Welcoming Vampire

Creature — Vampire

Flying

Whenever one or more other creatures with power 2 or less enter the battlefield under your control, draw a card. This ability triggers only once each turn.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	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
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (46)

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

4 hours ago

First a quick introduction. I've been playing magic off and on for years. When this site first started out, I was super active and then I stopped playing. I recently got back into it and plunged deep into the Commander format. I love building decks around interesting concepts and often trying to break cards.

My slightly ambitious goal is to create a series of threads that show my thought process as I build a commander deck. I figure it will serve two purposes: First, it will aid newer players who have some precon decks and perhaps are looking to upgrade them or they see a commander and want to build it, but aren't sure how. The second is purely self-motivated in that more experienced players can fine tune my own logic and make suggestions for my own improvement.

So with that, the first commander deck I'm going to build here is Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds. This is a card that begs to broken and creates for interesting and powerful decks. There are also several different lines you can choose to go with it. You can make it go infinite if you like degeneracy or don't like the people in your playgroup, or you can decide to go the way of building lots of tokens quickly and then turning them sideways and swinging.

So first things first, we need to think about what the commander actually does and what it is going to need to do that effectively. First, it says allows all nontoken creatures to tap and create tokens that I control that entered the battlefield this turn. So a couple things to point out: First is that it is tokens not creature tokens specifically, so treasures, clues, food, etc. is fair game. Secondly, it doesn't have to be my turn that the tokens came in, you can activate the ability at instant speed if you create a token on your opponent's turn. Now Ghired also is only 3 mana in Naya colors with Haste which means he's going to come down early in the game, so we'll want some other creatures out there when he comes down to start building up tokens right away.

With his abilities in mind, there are a couple things that we want to think about: Cards that create tokens, cards that double tokens, cards that untap things, and cards that do interesting things when they're tapped, example Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero, who comes down early as well, and when she is tapped I gain life and draw a card. We will obviously need to consider interaction, ramp, and card draw, but those are secondary in my thoughts. Every deck needs those, but what items you add of those often depends on what your deck is trying to do. In this case, we want to make tokens, tap creatures, make more tokens.

Token Generators

So a couple really good token generators here to start would be things that keep making them rather than one offs. In my playtesting Oltec Matterweaver is hard to beat. It comes in early (turn 2 if you can get a sol ring). When you cast a creature spell you can copy a target artifact or bring out a 1/1 gnome. Turn 1 you play a plains and a sol ring. Turn 2 you bring this out, turn 3 you bring out Ghired, creating a copy of sol ring, tap your Oltec Matterweaver and create another sol ring. You now have 3 sol rings on the field on turn 3... You are now the archenemy, congrats?

Some other standouts are Emmara, Soul of the Accord who when tapped creates a 1/1 soldier with lifelink. So tapping will actually create two tokens. Thousand Moons Smithy  ^Flip is another beast of a card. It comes down turn 4, Ghired is already out along with any other low cost creatures. Let's say you had a Birds of Paradise and Ghired when this comes down and maybe a mana rock. You create a 5/5 Gnome (2 creatures, 2 artifacts, and the gnome itself). Now you tap the bird and Ghired and create two more Gnomes. You now have 3 7/7s, on turn 4...

Honorable mentions here are things like Smothering Tithe who will create treasures each opponent's turn, tap a creature and create another. Rain of Riches, create some treasures, copy them cast something and get cascade.

Also, populate is a thing, I like Growing Ranks and Nesting Dovehawk for that.

Doublers

Ok, so doublers is a pretty easy topic, there are quite a few out there, they are expensive and honestly for this deck you don't need much. I chose a couple that I particularly like for this and by like I mean I own them and didn't have to go out and spend $50-60. Examples are Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  ^Flip, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Primal Vigor (careful as this one applies to everyone not just you).

Untapping Abilities

Untapping abilites can make it even worse as time goes on. If you have a Seedborn Muse you untap each upkeep so they draw a card, Smothering Tithe creates a treasure, during their end step you tap your creatures creating more treasures. Untap on the next opponent's untap step, rinse and repeat.

This is also where infinite combos begin to happen. Sunstrike Legionnaire untaps everytime a creature enters the battlefield. Make a creature token, tap sunstrike legionnaire, create another creature token, sunstrike legionnaire untaps, rinse and repeat, gg. Midnight Guard works too for one mor mana. Other options include making copies of your own creatures that untap creatures when they enter the battlefield like Hyrax Tower Scout, Zealous Conscripts, Sparring Mummy. Mix that with notable salty cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Molten Duplication, Splinter Twin, Jaxis, the Troublemaker and you're off to infinite again. (Jaxis uses his ability, sparring mummy comes in untaps him, now Jaxis just taps to make a copy of the sparring mummy token (from Ghired) which has haste, it comes in untaps Jaxis, rinse and repeat, swing with a legion of sparring mummies)

Cards that do cool things when tapped aren't super plentiful, but the two I've mentioned already are great for this deck. (Wylie and Emmara).

Interaction, ramp, card draw

Now for the ramp, interaction, and card draw. Ramp is fairly straightforward, since we have the Oltec Matterweaver, I opted to put in some signets, but left some other stones out. Normally when I'm in green I go heavy on green ramp. I opted for cheap ramp spells like Rampant Growth, Farseek, Three Visits and Birds of Paradise (could maybe use more mana dorks since having a body later will help in producing larger tokens).

Interaction is super important in this one. Board wipes are coming, targeted removal is coming, so need to prepare, but we also need to be flexible in taking out our opponents. So to save us from board wipes, we have Heroic Intervention, the ubiquitous and hopefully soon to be reprinted (one can dream) Teferi's Protection, Boros Charm, and Smuggler's Surprise (which is heroic intervention in disguise).

Getting rid of threats is crucial, so Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares are useful, but not as useful as Beast Within, Generous Gift, and Stroke of Midnight. These obviously target more than just creatures, but also produce tokens. There are situations where a well-timed beast within on your own treasure token to create a 3/3 beast that you can copy a bunch of times is the right play. That make it not just removal, but also a token generator.

Finally, we come to card draw. Since we are producing tokens (hopefully most turns) we can include things like Bennie Bracks, Zoologist and Idol of Oblivion. I also like Welcoming Vampire for this deck. It is creature heavy so Guardian Project is great, so is Beast Whisperer and Garruk's Uprising. Esper Sentinel is always good. We already have Wylie from earlier. Getting card draw is vital to the survival of any deck and particularly this one as we need to be producing tokens regularly and you need cards to produce them. I chose to run about 11 card draw engines in the deck to ensure I'm drawing regularly.

Lands... I mean... make sure you have dual lands in the deck and triomes if you can. One noteworthy utility land is Grove of the Guardian which can have a nice payoff when you create an 8/8 with a few creatures out along with Ghired.

I'll post the deck that I built from this thought process on my page in case you want to see the final product. And if you made it this far thanks for joining me on this, I hope it was helpful. Feel free to comment on how you would do it differently or cards that should have been mentioned.

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Mother’s Home Dearies!

2 months ago

This looks pretty cool! I'm still pondering if I should build Mama Bear, especially because I already have Goreclaw. But then again, Duskana is basically the antithesis to her. We'll see.

Some cards I'd consider for this deck are these:

Welcoming Vampire. It's not a 2/2 itself, but draws additional cards. Seems good enough.

Wild Pair. It weirdly doesn't work here if you have anthem effects, but it's insane with a deck full of 2/2s.

Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald. Draws cards and makes quite a lot of 2/2s.

Hornet Queen. It's a 2/2, but it brings 6 flying, deathtouching power. Great for defense. And just imagine casting literally anything with a Wild Pair out to get this thing in addition.

Bane of Progress. 'Nuff said ;)

Thanks to Duskana caring about base P/T, Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma actually works quite well here. If you properly stack her trigger and Duskana's, your 2/2s will become 6/6 trampling forces of nature.

Dusk / Dawn is perfect for the deck. Boardwipe? Check. Big splashy value spell? Check!

Ayula's Influence would need quite a lot of land recursion to play it here, so that's a clear maybe.

skoobysnackz on Foods and Doods

2 months ago

Hey! Thanks for the recommendations Coward_Token! I know Delney doesn't double Merry or Welcoming Vampire's triggers but it still does synergize with almost two thirds of the creatures in the deck so I think its still worth it. I like the Monologue Tax, though Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff arguably does it better, still redundancy might not be a bad thing. I think Smuggler's Share is really interesting, but maybe too easy to play around the part that gives me the treasures? I love Revel in Riches, had it in and Admiral Beckett Brass deck a while back so it could definitely be a worthy inclusion. Not sure the rest do more than anything I already have but I'll do some testing and then decide. I really appreciate the suggestions!

JoltsOfEnergy on Can Dhelney make Welcoming Vampire …

2 months ago

Here's a question regarding Welcoming Vampire.

If I have a Delney, Streetwise Lookout, will Welcoming Vampire trigger an additional time when I play a creature with power 2 or less? It doesn't say Delney copies this ability, rather it triggers an additional time. And Welcoming Vampire says it triggers only once each turn. How does this interaction work?

Last_Laugh on A Little Sprinkling of Some Inklings

3 months ago

I'd say Nightshade Harvester, Sunscorch Regent, and Luminarch Aspirant. If the harvester is a meta call for lots of ramp/landfall, I'd understand the inclusion though.

That starts to cut into your creature count so another change I would suggest is switching from your 1 time sorcery speed draw like Read the Bones, Night's Whisper, and Sign in Blood to things like Starscream, Power Hungry  ^Flip, Tymna the Weaver, and Welcoming Vampire.

Tocasia's Welcome and Plumb the Forbidden are good options here too but I would keep the creature count at around 25.

Rhadamanthus on Delney and Welcoming Vampire

3 months ago

To help make sure everyone understands what's going on in the question, it's best to give links for the card's involved. For cards already in the Tapped Out database, you can just put double square brackets around the card's name: Welcoming Vampire. For cards not in the database yet, you can provide a link to another place that has them: https://scryfall.com/card/mkm/12/delney-streetwise-lookout

The Vampire's ability will just trigger once and Delney won't be able to make it trigger an additional time. It also won't trigger again later in the same turn if another small creature enters the battlefield. This is due to the following rule:

603.2d An ability may state that a triggered ability triggers additional times. In this case, rather than simply determining that such an ability has triggered, determine how many times it should trigger, then that ability triggers that many times. An effect that states that an ability triggers additional times doesn’t invoke itself repeatedly and doesn’t apply to other effects that affect how many times an ability triggers.

The important part here is "determine how many times it should trigger". Since Welcoming Vampire specifically says it only triggers once per turn, the additional triggers from Delney's ability won't be applied.

Coward_Token on Murders at Karlov Manor

3 months ago

neo!Massacre Girl: Any good non-symmetrical burn creatures that can take advantage of this in mono-black? (Stuff like Plague Spitter will wear down your own stuff)

Kylox, Visionary Inventor: Very expensive at 7 MV, but seems fun. Works well with token-making spell cards. (Any good Ball Lightning-type token creators?)

Case of the Ransacked Lab: Finally a mono-blue noncreature Goblin Electromancer at this mana value! It turning into a quasi-Archmage Emeritus later on is just the cherry on the top. I like Cases in general too, being obviously very similar to Classes.

Dog Walker: disguise flavor feels kinda weird here

Delney, Streetwise Lookout: AFAIK e.g. Welcoming Vampire doesn't work with stuff like this. At least Esper Sentinel is still good. Also, neat Spark Double imitation with commanders like Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff

IHATENAMES on Angelic Spiritual Soul Sisters

3 months ago

A few things.

1st off. I think a soul sisters deck and angel deck are not compatible. Soul sisters make and want as many lifegain triggers as possible. Maximizing cards like Voice of the Blessed . Angels i believe want to maintain x life above your starting life and gain in chunks of 5 for probably the best angel Resplendent Angel. These seem simular but that creates tough choices in deck design.

Book of Exalted Deeds with creature lands is a combo with Mutavault some decks just can't beat this.

I think you want the card draw off of Shelter but I personally think that card sux. You would likely be better with a green splash for just Collected Company or run a cheaper protection spell like Brave the Elements or a better card draw engine Welcoming Vampire perhaps.

Speaker of the Heavens is a suprise op card i have a angel deck on mtga for historic and it is a great agro card angels needed.

You are light in 1 key piece of any deck. Interaction.

March of Otherworldly Light is a favorite of mine.

Path to Exile could be decent

Dawn Charm niche counterspell/ protect a creature

Surge of Salvation protection vs opposing aggro

I'd suggest looking at another decks sideboard to help build a better one Check out decks like modern d&t or soul sister or angels and see what you want. But be sure to cover a few things.

Graveyard hate like Soul-Guide Lantern Something to fight control many different approachesCavern of Souls Thalia, Guardian of Thraben Artifact/enchantment hate Disenchant

And something for decks that you think you need more help with and expect to face. Perhaps a boardwipe for decks that go wide Doomskar or any other archetype/problem that needs fixing.