At this point, if you’ve been following Pioneer, it’s no surprise that
Vein Ripper
Vein Ripper
Flying
Ward—Sacrifice a creature.
Whenever a creature dies, target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
is a messed-up Magic card. Its printing in Murders at Karlov Manor helped singlehandedly revive the Vampires archetype. Its Ward ability makes it very difficult for many decks to answer, especially when it comes down turn three off of
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord
+1: Target creature you control gains deathtouch and lifelink until end of turn. If it's a Vampire, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
+1: You may sacrifice a Vampire. When you do, Sorin deals 3 damage to any target and you gain 3 life.
−3: You may put a Vampire creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.
.
This deck has completely warped the Pioneer metagame as a result. It has also been completely dominant in Explorer on MTG Arena.
Interestingly, with how potent the Sorin+Vein Ripper combination is, some players have even been trying it out in Modern. In fact, this weekend, these two cards made top eight of a Magic Online Modern Challenge with 112 players!
Not only that, but the supporting cast is very intriguing and extremely different than in Pioneer.
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter.)
I — Create a 2/2 red Goblin Shaman creature token with "Whenever this token attacks, create a Treasure token."
II — You may discard up to two cards. If you do, draw that many cards.
III — Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control.
is nowhere to be found, and there is only one other Vampire Creature featured besides Vein Ripper. While this may seem strange, the way the deck is structured makes a lot of sense.
Vampires Package
As mentioned, the stars of the show in this deck are Sorin and Vein Ripper. The goal is to set up a turn where you can cast Sorin and immediately use its -3 ability to put Vein Ripper into play. Even in a Modern environment, a lot of decks will have trouble dealing with this.
Solitude
Solitude
Flash
Lifelink
When this creature enters, exile up to one other target creature. That creature's controller gains life equal to its power.
Evoke—Exile a white card from your hand.
is an effective answer, but most of the other common removal spells in the format like
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to any target.
and
Fatal Push
Fatal Push
Destroy target creature if it has mana value 2 or less.
Revolt — Destroy that creature if it has mana value 4 or less instead if a permanent left the battlefield under your control this turn.
won’t cut it.
Where the Modern deck begins to separate itself from its Pioneer counterpart is with its Vampire selection. The Pioneer deck makes use of a large number of other Vampires, including
Bloodtithe Harvester
Bloodtithe Harvester
When this creature enters, create a Blood token. (It's an artifact with "{1}, {T}, Discard a card, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.")
{T}, Sacrifice this creature: Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is twice the number of Blood tokens you control. Activate only as a sorcery.
and
Dusk Legion Zealot
Dusk Legion Zealot
When this creature enters, you draw a card and you lose 1 life.
. In Modern, only playsets of Vein Ripper and
Bloodghast
Bloodghast
This creature can't block.
This creature has haste as long as an opponent has 10 or less life.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you may return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
are showcased along with a few copies of
Mutavault
Mutavault
{T}: Add {C}.
{1}: This land becomes a 2/2 creature with all creature types until end of turn. It's still a land.
.
Bloodghast is an extremely strong card with Sorin given its recursive nature. If you have excess Lands, you can keep sacrifice Bloodghast to do a nice
Lightning Helix
Lightning Helix
Lightning Helix deals 3 damage to any target and you gain 3 life.
impression and bringing it back. Still, there is a noticeable decrease in the Vampire subtheme. Instead, this deck is much more reliant on finding Vein Ripper. As such,
Profane Tutor
Profane Tutor
Suspend 2—{1}{B} (Rather than cast this card from your hand, pay {1}{B} and exile it with two time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.)
Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle.
plays a huge role in helping you assemble your combo.
The One Ring
The One Ring
Indestructible
When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
{T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring.
, unsurprisingly, is excellent here, digging you closer towards your win conditions.
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Maximizing Smallpox
Beyond just the cool interactions with Sorin, there’s another reason why Bloodghast is an important piece of the puzzle. Its ability to come back from the dead repeatedly works exceptionally well with
Smallpox
Smallpox
Each player loses 1 life, discards a card, sacrifices a creature of their choice, then sacrifices a land of their choice.
and
Liliana of the Veil
Liliana of the Veil
+1: Each player discards a card.
−2: Target player sacrifices a creature.
−6: Separate all permanents target player controls into two piles. That player sacrifices all permanents in the pile of their choice.
. Smallpox is a card that has had its time in the spotlight in Modern before but has been nearly nonexistent in recent years. If there was ever a time for the card to make a resurgence, though, now would be the time.
Currently, the combination of
Leyline of the Guildpact
Leyline of the Guildpact
If this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
Each nonland permanent you control is all colors.
Lands you control are every basic land type in addition to their other types.
and
Scion of Draco
Scion of Draco
Domain — This spell costs {2} less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control.
Flying
Each creature you control has vigilance if it's white, hexproof if it's blue, lifelink if it's black, first strike if it's red, and trample if it's green.
has taken the Modern format by storm. With Leyline in play, Scion can be reliably cast on turn two and is incredibly difficult to interact with. It’s evasive, has Lifelink making it tough to race, and has Hexproof, meaning traditional removal spells are off the table. With this in mind, cards like
Pick Your Poison
Pick Your Poison
Choose one —
• Each opponent sacrifices an artifact of their choice.
• Each opponent sacrifices an enchantment of their choice.
• Each opponent sacrifices a creature with flying of their choice.
that can make the opponent sacrifice Scion are on the rise.
Smallpox takes this strategy to the next level. Not only can it get rid of Scion, but forcing the opponent to sacrifice a Land in their five-color deck can be backbreaking. Obviously, the downside of Smallpox is that the card is symmetrical. However, adding Bloodghast and
Flagstones of Trokair
Flagstones of Trokair
{T}: Add {W}.
When Flagstones of Trokair is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may search your library for a Plains card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
into the mix makes things a lot less painful for you. This deck plays a few copies of
Shadowy Backstreet
Shadowy Backstreet
({T}: Add {W} or {B}.)
This land enters tapped.
When this land enters, surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put it into your graveyard.)
which can be grabbed when sacrificing Flagstones.
Beyond that, this deck plays the usual one-mana interactive suite in
Thoughtseize
Thoughtseize
Target player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life.
and
Fatal Push
Fatal Push
Destroy target creature if it has mana value 2 or less.
Revolt — Destroy that creature if it has mana value 4 or less instead if a permanent left the battlefield under your control this turn.
. Thoughtseize and Smallpox are great at keeping the opponent off-balance, and slamming a Sorin is a great way to punish your opponent for stumbling.
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Strengths and Weaknesses
All things considered, even though this deck is new and underrepresented in Modern, it has a lot of the tools necessary to fight against the top decks of the format. Smallpox is an excellent card against Scion of Draco decks, but it also heavily punishes decks that rely on specific Lands, such as mono-green Tron and Amulet Titan.
That’s an area where this deck has a big edge over traditional mono-black
Cabal Coffers
Cabal Coffers
{2}, {T}: Add {B} for each Swamp you control.
decks. Not only can Smallpox be backbreaking, but being able to follow up with Sorin and Vein Ripper can close the game quickly before the opponent can rebuild.
Smallpox can even answer enormous copies of
Murktide Regent
Murktide Regent
Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for {1}.)
Flying
This creature enters with a +1/+1 counter on it for each instant and sorcery card exiled with it.
Whenever an instant or sorcery card leaves your graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
that could otherwise brawl with Vein Ripper. Vein Ripper’s life drain ability can make it very tough for Golgari
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Protection from Humans
Pay 1 life, Sacrifice another creature: Put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature and draw a card.
{B}{B}, Discard a card: Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
decks to execute their combo. Meanwhile, Sorin is a complete nightmare for decks like Burn or Prowess that rely on damage output.
That isn’t to say this deck doesn’t have its weaknesses. Without Sorin, this deck does not apply early pressure. This makes the deck quite reliant on finding Smallpox to fight against Tron and Amulet Titan, even if that particular card is excellent.
Four-color
Omnath, Locus of Creation
Omnath, Locus of Creation
When Omnath enters, draw a card.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you gain 4 life if this is the first time this ability has resolved this turn. If it's the second time, add {R}{G}{W}{U}. If it's the third time, Omnath deals 4 damage to each opponent and each planeswalker you don't control.
shells can be rather problematic, too.
Wrenn and Six
Wrenn and Six
+1: Return up to one target land card from your graveyard to your hand.
−1: Wrenn and Six deals 1 damage to any target.
−7: You get an emblem with "Instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard have retrace." (You may cast instant and sorcery cards from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying their other costs.)
lines up nicely against Smallpox, and Solitude is a great answer to Vein Ripper (you can Evoke Solitude and still sacrifice it to pay for Vein Ripper’s Ward ability).
Given how popular Leyline and Scion are, this deck still seems like a solid metacall. If you’re tired of getting cheesed by these cards, definitely consider giving this deck a shot.
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