Today I'm going to explore how I would build a Commander deck around the new The Lost Caverns of Ixalan legendary Vampire Demon Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz.

I came close to making this a "double feature" column, with a list for Vito and a list for his buddy Clavileno, First of the Blessed. I was intrigued by the idea of focusing on the 4/3 White and Black Vampire Demon creature tokens they both create. After thinking about what I'd do, I took a good look at the precon decklist. I quickly realized my best efforts would result in a list that was way too close to what Wizards of the Coast was giving us in the "Blood Rites" Orzhov precon deck.

My take on Vito is going to focus very heavily on being able to sacrifice tokens. The reason for that is obvious when you look at what he brings to the table.

This flying Vampire Demon brings a 4/4 body to the fight, but his real value is what he does when you sacrifice permanents. The first time you sacrifice something each turn, you'll gain 2 life. The second time your opponents will each lose 2 life. The third time you'll create a 4/3 White and Black Vampire Demon creature token with flying. You'd have to reset him by having him leave the battlefield and come back if you want to get more value out of him on the same turn. Today's deck might be able to do that if all goes well, and if it doesn't you'll still have a shot at building a nice little Vampire Demon army.

The Sacrifices We Make

The first thing this deck wants to do is sacrifice permanents. I want to sacrifice a lot of permanents every turn. They don't have to be tokens, but fortunately for me, we are now firmly in the "Treasure Era" of Magic. It's hard not to play a game of Commander without seeing at least one Treasure on somebody's battlefield.

I'm in Black and White so I'm running Smothering Tithe and Revel in Riches. The former taxes my opponents for drawing cards and the latter rewards me when their creatures die. Monologue Tax, Black Market Connections, Pitiless Plunderer, Ruthless Knave, and Discerning Financier are also in the mix. Those are all, more or less, staples in my colors for creating Treasure tokens.

I'm digging deep to get as many Treasure generators as possible into today's list but I wanted to put a spotlight on Bucknard's Everfull Purse. It's a really fun little 2 mana artifact that turns into something of a mini-game. You pay a mana and roll a d4 and make Treasure tokens equal to the result. That's all well and good, but then you pass it to the player to your right! If the game goes long enough it becomes pretty interesting to see whether or not the purse keeps getting passed around, and with any luck it will eventually come back to you.

I'm also running Treasure Vault. It's not a great land, but it enters untapped, it taps for mana, and you can use it to make Treasures. You'll overpay for that privilege and you'll have to sacrifice it, but those Treasure tokens are integral to our game plan.

This deck is running a few more boardwipes than I usually run and one of them will generate a Treasure token for each nontoken creature it destroys. Blood Money is a great answer for certain boardstates and I've got a few instants in the mix that can protect my board so I'm not set back at all.

Treasures are a big part of the game plan, but I've got a few other tricks up my sleeve.

The first has become such a staple that it hardly seems worth mentioning. If Academy Manufactor is on the battlefield if I make a Treasure, I'll also make a Clue and a Food token. Those can also be sacrificed, so they all can be used to trigger Vito to gain life, drain my opponents, and create Vampire Demon creature tokens.

Way before Treasures were even a glimmer in Mark Rosewater's eye, Wizards of the Coast printed King Macar, the Gold-Cursed. He (Macar, not Mark) creates Gold artifact tokens when he untaps. He (probably both Macar and Mark) is not a huge combat threat and has no built-in evasion, but it feels wrong to not throw King Macar into the list. Hopefully there will be someone I can safely swing Magic's version of King Midas at. King Macar was added to the game in 2014, but there are two other token generators I included in this list that are worth a mention.

Eldrazi Spawn tokens first appeared in 2010's Rise of the Eldrazi, and Eldrazi Scions first showed up in the Battle for Zendikar block in 2015. Both tokens can be sacrificed to make mana. Dread Drone is a 4/1 Eldrazi Drone that creates two 0/1 Eldrazi Spawn when it enters the battlefield. I'm also running Pawn of Ulamog and Sifter of Skulls, both of which create tokens whenever another nontoken creature I control dies. The former will give me 0/1 Eldrazi Spawn and the latter will create 1/1 Eldrazi Scion creature tokens.

I've got a few other token generators and sacrifice outlets. Tokens that can be sacrificed to make mana are really perfect for Vito. Hitting the occasional turn where I'm able to get up to three sacrifice triggers will feel pretty good if I'm playing fair and tokens that make mana will go a long way towards hitting that third sacrifice. That begs the question: what if I don't play fair?

Nim Deathmantle

The easiest way to get additional Vito triggers is to combo off, and any combo involving sacrificing permanents should give me the chance to sacrifice and recur Vito so I can get a new set of triggers. Since Vito's second trigger drains my opponents for 2 life, I don't really need to worry about building a giant army of Vampire Demon tokens. By the time my army gets very large at all, my tablemates will probably all be dead.

Nim Deathmantle is an amazing little piece of equipment. When a nontoken creature I control dies I can pay four mana to return that creature to the battlefield with Nim Deathmantle equipped. This equipment gives +2/+2, intimidate, and turns the creature into a Black Zombie.

Even if I don't combo off, Nim Deathmantle may be able to help me get up to three sacrifices on a single turn if I've got a sacrifice outlet and four mana available. If I've got Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar on the field, it'll be even easier to make that happen. A creature like Skeletal Vampire creates two 1/1 Black Bat creature tokens when it enters the battlefield. Every situation will be different, but if I'm able to generate mana as I'm sacrificing creatures or creature tokens I'll be able to trigger multiple Nim Deathmantle loops and get Vito's 4/3 Vampire Demon token.

The line between killing the table and just getting a little extra value is a narrow one. If my Nim Deathmantle loop can generate any mana at all, I'll need to do some math. Any positive mana from the combo will let me bank extra mana and then start looping Vito to kill the table.

If I'm at neutral mana, so I'm making four mana and paying four mana for each loop, I'll be able to loop my sac fodder three times, loop Vito once to reset him, and then try to keep looping my sac fodder. I'll squeeze a lot of value and a bunch of token Vampire Demons out of the process, but I don't think I'll go infinite.

This deck isn't running tutors, so more often than not I'll be using Nim Deathmantle fairly. If I'm right about how well that artifact will work with Vito, it probably won't feel very fair to my tablemates. It might not be much comfort to reassure them that at least they're not dead. Anyone with decent threat assessment will kill your Nim Deathmantle before you get up to even the fairest of shenanigans.

The Birdman of Aclazotz

Not every commander lends himself to clever puns and witticisms, but Vito has flying and I keep thinking Alcatraz when I try to write Aclazotz. Vito, Birdman of Aclazotz... er... Fanatic of Aclazotz, is a more powerful Nim Deathmantle commander than many that I've built around. I know I have a weakness for that little combo piece, but unlike Mahadi, Emporium Master, Vito will just kill the table if you do it right. Mahadi will reward you with a boatload of Treasure to throw into an Exsanguinate or Torment of Hailfire, but Vito will just get the job done on his own.

Vito EDH | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Vito, Fanatic of Aclatotz

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Academy Manufactor
• 1 Bennie Bracks, Zoologist
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Carrier Thrall
• 1 Deep Gnome Terramancer
• 1 Discerning Financier
• 1 Dread Drone
• 1 Esper Sentinel
• 1 King Macar, the Gold-Cursed
• 1 Mirkwood Bats
• 1 Mondrak, Glory Dominus
• 1 Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation
• 1 Pawn of Ulamog
• 1 Pitiless Plunderer
• 1 Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 1 Ruthless Knave
• 1 Sifter of Skulls
• 1 Skeletal Vampire
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Tymna the Weaver

• Instants (15)
• 1 Anguished Unmaking
• 1 Batwing Brume
• 1 Darkness
• 1 Deadly Derision
• 1 Deadly Dispute
• 1 Despark
• 1 Disenchant
• 1 Flawless Maneuver
• 1 Inkshield
• 1 Mortify
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Teferi's Protection
• 1 Unbreakable Formation
• 1 Utter End

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Blood Money
• 1 Cut a Deal
• 1 Damn
• 1 Fumigate

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Anointed Procession
• 1 Black Market Connections
• 1 Dark Prophecy
• 1 Intangible Virtue
• 1 Monologue Tax
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Revel in Riches
• 1 Smothering Tithe
• 1 Tombstone Stairwell

• Artifacts (14)
• 1 Altar of Dementia
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Bucknard's Everfull Purse
• 1 Goldvein Pick
• 1 Nim Deathmantle
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Phyrexian Altar
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1 Traveler's Amulet
• 1 Wanderer's Twig
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1 Well of Lost Dreams

• Lands (37)
• 13 Plains
• 13 Swamp
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Brightclimb Pathway
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Shattered Sanctum
• 1 Treasure Vault
• 1 Vault of Champions

Buy This Deck Export text

If you wanted to tune this list down you'd drop out your combo pieces and you might add a few vampires. You might just pick up the Blood Rites precon deck but you'd be missing out on a lot of the sacrifice synergy that makes Vito happy.

To tune this list up I think you'd center your strategy even more around Nim Deathmantle. You might consider running Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, Butcher of Malakir and a bunch of Fleshbag Marauder type creatures. The higher in power levels you go, the more it's just fine to play an oppressive game. Sheoldred and Sheoldred, Whispering One would fit right in, along with more interaction and maybe even more boardwipes.

I don't think this commander tops out as a cEDH general, but you should be able to tune this up to high power. You'll want to load up with tutors and pull out all the stops, but even then, today's high-power tables can be very fast and very hard to win at. Vito isn't subtle, so your tablemates will know what you're aiming to do and they'll probably be happy to stop you.

Final Thoughts

This deck should give you a fun game and shouldn't be too miserable for people to play against. I'm not running a lot of oppressive cards, mostly because that just isn't my style. You can power this up pretty easily and have a deck that is stronger and less fun for casual play. Your ability to spit out 4/3 flyers will help at all levels of play. Flying blockers can fend off all sorts of big threats and can also fly over armies of elves, goblins and other ground-based creatures quite nicely.

I should point out that I leaned into combo but didn't really dig into Vito as an aristocrats style deck. Those decks sacrifice creatures to drain your opponents and gain life, so you'd see cards like Zulaport Cutthroat and Blood Artist as ways to slowly kill your tablemates. With a combo you'll kill them in an instant, but when you pair Vito with Nim Deathmantle you don't really need a lot of extra aristocrats cards. He pretty much does everything you need to win the game.

As I close out I should admit that I do feel like this list could use some tutors. There's nothing wrong with running ways to search out answers or combo pieces, but my first drafts often tend to gravitate towards lower powered play patterns. I could easily see myself playing this list and tuning it up with tutors as I saw what worked and what didn't seem to work very well. You drop out the cards that aren't pulling their weight, throw in a tutor or two, and the deck should get better as a result.

However you build Vito, I think it's exciting that we've got a bunch of new Vampire legends to play with. Edgar Markov is probably the go-to commander for anyone wanting to build the most powerful Vampire deck possible, but it's fun to explore other options and some of them are pretty intriguing.

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