Advice Needed on Performance Tuning Midrange Tribal
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on March 31, 2019, 11:48 p.m. by GoldenAgeBatman
Deck in question: Dracu-Leeeee, Dracu-Laaaaa!
I originally envisioned this deck as a Madness themed one but found issues with it firing consistently. Since I don't want to lose my Vampire tribal theme I thought I'd go with more of a mid-range approach.
In the case of the above deck is it better to go with card hand disruption and card draw early on (e.g. Night's Whisper or should I go with hand disruption and low cost threats? e.g. Vampire Nighthawk and/or Gifted Aetherborn ?
I'm also looking at whether or not to keep in Mastermind's Acquisition or replace it with +1 more Vampire Nocturnus and/or Sanctum Seeker s.
Thank you in advance to anyone whom can help! I really appreciate your advice.
Note: I am planning on saving up for more Cavern of Souls if I need those or budget alternatives like Unclaimed Territory .
SP3CTR3_chelts says... #3
Vampire Nocturnus is nice but i would not play it in a deck were it is only active less than half the time. I also agree with redbird with the other drops.
Asylum Visitor is a great source of card advantage wilst being a low cost threat. i would run them instead of Vanquisher's Banner which whilst nice is too slow.
an added bonus about dropping Vampire Nocturnus , Vanquisher's Banner and Mastermind's Acquisition it significantly drops your curve making your only 4 drop sorin and no 5 drops allowing you to reduce your land count by 2 or 3.
April 1, 2019 3:17 a.m.
PlatinumOne says... #4
if you have any questions about why i use (or don't use) certain cards, feel free to ask.
Mardu Vampires
Modern
SCORE: 1 | 2 COMMENTS | 19 VIEWS
April 1, 2019 3:27 a.m.
lagotripha says... #5
I have a few vamps lists in the back catalogue. I've tended towards mono-black because I like to pretend to be 'the rack' for bad matchups, but I've played with mardu too.
The big question is what payoff you are looking at. You can go anywhere from pure aggro to midrange value, and since so many of the pieces work well together, the majority of options are viable.
If you have even a modest collection of vamps you can always bring something fresh to FNM which plays off the same manabase and uses the same hand disruption. This means that there is a vamps list that will work well in practically any meta, and sitting down against vamps you could be facing almost anything from pure 'small vamps/discard/burn' aggro right up to 'solemnity/unlife/ad nausiem/blood baron'.
I'm gonna try and give a quick overview of sets of cards and what they do. None of these sets are perfect, so tournament play is patchy, but some may sit in your local meta in a dominant position- use judgement and don't be scared to mix and match.
More aggro really likes lords (and Drana, Liberator of Malakir ), sac engines & Blade of the Bloodchief .
With all the small lifelinkers ( Indulgent Aristocrat , Gifted Aetherborn , Vampire Cutthroat do a lot). You play a very grindy game going over most aggro with lifelink and under most midrange with sac value. Card filtering makes a lot of value here, and things like Bloodghast / Faithless Looting (despite the meta being all graveyard hate all the time) put a lot of work in.
Madness vamps has Bloodghast engines and obscenities like Olivia, Mobilized for War / Haakon, Stromgald Scourge for vampire knight tribal, and similar 'high synergy/bad combo' setups can pack massive amounts of hand disruptiuon while cheap lifelink/deathtouch gums up the board.
Gaining a lot of life with more disruption into cards like Blood Baron of Vizkopa / Elusive Tormentor Flip is also viable, if you are comfortable executing a more old-school control list in your meta.
You also have compelling burn options- zombie infestation, sac outlet vamps and Alms of the Vein / Lightning Bolt / Gonti's Machinations does well.
Human sac outlets into Falkenrath Aristocrat hits hard, but most of what it wants to do is done better by 'all vampires into nocturnus' lists the moment Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle was printed.
April 1, 2019 7:42 a.m.
GoldenAgeBatman says... #6
Thank you for those options; I keep forgetting just how diverse you can get with Vampire strategies.
Try as I may I keep wanting to go back to Madness; I love the mechanic and people aren't usually expecting it. Plus, it's a built in defense against 8-Rack, aggressive card draws (I won a round in Legacy against a Howling Mine because of Madness) and other disruption.
Could the following list work?
2x Arid Mesa
2x Blood Crypt
4x Mountain
1x Plains
5x Swamp
4x Bloodghast (playing for 0cmc as discard)
2x Incorrigible Youths (playing for 3cmc madness)
3x Terminate
4x Thoughtseize
I will work on the sideboard after I've nailed down the main board, which is hard because Vampires don't like being nailed to anything.
April 1, 2019 10:02 a.m.
abbatromebone says... #7
Filtering through cards is important and that's why fetch lands are amazing. Im going to assume you have all the good vampires you want. Now all you want is removal spells, and protection spells. If you have red lightning bolt is good, if you run white Path to Exile is good as well. For black I would run Fatal Push , fetchlands die and make you one back kill anything with a cmc 4 or less. Pretty amazing if you ask me.
redbird97 says... #2
I'm a big fan of Vampire Nighthawk . I might add another. I might also add Vampire Cutthroat 4 copies. I'd drop Mastermind's Acquisition , Vampire Nocturnus , and Night's Whisper to make room. I hope this helped.
April 1, 2019 12:03 a.m.