by Elton Gahr

Created on: October 17, 2009

Vampires in magic the gathering have typically been seen as medium to large creatures that stood generally alone, gaining power through death and damage. And as such they were good creatures but as a collective there was very little advantage in using them together. Zendikar has remedied that in several ways making for a tribe that may be able to challenge some of the more established tribes eventually.

The first thing to ask if you are going to play a tribe is not what you will play on the fifth or sixth turn but what you will play on the first. Tribes generally live or die on the first few turns, not the last. For goblins there are a number of good answers, the same is true of elves but until Zendikar there have been very few ways to answer that for black that didn't start with Dark Ritual.

Now though vampires have choices. Blade of the Bloodchief is one possibility. And while it alone won't give you any real advantage as a 1 drop artifact it is quite good when attached to a vampire. This is because when a vampire has it it will give 2 +1/+1 counters whenever a creature is put into the graveyard from the battlefield. Since there are no requirements of how that creature is killed or whose creature it is this could add up quickly.

Another possibility is Guul Draz Vampire. This is a 1/1 for one black, which isn't great, but if your opponent has ten or less life it gets +2/+1 and intimidate. This makes it a card that can be useful early game to get in some damage and still valuable later.

Finally there is the vampire lacerator, a 2/2 for one black mana that does one damage a turn to you, unless your opponent has ten or less life. This is a bit more dangerous than the othes but a 2/2 is also far more likely to do damage in the first turns.

Once you have your first drop you need your 2 drop, this is easier in many ways as there is one clear choice that stands out. Gatekeeper of Malakir is a 2/2 for two black mana with a one black kicker that allows you to force an opponent to sacrifice a creature. This not only works well with vampires that gets value for creatures going to the graveyard, but allows you to double up on your creature removal and creature spots very cheaply.

One of the things that vampires generally lack are tribal enhancements. But there are a couple creatures that can help other vampires. Baron Von Senger has the ability to tap to regenerate a vampire other than himself. The other is Vampire Nocturnus which gives all vampires +2/+1 and flying so long as the top card in your library is black. Since this creature only costs four mana it could be a powerful effect in a vampire deck.

Although there may still be some need to grow vampire, especially in standard has a reasonable chance of being a playable tribe and I am looking forward to it.

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