Nazar, the Velvet Fang Commander Deck Tech
A Return to What's in Strahd
As we prepare to return to Innistrad for Innistrad Remastered, we know we're going to see Vampires. Before we get there, though, there's a neat Vampire from Foundations that could use some love.
Uncommon commanders are in vogue, and I happen to love how they have hyper-specific abilities that don't have the inherent power that rares and mythics have, which enables them to bring out the best in the cards around them through synergy.
Nazar, the Velvet Fang cuts a menacing figure, valuing life gain, combat, and card draw. Getting these pieces to fit together is... good beats!
Card Draw/Advantage
Our commander is a repeatable source of card draw, as long as we have enough life to pay. Three life per activation is a bit of a steep cost, but we should be able to gain enough life to mitigate it, and a life per card is a decent rate, if Sign in Blood is anything to go by.
Dark Confidant effects may be somewhat rare in Commander, what with the tendency of decks to run high-CMC spells and all, but it's a risk this deck can take. We have the life to lose, and the flips, especially blind ones, can lead to exciting gameplay!
It may seem a bit out-of-place in a deck that pays life so openly, but Well of Lost Dreams is secretly a powerhouse. We don't have to pay mana equal to the life gained; the mana paid just can't exceed it, so we can easily just throw whatever mana we have into the Well. If we gain life at instant speed, we can untap and use those cards right away.
Vampiric Rites is not just on-theme with its name, its effect is also quite potent and helpful. It's a consistent source of life gain and card draw, and all for the low cost of a random body we have lying around, such as a changeling from Black Market Connections!
Life Gain
While we have incidental life gain built into other roles, a deck this hungry for life to pay needs to include cards that are in there for the sole purpose of gaining life. Demon's Horn and Staff of the Death Magus are the kind of cards that could easily be found in draft chaff but find new life in a build like this, which is just beautiful.
I've played against Ayara, First of Locthwain enough to be intimately aware of just how powerful she is (Davy F Jones, I'm looking at you!). She drains life from opponents whenever we make a creature and then turns extra creatures into card draw, triggering Blood Artist effects to form the core of many an Aristocrats shell.
Thrull Parasite is one of my favorite unassuming little guys. For the purposes of this deck, its primary purpose is having extort enabling us to staple a one-mana drain effect to any spell we cast. Its activated ability is the cute part, though: it can tap to remove a counter from a permanent. Almost every game will have a juicy target, and it's an Oathbreaker All-Star for a reason.
Everything I just said about Thrull Parasite gets multiplied exponentially by Pontiff of Blight. The Crusading Cleric gives all of our creatures extort, making every spell cast and spare mana into a massive life swing.
Win Cons
While we can win games by gaining life, draining life, and attacking, those types of games can last a while, and we risk the possibility of leaving the door open to opponents or paying too much life and finding ourselves in range of big swings. If that's the case, what are we trying to draw into? The answer is: combos.
With so many ways to gain life, many lifegain decks use combos that trigger off of life gain, such as the 1-2 punch of Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood, which win the game on the spot with any life gained by us or lost by an opponent: the loop goes that whenever we gain life, opponents lose life and whenever opponents lose life, we gain life. These two effects feed each other ad infinitum, enabling us to win out of nowhere.
Removal
As with any game of Commander, sometimes things gotta die. Black happens to be pretty good at making things die, so we have no shortage of options. Feed the Swarm is one of the best, as it bends and twists the color pie to enable black to remove enchantments, which can be important if someone sticks something we can't easily deal with.
Bringing in the Drain Life effects is the sweet stuff to me. I happen to love X spells, and being able to drain huge chunks of life is one of my favorite things to do in Commander. In this deck, we can use the life gain as well, enabling our deck to pay life for various effects with the buffer.
The general plan is to gain enough life that we feel comfortable, pay life for fun and profit, and win the game through attacking or direct damage. If that doesn't work, however, we can lean on life gain/loss combos to magnify what we are doing and/or to go infinite.
