pie chart

Edgar Markov - Blood on the Table [EDH]

Commander / EDH Midrange Multiplayer RBW (Mardu) Tokens

Ahdor


Sideboard


Maybeboard


Blood on the Table with Edgar Markov

Welcome to the description of my first deck ever!
Its core is based on the 2017 vampire tribe commander deck "Vampiric Bloodlust".
Edgar Markov has several advantages you could catch on and build a deck arround. For my first try, I decided to go for a full vampire tribal deck.

The main deck contains the 100 cards which represent the deck.
In the sideboard, there are cards which needs to be evaluated and tested. For example cards from new sets, or mentioned cards from the comment section bellow will be listed here.
Finally, the maybeboard is a place for all the cards which nearly made it, but felt short and had to get cut in the end. Some of them will even be mentioned in the 'Reserve Army - Maybeboard and Honorable Mentions' section.

In the history of EDH, there was barely an opportunity, to play the aggro game in a reasonable way. With Edgar Markov as our commander, that is no longer the case and playing the aggro game is a valid shot to win casual friday night and kitchentable games of magic.

However I decided to don't go full aggro. I like a midrange approach way more. Be aware, that this is not Edgar Markov's full potential.
If you want to go all out and play him the most strongest and efficient way possible, you should exchange a lot of the 4 mana and upwards cards with mana wise cheap vampires. This way, you can swarm the enemy way better and much more consistent then with my current list.
Now that we are on the same page... you are still here? Good. Perfect! Then let's get right into my Gameplan!

The strategy of this deck is really straight forward.
Basically, we try to flood the board with vampires and tokens, like Bloodline Keeper  , Elenda, the Dusk Rose and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet.
We keep buffing them with lord- and anthem-effects like Lord of Lineage   and Vampire Nocturnus.
With such a quickly growing army of bloodsuckers, we can catch our opponents more often than once by suprise.
To round things out, we got some removal options like Anguished Unmaking and Austere Command, some protection with Teferi's Protection and some massive card draw and ramp opportunitys with Necropotence, Smothering Tithe & Bolas's Citadel, in order to survive untill we can get to the point to win the match.

We have to be careful though, when we are about to start making enemies. If too many people concentrate on focusing us, they can easily take us down. Especially many board wipes and single targeted removal on our vampire lords can really hurt us.
In order to avoid such situations, we should try to pick only one enemy a time. Let us try to take one opponent down, and after that, we pick another one.
This way, we avoid getting too much hate of the whole table at once. So, if we manage to go the full distance, create a giant board or pull off a strong Combo, we still going to attack everyone for sure.
But until we make it there, we should try to stick to the shadows as much as we can, like a true vampire.
That's easier said than done though, because we also have to get a feeling for the time we have to turn against the whole table and swing all out with our army.
It may take some games, before we get the grip on it, but it can be so satisfying, when we take down even multiple opponents all with one big attack.

With that being said and out of the way, let's jump right into the different categories of this deck!

The most important plan is to raise an army of vampires under Edgar's leadership. To do this, we want some token generators beside our normal vampires, because that's the best way to create a huge board filled up with creatures.

Edgar Markov

Show

Bloodline Keeper   /   Lord of Lineage  

Show

Elenda, the Dusk Rose

Show

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

Show

Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle

Show

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Show

Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Show

Just creating an army of Vampires isn't enough though. Since the evil never sleeps, we will have to make our bloodsuckers even stronger, through addiional effects.

Edgar Markov

Show

Bloodline Keeper   /   Lord of Lineage  

Show

Captivating Vampire

Show

Cordial Vampire

Show

Drana, Liberator of Malakir

Show

Indulgent Aristocrat

Show

Legion Lieutenant

Show

Mirror Entity

Show

Patron of the Vein

Show

Purphoros, God of the Forge

Show

Stromkirk Captain

Show

Vampire Nocturnus

Show

Eldrazi Monument

Show

Vanquisher's Banner

Show

Etchings of the Chosen

Show

Shared Animosity

Show

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Show

Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Show

Vault of the Archangel

Show

If our enemys are able to summon stronger creatures then us, we will need have some tools to deal with them. Because we are playing Commander, we probably also want to remove some enchantments, artifacts or Planeswalkers.

Single Target Removal Effects

Dark Impostor

Show

Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief

Show

Olivia Voldaren

Show

Patron of the Vein

Show

Vona, Butcher of Magan

Show

Anguished Unmaking

Show

Chaos Warp

Show

Despark

Show

Generous Gift

Show

Path to Exile

Show

Swords to Plowshares

Show

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Show

Board Wipes Effects

Austere Command

Show

Some of our vampires are really powerfull, which is why we don't want them to leave the battlefield too fast. That's why we run at least a few cards to protect and save them from pesty single target or board wipe removal.

Eldrazi Monument

Show

Etchings of the Chosen

Show

Teferi's Protection

Show

For the most time, vampires got a lot of (dirty) tricks up in their sleeves. The same goes for the cards in our sleeves, too.

Captivating Vampire

Show

Dark Impostor

Show

Gifted Aetherborn

Show

Nighthawk Scavenger

Show

Olivia Voldaren

Show

Vampire Nighthawk

Show

Vampire of the Dire Moon

Show

Yahenni, Undying Partisan

Show

Anointed Procession

Show

Cover of Darkness

Show

Reconnaissance

Show

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Show

Cavern of Souls

Show

Like a true vampire, we can also gain life by drain some out of our opponents. This may be an alternative win condition, if building our army of undead flying vampires goes wrong. Even if that won't work, at least we will be able to stay alive for longer.

Blood Artist

Show

Cruel Celebrant

Show

Malakir Bloodwitch

Show

Purphoros, God of the Forge

Show

Sanctum Seeker

Show

Twilight Prophet

Show

Bolas's Citadel

Show

Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Show
In case we can't get our army up fast enough, we will also need some abilities to disturbance and slow down our opponents.

Erebos, God of the Dead

Show

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

Show

Patron of the Vein

Show

Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Show

Bojuka Bog

Show

In order to be able to refill our hand with new stuff and make sure we won't run out of gas, we will need some card draw, card advantage and a little bit card selection. This includes raw card draw aswell as scry, tutors and other deck manipulating cards. Bring back creatures from our graveyard to our hand or even to the battlefield will also be part of this section.

Card Draw

Erebos, God of the Dead

Show

Species Specialist

Show

Twilight Prophet

Show

Herald's Horn

Show

Sensei's Divining Top

Show

Skullclamp

Show

Vanquisher's Banner

Show

Greed

Show

Necropotence

Show

Scry

Bolas's Citadel

Show

Sensei's Divining Top

Show

Path of Ancestry

Show

Tutor

Forerunner of the Legion

Show

Vampiric Tutor

Show

Demonic Tutor

Show

Bring Creatures back from the Graveyard

Nullpriest of Oblivion

Show

Phyrexian Reclamation

Show

Volrath's Stronghold

Show

To be able to cast all those vampires and effects, we need some ramp in the deck aswell.

Ramp

Arcane Signet

Show

Boros Signet

Show

Herald's Horn

Show

Orzhov Signet

Show

Rakdos Signet

Show

Sol Ring

Show

Smothering Tithe

Show

Cheating Mana Costs

Bolas's Citadel

Show

Finally, a few notes about some maybecards and honourable mentions, which could be worth looking into. I might also list some budget options here in the future.

Bishop of Rebirth

Show

Bloodlord of Vaasgoth

Show

Bloodtracker

Show

Butcher of Malakir

Show

Kalastria Highborn

Show

Mathas, Fiend Seeker

Show

Boros Charm

Show

Diabolic Intent

Show

Kindred Charge

Show

Kindred Dominance

Show

Exquisite Blood

Show

Legion's Landing  

Show

Sorin, Grim Nemesis

Show

The deck and it's description already had plenty of iterations, but I try keeping it up to date.
If you do have any suggestions on how I could improve this deck any further, don't hestitate to comment!
Would love to hear your opinions.

I wish you the best, cheers.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Comments

Revision 49 See all

(2 years ago)

-1 Gifted Aetherborn acquire
-1 Yahenni, Undying Partisan acquire
Date added 7 years
Last updated 2 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

16 - 2 Mythic Rares

48 - 9 Rares

27 - 1 Uncommons

3 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.06
Tokens Blood, City's Blessing, Elephant 3-3 G, Emblem Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Emblem Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Treasure, Vampire 1/1 B, Vampire 1/1 B w/ Lifelink, Vampire 1/1 W, Vampire 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders Own, black, Decks I Want, save, Deck ideas, EDH, Mardu
Votes
Ignored suggestions
Shared with
Views