Would you still love me in the catacombs? If we were all alone never to be found, if I was just another catacomb skull in the ground?
Art:Cliffhaven Vampire
by David Gaillet
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander Is:
Cliffhaven Vampire has always been a really good card, it was good back in limited but has largely stayed under the radar since then. Now that we have Pauper EDH we of course have to build a deck out of this creature that could very easily be legendary! We are lifegain deck who focuses on being strong against aggressive decks or really any combat deck and cliffhaven allows us to give some damage back! Lets get into it!
The Deck:
Cliffhaven Vampire Orzhov Lifegain!
Why Cliffhaven Vampire?
Cliffhaven vampire may not be legendary but his ability sure makes him seem like he is, Cliffhaven is a super efficient evasive and also has a sweet ability. We are an orzhov life-gain deck at hear so we of course have a bunch of ways to gain life and trigger cliffhaven vampire a bunch and whittle down our opponents. Cliffhaven vampire is just a really sweet creature who is a great build around card and a ton of to play in Pauper EDH! The main reason we chose cliffhaven vampire is that format restrictions allow us too! And he also happens to be really strong, when we have turns where we are gaining 4 or 5 life per turn we can end games rather quickly.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck, for a full breakdown of the combos of the deck
Creatures:
We have some pretty sweet little creatures that gain us life like white deck staple Soul Warden
and Soul's Attendant
and Lunarch Veteran // Luminous Phantom
these cards are good and efficient without Cliffhaven on the field but when we can start “blood-artisting” off of these triggers it gets really good!
Basilica Screecher
, Tithe Drinker
and Syndic of Tithes
are all some sweet extort creatures that in the late game can be a great way to trigger Cliffhaven and start stacking up some damage!
Marauding Blight-Priest
is basically another copy of Cliffhaven and who is going to say no to two of something! Priest of Ancient Lore
may only trigger once on ETB but lifegain and drawing a card on a decent creature is something we absolutely wont say no too!
We of course have a top-end of our curve and it has a card I know many players fear in Gray Merchant of Asphodel
which can do an absolute ton of damage and give us a bunch of life! Vampire Sovereign
is a bigger creature who basically casts Lightning Helix
against an opponent! The biggest creature in our deck is Gloom Sower
that we always attack with since we want our opponents to block since it will deal three if we have Cliffhaven out!
Instants:
We have a decent amount of instants in our deck, my personal favorite one being Riot Control
which not only triggers Cliffhaven but is a great way to fog for a turn and is really good against aggressive decks. Butcher's Glee
is a great card that lets us gain a ton of life or use it as a combat trick to kill one of our opponents bigger creatures!
Rend Flesh
and Victim of Night
may be specific removal spells but in testing I played against a variety of decks and rarely had a card I couldn’t target. Invoke the Divine
is another sweet card in our deck that allows us to kill an artifact or enchantment and gain life an absolute win for our deck!
Sorceries:
One of the coolest spells in the deck that many players have probably never heard of is Festival of Trokin
which we can gain a ton of life off of and trigger Cliffhaven! Festival is mostly used as a way to prevent us from dying if we are anticipating a big attack!
Our other sorceries are creature producing machines! Sworn Companions
, Call to the Feast
and Queen's Commission
. All of these pretty much do the same thing but produce small lifelink creatures so we will never say no that. These are a little expensive but since we get lifelink creatures out of it, it is very worth it for our deck.
Artifacts:
We are W/B so there is not a ton of ramp so we of PDH staples in Bonder's Ornament
and Arcane Signet
, these cards really speak for themselves and are just really good! Pristine Talisman
and Marble Chalice
are both great ways to trigger Cliffhaven and in Pristine Talismans case, get some mana out of it!
Enchantments:
Our enchantment package is where a lot of our single target “removal” comes into play, well its not really true removal more like single target lockdown. Pacifism
, Candletrap
and Cage of Hands
. Cage of hands is the most interesting of the bunch since we can bounce it back to our hands as the threats that need to be stopped evolve.
Recumbent Bliss
is really a perfect pacifism for our deck since we not only trigger Cliffhaven we lock down on a creature! Vampiric Link
is just a great way to give any creature lifelink which we will never say no too!
The all-star enchantment in our deck is Ill-Gotten Inheritance
since it not only does damage to each opponent on every one of our turns and can be sacc-ed to deal 4 and gain 4 to an opponent!
Land Base:
Our land base is a lot of what you would expect for an Orzhov PDH deck, filled with a bunch of ways to produce both black and white as well as a little on-flavor land like Kabira Crossroads
which can also trigger Cliffhaven!
We also typically struggle to draw a lot of cards outside of our guaranteed 1 per turn so we can use some cycle lands like Barren Moor
and Secluded Steppe
. Both of these can be fine in the early game to play as lands, but better when we draw them mid to late and can cycle them for a little bit of card draw!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Very strong against aggressive decks
- Easy to live through high-value combats
- A ton of interaction
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- No real way to interact with the stack
- Weak to creature hate
- No real way to ramp
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
Our main win conditions are through combat, or through triggering Cliffhaven Vampire and doing damage and ending the game through our lifegain turning into damage. We dont have infinite combos in the deck, but in testing it was pretty easy to kill opponents whenc ombing cliffhavens trigger with normal combat steps.
Conclusion:
In conclusion this is a really fun Pauper EDH deck that allows us to do tons of damage very easily, whether this is combat damage or noncombat damage really depends on the hand you keep! Overall Cliffhaven Vampire makes for a really great commander and is just a ton of fun to play! This deck is amazing and would be great at any Pauper EDH table!
Thanks for reading to the end!