Vampire Queen v1 (untested)

Commander / EDH* Lifegain Midrange RBW (Mardu) Vampires

ValhallaBound

Creature (24)

• 1x Bastion Protector
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip
• 1x Bloodlord of Vaasgoth
• 1x Captivating Vampire
• 1x Cliffhaven Vampire
• 1x Dark Impostor
• 1x Defiant Bloodlord
• 1x Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
• 1x Kalastria Highborn
• 1x Karlov of the Ghost Council
• 1x Knights of the Black Rose
• 1x Olivia, Mobilized for War
• 1x Olivia Voldaren
• 1x Protector of the Crown
• 1x Royal Assassin
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Stromkirk Captain
• 1x Vampire Hexmage
• 1x Vampire Nighthawk
• 1x Vein Drinker
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Vizkopa Guildmage
• 1x Voldaren Duelist

Advantage (9)

• 1x Black Market
• 1x Crystal Ball
• 1x Knights of the Black Rose
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Protector of the Crown
• 1x Queen Marchesa
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Viscera Seer

Graveyard Recurrence (7)

• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Dawn to Dusk
• 1x Obzedat's Aid
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Profane Command
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Whip of Erebos

Rock (4)

• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Board Wipe (2)

• 1x Deadly Tempest
• 1x Killing Wave

Land (40)

• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Nomad Outpost
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 8x Plains
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Scoured Barrens
• 14x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Thespian's Stage

Threat Removal (14)

• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Dark Impostor
• 1x Dawn to Dusk
• 1x Death Grasp
• 1x Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Karlov of the Ghost Council
• 1x Oblivion Ring
• 1x Olivia Voldaren
• 1x Profane Command
• 1x Royal Assassin
• 1x Tendrils of Corruption
• 1x Vein Drinker

The Queen's Court (5)

• 1x Bastion Protector
• 1x Karlov of the Ghost Council
• 1x Knights of the Black Rose
• 1x Protector of the Crown
• 1x Royal Assassin

Equipment (4)

• 1x Blade of the Bloodchief
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Tutor (3)

• 1x Diabolic Revelation
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Liliana Vess

Commander (1)

Lifegain and/or Drain (16)

• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Blood Tribute
• 1x Campaign of Vengeance
• 1x Cliffhaven Vampire
• 1x Congregate
• 1x Death Grasp
• 1x Debt to the Deathless
• 1x Defiant Bloodlord
• 1x Kalastria Highborn
• 1x Knights of the Black Rose
• 1x Sanguine Bond
• 1x Tendrils of Corruption
• 1x Vampire Nighthawk
• 1x Vampire's Bite
• 1x Vizkopa Guildmage
• 1x Whip of Erebos

Aggro Aid (9)

• 1x Blade of the Bloodchief
• 1x Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip
• 1x Bloodlord of Vaasgoth
• 1x Captivating Vampire
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Stromkirk Captain
• 1x Vampire's Bite
• 1x Voldaren Duelist
• 1x War Cadence

Betrayal (4)

• 1x Captivating Vampire
• 1x Dark Impostor
• 1x Olivia Voldaren
• 1x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Tokens (3)

• 1x Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip
• 1x Queen Marchesa
• 1x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

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Maybeboard

Other (3)

• 1x Dreadbore
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Graveyard Recurrence (1)

• 1x Ever After

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Midrange tribal, supported by life sapping effects.

Flavor/Theme:

Queen Marchesa holds power by commanding her vampire allies, and once she enters the fray the battle to take the throne begins. Though she herself is not counted amongst the undead, she can always turn to her second-in-command, Olivia, for temporary vampirism. Most of her strength comes from her alliances with the children of the night, but within her own court she still finds protection in loyal knights, assassins, and advisors. The vampire army keeps the pressure up as they overpower, remove, and leech their enemies, while their life-draining magic keeps them one step ahead. She rules the night to take the day.

Deck Goal:

Partial tribal, midrange, padded by lifegain, using as much "when you gain life, target loses x life" effects as possible. I'm never going to keep up with quicker aggro decks or stronger fatty decks, so I use lifegain to keep myself healthy, direct damage, a decent amount of removal, and keep the card advantage as much as possible with Phyrexian Arena, staying the Monarch, scrying, graveyard retrieval, etc.

Going Forward:

Open to suggestions, but this is a budget deck, using almost all cards I already have, or ones that are pretty cheap to get. I left out Exquisite Blood on purpose (and it's a tad pricey), because that seems like one of the cheapest, most effortless win combos.

It hasn't seen real play yet, but based off of testing I think it's one of my better flowing decks. I'm trying hard not to be greedy and keep proper land balance and average cmc in mind.

I think 40 is the right number of lands to ensure consistent drops for the speed of the deck up through turn 6, 7, or 8, but my actual mana base is sort of in flux right now, being the most uncertain part of the deck, not aided by the fact I can't afford the better multicolor lands. Whereas for the actual spells I'm at the point where I don't want to drop anything unless a clearly better change comes along (even then some things are just too flavorful, which is a weakness of mine).

Biggest Themes:

-Some of my biggest lifegainers are Whip of Erebos, Congregate, and Debt to the Deathless, with plenty of smaller ones. Lifegain alone doesn't win, so hopefully at any given time I have at least one of these guys out: Sanguine Bond, Cliffhaven Vampire, Defiant Bloodlord, and Vizkopa Guildmage, and bonus points if I have multiple. I'm trying to keep just the right amount of graveyard recursion going to help keep this consistent.

-Removal keeps me a little safer, and aside from the obvious spells I have some removal on creatures in the form of Drana's -X ability, Karlov, Olivia Voldaren (for dangerous/utility small fry), Royal Assassin, and even some semi-random removal from Sheoldred (but her sac almost always gets chumped by tokens, and her reanimate is why I really want her).

-Again, unlike dedicated ramp decks, I'm never going to win an all-out card advantage slugout, but Phyrexian Arena, and trying to stay the Monarch gives me draw power (and when I'm not Monarch, I get scary chump blockers). Cabal Coffers and Black Market give me mana boost. I have a small and big tutor, and Liliana who is almost solely a tutor for me (if no one goes for her too quick I get 2 grabs out of her, if she stays for 4 turns I get three). And I have a little scry in there too.

It all comes down to digging for lifegain comboers while swinging often, and when the "when you gain life, target loses life" cards are on the field, keep them there with recursion. Pay big into life draining spells while destroying any threats, and hope the combination of drain, aggro, and direct damage all adds up to keep me just ahead.

-And I know lifegain alone doesn't win games, but I play casual, and I've seen enough games where someone gains enough life that they become too tough to deal with unless the whole table turns on them, by which point it's usually already too late because people are too divided and bruised.

Side note: This is about the dozenth time I've made some iteration of a deck like this. It's not that I'm obsessed with vampire cards. I'm just always trying to craft this deck into the best, funnest iteration possible. This used to be my R/B Olivia EDH deck, which came from a mono black vampire EDH deck where I'd trade out from 5 different Commanders depending on my preference that day, which came from a casual W/B Sanguine Bond / Vampire deck, which through multiple iterations (which again went back to R/B in an early stage), goes all the way back to my first ever set of magic cards, this weird ass B/G vampire preconstrcuted deck. So yeah. This deck has been rebuilt a dozen times over, from my first ever precon deck to the 3rd EDH form its taken. I have other decks where they keep getting rebuilt, like my Jeleva EDH deck, which multiple times has incorporated fairy tribal, only to have that branch into 2 different concept decks, only to have them merge again. I don't have an obsession with certain kinds of decks, only an obsession with constantly turning them into the next fun phase.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 30 - 0 Rares 30 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	101
Avg. CMC	3.46
Tokens	Assassin 1/1 B w/ Haste, Emblem Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, The Monarch, Vampire 1/1 B w/ Lifelink, Vampire 2/2 B