Welcome to the second of our grand melee decks series! Grand Melee is a particular form of multiplayer magic, which combines elements of duel and multiplayer play into a unique format. There are many different decks that can perform well, and this series will cover a few of them, typically decks that have already won a melee or two. This deck won a melee table in September 2012.

Decks in this series are not presented as a perfect iteration of their type, but are generally based on the most fitting cards in the designer’s collection. You may well decide to swap out certain cards for better options, or to suit your own budget.

Deck name: Black/Red Vampires
Cards: 75
Designer: David K

This deck wins primarily through creatures attacking the player immediately to your left. For defence you have life gain in the form of Sangromancer and Vampire Nighthawk. A pair of Damnations are included to let you reset things if another player’s creature based decks gets too powerful for your vampires to deal with.

Creatures: 3x Bloodghast, 2x Vampire Hexmage, 3x Vampire Nighthawk, 2x Bloodline Keeper, 2x Sangromancer, 2x Stromkirk Noble, 1x Falkenrath Exterminator, 1x Markov Blademaster, 4x Rakish Heir, 4x Stromkirk Captain, 2x Falkenrath Aristocrat, 1x Olivia Voldaren,

Instants, Sorcery, Artifact: 1x Demonic Tutor, 4x Sign in Blood, 2x Damnation, 4x Lightning Bolt, 4x Terminate, 2x Umezawa’s Jitte.

Lands: 1x Badlands, 2x Blood Crypt, 4x Dragonskull Summit, 2x Graven Cairns, 2x Reflecting Pool, 3x Tainted Peak, 7x Mountain, 9x Swamp

Tactics
This deck wants to start quickly, preferably with a Stromkirk Noble. The vampires become quite hard to kill once they have a few +1/+1 counters on them. Lightning Bolt and Terminate are principally used to keep annoying attackers or blockers out of your way. Four vampires is probably the right amount to have on the table at any one time, best to keep any other vampires in your hand in case of Wrath of God type effects, including your own Damnations. Umezawa’s Jitte is something to get attached to a vampire as quickly as possible, as it provides alternative sources of lifegain and removal to save your cards. Vampire Hexmage is in the deck primarily to eliminate opposition planeswalkers, something it can do as soon as it enters the battlefield. Resist the urge to put too many vampires in play at a time, and you should be able to stroll to victory!