Introduction

Hello all,

Streets of New Capenna have been released for a week. Have you been testing new cards and decks with the new set kicking in? If not, WOTC has released some Challenger Decks over the last couple of years and it is a great starting point to taste the standard format. You could find the decklist here.

Today I would like to talk about the Rakdos Vampires Challenger Deck. It is not hard to figure out the deck contains two major themes, Vampire and Sacrifice linked up by Blood Tokens. I will try to modify them into two more centralized theme builds within the 10,000 yen budget in the Hareruya Store!

Vampire Blood Aggro

Let’s look at the first deck list:

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In this build, I cut the sacrifice oriented cards like 《Sokenzan Smelter》 and 《Oni-Cult Anvil》 as they are very valuable based and I believe vampires could be built into an aggressive strategy.

Streets of New Capenna provided us a new two power one drop vampire: 《Cutthroat Contender》. Along with 《Falkenrath Pit Fighter》, we could have a more consistent aggressive game plan. 《Vampire Socialite》 acted as a solid lord effect.

《Voldaren Bloodcaster》, 《Falkenrath Forebear》 and 《Immersturm Predator》 provided us some flying damages and value for all the blood tokens created via different vampires.

《Falkenrath Forebear》 and 《Immersturm Predator》 also acted as a way to fight mass removals. In the end, we have 《Anje, Maid of Dishonor》 as a way to close a game by sacrificing the blood token for direct damages.

About the mana base, 《Voldaren Estate》 gave us extra dual lands beside 《Blightstep Pathway》 for our aggressive one drops. This will get us a much more stable mana base. 《Haunted Ridge》 is dual lands for any two color decks in the format. Also the man lands and spell lands are just great for aggressive strategies to prevent mana flood.

Here are the cards needed for the modification:

4 《Cutthroat Contender》 x30 = 120 jpy
4 《Falkenrath Pit Fighter》 x50 = 200 jpy
2 《Vampire Socialite》 x30 = 60 jpy
2 《Blightstep Pathway》 x1200 = 2400 jpy
4 《Haunted Ridge》 x1400 = 5600 jpy
1 《Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance》 x250 = 250 jpy
1 《Takenuma, Abandoned Mire》 x250 = 250 jpy
1 《Voldaren Estate》 x50 = 50 jpy

Total = 8930 jpy

Rakdos Sacrifice

The next deck we will try to modify is Rakdos Sacrifice. We removed the Vampire beat down cards and turned it into a more value based deck. Trying to abuse 《Oni-Cult Anvil》 and 《Sokenzan Smelter》 turning blood tokens into creatures.

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In the build, we try to maximize the value of 《Oni-Cult Anvil》 by adding 《Goldhound》 in addition to 《Voldaren Epicure》. Our goal is to trigger 《Oni-Cult Anvil》 turn two and start rolling with all other card advantages and synergy engines.

《Body Dropper》 from Streets of New Capenna provides us a new sacrifice source and generates value for any sacrifice effect. It keeps growing when we sacrifice other creatures generated from 《Oni-Cult Anvil》.

《Sokenzan Smelter》 is an additional payoff for the deck turning treasure or blood into a 3/1 body. Yet it is quite mana demanding so I will keep it as a two of.

I added 《Experimental Synthesizer》 and 《Unlucky Witness》 to help digging for the payoffs. 《Deadly Dispute》 serves a similar purpose here to generate card advantage if you sacrifice blood tokens or 《Unlucky Witness》 for its cost.

Remember 《Unlucky Witness》’s ability stays until your next end step which means blocking with it or sacrificing it at the opponent’s turn is good timing to use its ability. The deck is filled with one and two mana cost cards which means we could start jamming 《Experimental Synthesizer》 as soon as turn three without worrying about losing the value.

For mana base, most of our one drops are red and thus we added extra 《Mountain》 to complete the mana base. We also want all of our lands being untapped so I just added two 《Haunted Ridge》 instead of four and fully loaded on 《Blightstep Pathway》.

Here are the cards needed for the modification:

4 《Experimental Synthesizer》 x150 = 600 jpy
4 《Unlucky Witness》 x30 = 120 jpy
4 《Goldhound》 x150 = 600 jpy
4 《Body Dropper》 x30 = 120 jpy
4 《Deadly Dispute》 x700 = 2800 jpy
2 《Oni-Cult Anvil》 x150 = 300 jpy
2 《Blightstep Pathway》 x1200 = 2400 jpy
2 《Haunted Ridge》 x1400 = 2800 jpy
1 《Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance》 x250 = 250 jpy

Total = 9900 jpy

Conclusion

If you enjoy figuring out play sequences and generating synergy between low-cost cards, Rakdos Sacrifice would provide you with lots of entertainment. If you love aggressive strategy, Vampire Blood Aggro would suit you the best.

It is still an early stage for the meta after releasing a new set. People are still figuring out how different strategies work. It is basically the best time of magic. I hope this article could provide you with an easy way to enter the standard format.

Lee Shi Tian (Twitter / Twitch)