Orzhov Vampires is a deck I hesitated making until Rivals came out, considering it was somewhat weak with only the card pool of Ixalan (though it did make an appearance at the Pro Tour as mono-White). Now that we have more pieces, we can at least attempt to create a competitive version of vampires for Standard.
There have been a few builds of vampires floating around the internet since spoiler season, ranging from lists using Forerunner of the Legion to tutor up one-ofs, to go-wide strategies utilizing Oketra's Monument. The possible directions to take are numerous, but one thing is clear; the best, or perhaps most efficient, build has not been found yet. Here, we will attempt to find said build.
An interesting piece of tech in this build is Gonti's Machinations. Since we have 6x Deserts that pay life, it will be a 1-mana Lightning Helix to the face, giving us some extra reach and lifegain when we need it. Additionally, it untaps Famished Paladin if we need it to.
Speaking of the paladin, originally I had 4x Gifted Aetherborn in its place. Considering the somewhat tough mana requirement, I decided to cut it out for potentially more raw power. If you have any suggestions for it, please let me know as this is a pretty flexible spot.
Gideon of the Trials deserves a mention here. I included 1 in the main and 2 in the sideboard for general versatility and raw power. It's great against any deck, and I'm considering putting more in the main.
I firmly believe that vampires has a strong shot at being competitive in this upcoming Standard season, in some way or another. It has enough variety where it can waver from a midrange to an aggro deck quickly. For this list, we will be creating an aggro deck akin to the Weenie White deck of Shadows over Innistrad Standard (here's a link if you need some reference: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=13589&d=279984&f=ST ).
To have some sort of guideline, I modeled the build after Weenie White, and considering the pieces we have now, it is very easy to do so (Anointer of Champions, Duskborne Skymarcher, Always Watching , Radiant Destiny).
I cut my mana curve at 3, so options like Sanctum Seeker and Twilight Prophet are not exactly what I'm looking for. If you have any suggestions for this, leave a comment, as any feedback is highly appreciated!
The sideboard can use a little more tuning. Considering the new meta, a few decks I had in mind are Mono-Red (Desert's Hold), Approach Control (Duress), and God-Pharoah's Gift (Sentinel Totem).
