When You Rise Again, Rise a Vampire Knight

Commander / EDH* BR (Rakdos) Knights Theme/Gimmick Tribal Vampires

Konglicker

Creature (41)

• 1x Adaptive Automaton
• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Ashenmoor Liege
• 1x Black Knight
• 1x Blood Knight
• 1x Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip
• 1x Bogardan Lancer
• 1x Brass Herald
• 1x Burning Shield Askari
• 1x Cadaverous Knight
• 1x Captivating Vampire
• 1x Corpse Connoisseur
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dakmor Lancer
• 1x Dauthi Mercenary
• 1x Eastern Paladin
• 1x Fallen Askari
• 1x Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
• 1x Hanweir Lancer
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Hero of Oxid Ridge
• 1x Ihsan's Shade
• 1x Knight of Stromgald
• 1x Kulrath Knight
• 1x Lim-Dul's Paladin
• 1x Magus of the Coffers
• 1x Marauding Knight
• 1x Markov Dreadknight
• 1x Marton Stromgald
• 1x Order of the Ebon Hand
• 1x Order of Yawgmoth
• 1x Phyrexian Crusader
• 1x Quag Vampires
• 1x Sanguine Guard
• 1x Searing Spear Askari
• 1x Stromgald Crusader
• 1x Stromkirk Captain
• 1x Stromkirk Condemned
• 1x Suq'Ata Lancer
• 1x Telim'Tor
• 1x Western Paladin

Land (38)

• 1x Akoum Refuge
• 1x Ancient Ziggurat
• 1x Bloodfell Caves
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Cinder Marsh
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Foreboding Ruins
• 1x Lantern-Lit Graveyard
• 1x Lavaclaw Reaches
• 1x Molten Slagheap
• 9x Mountain
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Shimmering Grotto
• 8x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Peak
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms

Commander (1)

Artifact (10)

• 1x Ashes of the Fallen
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Door of Destinies
• 1x Eldrazi Monument
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Hazoret's Monument
• 1x Obelisk of Urd
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Witchbane Orb

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Cover of Darkness
• 1x Larceny
• 1x Oversold Cemetery
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Stensia Masquerade

Instant (1)

• 1x Entomb

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This is a tribal build centered on Olivia, Mobilized for War, a legendary creature card with a lot of sentimental value to me. While not my first ever commander (that honor goes to Meren of Clan Nel Toth), she's the first legendary creature card I've ever pulled out of a pack. I pulled her in my first draft ever, in which I got 3rd place.

She has a rather complex ability that revolves around discarding cards and turning creatures I control into Vampires (plus whatever other types they have). I want to leverage her ability, but at the same time, I wanted to build a tribal deck. Her previous incarnation, at least until the release of the Mardu Vampire legends in Commander 2017, was usually the go-to leader for Vampire tribal. In another flash of inspiration, I saw Haakon, Stromgald Scourge and desperately wanted to build a Knight tribal deck. Haakon's reanimation ability is nuts, but the fact that I can only cast him from my graveyard discouraged me from putting him at the helm of a deck. However, when I held Olivia, Mobilized for War and Haakon side-by-side, I saw the insane potential and decided to build a Vampire Knight Dual Tribal deck. With the two legends on the field simultaneously, I can discard knights for Olivia's trigger and reanimate them with Haakon to trigger Olivia once more, creating a battalion of Vampire Knights with haste and +1/+1 counters. The goal of this Dual Tribal Deck is to smash face with these beefed Vampire Knights and gain extra value on discard triggers.

To get Haakon and his knights into the graveyard as quickly as possible to start the engine, I need tutors and discard outlets. Entomb, Buried Alive and Corpse Connoisseur are the best options in addition to traditional tutors. Faithless Looting-type effects also work very well in this creature-heavy deck, allowing me to draw gas and pitch Knights to the graveyard. Olivia herself can pitch Haakon to the graveyard in the early game with the ability that he will soon abuse.

The next component of the deck is the creature package, the bulk of the deck, comprised mostly of Knights and some Vampires. The Knight tribe's core competency is combat. Flanking is an ability popular with knights that allows them to trade up with stronger creatures while discouraging opponents from blocking with 1/1 deathtouchers. Another common ability is protection from colors, mostly white. As a result, the white player's ability to flood the board with tokens is useless against me. The white player's only defense against my deck is Wrath of God and its cousins, but even then, I'll just reanimate my army and keep swinging. The Vampires in the deck offer tribal synergies or synergize with the deck's discard subtheme.

The next component in the deck contains all of the tribal synergy cards, mostly artifacts, enchantments and support creatures. A majority of them are buffs.

This deck also has a discard subtheme, so a few cards that allow me to gain extra value whenever I discard a card through Olivia are necessary. The most insane of these is Archfiend of Ifnir, a demon that continuously powers down my opponents' creatures and eventually wipes the board.

Since I'm casting knights from my graveyard instead of reanimating them for free, I need the classic black Big Mana package of Cabal Coffers, Magus of the Coffers, Crypt Ghast and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

I hope you enjoy my one-of-a-kind vampire knight deck! Please make any and all suggestions and I will consider. Lemme know if you got the Kingdom of Heaven reference. You get cool points if you did.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 39 - 0 Rares 27 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.60
Tokens	Vampire 2/2 B