When Inspiration Strikes - Olivia Voldaren

Those who are down at Rabblemaster Games when Standard is happening may have run into Victor (the guy who makes our decoupage life counters) running his R/B madness vampires deck. Prior to the ban of Smuggler’s Copter, decks like this were close to breaking out of Tier 2. Afterwards, not so much, but they can still have a brutally fast start - and no shortage of late game reach, thanks to Bloodhall Priest and Geier Reach Sanitarium. I’ve been on the receiving end of turn four Collective Brutality, double escalated, madness-casting two Fiery Temper – and it hurts!

Anyone would think the whole set revolves around this mechanic!

But we’re not here to talk about Standard – this is a Commander article – and I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the Commander staples, and great legendary creatures, that have been showing up in Modern Masters 2017. Zur the Enchanter and Wort the Raidmother seem to be the two that have brewers most excited around the store, but while cracking packs for singles, I encountered an Olivia Voldaren staring back at me from the rare slot, and that’s when inspiration struck! Could I do madness vampires in Commander? I haven’t built a red and black deck in years, and the last vampire deck I ran was a black and white life-draining one, so after pricing the pathetic array of singles we pulled, I began the process.

As usual when building Commander decks, I start with a couple of goals for the end product. They weren’t the same as when building the Vial Smasher & Sidar Kondo deck I’ve talked about before; the lack of access to white and green cards rules out certain lines of play, particularly those involving serious ramp and land search, and makes you more of a dog to enchantment-based strategies. In addition, the Sidar/Smasher deck (with a few exceptions) is entirely reactive – it plays permanents that react when opponents do things, and all the spell-based interaction is instant speed, due to the constraints of building around Sunforger – and a red and black vampire deck can’t afford to sit back and be reactive! What’s it going to do when someone drops a Lurking Predators or Future Sight? This deck’s way to deal with threats like that is to put the players casting these spells at a disadvantage beforehand – this way, the rest of the table can assist you in jumping on them. Alternatively, you can try and keep the board as clear as possible. So, the goals:

1) Stick to, but not be a slave to, the theme. Shadows Over Innistrad introduced madness with vampires, but the madness ability isn’t new – it dates back to Odyssey block. I won’t discount taking advantage of older cards that suit the deck just because they aren’t vampire themed, and there’s a few non-vampire staple cards I still want to run. Olivia herself also suggests other strategies than madness, such as steal-and-sacrifice or commander damage (given enough mana) and they are powerful enough that they cannot be ignored

2) This is starting to become a hard and fast rule; only build with cards we have in stock at Rabblemaster Games, regardless of whether something is a better fit. If I enjoy the deck and it doesn’t get the goat of everyone in the store when I play it, upgrades can be made then.

3) Have a combination kill, but not a boring one that puts other players off playing Commander altogether. Sidar/Smasher’s Fire Covenant & Boros Reckoner is the sort of combo I like, not Deceiver Exarch & Kiki-Jiki infinite guys and kill all of you at once.

4) Have the deck play similarly to Victor’s Standard deck, but since it’s Commander, of course on a much larger scale

5) Put opponents under enough pressure that they look like a softer target than I do, despite being in command of a small hoard of fiends of the night.

So, keeping in mind Point 2, above, I start looking for vampires in the store folders. Unfortunately it looks like I’ve come a little late to the party here (vampires increased in popularity with the printing of Battle for Zendikar, and surged again after the release of Shadows) so I can’t find a Malakir Bloodwitch, Captivating Vampire, Vampire Nocturnus, Drana Liberator of Malkir, Mirri the Cursed, Kalastria Highborn, Bloodlord of Vaasgoth, Voldaren Pariah, Stromkirk Condemned, or Necropolis Regent – and I don’t really want to run Ascendant Evincar because he’ll weaken my red vampires

Ugh. It looks like we won’t be running with a full-on aggro lord-fuelled plan; But first and foremost it’s a tribal deck – and there’s another reason (discussed later) why we want it full of creatures, Vampire or not. In absence of the cast above, the creature line-up is as follows:

Always fashionable, regardless of whether she's entertaining 

guests or carrying a funky-looking sword.

Olivia Voldaren	Inspiration for the deck, the best incarnation of her ladyship.
Olivia, Mobilized for War	I almost want her in charge here, because...

1) She’s a madness outlet, 2) haste is one of Commander’s better ability words, 3) in a roundabout way, she’s a vampire lord, and 4) she makes the deck’s non-vampire creatures benefit from other lords in the deck. The two choices make for very different decks, however; original stays in charge!

I think there's a theme here...

Falkenrath Gorger	It’s not ‘madness’ vampires without this card!
Asylum Visitor	3/1 for 1B with potential for huge card advantage? Sign me up!
Blood Artist	Things die in Commander all the time – benefit from this.
Blood Seeker	No, I will NOT run a deck without Suture Priest in it!
Bloodflow Connoisseur	Gain control of creatures, sacrifice them for benefits.
Bloodline Keeper	One of the few lords we actually have in stock here!
Bloodthrone Vampire	Sacrifice outlet, and a cheap one.
Butcher of Malakir	Plenty of sacrifice outlets in this deck; helps keep the board clear
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief	Reusable removal is usually pretty good.
Falkenrath Aristocrat	One of the sacrifice outlets mentioned above, and removal resistant.
Falkenrath Noble	It’s here for the same reason as Blood Artist is.
Indulgent Aristocrat	Combined sacrifice outlet and lord; ideal for this deck.
Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet	Reusable removal and token generation
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet	On-theme graveyard hate; also a sacrifice outlet, although expensive.
Nirkana Revenant	Vampire, mana doubler, plus hits like a truck. Great card all-around.
Pawn of Ulamog	It ramps, and gives you double the benefit for each sacrifice!
Thief of Blood	No charge counters, no +1/+1 counters, no Planeswalkers. Ha!
Sangromancer	A key card in this deck, see the ‘card advantage’ section below.

Now, this seems like a fairly small horde of vampires, and since we’re missing a few of the important ones and intentionally ignoring the highly aggressive ones, we’ll expand the roster a little to include other creatures of the night, as follows;

Wheely big dragons are a key part of this deck.

Solemn Simulacrum	Necessary in a deck without green, and a great sacrifice target.
Burnished Hart	More of that essential non-green ramp.
Crypt Ghast	Mana doubler - Olivia’s black ability isn’t cheap!
Nether Traitor	In a deck with sacrifice outlets, it doesn’t stay dead.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier	Sacrifice outlet and tutor.
Bloodfire Colossus	Board wipe attached to self-sacrifice effect.
Runehorn Hellkite	Huge dragon, madness outlet and draw seven.
Dragon Mage	Huge dragon, madness outlet and draw seven.
Overseer of the Damned	Removal; clears the board with Dictate of Erebos.
Bloodgift Demon	Phyrexian Arena on a huge stick.
Archfiend of Depravity	Restricts opponents to their two best creatures.
Rune-Scarred Demon	Tutor on a huge stick.
Molten Primordial	Swipes guys from everyone.
Deepfire Elemental	Its actual text reads 1: Destroy target creature token.
Fleshbag Marauder	We all sacrifice (I’ll probably sacrifice something of yours).
Smothering Abomination	I draw cards when I sacrifice.
Disciple of Bolas	Humanity’s last holdout in the deck – and he’s the slave of a planeswalking dragon. Nihilism, much?
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed	Hates on humans, gives my creatures undying, has intimidate. Beast.
Stalking Vengeance	Smacks people when my creatures die.

I’d really like a Captivating Vampire and Kalastria Highborn for this one, maybe a Lyzolda, the Blood Witch and Tymaret, the Murder King, but space is limited, and the cards aren’t in stock – refer to rule 2) above.

We’ve discussed above the dearth of available ramp in non-green decks and done what we can to assist with our creature base (deck has no use for mana-myr) so as usual in these types of decks, mana rocks play a prominent role in accelerating to the late-game. We’ve got:

Sol Ring	MOO! That’s the sound of a sacred cow.
Mind Stone	Deck could use the late-game draw effect.
Rakdos Signet	The new art looks like a branding iron!
Commander’s Sphere	This or Darksteel Ingot – I’d rather have the draw effect.
Talisman of Indulgence	A great card, see below.

It's a card that's even on theme with all these noble aristocrats!

Talismans are one of the better cycles of mana rocks and well suited to the Modern format – they allow you to go turn one into 1-drop (probably a discard spell), turn two: talisman and 1-drop (likely a removal spell) then turn three: 4-drop – that’s a lot of velocity in the early game!

I mentioned earlier the advantage Victor’s deck obtains by using the ability of Geier Reach Sanitarium to draw, then to play a card with madness instead of discarding it. We’ll be including that land in our mana base (a few colourless lands in a two-colour deck causes no mana problems 99% of the time) but this is Commander – the scale of the effect needs to be increased. Instead of discarding a card, we’ll be chucking our whole hand, hopefully playing a couple of spells with madness, then drawing seven cards! We’ve already got Runehorn Hellkite and Dragon Mage in the deck, above, supported by Sangromancer, so I’m adding the following cards:

Wheel of Fate	A draw seven effect that costs no mana on the turn it goes off.
Reforge the Soul	Miracle draw seven.
Collective Defiance	Tuneable with 3-5 mana to deal additional damage, plus a personal wheel.
Magus of the Wheel	Draw seven with a turn’s delay.
Fateful Showdown	Instant-speed removal plus personal wheel.

"Nothing but perfectly balanced spells here my good planeswalker."

Aside from throwing down some spells with madness, we can benefit from these wheel effects with
the below couple of cards;

Kederekt Parasite
Underworld Dreams
Psychosis Crawler
Waste Not	Huge benefits when opponents discard their hands!

This deck is shaping up as more of a board control deck than a vampire theme deck, but we aren’t a slave to theme – let’s run with it! The next couple of cards won’t win you any friends, but it’s a tough metagame out there!

Vampires aren't known for their environmental policies.

Contamination	Makes all lands only produce black mana. Keep mana rocks on-hand to fuel Kher Keep token generation!
Smokestack	Keeps the number of permanents on the board down.
Call the Bloodline	Powers these cards if you don’t have opponents’ creatures on hand.

We’ll duplicate Olivia’s black ability, using red cards – Molten Primordial, above, plus these:

Mob Rule	Who are we kidding – it’s always four or greater!
Grab the Reins	It’s also a sacrifice outlet.

Additional tutor effect – this deck is fairly light on tutors.

Diabolic Intent

Also a sacrifice outlet.

Most Commander decks run a few pieces of equipment; this one is fairly light-on.

Skullclamp	With all this sacrificing going on, snag a few extra cards.
Illusionist’s Bracers	Double up on Olivia’s vampire-controlling effect.
Lightning Greaves	Protect the queen!

There’s an awful lot of creatures being sacrificed on my side of the board, but also in general; let’s benefit from that:

Dictate of Erebos	Store doesn’t have a Grave Pact.
Black Market	This usually makes no mana because people kill it. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t play it!

So, we’ve wound up with a board control deck, with a minor vampire theme, that seems especially good at filling the graveyards – particularly ours – with creatures. We’re running thirty seven!
We’re lacking a fun combo win, so:

And that does it for non-lands!

Our mana base should have sacrifice outlets as well; High Market, Miren the Moaning Well, and Phyrexian Tower are all ideal; Geier Reach Sanitarium is in as discussed before, and we’ll need as many reasonable dual lands as possible; Command Tower, Shadowblood Ridge, Blood Crypt, Smoldering Marsh, Foreboding Ruins, Rocky Tar Pit, Lavaclaw Reaches, Temple of Malice, Rakdos Carnarium, Sulfurous Springs, Dragonskull Summit and Graven Cairns, plus a few mana-boosting lands – Crypt of Agadeem and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx will have to do, as the store has a Cabal Coffers but no Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

Kher Keep makes fodder for Smokestack or Contamination, making it easy to set off Butcher of Malakir and Dictate of Erebos. Spinerock Knoll is absurdly easy to set off in Commander, and answers to problem lands are always worth including; I’m adding Ghost Quarter and Tectonic Edge. I don’t like Evolving Wilds, etc. In two colour decks (unless The Gitrog Monster is involved) as I’d rather have a basic 99% of the time – that covers twenty-two of the thirty-six land slots. The rest we’ll fill with basics; the deck’s colour balance suggests an 8-5 split in favour of swamps.

Pokemon sleeves, of course, and we’re set to take on the next challenger to head down to Rabblemaster Games!