Previous deck: Timin, Youthful Geist And Rhoda, Geist Avenger // Next deck: Isshin, Two Heavens as One
We've already taken a look at the bride of Innistrad: Crimson Vow. But the biggest wedding in Magic The Gathering history also needs a groom. This is Olivia Voldaren's play to become queen of Innistrad and undisputed ruler, so she has to dream big. She has to marry Edgar Markov.
Edgar was Innistrad's first vampire, and is the progenitor of the Markov family. Once a human alchemist trying to find the answer to eternal life, Edgar worked with a demon to capture and use the blood of an Angel to start a brood of bloodsuckers that threatened the stability of ancient Innistrad. Edgar would eventually force the transformation upon his grandson, which was the trigger that turned Sorin Markov into the Planeswalker he is today.
By the time of Crimson Vow, Edgar had slept in his crypt for many years. With the Eternal Night plaguing the Plane, Olivia Voldaren saw it as the perfect opportunity to kidnap him, control his mind, and host the biggest wedding the multiverse has ever seen. With Markov and Voldaren wed, Olivia would have unlimited influence over the vampires and, therefore, over Innistrad.
This week, for one of our final trips to Innistrad before we head to Kamigawa, we're building a vampire-themed Aristocrats deck with Edgar, Charmed Groom.
Edgar, Charmed Groom is a 4/4 Vampire Noble that costs two generic, one white, and one black. As a creature, he isn't all that interesting and merely serves as a Vampire Tribal Lord that gives your other vampires +1/+1. The trick with Edgar is that he can't really die. When he does, he returns to the battlefield transformed to his other side, Edgar Markov's Coffin.
Edgar Markov's Coffin is a Legendary Artifact. At the beginning of each upkeep, you put a bloodline counter on it and make a 1/1 white and black Vampire token with lifelink. Then, if the Coffin has three or more counters on it, it transforms back into Edgar, Charmed Groom. The aim of this deck is to stop that from happening. Want the Coffin out for as long as possible to keep on pumping out more and more vampires.
Ramp
This deck has a shockingly low mana average, so we don't need to go too hard into our ramp. We're not even running Archaeomancer's Map for once!
Orzhov Signet, Talisman of Hierarchy and Phyrexian Altar help us get the coloured mana we need (Phyrexian Altar is also part of one of our win conditions), while Ashnod's Altar and Temple of the False God supply the colourless.
Black Market is going to be incredible in this deck. We're planning on having lots of creatures dying, and for each one that does, we'll get an extra black mana during our pre-combat main phase.
Most of our mana is going to come from our lands. Alongside the usual basics, we will use Cabal Coffers and Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth to produce a lot of black mana. Throw in some other decent lands like Orzhov Basilica, Myriad Landscape, Temple of the False God, and Godless Shrine and you should have enough going on to play most things.
Draw
This deck can pop off incredibly quickly, which makes finding the cards we need all the more important.
We've got Village Rites, Costly Plunder, and Deadly Dispute for straight card draw. All three of them require you sacrifice a creature, but with all of our vampire tokens and other sneaky ways to get around death, that isn't going to be too big of a problem.
This deck has a secondary lifegain theme, which means we can use a lot of spells that require you to pay a certain amount of life to draw cards. Stuff like Damnable Pact, Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, and Sign in Blood can give us a huge amount of card advantage for the low, low cost of some life we're getting back anyway.
Skullclamp is another must here. With Ashnod's Altar and some cards we'll talk about in a moment, you can draw literally as many cards as you need and produce the mana to play it at the same time. Skullclamp is excellent in most token decks, but it's an incredibly easy win condition here.
And, of course, while they're not card draw, running tutors can really speed this deck up. Vampiric, Demonic, and Grim Tutor all cost peanuts, and can help us win very quickly if need be.
Unleash The Vampires
At face value, Edgar Markov's Coffin only makes three vampire tokens, one per turn, before turning back into Edgar. But there are ways to increase at number and keep the vampires coming.
Solemnity is going to be one of the biggest players in this deck. With Solemnity, counters can't be put on creatures, artifacts, enchantments, or lands. In many decks, this can be a killer, but for us, it's exactly what we want. With Solemnity out, you'll never put a counter on Edgar Markov's Coffin. No counters means it never turns back into Edgar, Charmed Groom, but continues to print out new vampire tokens each turn. It's also a key combo piece in the deck, but that's for later.
Another great piece is Anointed Procession. It's a simple white enchantment that doubles every token you'd make, doubling the number of vampires the Cloffin produces every turn. It also doubles other vampire token sources in the deck, like Elenda the Dusk Rose.
We do have non-token vampires to play with, as well. Blood Artist, Viscera Seer, Cruel Celebrant and Yahenni, Undying Partisan are all staples of Aristocrat decks that are conveniently also vampires. Vito, Thorn of Dusk Rose works well with our lifelink theme (and is one of our many winning combos), while Welcoming Vampire and Twilight Prophet can give us some serious card advantage.
Gain Some Life
While lifegain isn't the main theme of this deck, we have enough stuff in there that requires us to pay life that it is useful to run a few pieces.
Ajani's Welcome is an incredibly underrated card. You gain one life whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control. Costing just one white mana and being more difficult to remove than something like a Soul Warden, there is a lot we can do with it.
We've also got The Meathook Massacre, which gives us life whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, and Bastion of Remembrance, which gives it to us whenever one of our own dies. Both fit nicely into our Aristocrats theme, serving as yet another optional win condition.
Fumigate is a board wipe that gives us one life for each creature that dies. This could be an excellent blast of extra life if played at the right time, and with this deck we can easily rebuild our board state in no time.
Time To Win
There are a lot of ways to win in this deck.
First, let's look at Solemnity again. Combine it with a Luminous Broodmoth, and we have creatures we can kill and re-kill as much as we want. Whenever a creature without flying dies, Luminous Broodmoth brings it back to the battlefield with a flying counter. Solemnity prevents that counter, meaning you can infinitely sacrifice stuff with no downside.
Want infinite mana? Sacrifice your creature to an Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar. Want infinite card draw? Equip a non-token creature with a Skullclamp and sacrifice it to Phyrexian Altar. Use one colourless mana to re-equip it and do it all again. Want infinite vampire tokens? Sacrifice Elenda, the Dusk Rose to a sacrifice outlet like the altars or Viscera Seer. Want to use this to win the game outright? Have a Bastion of Remembrance or Blood Artist on the battlefield and drain your opponents down to zero.
Luminous Broodmoth is a big player, but we have other ways of winning without it. Vito, Thorn of Dusk Rose can become an instant-win combo when used with Exquisite Blood. Vito makes opponents lose life whenever you gain life, while Sanguine Bond makes you gain life whenever an opponent loses it. The two become a cycle where you steal everybody's else's life and immediately win the game. If Vito gets killed and you can't bring it back, there's always Sanguine Bond to replace it.
We've even taken some time out from the vampires to throw in a good ol' fashioned Walking Ballista and Heliod, Sun-Crowned combo. Use Heliod to give Walking Ballista lifelink, then remove a counter from it to deal one damage to an opponent. Heliod will trigger, putting a counter back on Walking Ballista, and you can repeat it until everything's dead. Of course, this combo can't work with Solemnity on the battlefield.
Maybe you don't fancy a combo win, which is very un-Orzhov of you. If all else fails, we can always just focus on building up an army of vampires through Edgar Markov's Coffin, Anointed Procession, and Elenda before hitting everyone with an Akroma's Will. Even Edgar, Charmed Groom can be handy here, as it, Vanquisher's Banner, and Cordial Vampire can pump your attackers up a lot. Combo-fiend Vito can help with this, as with enough vampires you could secure a win just through combat and lifedrain.
Powering The Deck Down
This deck is very, very fast, and may not be appropriate for some playgroups. With so many combos in there, you'll have to make substantial changes if you want to make it suitable for slower or lower power tables.
The number one card you'll want to remove first is Luminous Broodmoth. Solemnity has other uses in this deck, but Broodmoth is just a combo piece. We still have ways to bring things back from the graveyard, like Veinwitch Coven, but they're less efficient and require resources to be paid into them to work.
The next cards to pull would be Walking Ballista and Exquisite Blood. Like Luminous Broodmoth, they're only parts of the deck to combo off of others. Heliod, Vito, and Exquisite Blood all fit nicely into the decks without needing combos to win, so cutting those would only be a last resort.
Without the combo pieces, the tutors are less appealing, but they can still be cut if need be. The one I'd argue is fine to keep would be Idyllic Tutor, which can only search for an enchantment. If you've already taken the combo pieces out, you're only able to get enchantments that further the game plan in a more wholesome way, like Ajani's Welcome and Meathook Massacre.
--
To see the full deck, check out its Moxfield page.
NEXT: 10 Strongest Aristocrats Commanders In Magic: The Gathering