What does white bring to Vampire Tribal?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Aug. 15, 2017, 6:43 p.m. by Ragon_Wolfbane
That question can be really easy to answer. You can list a ton of white commander staples to say that they add to the Vampire tribal deck, giving it more removal in the form of Utter End or Anguished Unmaking, but what is the cards that are white that really make you say 'This goes into Mardu Vampires' or 'What White card is a staple for this tribe'?
I'm sort of mixed up in a bunch of different thoughts really and I'm not going to say that one answer is really the best, but as an aggressive Vampire Tribal deck I think white adds cards such as Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Shared Triumph, True Conviction, Anointed Procession, and even something less known such as Fervent Charge.
Meanwhile if you're going down a theme that more people seem to be exploring with Edgar Markov, Aristocrats, I think white still adds cards especially useful for that theme such as Blind Obedience for extorting and keeping enemies down, Tithe Drinker to also extort, and even Athreos, God of Passage
Until Ixalan comes out and we get those sweet mono-white vampires added to the list of creatures to put into a Mardu vampire deck, white's role feels more like a support role that gives us access to really powerful removal, but doesn't outright help the overall vampire theme of the deck like Black or even red. I'd really like everyone else's thoughts on this though! Maybe I'm just crazy or I'm not seeing something here, but again feel free to comment!
Cliffhaven Vampire is Sanguine Bond with legs.
Drana's Emissary meh (decent in Karlov though)
Blood-Cursed Knight really meh
Blood Baron of Vizkopa not too shabby
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter CMC is a bit steep.
+3 different Sorin PW
So aside from a few vampires, Sorin (v2.0, 3.0, and 4.0), adds a major life gain aspect to the deck as well as tokens. Although cheap, Test of Endurance or Felidar Sovereign become possible wincons. Though if lifegain was what you were wanting you really wouldn't need the addition of .
August 15, 2017 8:29 p.m.
Cliffhaven Vampire wishes it was Sanguine Bond. Still not a bad effect though if you're going to be gaining it in little increments.
August 15, 2017 8:34 p.m.
Aside from being a creature, he can still pull his weight by going infinite with Exquisite Blood. That is assuming your opponents don't remove him first (as with all things in MtG lol).
August 15, 2017 9:35 p.m.
CaptainGalvanic says... #6
White offers some good anthems, like Glory of Warfare, Dictate of Heliod, Tempt with Glory, and Campaign of Vengeance to name a few.
I like the aristocrat/Lifegain substrategy, and since some vampires get extra value from Humans dying, I think there may be room for some high value Humans, such as Cartel Aristocrat, Odric, Lunarch Marshal, Odric, Master Tactician, and Knight Exemplar (for protecting Edgar from removal before he hits the field). Since not enough vampires have lifelink, Angelic Skirmisher could also be used in some builds.
As for Athreos, I'm kind of on the fence. He has awesome value with aristocrats, but he isn't a vampire, he is unlikely to do much for the first few turns he is on the board (other than make you a target), and half of your creatures won't get anything off of his ability, because they are tokens. Only time will tell, but for now, I'm using his slot to complete the combo with Ashnod's Altar, Deathrender, and Heirloom Blade ([Heirloom Blade] is shown here: (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=433293)).
August 15, 2017 9:43 p.m.
Pretty sure the point of white is adding the best reanimation spells in EDH.
etc
A lot of vampires have nothing for power so it lets you get some pretty good draw off Mentor of the Meek.
Iunno. Support color, really. Not enough "cool vampires" in White. There are some, clearly as pointed out by others, but mostly white is there to make you more resilient and to have more/better answers.
August 16, 2017 midnight
And never forget that having the best hate never hurts...
Leyline of Sanctity
Rest in Peace
Stony Silence
August 16, 2017 7:59 a.m.
TheRedGoat says... #9
I figure that most lists for vampire decks already run efficient removal as well as reanimation effects. Mono black vampries in particular will have these effects in abundance, but that comes at the cost of the more hefty and aggressive mono red or red/x vampires.
As vampires stand, with only the 2 versions of Olivia for rakdos vampire decks to lead them, I figure both of those play rather differently. The original olivia being ramp centric to abuse her ability, and the newer one being the truly aggressive vampires. After these only Garza Zol, Plague Queen has any possibility of legit tribal support for vampires (just from her versatility and blue for card draw), with he Dimir one easily dismissed and Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter maybe being able to play the aristocrat style of vampires?
Because of this last one, white isn't so much being added to the vampire line up as much as being partnered with the other 2 main colors and officially making mardu the colors for vampire tribal as endorsed by Wotc (lord that sounds so bad). In this case, any current Olivia decks would be gaining the one effect the never had, which is enchantment hate, and Vish Kal decks in turn would gain the aggro support and burn of red to go along with their likely reanimator/aristocrat build. Mono black builds have enough variety of their own to not really change commander choice and just take the generic support C17 brought.
Truth be told, the vampire legends themselves are what change how vampires play, because efficient powerful token based vampires didn't exist before Edgar, and while a life gain strategy has been around I would argue that Licia brings a strong voltron strategy. Marthas sadly fills a role too similar to Queen Marchesa in my mind unless, given his story background, you want to make some kind of freaky anti-vampire deck with him at the helm.
So, summing all of that up, I'd say white adds the "go wide" strategy, equipment support, and enchantment removal.
August 16, 2017 12:48 p.m.
Am I the only who sees a spot for Cathars' Crusade in Vampire tribal? Aside from the obvious bigger creatures bonus, some vampires gain benefits from having extra counters on them.
August 16, 2017 1:47 p.m.
Ragon_Wolfbane says... #11
Thanks everyone for your thoughts and I'm really interested to see what will come from Ixalan. DudelRok I do think there's some great reanimation in white and though I know it's power level is way less than something like Sun Titan I do really like that Vampire mini-sun titan coming out in Ixalan which will help put white as a more a part of the Vampire package for Mardu (The name of which is Bishop of Rebirth and I'll put a link to it at the end for anyone who wants to read.)
TheRedGoat Thanks for your thoughts as well. I agree with you that Licia actually feels like Voltron/Lifegain rather than something a Vampire deck really wants over all. I mean unless you just have enough life gain by chance and just get a 3 mana 4/4 with a lot of upside that also is a vampire.
KingMathoro Thanks for also saying I'm not crazy. In the end I mainly always thought of Vampire decks as being either a control style deck with some high value Vampires to help maintain control till you combo out in flavorful ways or more of a mid-range styled deck that focused on lords helping you make things big or wrecking shop. Now with this Commander we suddenly have a way to generate a fair amount of tokens. Plus pairing a Sac-outlet with some sort of way to return creature cards to your hand to cast again for more tokens sounds amazing. Going wide just never was a thing Vampires did really well from what I saw.
Also another White Vampire that I like even if it only fits into a go-wide strategy.
August 17, 2017 12:36 a.m.
CaptainGalvanic says... #12
I think there are some more obscure bulk rares that could work for some mardu vampire builds. Path of Bravery is a decent choice for decks that want to keep the lifegain substrategy, but are mostly focused on going wide with Edgar. Similar rush decks could benefit from Goblin War Drums (also known as diet Iroas, God of Victory) and Whip of Erebos. I'll post more fringe cards here if I learn about them.
KingMathoro says... #2
Nah I wouldn't say you are crazy at all. I just think Wizards just wanted to preempt the Ixalan Vamps by giving a Commander for them in the form of Edgar. But to answer the question overall I would say that White does bring quite a bit. As of right now I would also agree that White only acts as support for the deck. Which in theory and in practice isn't bad at all per se but it does lack Vamp creature support currently. Removal is a perfect example and also you see cards that help out like Blind Obedience other cards that help out are the life-gain ones of which White has a lot of like Boon Reflection or Beacon of Immortality. Which conveniently Vampires really like. I can go on but for the most part like you said until Ixalan we are mainly seeing White purely as a support color nothing more and certainly nothing less.
August 15, 2017 8:14 p.m.