Unboxed: Vampire's KissBy jceagles12 |

Greetings fellow Cubers and welcome back to Unboxed: the weekly article series that shines a spotlight on themes and topics about the best format in Magic: The Gathering! Thank you to everyone who has supported the series and if there is a topic or theme you would like covered, leave your thoughts in the comments below! With that said: Let’s get Cubing!

Welcome back to Spooky October, where last week we looked at the finest Zombies available for Cubes. While Zombies were one of the first tribes that I truly learned to play Magic with, Vampires were not far behind. My very first deck combined both Zombies and Vampires together in an attempt to send my opponents to an early grave, but I learned very quickly that balancing two distinct tribes in the same deck was near impossible. I decided to split the deck into two and while the Zombie deck had plenty of older cards to choose from, Vampires were nowhere near as big of a tribe as they are today. That all changed with the release of Zendikar and Vampires are now a much more common, popular, and ever-present tribe. To celebrate Spooky October and recognize one of the two tribes that helped me learn the game, this week’s article will shine a spotlight on the Top Ten Vampires. Honorable mentions will of course be included since Vampires now have plenty of cards to choose from, unlike ten years ago where the options were few and far between.

Important Notes:
  1. The data being used for the cards on the top vampires list will be taken from Cube Cobra based on cards that are in hundreds or thousands of unique Cubes across all rarities.
  2. Only cards with the type Vampire will be included for this list. If you would like to see a list of cards that create Vampire tokens, leave a comment below and it shall be a future list
  3. I have plenty of noteworthy cards mentioned in this article, but this is by no means all of them or a guide of any kind. It is your Cube, so build it the way you want to!

10. Falkenrath Gorger

Tenth place on this list shows how far Wizards has decided to push what a one mana red creature can do in Falkenrath Gorger. Long gone are the days where Jackal Pup and Firedrinker Satyr are some of the best options by default because now you can spend one red mana to get the stats of a Savannah Lions with no drawbacks. It even has some upside if you support any archetypes where Madness is a viable option, giving you yet another reason to play this card. While there may come a day where it sees far less play than it does now, at least you do not have to damage yourself when playing one mana red creatures anymore!

9. Asylum Visitor

We go from one card with Madness to another, but you certainly do not need to take advantage of the Madness ability to make Asylum Visitor an excellent addition to your cube, even if you are not attacking with it. A two mana 3/1 is playable stats, especially in black, and this card does a pretty good Dark Confidant impersonation to go with it. Pay close attention to how the ability is worded because you could be drawing a ton of extra cards when the trigger occurs during each player’s upkeep and not just yours. Make sure you have enough life to spend while you draw those extra cards!

8. Stromkirk Noble

Another one mana red vampire makes the list and while Stromkirk Noble may have weaker stats than Falkenrath Gorger, it more than makes up for it if you can successfully attack your opponent with it. If you can start getting this creature to grow on turn two, it will either win you the game on its own or eat a removal spell that your opponent would have much rather saved. Whether you actively support a Humans theme or not, odds are that a good portion of creatures cannot block this vampire from attacking until later in the game, but by then, the damage will have already been done.

7. Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose

Vito is the newest card on this list, but I am confident that he will see play in many cubes going forward. His stats and mana cost may be average, but his two abilities can be absolutely incredible depending on what your field looks like. A large field of creatures enables Vito to gain you a massive amount of life while simultaneously draining your opponent for that much. It is incredibly difficult to keep fighting against Vito if he is able to use his ability even once to its fullest potential and he also makes all your incidental life gain effects and Lifelink abilities that much better.

6. Falkenrath Aristocrat

The only gold card to make this list is both a top end for aggro decks and the namesake of one of the most popular cube archetypes. Falkenrath Aristocrat’s four power, along with flying and haste, makes the damage this card can provide quite large considering its mana cost. Even if your opponent has a flying blocker, you can sacrifice a creature to save this vampire from dying and even give it a little bonus if that creature happened to be a human. It is a fast damage clock, as well as an invaluable free sacrifice outlet any strong aristocrats deck needs to take it to the next level. While even one of these options would be effective, both simultaneously is extremely noteworthy.

5. Bloodghast

Kicking off the top five is a slight shift from one of the best aristocrats outlets to one of, if not the, best creature to sacrifice away in Bloodghast. It might not seem so appealing at first since it has a rough mana cost, uninspiring stats, and an inability to block for you, but this card is a lot more than just a two mana 2/1. Being able to reanimate itself for free when you play a land ensures it is always around to sacrifice away as you further your plans towards victory. If you need to attack with it, it can do so in a pinch and it even has haste if your opponent is low enough on life. Unless your opponent has some timely graveyard hate available, this vampire never truly goes away.

4. Drana, Liberator of Malakir

This iteration of Drana really packs a punch. She is evasive, tough to kill in combat, and can continuously buff your board as long as she is able to attack your opponent directly. Her last ability is deceptively strong since Drana deals combat damage to your opponent before most or all of your other attackers can. This means your other attacking creatures receive the +1/+1 counter before they connect and will deal even more damage. Even on an empty board, she can still use her ability to buff herself out of burn range and make her almost impossible to beat in combat. She may not have done too much in Standard at the time, but she is still great in this format.

3. Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief

Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief has a reasonable mana cost, excellent stats, and evasion, which would already make her very playable for most limited decks, but her ability is where the greatness of this Drana truly lies and what makes her one of the strongest limited cards I have ever seen. Being able to answer your opponent’s creatures, while simultaneously increasing her power, causes her damage to skyrocket and your board presence to get better regardless of whatever you may have had in play already. Instead of colossal Eldrazi, this Drana was the reason players went undefeated at FNMs back in the day. I gave hype to Sidisi, Undead Vizier last week and want to give even more to Drana as a black five mana creature.

Story Time of the Week: I mentioned above that I watched Drana lead the way to many victories during Rise of the Eldrazi drafts and I meant it. I remember one night in particular where Drana cemented her status in the Draft Hall of Fame for me. I was still fairly new to the game and was watching a player who was much better than I was. They had been using Drana to remove enemy creatures and were preparing to attack for lethal. Their opponent had just enough life to take all the damage and use a rebounded Staggershock to win the game on the next upkeep. The player with Drana then blew my young Magic mind and used Drana’s ability on his own creatures without killing them to attack for exact lethal damage and win the game. I learned that night that even cards that are good in a straightforward fashion can be used in creative ways to push their strengths even further.

2. Knight of the Ebon Legion

It may be the third one mana creature and second newest card on the list this week, but Knight of the Ebon Legion is debatably the best black one mana creature for cubes. If you can play it on turn one, it can start attacking as a 4/5 as early as turn three. If you draw it in the midgame, it can be a 4/5 at a moment’s notice and perhaps even bigger if you were to draw it towards the end of the game. It can even make itself permanently bigger once you start temporarily boosting its power. A one mana creature that is good at any point in the game is certainly worth a look and this vampire should be sticking around in a lot of cubes for many years to come.

1. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

The winner of this week’s list would have made a younger me extremely happy as it is a powerful vampire that also synergizes with zombies. Kalitas is an effective four mana threat than can gain you some life as he attacks, but he does not even need tap to be a threat as he enables every combat or removal spell to give you a free 2/2 zombie. The creature that gives you the zombie is exiled, so it even has some built in graveyard hate. Once you have your zombie army, you can attack with them or use them to permanently strengthen Kalitas and gain you even more life during combat. The value this card gives you for four mana, as well as it’s must-answer status, convincingly ranks this as the best vampire around for cubers.

Noteworthy Vampire CommonsFalkenrath Noble, Viscera Seer, Dusk Legion Zealot, Bloodthrone Vampire

For Pauper players everywhere, there are some high-quality Vampires for your consideration. Faleknrath Noble is a great payoff for an aristocrats strategy, as the incidental life gain will stabilize you, kill your opponent, or perhaps even both. Viscera Seer is a great sacrifice outlet for those aristocrat strategies I keep mentioning and its card selection can keep your draws consistently strong. Dusk Legion Zealot is a black Elvish Visionary in disguise and is great value for its mana investment. If you were looking for a sacrifice outlet to let you be a bit more offensive, Bloodthrone Vampire may be just what you are looking for, as each sacrificed creature turns into two additional points of damage.

Noteworthy Vampire UncommonsVampire Nighthawk, Adanto Vanguard, Blood Artist, Skymarcher Aspirant

For Peasant Cubers, you get access to all the sweet commons mentioned above, plus some Vampires that truly push the boundary of what a non-rare or non-mythic card can do. Vampire Nighthawk is still a cube powerhouse all these years later and, even though his textbox is succinct, his value is incredible. Adanto Vanguard is an excellent two mana white aggro creature that can stick around for a lot longer than other Blade of the Sixth Pride variants. Blood Artist is still one of the best payoff cards you can put into your deck for an aristocrat strategy. Skymarcher Aspirant can be the best Savannah Lions variant to date if you are able to achieve the City’s Blessing, which can get a lot easier if you have cards that make tokens to make the count to ten permanents go faster.

And that is the list for this week! I hope you enjoyed a look at the potential Vampire additions to your Cube. I am thrilled that Vampires have become a popular tribe and they show no signs of slowing down, with plenty of options both now and in our future. If you are going to push tribal themes in your Cube, there should be no shortage of bloodthirsty vampires for you to choose from!

Join me next week when you won’t stand a ghost of a chance, but until then, may you keep some garlic handy!

Special thanks to Cube Cobra for letting me contribute to the best Cube resource around, Gary Thompson for compiling the bulk of the data used for this article, and Maegan for being the best editor a writer can ask for!