[Standard] Mono Black Vampires

[Occultist]

->Here<- is my take on a Mono Black aggressive deck utilizing the Vampire tribal.
Thoughts are welcome...

[Frimmel]

Played a version available below at FNM last night. Total mess. Reflector Mage and Spell Queller and that new spirit that sacs to give indestructible lost one but just crushed me in the next two. Only one the first as it dragged out. Mono red burn just couldn't keep up. Then won a game against a bad Ulamog deck and then lost two in a row to Ulamog hitting the table. Couldn't keep any creatures on the board. Declaration in Stone two for ones you constantly and the clues don't really take the sting off. Eff Reflector Mage. The U/W spirits will be a thing going forward. Or Bant spirits splashing Collected Company and Tireless Tracker. But the Spirits have lots of synergies and values. Vampires don't.

There is a cost to all the vamp abilities and the zombie stuff doesn't really act on your opponent either. At this point in Standard you're playing white/u in some way shape or form or you're losing. The only other deck doing anything was B/W control deck with Languish, Grasp of Darkness, and Anquished Unmaking.

You might do better with the read the bones and lifelink one drops than I did but I think you'll still have a hard time keeping enough creatures on the board to flip the Pariah.

[Frimmel]

This is the deck that got crushed: https://deck.tk/6RfS6QVE

Maybe it could have been played better but...

[Occultist]

Probably gonna drop 1x Twins of maurer Estate, 1x Voldaren Pariah, 2x Drana, Liberator of Malakir, to maindeck 4x Duress, then. The rest of the creature base should still be potent enough...

[Frimmel]

Some kind of disruption and not just removal is probably a must. I don't know that I'd give up the Dranas though. Her and the Pariahs are the strongest cards I think. You might be better cutting down on some of the other one drops for Duress. Like drop twins, one aristocrat, one cutthroat and an alms for the Duress. I only have the one and would've included more if I'd had them. To many of those white critters about with First strike.

[Occultist]

I've adjusted the deck to be a better matchup against what you seem to be facing the most. It's trickier now and uses less flashy cards, but it should work...

[KouriNick]

Transgress the Mind out of the sideboard should help against Bant. Lets you take Collected Company or a Spell Queller. Defeat also kills Spell Queller and Reflector Mage, but since you're in mono black, Grasp of Darkness is pretty much strictly better (maybe swap 2 murder for 2 Grasp since its 1 mana cheaper, and keep the extras in the sideboard).

Infinite Obliterations seems decent from the sideboard as well, naming whatever gives you the biggest problem (Queller, Reflector Mage, Ulamog).

It's sad, because in pretty much any other standard, Vampires would be really good, but with Bant Company around it really limits the number of playable decks. If you want to compete, you have to be able to compete with Bant, which means being ready to stop Reflector Mage, Spell Queller and Slyvan Advocate. Removal hits all these, and Transgress the Mind hits CoCo. This is why Black Control is doing okay still, because it's able to hit all the key cards of Bant.

Since the vampire deck is more aggressive, you'll have to adapt to give it some of the benefits of Black Control. Voldaren Pariah seems like the best place to start, since flipping it "should" clear your opponents board and leave you with a 6/5 flyer. However, as Frimmel mentioned, with Reflector Mage it makes it a challenge to flip.

Maybe run a playset of Call the Bloodline? Since pretty much all your creatures have madness, you can still fill your board, and when a Pariah does land, you can just sac tokens for it. Something to think about.

Hope you found this helpful! Good luck and Happy Hunting

[Frimmel]

Any kind of token strat just sees Declaration in Stone from the sideboard if isn't already mainboard removal. (That's the thing that wrecks any zombie ideas with cryptbreaker, Dark Salvation, Gisa's Bidding, Lilliana, the last hope.)

The thing with Call the Bloodline and Cryptbreaker is you're just papering over the better value of the W/U/G stuff. You have to have the madness thing going or you're even more behind in card advantage to CoCo, Reflector Mage, Spell Queller, and Duskwatch Recruiter. Don't forget all the looking out for each other you get with Rattlechains and Selfless Spirit (Planar Outburst, sac it.) The recursion for zombies or zombie/vampires just isn't there either really.

Where I'd get stuck is having to cast the Voldaren Pariah for full cost since my discard outlets like Heir of Falkenrath and Stromkirk Condemned had been removed. Or I'd want to use two modes on Collective Brutality and not have enough mana to cast the madness card I was discarding or not having a madness card. So you get stuck holding on to the Collective Brutality and there's Thalia's Lieutenant.

I'd tried B/R vampires on the Tuesday tourney and found myself constantly casting Bloodhall Priest with cards in hand negating the only vampire with a "enters the battlefield" effect.

Madness Vampires and zombies really look like a dead end except in SOI block only formats.

[Occultist]

Considering I'm brewing two different decks, actually (Mono Black Vampires and U/B Zombies), do you think it would be better to mainboard against <U/W Spirit - whatever> thing in general, or is it store frequent specific? Haven't played sanctioned in the last couple of months...

[Frimmel]

You might not see it in your store but I have yet to see a Port Town or Prairie Stream and not see Reflector Mage. It is a really good card. Borderline Broken really. Spell Queller is the best of the counterspell creatures.

Ulamog's Nullifier and Mystic Snake are both four CMC with the nullifier needing cards from exile and the snake having a stiffer color requirement. 60% of the first post Moon big tourney was Bant Coco running Reflector and Queller.

You have to have a plan for it.

[skeri]

I run a B/R vampires deck at my shop and so far it does very well. I usually place top 8 with it but I do have problems with Languish, Spell Queller, and my least favorite... Reflector Mage. However, this deck is usually aggressive enough to overwhelm most opponents before turn 6 which is about when those U/W decks get hopelessly nasty. My sideboard usually is able to deal with problems pretty efficiently. I use Magmatic Chasm and biting rain specifically for token decks which are popular at my particular shop, but you could throw alms of the vein or dead weight and a few more copies of sinister concoction in there for more removal. Most people don't have destroy enchantment spells at tournaments right now. If you can be super fast with them the vampires can really have some teeth.

https://deckstats.net/decks/63728/475179-skeri-s-vampires/en

[Occultist]

My current Mono-Black Vampires (Standard) ->brew<- 

Comments and ideas to improve are welcome.