Landscape with a Church by Jacob van Ruisdael (1640s).

Adorned Pouncer Eternalize Token Art by Slawomir Maniak.

Today's column is a look at a Strixhaven legendary creature that could be built in a few different ways. I don't mind building tribal decks, but writing a column about one of the more common tribes in our game doesn't get my creative juices flowing. I like to find interesting wrinkles to add in even if I wind up designing weird combos that aren't likely to happen and aren't easy to pull off. If you don't hit the combo, the deck can still stand up as a tribal build and play a relatively fair game. If you do hit the combo, well that's when the real fun happens!

The tribe I'm digging into today is Vampires, and our commander is Felisa, Fang of Silverquill.

This 3/2 Flying Vampire Wizard has Mentor, so when she attacks she'll put a +1/+1 counter on target attacking creature with lesser power. Those +1/+1 counters aren't just an afterthought. Whenever a nontoken creature I control dies, if it had counters on it, I get to create X 2/1 White and Black Inkling creature tokens with Flying where X is the number of counters it had on it.

Felisa can lead a Vampire deck, but there are lots of other legendary Vampires that are arguably better. Edgar Markov certainly comes to mind. I think an aristocrats style deck would also work well with Felisa at the helm, as she clearly has ways to benefit from sacrificing your creatures; those creatures just have to have counters on them. Last but certainly not least, my mind does tend to think about what sorts of combos could be built around Felisa's abilities.

Today's build is going to touch upon all of these flavors and should give you an excellent starting point for a mid-powered deck that you could play and then take in any of those directions as you learn what kind of Felisa deck you eventually want to have. Not every style of deck suits every player, and some of what I've got as my first draft might not be right for you and your playstyle.

Bloodthirsty Vampires

I could have thrown together a long list of vampires and called it a day but I'm not going to start by parading out all of the usual fanged suspects. Nobody would fault me for running Vampire Nighthawk, Gifted Aetherborn, and more of that tribe's staples, but instead I'd like to focus on Vampires that work with Felisa's abilities.

Creatures with Bloodthirst enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters if an opponent was dealt damage that turn. This means they will likely only hit the field in your second main phase, but that's not really a problem.

The +1/+1 counter theme doesn't stop with Bloodthirst - there are a lot of Vampires that care about and work with +1/+1 counters.

Some of our Vampires, like Bloodcrazed Paladin, care about creatures dying to get their counters. A bunch of our Vampires have combat damage triggers, letting them get +1/+1 counters when they do combat damage to a player. Mephidross Vampire and Necropolis Regent will give that ability to all of our creatures, and since most of them fly that could end up giving me a lot of +1/+1 counters to play with.

Small Sacrifices

I'm not going to be flushing my creatures with +1/+1 counters on them just to give me 2/1 Flying Inkling tokens. Those Inklings aren't my main plan and they aren't a defensive combat trick. Felisa's Inklings enter the battlefield tapped, so I can't just flush a big Vampire and block with a bunch of Inklings. I want sacrifice outlets that don't cost any mana. That means I want the ability to be tapped out and still be able to flush my big vampires on an end step, go to my turn, and untap with an Inkling army. I'll be running Vampires like Viscera Seer, an old standby that can let you sacrifice a creature and scry. I was able to find a few more nice, free, fanged sac outlets to throw into this list.

Bloodflow Connoisseur can sacrifice a creature and get one of those precious +1/+1 counters. Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter does it better, getting counters equal to the sacrificed creature's power. Yahenni, Undying Partisan might not get any +1/+1 counters by sacrificing another creature, but it will gain indestructible until end of turn. Instead, Yahenni will get counters when my opponents' creatures die, so it pairs nicely with boardwipes and I'm definitely running a few in this list.

More +1/+1 Counters

This deck is really going to get cranking when I'm able to put +1/+1 counters on all of my vampires at once.

Patron of the Vein lets me pop an opponent's creature when Patron enters the battlefield. When it's on the field, if an opponent's creature dies it gets exiled and each of my Vampires gets a +1/+1 counter. Cordial Vampire will give out counters whenever any creature dies, including itself. Indulgent Aristocrat might not be a free sacrifice outlet, but it can help to push out those +1/+1 counters.

Tenured Inkcaster will hand out one +1/+1 counter when it enters the battlefield, and if any of my pumped-up creatures die each of my opponents will lose a life and I'll gain a life. That might not seem like much, but it can add up. I can't see building this Silverquill deck without Shadrix Silverquill. This Elder Dragon can push out +1/+1 counters onto all of my creatures, though I'll have to choose one of this quirky Dragon's modes for an opponent as well.

Felidar Retreat can give me a 2/2 White Cat Beast creature token when I play a land, but I'm more likely to choose the second option and put a +1/+1 counter on each creature I control. Those creatures will also get vigilance. That's a strong enchantment, but the best card in this deck might be Cathars' Crusade. This powerhouse will put a +1/+1 counter on each creature I control when a creature enters the battlefield under my control.

Persist Combo

That Cathars' Crusade got me thinking. If a creature entered the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter and for some reason it also got a -1/-1 counter, those two counters cancel each other out. That means this deck is perfect for creatures with Persist. It also means this isn't going to be a "strict" tribal build, it will be a "loose" tribal Vampire deck.

When a creature with Persist dies, it comes back onto the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter. With Cathars' Crusade on the field the Persist creature will also get a +1/+1 counter. Those counters will cancel each other out, but if the Persist creature starts with a +1/+1 counter and I stack my triggers right, I can bring the Persist creature back, then make the Inkling, and as a result put another +1/+1 counter on my creature.

These aren't Vampires, but I'm in Black and I can run tutors to go get Cathars' Crusade. I'm running enough Persist creatures that there's a reasonable chance I'll hit one. The deck is chock full of cards that can benefit from this kind of a loop, and since I'll be able to create an arbitrarily large army of Inkling creature tokens, I should be well positioned to try to win the game.

Wraths and Recursion

My opponents might want to wipe the board, but if my deck is doing its thing, I should get at least a few Inklings for their trouble. I'm also interested in keeping my opponents in check, so if another player is starting to look scary, I need to be able to pull the trigger on that wrath.

Both Wrath of God and Damnation will do the trick nicely and both are in my list. Blot Out the Sky will make me some Inklings and if I'm able to put a whopping eight mana into casting this spell I'll get a noncreature, nonland permanent boardwipe. Fumigate will gain me some life and Rout has the added flexibility of being able to be cast at instant speed.

If I've got any of the following cards in hand, I might be happy to put a bunch of Vampires into my graveyard.

Putting all of the creatures, or even all the creatures from a chosen tribe, onto the battlefield is a pretty good play if the game has gone long and we've seen lots of boardwipes. I'll still have to fight for the win, but these cards pair with wraths like peanut butter and jelly.

Felisa's Crusade

I should admit that I'm definitely feeling the lack of Vampire Nighthawk and a bunch of other Vampires you see in nearly every Vampire tribal deck, but for this first draft I'm OK with straying from the well-trodden path. I think this list can play as a combo deck and should also be able to put up a good fight even if Cathars' Crusade never finds its way onto your battlefield.

Felisa's Crusade | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Felisa, Fang of Silverquill

• Creatures (34)
• 1 Bloodcrazed Paladin
• 1 Bloodflow Connoisseur
• 1 Bloodlord of Vaasgoth
• 1 Bloodrage Vampire
• 1 Bloodtracker
• 1 Cordial Vampire
• 1 Dark Impostor
• 1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 1 Drana, the Last Bloodchief
• 1 Elenda, the Dusk Rose
• 1 Indulgent Aristocrat
• 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1 Kheru Bloodsucker
• 1 Kithkin Spellduster
• 1 Knight of the Ebon Legion
• 1 Lesser Masticore
• 1 Lingering Tormentor
• 1 Malakir Cullblade
• 1 Mephidross Vampire
• 1 Mirri the Cursed
• 1 Necropolis Regent
• 1 Patron of the Vein
• 1 Puppeteer Clique
• 1 Putrid Goblin
• 1 Quag Vampires
• 1 Restless Apparition
• 1 Shadewing Laureate
• 1 Shadrix Silverquill
• 1 Tenured Inkcaster
• 1 The Haunt of Hightower
• 1 Vampire Outcasts
• 1 Viscera Seer
• 1 Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
• 1 Yahenni, Undying Partisan

• Instants (8)
• 1 Flunk
• 1 Fracture
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Plumb the Forbidden
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Teferi's Protection
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Vanishing Verse

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Blot Out the Sky
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Fumigate
• 1 Living Death
• 1 Patriarch's Bidding
• 1 Rout
• 1 Twilight's Call
• 1 Wrath of God

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Anointed Procession
• 1 Cathars' Crusade
• 1 Felidar Retreat
• 1 Intangible Virtue
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Smothering Tithe

• Artifacts (5)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Archaeomancer's Map
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Talisman of Hierarchy

• Lands (37)
• 13 Plains
• 13 Swamp
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 High Market
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Vault of Champions
• 1 Vault of the Archangel

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If you were to tune this list up for higher powered tables, I would probably push for more interaction and more of an emphasis on the combo wincon. That means tutors and recursion, along with fast mana and more card draw to really dig for those key cards. You would likely want Altar of Dementia, Blasting Station, and any other redundancy you can scrape together for this slightly convoluted combo. This is definitely not a 2-card wincon.

If you were going to tone this down, I'd simply drop the Persist creatures, replacing them with a few more vampires and maybe Mortal Combat for a fun alternative win condition. Both versions of the deck would probably be fun and capable of winning their share of games when played at the right tables.

Final Thoughts

If you're a regular reader you know how fond I am of weird, janky combos, but I also enjoy decks that will play a fair game without any crazy stuff for you to try to pull off. One might argue that as long as the plays are legal, everything is fair, but we all know that every playgroup is different and some have less of an appetite for really powerful stuff and combo wincons in their games.

I should note that I considered throwing Mirage Mirror into this list. Persist combo works really nicely with cards like Impact Tremors and other cards that aren't in Felisa's colors. If you're in a meta where you'll probably be able to turn Mirage Mirror into a copy of a permanent you can use to win if you are able to hit your combo, it might be worth including.

I was also tempted to throw in Amulet of Vigor. If you have one lying around, I think it's worth looking at. That artifact will untap your Inklings when they enter the battlefield, letting you use sacrifice outlets as a combat trick. I love combat tricks, so the ability to make a blocker out of nowhere was very tempting.

I'd definitely warn you that if you were to turn this list into a deck that absolutely had to land Cathars' Crusade in order to win, you'll be setting yourself up for some disappointing games. You might win a few, but when everyone knows you're just waiting for one card like Prossh, Skyraider of Kher waits for his Food Chain, it gets a lot harder.

If there are great cards that I missed in this list, please let me know in the comments. I generally don't look at deck techs and EDHREC until after I've posted my columns. I want my lists to be my own content, but I'm well aware that I probably miss some great stuff that way. Like every deck-builder and Commander player, I've got my deck-building blind spots and I really do love hearing from you when you can find something I've missed.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next Monday!