Edgar Markov Vampires

Commander Overview

Edgar Markov is one of the EDH big dogs, coming in at #2 on EDHREC, and for good reason. This card is strong and is in one of the most supported creature types! Edgar is a strong commander who can lead our game even from the battlefield. The token production we get from Edgar when they are in the command zone is just nuts and can help us against a variety of strategies with a ton of chump blockers and extra vampires to trigger all of our payoffs! Edgar is great when we bring them onto the field, but we certainly don’t need them, and our opponents can’t stop all of our token production! There is no surprise that this card is at the top of the commander mountain; it’s a great commander who is extremely strong.

How to Play the Deck

We have an extremely straightforward game plan in the deck: spam out vampires with Edgar and from our hand, and go to combat. We do have some late-game infinite combos, which you can find below, but those are typically last resort options. Combat is our main force in the deck and the primary way that we end the game. This deck is good for a player of medium skill level; they certainly don’t need to be a CEDH player, but having a good understanding of the game, rules, and some more complex interactions will help pilot this deck. There are often a lot of triggers and a lot of stuff to keep track of in this deck.

Synergy’s in the deck

The whole deck is extremely synergistic. Vampires, like most creature types in the game, feeds off of others and can make us really strong. Some of my favorite cards in the deck that synergize very well are Captivating Vampire. This card synergizes extremely well with Edgar, and we can easily steal an opponent’s creatures. In my testing games, I stole an opponent’s Blightsteel Colossus, and let me tell you, there is truly no better feeling than stealing a huge creature like that. Charismatic Conqueror is another card that allows us to spam our board with tokens, and against creature-heavy strategies, can allow us to amass a small army easily. These are just a few examples in the deck, but our vampires are extremely synergistic.

Phases of the Game

Early-Game: We actually have a decent showing in the early-game. We have some cheap support creatures like Cordial Vampire, and we can start getting decently aggressive early in the game. The Edgar tokens and our early vampires are all great attackers in the early-game. While we have no focus but to fill up our board and play out vampires in the early game, we can easily sneak in some early damage.

Mid-Game: This is the stage of the game where we start to become a real threat. By this point, we probably have quite a few tokens from Edgar and can start getting triggers from our big payoffs, like Cathars’ Crusade. We can also play out some strong vampires like Patron of the Vein at this stage of the game. I tend to stay aggressive here and swing hard in the mid-game.

Late-Game: Only a few things change for us between the mid-late game. In the late-game, we typically have easier access to our infinite combos, which are far more a last resort option than anything else, but if given the opportunity, we will take it. Combat and leaning into our flying are the name of the game here; we are typically pretty wide and buffed up, so swinging becomes quite easy at this stage.

Card Breakdowns

Ramp

We don’t have a lot of ramp. Still, we don’t need a lot of ramp, we have a lot of vampires in the three to four mana range and since we don’t need to cast Edgar to get their primary benefit there isn’t a ton of reason to ramp, we can technically ramp pretty hard if we have a turn one Sol Ring but that’s not something we go into a game expecting. While we don’t have a lot of ramp, since we have a pretty good mana curve, we don’t necessarily need it.

Card Draw/Card Advantage

Mardu is a good color combination for card draw, and we have quite a few sources of it in the deck. We have some more traditional sources like Read the Bones, which I especially like because the scry can help us set up our next couple turns, and Welcoming Vampire, which always triggers when our Edgar tokens come in. Speaking of our Edgar tokens, they are typically plentiful on our board, so Skullclamp is such a strong source of card draw. Expect some eyes on you when you drop Skullclamp, as opponents typically don’t like when we draw that many cards, but it is the single best source of card draw in our deck.

Removal

While we don’t do a ton of removal through combat, we are good with our single-target removal and our mass removal spells. Mardu is an amazing color combination for removal, so having access to Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, and Despark allows us to take out the best of the best our opponents have to offer and do it cheaply! Our mass removal is very good and typically leaves us as the last board standing with cards like Olivia’s Wrath, which doesn’t affect our board at all and can completely devastate our opponents. Getting past indestructible with the -X/-X is great as well. While we certainly aren’t a control deck, we can take care of the most problematic things our opponents drop.

Protection

Edgar not having to be on the battlefield for us to get a benefit from them really helps with overall protection. Our opponents can’t target Edgar in the command zone, and we are perfectly ok with them staying there and just producing tokens for us! We are running Teferi’s Protection as our primary protection. Whether we use this to save our board or save our life if an opponent starts going crazy, it is a great option for us to have. While not strictly a piece of protection, if we do get board wiped, we can easily recover with Bloodline Bidding. While we very rarely convoke this, it is pretty easy for us to cast in the mid- to late game. Our protection package certainly isn’t massive, but I didn’t have any trouble with it in my testing games.

Utility / Support

We have so many awesome cards in this deck. Here are some of my favorites and cards that I put to work during my testing games. Collective Inferno is a new addition from Lorywn and supports our combat-focused game plan so much that it’s extremely easy for us to get it out, and the double-damaging can be devastating, especially when combined with cards like Cathars’ Crusade or Shared Animosity. Since we produce so many tokens and have a lot of creatures in the deck, Warleader’s Call and Impact Tremors are both cheap and easy ways for us to deal some extra damage and whittle down our opponents.

I also want to focus on some of the coolest vampires in the deck. Olivia Voldaren is a true vampire classic, and stealing opponents’ creatures with it is actually extremely easy. Clavileño, First of the Blessed is a card that I underestimated, but in my testing games was extremely strong, making more vampires when they die and getting some additional card draw is just simply insane, a great piece of support for the deck. Lastly, I want to highlight Elenda, the Dusk Rose, a creature that can get huge quickly, both from our support cards and opponents, and our creatures dying and spitting out a massive amount of tokens is just great for the deck. Elenda helps with the go-wide combat gameplan a ton.

Mana Base

Nothing too crazy is going on here. We do have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth as the ultimate piece of mana fixing, since we are primarily a black deck, since many of our vampires have multiple black pips. Beyond that, we have efficiency in our mana base, triomes, shocks, and bond lands galore here! Because of that, I never really had trouble with the mana base in our testing games.

Win Conditions

Our primary win condition is combat with all of our vampires. If needed, we can end the game with our combos, which you can find below.

Strengths of the Deck

Edgar is one of the biggest strengths in our deck, the token production helps a ton with going wide, and our combat gameplan, and we use these tokens as a resource, attacking/blocking or even Skullclamping them to draw cards. They are a great asset for the deck.

A considerable number of our creatures fly, and because of that, we are naturally quite evasive.

Weaknesses of the Deck

Can struggle against non-combat decks, especially combo-focused ones; we have no way to stop them unless it involves creatures.

Edgar is certainly a controversial commander, and we are often targeted a lot. They are very popular in this format, and many opponents have a kill-on-sight mindset towards us.

Combos Explained

Deck Testing/Matchups

I tested this deck against three different decks

Game 1: Vs Edgar Markov. Matchup Record: 3-2

I had to play the mirror match! Both decks played this exact list, and all I can say is wow, what a match, this was a crazy set of games, and it all comes down to speed and who can get their big cards out faster. Keeping an aggressive hand is the only real strategy here.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Creeping Bloodsucker, Cathars’ Crusade and Master of Dark Rites.

Game 2: Vs The Ur-Dragon. Matchup Record: 1-3

Struggled quite a bit with this one, while we are easily able to beat up on the ur-dragon player in the early game, they are really good at flying, as most dragons tend to be! Because of that, when they get their commander out, or we hit the late-game, it can be rough for us. Combos are the primary game plan in the mid-late game against the ur-dragon, as they are the only way we can compete.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Exquisite Blood, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose and Rakish Heir.

Game 3: Vs Giada, Font of Hope. Matchup Record: 3-1

While Giada is another deck that has some pretty strong flyers like we do our biggest advantage in this matchup is speed, we are just a lot faster than a mono-white deck, watch out for big cards like Avacyn, Angel of Hope and make sure you have an removal spell ready for their best stuff and you should be just fine!

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Swords to Plowshares, Shared Animosity and Banner of Kinship.

Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading to the end! Edgar Markov is at the top of the mountain for a reason. What a great commander! While opponents will likely target us more and make a tougher than for other commanders, we can typically fight through it. Vampires and Edgar are just a great deck and a lot of fun to play!