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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.
DreadKhan on
Red/Black Vamp & Wolf
2 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.
DreadKhan on
Lost Boys
4 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 …
11 months 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 …
11 months ago
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
wallisface on (HELP) monoblack removal casual need …
1 year ago
My suggestion would be to play 23 lands, and only 4 cards costing 4 mana, with everything else below this cost.
As far as other solid removal/control cards, consider: Fatal Push, Smallpox, and maybe March of Wretched Sorrow. Black control generally excels at removing threats before they're on the battlefield, so stuff like Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize are also pretty great.
Good mono-black creatures to consider include: Dauthi Voidwalker, Tourach, Dread Cantor, Murderous Rider, and Gatekeeper of Malakir - i'd suggest just keeping your Phyrexian Obliterator and then removing your other creatures for a selection of these.
It sounds like you're trying to play your deck as an attrition/value-engine gameplan. A good approach for that would be to try and mirror card-counts of "The Rock" decks (which is a Green-Black attrition/value-engine deck). They run around 23 lands, 15-16 creatures, 5-7 hand-removal cards, and 14-17 killspells. In your case you probably want to lean-higher on the hand-removal cards (so, 7-8) because being monoblack means you don't have many good options for removing noncreature permanents once they're in play (so better to remove them before they get into play)
RockIV on (HELP) monoblack removal casual need …
1 year ago
hi all, im RockIV and im new in the forum. i recently returned into magic again. Im in need of some advice with my control/removal deck
Rocks Monoblack creature removal
my review : in the past i use to play with more creatures like Vampire Nighthawk, Gatekeeper of Malakir and Geralf's Messenger. Recently i changed it to be more removal oriented, and i tried a lot of diferent combinations, for example with Drain Life. what i am looking is a more optimal build for the deck with both creatures an enought removal to combat any deck. The problem is that i feel that i cant have both, I will need to choose creatures or removal. in another note, There are some creatures that i didnt add to the deck and always felt that would be great like Bonehoard and Wight of Precinct Six. so what do you guys think ? any advice will be deeply apreciated , thx to everyone for reading :D
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