Something I'm trying to get to work.
Trying to take advantage of vampire synergies with madness to make a fast, hard hitting deck.
Main issues i'm running into right now is running out of gas. Prodder helps some, but read the bones and tormenting voice seems to slow us down too much in most match-ups. Still needs a lot of testing though.
To answer some quick questions before they get asked:
"Why vampires? What do they offer?" It is something I asked a lot, and I might end up abandoning it as it could use some more support. Main things are that Gorger gives all of our creatures (besides prodder) madness, which makes cool combos with Olvia and Heir possible, as well as giving all of our guys situational flash (with things like heir and Neonate's abilities, and lightning axe). Next we have Stensia. This card is a power house. Since everyone besides Gorger in this deck has evasion, its super easy to get your guys big quick. When they can block, the first strike part also helps a lot. Being majority vampires also means Olivia's Bloodsworn can give all of our guys haste, and though that isnt as exciting as madness, it's better than I expected.
"Why Prodder?" It's true that he gums up the 3 drop spot which is already packed with both of our vampire queens, and the fact he isnt a vampire without Olivia, I've found both his ability and body are worth it. I'm okay playing him turn 3, and also pretty happy to draw him when in top deck mode. While he's generally only burning 1 or 2 per turn, that's enough to help get them in range to finish them off with burn, or his own evasive body. If I can find a better way to get cards or squeeze out games, I wouldnt be against cutting him though. He does his job for now though and has single handily won me games that something like thunderbreak regent couldnt have.
"Why Neonate?" I'll be honest, I really didn't want to add this guy. I'm generally not excited over a 1/1 for 1, but this guy has pulled his weight. You might think he's just in here because he is a vampire, and while its true that its often relevant and useful, his ability is also super nice since we have so much madness synergy. Anytime hes about to die, he can just use his ability to replace the card you spent playing him, PLUS get out a madness card at instant speed (including any vampire with gorger). His menace ability means he'll get in for a lot of free damage early, and once you get Drana or Stensia out, he can survive to be buffed.
"How fast is it?" Not blazingly, but it's fairly quick. I've gotten some t4 wins off before, though that does take a nice opening hand. We're fast enough to take games off of most control decks before they can stabilize, and race most aggro decks (not humans) and win. Often though, we will rely on burn spells to finish what the vampres couldnt.
"Can't you just wall it off with more efficient 2-3 drops?" We have way too much evasion for that. In the cases they do get enough guys out, being Back/Red gives us access to more than enough removal to still be fine.
"How does it fair against the current meta?" The 2 meta decks ive seen the most while building this is Mono W humans and Bant CoCo. Both match ups are kind of dependent on who can get a better start. Fiery Temper is pretty high value vs Coco, and Avacyn's Judgment can kill off the humans before they reach critical mass, and Lightning Axe axes them if they ever do reach there. Both also have a hard time blocking us in the sky, and on the ground Stensia gives us the upper hand. Over all though, they could be better, and im looking for ways to make it a bit easier now.
