I decided to make an Olivia Voldaren EDH deck as soon as she was spoiled, though I'm more of a blue player I figured I'd give a different color combination a try. Luckily during one of the pre-release sealed events I pulled her. So far she has been a fun and interesting general, though she does generate a little hate because people seem to get mad when you take their creatures from them.
Olivia Voldaren is a vampire native from Innistrad and the progenitor of the Voldaren bloodline.
She was in life a beautiful but strange, hermetic, antisocial woman who preferred to live far away from human civilization, in manor homes built for her from her seemingly boundless wealth. Like her, Voldaren vampires tend to live in the distant places, in the borderlands and edges of Innistrad's provinces.
Olivia travels often, visiting the far-flung Voldaren manors and fortresses that are scattered across the four provinces of Innistrad. The elite among vampires know that Olivia throws the best parties, and the nobility will happily make the trek out to the estate for her seasonal ball. She is a famous eccentric and bon vivant.
She appears to have developed the ability of flight and has a keen interest in watching Cathars lose their faith right before their demise.
You can find more information on her on the MTG Salvation wiki: Olivia Voldaren
She even invented a holiday!
"What does Olivia do?"
Olivia has two key abilities. Her first ability costs R1 and deals one damage to target creature. Then the creature becomes a vampire in addition to it's other types. Finally Olivia gets a +1/+1 counter.
Her second ability costs BB3 and takes control of target vampire for as long as you control Olivia Voldaren.
So for seven mana you can bite and steal a creature.
She also has flying, which makes her a pretty good voltron type general. Though that is not the main focus of this deck, it is still within the realm of possibility to kill someone via general damage.
Here is the deck list. Most of my card choices and synergies will be explained afterwords.
"Why would I want to play a red headed vampire woman for a general?"
Well I'm glad you asked Mr. Internet person. There are many reasons you would want to play her:
1. You think red headed vampire women are hot.
2. You like aggressively costed generals, which at a low low cost of four CMC, I would say she is.
3. You like when your little 2/2 vampire lord is a 10/10 instead.
4. You like giant mana pools without having to resort to green.
5. You like when voltron is a viable option, but is not the only way to win.
And many more reasons than that which you can acquire yourself by reading some more.
"Ok Mr. Weirdo vampire lover, how do I win with this deck?"
Well there are many ways to win with this deck. I'll list them below in these wonderful spoilers:
C-C-C-Combos!
This deck has a couple 2 or 2 and a half card combos in it. Nothing infinite that wins you the game right out (Unless you're dueling for whatever reason) but some fun little combos for one shotting people in epic ways.
My first combo involves 2 and a half cards. I say two and a half because you need a vampire on the field to do it, but since your general is a vampire that you can summon whenever, it doesn't really count as a third card.
Sanguine Bond or Wound Reflection are the first part of the combo. The second part is: Blood Tribute. Pay the kicker cost by tapping one of your many vampires.
What this will do is take half your opponents life rounded up, give that life to you and trigger SB, or kill them with the other half of their life total with WR.
You can also use this combo to half one person's life and damage a different person if you are using SB.
Sorin Markov is the first part of this combo. Sorin's Vengeance is the second.
It's pretty obvious what happens here. Use Sorin's second ability to reduce an opponent's life total to 10, then play SV doing exactly 10 damage.
Exsanguinate for a high amount using the Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth combo is another fun way to win.
Urborg turns everyone's, including your own, lands into swamps as well as their other types. Cabal Coffers gives you mana based on the amount of swamps you have on the field, since all your lands are also swamps you will generate as much black mana as you have lands. This can be very nice in the later game when you need to cast a few more spells, or activate more abilities like Olivia's, than usual.
"Does the deck have any weaknesses?"
Nope....Ok I lied, enchantment removal is this deck's biggest weakness. Black and Red have almost no enchantment removal, luckily we have artifacts to do it for us:
Ancient Artifacts:
Steel Hellkite is our first way to get rid of those pesky enchantments.
The only issue with him is you need the exact mana open equal to the CMC of what you are trying to destroy.
You also need to connect, not in a spiritual way, with the player whose permanents you are trying to destroy.
Luckily our giant metallic dragon friend has flying.
Spine of Ish Sah is another, just cast it and choose whichever one permanent you wish to destroy.
It is a little costly, but great if people are running wrath's that include artifacts.
If Spine gets destroyed it comes right back to your hand so you can play it again.
Karn Liberated is our last way to get rid of permanents.
In this deck I generally only use his second ability to exile people's permanents.
Another weakness the deck has is that it doesn't interact with the stack very well, being that we don't have blue for counters, we most of the time just sit there and watch people cast their Tooth and Nails and Time Stretchs. We do however have red at our disposal, which has ways to copy and redirect spells so we can equally profit from other people's huge spells.
Chaos!:
In this deck specifically we have two options for dealing with people's spells.
Reiterate is amazing, once we get it from our tutors or just by drawing it we can use it forever and ever. Buyback is what makes this spell especially powerful, when someone casts a fatty spell you get one for yourself without even having to give up a card, all it takes is mana, it's almost free!
Wild Ricochet is both a redirect and a copy. Though this is a one time use card it does cost a little less than Reiterate and allows you to choose what the opponents spell is going to do, then gives you a copy for your own use.
"So it seems to have a couple weaknesses, what are it's strengths?"
It's main strengths comes from our second color, black. Black gives us access to tutoring, card draw at the cost of life, creature removal, and life drain.
Of course we also have red, which gives us fun chaotic effects like Insurrection and artifact removal.
Here's some tutoring in kickin' butt:
Black is fantastic when it comes to tutors, our tutors in this deck cost in between two to four mana and retrieve anything from the deck.
Beseech the Queen does the same thing as any other tutor of course, except that it's limited to tutoring for cards with CMC equal to or less than the amount of lands you have. This isn't really an issue since in EDH land counts get pretty high, once your past eight lands you can tutor for anything in the deck. The only other issue with this particular tutor is that you have to reveal the card you grab.
Liliana Vess is great because she is a reusable tutor, assuming you have the means to protect her. The only bad part about her tutoring ability is that it puts the card on top of your library instead of in your hand.
Increasing Ambition tutors for a card, then two more when you flash it back.
Rune-Scarred Demon is a 6/6 flying body and a tutor all wrapped up into one.
The price is paid the cards are mine!:
Though our card draw isn't as powerful as blue it's still pretty amazing. As long as your fine with spending a little life to get this card draw, which in this deck is fine with all the life gain you have.
We have two cards that let us draw one extra card during our upkeep at the cost of one life. Bloodgift Demon Phyrexian Arena
Necropotence is a very interesting card draw enchantment.
What this card does is skip your draw step, now don't freak out I know you love your draw step, if you want to continue to draw cards all you have to do is pay one life per card.
Unfortunately you get them at your end step instead of right away.
Don't draw too many cards though, because if you have to discard you instead exile cards instead of sending them to the graveyard as usual.
Mind's Eye is great but can be bad if you want to hold your mana up to bite/steal other creatures.
Pew Pew Pew:
On to creature removal. I only run one straight up spot removal card, because I don't need to, I have a giant machine gun named Olivia.
We have some equipment that turns Olivia into a dangerous weapon of mass creature destruction, as well as a card for exiling cards we can't bite to death.
I'll start with my only spot removal card.
Sever the Bloodline is great because it is exile, instead of destroy, and it removes tokens like nobody's business.
A great way to machine gun creatures with Olivia is to give her deathtouch.
We have two ways to do this via equipment.
Basilisk Collar is a nice cheap equipment that gives creatures deathtouch and lifelink. Deathtouch being the more important in this case but the lifelink is also amazing.
Quietus Spike costs a tiny bit more but also makes opponents lose half their life when the creature it's equipped to does damage to them.
Mmmm...Blood:
Finally we have the life draining effects. I find taking opponents life for my own to be very beneficial and also incredibly flavorful for the deck.
We have a bunch of life gain/life drain effects for the deck, which helps counteract the life lost to drawing cards.
Chancellor of the Dross, lifelink on a 6/6 flying body? Yes please, for seven mana this card is great, and sometimes you get to start the game with extra life if you have him in your starting hand.
Sangromancer is synergistic with Olivia, kill creatures gain life. She is especially amazing during a wrath effect, as she gets to see all the creatures go to the graveyard and gain life for each one.
Malakir Bloodwitch is pretty nice on it's own, protection from white and on a 4/4 flying body is awesome, especially in my metagame (damn you Teysa!). Her second ability though is our first life draining effect, when she comes into play each opponent loses life equal to the number of vampires you control then you gain life equal to the life lost.
Blood Tribute is part of our Sanguine Bond kill combo. It takes half an opponents life and gives it to you if you pay the kicker cost, which you pay by tapping one of your many vampires.
Consuming Vapors is a nice little life gain card. It makes an opponent sacrifice a creature and you gain life equal to it's toughness. Then on your next upkeep you get to do it again!
Sorin's Vengeance is probably the most flavorful card in the deck. It's the most epic way to kill/maim a player, and 10 life gained ain't too shabby.
Basilisk Collar we mentioned before gives lifelink, profit on any creature.
Bloodchief Ascension is easy to activate and deadly when it is active. If any card goes into your opponents graveyard, literally anything, you gain two and they lose two life.
Sanguine Bond is sort of a life drain card. Whenever you gain life target opponent loses that much life. Essentially it doubles the effectiveness of all your life gain/drain effects.
"How do you play the deck?"
The main goal of course is to reduce your opponents life to zero. How you do that however is the fun part. Being a tribal deck most of the cards are pretty synergistic, but there are a few gems you may not notice at first glance.
Promote Synergy!:
Here are a few cards that work well together but haven't yet been listed.
Anowon, the Ruin Sage I feel is worth mentioning. You may think "but I don't want to sacrifice my non-vampires! I love Bloodgift Demon!". Well with Olivia's first ability you need not worry. The awesome part about Olivia is that she can turn any creature into a vampire, which of course includes your own. You can also bite creatures and force your opponents to sacrifice a certain creature. An example of this would be if someone had a Primeval Titan and their general (probably hex-proofed somehow) on the field. You bite Prime Time and force them to sacrifice the other creature.
Butcher of Malakir Grave Pact
Two very powerful cards, but what if I want people to sacrifice but I don't want my creatures to die in the process!
Well we can just add this card to the mix and make the opponents cry: Skeletal Vampire makes two bats when it comes into play, it's first ability sacrifices a bat and makes two more.
So sac a bat, make more bats, laugh as your opponents sacrifice all their creatures.
This also helps another card in your deck: Black Market is like Braid of Fire for black mana! Seems good right? Good thing there's no mana burn anymore because you'll be flooded with it.
There is even another card in your deck that will benefit from all this creature death!: Blade of the Bloodchief gives your vampires two +1/+1 counters every time a creature dies. Have the blade on a non-vampire creature? No problem! Just convert it to vampire-hood with Olivia!
Rings of Brighthearth makes any of your abilities do the effect twice. Example: Stealing two creatures at once with Olivia.
This one's pretty obvious: Skullclamp Kher Keep
Make a Kobold, attach Skullclamp, draw two cards.
Lords of the castle:
Bloodlord of Vaasgoth is sort of a vampire lord, he gives all your vampires bloodthirst three, which in a multi-player game is not hard to trigger.
Captivating Vampire is almost a second Olivia, if you can get the board presence you can just start yoinking other people's creatures with no hope of return (except for that dirty dirty Homeward Path). Also +1/+1 isn't too bad.
Mephidross Vampire is amazing for vampire tribal, it converts all your non-vampires into vampires so no worries from Anowon and no wasted mana from Olivia. It also gives your creatures +1/+1 counters every time they deal damage to a creature. That means Olivia would get +2/+2 per bite.
Rakish Heir is good for when you are getting your evasioney vampires in. It's unfortunate that he's a creature and very squishy. I would replace him with Curse of Stalked Prey if this was a dueling deck.
Vampire Nocturnus gives all your vampires evasion and +2/+1. This is pretty big and if you happen to have a Sensei's Divining Top you can make sure it stays night time forever.
Stromkirk Captain is just a regular vampire lord, he gives first strike which if you have a lot of clashes between creatures is very handy. Very good defensive card as well.
Bloodline Keeper generates vampires and gives +2/+2 when you get five vampires.
Further Destruction:
There are other ways to kill without using Olivia. We have some other deadly legendary creatures just for that purpose.
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief is removal for any creature, even indestructible ones, and also pumps itself while doing it.
Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet is another removal ability and also generates a vampire based on the power and toughness of the creature you destroyed. More vampires is more betterer!
Sheoldred, Whispering One isn't actually a vampire but she's so huge in black I just had to invite her to the party.
Vein Drinker isn't actually legendary but still worth mentioning as a removal ability. You have to be careful though because if you fight a creature too big she will get crushed.
Lands:
Here are a few lands that are synergistic with the rest of the deck.
Cabal Coffers mentioned before, works with Urborg to make massive amounts of mana.
Kher Keep mentioned before, makes tokens that can be bitten, equipped with skullclamp, or even pumped up.
Lavaclaw Reaches animate lands that you can pump are generally pretty nice, especially when you make it a vampire land.
Miren, the Moaning Well lets you steal creatures and then sacrifice them to gain life. Also pretty handy when someone is trying to tuck Olivia.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse gives Olivia or any of your other legendary creatures fear so that they can get in for massive damage against non-black/artifact players.
Whispersilk Cloak protects creatures and makes them unblockable, great for Olivia general damaging people.
Sword of Feast and Famine let's me use all my mana to steal creatures from my opponents then untaps all my lands so that I can respond to other threats again. Prot black/green isn't too shabby either.
Ashnod's Altar is just another sac outlet for when they try and tuck Olivia or get their creatures back, if you can't have them nobody can.
Braid of Fire is amazing for biting creatures during your upkeep or activating effects like SD-Top.
Decree of Pain card draw within a wrath effect, amazing.
Shattering Pulse my only artifact removal spell, but buyback makes it worth it. Something I tutor for a lot of the time.
Torrent of Souls resurrects a creature and pumps them all to fly over and deal some great damage.
Massacre Wurm kills tokens pretty nicely, then punishes people when I destroy their creatures.
Viscera Seer yet another sac outlet, also happens to be a vampire.
"What makes this deck any different from all the other Olivia decks?"
Well I'd like to say my deck is a unique snowflake among all other decks but that simply isn't true. When I first built the deck is was pretty much red black good-stuff with a tiny vampire theme. After playing with it for half a year or so I decided to take it in a new direction. BonSequitur's Tribal Olivia list really inspired me to change my ways and fall in line with the power of true vampire tribal. Though our two lists are very different.
Looking for constructive feedback: What would you add, what would it replace, and why. Thanks! I don't do infinite combos though so feel free to leave those out =].
I definitely enjoyed the Primer, Sir. Quite a good read. Entertaining and flavorful. Olivia always seemed like a powerful creature for a general, but the tribal theme here just seems to work so well with her. Very nice list! Needs more Vampire Nocturnus though!
Thank you very much good sir =3. I have Vampire Nocturnus in the list, it's just none of it is any sort of order xD. Though I don't physically own one because it's so expensive.
Vampiric Tutor is something that you could definitely use. It is incredibly flavorful for your theme in addition to the fact that you get anything you want for 1 Black.
Black has major strengths in reanimation so that could definitely be something to look into. Could help to keep you from running out of steam and making opponents deal with the same threats repeatedly.
I feel like Chancellor of the Dross could be something better for 7 mana. a 6/6 flying lifelink seems a little underwhelming. Akroma, Angel of Fury could be a better game ending beater. Granted, he is a vampire and fits the lifelink theme, but I just feel like his slot could be better used.
I was definitely considering Vampiric Tutor, I just ended up excluding it because it was so expensive in the money department. Though this is supposed to be an ideal list so I may find a spot for it in the upcoming week.
As for Chancellor of the Dross, I totally agree. There are many better options especially in the seven drop slot. The problem I'm having is there just aren't that many amazing vampires, most of them are designed for standard use so they become much weaker or not relevant in EDH. I would like to keep the list vampire tribal as that is more fun to me than a good-stuff deck. Hopefully in the future there will be more vampire support.
I came across this article in another thread talking about Tribal Olivia and I figured I'd post it here. Hope it helps making teh Vampires super-duper strong.
Banner done by .handslikeguns
I decided to make an Olivia Voldaren EDH deck as soon as she was spoiled, though I'm more of a blue player I figured I'd give a different color combination a try. Luckily during one of the pre-release sealed events I pulled her. So far she has been a fun and interesting general, though she does generate a little hate because people seem to get mad when you take their creatures from them.
"What's an Olivia Voldaren?"
Alternate Art done by Renjikuchiki1
You can find more information on her on the MTG Salvation wiki: Olivia Voldaren
She even invented a holiday!
"What does Olivia do?"
Olivia has two key abilities. Her first ability costs R1 and deals one damage to target creature. Then the creature becomes a vampire in addition to it's other types. Finally Olivia gets a +1/+1 counter.
Her second ability costs BB3 and takes control of target vampire for as long as you control Olivia Voldaren.
So for seven mana you can bite and steal a creature.
She also has flying, which makes her a pretty good voltron type general. Though that is not the main focus of this deck, it is still within the realm of possibility to kill someone via general damage.
Here is the deck list. Most of my card choices and synergies will be explained afterwords.
The Deck:
1 Olivia Voldaren
Creature (22)
1x Skeletal Vampire
1x Mephidross Vampire
1x Vein Drinker
1x Vampire Nocturnus
1x Malakir Bloodwitch
1x Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
1x Anowon, the Ruin Sage
1x Butcher of Malakir
1x Nirkana Revenant
1x Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
1x Captivating Vampire
1x Steel Hellkite
1x Sangromancer
1x Massacre Wurm
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
1x Chancellor of the Dross
1x Rune-Scarred Demon
1x Bloodgift Demon
1x Rakish Heir
1x Bloodline Keeper
1x Stromkirk Captain
1x Solemn Simulacrum
Enchantment (7)
1x Braid of Fire
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Black Market
1x Grave Pact
1x Wound Reflection
1x Sanguine Bond
1x Bloodchief Ascension
1x Rings of Brighthearth
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Skullclamp
1x Mimic Vat
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Mind's Eye
1x Ashnod's Altar
1x Sol Ring
1x Quietus Spike
1x Blade of the Bloodchief
1x Basilisk Collar
1x Spine of Ish Sah
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Swiftfoot Boots
Planeswalker (3)
1x Liliana Vess
1x Sorin Markov
1x Karn Liberated
Sorcery (12)
1x Decree of Pain
1x Insurrection
1x Diabolic Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Torrent of Souls
1x Sadistic Sacrament
1x Blood Tribute
1x Consuming Vapors
1x Exsanguinate
1x Sorin's Vengeance
1x Sever the Bloodline
1x Increasing Ambition
1x Wild Ricochet
1x Shattering Pulse
1x Reiterate
1x Vampiric Tutor
Land (37)
1x Auntie's Hovel
6x Mountain
13x Swamp
1x Graven Cairns
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Kher Keep
1x Tresserhorn Sinks
1x Rakdos Carnarium
1x Miren, the Moaning Well
1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1x Forgotten Cave
1x Cabal Coffers
1x Strip Mine
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Dragonskull Summit
1x Akoum Refuge
1x Lavaclaw Reaches
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Blackcleave Cliffs
1x Deserted Temple
"Why would I want to play a red headed vampire woman for a general?"
Well I'm glad you asked Mr. Internet person. There are many reasons you would want to play her:
1. You think red headed vampire women are hot.
2. You like aggressively costed generals, which at a low low cost of four CMC, I would say she is.
3. You like when your little 2/2 vampire lord is a 10/10 instead.
4. You like giant mana pools without having to resort to green.
5. You like when voltron is a viable option, but is not the only way to win.
And many more reasons than that which you can acquire yourself by reading some more.
"Ok Mr. Weirdo vampire lover, how do I win with this deck?"
Well there are many ways to win with this deck. I'll list them below in these wonderful spoilers:
C-C-C-Combos!
This deck has a couple 2 or 2 and a half card combos in it. Nothing infinite that wins you the game right out (Unless you're dueling for whatever reason) but some fun little combos for one shotting people in epic ways.
My first combo involves 2 and a half cards. I say two and a half because you need a vampire on the field to do it, but since your general is a vampire that you can summon whenever, it doesn't really count as a third card.
Sanguine Bond or Wound Reflection are the first part of the combo. The second part is:
Blood Tribute. Pay the kicker cost by tapping one of your many vampires.
What this will do is take half your opponents life rounded up, give that life to you and trigger SB, or kill them with the other half of their life total with WR.
You can also use this combo to half one person's life and damage a different person if you are using SB.
Sorin Markov is the first part of this combo.
Sorin's Vengeance is the second.
It's pretty obvious what happens here. Use Sorin's second ability to reduce an opponent's life total to 10, then play SV doing exactly 10 damage.
Exsanguinate for a high amount using the Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth combo is another fun way to win.
Urborg turns everyone's, including your own, lands into swamps as well as their other types. Cabal Coffers gives you mana based on the amount of swamps you have on the field, since all your lands are also swamps you will generate as much black mana as you have lands. This can be very nice in the later game when you need to cast a few more spells, or activate more abilities like Olivia's, than usual.
"Does the deck have any weaknesses?"
Nope....Ok I lied, enchantment removal is this deck's biggest weakness. Black and Red have almost no enchantment removal, luckily we have artifacts to do it for us:
The only issue with him is you need the exact mana open equal to the CMC of what you are trying to destroy.
You also need to connect, not in a spiritual way, with the player whose permanents you are trying to destroy.
Luckily our giant metallic dragon friend has flying.
Spine of Ish Sah is another, just cast it and choose whichever one permanent you wish to destroy.
It is a little costly, but great if people are running wrath's that include artifacts.
If Spine gets destroyed it comes right back to your hand so you can play it again.
Karn Liberated is our last way to get rid of permanents.
In this deck I generally only use his second ability to exile people's permanents.
Another weakness the deck has is that it doesn't interact with the stack very well, being that we don't have blue for counters, we most of the time just sit there and watch people cast their Tooth and Nails and Time Stretchs. We do however have red at our disposal, which has ways to copy and redirect spells so we can equally profit from other people's huge spells.
Chaos!:
Reiterate is amazing, once we get it from our tutors or just by drawing it we can use it forever and ever. Buyback is what makes this spell especially powerful, when someone casts a fatty spell you get one for yourself without even having to give up a card, all it takes is mana, it's almost free!
Wild Ricochet is both a redirect and a copy. Though this is a one time use card it does cost a little less than Reiterate and allows you to choose what the opponents spell is going to do, then gives you a copy for your own use.
"So it seems to have a couple weaknesses, what are it's strengths?"
It's main strengths comes from our second color, black. Black gives us access to tutoring, card draw at the cost of life, creature removal, and life drain.
Of course we also have red, which gives us fun chaotic effects like Insurrection and artifact removal.
Demonic Tutor
Diabolic Tutor
Just do exactly what they say, tutor for a card, put it in your hand.
Beseech the Queen does the same thing as any other tutor of course, except that it's limited to tutoring for cards with CMC equal to or less than the amount of lands you have. This isn't really an issue since in EDH land counts get pretty high, once your past eight lands you can tutor for anything in the deck. The only other issue with this particular tutor is that you have to reveal the card you grab.
Liliana Vess is great because she is a reusable tutor, assuming you have the means to protect her. The only bad part about her tutoring ability is that it puts the card on top of your library instead of in your hand.
Increasing Ambition tutors for a card, then two more when you flash it back.
Rune-Scarred Demon is a 6/6 flying body and a tutor all wrapped up into one.
The price is paid the cards are mine!:
We have two cards that let us draw one extra card during our upkeep at the cost of one life.
Bloodgift Demon
Phyrexian Arena
Necropotence is a very interesting card draw enchantment.
What this card does is skip your draw step, now don't freak out I know you love your draw step, if you want to continue to draw cards all you have to do is pay one life per card.
Unfortunately you get them at your end step instead of right away.
Don't draw too many cards though, because if you have to discard you instead exile cards instead of sending them to the graveyard as usual.
Mind's Eye is great but can be bad if you want to hold your mana up to bite/steal other creatures.
Pew Pew Pew:
We have some equipment that turns Olivia into a dangerous weapon of mass creature destruction, as well as a card for exiling cards we can't bite to death.
I'll start with my only spot removal card.
Sever the Bloodline is great because it is exile, instead of destroy, and it removes tokens like nobody's business.
A great way to machine gun creatures with Olivia is to give her deathtouch.
We have two ways to do this via equipment.
Basilisk Collar is a nice cheap equipment that gives creatures deathtouch and lifelink. Deathtouch being the more important in this case but the lifelink is also amazing.
Quietus Spike costs a tiny bit more but also makes opponents lose half their life when the creature it's equipped to does damage to them.
Mmmm...Blood:
We have a bunch of life gain/life drain effects for the deck, which helps counteract the life lost to drawing cards.
Chancellor of the Dross, lifelink on a 6/6 flying body? Yes please, for seven mana this card is great, and sometimes you get to start the game with extra life if you have him in your starting hand.
Sangromancer is synergistic with Olivia, kill creatures gain life. She is especially amazing during a wrath effect, as she gets to see all the creatures go to the graveyard and gain life for each one.
Malakir Bloodwitch is pretty nice on it's own, protection from white and on a 4/4 flying body is awesome, especially in my metagame (damn you Teysa!). Her second ability though is our first life draining effect, when she comes into play each opponent loses life equal to the number of vampires you control then you gain life equal to the life lost.
Blood Tribute is part of our Sanguine Bond kill combo. It takes half an opponents life and gives it to you if you pay the kicker cost, which you pay by tapping one of your many vampires.
Consuming Vapors is a nice little life gain card. It makes an opponent sacrifice a creature and you gain life equal to it's toughness. Then on your next upkeep you get to do it again!
Exsanguinate is great for multi-player and can siphon enormous amounts of life from players. Cards to have before you cast this would be Cabal Coffers, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, and Nirkana Revenant.
Sorin's Vengeance is probably the most flavorful card in the deck. It's the most epic way to kill/maim a player, and 10 life gained ain't too shabby.
Basilisk Collar we mentioned before gives lifelink, profit on any creature.
Bloodchief Ascension is easy to activate and deadly when it is active. If any card goes into your opponents graveyard, literally anything, you gain two and they lose two life.
Sanguine Bond is sort of a life drain card. Whenever you gain life target opponent loses that much life. Essentially it doubles the effectiveness of all your life gain/drain effects.
"How do you play the deck?"
The main goal of course is to reduce your opponents life to zero. How you do that however is the fun part. Being a tribal deck most of the cards are pretty synergistic, but there are a few gems you may not notice at first glance.
Anowon, the Ruin Sage I feel is worth mentioning. You may think "but I don't want to sacrifice my non-vampires! I love Bloodgift Demon!". Well with Olivia's first ability you need not worry. The awesome part about Olivia is that she can turn any creature into a vampire, which of course includes your own. You can also bite creatures and force your opponents to sacrifice a certain creature. An example of this would be if someone had a Primeval Titan and their general (probably hex-proofed somehow) on the field. You bite Prime Time and force them to sacrifice the other creature.
Butcher of Malakir
Grave Pact
Two very powerful cards, but what if I want people to sacrifice but I don't want my creatures to die in the process!
Well we can just add this card to the mix and make the opponents cry:
Skeletal Vampire makes two bats when it comes into play, it's first ability sacrifices a bat and makes two more.
So sac a bat, make more bats, laugh as your opponents sacrifice all their creatures.
This also helps another card in your deck:
Black Market is like Braid of Fire for black mana! Seems good right? Good thing there's no mana burn anymore because you'll be flooded with it.
There is even another card in your deck that will benefit from all this creature death!:
Blade of the Bloodchief gives your vampires two +1/+1 counters every time a creature dies. Have the blade on a non-vampire creature? No problem! Just convert it to vampire-hood with Olivia!
Rings of Brighthearth makes any of your abilities do the effect twice. Example: Stealing two creatures at once with Olivia.
This one's pretty obvious:
Skullclamp
Kher Keep
Make a Kobold, attach Skullclamp, draw two cards.
Lords of the castle:
Captivating Vampire is almost a second Olivia, if you can get the board presence you can just start yoinking other people's creatures with no hope of return (except for that dirty dirty Homeward Path). Also +1/+1 isn't too bad.
Mephidross Vampire is amazing for vampire tribal, it converts all your non-vampires into vampires so no worries from Anowon and no wasted mana from Olivia. It also gives your creatures +1/+1 counters every time they deal damage to a creature. That means Olivia would get +2/+2 per bite.
Rakish Heir is good for when you are getting your evasioney vampires in. It's unfortunate that he's a creature and very squishy. I would replace him with Curse of Stalked Prey if this was a dueling deck.
Vampire Nocturnus gives all your vampires evasion and +2/+1. This is pretty big and if you happen to have a Sensei's Divining Top you can make sure it stays night time forever.
Stromkirk Captain is just a regular vampire lord, he gives first strike which if you have a lot of clashes between creatures is very handy. Very good defensive card as well.
Bloodline Keeper generates vampires and gives +2/+2 when you get five vampires.
Further Destruction:
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief is removal for any creature, even indestructible ones, and also pumps itself while doing it.
Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet is another removal ability and also generates a vampire based on the power and toughness of the creature you destroyed. More vampires is more betterer!
Sheoldred, Whispering One isn't actually a vampire but she's so huge in black I just had to invite her to the party.
Vein Drinker isn't actually legendary but still worth mentioning as a removal ability. You have to be careful though because if you fight a creature too big she will get crushed.
Lands:
Bojuka Bog hates on graveyard strategies and can be bounced and used again with Rakdos Carnarium.
Cabal Coffers mentioned before, works with Urborg to make massive amounts of mana.
Kher Keep mentioned before, makes tokens that can be bitten, equipped with skullclamp, or even pumped up.
Lavaclaw Reaches animate lands that you can pump are generally pretty nice, especially when you make it a vampire land.
Miren, the Moaning Well lets you steal creatures and then sacrifice them to gain life. Also pretty handy when someone is trying to tuck Olivia.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse gives Olivia or any of your other legendary creatures fear so that they can get in for massive damage against non-black/artifact players.
Strip Mine destroys Homeward Path.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth works with cabal coffers and lets Sheoldred Swampwalk the other players.
Everything Else:
Swiftfoot Boots
Lightning Greaves
Both protect Olivia or other creatures and gives haste.
Whispersilk Cloak protects creatures and makes them unblockable, great for Olivia general damaging people.
Sword of Feast and Famine let's me use all my mana to steal creatures from my opponents then untaps all my lands so that I can respond to other threats again. Prot black/green isn't too shabby either.
Ashnod's Altar is just another sac outlet for when they try and tuck Olivia or get their creatures back, if you can't have them nobody can.
Braid of Fire is amazing for biting creatures during your upkeep or activating effects like SD-Top.
Decree of Pain card draw within a wrath effect, amazing.
Shattering Pulse my only artifact removal spell, but buyback makes it worth it. Something I tutor for a lot of the time.
Torrent of Souls resurrects a creature and pumps them all to fly over and deal some great damage.
Massacre Wurm kills tokens pretty nicely, then punishes people when I destroy their creatures.
Viscera Seer yet another sac outlet, also happens to be a vampire.
"What makes this deck any different from all the other Olivia decks?"
Well I'd like to say my deck is a unique snowflake among all other decks but that simply isn't true. When I first built the deck is was pretty much red black good-stuff with a tiny vampire theme. After playing with it for half a year or so I decided to take it in a new direction. BonSequitur's Tribal Olivia list really inspired me to change my ways and fall in line with the power of true vampire tribal. Though our two lists are very different.
Looking for constructive feedback: What would you add, what would it replace, and why. Thanks! I don't do infinite combos though so feel free to leave those out =].
RB[Primer] Olivia VolDOOMenBR
URJhoira of the Get YouRU
UWRZedruu the GoatheartedRWU
-1 Darksteel Plate
+1 Reiterate
3/11/2012:
-1 Viscera Seer
+1 Solemn Simulacrum
-1 Necropotence
+1 Wound Reflection
-1 Whispersilk Cloak
+1 Mimic Vat
-1 Mountain
+1 Deserted Temple
3/15/2012
-1 Beseech the Queen
+1 Vampiric Tutor
Watch List:
RB[Primer] Olivia VolDOOMenBR
URJhoira of the Get YouRU
UWRZedruu the GoatheartedRWU
EDH:
G[cEDH] Selvala, Heart of the StormG
URW[cEDH] Narset, the Last AirmericanURW
GWUSt. Jenara, the ArchangelGWU
UBGrimgrin, Chaos MarineUB
GOmnath, Mana BaronG
URWNarset, Justice League AmericaURW
GWUBAtraxa, Countess of CountersGWUB
GWUEstrid, Enbantress PrimeGWU
RB[Primer] Olivia VolDOOMenBR
URJhoira of the Get YouRU
UWRZedruu the GoatheartedRWU
Black has major strengths in reanimation so that could definitely be something to look into. Could help to keep you from running out of steam and making opponents deal with the same threats repeatedly.
I feel like Chancellor of the Dross could be something better for 7 mana. a 6/6 flying lifelink seems a little underwhelming. Akroma, Angel of Fury could be a better game ending beater. Granted, he is a vampire and fits the lifelink theme, but I just feel like his slot could be better used.
EDH:
G[cEDH] Selvala, Heart of the StormG
URW[cEDH] Narset, the Last AirmericanURW
GWUSt. Jenara, the ArchangelGWU
UBGrimgrin, Chaos MarineUB
GOmnath, Mana BaronG
URWNarset, Justice League AmericaURW
GWUBAtraxa, Countess of CountersGWUB
GWUEstrid, Enbantress PrimeGWU
As for Chancellor of the Dross, I totally agree. There are many better options especially in the seven drop slot. The problem I'm having is there just aren't that many amazing vampires, most of them are designed for standard use so they become much weaker or not relevant in EDH. I would like to keep the list vampire tribal as that is more fun to me than a good-stuff deck. Hopefully in the future there will be more vampire support.
RB[Primer] Olivia VolDOOMenBR
URJhoira of the Get YouRU
UWRZedruu the GoatheartedRWU
I came across this article in another thread talking about Tribal Olivia and I figured I'd post it here. Hope it helps making teh Vampires super-duper strong.
EDH:
G[cEDH] Selvala, Heart of the StormG
URW[cEDH] Narset, the Last AirmericanURW
GWUSt. Jenara, the ArchangelGWU
UBGrimgrin, Chaos MarineUB
GOmnath, Mana BaronG
URWNarset, Justice League AmericaURW
GWUBAtraxa, Countess of CountersGWUB
GWUEstrid, Enbantress PrimeGWU
One no one ever sees it coming?
Also, Bloodlord of Vaasgoth feels lonely ;3