Drana, Liberator of Malakir

Legendary Creature — Vampire Ally

Flying, first strike

Whenever Drana, Liberator of Malakir deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on each attacking creature you control.

Discussion (51)

Last_Laugh on Markov & Son Inc.

2 weeks ago

I would recommend Reconnaissance, Mirror Entity, and Shared Animosity over Coat of Arms and Door of Destinies.

Coat helps everyone's creatures and can backfire against other tribal or token decks. Door does nothing for your current board, costs a lot of mana for an aggro deck, and requires you to have creatures in hand to 'fuel' it after you play it.

Shared Animosity and Mirror Entity are pretty self explanatory.

Reconnaissance allows you to attack with EVERY creature safely, you'll have every one of those creatures untapped by the end of combat, and you still deal combat damage in most situations. You can untap to avoid bad blockers (only situation you don't deal combat damage), you can untap after first strike (handy for getting counters from Drana, Liberator of Malakir to your whole team and busted with Stromkirk Captain/Stensia Masquerade), and you can even untap after regular combat damage (the creature isconsidered attacking until the end of combat step ends).

Feel free to check out my list for ideas. It's one of the top rated Edgar lists on this site with lots of comments to sift through for more ideas. Upvotes on any of my decks are appreciated. Edgar's Dega Vampires

Last_Laugh on Marchesa, Be Right Back

4 weeks ago

Nice deck on a budget, really good job keeping your avg. cmc down. I do have a few suggestions and I'll try to keep it budget(ish) friendly.

Must Have: Feed the Swarm should allow you to drop Meteor Golem. I know Chaos Warp/Feed the Swarm aren't as easily reusable but you should be prioritizing removing problematic enchantments like Solemnity or Rest in Peace anyways.

Etb/death trigger abuse: Metallic Mimic/Vigean Graftmage abuses your meanest etb/death trigger on everyone's turn instead of once per round. Just sac Mimic to rename the creature type if needed.

Attack Away From Throne: Drana, Liberator of Malakir allows you to attack who you need to when you need to. Thanks to first strike, the rest of your team will get their counters before regular combat damage.

Surprise: Legion Loyalist is a stud here thanks to haste. Only for a surprise first strike, trample, and tokens can't block for my whole team is amazing. Just don't play him like a typical 1 drop but rather with the goal of activating Battalion that turn.

Finisher: Jokulhaups will clear out everything except enchantments while your creatures all come back at the end of turn to wreck face. It can be a dick move but it'll end games.

Feel free to check out my list for inspiration. It's one of the top rated Marchesa lists on this site, it has a huge maybeboard to help people, and there's also over 100 comments to sift through for more ideas. Upvotes on any of my decks are appreciated. Got 99 Upvotes And A Bitch Ain't One - Marchesa

TheVectornaut on Black Green (?)

1 month ago

It looks like your main goal is to stick a creature and then buff it as much as possible with +1/+1 counters. To improve the strength and consistency of the deck, I recommend cutting anything that isn't working towards that end (unless it's very efficient.) I'd identify those cards as Druid's Deliverance, Sundering Growth, Bountiful Harvest, Bump in the Night, Lair Delve, Blood Reckoning, Tablet of the Guilds, Primal Clay, Trestle Troll, and maybe Phylactery Lich (depending on how many artifacts you end up running in the end.) I'd also suggest swapping out Intimidation to stay modern legal, possibly with something like Bellowing Tanglewurm if you really really want the evasion. Your strongest cards that I'd want additional copies of are Abrupt Decay (budget permitting), Ring of Xathrid, Undying Evil, Slitherhead, and Death's Presence (assuming your meta is slow enough to run it.) It also looks like Tormented Soul is a critical piece that benefits the most from growing big, so having redundancy for it seems like a good idea. Changeling Outcast, Gingerbrute, and Silhana Ledgewalker could all be fine targets. For +1/+1 synergy, you have scavenge staples like Varolz, the Scar-Striped, Corpsejack Menace, and Lotleth Troll along with more general options like Polukranos, Unchained, Winding Constrictor, Hardened Scales, Hydra's Growth, Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Scavenging Ooze (which is particularly good in a sideboard), Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Hunger of the Howlpack, Forced Adaptation, and Llanowar Reborn. Finally, some cards I've had success with in graveyard-focused decks include Tragic Slip, Satyr Wayfinder, Grisly Salvage, Splinterfright, and Fauna Shaman. Let me know if you have any questions and good luck with your build!

Elasar99 on Commander Mono black budget Vampire

1 month ago

I would recommend you to try Drana, Liberator of Malakir and Yahenni, Undying Partisan. Another funny card is Bloodchief Ascension, yo will punish your opnents every time a card goes to a graveyard, and with vito in play you do 4 damage and gain 2 life with each card sent to the graveyard.

multimedia on Vampir Firsttry

2 months ago

Hey, good work for your first Commander deck on a budget. You have several nice cards, but also many stinkers :)

There's 2x Inscription of Ruin which you can't have in Commander. Jungle Shrine has green in it's card color identity thus you can't play it because Edgar isn't green. With Edgar you want to lower the mana curve with more one/two/three drop Vamps. Edgar and Coat of Arms are the high CMC cards you want to cast, but before you cast them you want a more established army of Vamps which means the majority of the Vamps you play should be one, two or three drops. Low CMC Vamps are easier to cast thus you get faster token value from Edgar's eminence.

• Knight of the Ebon Legion
• Indulgent Aristocrat
• Vampire of the Dire Moon
• Shadow Alley Denizen

These one drop Vamps are fine plays in the early game while also being useful in the later parts of a game too.

• Forerunner of the Legion: Vamp tutor.
• Drana, Liberator of Malakir: flying, powerful repeatable effect to put counters on all your attacking Vamps.
• Rakish Heir: another repeatable effect to put counters on your Vamps.
• Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose: Sanguine Bond effect on a Vamp.
• Olivia's Bloodsworn: flying and haste enabler for Vamps.
• Vampire Nighthawk: flying/deathtouch is a good combination.
• Cruel Celebrant: Zulaport Cutthroat effect on a Vamp.

Drana is the most expensive price Vamp I'm suggesting, it's worth $5. Most of these Vamps have repeatable effects or flying which is helpful evasion for attacking in Commander. More low CMC Vamps makes Skullclamp better and it's one of your best sources of repeatable value to get ahead or recover to draw more Vamps; Open the Armory can tutor for it.

---

Consider more budget dual lands that ETB untapped?

• Unclaimed Territory
• Exotic Orchard
• Caves of Koilos
• Battlefield Forge
• Path of Ancestry: repeatable scry.
• Nomad Outpost
• Tainted Field: Swamps should be the most lands in the manabase.

Ancestry and Outpost always ETB tapped, but that's fine since next turn they can make any color of mana you need to cast cards. On a budget this color fixing is helpful.

I offer more advice including what cards to cut. Would you like more advice? Good luck with your deck.

TheRheX on Got 99 Upvotes And A Bitch Ain't One - Marchesa

2 months ago

Thanks for the feedback!

Drana, Liberator of Malakir dealing her damage in the first-strike-phase is something i overlooked, that makes her a lot more appealing.

I never played with Metallic Mimic because I mostly viewed it as a combo enabler (which I try to avoid). But in combination with the package of Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Kokusho, the Evening Star it makes a lot of sense. It puts my opponents on a clock but still gives them an opportunity to counterplay.

TheRheX on Got 99 Upvotes And A Bitch Ain't One - Marchesa

2 months ago

Hi Last_Laugh!

Can you give some insight on how these following cards perform in practice:

Drana, Liberator of Malakir:

Seems to only be useful when you attack a player that's not on the throne.

Also only applies the counter after damage has been dealt, so the attacking creatures would have to survive the combat damage phase.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel:

It seems awkward to not deal enough damage to take your opponents out of the game while simultaineously putting yourself on the throne. Would be interesting to know how this performs on its own and in comparison to Kokusho, the Evening Star.

The Ozolith:

This card looks like it is made for this deck, but the restricion to only be able to move the counters at the beginning of combat on our turn seems problematic.

Herald of Secret Streams:

Is this a "win-more" card or a crucial piece to win the game? I played it for a while and was never too impressed - maybe the strength of this card depends a lot on what kind of decks you are facing in your playgroup.

Spellskite:

To figure out whether this card can find a spot in my deck I checked the decks I face in my playgroup and found surprisingly little single target spells/abilities where this card would be useful.

Last One Standing:

It's a strong card but seems clunky to resolve when you have 3-4 opponents with something like 14 creatures and 23 tokens. Do you use an app that can roll an x-sided die where x=number of creatures in play?

Sadistic Hypnotist:

How much of a drawback is the sorcery speed in practice? I find it immensely useful to be able to sac at instant speed.

Phyrexian Reclamation:

How often do you activate this - is it really better than Reanimate?

I'd also like some feedback on cards that have performed really well for me, but did not make your list:

Blasphemous Act:

It's usually a bordwipe for - I regularly tutor for this card.

Deadly Rollick:

The unexpected removal of a key creature can really mess up your opponents turn / combo. It has been really solid for me and has been really annoying to play against.

Deflecting Swat:

I feel super save playing Marchesa, the Black Rose without any ability to put counters on her when I have this card in hand.

Even just your opponents knowing that you have this card in your decks gives you some savety because they try to play around it even when it's not in your hand.

Reef Worm:

The worm seems like a dull beater that needs a setup to perform, but this card never lets me down.

Give your creatures haste via cards like Urabrask the Hidden and your opponenty will quickly be facing an army of sea-creatures.

(For reference you can check out my list here: Marchesa, the Black Rose)

Judging form the comment section of other Marchesa lists on this site you seem to put a lot of thought and effort into this deck so I am looking forward on your feedback on this topic.

Have a nice day :)

RamenNoodles on Red Black Vampires

4 months ago

Moving to more aggro focused, Blood Artist, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Olivia Voldaren do not do much for you.

Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Cordial Vampire, Vampire Nocturnus

Landbase: if you want to stay around 21-22 lands, you might want to limit your 4 cost cards to around 4 total.

Cheap rakdos lands: Foreboding Ruins, Sulfurous Springs, Foreboding Ruins

Pricier options: Blood Crypt, Bloodstained Mire

Spicy land: Stensia Bloodhall