[Casual] Vampires

[Davõr]

Vampires

The idea here is to build up vamps that can deal massive damage to a player, while bypassing (or demolishing) their defenses and healing you. Every time a vamp succeeds in this they gain buffs. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.


I am also fairly new to deck building so any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[Flarezium]

Unless you have a deck made specifically to have a ton of cards in your library(Battle of Wits), then you don't want more than the minimum number of cards in your deck for the format.

Take a look at my friends Vamp deck: http://deckstats.net/decks/39306/307368-blackflagon-s-current-vampire. It is considerably more consistent in what it can do. Cutting to 60 takes time and decision making, but your deck will be far better than if you were even a few over. I could offer further suggestions if you want, but I'll give you the option to look it over yourself.

[Davõr]

Yes, I was actually in the process of thinning it out a lot (I simply added the cards I liked in varying amounts with the plan to simplify it later) but I had to leave suddenly. So I just saved it as it was, in a very prototype stage. XD

But thanks, and I will check out your friend's deck and possibly ask for suggestions once I edit it a bit!

[G. Moto]

I understand that you are probably in the process of trimming this deck down but let me offer a few suggestions: 1. Play cards that give your creatures first-strike, lifelink, deathtouch, intimidate, and flying. These five effects are what make vampire decks the most dangerous things around. This is because they naturally augment the effects that vampires are capable of. 2. playing cards that deal damage while restoring health for low mana are quite useful as well. 3. make your creatures trample as well if you want to keep the damage growth going.

[Davõr]

I understand that you are probably in the process of trimming this deck down but let me offer a few suggestions: 1. Play cards that give your creatures first-strike, lifelink, deathtouch, intimidate, and flying. These five effects are what make vampire decks the most dangerous things around. This is because they naturally augment the effects that vampires are capable of. 2. playing cards that deal damage while restoring health for low mana are quite useful as well. 3. make your creatures trample as well if you want to keep the damage growth going.

Yes I am definitely in the process of trimming it down, and actually working on your first couple points (school just cuts my available time down a lot.) As for your third point, do you have any suggestions on cards?

[Davõr]

So I have gotten the deck down to 78 cards, but I am not sure where to go from here...

Any suggestions on which specific cards to remove, add, or swap out would be a huge help right now!

[G. Moto]

cards such as last kiss, Pharika's cure and any other low-drop double mana cards that have similar effects. I have a B/R vampire deck and are in the process of building a W/B deck as well. Also cards that have convoke such as covenant of blood, eternal thirst would be excellent additions as well.

[Davõr]

Ah thanks moto! I actually meant to put eternal thirst on the list... I just kept forgetting about the cards i already own XD

For this specific deck i am trying to stay away from convoke (ill use them in one of my upcoming decks)

but ill look into the others:)

[Davõr]

So i added a couple of your suggested cards, but now im up to 83 cards and no clue what to trim down XD

[Drunk Cynic]

In aiming for 60 cards, head closer to 22 lands, 20 creatures, and 18 spells. Weight your spells by what they do: damage, life loss, combat tricks, enchantments, etc.

Start by taking out everything with a Converted Mana cost greater than 4.
From there, prioritize you're cards with converted mana cost 2 down to twelve cards.
Fill back in with prioritized options for those greater than 4. It is around turn 6 the match should be near to decided.

Consider heading towards a deck full of cheap creatures and life loss/gain effects that feed into the interaction of Sanguine  Bond and Exquisite Blood.

[Flarezium]

If I had to shave your current list down to 60, I'd remove the following cards:

2 Curse of Death's Hold, 2 Blood Tribute, 1 Cover of Darkness, 2 Eternal Thirst, 1 Exquisite Blood, 1 Sanguine Bond, 2 Falkenrath Noble, 1 Pharika's Cure, 1 Mephidross Vampire, 1 Markov Warlord, 1 Stab Wound, 2 Sangromancer, 2 Sorin's Vengeance, 1 Kalastria Highborn, 1 Last Kiss, 1 Stromkirk Noble, 1 Malakir Bloodwitch.

In addition I would add and remove a few more cards if I had the chance. For example I'd increase the number of hawks and captains to 4, these are your key vampires definitely want a playset of each. I'd up the land count to 22 and add a few more duals like Tainted Peak and Blood Crypt. I also really like Read the Bones. Also look out for Drana, LIberator of Malakir, Defiant Bloodlord, and Bloodbond Vampire from the new set.

It seems quite a bit of your deck is based around interactions with Exquisite Blood/Sanguine Bond and gaining/opponents losing life instead of the typical vampire tribal theme. In this case you could do things a bit differently, like remove some of the beatdown creatures and keep Pharika's Cure and Blood Tribute in and add creatures that interact with life totals like Blood Artist, more Dark Rituals, Draw, and Tutors(if you can afford them ).

[G. Moto]

If you're looking to trim this deck down then focus on a deck focus. Either make the majority of the deck creatures or spells. If you want to focus on the creatures then have plenty of spells that give them mid-combat abilities (instances and sorceries mostly). If you want to focus more on the spell aspect of the deck then you can still keep your enchantments just make sure you have plenty of graveyard recursion for your creatures.  Depending on which strategy you go by you can always side deck the other 15 cards not being used. That way you technically have one deck that could work like two once you rearrange the cards a little). Just play what feels natural and then tweak it as you go along. Also personally i always build my decks with the max being 75 cards so don't feel bad if your deck seems a little large (that's what the sideboard is for).

[ShockWaveSweeper]

Lord of Lineage Transforms from Bloodline Keeper, which is the side that has its mana cost on it

[G. Moto]

The side that says "transform" is the original version of the creature, Werewolf cards are of a similar fashion with the day crest being their normal forms and the night being their transformed states.

[Davõr]

Thanks for the suggestions guys! With the release of BfZ I've been working on other decks, while watching out for ones for this one. The current build I have is pretty dam great so I will update this list pretty soon to match.

I played a casual game with a friend who hadn't played in a long time. I pulled out a swamp, then dark ritual, and had Drana out on T1... It was the most disgusting game I ever played O_o