ‘nuf said.
• Sign In Blood: This is one of the best card-drawers worth running at the moment, if we could play Esper Charm we'd probably play that but we can't so I for one am happy to settle for this. Also note the spell can be targeted so it is possibly to kill someone who is low on life.
• Mind Sludge: A control players nightmare this will pretty much read "Target play discards their hand" for the most part and given the nature of counterspells at the moment there is very little that blue can counter with save Negate. One word of caution, watch out for Swerve, the UWR control decks have been gaining popularity recently and they're likely to be packing it and yes if they back-fire the sludge you do have to discard cards equal to the number of your swamp count.

The Sideboard

Sideboards can be difficult at the moment due to people still getting comfortable with the new Standard environment, I held off writing this until I got a better idea about how the Standard metagame was shaping but it is still reasonably wide open as we speak. I can see the new Marsh Casualties being useful against white weenie decks packing Conqueror’s Pledge while Duress will be an obvious inclusion in the sideboard to combat control decks that may pop up. Other than that the aforementioned Feast of Blood might be useful against vampire mirrors while Sadistic Sacrament might be a fun card to employ against any combo decks that might pop up in your area.

And here is the deck in all its vampiric glory:

[deck author="Joseph Watson" align="center"]

Main Deck

4 Verdant Catacombs

4 Marsh Flats

14 Swamps

4 Vampire Lacerator

4 Vampire Nocturnus

4 Gatekeeper of Malakir

4 Bloodghast

4 Vampire Hexmage

4 Vampire Nighthawk

3 Malakir Bloodwitch

3 Doom Blade

3 Disfigure

3 Sign in Blood

2 Mind Sludge

Sideboard

3 Marsh Casualties

3 Sadistic Sacrament

4 Duress

3 Feast of Blood

2 Sorin Markhov[/deck]

Overall, the Vampire deck is incredibly competitive and once it gets going is very hard to stop, it's more efficient than White Weenie decks while being faster than most Jund Aggro builds.

I hoped you’ve enjoyed this article, until next time have fun and keep playing.