Greeting, fellow apostles, do you want to play vampires, but don't have enough treasure tokens to buy playsets of Metallic Mimics and Concealed Courtyards? Do you want to build a deck whose value roughly translates to one whole The Scarab God? well do I have the list for you.
This is my take on a budget going wide strategy for Ixalan vampires. Suggestions are welcome, but keep in mind that this is a budget build, so obvious includes like Metallic Mimic and Concealed Courtyard because those are waaaay too expensive.
Without further ado, let's explain some card choices.
[1-drops]
Duskborne Skymarcher: This card does it all, she comes down early, gets some damage in since flyers seem to pretty scarce right now, and she's a combat trick on legs with her activated ability. All around good card in the deck.
Vicious Conquistador:He comes down early,gets damage in, and he trades or straight-up kills a lot of creatures in ramunap red on account of the conquistador being a 1/2.
Legion's Landing
:Landing does a lot for one white. It creates a 1/1 token with lifelink, with likelink being very relevant in the Ramunap red matchup, if you transform it,
Adanto, the First Fort
is a nice utility land that produces more 1/1 lifelinkers. If Landing is too expensive for your budget, I'd reccomend swapping this out for
Queen's Commission
s
[2-drops]
Bloodcrazed Paladin:This guy is somewhat questionable, and I need to play the deck more to get a better feel for how useful he is. Best case scenario, the paladin is a huge two-drop, worst case, he's 1/1 chump blocker with flash, which isn't the worst thing in the world. Has good synergy with Dusk / Dawn.
Gifted Aetherborn: Probably my favorite card in the deck. You will never be let down by a Gifted Aetherborn in your opening hand or off the top of the deck. She comes down early with good stats and has two relevant keywords. She also kills every relevant dino in standard.
[3-drops]
Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle: If Mavren wasn't legendary, he would be an easy 4-of in the deck. By the time he hits the board, you will likely have at least two other vampires on the board, so his ability to poop out more vampire tokens will always be relevant. the only downside to this guy is his poor stats, as he dies to pretty much every burn spell right now.
Skymarch Bloodletter
: The bloodletter may not seem very impressive on the surface, but his drain ETB effect is pretty nice, and a 2/2 flier is relevant because there really aren't many threatening fliers in standard right now, the only threats that come to mind are Glorybringer and Kinjalli's Sunwing.
Yahenni, Undying Partisan: Yahenni gets huge off of Dusk and can avoid getting destroyed by it with his ability. i should note that Yahenni is the only card in the deck that can survive spot removal and sweepers.
[4-drops]
Sanctum Seeker: Sanctum seeker is real dank. It has good stats for 4 mana, and it's drain ability works well with the number of life linkers in the deck, as the drain from Seeker is effectively the equivalent of getting in with a vampire token for free.
Call to the Feast: I'm a big fan of Call to the Feast. 3 1/1 lifelinkers for 4 mana is nice, and comes in big late game when you have a Bishop of the Bloodstained lined up after dropping a couple of Calls.
[5-drops]
Bishop of the Bloodstained: Bishop either steals games, or he hits your opponent hard. The biggest downsides to this guy are that he costs a lot of mana, and after he burns your opponent, he's vanilla 3/3, which isn't great.
Bishop of Rebirth: Bishop of rebirth works very very well with Bishop of the Bloodstained. If there's a Bloodstained in your graveyard, and you resurrect him with Rebirth, you're getting potentially significant burn and a 3/3 body for free. As well, Bishop of Rebirth can bring back every other creature in the deck save for Vona, Butcher of Magan.
Vona, Butcher of Magan: Not gonna lie, Vona is here primarily for flavor. If you don't like her in the deck, I'd recommend swapping her out for another Yahenni, Undying Partisan.
[Lands]
Forsaken Sanctuary:Strictly worse Concealed Courtyard, but this is the best we got in terms of dual lands on a budget.
Unclaimed Territory: The card is LIT in our deck. We're running 29 creatures, so most of the time, Unclaimed Territory is a dual land with no downside.
So yeah, there's my take on budget vampires. I should have the entire deck in paper by this week's FNM, and I'll record my results and findings here every week.
Again, suggestions are welcome, but please keep in mind that this is a budget build, and I would like any suggested cards to be below $4.
I am very much looking forward to Rivals of Ixalan, and if there is any relevant vampire support in Rivals, I will update the deck accordingly.
