So as long as we’re having the party that is spoiler season, let’s blow the budget and have some fun, shall we?

Now that looks like fun.

The original Olivia Voldaren is still quite the beast at Commander tables everywhere. Her ability to feed off, and then steal, any creature on the battlefield makes her an immediate must-kill for any creature-based deck; access to black means she can make a ton of mana, so she can often grab multiple creatures a turn; plus, she’s in a tribe that has recently (thanks, really, to Innistrad in the first place) seen a whole bunch of support. Heck, Vampire Hexmage and Bloodghast often see play outside of dedicated Vampire builds, just because they’re so strong on their own.

This new one’s quite a bit different. She can kind of build her own tribe, but she has to figure out ways to deal with the card disadvantage of constant discarding. Fortunately for us, madness is a thing (that’s coming back!), and, oh, hey, look at that! She’s black again! I’ve heard—I suppose I could be wrong—that black is good at playing out of the graveyard. This build started with way more than one hundred powerful options, and the pain of cutting fantastic spells was intense.

Olivia, Mobilized for War ? Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (0)

• Lands (40)
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 1 Blighted Fen
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Drownyard Temple
• 1 Encroaching Wastes
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Graven Cairns
• 1 Homeward Path
• 1 Kher Keep
• 1 Lavaclaw Reaches
• 1 Mortuary Mire
• 1 Mystifying Maze
• 1 Rocky Tar Pit
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Tainted Peak
• 1 Tectonic Edge
• 1 Temple of Malice
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Westvale Abbey
• 2 Mountain
• 7 Swamp

• Creatures (32)
• 1 Anowon, the Ruin Sage
• 1 Asylum Visitor
• 1 Avatar of Woe
• 1 Big Game Hunter
• 1 Bloodghast
• 1 Bloodline Keeper
• 1 Cadaver Imp
• 1 Captivating Vampire
• 1 Crypt Ghast
• 1 Dark Impostor
• 1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
• 1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 1 Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1 Falkenrath Gorger
• 1 Grave Scrabbler
• 1 Incorrigible Youths
• 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1 Malakir Bloodwitch
• 1 Necropolis Regent
• 1 Nirkana Revenant
• 1 Olivia Voldaren
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Sepulchral Primordial
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Soul of Innistrad
• 1 Stromkirk Captain
• 1 Thief of Blood
• 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1 Vampire Hexmage
• 1 Vampire Nocturnus

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Liliana Vess
• 1 Sorin Markov

• Spells (25)
• 1 Call to the Netherworld
• 1 Corrupted Tombstone
• 1 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Dark Withering
• 1 Decree of Pain
• 1 Dreadbore
• 1 Dregs of Sorrow
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Hero's Downfall
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Increasing Ambition
• 1 Kolaghan's Command
• 1 Life's Finale
• 1 Mind's Eye
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Rakdos Charm
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Silence the Believers
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Syphon Mind
• 1 Tamiyo's Journal
• 1 Terminate
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Vandalblast

Buy This Deck

We’ve sacrificed theme and flavor for power and aggression here. There’s a Vampire thing, yeah, but that’s mostly because she turns stuff into Vampires, and we can then buff them up with lords, particularly Vampire Nocturnus. Really, though, we want to give our stuff haste and counters and hammer in fast. We’re going to make a lot of mana, play a lot of dudes, and mess around with our graveyard. We’ll also probably surprise some newer players with a few of these cards—“I never knew that existed,” and, “There’s a madness card for that?” will be two things you’re likely to hear playing this pile.

We have dual lands, too, and most of them come into play untapped. Olivia really wants to be on the field on turn three, and we don’t want to be stuck with a bunch of tap lands in hand at the beginning. Temple of Malice is worth it, but Dragonskull Summit and Command Tower are wonderful here. Because Crucible is around, a bunch of sacrifice-this-land-to-get-an-effect lands are here—we can just bring them back. Wee, that was fun! Westvale Abbey turns into a massive creature, and Drownyard Temple can be returned from the graveyard by itself. That’s nice when we’re looking for things to discard.

To make sure we keep some cards coming, Phyrexian Arena is the classic. It’s a worthwhile tutor target, especially early if mana is already not a problem. Syphon Mind is a great spell—three cards for 4 mana is pretty normal; plus, each opponent loses one, making it a six-for-one. The new Tamiyo’s Journal gives us Clues for each of our upkeep steps, and with enough of them, we can start finding whatever we want, while Asylum Visitor can be discarded and will sometimes grant us a card or few. Erebos, God of the Dead turns extra mana into cards. Finally, a card that was wildly popular when I first started playing EDH but I hardly see any more makes an appearance: Mind's Eye. Especially when mana really isn’t much of a problem, this card will draw us a ton of cards.

We also have a ton of huge dudes, which will be quite the problem for our opponents when they’re bigger and hasty. Drana, Liberator of Malakir hits early and grows big, while Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief kills stuff while growing bigger. Necropolis Regent flies, Sepulchral Primordial has intimidate, and Sheoldred, Whispering One has swampwalk (which is hilarious when we have Urborg out). The other nice thing is, pretty much every big creature does something silly when it enters the battlefield. Rune-Scarred Demon gives us a free Demonic Tutor, Thief of Blood does a lovely job killing opposing Planeswalkers (or just making a Vorel of the Hull Clade player sad), and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet makes it much harder for people to willingly engage in combat.

We have a few smaller Vampires plus several lords—early on, we want to play those to start building our board presence, so our Primordial or Demon or whatever, which is also a Vampire, is even bigger. Vampire Nocturnus is just awesome, but Captivating Vampire, Stromkirk Captain, and Anowon, the Ruin Sage all are pretty great, too. Malakir Bloodwitch is our Exsanguinate; it’s not going to be that effective, but it can be pretty good, and protection from white is relevant—a lot of good removal is white, and it sure blocks Angels all day. Bloodline Keeper makes a bunch more Vamps, Bloodghast is easy to discard, and Vampire Hexmage is a nice way to get rid of an enemy ’Walker.

We have a few cards with madness, including the new Incorrigible Youths and Falkenrath Gorger (which gives all our other Vampires madness—discarding them becomes much easier that way). We can also reliably throw away large creatures because we have a few ways to bring them back—a fun line of play is to cast Cadaver Imp, discard a creature with Oliva, and just bring it back with Cadaver Imp. Call to the Netherworld is good that way, too. And we can shuffle our graveyard back into our library with Elixir of Immortality or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre.

Sorin Markov is a flavor addition . . . who also happens to set an opponent’s life total to 10.

You play a land, you play a land and maybe a rock, you play Olivia, and then you lay your hand down with dudes and discards. Your threats are fast, relevant, and bigger than they should be. The nice thing is that you also have reach with the biggest threats and the Eldrazi; you rip one of those, and suddenly, the world just stops. So, be aggressive, surprising, and quick. With a 3-mana cost, this commander wants to be that way.

What do you think works well with Olivia? How would you change or build this deck? Please sound off in the comments!

Also, would it be funny or too much to use those fake vampire teeth as counters?

Enjoy the rest of Shadows over Innistrad, and I’ll hope to catch some of you at the prerelease. Look for me if you’re in the Austin, TX area!

Total cost: With Crucible of Worlds and Vesuva, let’s just say we blew past $75 with the first two cards . . .