By Hiroshi Okubo

Does everybody like “Draining”, literally draining life of opponents?

The most basic rule of MTG is that a player with no life would lose the match and each player is supposed to let opponent’s life zero before they lose their life. “Draining” can be said it was optimized for this victory conditions. There is no more efficient things than this because the more opponent’s life decreases, the closer the way to the victory become, and it can be said to opposite.

On top of that, an image we can imagine from the word “Draining” is “Vampire” as expected. Literally, vampires drain opponent’s blood, restore their life, and become more powerful. Actually, there exist many vampires who have an ability of “Draining” like 《Kalastria Highborn》or《Blood Artist》.

Moreover, the new set “Ixalan” which will be released in September also features “Vampire”.

As expectation for birth of architype featuring vampire is increasing, this time we deriver you a card which has a significant meaning for vampire deck construction.

This creature has a standard body of 4 mana 3/4 and a useful ability. When 《Sanctum Seeker》 is in play, vampires you control swallow opponents flesh blood before their attacks reach the opponents once you command them.

It’s the simplest ability supporting “deploy and attack” tactics. The life draining that can’t be escaped would definitely disturb opponent’s plan, and surely guide you to the way to the victory. It steal “each” opponent’s life so it will work well on multi-player game like 2HG or Commander.

There was a card called 《Hellrider》which has the similar ability to this but triggered ability of 《Sanctum Seeker》 is not damage but draining so it’s more effective in point of the damage race. Moreover, he can’t be destroyed by 《Abrade》 which can be seen so often since Hour of Devastation was released. That’s one of the biggest points.

After we experienced rotation there remains vampire cards like《Metallic Mimic》or 《Yahenni, Undying Partisan》. Will “Vampire” deck dominate the main street? Now It’s our pleasure to think about deck construction!