Update 1/19: Removing Vampiric Link to slot in Scour from Existence to deal with enchantments that prevent or reverse life gain, may add in a Universal Solvent or similar as well pending play test
First run on a Vito EDH deck which is, in turn, a riff on a modern deck I have run for a while now. I built this first pass in just a couple hours so I'm definitely open to suggestions as I start to playtest it in my group but playing practice hands here has been pretty reliable and entertaining as I've been adding some polish.
Basically Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose is an easily grabbed Sanguine Bond so the theme of the deck is get life, deal damage with a death touch/vampire tribal element for protection from attackers.
The primary wincon here is...play Exquisite Blood while Vito is on the battlefield and gain any amount of life. This could be from an extort ability, or from a lifelink creature, or from an enchantment trigger at upkeep, any amount of life gained in that context is an instant win. In playtesting on TappedOut I've consistently played this for a win on turn 5 which is pretty decent I thought, but I haven't pressure tested in real play as I'm waiting on cards to ship to build the physical deck.
Since I expect Exquisite Blood to draw a lot of hate here, and since it is the obvious target of any tutor or transmute I cast, I've included Forgotten Lore and Ill-Gotten Gains as budget friendly ways to get it out of the graveyard after enchantment destruction or counter-spell.
If you don't have, or can't get, exquisite blood then flying lifelink creatures like Vampire Nighthawk become useful for pinging opponents who can't block them, or won't take the trade on deathtouch. Crossway Troublemakers, Archetype of Finality, and Whip of Erebos, expand the range of lifelink and deathtouch to most of, or all of, your other creatures.
Defiant Bloodlord and Sanguine Bond offer doubling opportunities for Vito's triggers and start to give you big utility from little cards like Subversion or Ill-Gotten Inheritance in a 4 person game. Subversion, for example, deals out 3 damage broadly then triggers off Vito and Sanguine bond to pile on 3 more each; while 7 damage to one opponent isn't massive it's a pretty good trade for 0 mana every upkeep and gets dangerous with Inheritance or Palace Siege
The tribal element comes off vampire boosts which impact about ~65% of the creatures in the deck and almost all offer life gain from either lifelink or other features. Cordial Vampire and Bloodlord of Vaasgoth offer pump ups to your vampires increasing damage output and lifegain. Sangromancer and Falkenrath Noble double trigger off Vito and can trigger on each player's combat phase.
For the most part the intent is that flying, lifelink vampires deal damage to players who can't block while deathtouch creatures are kept back as a disincentive to attackers. Extort enablers like Pontiff of Blight and Basilica Screecher let you gain a significant amount of life to trigger Vito or dump into Aetherflux Reservoir if needed. Blood Tribute is a funny little way to one shot one player on the board while gaining a bucket of life, I think 6 cmc and tap a vampire is pretty low barrier to entry for that.
The rest of the cards, and non-vampires, are mana ramp or on-theme utility: draw cards for life, board wipes that trigger life loss and targeted removal. Crypt Ghast is a no-brainer, Pontiff of Blight is huge value for dumping lots of mana into extort (5 extort triggers = 30 board state damage and +15 life) and Witch of the Moors is like a free Merciless Executioner plus graveyard recursion every turn.
Anyhow it's not complicated but I've enjoyed my 60 card version of this casually and this was an inexpensive way to build a deck around what I thought was a fun, and straight forward commander. I'd love to increase the vampire presence here so if you have any great vampires I've missed let me know!
