Vampire Hysteria

Posted on January 16, 2011

The vampire hysteria that infected our cultural consciousness for the past few years seems to be waning, at least for the time being. True Blood is between seasons. The third Twilight film meanders its way to theaters with the unhurried inevitability of a more-terrifying Michael Myers. People are playing Pyroclasm more often, the stake in the heart of the vampire aggro deck that Eric Froelich took to the top 8 of Worlds.

But I'm not ready to say goodbye just yet. Not every Vampire in Standard got his time in the sun (heh?). For every Vampire Lacerator or Pulse Tracker that got to play in the big leagues, there's an Arrogant Bloodlord or Anowon, the Ruin Sage that never even got to the plate.

[caption id="attachment_13205" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The worst sports movie since Beer League."]

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So, for all the awesome takes on Vampire lore (Let the Right One In) overshadowed by garbage (Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant), I'm tuning the Worldwake intro deck "Fangs of the Bloodchief" with an eye towards under-appreciated gems.

The World is a Vampire

Here's the stock list (as per MTGO, which bumps the 41-card real life deck up to 60):

[cardlist]

3 Piranha Marsh

22 Swamp

1 Anowon, the Ruin Sage

2 Bloodhusk Ritualist

1 Butcher of Malakir

2 Child of Night

2 Jagwasp Swarm

3 Pulse Tracker

3 Ruthless Cullblade

2 Vampire Aristocrat

2 Vampire Nighthawk

2 Zombie Goliath

1 Brink of Disaster

1 Consume Spirit

1 Dead Reckoning

1 Diabolic Tutor

2 Feast of Blood

2 Hideous End

3 Mire's Toll

2 Rise from the Grave

1 Smother

1 Urge to Feed

[/cardlist]

I swapped out 2 Zombie Goliath, 2 Vampire Aristocrat, and 1 Consume Spirit for the much-more-Standard-legal 2 Arrogant Bloodlord, 1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief, 1 Anowan the Ruin Sage, and 1 Blood Tribute. Why those cards? Just seemed like fun.

I had to buy the Anowon, the Butcher, and the Bloodhusk Ritualists in order to build the deck on MTGO. Luckily, they cost .08, .08, and .05 tickets, respectively, so I got a playset of each for less than one ticket.

First impressions? It looks like a better deck than the other two I've worked on, in the sense that I think it could beat an average limited deck. Good removal, solid creatures, and the advantage of being one color make this the most cohesive precon I've tinkered with (although you'd have to check with Ertai's Lament to see if this hypothesis checks out).

Game One – Vampires

Ah, forced to slay my own brethren. I channel Wesley Snipes as Blade in order to get in the mood.

On the play, I mulligan six lands, Pulse Tracker into two lands, Mire's Toll, Urge to Feed, Arrogant Bloodlord, and Vampire Nighthawk. His start of Pulse Tracker, Child of Night would have me worried, but I've set up a nice 2-for-1 with my own Child blocking Pulse Tracker, while Urge to Feed takes out his unblocked man and keeps my blocker alive. Well, that's the plan – but he Disfigures my Child in response. Hrm.

I draw a land for Nighthawk, and he kills it with Feast of Blood after casting Guul Draz Vampire. I draw another Nighthawk and cast it, but he matches it with his own. I accept the trade when he attacks next turn, but he has a second Nighthawk as well. Uh-oh.

I cast Mire's Toll seeing Sign in Blood, Malakir Bloodwitch, and Guul Draz Assassin (I take the Assassin), and play my last card: Arrogant Bloodlord. He plays a couple Sign in Bloods and beats me with flyers and card advantage.

Game Two – Vampires

Alright, maybe Vampire Fever is still a pandemic. This opponent has many of the same cards as the last, with double Guul Draz Assassin, double Vampire Nighthawk, double Captivating Vampire, and a Gatekeeper of Malakir. In case you can't tell, those cards are good against me, and I have three cards in my hand I can't cast all game: Feast of Blood (all my guys are killed on sight), Butcher of Malakir, and Anowon, the Ruin Sage (I only get to four land before I lose).

I feel a little lame playing a bad version of the Casual Room Boogeyman, but I want to see how the deck plays against non-vamps, so I truck on.

Game Three – Vampires

Just kidding. But when he leads with a Swamp, I give an exasperated sigh. His turn two Ichorclaw Myr cheers me up, which is something I never thought I'd say.

I have two Children of Night by turn three, and one of them chumps when his Myr picks up a Darksteel Axe. I'm planning on playing Dead Reckoning to take out the threat, but a Vampire Nighthawk leaps into my hand and gives me a different line of play – she trades with the Myr. Contagion Clasp kills my only creature (that turn two Child of Night), and he adds to the board with a Blight Mamba. Unfortunately for him, this taps him out, so Dead Reckoning for Nighthawk kills the snake. He plays Hand of the Praetors and passes, which leaves me with an interesting decision.

I can either play Vampire Nighthawk to keep the Hand at bay, or Anowon, the Ruin Sage. The latter play means I'm taking at least five poison (with the Axe), plus whatever Infect creature he plays next turn. He also has Contagion Clasp to kill me shortly thereafter. The Nighthawk play means he only poisons me for as many Infect creatures he has in his hand, because it's unlikely he'll trade Hand for Nighthawk. While that seems safer, it doesn't put me in a position to win the game – soon, he'll have an army of creatures going to down on my poison count, and the Clasp will be the death of me.

I decide to play Anowon. He casts Corpse Cur for Blight Mamba, casts that, and attacks for three, putting me at five poison. He sacrifices the Cur to Anowon, and I draw… Feast of Blood! This lets me play Nighthawk and kill his Hand, leaving him with a board of Mamba, Axe, and Clasp.

He equips and attacks into my Deathtoucher, and opts not to regenerate. He must be out of gas, as he plays two more equipment and passes. Anowon starts the process of getting him from 15 to 0, aided by a Pulse Tracker. To add insult to injury, I cast Blood Tribute when he's at one. Best Hornet Sting ever.

Game Four – G/W Landfall

I keep an odd one: 2 Nighthawks (only run two), 2 Rise from the Graves, 3 land. Meanwhile, he mulligans to five, and plays a turn one Joraga Treespeaker. While I unload my airforce, he plays Grazing Gladeheart and Journey to Nowhere. This gives me an opening to play the two Mire's Tolls I've drawn to take out his last two cards – Oracle of Mul Daya and Genesis Wave (sweet!).

First chance I get, I Rise from the Grave his Oracle and start putting land into play. He can only muster a Khalni Heart Expedition, but I'm going two damage a turn in the air, and his Gladeheart threatens to make it all for naught. I draw blanks like Dead Reckoning (no creatures in the ‘yard) and Brink of Disaster (what a bad card!), while he rips a Rampaging Baloths. Uh-oh. I slap the enchantment on it to stop it from attacking, but he's drawing lands to make 4/4's that I can't really stop.

Sometimes even I run good well, and the top of my library happens to be Feast of Blood. I feast the Baloth, start putting lands into play from my library thanks to Oracle, and my opponent immediately concedes. His deck performed well this game… for me!

A New Dawn

Playing with Brink of Disaster was the last straw – I'm ready for changes. In order to stay away from the known-quantity Kalastria Highborn deck, I'm going to aim for a more controlling list.

-3 Mire's Toll: I want to cast my disruption early, I don't want to wait ‘til I have enough Swamps.

-3 Pulse Tracker: Fine in aggro, awful in control.

-3 Ruthless Cullblade: There are much better early plays for our deck.

-2 Feast of Blood: I worry we won't have enough creatures for this when all is said and done.

-2 Hideous End: There are better removal options in Standard.

-1 Dead Reckoning: See above. Also, recursion that doesn't cost us a draw step.

-2 Jagwasp Swarm: What is this doing here?

-1 Brink of Disaster: This card is incorrectly named. Playing it is a full-fledged disaster.

-2 Arrogant Bloodlord: There are two reasons this card doesn't have a chance, and their names are Gatekeeper of Malakir and Vampire Nighthawk. Those two three-drops do far more work than a 4/4 with a drawback, especially in a control deck. Too bad, I really like this guy.

-2 Child of Night: I was just going to cut one, but how can I choose which Child I love best?

-3 Piranha Marsh: I didn't mention it in the game logs, but this card was always messing up my curve for pretty much zero gain.

That's a lot coming out on the first pass, but we're transitioning from an unfocused Vampire-flavored mess to a Vampire-flavored mess with a plan.

+2 Duress: Far better than Mire's Toll.

+2 Inquisition of Kozilek: I like that it can hit a creature for us to Rise from the Grave. I'm not sure if it's better or worse than Duress, so I'm starting with two of each.

+4 Gatekeeper of Malakir: Simply the best Vampire in town. If you can get three black turn three, and expect to play against creatures, the Gatekeeper is a shoe in.

+3 Mind Sludge

+1 Anowon, the Ruin Sage: I really like this one-sided Abyss. If he follows a Mind Sludge or even a timely Duress, he will quickly take over the board and make any creatures your opponent draws irrelevant.

+2 Guul Draz Assassin: Sets up Gatekeeper and Anowon beautifully. Playing disruption like Inquisition makes it a little safer to level him up without fear of losing your investment.

+4 Sign in Blood: We need to draw a balance of lands, threats, disruption, and removal. Sign in Blood helps make that happen.

+1 Liliana Vess: I love me some Planeswalkers.

+2 Doom Blade: Seems like the best removal spell available, but could easily be Disfigure, Smother, or something else.

+3 Swamp: Easy swap for Piranha Marsh. Might turn into Tectonic Edge, but I worry about getting the most out of Mind Sludge and Gatekeeper.

Here's where the deck stands now:

"Team Anowon v1.0"

Lands (25)
25 Swamp

Game 5 – Blue/Black Control

I may be mischaracterizing this deck. He played Stoic Rebuttal, Grasp of Darkness, and Disperse… but also Necrogen Censor and Moriok Reaver. Regardless, I chipped away at his lifetotal with a level two Assassin and a Nighthawk, and cast Urge to Feed on his blockers, and walked away with an easy win.

Game 6 – Red/Black Infect

I knew it was gonna get interesting after my first turn Duress revealed Plague Stinger, Hand of the Praetors, World at War, Cerebral Eruption, and land. I took the Eruption, figuring the removal spells in my hand would be enough to negate Cerbral Eruption.

I cast a pair of Sign in Bloods to make sure I had plenty of gas, while he played the Stinger and the Hand (which I used Urge to Feed on). Things took a turn for the worse when he played Corpse Cur to return Hand, and I drew blanks like Doom Blade and many, many Swamps. I cast Anowon to stem the bleeding, but he was able to get me to 8 poison before the first sacrifice trigger. At this point, I have no answer to a 2/2 Plague Stinger, so if he sacrifices Corpse Cur, I straight up lose. Luckily, he sacrifices the Stinger. I play a Bloodhusk Ritualist to dump his last two cards into the ‘yard.

He rips Skithiryx! Luckily, he only has five lands, so I'm not just dead. His Hand trigger and puts me to nine poison, and I have to block with Anowon to stay alive and clear the board, save the huge dragon. Luckily, my pact with the devil stipulates that I get to run good at least once every 24 hours, so I topdeck a Gatekeeper. He draws and plays a land, and I get to Rise from the Grave the Skithityx and get in for four poison. Man, I love Rise from the Grave.

Unfortunately, my plan to beat him with his own monster is stopped by a lowly Plague Stinger. I can't attack because the 1/1 flyer will be lethal. Fearing a removal spell that will win him the game, I play another Anowon to wipe the board of non-vampires. When he draws nothing but land, he concedes.

Game 7 – Boros Bushwhacker

He kicks things off with a Goblin Guide, and I counter with Duress, seeing Lightning Bolt, Elemental Appeal, and lands. I take the Lightning Bolt, as the Nighthawk in my hand is going to be critical to keeping my life total stable. Next turn he simply plays land and attacks, and on the third turn he adds a kicked Bushwhacker. I use Urge to Feed on his Guide and take the two.

He has two Mountains and a Plains, so I'm not in danger of being Appealed. I opt for kicked Gatekeeper over Nighthawk, hoping to lure out a burn spell. Instead he plays a second Bushwhacker, which trades with the ‘keeper.

I Duress again and see he has a Journey and no way to cast the Appeal (only two red sources so far), so I take the Journey and play my Nighthawk. He summons Elite Vanguard, which poses no threat to me as I beat down with the Hawk and cast Ritualist, kicked to finally get rid of the Elemental Appeal. It trades with the Vanguard and he doesn't do anything relevant the rest of the game, while my army of 2-power Vampires nibbles him to death.

What Have I Become?

I've made a discovery, and it's quite grim. The deck is playing just fine… but it's starting to look like a generic mono-black control deck with suboptimal cards like Anowon instead of Grave Titan. It doesn't have an identity of its own. Fittingly for a deck about the undead, it has no soul.

So I go Back to Basics: what cards do I enjoy playing with? Anowon, for one. He's fun, more powerful than I expected, and not a card you see everyday in the tournament practice room. Rise from the Grave is up there, too. Maybe I have a griefer streak in me, but I love beating people with their own tools – plus, it brings back Anowon after he eats a Bolt. Bloodhusk Ritualist is also pretty cool. He's worse than Mind Sludge in terms of pure hand-destroying power, but the fact that he can attack and block makes all the difference when your opponent's hand is empty.

As long as Ritualist and Gatekeeper are in the deck, let's play up the enters-the-battlefield theme with some Grim Discoveries. I like to think of these as selective Sign in Bloods: we'll have fetch lands to ensure regular 2-for-1s, and we can pick whichever creature seems most relevant. Skinrender also seems too strong not to play in this build. Even without a critical mass of Vamps, Malakir Bloodwitch warrants an inclusion as a 2-of for her drain ability.

-1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief

-3 Mind Sludge

-1 Blood Tribute: It was a worthwhile experiment, if only to Hornet Sting someone for the win.

-2 Doom Blade: Is everyone playing black, or just everyone I play against?

-1 Diabolic Tutor: Why isn't this another Liliana yet?

-4 Sign in Blood

-10 Swamp

+4 Grim Discovery

+2 Bloodhusk Ritualist

+3 Skinrender

+2 Malakir Bloodwitch

+1 Liliana Vess

+4 Verdant Catacombs

+4 Marsh Flats

+2 Tectonic Edge

"Team Anowon v2.0"

I'm keeping the 2/2 Duress/Inquisition split, because I haven't even drawn the latter yet. More games, stat!

Game 8 – Artifact Beats

My opponent had the classic opening of Ornithopter, Vector Asp. Unfortunately, this blazing start was too much for my hand of double Bloodhusk Ritualist, double Grim Discovery (I probably should have mulliganed). To be fair, those two subpar artifact creatures had some help from a turn two Steel Overseer, and I never drew a removal spell or a good creature, or really anything except lands and Grim Discoveries. Yuck.

Game 9 – Blue/Green Ramp (Mass Polymorph?)

He has double Awakening Zone to ensure he can play whatever fat he wants, but I hold out hope that I can Bloodhusk Ritualist those fatties and use Rise from the Grave to punish him. Unfortunately, he does discard them, but they are all Eldrazi that get shuffled back in. When he gets an Eye of Ugin going, I'm squashed by a series of Ulamogs. Once again, multiple Grim Discoveries sat in my hand with no creatures in my graveyard.

I had fond memories of Grim Discovery, but now I remember why: cycling creatures. Without those, there's no guarantee I can get my guys in the graveyard, so Grim Dsicovery is almost always dead. As Daniel Day Lewis would say…

[caption id="attachment_13206" align="aligncenter" width="414" caption="That\'s a wound"]

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This was my last good idea for the Vampire deck, and it fell right on its sparkly, pouting face.

Other Adventures with the Undead

Here's where I tell you I failed. Over the course of the week, I scoured Gatherer, sifted through the message boards, and wracked my brain trying to come up with a fun, innovative, FNM-winning Vampire deck, but I just couldn't make it work. If you want to turn your Fangs of the Bloodchief deck into a competitive powerhouse on the cheap, you should probably join the crowd and play this:

"Gerry Thompson’s Vampires"

As for me, I'm hopping on the Rise from the Grave Express, and leaving Vamptown. I still want to give you something fun and new, so check this out.

This is my take on a Reanimator deck for Standard, one of my favorite archetypes of all time. It's pretty self-explanatory: use Cryptologist, Sphinx, and Liliana to put Iona or Stormtide Leviathan in your graveyard, then Rise from the Grave it into play. Duress protects your monster from removal (although Rise makes the creature Black, so Doomblade is dead anyway), and Liliana makes sure you have your pieces when you need them. There isn't much space for defensive measures, but Skinrender is one of the best cards for the role. Plus, you can Raise him from the Grave for more destruction.

Games, you say? Why sure!

Game 1 – Red/Black Vampires

I have the best start I could hope for: Turn 1 Crypologist, turn 2 level, draw, discard Stormtide Leviathan, Turn 3 level and loot again, turn 4 Skinrender his Highborn, Turn five Rise from the Grave the Leviathan. He puts up a fight, though. Gatekeeper and Bolt kill Skinrender and Crypotologist, so I'm all in on Leviathan. When he casts Act of Treason on it, knocking me to 8, I am extremely worried that he may have another Act. He doesn't, though, and I win in three swings.

Sweet, sweet vengeance against the deck that has been giving me trouble all week.

Game 2 – Blue/Red Counter-Burn

My turn one Cryptologist gets Bolted, so I play two more and they both stick. They give me multiple Sphinxes and Rise from the Graves, but no giant monsters. No matter – my opponent has a Mind Control that could have been disastrous on an Iona, and instead he gets a Sphinx to block another Sphinx (and then get Skinrendered). The only problem is that my slow clock gives him plenty of time to draw burn spells that put me 5. I cast Liliana to take out his last card (the lethal Fireball), he draws a blank, and I attack for lethal with a Sphinx, a Skinrender, and a Creeping Tar Pit.

Game 3 – Green/Red Ramp

A pair of Birds and a Harrow give him a turn three Inferno Titan, but I'm not too worried. I have double Skinrender and a Chalice to get them out early, followed by a pair of Sphinx of Lost Truths to get me back in the game. All of this goes according to plan, but after the Titan hits and a couple of burn spells, I'm down to 1 and he has no cards in hand. I cast Liliana and search up a Rise from the Grave, with the intention of grabbing Stormtide (at this point, a 2-turn clock and insurance against any haste creatures). Unfortunately, his next draw step yields a Fireball. Yowza.

After all the false-starts I had with deck ideas this week (I have another Word document full of scrapped decks and test matches, including this killer combo for extended: Amulet of Vigor; Magosi, the Waterveil; Rings of Brighthearth), I'm out of time. If you have any ideas for a sweet Anowon deck, please share in the comments; for all the hatred I'm feeling for Vampires right now, I still love that guy.

Until next time, I hope you experience the joy that is bashing with a Zombie Leviathan.

Thanks for reading,

Brad Wojceshonek

bradwoj at gmail dot com

BJWOJ on twitter

TAGS articles, constructed

Vampire Hysteria

The World is a Vampire

A New Dawn

"Team Anowon v1.0"

What Have I Become?

"Team Anowon v2.0"

Other Adventures with the Undead

"Gerry Thompson’s Vampires"

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