Vampiric Domination

Commander / EDH* Jikkax

SCORE: 2 | 757 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Deck Revamp(ire) 2! —May 5, 2022

Hello, everyone! With the relatively recent release of Midnight Hunt, Crimson Vow, and other sets with good cards for an Edgar Markov EDH deck, it was time for some upgrades! Some additional slight upgrades may appear in the relatively near future, so stay tuned. This is a fairly significant change to the deck, but I think it will improve the deck significantly. I've had an absolute blast playing this deck and wanted to do it justice by keeping it as updated and fun as possible while staying true to my original strategy of vampire combat instead of combos. Let me know what you think!

Add:

• Nighthawk Scavenger: I absolutely loved playing this card in ZNR Standard Rogues (I know: degenerate) and I figured it would make an excellent buddy for Vampire Nighthawk. (Both of these cards may be cut in the future because even though they are fun and thematic, they are only good individually and don't contribute much to the deck as a whole.)
• Bloodthirsty Adversary: I haven't been able to play with this card much, but it being a cheap, decent body with haste (plus Eminence trigger) is good enough on its own, not to mention the ability to get back spot removal or card draw as a mana sink mid-late game.
• Edgar, Charmed Groom  ^Flip: How could I not include another Edgar? It's a little clunky, but a non-exile board wipe means vampires keep comin' and they don't stop comin'. Plus anthem!
• Falkenrath Pit Fighter: This card is very similar to Insolent Neonate and I thought it was another good aggro card with the ability to draw more cards. What's not to like?
• Nullpriest of Oblivion: The fact that the kicker puts a creature onto the battlefield is what sold me on including this card. Creature, Eminence token, plus reanimation equals happiness.
• Pulse Tracker: Card #1 I had originally cut thinking it was too weak, but then I remembered it pings each opponent so I decided it was better than some other do-less vampires.
• Welcoming Vampire: It's a vampire. It draws cards. It's welcoming. Plus my LGS only had the showcase version AND it was cheaper than the regular!
• Mentor of the Meek: I had a long streak of keeping this a Vampire-only deck, but I can't justify it anymore. This card draws cards off of every vampire I play (with mana open) and was too good not to have in the deck as a draw engine (thanks Gabe!).
• Cliffhaven Vampire: This card was better than Vampire Nighthawk because it combos with Exquisite Blood (Cliffhaven Vampire+Exquisite Blood) and the Nighthawk wasn't doing anything to my board other than being a value vampire. The possible combo makes the deck more powerful than a single vampire with good keywords.
• Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose: This is another card that combos with Exquisite Blood (Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose+Exquisite Blood) that can also give vampires keywords. Both Vito and Cliffhaven are cheaper mana-wise than Sanguine Bond (Sanguine Bond+Exquisite Blood) and they're vampires, so win-win!
• Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord: At the time of this update, I purchased Sorin for ~$27. He is really good in this deck, though, so the price is justifiable.
• Exquisite Blood: Card #2 I had originally cut (even though it was the most expensive card I'd ever purchased at the time) thinking it was too slow and useless unless it was in combo with Sanguine Bond. However, with better lands, added ramp, more collective damage sources, and lifegain payoffs, I think this card will shine more.
• Whip of Erebos: Lifegain is always good (and thematic!) plus the ability to reanimate vampires is very night mid-late game post board wipe.
• Necropotence: This deck has needed this card for a very long time. It was gifted to me by a great friend, and was an auto-include (huge thanks to Gabe!).
• Impact Tremors: I wasn't sold on this mechanic at first, but it's really good and really annoying. I do not have it paired with Goblin Bombardment, but I think getting this out early (or at all, honestly) is very fun.
• Smothering TitheGC: This card was gifted to me by a dear friend (TCG Market $44, LGS discount $34 - thanks Jeff + Elle) and is an auto-include in the deck. It's a little slow for low-to-the-ground vampires, but the payoff is very much worthwhile.
• Dictate of Erebos: I got this card on sale and thought it would be decent in the deck. I don't have many sacrifice outlets to make it my own board wipe, but it's good for surprise attacks that dismantle enemy board states and against one-sided board wipes like In Garruk's Wake.
• Scapegoat: Card #3 I had originally cut thinking it was a playing-to-lose type effect, but my friend thought it would be a great board wipe comeback to save all my vampires and then replay them to make more Eminence tokens (thanks Gabe).
• Ad NauseamGC: An instant-speed draw spell that works wonderfully with the relatively low mana curve of this deck. Plus life gain means that it won't hurt nearly as much!
• Valakut Awakening  ^Flip: This card is great for fixing your hand or just drawing a few cards if it's a top deck into an empty hand. It also doubles as a land which means I could cut a Mountain for it with my now-lesser mana curve.
• Despark: Card #4 I had originally cut feeling like the "CMC 4 or greater" clause was going to be worse than better, however I decided the cost, speed (instant), and clause are more worth it than other cards I was running, so here we are.
• Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip: I pulled a prerelease version of this card and I am in love with it. I should have added it to the deck much sooner but as one of the more expensive (~$30) cards I owned, I was being a little too cautious. A land doubling as reanimation is phenomenal.
• Olivia's Wrath: A one-sided board wipe that utilizes the deck's mass vampires and gets around indestructible (indestructible creatures still die if they have 0 toughness). While this can be a dead card if you draw it after a full vampire board gets wiped, vampire can easily be recreated and the pros outweigh the cons.
• Rite of Oblivion: Exiling a nonland permanent at the cost of a vampire token is a very good deal. Plus Flashback!
• Skullclamp: Card #5 I had originally cut because "it's completely useless when the point of the deck is to make vampires bigger," but I was missing the big picture. I don't always have the opportunity to buff vampires, so having the ability to draw a lot of cards as an alternative is much better than a lesser card.
• Arcane Signet: I went this entire time without having an Arcane Signet in the deck. I was a fool. No explanation needed (if it is needed: it's just really good ramp; a commander staple).
• Cavern of Souls: I pulled this card as a The List card and was absolutely stunned. It's very good in this tribal deck and I honestly would not have owned one without pulling it purely due to the cost.
• Haunted Ridge: I pulled this from a VOW pack (foil!) and was very pleased to know I'd have a great dual land for this color combo.
• Sundown Pass: I also pulled this from a VOW pack (not foil..) but was pleased about another great dual land nonetheless.
• Shattered Sanctum: I did not pull this land from a VOW pack and instead purchased it from my LGS (~$7).
• Blightstep Pathway  ^Flip: Pulled from a ZNR pack and was an auto-include.
• Needleverge Pathway  ^Flip: Pulled from a ZNR pack and was an auto-include.
• Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip: Pulled from a ZNR pack and was an auto-include.
• Fabled Passage: An auto-include despite not replacing my beautiful Evolving Wilds, but instead one of the less-useful lands.

Cut:

• Vampire Hexmage: This card worked as instant spot removal against Ghave, Guru of Spores, but there were not enough enemy counters in my games to justify keeping it over something better.
• Necropolis Regent: I really wanted to keep this card, but it feels a little too much like a win-more card. Cathars' Crusade is arguably similar, but it's much less likely to be removed, plus it pairs with the Eminence trigger, so Necropolis Regent was too slow and had to go.
• Rakish Heir: This card did quite a bit of work for me in quite a few games, but ended up being a smaller, weaker (albeit cheaper) version of Necropolis Regent. Getting this down early felt great, but otherwise it was more dead than not.
• Gifted Aetherborn: I absolutely adored this card simply because of the keywords, but it really wasn't doing much other than that.
• Forerunner of the Legion: This card gave me a lot of trouble when considering cut/keep. I love tutoring a vampire, but I don't love putting it on top of my library instead of my hand (plus revealing it). While it's great to fetch Vampire Nocturnus or another anthem that might be needed or even game-winning, it felt too slow when I could have a better drop. The buff ability wasn't amazing enough to justify keeping it, either.
• Quag Vampires: I loved that this card could be played early for a body and a token or could be played late-game as a bigger threat, but that never really happened. Even if it did, it would probably be so late that other boards would be better than just one large creature.
• Shadow Alley Denizen: The ability to make some creatures mostly unblockable got me some damage, but wasn't enough to stop me from cutting it to add a better and more effective card.
• Indulgent Aristocrat: I kept this card for a long time thinking that a sac outlet with the ability to buff my entire board was really good, but I never really had a use for it. This card could definitely get added back into the deck in the future, but for now it's not what I'm looking for.
• Metallic Mimic: I thought this card would be great in any tribal deck, but I realized too late that it does not have Changeling (making it also a Vampire and creating a vampire token off of Edgar) and it wasn't adding that much to my board state, so it had to go for something better.
• Sorin the Mirthless: I was so happy to pull this card and play it thematically, but it does little other than add to the theme. Card advantage was nice, but at 4 mana it wasn't matching the tempo of the rest of the deck.
• Underworld Connections: This was essentially a bad Phyrexian Arena until I was able to purchase one, so now it's really slow and clunky.
• Vampiric Rites: Another card that could theoretically be good against spot removal and board wipes, but requires open mana, and was too expensive and ineffective to be kept over a better card.
• Crackling Doom: This card did a lot of great things for me and actually won me a game because of sacrificing a creature instead of targeting (e.g. hexproof), but it's really not all that great now that I have some better cards.
• Unbreakable Formation: I was always so excited to play this card as an anti-board wipe or as an all-out attack, but it was realistically too expensive to save creatures I just played and not a good enough buff for an amazing combat.
• Disenchant: It was good at what it did, but when you have "destroy target permanent" spells instead, this one looks not nearly as good.
• Terminate: Similar to the last reasoning, this card became less relevant as I found more versatile removal.
• Bedevil: Destroying is not better than exiling, and for the mana value it just wasn't doing enough.
• Mortify: Similar to the previous reasoning, it was versatile but a little too expensive. Being an Instant was less important than the cost.
• Sign in Blood: Having card draw is always good, but the double black made it sometimes more complicated to cast, so I cut it in favor of something better.
• Night's Whisper: I cut this card because, while I loved it, Ad NauseamGC is aggressively better.
• Diabolic Tutor: This was my first-ever tutor and the only tutor I've had in the deck, but it's too expensive and slow to justify tutoring one card to my hand. "This card is aggressively bad in constructed" (Thanks for convincing me, Gabe).
• The Immortal Sun: This was the first expensive (and awesome) card I ever pulled from my first-ever Rivals of Ixalan bundle box but it was an odd-one-out in this deck. It was another bad Phyrexian Arena, but it made spells cheaper and buffed my vampires. However, it now nonbos with my three Sorin planeswalkers, so it was officially the best time to go. Despite my love for this card, my love for the deck must prevail.
• Akoum Refuge: I already had a Bloodfell Caves so this was redundant and slow (tapped lands, tsk).
• Wind-Scarred Crag: Another slow tapped land that was replaced by something faster, and therefore better.
• Terramorphic Expanse: I already had an Evolving Wilds, and even that is probably going to get cut for a Fabled Passage whenever I get one.
• Temple of Malice, Temple of Silence, Temple of Triumph: The temples did me a lot of good when I didn't have as good of a mana base, but now that I've gotten some better lands, these had to go due to being too slow and not enough tapped payoff.

If you've made it to the end of this update, thank you so much for reading! Please feel free to let me know what you think of the adds and the cuts, whether you agree or disagree, and/or if you have any comments or suggestions!