Rite of Slaughter

"From every kill, a gruesome trophy."

This Vampire Tribal deck that utilizes the Double Feature art style to create a visually stunning and unique deck ready for the day that the art style makes it to arena. Originally based on “☀️💀 Vampires | BO1 DMU Standard by covertgoblue” the deck evolved to focus on the tougher creatures to stand with Slaughter Specialist and withstand the low-cost The Meathook Massacre. As I looked through the cards, I noticed that almost every card in the deck had a double feature version. With that in mind, I made some swaps to fully embrace the look, and I believe the result is a truly solid deck.

The Creatures:

Restless Bloodseeker // Bloodsoaked Reveler is a great defensive option that, when combined with the minor lifegain in our deck, can be a sleeper win condition on its flip side during later parts of the game.

Slaughter Specialist is a cheap creature that can become a real threat in the right circumstances. While it does create a 1/1 for our opponent, taking care of that with other means only makes this vampire bigger and bigger, to the point where it must be dealt with.

Welcoming Vampire is a tough flyer that not only provides us a decent attack, but also gives us that all-important card advantage that is key to any game.

Edgar, Charmed Groom // Edgar Markov's Coffin is a powerful creature that draws a lot of attention from our opponents. However, in this case, we don't mind if they send him to the graveyard as that just brings in more tokens for us to use for our own purposes. Plus, it comes back into play and gives a boost to the stats of our other vampires.

The Spells:

Fateful Absence is a fantastic instant-speed removal spell that hits both creatures and planeswalkers, making it a valuable addition to our arsenal. The downside of creating a Clue token is a small price to pay for its versatility.

Rite of Oblivion is an effective answer to problematic threats on the board, albeit at the cost of a creature, preferably a small token. The flashback ability also gives us the option to use it again. While it doesn't synergize well with the Slaughter Specialist, it's still a solid inclusion.

Invoke Despair certainly lives up to its name, but it's an incredibly powerful card that can single-handedly win games for us. Despite not fitting the double feature art style of the rest of the deck, its strength is too good to ignore.

The Other Stuff:

The Meathook Massacre is a board wipe that can help you out of tricky situations, while also making your creature sacrifices less painful in the long run. It's a great way to clear the board and make your opponent suffer.

Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity is a great card for generating tokens and drawing cards over the course of three turns, and then boosting your creatures' stats. It's a versatile card that provides value at every stage of the game.

Sorin the Mirthless is a fantastic planeswalker that creates flying, lifelink tokens that work perfectly with our vampire tribal strategy. His top ability can be a game winner as it deals a massive amount of damage, and he also lets us pull cards from the top of our deck at the cost of life, which is fitting for a vampire deck.

The Gameplan:

While some games may be a quick and easy win with Slaughter Specialist, we are prepared to handle any challenges that come our way. Our deck is built to bounce back quickly and keep the pressure on our opponents.

Setting up our mana base is crucial and having at least three lands by turn two is essential. By turn five, our mana should be fully covered, allowing us to cast our powerful spells and creatures.

When it comes to our first few turns, dropping Slaughter Specialist is always a great move if possible. From there, we can keep up the pressure with our vampire army, taking down small creatures by wiping the board clean with The Meathook Massacre or hit specific targets with our removal if needed.

Our win conditions are diverse and deadly, including loss of life via The Meathook Massacre, Invoke Despair, and the sleeper wincon of Restless Bloodseeker // Bloodsoaked Reveler. But most of the time, simply going wide with our boosted vampire army is enough to secure the victory.

Feel free to comment if you would like to see more my Tribal decks and please link here and give me a shout out if you used this deck and had fun.