My vampire node deck for Emrakul's Corruption

shteev

After some testing, this is the deck I am currently planning to run for the Vampire node in Emrakul's Corruption... submitted for critique and to promote discussion of the event.

Ob Nixilis (60)

Nirkana Assassin
Grave Birthing
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Corrupted Grafstone
Shambling Vent
Alhammarret's Archive
Behold the Beyond
Grip of Desolation
To The Slaughter
Aligned Hedron Network

The intention of this deck is to have a good chance of both winning the game and completing the secondary objectives... I'd have had a lot less trouble building for just one of those two goals.

Testing yesterday has demonstrated to my satisfaction that playing with any more than a single 1 power eldrazi and a single 1 power vampire will mean that one or other player will die before both secondary objectives are completed. In my very first game in QB I reduced an enemy Chandra to 30 life before I'd played the necessary 16 creatures, despite attempting to deal as little damage as possible.

I'd have preferred to run Sarkhan over Ob Nixilis but he has been absent from the shop for what is beginning to seem like years.

Tilikum

+1 for Alhammarret's Archive.
That deck looks both efficient and incredibly un-fun to play.
It should work wonders in the event!

Actually, Shambling Vent is usually pretty fun...

murtagon

IMO the Black node is really a brutal one. There do not seem to be many fun choices that will enable clearing all objectives.

Feagul

murtagon wrote:

IMO the Black node is really a brutal one. There do not seem to be many fun choices that will enable clearing all objectives.

OK, I'll bite. I know we discussed it briefly in Slack, but why no Call the Bloodline? Were you killing your opponents too quickly (by too quickly I mean before you summoned enough Eldrazi)?

shteev

Feagul wrote:

OK, I'll bite. I know we discussed it briefly in Slack, but why no Call the Bloodline? Were you killing your opponents too quickly (by too quickly I mean before you summoned enough Eldrazi)?

Call the Bloodline was one of the first cards I tested, and I had high hopes for it. It disappointed me.. it's interaction with Ingest is particularly anti-synergistic, and I found that each copy I played was generally creating <1 vampire.

I tried running it with Sword of the Animist, but the sword turned out to be double edged... it killed Call the Bloodline, and it contributed to killing my opponent too fast too. In order to pop the activated gems you are required to hit your opponent harder than you usually want to.

Ciotog

I am going to be running this with Sorin (lvl 60) in the event:

Anguished Unmaking
Transgress the Mind
Alter's Reap (card draw / mana gen with eldrazi / stop my creatures from winning)
Grip of Desolation
Grave Birthing (eldrazi + card draw)
Tamiyo's Journal
Call the Bloodline
Spawning Bed
Caves of Koilos
Nirkana Assassin (really is the cheapest vampire and the death touch should come in handy)

Seemed to work all right testing it against the AI in heroics. Only thing that worries me is how slow it is. But I did pump one of the eldrazi up to a 15/3 before hitting it with Alter's reap that played my whole hand.

shteev

Is anyone running a creature that has more than 1 power?

blacklotus

shteev wrote:

Is anyone running a creature that has more than 1 power?

me. I have a similar deck to yours. I am using the 7mana 2/2 vampire defender with delirium: flying.

Low power defenders should be good enough for stalling purposes I suppose.

Tilikum

BTW I have all the white Planeswalkers, they're all level 1, and they all have Quarantine Field for this event...
It's 2 am

Ciotog

I've actually decided to swap out the bloodline with Indulgent aristocrat (2/2). I want to keep a lifelinked vampire in the deck. We will see when the even starts if this is a terrible idea.

I almost put in descend upon the sinful but I can't come up with a card I would be willing to loose and Sorin's abilities really suffer with a board wipe.

alextfish

I assembled a Sorin deck, then concluded it'd be better as an Ob Nixilis deck.

The combination that works well for me is Eldrazi that summon an Eldrazi Spawn, so they count as 2 for the objectives (Catacomb Sifter and Brood Butcher), along with small cheap Vampires and Tamiyo's Journal plus mana ramp to cast lots of vampires before you accidentally win. I am playing Call the Bloodline too, and sometimes it gets 4 Vampires all by itself. I agree that you don't want the Sword of the Animist in this case - just hope that Call does good things, and if it doesn't, then well, it was only 9 mana, that's as much as a cheapish vampire.

I was playing Dust Stalker too, on the principle that when it bounces itself and you replay it that counts as a second, third etc Eldrazi. It turns out that even though yes it does count as multiple, it's not really sensible to be putting chunks of 11 mana into just Lava Axing someone for 7. The limiting factor isn't Eldrazi in hand with Ob Nixilis's good card draw.

The BW node is definitely the hardest to get all the objectives, principally because it's the one node where you can't play Drowner of Hope or From Beyond (not that I have it).

jimilinho_

In the end I decided to run Lilly ahead of the other walkers as her ultimate was perfect for both the objectives.

Decklist ended up as

Behold the Beoyond
To the Slaughter
Grip of Desolation
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Grave Birthing
Transgress the Mind

Blight Herder
Twins of Maurer Estate
Nirkana Assassin

10th card was changed quite often depending on what I was up against.

Usually was one of:

Fathom Feeder
Grotesque Mutation
Anguished Unmaking

Has been really successful plenty of ingest cards to ensure blight herder processes. Had I not had the herder I think catacomb sifter would have worked fine in it's place. It's a shame Brood Butcher isn't a bit cheaper as I think that card could have been fun to play

shteev

Quick post mortem:

Didn't play with Grave Birthing in the end... couldn't stand it. Too slow. I put Blight Herder in my deck even though it was against every fibre of my being, and it was fine. Didn't lose any games.

This concerns me somewhat. The fact that I could get away with playing a bad (for Plat Tier) card like Blight Herder, as well as an awful card like Nirkana Assassin, doesn't make me particularly proud of my deckbuilding skills or my play skills. I didn't make them work for me through clever synergies or skillful play. I didn't lose for the simple reason than Behold the Beyond is way overpowered.

I see that a thread about power creep has opened in the last day or so, so I'm going to say the rest of what I want to say over there.
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