As you may recall from my New Capenna Championship recap from last week, there are a lot of new decks making the rounds in Standard. One in particular has caught my attention and is quickly becoming my favorite Standard deck of the season. Grixis Vampires made a splash at the Set Championship as the chosen deck of a team of respected pro players, despite being mostly unheard of before the tournament. Since then I’ve been working to adapt their decklist to the Arena Ladder to make it more suited to everyday play and the evolving metagame.

Grixis Vampires is a complex archetype. From its name you might assume that it is a tribal deck, but really that is only a very small element of the deck’s strategy. Some have described it as a tempo deck, which I think is fitting in terms of how you should approach playing it, but this is also unlike any other tempo deck I have played. I could see it being classified as aggro, midrange, or even control. In the case of Grixis Vampires these classifications simply don’t help describe the true nature of the archetype. So, let’s just dive in and take a look at the list that brought Mike Sigrist to the top eight of the New Capenna Championship.

 

Grixis Vampires

Standard
by Mike Sigrist

MTG Arena decklist

Deck

2 The Meathook Massacre
1 Mountain
4 Bloodtithe Harvester
4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
3 Kaito Shizuki
4 Corpse Appraiser
4 Riverglide Pathway
4 Voltage Surge
3 Clearwater Pathway
4 Blightstep Pathway
1 Swamp
3 Stormcarved Coast
2 Tenacious Underdog
2 Hive of the Eye Tyrant
1 Spell Pierce
2 Infernal Grasp
2 Evelyn, the Covetous
1 Soul Transfer
1 Ray of Enfeeblement
1 Sorin the Mirthless
2 Haunted Ridge
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
1 Duress
2 Bloodthirsty Adversary
1 Shipwreck Marsh
4 Xander’s Lounge

Sideboard
1 Soul Transfer
1 Go Blank
3 Ray of Enfeeblement
1 Mind Flayer
1 Negate
1 Duress
1 Evelyn, the Covetous
1 The Meathook Massacre
1 Abrade
1 Disdainful Stroke
3 Annul

When I first look at this list I think midrange, thanks to the mix of creatures, spells, and value-producing enchantments and planeswalkers. But why, then, is the common consensus that this is a tempo deck? I think that is mainly thanks to one card, Kaito Shizuki. In games where you land a two-drop and play the three-mana planeswalker next turn to start drawing cards, this deck builds both card advantage and board presence to feel just like a classic mono-blue tempo deck.

However, that obviously doesn’t play out every game. I often find myself in matches where I am playing the control role. The cheap removal helps get you through the first few turns, Then you can sometimes wipe the board with Meathook Massacre, and win the game by dropping an Evelyn, the Covetous and running away with card advantage.

Other times, this feels like an aggro deck, where a few early creatures get in for damage and then you just have to try to finish out the game by protecting them and maybe dropping a Bloodthirsty Adversary on turn five to deliver the final blow.

The ability for this deck to play so many different roles makes it extremely rewarding, and challenging to play. You need to quickly assess what the best plan is based on what part of your deck you have drawn and on what your opponent is doing. This list runs a lot of one-of’s and two-of’s, not because the deckbuilders were indecisive, but because each different card is a tool that you can include in your plan and that your opponent has to plan around.

One element that really sets this deck apart from other tempo decks is its variety of powerful three-drops. Usually tempo decks focus on cheaper threats so that they can leave mana open by turn three, and only use three mana plays as a way to cement an advantage in the lategame. Meanwhile this deck includes Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Corpse Appraiser, and Kaito Shizuki even though these are all somewhat clunky cards that are often played on turn three. The thing is, each of those three cards provide so much value that its better to include them even if they don’t match conventional tempo play patterns.

While I have been playing and testing with this deck I have started to pinpoint a few of its weaknesses, and I have learned how it matches up to the metagame if the Arena Ladder. Of course, Arena and most tournaments are quite different from the Set Championship, and the deck has to be accommodate those differences. For one, there is a much wider metagame. In the set championship players had to be prepared for Esper Midrange and Naya Runes which were both very popular. This led to card choices like the one main deck copy of Ray of Enfeeblement (with three more in the sideboard). Ray is a great answer to Raffine, Scheming Seer and Runeforge Champion, but I haven’t found it to be quite so necessary in the wider Standard metagame.  Below is my updated decklist which has been serving me very well on Arena so far.

MTG Arena decklist

Deck
4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
4 Riverglide Pathway
1 Hive of the Eye Tyrant
4 Corpse Appraiser
4 Xander’s Lounge
2 Evelyn, the Covetous
1 Mountain
4 Clearwater Pathway
4 Bloodtithe Harvester
2 Infernal Grasp
2 Bloodthirsty Adversary
4 Stormcarved Coast
1 Soul Transfer
3 Kaito Shizuki
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
1 Spell Pierce
2 The Meathook Massacre
4 Voltage Surge
1 Make Disappear
2 Swamp
2 Haunted Ridge
4 Blightstep Pathway
3 Tenacious Underdog
1 Hagra Mauling

Sideboard
2 Abrade
2 Duress
2 Annul
2 Ray of Enfeeblement
1 Make Disappear
1 Negate
1 Mind Flayer
1 Evelyn, the Covetous
2 Go Blank
1 Power Word Kill

Aside from the aforementioned Ray of Enfeeblement, a few other cards didn’t feel like they were cutting it for me. The one-of Sorin the Mirthless was powerful, but I found I usually wanted to cast a three drop and hold up Voltage Surge or Spell Pierce instead of casting him on turn four. In the sideboard, I added a copy of Go Blank since it was so good in the mirror and against other Tenacious Underdog midrange decks. Meanwhile The Meathook Massacre didn’t impress me quite so much. It can be good on the draw against midrange decks, but there just aren’t many aggro decks for it to really excel against.

I wanted to add a bit more defense against green decks since they still seem fairly common on Arena. Mind Flayer is great against green, but its also quite expensive. Power Word Kill is a good cheap answer, so I opted to include one of those. Abrade can also help deal with cards like Werewolf Pack Leader and Esika’s Chariot.

Here is a quick sideboard guide for the current Standard metagame:

vs. Esper Midrange

+2 Ray of Enfeeblement

+1 Power Word Kill

+2 Go Blank

-1 Spell Pierce

-1 Tenacious Underdog on draw

-3 Kaito Shizuki on draw

-1 Kaito Shizuki on play

-2 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker on play

-1 Make Disappear on play

vs. Naya Runes

+2 Annul

+2 Ray of Enfeeblement

+1 Mind Flayer

+1 Make Disappear

-1 Soul Transfer

-2 Kaito Shizuki on draw

-3 Tenacious Underdog on draw

-2 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker on play

-2 The Meathook Massacre on play

-1 Infernal Grasp on play

vs. Control

+1 Negate

+1 Make Disappear

+2 Go Blank (or Annul if they have a number of targets in their deck)

+2 Duress

+1 Evelyn, the Covetous

-4 Voltage Surge

-2 Massacre

-1 Infernal Grasp

vs. The Mirror

+2 Go Blank

+1 Evelyn, the Covetous

+1 Power Word Kill

+1 Make Disappear on play

-2 Infernal Grasp

-1 Spell Pierce

-2 The Meathook Massacre on play

-1 Tenacious Underdog on draw

-1 Kaito Shizuki on draw

 

Grixis Vampires is one of the most complex and versatile decks in Standard right now, and I’m looking forward to learning more about it as this season goes on. We still have months before rotation so there is plenty of time for the format to evolve, meaning this deck will have to evolve as well. I think it is very well-equipped to do so, meaning it should stay very relevant for a long time.

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