Tournament Level Vampires

[lem0nhead]

I took this deck to our local gaming centre for a constructed standard legal deck tournament on sunday and it won 75% of match ups. Only losing to a crazy exalted bant deck as I "creature removed" the wrong creatures

4x Vampire Nocturnus
4x Gatekeeper of Malakir
4x Vampire Nighthawk
4x Bloodghast
3x Vampire Hexmage
3x Malakir Bloodwtich
4x Disfigure
4x Tendrils of Corruption
2x Mind Sludge
4x Sign in Blood

4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Marsh Flats
18x Swamp

I need the fetch land to thin out the deck's lands because dropping nocturnus usually results in a game win. All ur creatures +2/+1 flying as long as top card is black is killer. Especially if you drop a bloodwitch, eat some of their life and swing for 6 flying protection from white. Mind sludge turn 5 if theyre playing board control etc and Disfigure takes out early game creatures such as mana birds or goblins and tendrils is amazing, turn 4 gains you 4 life and takes out most creatures. Also hexmage is a great planeswalker killer.

[FM]

From what I've gathered, I'd cut Disfigure for Urge to Feed, and only 2-3 of those. Also, you don't need 3 Malakir. I know it sounds awesome, but you can board out one safely, your key card is Nocturnus, not Bloodwitch. I don't know your meta, but I'm not sure you need that many Hexmages maindecked in Standard, if you need them at all. I know you have Mind Sludge, but Duress should make it in, also. This is what I can tell without knowing your meta and your sideboarding plans.

[lem0nhead]

Ok well, originally i ran 4 duress and 4 feast of blood. I cut the feasts for disfigure as its such an awesome card the 1 cost makes it invaluable and u cant guarantee 2 vampires. I have 4 urge to feed, but the extra -1/-1 for an extra black mana is not a good resource use. The tap kicker thing isnt ever useful honestly ur either blocking or swinging, never sitting around untapped.

I ran 4 hexmages and 4 bloodwitches but dropped 1 of each to incorporate mind sludge as an alternate victory help. There are only 4 nocturnus obviously and you can guarantee getting one so 3 bloodwitch is a must. Shes flying without noc's help and can be the lethal swinger without him. As regards the hexmage, shes just another vampire thats 2/1 first strike, which in itself for 2 mana is great without the security of instant planeswalker kill.

Finally to explain my duress drop for tendrils. Well. Its hard to explain really. I loved duress. I still do. Its amazing. But tendrils is not only life gaining to offset fetch land life loss, but its open ended to the damage it can do so it can kill more serious threats than disfigure. I just need to kill fliers and the game is mine, even without nocturnus the nighthawk and bloodwitch go straight for the opponents life. Plus duress sometimes backfires especially when youre playing zoo/agroo creature decks, and the vamps are so fast (turn 6 kill latest if it goes right) that duress need only be a sideboard in case of really high levels of instants, and that extra card isnt going to stop me really. Tendrilling a flier blocker is much more beneficial as i usually win then!

My sideboard ran:

4 Deathmark (green white decks)
4 Duress (nothing need be said)
2 Marsh Casualties (for swarm)
2 Grim Discovery (for mill/discard)
1 Mind sludge (for control)
1 Malakir Bloodwitch (just an amazing card)
1 Vampire Hexmage (planeswalker decks)

[sharkey]

Ok, my bro's deck is VERY good, and it runs 2 or 3 Bloodwitched, MD, The Hexmages sided out, 2 more Marsh Flats (Very useful!), and Duress MD. He has a lot of removal, (4 UtF, 4 Deathmark, 4 Doomblade), in a mix of SB and maindeck. The meta he plays in has only top tier decks like Jund, and he goes consitently 4-1 or better.

[lem0nhead]

2 more Marsh Flats (Very useful!)

Believe me I know I need them, I've got one coming from an online order but they're not cheap or easy to get hold of.

My deck has beaten Jund too, though only faced it rarely. I'm fairly happy with the level of removal 4 disfigure, 4 tendrils and 4 gatekeepers offers really, without the need to add UtF. Im keeping 3 bloodwitches. The more I play the deck the more she wins it for me. Shes un-really good.

I honestly dont see the hexmage issue. Shes a 2/1 vampire for 2 which is fine in itself, kills planeswalkers which is a totally awesome bonus and to top it off kills and other 2 power attacking creature before it can land a blow. Why WOULDNT you play it?

As for duress. Its the card the pulls at me the most to include, almost all black decks should run four of it. Im really torn but I cant see how removing anything from this deck would benefit it.

[sharkey]

OK, UtF over Disfigure. Replace it if you can, unless your meta all runs very fast aggro, like boros.

So 4 Tendrils, 4 UtF, and 4 Gatekeepers is a good level of removal for your meta, good. That seems right.

As for not running Hexmage, my bro's explanation was that she was simply ok. He said that the main hard-hitters of vamps are: Bloodghasts, Vampire Nighthawk, and Nocturnus. Malakir can be a finisher in a white-heavy meta as well. Hexmage is ok, but not as good as duress for many reasons, among them the fact that she is one of the worse vamps, albeit a good SB card vs. planeswalker-heavy decks.

I would simply say:

+2 Marsh Flats (You know that )
+4 Duress
+4 Urge to Feed
+2 Kalastria Highborn

-2 Swamp
-3 Hexmage
-4 Disfigure
-3 Malakir Bloodwitch (Unless it's a white heavy meta)

Most of the these are simply moving from SB to MD, with the exception of the Marsh flat/ Swamp and Urge/Disfigure.

[lem0nhead]

Well you mention 2 things that discount 2 of your recommendations. 1. There is a lot of white in the meta which is why the bloodwitch is ace. lots of naya, white allies etc. 2. I play lots of decks such as allies that need to be shut down ASAP. Theyre only 1/1's when they start but by the time three are down its usually game over, disfigure drops any of them right away, it also does manabirds, lotus cobras etc. Its far superior to urge to feed.

Ill consider dropping the hexmage for duress, but it leaves me light on creatures i feel.

Also, I dont like the highborn. Yeah shes good and yeah people fear her, but in my experience i NEVER have a spare black mana. Turn 2 is hexmage/bloodghast, turn 3 nighthawk or bloodghast, disfigure e5tc, turn 4 nocturnus or tendrils, turn 5 bloodwitch etc.

[sharkey]

Okay then, I would say this is near perfect for your meta. I might reccommend adding some deathmarks if  you feel you need more removal, but other than that, this is oriented against faster aggro and white, so you're good.