Gatekeeper of Malakir

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Gatekeeper of Malakir

Creature — Vampire Warrior

Kicker {B} (You may pay an additional {B} as you cast this spell.)

When Gatekeeper of Malakir enters the battlefield, if it was kicked, target player sacrifices a creature.

BirdieGirlie on Black Parmesan

2 weeks ago

This is a very, very intriguing start of a decklist!!!! I was just looking at another deck that had the enchantment Skybind - I think it would be fascinating to do a black/white deck combining some of these very powerful ETB effects with the flicker effect of that card, multiplied by Panharmonicon!!!!

Just some random black, white, or black/white cards I think might have good ETB effects for this concept:

Gnawing Vermin

Thieves' Guild Enforcer

Cauldron Familiar

Blood Seeker

Burglar Rat

Corpse Knight

Corrupt Court Official

Dirty Rat

Gatekeeper of Malakir

Tainted Adversary

Basilica Bell-Haunt

Company Commander (I mainly play big casual multi-person games so this suggestion is with that in mind!)

Slumbering Keepguard

Soul Warden

Charming Prince

I'd make a list of all the cheap enchantments I think might work for this too, but I see I am already going overboard.

Tbh I am a fairly new player and very new to deckbuilding but thought I'd drop you a line!!!

wallisface on Modern Vampire/lifelink

2 months ago

MotelWifi the big problem with your revised list is that your mana curve is still waay too high - decks often can’t justify more than 3-4 cards costing 4-or-more mana, and you’ve got 15. Your revised list also still has almost no 1-mana cards, which means you’ll often be starting a full turn behind your opponent.

And finally, 63 cards might not seem like much over 60, but every card over that 60 number is weakening the deck & making it less consistent.

A good tip for new players for deckbuilding is to pick 9 cards and run 4-of each of those (for 36 cards) alongside 24 lands. The mana costs of those 9 cards should look something like 1,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,4.

For an example deck and/or inspiration, if I were building a White-Black vampire deck, and trying to keep to your budget, it’d look something like this:

Now, this list is by no means perfect, and could still do with more thought, but it covers some important points:

  • the mana curve is efficient/low
  • most cards are run as playsets (4-ofs) to keep the deck consistent
  • the deck is just 60 cards
  • there’s a good selection of turn-1 plays
  • the cards work well with one-another
  • the lands enter untapped, so you don’t lose tempo
  • the deck has ways to both pressure the opponent while also disrupting them

DreadKhan on Red/Black Vamp & Wolf

8 months ago

I'm not very experienced with Modern, but I think there are a few pointers that I can give you.

Your curve should be more to the left, most Modern decks run plenty of 1 drops, Black Vampires have Vampire of the Dire Moon, Indulgent Aristocrat, Pulse Tracker, Vampire Cutthroat, Knight of the Ebon Legion, and Vicious Conquistador, some budget and some not. Red has Voldaren Stinger, Falkenrath Pit Fighter and Falkenrath Gorger, those last two play together pretty well and are quite exploitable, there are some other vampires that care about discard effects. I think those are all Modern legal, maybe something will work for you!

As a general rule, if you almost always want at least 1 copy of a card in your opening hand then it should probably be a run at x4. Most people try to run quite a few x4s of key cards, this tends to make a deck quite a bit stronger. You can certainly run less copies of a card, x3 is for stuff you really want but don't necessarally want 2 copies of, 2 seems right for stuff you are fine with not drawing every game, but would like to draw in longer games (bigger creatures/spells are often 2 ofs), people often use singleton copies of cards that they usually don't want to draw or never want to see in their opening hand. There is a fair bit of artistry to getting the ratios of cards 'just right', so I hope some of those tips are useful. I think Good Morning Magic (a Magic Youtube channel) had a video on how to know how many of a card to put in a deck, the guy behind the channel is one of Magic's designers. I can't properly link, but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FpF1SpOTJk is the vid.

I had a vampire deck for awhile, it was Legacy and ran a x4s of Vampire of the Dire Moon, Gifted Aetherborn, Vampire Nighthawk and Gatekeeper of Malakir, these offered some pretty good board control. I'm not sure if you have enough board interaction effects, there are also endless Black spells that remove creatures. There is also Nighthawk Scavenger, which is probably better than the old Nighthawk. This might tie into my other thought, your deck would probably be stronger if you leaned harder into a specific typal theme, there are a few Zombies and other types in here. If you do lean into just Vampires or just Zombies there are quite a few fairly strong cards that really care about those types, these can make good finishers, stuff like Bloodline Keeper  Flip can quickly take over a game.

A final point, most decks really want more cards. You might not want to buy x2 or x3 of The One Ring, but Phyrexian Arena is an old standby, it's much better in a Vampire deck because you can recover via lifelink. There are also cards like Sign in Blood and Night's Whisper.

Ultarian on Mono Vampires

9 months ago

Highly recommend Gatekeeper of Malakir!

DreadKhan on Lost Boys

10 months ago

Glad we seem to be on the same page! If you want to pull Sorin's Thirst for better removal (and you like Terror), have you considered Reckless Spite, as a x1 or maybe x2?

Final things, I had a mono-Black vampire deck and liked Strands of Night in longer games (it is pretty sweet with stuff like Vampire Nighthawk), and I used Gatekeeper of Malakir as backup removal, nice if you can you hit , I'm not sure if you'll have enough swamps, just wanted to mention it.

RockIV on Control monoblack in need for …

1 year ago

Bloodghast seems excelent, sadly i dont have it. i remeber in the past running Skinrender and Gatekeeper of Malakir as creatures in control decks. i will keep thinking how to improve it , using what i have. maybe Vampire Nighthawk and Lashwrithe dont belong to the deck

RockIV on Control monoblack in need for …

1 year ago

Rocks Monoblack Control

hello everyone, the last couple of days ive been updating all my decks and uploading them into tappedout.

Ive made a lot of changes to my monoblack control deck, the first deck that i post here. I like this new version but, there were a lot of cards that i love and didnt enter the deck, like Skeletal Scrying and Tendrils of Corruption. i also took Dark Ritual out of the deck. To have more space for actual spells. i also replace Gatekeeper of Malakir for Geth's Verdict, Because its cheaper, maybe having the 2/2 will be better.

also, i end up with 19 spells (instant and sorceries) and 18 creatures ( i count the Lashwrithe as a creature). Maybe for a control deck is too low removal and discard, maybe i need to have more of them and less creatures

so, what do you guys think. This is a casual deck to play with friends. but i tried to make it as strong as possible, i have strong opponents :)

all advice will be read and appreciated, but, right now i have no acces to other cards, so the maybeboard end up being all the other options.

ty all for reading

RockIV on (HELP) monoblack removal casual need …

1 year ago

hi wallisface and ty for the advice. SO 23 lands, 14-17 killspells, 15-16 creatures and 8 discards. I will try that , i was looking for balance maybe that is the balance that i need. what do you think about Dark Ritual and drawing cards spells like Skeletal Scrying or Sign in Blood, there i have like 7 cards more and i will have to take from the deck some cards. About the creatures, i already tried to get some of those, but i could not found them where i live, sadly :(, both Murderous Rider and Dauthi Voidwalker seems to be excelent. i will have to use some of the creatures that i have, like Gatekeeper of Malakir, Vampire Nighthawk, Dread Shade. Maybe Wight of Precinct Six would be usefull ina creature killer deck. so do you think that cheaper creatures for 2 or 3 B mana will help me more to optimise the deck than creatures for 4 mana? thx alot for the answers :D

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