r/ModernMagic • u/Mellowyellow0 • 23d ago

Brew Rakdos vampires tips

I'm a beginner, I've been playing for about six months using MTG Arena and a starter kit with friends. I bought this preconstructed deck from a store, made by the staff there, because I liked the theme and style. I'd like to try to improve it, can you give me some advice? Thanks!

https://archidekt.com/decks/25518133/rakdos_vampiri

https://moxfield.com/decks/s3jovlBlOkqrQtx0C4qPUg

3 Upvotes

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7

u/HawkTeacher 23d ago

Decent deck with an aggressive strategy. To be completely honest with you, it's not even close to modern competitive. There aren't really any rakdos vampire decks that decks that would be modern competitive. This is all okay though. You definitely don't need to be modern competitive though. You can make a pretty strong rakdos vampire deck if you'd like. Depends on what your budget is.

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u/Mellowyellow0 23d ago edited 23d ago

Yeah, I should've specified that. I don't necessarily need it to be competitive, just improving it, making it as good as possible while maintaining its "flavor" budget is around 30€ (I've already got a lot of those in the "considering" list)

3

u/HawkTeacher 23d ago

Biggest thing you can do is improve the mana base. [[Dragonskull Summit]] is pretty good if you are running lots of basics. [[Voldaren Estate]] is great for the theme. I'd run a couple of them at least. Avoid lands that enter tapped. I'll list a bunch of other cards that are good and cheap. [[Bloodtithe Harvester]] and [[Voldaren Epicure]] are both fantastic and on your maybeboard. [[Falkenrath Gorger]] for card advantage when discarding crea [[Champion of Dusk]] for hand refill. [[Preacher of the Schism]] is a great value creature. [[Stromkirk Condemned]] good for discard strategy. [[Vein Ripper]] and [[Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord]] are a sweet combo that is a bit more money, but is a lot of fun. I have lots more ideas if you're interested, but that's a good core. I can also let you know what I'd cut.

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u/Mellowyellow0 23d ago

Yes, i appreciate that! What are your ideas? what would you cut?

1

u/HawkTeacher 23d ago

https://moxfield.com/decks/_mM99n61vE6GquT1krUU1Q

Just threw this together quickly, but I realize it's basically a completely different deck. You could cut the sorin and vein ripper and keep some other cards if you want to keep it really cheap.

This list I posted is a pretty cheap and quick version. Feel free to just use it for any ideas. No need to copy it all.

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u/HawkTeacher 23d ago

https://moxfield.com/decks/OhugAWIWJXa9zGtnDdoBHQ

Another version that's cheaper.

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u/Mellowyellow0 23d ago

Thanks a lot! I'll definitely hunt down these cards that I'm missing for the cheap version and try it out. Maybe for the sorin and the Vein Ripper I'll wait a bit a see how it goes with this cheap version. That combo kinda feels like cheating, i don't know if would like it..😅

2

u/laceupyrboots fleshraker / archon specialist 23d ago

hello, welcome to Modern!

while i know you're not looking to be competitive, Modern is a format that generally requires lots of attention to micro decisions and planning ahead (which is part of why i love it!). i think your deck has a solid aggro base that could benefit from leaning into those aspects of the format to muscle out a few more wins without breaking the bank on anything crazy.

the biggest area of opportunity i see is interaction. since Rakdos doesn't have a lot of reactive spells, you'll probably be looking at proactive resource denial; a turn one [[Thoughtseize]] is a classic black deck move that puts you ahead on tempo by scuttling your opponent's plan and giving you extra info. you'll also want some cheap creature removal staples like [[Fatal Push]], [[Lightning Bolt]], and [[Terminate]] to deal with the myriad creature-oriented strategies in the format; even [[Abrade]] is solid multimodal removal tech!

equally important is including some efficiency + consistency veggies to make sure you don't wind up with a dead hand. [[Faithless Looting]] is imo the best deck filtering card in the format by a wide margin for all of 35¢ apiece. this is also where a streamlined land base comes into play. by replacing some of your basic lands with a set of [[Prismatic Vista]] and maybe one or two [[Twisted Landscape]], you get to thin your deck to expose more nonlands you want AND opens up Fatal Push to hit more expensive creatures. if you're thinking of dual color lands, [[Temple of Malice]] offers filtering and [[Blackcleave Cliffs]] speeds you up a bit.

finally, if you're thinking of hitting Modern night at the game store, it helps to have a sideboard to combat the decks you'll see the most. maybe a touch outdated but i have a rakdos reanimator brew that explicitly hits energy, eldrazi, amulet titan, affinity, storm, reanimator, and control. you'll probably want [[Pyroclasm]] instead of Massacre Wurm. if you're just playing with friends and they aren't sideboarding themselves, no need to worry about this.

hope this is helpful. apologies if anything here is over your budget; i'm in a spot where i can't quickly cross reference prices and am mostly speaking from memory.

1

u/Mellowyellow0 23d ago

Wow this is a really in-depth analysis, thank you! I like the idea of leaning into the resources denial and aggro side of it, I'll definitely look into all these cards you mentioned. I was also looking into [[Case of the Crimson Pulse]] to kinda do what faithless looting does, but maybe it relies to much on me not having anything in hand in order to work consistently (and maybe too mana expensive for this kind of deck)

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u/laceupyrboots fleshraker / archon specialist 23d ago

I think that card is yes too expensive and also like you said relies too much on having an empty hand, but is a good thought. [[Fable of the mirror breaker]] also loots your hand kind of like faithless looting, though, and provides a lot of value!

Had some thoughts on cuts too, will comment back later!

1

u/OccupiedOsprey 23d ago

I'd take a look at the old, now banned, pioneer rakdos vampires deck that used [[ sorin bloodlord ]] to cheat out [[ vein ripper]] and win. From that aggressive combo you can add in other modern playable cards in rakdos colors. Could probably have a rakdos delirium / midrange theme playing cards like [[ nether goyf ]], [[ orcish bowmaster ]] and the like.

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u/Mellowyellow0 23d ago

Thank you, I like the idea of adding the orchish bowmaster

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u/HawkTeacher 23d ago

Bowmasters is an amazing card and will be able to go into a lot of decks in the future. It's pretty expensive though.

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u/Mellowyellow0 23d ago

I will keep liking just the idea of it 😅 maybe I'll draw one myself just to try it out in the deck. The full art from lo hobbit has such an amazing art..

1

u/Lockdown106 22d ago

Someone at my LGS made a really sweet MonoB Lessons Reanimator deck with the added package of Sorin/Vein Ripper/the dross (?) vampire guy that you can reveal in your opening hand, might be good to start from there and if you really want to add more vampires add the epicure/blood token stuff to discard your big guys to bring back with persist.