Vein Ripper

Creature — Vampire Assassin

Flying

Ward—Sacrifice a creature. (Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player sacrifices a creature.)

Whenever a creature dies, target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. (Dying is being put into the graveyard from the battlefield. Tokens enter the graveyard before they cease to exist.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Standard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (11)

SefTheReject on Bordello of Blood

3 weeks ago

YamishiTheWickedOne further testing of the historic build I replaced the 1 drops that filled in for seer with Vampire of the Dire Moon and it’s worked incredibly well with Vito and another addition Vein Ripper. Once I can get 2, they’ll be replacing vraan. Vraan has been a decent card, but ripper is naughty. 3 games dropped on turn 3 via sorin, 2 snap conceded. I know we loose the scry ability with seer, but built in removal and lifelink for 1 seems like a stronger play.

TheForsakenOne on K'rrik, Manipulator of Life (Totals)

1 month ago

This deck seems very .... confused. On one hand you have swamp synergies, on the other sacrifice synergies, and then you have weird cards like Elder Brain that don't fit into either. I'd suggest picking one of the two theme's and sticking to it.

Cards I would suggest cutting:

Withercrown (just not a good card)

Crypt Incursion (Too situational, its going to be dead a lot of the time)

Xathrid Gorgon (Too slow)

Visara the Dreadful (Removal magnet + too slow)

Consume Spirit (There are better mana sinks than this)

Corrupt (Needs too many swamps to be worth the mana)

Liliana's Shade (Also just not a good card)

Elder Brain (just a weird card in general and too inconsistent)

Cards I would suggest adding:

Abhorrent Overlord (Makes a buch of creatures for your sacrifice triggers)

Pontiff of Blight, Thrull Parasite, Basilica Screecher (More extort cards that synergize very well with K'rrik)

Exsanguinate (Better mana sink than consume spirit)

Nirkana Revenant (Another mana doubler for swamps)

Vein Ripper (Very good for this kind of deck, but it just came out and is currently pricey so I'd wait to buy this one)

Bitterblossom, Dreadhorde Invasion (make a creature every turn for your sacrifice outlets)

Viscera Seer the classic free sacrifice outlet. Also see Woe Strider

Ayara, First of Locthwain (Free creature with K'rrik out and pings opponents every time a black creature enters which usually happens a lot with sac decks)

legendofa on im lost

1 month ago

CrimsonMist4204 Yeah, Rakdos Vampires is top tier in Pioneer right now. I don't think the Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord + Vein Ripper is is inherently "too" powerful--it's definitely strong, but you have to have both cards available. Sorin's an engine by itself, but the Ripper probably isn't going to come out by itself. It's only a (very strong) Sorin payoff, and this only works in Vampire decks. Put this in a discard shell or something, and it's a wasted card slot.

But I'm not a Pioneer player, so this is guesswork on my part. Is it reasonable to hardcast Vein Ripper? Can it find a home in other decks?

Infernalshell on Inflicting Pain and Everlasting Bloodshed

1 month ago

Profet93 these are great suggestions, especially the lockout pieces in black since those are cards I'd never thought of using (or even really heard of before) and that'll protect my board pretty nicely. I also didn't realize there was a baby Cabal Coffers out there so that'll be an immediate include over Mortuary Mire or Grasping Dunes and Thespian's Stage will likely replace the other one since that'll give me access to better ramp.

The wincon(s) at this moment is either through combat damage or through sacrifice synergies with Syr Konrad, the Grim, Vein Ripper, and/or Zulaport Cutthroat and as a last resort Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon will help close out some games too. I toyed with the idea of Chain of Smog + Professor Onyx for an alternate wincon but that felt like it would be too close to cEDH for my pod since we generally don't play combos that are less than 3 cards.

legendofa on im lost

1 month ago

I haven't seen the match in question, but if I interpret the question correctly, the second match of the Top 8 had a Vein Ripper crewing a Smuggler's Copter, which attacks. Jean-Emmanuel Depraz blocks with Arclight Phoenix. The Smuggler's Copter and Arclight Phoenix trade and die. This triggers the Vein Ripper's life drain ability twice. gaining 4 life for its controller and causing JED to lose 4 life.

If I understand the OP right, the Vein Ripper doesn't cause the Smuggler's Copter to be sacrificed at any time, it simply trades in combat with Arclight Phoenix. The Vein Ripper's life drain ability is not connected to the ward, which Gidgetimer explained well. Since two creatures died in this exchange, the Vein Ripper triggers twice, creating two instances of +2 life/-2 life, for a total of +4 life/-4 life.

Gidgetimer on im lost

1 month ago

You can link cards by enclosing their name in double brackets.

The only card that is clearly named in here is Vein Ripper. And from context I'm going to assume that of the 6 Pioneer legal Sorins that you are talking about Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord.

If you use the +1 on Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord with only Vein Ripper out you are correct that sacrificing the Vein Ripper will trigger the "whenever a creature dies" ability causing another drain for 2 on top of the drain for 3 causing a total between the two abilities of 5 points drained.

You seem to be mistaken on how ward works. "Ward- (COST)" means that whenever the creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter that spell or ability unless they pay (COST). It doesn't matter if Vein Ripper's controller doesn't have any other creatures. The spell is countered unless the person targeting Vein Ripper sacrifices a creature.

I can't make out what you are asking about the Top 8 game. I don't know what card you are calling "chopper", how Vein Ripper is sacrificing anything, or what you mean by "the ability to gain ward says 2-2". If you can provide clarification I may be able to help you understand that game as well.

CR reference on how Ward works:

702.21a Ward is a triggered ability. Ward [cost] means “Whenever this permanent becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter that spell or ability unless that player pays [cost].”

DemonDragonJ on Savage Destruction

1 month ago

I have replaced Massacre Wurm with Vein Ripper, since the latter creature is generally superior to the former.

I also have replaced Vulturous Zombie with Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, since Korvold is definitely the superior creature, in this case, and I understand that he would be a better general for this deck than would Kresh, but I originally built this deck when EDH was still a new format, and options for generals were limited, so I deliberately chose generals from the Alara block for my first five shard/arc-colored EDH decks, and I wish to remain committed to that idea.

DemonDragonJ on Reap what is Sown

1 month ago

I have replaced Massacre Wurm with Vein Ripper, since the latter creature is generally superior to the former.