Twelve players from Team CFB Ultimate Guard settled on an innovative deck based on an unexpected creature type: Vampires! After it became clear that
No More Lies would see a lot of play, they considered several kindred decks to dodge the countermagic with Cavern of Souls , and Hall of Famer Paul Rietzl first explored a mono-black Vampire version. It seemed to match up well against all the top Pioneer archetypes, save for Amalia Combo, and most of the team came on board. While Rietzl ultimately stuck with his more aggressive mono-black list featuring
Knight of the Ebon Legion , everyone else eventually splashed red for
Bloodtithe Harvester and
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker .
At its core, Rakdos Vampires is pretty similar to Rakdos Midrange, featuring the familiar disruption suite of
Fatal Push and
Thoughtseize. However, it gains access to
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord, which is arguably the best three-mana planeswalker in Pioneer. At least, when it's properly supported. The option to sacrifice
Dusk Legion Zealot for a
Lightning Helix effect has been available for years, but the rest of the supporting cast of Vampires was always a bit lackluster. This changed recently, as The Lost Caverns of Ixalan added Preacher of the Schism and Murders at Karlov Manor introduced
Vein Ripper .
Vein Ripper is difficult to remove; in particular, Azorius Control decks have great trouble paying the ward cost. Vein Ripper provides a fast clock and wins damage races, even when it's cast for six mana. And its primary allure is when
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord puts
Vein Ripper onto the battlefield on turn three, a combination that has been referred to as "
Splinter Twin." Vein Ripper packs more of a punch than Champion of Dusk , and it's harder to remove than Ghalta and Mavren. Apart from minor disagreements on the mana base, Reid Duke, Luis Scott-Vargas, Brent Vos, Samuel Pardee, Matt Sperling, Sky Bauerschmidt Sweeney, Seth Manfield, Jim Davis, Arne Huschenbeth, Tommy Ashton, and Theodore Jung will all be unleashing basically the same Rakdos Vampire deck on the Pro Tour.
