This is my personal brew for madness vamps once Kaladesh hits! Let me know your thoughts.
My thought process here is to aggro out and take a big vampy bite out of your life total. Let's talk about each card individually here.
First up, let's talk about our creature base and our Planeswalkers.
-Falkenrath Gorger is the 1 drop that really gets this show on the road. Giving the rest of your vampires madness really allows you to do a lot more with all of your discards. It's truly a huge advantage.
-Olivia's Dragoon gives you a great two drop that is a free madness outlet with evasion. Being able to fly over the top of opposing creatures while letting you cast some removal for cheaper or get a blocker out at instant speed on their turn. It also gives you a really good way to deal with pesky little fliers like thopters with upside.
-Stromkirk Condemned is the other two drop, and is another madness outlet. Pumping all of your vampires basically for free when you discard a card that probably has madness is pretty good. If you get more than one of these out at a time, it can very quickly turn into a great way to wipe your opponent's board.
-Smuggler's Copter is the final 2-drop that the deck runs. It seems a little weird, but let me walk through this. Turn 1 play a Falkenrath Gorger and pass. Turn 2, play a Smuggler's Copter, swing for 2 with the Falkenrath Gorger if it's clear. Turn 3, draw, tap the Falkenrath Gorger to crew the Smuggler's Copter, swing 3 in the air, draw a card, discard another vampire for madness, and continue to wreck. The Smuggler's Copter really gives you a great amount of card advantage with a madness outlet. I like this card a lot, and would love to find room for more of them.
-Olivia, Mobilized for War is here, and she is ready to destroy your opponents in the 3-drop slot. She really is insane in this deck. Vampire, check. Madness enabler, check. Makes your vampires bigger, check. Gives things haste, check, check, and check. The mobilization is complete, and you're really truly ready to beat face. Oh yeah, and she flies. So if you need a decent sized beat stick, she fits that mold too. Olivia is a Swiss army knife of a card, and very fun to play.
-Voldaren Pariah
is a hugely important card in this deck. I know I am going in order of CMC, and you might be asking "well isn't that a 5 cost?" And to that, I would say "why yes, indeed it is, but you'd be 'mad' if you actually paid that much for it!" Usually you will discard Voldaren Pariah
on turn 4 or turn 5 to Olivia or one of your other madness outlets, then proceed to beat down your opponent. And then once you get stabilized on board, or if you run into some serious opposition, you can utilize her transform trigger to sacrifice three of your small guys and hopefully force your opponent to sacrifice the big emerge creature that they just brought out or some other crazy threat. At worst, Voldaren Pariah
is a 3/3 flying beat stick, and that's pretty good in and of itself. Even if you do have to hard cast her late in the game, she can show up to the party and make a huge impact.
-Liliana, the Last Hope is the other card in the 3-drop slot. Liliana is really here as an insurance policy. She just wins games. And when she works with one of our other thirsty vampire friends that I will cover momentarily, if she can use her ultimate, the game can get out of hand very quickly. At worst, she is a good way to deal with spirit, thopter, and servo tokens, as well as some other smaller creatures. Bringing back a Falkenrath Gorger or an Olivia, Mobilized for War that was removed early on is nothing to sneeze at either. All in all, she is just a good piece to have handy when you need her.
-Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is the friend of Liliana that I had mentioned earlier. Any of the removal that we are running while Kalitas is on the field gets us a zombie. Alright, that's decent, right? Well there's more! Does your opponent have a big ol' Gear Hulk out that you just can't seem to stop? Just sacrifice two of your vampires to Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, let him get big and he becomes a perfect blocker for all of those monstrosities! Oh, did I mention that he has Lifelink as well? Yeah, he has the potential to bring some huge life-swings in your favor!
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Bloodhall Priest
is the final creature that the deck runs. In that 4-drop slot, the priest is really a creature that you can count on to help solve your problems. Empty hand? No big deal, the Priest will show up to the party and deal damage to a player OR a creature. Still can't keep cards in your hand? That's ok too, because every single time
Bloodhall Priest
swings in, she does it again! 2 damage is nothing to overlook, especially being able to decide whether it goes for the opponent's juicy jugular or helps to clear the board so all of your parched creatures can get a quick drink.
-Chandra, Torch of Defiance is new, she's exciting, she's powerful, and she does some really cool things. She is also one of the biggest question marks for this deck. Exiling the top card of your deck and allowing you to cast it is a great form of card advantage while still keeping your hand (hopefully) empty, while also giving you the option to sneak in a few points of burn damage if you don't cast it. Those extra two points of damage can indeed have an impact on the outcome of the match. Her other +1 refunds you two of the mana that she cost, and lets you ramp for an extra creature, but it might be in the wrong color, as the deck wants more black mana than red. Her -3 ability removes a decent sized creature, which is wonderful, but leaves her at 1 loyalty. If she is protected long enough to ultimate, the game is basically over, but that is a tall order for any deck.
Let's move on to our spell base! Being a Red and Black deck, we have lots of interesting and fun ways to interact with our opponents and their creatures.
-Collective Brutality is where I want to start here. This is a very good spell that does a lot of very good things for you. Want to get in a few points of damage and get some life back? Done. What about a quick Thoughtseize? You can do that too. Need to kill a small creature? Got that too. Madness you say? It enables that too, with each Escalation. This spell is just so powerful, especially in this type of deck, that it cannot, and should not be ignored.
Next, I want to talk about our Madness Spell Package. These are all of the spells that can be cast on the discount when you discard them, either to one of our creatures or to Collective Brutality.
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Fiery Temper
is pretty standard fare in a Madness-based deck. A Lightning Bolt by any other name,
Fiery Temper
can close out the game for you, providing that extra bit of damage you might need to help your vampires out who like their beverages boiling hot instead of just room temperature. It's also a great piece of removal to help clear the way if need be.
-Alms of the Vein is the answer to those pesky Thermo-Alchemist decks. This is a Black sorcery that can be cast at instant speed through Madness. It provides a way to stabilize for a turn while you find pieces or wait to untap next turn.
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From Under the Floorboards
is one of my favorite cards that absolutely needs a home in a Madness deck such as this one. Being able to cast it for Madness at instant speed is fantastic. The zombie tokens come in tapped, but that surprise life gain can change the tide of the game. And the zombie tokens work well with Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Liliana, the Last Hope.
The land base is very simple, utilizing playsets of the Foreboding Ruins and Smoldering Marsh, as well as a reasonable split of Mountain and Swamp. There are two cards that I want to point out in the landbase though that make this a little different from other Vampire lists.
-Geier Reach Sanitarium is the first of these cards. This is another card advantage/Madness enabler for our deck. It's a legendary land, so drawing the second one is unfortunate, but can be discarded if Madness is not an option. Just a great card for Madness decks.
-Westvale Abbey
is the other card that really sets us apart from other similar decks. Do you have a lot of little guys on the field? Does your opponent have a lot of little guys on the field? Are you looking for that little push to finish the second half of the game? Well, our good buddy Ormendahl has you covered. And once he shows up, he usually doesn't leave, which is pretty awesome, because he is the life of the party. A big, flying, indestructible body that gains you some life, that is pretty amazing.
As for the sideboard, I am completely open to suggestions here. Unlicensed Disintegration is the real standout card from Kaladesh, as it gives a great, unconditional removal spell, that if cast when we have our Smuggler's Copter or one of the Gearhulks in the sideboard out, it also burns our opponent for 3 points of damage. Not a bad card, and it happens at instant speed. The only down side is that it does not have Madness. The entire board is geared toward removal. Early in the new format, I am expecting to see a lot of creature-heavy decks, and I am thinking that I need to be able to remove as many of those creatures as possible. Aside from removal, I have 1 Combustible Gearhulk and 2 Noxious Gearhulk to help break board stalls or to swing through any big mid-range creature that I may see. Ob Nixilis Reignited is always a great form of card advantage and removal, and again, if he is protected long enough, he can pop a game winning ultimate. Transgress the Mind is there for the matchups where I have to be able to get rid of a specific card if I want to have any hope of winning. It also helps with the control matchup, and is a great way to deal with Spell Queller if cast on turn 3 on the play.
So, the Vampires are thirsty. Parched, even. Help me make them (and the sideboard) better, so that we can slake that never-ending thirst.
