[Note: there's another thread out there for a first vampire deck, but after looking at the cards, I've decided mine is different enough to warrant its own discussion. ~AJR]

After playing modern for a while, I'm jumping back into Standard this weekend on Game Day for Gatecrash (LGS is running a Standard event). I tried putting together an all-rat deck with Ogre Slumlord, but it didn't work out, so I've decided to give vampires a try (mostly because no one has been running them regularly). We have pro-tour qualifying events this weekend, too, so the top-tier players will be gone. I expect a smaller crowd (<15), and really want a shot at finishing top 8 to get the foil, full-art promo card.

The deck is fairly straight-forward vampire aggro. The idea is to engage as early as possible, and let the vampire buffs build things up. A central card is Stromkirk Captain, to give +1/+1 and first strike. The plan is to drop Falkenrath Marauders T5 or Markov Warlord T6 to tie things up (if it goes that far). Cards in the sideboard are other options I have available.

One question I have is the type and amount of removal to include. This is the first time I'm playing vamps, so I don't know what other card synergies might be out there.

There's also part of me that wants to include some other dual lands to splash white, so I may play Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.

What I would like from your feedback includes:

• How does the initial build look?
• Should I splash any other color? If so, which and why (what other cards do you have in mind)?
• Is the ratio of creatures to removal spells appropriate?
• Should I consider different removal options?
• What should I include in my sideboard? Would it be worth gearing the sideboard to a complete change of the deck (swap out the entire sideboard to take a different angle of attack)?

As always, your time and opinions are appreciated.[/Note: there's another thread out there for a first vampire deck, but after looking at the cards, I've decided mine is different enough to warrant its own discussion. ~AJR]

Splash white with godless shrine or Isolated Chapel for the sorin cost.

seems like it would work.

First off, Nighthawk isn't in the mainboard? Captian + Nighthawk = first strike, deathtouch, lifelink 3/4 flyer... not much can really beat that.

Second, if you're going the Markov Blademaster/Rakish Heir, I would suggest Rogue&#39;s Passage and potentially even Nightbird&#39;s Clutches (the latter would work in place of Markov Warlord).

Third, not sure I'm sold on Falkenrath Marauders as you're paying 5 for a conditional 4/4 flyer.

I'd try to cap the curve at four, as that hits Olivia, Aristocrat, Bloodline Keeper, Nocturnus, or pretty much any other creature I could imagine you wanting/needing.

I'd also toss in some Searing Spears, that little bit of burn goes a long way. Don't forget Sign in Blood either.

For Sorin, LOI... I mean I guess a few Sacred Foundries and Godless Shrines wouldn't hurt you too much.

Lastly, and this surprised me too, but Vampiric Fury can be an absolute house of a card. NOBODY sees it coming and it can totally change a game.

I know I've had fun with my build and even managed to place 3rd at an FNM with it.

Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback. The info in the other current BR Vampire thread was really helpful, too.

Okay, here are modifications I can see making right away:

-4 Murder
-2 Falkenrath Marauders
-2 Markov Warlord

+4 Pillar of Flame
+4 Vampiric Fury

I would like to bring Vampire Nighthawk back in, but am not sure what to cut to make it happen. What would you recommend?

Is it worth trying to bring Sorin in? I have access at least four BW and RW dual lands? Should I add another two drop to fix the curve?

I would consider dropping Blood Artist and Markov Blademaster and adding in some creatures that will deal more damage. I would add in Shadow Alley Denizen and Vampire Interloper. Both help with evasion and will give you some cheap vampires that can be pumped with Vampiric Fury, Stromkirk Captain or Rakish Heir.

I think that you're getting to have a few too many soft removal cards that aren't direct damage. Your attacking with first strike Vampires is almost a form of removal by itself, and I think that the current count of 16 non-creatures spells is a little high. If it was direct damage that you could instead send against your opponent I wouldn't be as concerned.

First, I would go with Searing Spear over Pillar. The number of times you need to exile the creature vs that added damage isn't that often.

Second, I don't know that I'd put Vampiric Fury as a 4x. If you draw it when you don't have any vamps on the board, you end up with a totally dead card. Also, if you hit it too often, people will come to expect it. I'd say 2x or 3x.

Third, I would say to keep the Blood Artists as they're almost always a good piece to have on the board.

Fourth, I would suggest dropping Havengul Vampire to help make room for the nighthawks. Crippling Blight could also give way for 2 Dreadbores and the other 2 of the Nighthawks.

The rationale for having more than 10 removal spells is that they'll still be working toward the goal for you because of the Blood Artists. That and eventually you will end up wearing them down if you have enough removal options.

Lastly, I would suggest keeping different removal options in the sideboard - Rolling Temblor, Devour Flesh, Ultimate Price, Murder, etc. That way you can still adjust to deal with bigger threats that are outside of burn range.

Thanks psrex and TyWooTime.

With Mizzium Mortars costing the same as Searing Spear, would it be worth using it instead? It doesn't provide direct damage to a player, but it can wipe a large collection of critters on the other side.

I'm working through the changes this evening. I'll post a bump once the decklist is updated.

UPDATE: The deck has been updated, and now I need to shape the sideboard. Here's what I have in it at the moment (at 18, need to drop 3):

2 Human Frailty
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Nightbird's Clutches
3 Murder
2 Rolling Temblor
2 Rush of Blood
3 Stab Wound
1 Sever the Bloodline

Would you recommend any specific creatures in the sideboard? Other vampires? Vexing Devil?

I ran vampires for a bit, and am running boros now.

Here's some things to consider.

First, consider what you'll be playing. I'm going to give you feedback assuming you're playing at a big enough card shop people will be running medium/good decks.

Vampiric Fury - Cool, especially since you're running tribal vampires. However. If you have board command enough that its hitting 2/3 things at once, you've probably got the game anyway. The *only* situation I see it being questionable on is if you face up against someone with a similar (as in aggro) build, and when the swings DO come, they come big. However, 4x Captains already gets you first strike. That's pretty much moneyshot right there. So, I'd say cut those.

Many people have different opinions about burn/removal. I use burn *primarily* for clearing the way for creatures, unless I am in a race. In which case I calculate the fastest damage possible and go that route (this would be vs a control deck, for instance, racing to kill before they can start wiping). I would recommend dropping searing spear to 3, and adding in 3 pillars of flame. You want these for cheap removal of annoying things, and to make sure undying stuff stays dead (zombies, reanimator decks, etc).

Cavern of Souls - You're running tribal vampires. If you have them, 4 of those bad boys.
Cut your lands to 22. You're running a fairly low curve, with not a lot of acceleration or draw.

Dreadbore - 3x in the sideboard. This is mostly for planeswalkers or really, really big creatures. You're probably screwed if you really have to remove something huge anyway. An exception to that, is consuming aberation. Make sure you sideboard the bores in if you go against someone running that for mill. Otherwise they very easily can swing at you with a 20+/20+.
Edit: If you do get an aberation dropped on you, kill it INSTANTLY. Don't wait. Every time they cast, it gets bigger and harder to kill. You can, however, nuke it before its trigger resolves (and thus grows). Say you play a kirk noble. They counterspell it. Trigger from the aberation hits the stack. In response to the trigger, you then spear it.

Sign in blood - 4x - You'll need draw. Doesn't matter what you're playing against. If you're against some crappy brew, youll probably have enough board power early on to win anyway, draw just gets you more burn, more land, more creatures, faster wins.

Sideboard:

This depends *heavily* on your meta. My FNM is 4 rounds (since they don't do a cut to top 8, as we usually have ~150 people at FNM). What that means, is for my first 2 rounds, I'm playing anything any everything from tier 1, to starter decks. As such, I'll suggest what *I* would do for sideboard. Your mileage will vary.
3x Dreadbore - Superfriends decks / Planeswalkers / one-of very deadly creatures like Gisela
4x Volcanic Strength - Board this in for anything using red.
4x Flames of the Firebrand - Mana dorks. Anything that uses Arbor Elves or Avacyn Pilgrams to ramp up. Use this to nuke their board *and* them.
4x Traitorous Blood - Midrange decks. Turn that thragtusk against them and swing with it. If it does, Big deal, you get a free 3/3 out of it.

I copied the decklist into what I would suggest here:
http://deckbox.org/sets/322021

Keep in mind, with double strike, counters go on instantly. Thats why theres 4 blademasters.
That means: Say you swing into the opponent with a blademaster. Double strike (which is the same as first strike) damage hits. +1 counter. Normal combat damage, +1 counter *again*. I have so many people ask why volcanic strength for mirror. Unblockable double strike. If they can't figure that out on the blademaster, they are beyond help. That's 7 damage the first time, 11 the second time. If you happen to pull out an heir on the second swing, its 12 damage the second time. Strongkirk captain, by comparison, is 13 damage on the second round.

Some other things: If you think you'll be facing hexproof, glaring spotlight and/or devour flesh are your only options. Remember though, bant enchantments only runs 8 hexproof guys, the other ones can be targeted just fine.

Hope this helps some!

Vincentarasin wrote: Keep in mind, with double strike, counters go on instantly. Thats why theres 4 blademasters.
That means: Say you swing into the opponent with a blademaster. Double strike (which is the same as first strike) damage hits. +1 counter. Normal combat damage, +1 counter *again*. I have so many people ask why volcanic strength for mirror. Unblockable double strike. If they can't figure that out on the blademaster, they are beyond help. That's 7 damage the first time, 11 the second time. If you happen to pull out an heir on the second swing, its 12 damage the second time. Strongkirk captain, by comparison, is 13 damage on the second round.

I had thought the Blademasters would under-perform as a 3-drop 1/1 is easy enough to get rid of (lord knows the Captains get taken out fast enough when you put them down), but I like the power it gives when paired with Rogue&#39;s Passage or Volcanic Strength. I'll pick a few up and toss them into my build to see how they do.

Good ideas!

Thanks for the help, all, and the tip on the +1/+1 counters with the Blademasters. I've been playtesting against my eldest son, who runs GW token generation with Champion of the Parish and Champion of Lambholt. It's a deck that regularly does well at events, and one I've not been able to beat (my old Krenko's Dance Party deck variants could from time to time, but that's another story). Since working in the final tips (and picking up two more Markov Blademasters), I've beaten him every time (in best two-out-of-three matches). I'm really looking forward to Saturday!--thanks, again!

The revised deck looks a lot better.

Is there a reason that you're not running the fourth Dreadbore instead of one Murder? My guess is that the second Murder could be something else instead.

What situations do you think that you might bring in Nightbird's Clutches?

psrex wrote:The revised deck looks a lot better.

Is there a reason that you're not running the fourth Dreadbore instead of one Murder? My guess is that the second Murder could be something else instead.

What situations do you think that you might bring in Nightbird's Clutches?

My limitation on Dreadbore is that I only own three (after purchasing my third at a LGS).

As to Nightbird's Clutches, I would board it in if my opponent has enough early blockers out to keep my Markov Blademaster from hitting (i.e., more blockers than I can easily remove). Because of the mechanic above detailing how first strike damage resolves before normal damage (something I knew, but never related to the counters), the first attack lands for three, the next for seven, the third for 11, the next for 15, etc. That also means it becomes harder for my opponent to remove it using some spells (e.g., Dead Weight, non-Morbid Tragic Slip)--during its first turn on the board, it ends as a 3/3, next as a 5/5, next as a 7/7, etc.

If you'll be boarding in Nightbird's Clutches primarily to get your doubler-striker through, you might be better off running two more Volcanic Strength. Volcanic Strength will give you a 3/3 or 4/4 double strike creature, which is hard to handle for any blocker aside from Tree of Redemption or something indestructible. If you can't get through because there are a lot of little blockers then Nightbird's Clutches won't help either. The additional upside to Volcanic Strength is that is also a great boon against any other red decks that you face, whether it's on a creature with double strike or not.

Anyway, it just seems that Nightbird's Clutches is highly situational, while Volcanic Strength almost fills the same role but is more generally useful.

I had some help with this deck, which is a still a work in progress, but it's pretty strong so far. There will be some substitutions soon as a few more cards come in but check this out. Out of 5 matches I'm 3/5 against some blue/black milling and a white/green extortion so far:

http://deckbox.org/sets/314371

MovieFreak4702 wrote:I had some help with this deck, which is a still a work in progress, but it's pretty strong so far. There will be some substitutions soon as a few more cards come in but check this out. Out of 5 matches I'm 3/5 against some blue/black milling and a white/green extortion so far:

http://deckbox.org/sets/314371

I'm guessing you meant to start a new thread MovieFreak4702?

Nah just figured it might garner some new ideas. Your suggestions were dynamite btw Ty. Decided to add the Reckoner in here as well to spice things up, he's doing well for me so far.

Let us know how the deck worked out today.

Sorry for the late update. We had our standard event starting just after lunch, and I stayed around for a draft afterwards--seven hours of Magic today!

The deck performed pretty well. During the first round, I was paired with one of the best players. I've played against him many times before, but have never won a full round against him. Today, the Vamps walked over him 2-0! I also got to play against my son's werewolf deck--one I've always struggled to beat. Today, we had a good round--I took it in the end (2-1), but he made me work for it.

I didn't make top four, but I did make top 8 (out of 16--I think I was fifth). Going into the third hand of the third round, I couldn't get any land. That was the only trouble I had with it today. Other matches were either very close, or had me pounding them pretty hard by turn four. My quickest losses were to a guy who was running 4x Bonfire of the Damned, and he miracled it three times over two hands.

The Falkenrath Aristocat only saw play once, when I was already prepping to swing for the win. As such, I'm thinking about dropping it entirely in favor of two Dreadbore or Mizzium Mortars in the mainboard. Both of those were very useful today.

Draft went better--I took third, and my eldest son took 1st place. He was pumped about the champion playmat. We both got the promo Firemane Avenger during each event, and one of my other boys got one during the draft--it's a beautiful card.

Today's draft was the first time I've played Boros in this block. It was quite a bit of fun. I may need to dust off my Legion Loyalist and pull something together before next week.

Thanks for all your help!