by Elton Gahr

Created on: September 28, 2009

One of the most traditional problems of small creatures in Magic the gathering is that they are not useful later in the game. A creature with one power and one toughness is useful early in the game but when you draw it on the fifth turn it becomes a best a chump blocker for a turn. The vampires of Zendikar have found a way around that traditional weakness by having creatures which get some type of bonus when the opponent has 10 or less life left.

"Guul Draz Vampire" is a 1/1 creature for one black. The type of creature that is generally seen, played in a handful of decks that need something to fill it out and then completely forgotten for all time. Except that in Zendikar as a vampire it is something else.

If your opponent has 10 life or less "Guul Draz Vampire" gets +2/+1 and Intimidate. This means that suddenly a creature that was largely useless before may be a 3/2 unblockable creature for one black mana and no side effects.

Assuming your opponent does not have any black or artifact creatures this puts them on a very short clock. By itself Guul Draz Vampire will kill the opponent in 4 turns if they have ten life. But the real value of this card is that it can also come into play early and slip through for a few points of damage early without any real cost.

In limited this is a great card. Evasion is always powerful in limited and often small creatures can be quite dangerous since decks are slower and games go longer allowing them to attack more times. In addition to that if you can make an opponent waste his removal on a creature that cost you only one black you are almost certainly ahead in the deal.

In constructed this is going to have a harder time finding a spot. It has the possibility of being a strong card but unless there are good vampire specific cards in is unlikely to make it into a great many decks. The versatility of this card is not enough to make it invaluable to anyone and the power isn't all that impressive. Even if you are able to get it out early as a 3/2 creature it isn't going to be a game winning card very often, but it isn't something that most people are going to be able to ignore either.

Learn more about this author, Elton Gahr.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.