While thinking of a deck feature for the week, I was browsing through some old pics on my personal computer and came upon the Magic days’ album in the past years. As I browsed through the pics, I saw a screenshot of a deck list. The list was the BR Vampires which I played in Grand Prix Singapore 2011. I then remembered that Vampire Nocturnus was reprinted and decided to check on probable Vampires to include in the Standard version of the deck.

Falkenrath Aristocrat, Stromkirk Noble & Vampire Nighthawk are good inclusions in the deck, and I also considered Stromkirk Captain as the other critter anthem. Here is the list I’ve came up with:

Lands
4 Blood Crypt
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Dragonskull Summit
3 Godless Shrine
1 Rakdos Guildgate
8 Swamp

Creatures
1 Bloodline Keeper/Lord of Lineage
2 Blood Artist
3 Falkenrath Aristocrat
1 Olivia Voldaren
4 Stromkirk Captain
4 Stromkirk Noble
4 Vampire Interloper
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Vampire Nocturnus

Spells
2 Dreadbore
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Tragic Slip
1 Undying Evil
2 Victim of Night

Note that this is again an untested list as I am trying to balance the mana curve of the creature spells given the limited choice of critters. There are a few one-of for the four drops slot for varied purposes and I don’t want to clog most of creature spells there.

The two-drop count is only six with a set of Vampire Interloper and two of Blood Artist. Interloper is obviously subpar second turn drop but follow it up with the captain or Nocturnus and you get a fast clock flyer. Stromkirk Noble is the only one drop of the deck which can grow & provide early clock and also won’t be a bad top deck late game with the eight anthem critters.

I’ve packaged the best removals from the Rakdos colors and also based it from the current metagame. Dealing with Aristocrats (both on the BRW and Junk colors) is the major concern here. It is usually a race game but with Nighthawks you can assure that life will be at your favor. You just have to get a good timing on killing their relevant creatures, like preventing them to Reckoner-Act kill you. Tragic Slip is your trump for their Falkenrath Aristocrat and Pillar for the Voice.

The sideboard I’ve listed reinforce more on the Aristocrats matchup, but with a twist in which the Godless shrines will prove useful.

Sideboard
3 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
2 Curse of Death’s Hold
2 Devour Flesh
1 Dreadbore
3 Duress
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Tormod’s Crypt

Blood Baron of Vizkopa is your weapon of choice against midrange & control decks. This is mainly your added threat as you board out irrelevant critters that are weak to spot removal. The set of Cavern of Souls make sure that it hits the board on your fifth turn, which your opponent should answer with Supreme Verdict or sacrifice spells. Duress helps protect you from these removals.

As mentioned earlier, your support card versus Aristocrats is the Curse of Death’s Hold. Additional Dreadbore is for relevant creature threats and planeswalker shenanigans while Devour Flesh obviously is for Bant Hexproof. The two copies of Pillar of Flame are boarded either against Voice or for fast Red decks.

As for Reanimator, I only included Tormod’s Crypt for board as you can outpower them before they ramp into Angel of Serenity. Just make sure it’s always ‘full moon’ for the Nocturnus and you kill their relevant creature. Curse can also be boarded in if they utilize Lingering Souls.

That’s about it for the Vampires Return deck suggestion.

Until next time.

@zeichen95 on Twitter