Zendikar Vampires

~

"One thing vampire children are taught is, never run with a wooden stake."
- Jack Handy, 'Deep Thoughts'

Today's WoTC spoiler was tucked away into the very cool Zendikar flavour write-up 'A Planeswalker Guide to Zendikar' which is worth reading before you get your head in the game. Anywhoos, back to the preview. Today we are looking at yet another vampire.

Gatekeeper of Malakir,
Creature - Vampire Warrior, Uncommon
Kicker {B} (You may pay an additional {B} as you cast this spell.)
When Gatekeeper of Malakir enters the battlefield, if it was kicked, target player sacrifices a creature.
2/2


We are just about half way through our 20 expected Orb of Insight metions of Vampire. To date, our suckheads are Blood Tribute, Bloodghast, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet, Vampire Lacerator, Vampire Nighthawk.


If you think that Zendikar to date has a strong showing for this creature type, you would be correct - Vampires are by far the most have most the numbers with the single exception of the Kor. Magic 2010 had supplied additional vampire creature support with Child of Night, Vampire Aristocrat, and the powerful Vampire Nocturnus.



Wherever your casual Magic the Gathering takes you, expect to run across mono-black vampires or other archetype variants. If you are taking this deck to your game, get ready for some fun, and if you are not, take precautions now and plan your sideboard.

Standard casual vampire-based decks are expected to carry supporting spells like of Duress, Doom Blade, Hideous End, and Tendrils of Corruption - your standard discard and destroy staples. Start planning your answers to these now but firstly, be like Buffy and grab a deck set of Undead Slayer. This card is perhaps the best answer for the vampire threat looming next month at game tables everywhere.

That's it for now but I might update this post latter after more previews roll out.