I see Olivia Voldaren in pretty much every red and black vampire deck. I just... I don't see why she is so good. 4 mana for the 3/3 flier. Not too bad. Lighting bolts were probably used on early threats. But then, seven mana to activate her abilities and steal something? Captivating Vampire does similar things. but does stop your blockers of course. But also gives all other vampires +1/1. and his steal is permanent. As an experienced vampire player, could you please explain why I see her so often? Perhaps a scenario? And tell me if she would fit in my vamp deck?

NoobVampireDeck-Needs help! Please!!!!

this is great, but maybe a bit more tribal. Captivating Vampire is a very nice choice, considering that it makes your ghasts 3/2s with haste. that is much better. it also can take control of vampires.

what do you think of falkenrath noble and captain?

i was inspired by this deck to build an aggro vamp deck, kindof like this. It is a bit more tribal.

Hello AndrewW and thank you for your comment.

Olivia Voldaren is an amazing card, and occasionally I have to debate that with people who have either never played her, or have never seen her in play. Olivia is kind of one of those cards you've really got to pilot yourself, or see someone else pilot and wreck your face with her before you truly understand, but I will try my best to explain her merits.

Oliva is a powerhouse for a lot of reasons. You can use her as a token sweeper, pinging all your opponent's little flyers.. You can use her to take over threats that would otherwise easily dodge your removal such as a Lightning Bolt. Tarmogoyf, Siege Rhino, Pestermite, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, Gurmag Angler, etc.)If you are starting to run out of steam in the late game, she is never a dead drop. If you have nothing else to do, you can ping a creature a couple of times with her 1R, making her constantly grow, or you can ping a creature once, making it yours any time you have access to 5 mana.

Here's a scenario for you.

You and your opponent are both running low on steam about mid game.. maybe one or both of you is top decking.Your opponent plays a Tarmogoyf (let's say Goyf is a 3/4, so that Lightning Bolt you've been holding onto won't kill it)

You draw into an Olivia Voldaren, you play her for 4, pay 2 to make her a 4/4 and ping to Goyf for one.You pass turn.You now have a sizable blocker, you've made the Goyf a Vampire.Your opponent can't swing in with his Goyf because you have a 4/4 (and maybe you have another 2 mana up to make her a 5/5 at instant speed)He passes it back to you, you now have access to let's say 6 or 7 mana. You can snag the Goyf from your opponent and swing in with his own creature and a big flyer of your own. Any creature your opponent plays from then on out is going to be yours.

I personally prefer Olivia Voldaren in slower, more grindy Vampire builds as opposed to your more traditional Vampire Aggro decks. In Aggro I Might prefer Stromkirk Captain or Vampire Nocturnus.

I might have short-sold Olivia a bit, but again.. I feel like you've really got to playtest her to understand.

I'll take a look at your build and tell ya what I think.

car I have often thought about putting in another captain or 2 to make my creatures a bit harder to deal with, maybe in the place of Kalastria Highborn.

And thank you, I'm honored. :)

man, i made a deck kindof like this. not quite, cause it uses more counters but still... can you take a look? Tour Through Transylvania

Been tinkering with my own sacrifice deck, some changes I think you might wanna consider;

• Bloodghast has proven to be too slow and too easily shut down for me. Relying on land drops is risky, whereas relying on death isn't. I've switched to Nether Traitor. The big bonuses here are all you need is someone else to die and you can for 1B at instant speed return to the battlefield. The other advantage is that Traitor swings past enemy defences and has haste always on. It makes Traitor superior to Bloodsoaked Champion as well, because while he costs 1B more, he swings the turn he arrives, and he costs less to bring back from grave (plus he triggers on death, not whether you attacked, so he can come back in your opponents turn).
• Dark Confidant is fine...but given you're teamkilling so much, what about Grim Haruspex? The reason I use him in my deck is to hide the Ruthless Ripper set I'm using. Basically, I can troll people into blocking or attacking into one, thinking they'll kill my card draw. Makes them really salty when they lose 2 life and deathtouch nukes their creature, and all they killed was a 1/1. He also doesn't lose you life, which helps in the Burn matchup.
• Kalastria Highborn I've tried using and she's just honestly not worth it. As an aggro deck, you're usually tapping out to deploy all your threats, so you rarely have the mana open to do this. Blood Artist does his job for free, trigger on non-Vamps, and he triggers off enemy deaths as well.
• Viscera Seer could be pretty amusing in your deck. With either Confident or Haruspex, you can filter your top deck really well, and he's a complete waste of enemy removal.

Jesus this deck is expensive

trollslayer I mostly agree with you, but I must say, the vampires of Innistrad always seemed pretty rapey to me.

Perhaps sideboard Blood Seeker for Abzan Company? And why no Cavern of Souls?

Looks at price

AEther Vial

bubby7: Yeah, Modern is a cruel mistress.

ArmyJM07: Unfortunately, doesn't merit a spot. Vial works best in decks where all or most of the creatures come out at the same CMC. Merfolk does well because almost all of the creatures come out at 2CMC Tidebinder Mage, Lord of Atlantis, Master of the Pearl Trident, and Silvergill Adept and hit the battlefield with some umph. Compared to things I could drop from an AEther Vial would be a lot less impressive. Bloodghast would be lackluster, same with Dark Confidant. Even with an AEther Vial ticked up to 3, I could drop a Vampire Nighthawk or the best case scenario Stromkirk Captain as a surprise buffer.Along with the ever present Kolaghan's Command in the Modern meta AEther Vial doesn't seem to want to be in this deck. :/

Thank you for your input though!

Yea this is why im am buying an infect deck. Cheap and hopefully good

I feel like you could drop a few basics for more fetches. Myself, I've found single copies of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Cavern of Souls and Mutavault to be useful. But Mutavault only really benefits from your captains. Have you considered Viscera Seer? Him and Stromkirk Noble are basically the best 1 mana creatures for vamps.

As great as Slaughter Pact is, I'd prefer Murderous Cut here since you build lots of grave. But that's bad with Bob. Your call.

You're absolutely right about AEther Vial.

Viscera does synergize very nicely with your deck, in my view. Depends on what you feel you can cut and how bad you feel you need turn 1 creatures. They feel slightly less necessary as your turn 1 plays look to be almost always hand disruption and then turn 2 creature.

You know, with sided Blood Moon, you may be fine with your lands now. Unlike me you don't often need that urgent turn 1 red. But even then Blood Moon is a turn 3 play and I can get a basic or 2 out fast before casting it. This has given me some food for thought. An idea against Tron.

In my humble opinion Shadow Alley Denizen is also a good contender for the best 1 cmc vampire beside Stromkirk Noble & Viscera Seer

Denizen is pretty underwhelming compared to the other two. She's too slow, doesn't have the stats to mitigate this, and doesn't do enough to ever justify a deck slot. There's a reason I run a full set of Vampire Lacerator. 2/2 body is big enough on a turn 1 creature to justify the life loss. If he were a 2/1 I honestly would probably just run Viscera Seer or Pulse Tracker instead. 2/2 is power and durability not commonly seen in a turn 1 creature. A smart player can use his "downside" to their advantage. It's incentive to not block. Noble and Seer both have amazing abilities. Lacerator has excellent stats. Falkenrath Gorger has a useful ability in this meta and has power with very little in the way of drawbacks. Denizen has... not a whole lot going for her honestly. She has weak stats, her ability relies on casting creature spells constantly, and intimidate isn't great this meta. Black is still everywhere. So are artifacts. The fact that Kalitas exists renders her less playable than ever since his tokens are black, and they can just chump with his tokens and sac them off to buff him.

Rakdos Charm, (sideboard) for goryo's, kiki-chord, and affinity? I agree on Shadow Alley Denizen, in this deck. Besides, people really undermind her with the intimidate ability. it's never a big deal, untill they cant block! i would +1 again, but i have a while ago, still a great taste, for Vampires.

Denizen doesn't even do enough to warrant a lightning bolt. I know because I tried her out for a while. Black and artifacts are everywhere in modern. Now more so than ever.

Yeah i have to agree about Shadow Alley Denizen in this deck. On the other hand if someone has flyer threats, giving them intimidate is as good as giving them unblockable.

Also Rakdos charm is sided against everything. It's honestly mainboard worthy even if Twin is past its prime. It hits almost literally every deck.

I tried out Shadow Alley Denizen; and she worked great! I personally understand why he wouldn't run Vampire Lacerator (great card) he is already running Thoughtseize & Dark Confidant. besides, stacked with Stromkirk Captain; It's even better. Maybe; if you'd think it would work TheBoraxKid; Bad Moon?

Bad moon isn't worth it.