I love vampires so much I thought I'd make a vampire deck without any vampires in it. The result? Blood Transfusion!
This deck is a creatureless control/denial powerhouse that wins either by flipping one or more copies of Chalice of Life
or by playing one or more Sanguine Bond. It has the means to deny, destroy, or sacrifice your opponent's creatures on every turn, frequently gaining you life in the process, which in turn fuels your Chalices or Bonds.
Key Synergies and Cards
Tragic Slip
is possibly the most powerful removal card in the deck, because there's almost always a way to kill a creature. Lay a
Victim of Night
down or smoke a 2/2 with the life-gaining
Pharika's Cure
and you have the means to remove almost any creature threat with a single mana.
Mutilate is clearly the big board wipe, but
Killing Wave
is devious, pressuring your opponent to choose between their creatures and their life total, often leaving the one creature they decide to save open to a
Tragic Slip
or better yet
Tribute to Hunger
.
Chalice of Life
+
Elixir of Immortality
: Chalice is an incredibly underrated card that puts your opponent on a brutal clock, and an often-overlooked benefit to Elixir is that it shuffles your entire graveyard into your library, allowing you to redraw valuable cards. Activating more than one Elixir and transforming more than one Chalice by the mid-to-late game is a very realistic possibility, and watching your opponent go into paroxysms as they realize they're going to take 10 damage every turn is good times.
Sanguine Bond + pretty much everything: There is so much punishment in this deck sanguine bond is actually less critical than you might expect, but getting one (or two) out gives you insane value for all of your life gain effects, from
Pharika's Cure
to Consume Spirit to Sorin Markov to Elixir of Immortality to (my personal favourite)
Tribute to Hunger
.
Sorin's Vengeance is a beautiful late-game finisher, and a 20 damage bomb if you happen to have a Sanguine Bond out.
Tips
If I don't need them for mana or to transform Chalice of Life
I like leaving Radiant Fountain in my hand until I have a sanguine bond out.
I almost always use Sign in Blood to draw cards, but it can also be used as a shock if you're in a bind and your opponent is down to 2 life.
Use your other removal spells to be able to play
Tribute to Hunger
strategically, forcing your opponent to sacrifice a particularly large creature, or, better yet, a creature with indestructible.
Comments and suggestions are appreciated, but before you suggest it yes I know about Exquisite Blood and no it will not be added to the deck. I think the Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood infinite combo is cheap, and nobody has fun playing against it.
If you like the deck please +1. Thanks!
