Standard Constructed - Cultivamp

Greetings all.  This week I went to my first standard constructed event at my local game shop.  I wanted to take something a bit more competitive than my casual decks: Mind for Mayhem and Lather the Townsfolk so I’ve put together a new deck using cards from last week’s Inistrad draft and supplemented by cards bought on eBay and from scrolltrader.  I also traded my Sorin, Lord of Innistrad for a number of cards too.

The deck

I wanted to build a deck around the Markov Blademaster .  I’ve used him in DA Pack wars and the booster draft and like the way he plays.  At first I was thinking of including cards Pyreheart Wolf and Crossway Vampire to make blocking difficult for my opponent, but it didn’t quite feel right so I did some research on decks with the Blademaster in, made a few changes, and ended up with this.

The sideboard is a work in progress.  At the moment it consists only of cards from my collection that may be helpful.  I’ll work on a proper sideboard in the near future.

Creatures

4 Stromkirk Noble

4 Spellskite

4 Markov Blademaster

4 Rakish Heir

4 Stromkirk Captain

Other

4 Artful Dodge

4 Darksteel Axe

4 Curse of Stalked Prey

2 Cobbled Wings

2 Executioner’s Hood

Lands

4 Dragonskull Summit

4 Sulfur Falls

4 Drowned Catacomb

8 Mountain

2 Swamp

2 Island

Sideboard

2 Executioner’s Hood

2 Cobbled Wings

1 Curse of Death’s Hold

1 Witchbane Orb

1 Shock

1 Incinerate

1 Gut Shot

1 Crush

1 Shatter

4 Tragic Slip

Unfortunately one of the Spellskites didn’t turn up in time so I put a Mana Leak in to cover for him.

As always I need a catchy name for the deck.  Since it revolves around growing vampires I shall call it: Cultivamp.

The games

How will it fare?  Let’s find out.

Game 1 
0-2 Loss

My opponent was playing UWb control. In the first game I had mulliganed down to five and even then had mana issues.  My deck never really got going and I was finished off with a Lingering Souls and Intangible Virtue .  My deck fared much better in the second game.  I had a Stromkirk Noble, Rakish Heir, Curse of Stalked Prey out whilst my opponent only had 2 human tokens.  Stromkirk was able to hit a few times and grow substantially.  Unfortunately my opponent was able to gain life with Sword of War and Peace which kept him at a comfortable life total and wittered my life away until he was able to Lingering souls + Sorin’s Emblem to finish me off.

Game 2 
0-2 Loss

This guy was playing with an aggressive Human deck using cards like Mayor of Avabruck , Champion of the Parish and Hero of Bladehold .  I didn’t manage to get many threats on the board and when I did get a growing vamp down he usually had the removal to take it out.  I also suffered for having so many dual lands as I was rarely able to get a basic land down first.

Game 3 
2-0 Win!

Hurrah I won something.  This opponent was using a deck that ramps with Birds of Paradise , Llanowar Elves , Mulch and many others whilst looking to mill a Liege of the Tangle and cast him with a milled & flashbacked Unburial Rites.  His deck (like mine) leaves out any removal/ control in pursuit of the win, in fact the only early defence he used against me was a Kuldotha Rebirth .  In both games I was able to grow a Marvok Blademaster with Curse of Stalked Prey & Darksteel Axe and send him through with Artful Dodge for lethal.  In the second game my opponent was able to cast Liege of the Tangle (with plenty of land ready to take advantage).  I had a recently grown a Blademaster to a 7/7.  Not quite enough to fend of the Liege but luckily I had another Blademaster ready in hand to provide 8 points of first strike damage.  My opponent held back the liege and I top decked an artful dodge for the win.

With a win under my belt I head in to game four with renewed optimism.  Could I net another win?

Game 4
0-2 Loss

HA, nope back to my old ways.  In this game I encountered the joy of facing a playset of Huntmaster of the Fells and was on the receiving end of a playset of Celestial Purge from my opponent’s sideboard.  I reckon I would have won the second game if my fourth land drop wasn’t a tapped dual land.  I had a blademaster with 2 Curse of stalked prey.  My opponent had enough defense to block but I had a Executioner’s Hood in hand.  Had I been able to use that fourth land I could have cast/equipped it and grown the Blademaster to a 7/7.  Way beyond the reach of my opponent’s subsequent Huntmaster of the Fells.  I chose to send the blademaster in next turn to trade with the huntmaster but alas another Huntmaster took it’s place and that was game.

Fedger’s Thoughts

A thoroughly enjoyable evening and a great learning experience for this format.  My deck was mostly an unstable engine often refusing to start no matter how hard I turned the key. When it did start all it took was a knock from my opponent to shut it down again.  I still really enjoy the deck and love watching those +1/+1 counters add up when the Vamps hit home.

At the moment it keeps its head down and just charges for victory not bothering to try and disrupt any of my opponent’s plans.  My second opponent said this:

                “It’s all well and good being able to win, but you have to be able to not-lose as well”

Future changes

I’ll probably move the spellskites to the sideboard (they’re reactive and might be redundant in some matchups) and maybe the darksteel axes too.  In their place I’ll probably include some Olivia Voldarens .  For 4 she’s a 3/3 flying vamp (already good in my deck), but if I have some extra mana knocking about then she acts as some much needed removal too; a great 2 for 1!  Also I cannot deny the appeal of a Bloodline Keeper (or 4) in the deck.  He’ll keep churning out those evasive vamps which will hopefully be hitting home and growing more often than not.  At the very least, Olivia and the Bloodline keeper will direct my opponent’s removal away from the Bladesmaster.

I’m going to keep a close eye on my land situation.  Its early days at the moment to see if the problem of dual before basic persists, but if it does I may have to invest in some of these.  They rotate out in a few months so I may hold fire on that.

Seeing other players making good use of their sideboards has shown me then importance of it.  With experience I’ll come to know what sorts of threats I should be facing so I’ll be able to build a sideboard accordingly.

Next week I’ll be putting Cultivamp through a playtest and reporting on it in the usual fashion.

Catch you then!

Fedger