Ruthless Cullblade

Creature — Vampire Warrior

Ruthless Cullblade gets +2/+1 as long as an opponent has 10 or less life.

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
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (18)

Madcookie on Every -sexy- card art

2 years ago

I was making a similar artwork list and stumbled upon yours. It's very good and I found some great additions. I'd like to suggest some other cards I've found myself:

Wakedancer, Bloodbond Vampire, Asylum Visitor, Guul Draz Vampire, Stream of Unconsciousness, Beguiler of Wills, Nin, the Pain Artist, Oriss, Samite Guardian, Cursebreak, Ruthless Cullblade and Manaforge Cinder

Cheers!

abby315 on Markov Estate

4 years ago

I have some thoughts about the overall gameplay, but I'll make some easy suggestions first:

Painful Truths > Read the Bones in a 3-color deck. Similarly, Mathas, Fiend Seeker is a great way to turn all of your removal into 2-for-1s, or can even draw you cards without spending any cards because it incentivizes your other player to remove things for you.

I agree with King_marchesa about cutting some vanilla vampires for ramp and removal. I noticed you said one of your players really likes hexproof creatures; spells like Soul Shatter and Crackling Doom will probably be better than spot removal like Utter End in that case. Anowon, the Ruin Sage is good for that, too, and Patron of the Vein is removal on a big-ol' Vampire stick!

Nighthawk Scavenger and Nullpriest of Oblivion will be good includes that are aggressive but also good in the lategame (this will be a theme in this comment). Olivia Voldaren is cheap and a good mana-sink to use the extra ramp you're putting in.

Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip is a little on the expensive side at $9 but if you can get a copy, it'll be a great way to upgrade your army from 1/1s to evasive 2/2s, or 4/4s if he flips. Vampire Nocturnus is another good Lord in this vein. (Pun intended!) Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose can function as a damage-doubler using his activated ability.

Finally, Forerunner of the Legion is a great tutor that also gives +2/+2 to an attacker whenever you play a vampire, thanks to Eminence.

You'll notice that all of these suggestions will raise your curve. I think that's necessary to address the problems you're having. I started EDH running a Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury Elfball deck that had a similar goal: Make a lot of small Elves and run down one opponent. Ran into the same problems you have: You get outscaled. The changes I outlined above are also similar to what I did to turn Freyalise into a more streamlined Ezuri deck. You have to add a lategame. This is also why I recommend adding ramp to more reliably cast Edgar; he's an extremely powerful finisher with a board full of small vampires, and the deck relies on him for more than just 1/1s!

That's why most of my changes encourage you to add more removal and ways to buff your board with stronger creatures. This is the great thing about Edgar: you don't need to focus on making an army of small vampires, because he does that for you! Instead, you can play vampires that buff and help your other vampire tokens.

So, I'd recommend making swaps for the following low-drop creatures that aren't evasive/strong and don't do anything for your board besides being a vampire to trigger Edgar (which most of the above suggestions also do):

Bloodthrone Vampire
Guul Draz Assassin
Guul Draz Vampire
Pulse Tracker
Quag Vampires
Vampire of the Dire Moon
Duskborne Skymarcher
Ruthless Cullblade
Vampire Interloper

And also Goblin Bombardment, which I don't think is a good rate for what it does.

Add some more Vampire lords where you can get them (many of the above are just $1-2), removal, and ramp. You should find that instead of getting a hand with 2-3 lands and all 1-2 drops, you'll start finding a hand with something to do on every turn as you work up towards Edgar. I hope that helps!

King_marchesa on Markov Estate

4 years ago

The first thing that I am noticing is that there is not enough white mana. Also, I think you could benefit from less swamps and more mountains and plains. Additionally I would add Boros Signet, Talisman of Indulgence, Talisman of Conviction, and Fellwar Stone for more ramp. You also might benefit from adding God-Eternal Bontu for additional draw because you can sacrifice all your tokens and then draw more vampires to make more tokens. I would also add more removal, Mortify, Utter End, and Anguished Unmaking would serve you well here. As for cuts, I would take out some crappy 1-2 mana vampires like Vampire Interloper, Ruthless Cullblade, and Quag Vampires.

catmaster0 on Edgar Markov, More like Edgar in Progress

5 years ago

A few relatively cheap options for the deck.

Possible 1 drop vampires Duskborne Skymarcher Falkenrath Gorger Stromkirk Noble Viscera Seer

Possible 2 drop vampires Asylum Visitor Cordial Vampire Cruel Celebrant Falkenrath Exterminator Kalastria Highborn Legion Lieutenant Martyr of Dusk Oathsworn Vampire Ruthless Cullblade Stromkirk Condemned Vampire Interloper

Possible 3 drop vampires Anje's Ravager Forerunner of the Legion Kheru Mind-Eater Mathas, Fiend Seeker Stromkirk Occultist

Possible 5 drop vampires Champion of Dusk Malakir Bloodwitch Vona, Butcher of Magan

Removal Oust Journey to Nowhere Oblivion Ring

hungry000 on Pure Vampires

5 years ago

I actually made a $15 vampire deck for someone else a while back! Here it is if you want any ideas for your deck: $15 Madness Vampires.

Otherwise, here are the changes I would for sure make to your deck:

-2 Havengul Vampire , +2 Heir of Falkenrath  ^Flip

-2 Ruthless Cullblade , -2 Bloodlord of Vaasgoth , +4 Vampire Lacerator

+3 Fiery Temper , -3 any of the other noncreature cards

Silverdrake on BR Vampies

6 years ago

Glad to hear I was of some help!

As far as getting ahead with aggro goes, there's a couple things to keep in mind. You want to spend all your mana every turn to ensure your opponent is dead as fast as possible. In order to achieve that you want to keep your curve as low as possible - maximizing on 1-2 drops with 3 being top end and 4 being your absolute lategame. That in mind, you might want to drop a few 3s for some more 1-2s. Metallic Mimic, Stromkirk Condemned, Heir of Falkenrath  ^Flip, and Asylum Visitor are all great options for the 2 slot, and Lightning Bolt is the biggest aggro piece you're missing from the 1 slot. Falkenrath Gorger would also be a reasonable call for the 1 slot.
Ruthless Cullblade is great if your opponent is already at or below 10, but doesn't do much to actually help you get them there. I'd say it'd probably worth cutting in favor of one of the other two drops mentioned above. Rakish Heir would also be reasonable to cut for one of the above cards since it's easily the worst 3 drop vampire you have here.
Before you make any cuts though, there's another general rule of aggro you should consider - lands. Typically speaking, the more aggressive your deck is, the fewer lands you want to run. After all, what are you going to do with a 5th land? Or a 6th? Your highest cost is 4 and there's only so many things you can play in one turn. With your current setup, you probably don't want to draw more than 5-6 lands in the whole game. With that in mind, you can (and should) significantly drop the number of lands you're playing. 21-23 would be a much more appropriate number for your deck, depending on what the cost of the cards you add in is. That gives you 4-6 more slots to fit things like the vamps I mentioned above or some more removal (4x terminate is pretty low. Maybe consider 2x Fatal Push to bring it up to 6)

I know you say this is meant for your friends, but if you ever want to take it to an fnm or anything more competetive I'd be more than happy to help you build a sideboard, too :)
Whatever you decide to do, good luck!

skatrivesis on BR Vampies

6 years ago

Thanks for the tip Silverdrake! I have been taking your comment to heart. When I made this deck I was using cards lying around. I have updated the list and made it a bit more consistent. I just dont know how much work Vampire Lacerator and Ruthless Cullblade is going to put in. Any thoughts on how to get ahead with Aggro early and with Vampires?

stevend11 on reVAMPed

6 years ago

Bloodghast, Bloodlord of Vaasgoth, Captivating Vampire, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Kheru Bloodsucker, Mirri the Cursed, Pulse Tracker, Ruthless Cullblade, Vampire Nocturnus, Vicious Conquistador