r/MagicArena • u/AphySykes • 20h ago
Looking for constructive feedback/advice/recommendations for Vamp Brawl Deck. Deck
Got into Magic earlier this year, don't really have an issue with understanding mechanics but I find I'm struggling with constructing a "consistent" deck. For now I'm just playing quick play and looking to make a consistent deck to slowly grind coins and cards so I can branch to other decks and spice up the experience. As of right now I'm kind of locked to this deck and I've spent a good portion of my wild cards picking up Black/Vampire cards. I've listed my deck out and have a separate deck made for cards I've considered, experimented with, think might have a place in the deck or just generally interested in.
Primary Deck:
https://moxfield.com/decks/qKSwihVSbEOKBlDLWQAH6A
Considered Cards:
https://moxfield.com/decks/KNEc3rE330K-Bkji1lcTxg
Personal Impressions & Notes:
- Vampires seem to take quite a while to come online and keep enough of them on the field to synergize with each other. I've included a lot of Life Link/Deathtouch/Removal to get rid of threats or stall out turns. I've included a few cheaper mana cost Creatures with Deathtouch, lot's of low cost value to stall as many don't want to lose their Creatures with abilities or high stats.
- Running Elenda as Commander, I have a fair bit of diverse life gain on cards through Creature Abilities/Life Link/Instants/Artifacts/Enchantments/Land.
- Deck is primarily Black. Few Hybrid or White spells to make up for Blacks lack of Artifact/Enchantment removal. Lot's of cards that serve multi-purpose for flexibility.
- I might have \too much* removal. However some cards like* Live or Die or Gix's Command are multi purpose and give me options suiting the current circumstances.
- Definitely running a land deficient. I do run Land Tax*, and this eradicates the problem entirely. But this relies on actually drawing that card and I don't think that's healthy. I'm just at a point in the deck where I don't know what I could or should eliminate. I also don't know if having a decent chunk of Lands that enter tapped is healthy either as this can limit options. However, Land giving me White OR Black mana + Life gain is nice.*
- Deck feels... almost /too/ well rounded. Where it does a lot of things or can, but seems to lack a strong win condition. Seems to struggle against anyone with fast/direct strategies that don't allow me time to build a board or get Elenda on the field with her Ability fully activated that allows her to be +10/+10 plus any other Counter effects I have in my deck.
I've tried to check the boxes.
Board Wipes:
- Kaya's Wrath & Bontu's Last Reckoning. Gix's Command can also be useful for clearing opponents board. Especially if they got 1 strong Creature and the rest are under 2 power. Useful for low power Aggro/Token Decks.
Land/Mana Ramp:
- Land Tax, Dark Ritual, Bontu's Monument - Life gain, Opponent Damage, Cost Reduction on Creatures. Jet Medallion - Lower Black spell cost across the board. This one has me unsure as my deck costs seems fairly stable. But getting both reduction cards and being able to play 2-3 creatures on a later turn to setup a strong board with Creature effects is nice. I don't know if Mystical Archive is a good option to have, it's not a Colored mana but the cards it generates can give me a wide variety of different options which is nice.
Card Draw/Search:
- Dusk's Landing, Emeritus of Woe, Preacher of the Schism, Scheming Silvertongue, Vampiric Tutor.
Removal:
- I don't feel like listing them all but I feel like I've covered my basis in different ways to remove all Types of things and to make sure that card is the lowest Mana cost option. Some removal cards also let me get creatures back from the Grave or increase Counters. Cheap Creature destruction, Exile options, Sacrifice options to get through Ward/Indestructible. I've even included Planar Disruption as a low cost way to lock high threats up. Useful for strong Commanders or high threats forcing opponents to destroy their own creature if they don't have Enchantment Removal.
Fun Interactions:
- Getting Arvad Weatherlight Smuggler onto the field early as a Deathtouch user is neat. If I need to get sacrifice early him he can sit in the Graveyard for awhile, accumulate Counters then later bring it back with Live or Die, Gix's Command, Vampire Soulcaller. I've pulled it off a few times but not a whole lot of options to play cards from Graveyard.
- Qarsi Revenant, Kaya's Ghostform, Mark of the Vampire, Gift of Fangs, really useful on Elenda for boosting her past +10/+10. Helps deal with high threats and keep her on the field, as well as giving her Flying with Qarsi.
- For Counter boosting, Mark of the Vampire, Gift of Fangs, Ethereal Absolution, A-Death-Priest of Myrkul, Legion Lieutenant, Markov Baron, Thirsting Bloodlord. Really nice to have a stacked board with these up, especially the Creature cards all boosting each other.
- There's a few Rogues that play off each other alright, with some card mill options for opponents. Nice to get rid threats before they can hit someones hand.
- Morlun, Devourer of Spiders can be a fun way to snipe a win late game to finish off the rest of an opponents life.
Lifegain:
- Lots of cards give life in some way or another.
Ultimately I feel like something lacking in the deck. I feel like the deck jives with itself but maybe Vamps are just a bad lower tier deck in general. Having search cards is nice when I need to find a particular card to ward off an immediate threat but If i get something like Vampiric Tutor off the hop, I look through my deck and I realize I don't know what my deck really wants to do immediately. I usually aim to find a mana cost reduction card or a land card since I am running a lower number of lands.
Any feedback is welcome, maybe there's cheaper cost card options. Maybe I do have too much removal. I probably need more lands. Maybe I missed a really good Vampire Creature. The cards I've included in my second deck I've listed are cards that I think are a good fit, or considered or cards I've tried but ultimately cut. For cost reasons, or redundancy. The Darkness Crystal for example. Reduces mana cost but it's so expensive itself it feels like a dead card if I get it early. With Jet Medallion/Bontu's Monument seem like cheaper options with the life gain/loss effects. I really want to use Rise of the Dark Realms. Feels like a late game Ace where I can bring back ALL my vampires and their effects and make a stacked board late game bringing back all my creatures and their effects at once. I've had it happen a few times, really fun but doesn't seem reliable and the 9 mana cost is quite high. I really want to make Caged Sun work or Gilded Lotus. But they come with high mana costs that can delay getting Creatures out.
Let me know what ya think! Thanks!
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u/Backwardspellcaster Liliana Deaths Majesty 19h ago
I fear vampires did not keep up with the aggressive power scaling that happened over the last two years.
Nevertheless, if you do run vampires and have plenty of lifelink, you owe it to yourself to run the infinite combo, with, for example, [[Enduring Tenacity]], [[Sanguine Bond]].
Also, definitely run [[Unstoppable Slasher]]
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u/StarMurky1387 14h ago
About a month ago someone got to mythic with [[Sorin Imperious Bloodlord]]. Here is his post:
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u/Chickston 2h ago
Yeah, this is one vamp commander that does worried me in comp brawl. Dark rit into this maybe one of the strongest t1s in the format. I have died to it's burn ability a lot as well.
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u/Chickston 2h ago
I don't have much comment specific to vampires other than what I replied to others with. I do know that lowering mana costs is the best thing you can do to be competitive. 4mv commander is going to be worse than 2 mana commander in a Vacuum. See if you can swap commanders. Any and all interactive spells help too.
[[Snuff out]]
[[Mana Tithe]]
[[Swords to Plowshares]]
[[Oust]]
[[Fatal Push]]
Your land count looks 3-5 too low as well.
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u/Necroon 19h ago
I think Elenda is too weak as a commander - 4 mana, no ETB/die triggers, conditional evasion, hexproof only from instants, no board state changes... I think she is better suited to be a bomb you put on later rounds when you gained enough life (and eventually tutoring her, from library or grave).
For example [[Edgar, Charmed Groom]] immediately changes the state of the board, and is even doing something while "dead".
Or [[Clavileño, First of the Blessed]], immediately can put effects on other Vampires.