Historic - Cruel Bloodlords (Orzhov, Vampires)

23 40
16 10 10 24
Midrange

Good day gamers, today I have an absolutely powerful, bloodthirsty deck that is also rotation proof. I am happy to share with you a Cruel Celebrantimage, Sorin, Imperious Bloodlordimage, and Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlordimage lifegain deck that has a ton of potential. The main focus of this deck is to leverage the insane synergy between Sorin, Imperious Bloodlordimage and early game vampires to gain a ridiculous life lead and also create huge bodies that were placed on the field as early as turn two. 


The first card that we are going to talk about is Ajani's Pridemateimage. It's not uncommon for this cool cat to reach a scary power level by turn 5 demanding removal, or it lives and gets more powerful because of our next card. 


Bloodthirsty Aerialistimage is the bread and butter of this deck. Because it is a vampire it gets a counter from Sorin, Imperious Bloodlordimage, it can also be cheated out on turn three with the Bloodlord. By the mid game this creature will be swinging with high power,  flying, lifelink, deathtouch, and buffing itself with the Bloodlord buffs. It's not uncommon for a turn 5 where your cards are all buffed 4 or 5 times then you swing in with a 6 or 7 power flyer and get another buff from the damage off that. 


And to round out the trio of powerful life buff creatures is Twinblade Paladinimage much like the other two Twinblade Paladinimage provides a creature that if left alone will quickly snowball the game, and trust me you will have 25 plus life a lot. If you aren't confident in the 25 life mechanic then sub in Gideon's Companyimage but I found no problem consistantly keeping that amount in most matchups. Burn decks will keep you under 25 life but you outlast the burn 90% of the time so Twinblade Paladinimage is not even needed in these matchups.


Next let's talk about Knight of the Ebon Legionimage. A mainstay in most vampire decks Knight of the Ebon Legionimage provides a one drop creature, with a mana sink, that gets bigger as the game goes on. It has access to deathtouch so it can trade up and that is fine. But in our deck here the Ebon knight is much more powerful than your opponent will expect. Aside from being a great target for Sorin, Imperious Bloodlordimage's other +1 sacrifice ability we also have access to a great removal card that no other deck has the guts to run and this card works soooooo well with our vampire knight.


Final Paymentimage is a card that many people want to put in their decks but it always ends up being too costly,  but when you end up with an average of 50 life a game then you can easily slot this card into our deck and not worry about the outcome. In this deck Final Paymentimage is Cast Downimage on roids, two mana destroy a creature is uber powerful and when you drop the risk to almost nothing and then turn that same downside into a synergy with another card we start to enter into a different realm of awesomeness. Yep Final Paymentimage buffs Knight of the Ebon Legionimage on turn 2 or 3 making that 5 life cost feel real good when it puts a counter or two on the field as well as destroying any blockers. You will occassionally use Final Paymentimage to sac Cruel Celebrantimage for some juicy lifegain procs.


Adding onto the removal we have Oath of Kayaimage. This enchantment hits small threats for 3 and gives 3 life on 3 mana, that is an OK deal but the passive ability works wonders in our deck. When Oath of Kayaimage is on the field anytime your planeswalkers come under attack it will buff your creatures which adds a hard choice for your opponent, do they really want that planeswalker dead if it gives you a bigger board? They probably do but at least you get more value out of the oath.


Mortifyimage is a solid removal card that hits enchantments, nice.


Cruel Celebrantimage gives this deck some scary interactions. Just the fact that it buffs your guys anytime something dies is enough reason to happily put multiple Cruel Celebrantimages onto the field. Celebrant is also your primary sacrifice target as it is a cheap guy who gives value for the sac and when you combine that with...


Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlordimage is the not so secret MVP of this deck. This guy, Dis Guuuy... not only does he provide a lifegain proc himself but the passive lifegain he gives all creatures AND planeswalkers means that slapping him down on turn 4 with a Sorin, Imperious Bloodlordimage, Bloodthirsty Aerialistimage, Cruel Celebrantimage, and Knight of the Ebon Legionimage allows a disgusting combo of using...
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlordimage +1 to sac the [Cruel Celebrant]] and hit their face (or a creature if you need control) for 3 which is 2 separate procs of lifegain plus the Celebrant proc. Bloodthirsty Aerialistimage is now a 5/6 flyer with lifelink, then you can either +2 Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlordimage for another proc and 1 damage or you can -2 and revive your Celebrant.  Then you attack and get 2 more procs off of the creature lifelink ending the turn with a max 22 life swing(11 dealt 11 gained), a 7/8 or 8/9 flyer and a 2/3 knight.
Both of the Bloodlords are very powerful and unlock a ton of synergies in our deck.


Ajani, Strength of the Prideimage Is best described as a glue card, it is not the most important but it is a card you never feel bad playing. It gains life or creates Ajani's Pridemateimages and meeting the 35 health requirement for his third ability is not that uncommon. If he is left unattended he will create a very difficult situation for most opponents to deal with.

The last two notable cards in the deck are Bolas's Citadelimage and Liliana, Dreadhorde Generalimage. If Bolas's Citadelimage resolves consider the game yours, I have gone down to 1 life with that card and ended the turn with a full board (5+ creatures and 4 planeswalkers) and 26 life. This card is a shot of adrenaline in the deck and is the single reason the deck is shifted more for black mana.


Liliana, Dreadhorde Generalimage always adds so much to a deck, from the option to sac two creatures for celebrant procs (each sac is a single proc) while also removing two opponent creatures, to creating consistent board pressure ticking up to a game ending ult. Her ability to draw cards is really clutch and has a little synergy with Bolas's Citadelimage, kill one of your guys to keep the chain going if you hit a land on the top of your deck. 

There is a reason why this write-up is longer than my others, I really think that this deck is very powerful and I wanted to take my time testing it.. A telling sign of its power is the amount of good cards that are left out, on top of that I intentionally focused on post rotation cards because after that happens this deck will definitely be well positioned to make a impact on the meta. Other than the removal cards which have a clear role in any deck, every card in this deck is a threat. If your opponent does not draw the proper removal spells than you will snowball the game but that means that they are not doing anything proactive giving you more time to find key cards like Bolas's Citadelimage. If our opponent does not focus on stopping our game-plan then they will have a really hard time killing a 50+ health opponent.


That's all for now gamers, have a great day and please enjoy!

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1 comments

S1XDEMONBAG
This deck is amazing - but I have to add that I have never seen or used Bolas's Citadel before - good lord that card is sick! Dumping spells on the board for free when you've got plenty of life to spare is insanely broken. Then the 10 to the face while you have Cruel Celebrant on the field makes it 20 to the face. I had been looking for a post rotation deck (since I only recently got back into Magic) - this has been great. Need to find a replacement for Shalai since she'll rotate out though.
SonzeySpace
Last Updated: 14 Oct 2019
Created: 22 Jul 2019
3855 927 1

Mainboard - 60 cards (17 distinct)

Creature (16)
$2.52€2.180.06
$0.83€0.420.03
$0.33€0.240.03
$0.25€0.150.03
$0.905.07
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (10)
$0.30€0.200.03
$0.20€0.100.03
$11.50€3.780.03
$0.40€0.270.02
Land (24)
$0.25€0.080.03
$11.27€9.470.19
$0.63€0.390.03
$0.45€0.210.03
Planeswalker (10)
$14.79€10.020.13
$3.68€2.970.13
$1.22€1.100.02
$63.98€26.1317.89

Sideboard - 15 cards (7 distinct)

$0.30€0.200.03
$0.20€0.040.05
$1.09€0.630.53
$0.25€0.110.03
$0.48€0.210.03
$1.22€1.100.02
$1.50€1.030.38

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