Silversmote Ghoul is likely the easiest creature to reanimate from the graveyard since Gravecrawler. Sure, Oathsworn Vampire exists, but he costs mana. I'm not really about spending things, whether it's money or mana. Then again, it does help that both Silversmote Ghoul and Oathsworn Vampire share a creature type. I guess it's time to raise some vampires from their coffin beds!

Silversmote Ghoul | Casual | James Heslip

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Indulging Patrician
• 1 Inspiring Cleric
• 2 Carrion Feeder
• 2 Lone Missionary
• 2 Oathsworn Vampire
• 4 Festering Newt
• 4 Forerunner of the Legion
• 4 Silversmote Ghoul

• Instants (4)
• 4 Village Rites

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Griffin Aerie
• 4 Hidden Stockpile

• Artifacts (6)
• 2 Bubbling Cauldron
• 4 Sylvok Lifestaff

• Lands (22)
• 12 Swamp
• 6 Plains
• 4 Evolving Wilds

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Cost: $12 at the time of publication

The Core

Regarding our life gain options, our easiest and cheapest is going to be Sylvok Lifestaff. Simply equipping Ghoul with the Lifestaff and then tributing it will trigger the end-of-turn reanimation. And because Lifestaff is an equipment, we get to keep it for additional uses later on. While it's not as good as Ghoul is in multiples, we don't have many reliable ways to search for it. So, for consistency's sake, we're playing four copies of Lifestaff as well.

The Backup

Since the focus of the deck is the simple and free resurrections of our vampires, our supporting cards need to work to take advantage of such interactions. So, most of what we're playing is either a sacrifice outlet of some kind, or something that directly benefits from the life gain and tributing we will be doing every turn.

Carrion Feeder and Bubbling Cauldron are our main continuous sacrifice enablers. While not as good as Lifestaff in most cases, Cauldron provides both a way to tribute our Ghoul, as well as a reason to do it. Sacrificing the smitten vampire to Cauldron immediately assures his revival, and nets us an easy four life. Cauldron's inclusion also allows for us to play Festering Newt. While he's decent sacrifice fodder in his own right, playing him alongside Ghoul can help close life total gaps and end the game faster.

Though not a combo deck in the traditional sense, what we're building does rely on the synergy of a specific set of cards. Because of this, we want to maximize our potential to see these cards as much as possible. Forerunner of the Legion helps in this regard. It can search up Silversmote Ghoul outright, as well as any of the singleton vampires we want to run. Even though it has a higher mana value than Lone Missionary, our Inspiring Cleric is one such example. Tutor it up as an easy way to reach that three life threshold for a turn.

I'm not actually sold on Oathsworn Vampire as much as I had hoped. Initially, I saw it as Ghouls five and six, but in practice, I'm almost never happy to see it in my hand. I feel like these two slots could easily become additional Carrion Feeder or Lone Missionary. Forerunner of the Legion allows us to run silver bullets, which could also replace Oathsworn. Inspiring Cleric, as an example, can be searched in cases where we have Ghouls in the graveyard but no way to gain enough life to bring them back.

Griffin Aerie and Hidden Stockpile are our primary payoff cards. They both work well in multiples; and, if all goes well, Ghoul and Lifestaff together will allow us to trigger both token spewers every turn. Drawing extra cards, gaining life, and producing multiple threats for free every turn makes for some powerful inevitability that's difficult to trump. If needed, the tokens themselves make for great fodder for cards like Village Rites. Stockpile also works as a sacrifice enabler that filters draws for us.

For our end game, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose is the perfect search target. If you're like me and don't want to spend close to $5 on a single card, though, then Indulging Patrician makes for a decent alternative. Usually a nice swarm of servos, griffins, and reoccurring vampires is enough to close out the match, but the reach that Vito and Patrician provide is always nice.

Playing the Deck

One of the primary weaknesses of the list is that you won't be able to block attackers as easily as you might want. Silversmote Ghoul returns tapped, and Carrion Feeder can't block at all. This being said, there should be enough life gain to help you stabilize early on until you can start producing tokens. It's possible that we need more interaction in general, but as we'll discuss later on, this is a preference that's easy to fulfill.

Because of its interaction with Hidden Stockpile, Evolving Wilds has been included instead of a dual land. Though rare, it's possible to sacrifice Wilds and make a token in cases where you don't have your Ghoul and Lifestaff engine set up.

Additional Options | Casual | James Heslip

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Blood Artist
• 1 Bloodmist Infiltrator
• 1 Bloodthirsty Aerialist
• 1 Bogbrew Witch
• 1 Cabal Therapist
• 1 Carrier Thrall
• 1 Cordial Vampire
• 1 Cruel Celebrant
• 1 Demonic Taskmaster
• 1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
• 1 Indulgent Aristocrat
• 1 Indulging Patrician
• 1 Kalastria Highborn
• 1 Knight of the Ebon Legion
• 1 Legion Lieutenant
• 1 Martyr of Dusk
• 1 Nezumi Bone-Reader
• 1 Oathsworn Vampire
• 1 Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 1 Regal Bloodlord
• 1 Smothering Abomination
• 1 Stronghold Assassin
• 1 Vampire Nighthawk
• 1 Viscera Seer

• Sorceries (2)
• 1 Board the Weatherlight
• 1 Cabal Therapy

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Etchings of the Chosen
• 1 Mind Slash

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I was actually surprised with the number of directions we could take this deck. Most of the additional options I laid out above were included because of Forerunner of the Legion. There are a large number of viable vampires we could be playing, many of which would be fine in multiples, or as simple search targets. Indulgent Aristocrat, Cordial Vampire, and Legion Lieutenant each make our Ghouls and other vamps more threatening. Aristocrat also could serve as an additional sacrifice enabler, similar to Viscera Seer. Etchings of the Chosen, while not something we can tutor for, does pretty much everything these creatures do, too.

Blood Artist and Cruel Celebrant gain life and dish out free damage. Meanwhile, Carrier Thrall and Martyr of Dusk happily give their lives for the cause in cases where Ghoul is nowhere to be found. Kalastria Highborn is more expensive than most of the cards listed, but it's very powerful here. Finally, Gatekeeper of Malakir can deal with large threats, and Vampire Nighthawk is always fun to play in a deck full of bloodsuckers.

As far as non-vampire options go, we've still got plenty. Cabal Therapy and Cabal Therapist make for additional interaction with our opponent, and they're nasty when our Ghoul combo is active. Nezumi Bone-Reader works similarly to Therapist, as does Mind Slash, but the latter also dodges creature removal.

Priest of Forgotten Gods is interesting in that her ability can pay for Ghoul's draws or Lifestaff equips while still drawing cards and removing threats. However, she does not gain life on her own, and she's best when you have multiple copies of Ghoul already. If you want to be able to kill off opposing creatures more reliably, then Stronghold Assassin might be best.

Finally, Bogbrew Witch is always an option. We're already playing Newt and Cauldron, so we wouldn't lose too much by including her. Board the Weatherlight could even be thrown in to help find her big soup pot or Lifestaff. It's just too bad it doesn't toss your extra cards into the graveyard like so many similar spells.