Markovian Madness
"To survive, we must embrace the savagery we knew in our race’s infancy." — Edgar Markov
Vampire Tribal
"The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once. He is only stronger; and being stronger, he have yet more power to work evil. This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men; he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages; he have still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his etymology imply, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command; he is brute, and more than brute; he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not; he can, within limitations, appear at will when, and where, and in any of the forms that are to him; he can, within his range, direct the elements; the storm, the fog, the thunder; he can command all the meaner things: the rat, and the owl, and the bat, the moth, and the fox, and the wolf; he can grow and become small; and he can at times vanish and come unknown. How then are we to begin our strike to destroy him? How shall we find his where; and having found it, how can we destroy? My friends, this is much; it is a terrible task that we undertake, and there may be consequence to make the brave shudder. For if we fail in this our fight he must surely win; and then where end we? Life is nothings; I heed him not. But to fail here, is not mere life or death. It is that we become as him; that we henceforward become foul things of the night like him—without heart or conscience, preying on the bodies and the souls of those we love best."
(Excerpt from Doctor Van Helsing's Journal - Bram Stoker, 1897)
Introduction
Welcome to the family, Planeswalker. Wether you've been seduced by the dark allure of vampires or the promise of unimaginable power, welcome.
Let me teach you now, young Renfield, what you will gain if you sacrifice your soul for this dark gift...
Your armies will crush your friends... no kitchen table will be left without the groans of the vanquished!
Deck Tech
As of writing this, of the 388 vampires legal in EDH, 69 of them (nice!) are legendary and thus able to be used as the Commander - so why use Edgar Markov?
In designing this deck, we decided to focus on an aggressive tribal deck; focusing on swinging wide with combat damage. Because of this, Edgar Markov proved to be the most powerful of the vampire commanders.
With vampires being most prominent in mono-black, secondarily in black-red, and tertiarily in white-black, Edgar Markov has access to some of the most critically important vampires.
One of the most significant and impactful reasons why Edgar Markov makes the strongest Commander in this deck is that his Eminence ability is able to trigger from the Command Zone (meaning that he does not even need to be in play to provide advantage in the early game). With 40% of the deck being three converted mana-cost or less, and with a strong focus on vampire creature spells, Edgar Markov is consistently capable of flooding the field with extra tokens.
Alongside Edgar Markov's Eminence ability, several of the vampires in the deck are able to generate their own tokens, such as Elenda, the Dusk Rose.
Annointed Procession acts as a sort of "win more" condition, in which it is increasing the number of tokens that are generated from any of your sources.
Cards such as Molten Echoes and Kindred Charge further close the distance to victory, as it excellerates the deck at an incredible rate; swarming your opponents and quickly recovering from removal and boardwipes.
Even the smallest of vampires can become incredible threats by combining the multitude of anthem effects found scattered through the deck.
Adaptive Automaton, Legion Lieutenant and Stromkirk Captain each provide modest power and toughness increases, where Coat of Arms (while risky) and Shared Animosity are often enough to end the game the turn they are played.
Angel's Trumpet is a unique card which provides universal Vigilance, allowing you to attack each turn without needing to worry about tapping your creatures. Angel's Trumpet, furthermore, acts to punish your opponents by burning them if they do not go to combat, and potentially causing them to perish in fights against your (undoubtedly more powerful) vampires.
Many abilities found across each of the cards allow the vampires to consistently grow in strength by conditionally adding +1/+1 counters, such as Mephidross Vampire and Rakish Heir.
With the average mana cost of the deck being relatively low, it is often easy to cast several spells each turn during longer games, making it mandatory to maintain card advantage. This can be done in several ways:
Graveyard Recursion
Removal has become essential in most playgroups of EDH, meaning that a prepared player will be able to negate the negative consequences of opponents actions with synergies to ensure that you're able to consistently recover.
Returning cards from the graveyard to hand or battlefield, with abilities like that found on Bishop of Rebirth, allows the player to maintain creatures - to your opponents great dismay.
Drawing Cards
Sources such as Vanquisher's Banner keep the player's hand full.
Anje Falkenrath + Falkenrath Gorger
creates an incredibly strong natural combo; giving Madness to the Vampires in your hand and allowing you to repeatedly activate Anje Falkenrath and keep your hand full.
Final Considerations
Pros
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Deck is new-player friendly; it does not take much effort to play.
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Deck is fairly immune to dead-draws, as the majority of cards are converted mana-cost three or less; the player is reliably able to cast spells.
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Vampires are cool. What more needs to be said?
Cons
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The deck is highly predictable; people know right away that you're playing vampire tribal.
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People are likely to play more defensively when you're playing such an aggressive deck; often leading to player's seeing you as the most prominent threat at the table; be prepared to have games turn into 3-versus-1.
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Edgar Markov is a very expensive card; even though it is possible to make a budget version of the deck, Edgar Markov is an unavoidable monetary cost that you would have to pay.
(most recent update: 12/16/2023)
