Edgar MarkovEdgar Markov | Art by Volkan Baga

When playing Magic, there are many different archetypes you can play. Some revolve around combos, others around a certain keyword. You can build a deck entirely around a certain theme or creature type, like only using Vampires with Bat and Wolf minions.

But that seems a bit... overdone, doesn't it? How about breathing some new life into an old corpse of a creature type.

What Is Playing “Out Of Type?”

Casual Magic trails behind competitive Magic, adopting strategies and following metas, but that’s not the only way to play. Most of those other ways aren’t going to win you games, though plenty of them will be fun!

Playing “out of type” is exploring those oft-neglected playstyles. This won’t guarantee your victory and might even ensure your defeat. It’s certainly not intended for higher brackets or competitive play. It grants you the freedom and ability to try new combos, field new strategies, and overall scrape the bottom of the barrel.

Who knows, maybe it’ll lead to you discovering something broken? Probably not, but you could!

What Vampires Do Well

Leeches. Bloodsuckers. According to most media, Vampires are the apex predators of the night. They range from white to black to red, each color supporting its own version of vamprisim.

As a result, it makes more sense to sort them by which colors they occupy, given their incredible variation of skill. If you have a problem that needs solving, Vampires can do it! This makes sense, given they’re one of the characteristic creature types of black.

Mono-Black Vampires

Anchored in black, Vampires are selfish creatures. Throughout the game’s history, black represented evil. The strong that prey on the weak as well as the duplicitous that deceive.

Most Vampires are at least partially black, where their mechanics revolve around: creatures being destroyed, dealing direct damage, drawing cards at a cost, sacrificing your permanents only to return them a turn later, and deathtouch.

All things typical to black, though with a fair amount of flying thrown in there.

Mono-Red Vampires

Red represents the aggressive, predatory nature of vampirism. It’s the color of blood, even.

They tend to have the madness keyword, allowing you to cast discarded cards. They also often deal with Blood tokens, giving flexibility via card draw. And some, like Ivora, Insatiable HeirIvora, Insatiable Heir, further build off of red’s love of beating its opponents physically.

Then you’ll always find some haste and menace thrown in, as these are staples for the color.

Mono-White Vampires

White invokes the classism and nobility inherent to much of vampiric lore, particularly in the bloodlines of Innistrad, yet the majority of mono-white Vampires are from the Legion of Dusk. Mono-white daywalkers who seek the Immortal Sun?

Disciplined and ordered, all the same.

Mavren Fein, Dusk ApostleMavren Fein, Dusk Apostle feels like any number of other, non-vampiric white cards. In fact, replacing “Vampire” with “Human” makes him feel quite similar to Adeline, Resplendent CatharAdeline, Resplendent Cathar.

It’s not an exact match of course, but it just reaffirms mono-white Vampires represent yet another avenue the creature type can explore. You’ll give up the destructive power of black and the aggression of red, but keep the lifegain, flying, and +1/+1 counters of white.

Not to mention token generation.

But many Vampires are multicolored, and while the base components are already specific to each singular color, the combinations end up giving Vampires a massive variety of options.

Rakdos Vampires

Rakdos Vampires, such as Olivia VoldarenOlivia Voldaren, take black mechanics up a notch, dealing even more destruction to your opponents at the cost of your own permanents. Then red gives you the tools to repopulate your board and hand to do it all again.

Flying, haste, and menace allow you to alpha strike an opponent, even one with blockers, and your numerous ways of buffing your Vampires ensures it hits hard. Rakdos Vampires are by far the most tricky of Vampires, as their utility often stems from both their physical prowess as well as their supporting abilities.

Orzhov Vampires

Lifegain, lifegain, lifegain, whether via lifelink or other methods, as illustrated in Sorin of House MarkovSorin of House Markov. Orzhov Vampires love gaining life and punishing your opponents when you do. However, they often provide stacking bonuses to your own creatures rather than destroying your opponents’.

You have numerous ways of removing threats your opponent has purely by nature of the colors you’re playing, from creature destruction to targeted exiling, but it’ll also be quite difficult to defeat you without those given your ability to create threats while sustaining your life total.

I would be remiss not to mention Orzhov’s consorting with Demons via cards like Clavileño, First of the BlessedClavileño, First of the Blessed. You hate to see it, but you love to play it.

Mardu Vampires

Some Vampires, like the eminent Edgar MarkovEdgar Markov, are all three of the above colors. Selfishness, aggression, and nobility, all together in one legendary card. Powerhouses across the board that don’t just flirt with the different colors, but actively capitalize on all of their strengths.

Creature removal. Token generation. Lifegain. Damage. Making your board stronger.

Mardu Vampires do it all.

But if you’re tired of the same-old Vampires, you have more options than you might realize.

What if You Abandoned Classic Vampire Colors?

It just so happens that there are a small number of Vampires that are multicolored with either blue or green. These two colors have very few Vampires at all, and neither have any monocolored.

Take Evelyn, the CovetousEvelyn, the Covetous as an example. In Grixis colors, she not only exiles cards from your opponents’ libraries, but also grants access to blue. This is scrying, card draw, and counters to support building up a Vampiric force. Taking control of an opponent’s creature only to use it for your own ends. It even grants access to quite a bit of milling.

If you were really so inclined, you could build an entire deck around flickering Vampires onto the field and milling out your opponents. Your Vampires would provide an insular improving wall to defend you, your lifegain would keep you afloat, and you wouldn’t even need to ever enter the combat phase.

Assuming you could actually mill three 100-card decks, that is.

Ghalta and MavrenGhalta and Mavren, meanwhile, gives access to token spam, allowing you to flood the board with Dinosaur-riding Vampires. Each color has its own way of maximizing your token generation. Then if you ever have an issue with non-creature permanents, green’s ability to remove enchantments and artifacts will supplement your army of leeches.

Not to mention the fantastic protection and taxing options white grants.

Oops, All Vampires

Of course, a core component of vampirism is its spreading. Though unlike the movies, there are multiple avenues where a creature can become a Vampire. Some cards, like ArachnoformArachnoform, include becoming a Vampire by being every creature type, much like creatures with changeling or Shapeshifters.

Though there are actually some artifacts that synergize quite nicely, either acting as Vampires or inflicting vampirism onto other creatures, which works to further divorce your deck from traditional Vampire typal, given so few of them have any special affinity for artifacts.

You have even more options if you’re still in black. Because this is the anchor color from which most Vampires originate, there are many more ways to inflict such an effect on other creatures, some of which are the traditional “vampire making a vampire” transfer of folklore.

There are even ways to make a creature act like a Vampire without giving it the creature type. Lifelink, deathtouch, and flying are all hallmarks of the creature type. So naturally, enchantments such as Mark of the VampireMark of the Vampire can turn even Tovolar, Dire OverlordTovolar, Dire Overlord into his most hated foe.

In spirit, at least.

Vampires Do It All (Nearly)

A Vampire deck is almost never one I’m upset to play against. Yes, lifegain is annoying if you can’t outpace it. Tying that to ping damage is just a smack to the face on top.

But when you play against a Vampire deck, you’re facing off against a deck that’s flexible enough to tackle many strategies without being able to do literally anything. They’ll lean into the strengths of their colors, but have that Vampire flair to set it apart.

You might even get an odd reversal or two, such as if they field Ichor DrinkerIchor Drinker with a Phyrexian subtheme. Or maybe they’ll just sic a Vampire NighthawkVampire Nighthawk on you and constantly retrieve it from the graveyard.

It’s always a gamble.

Read More: