Vampire: deck recipe [Post Banlist Oct 2019]

“Vampire” is an archetype of primarily DARK Zombie-Type monsters whose main strategy revolves around slowly taking control of the field using Vampire Grace’s “bleed effect” and Vampire Kingdom.

Samurai Skull being taken off the Semi-Limited List and other powerful contenders such as Darklords receiving their first hit will likely allow Vampires to perform a lot better after being almost completely irrelevant for months.

Running both Gozuki and Samurai Skull may seem redundant, but it’s necessary: it’s the easiest and most consistent way of getting Vampire Retainer and Vampire Familiar into the Graveyard.

• You can send Vampire Retainer to the Graveyard, Special Summon it by sending a “Vampire” card from your hand or face-up field to the Graveyard, and then, by paying 500 Life Points, add a “Vampire” Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand.

You can use Retainer’s effect to search the Vampire Kingdom, Vampire’s Desire, Vampire’s Domain or Vampire Takeover. If you want to Summon Vampire Vamp or Vampire Grace, you are likely going to need the additional Normal Summon/Set from Vampire’s Domain, whereas, if you already have the Continuous Spell available, you might want to go for your Field Spell.

• Vampire Familiar, just like Retainer, can be Special Summoned from your Graveyard by sending a “Vampire” card from your hand or face-up field to the GY, but, instead of allowing you to add a Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand, it gives you access to any “Vampire” monster, except Vampire Familiar.

You can use Familiar’s effect to search Vampire Grace, which, in combination with Vampire Kingdom, used to be this Deck’s primary way of removing potential threats from the field, or to add to your hand Vampire Vamp, a Level 7 “Vampire” monster that can get rid of high ATK monsters like Elemental HERO Brave Neos and Blue-Eyes White Dragon by equipping them to itself.

Unfortunately, if they were Special Summoned by their own effect, both Retainer and Familiar are banished when they leave the field, which means you will not be able to Special Summon them again on your next turn or even to use them for Gozuki’s effect. You can use Burial from a Different Dimension to replenish your resources, but I personally haven’t found particular success with that card.

These two cards allow you to add from your Deck to your hand a Vampire Spell/Trap and a Vampire monster respectively when they are Special Summoned at the cost of 500 LP. Retainer and Familiar can be Special Summoned from the Graveyard by their own effects by discarding a Vampire card from your hand or sending a Vampire card from the field to the Graveyard.

Unfortunately, neither Gozuki nor Samurai Skull can be used to activate their effects and Special Summon them from the Graveyard since they are not part of the archetype, but you can use any Vampire card. You can activate Vampire’s Domain’s effect and then send it to the Graveyard to Special Summon either of these monsters: you will still get the additional Normal Summon/Set of the effect from Continuous Spell.

Retainer and Familiar are incredibly important, they give you access to cards like the Vampire Kingdom whenever you need them: you don’t necessarily need to run three copies of both thanks to Gozuki and Samurai Skull, but, due to the cost of their Special Summoning effect, having other Vampire cards in the deck doesn’t hurt.

After Special Summoning these cards you can tribute them to get Vampire Grace on the field.

Once per turn, when one or more cards are sent from your opponent’s Deck to the Graveyard, by sending a “Vampire” monster from your hand or Deck to the GY, Vampire Kingdom allows you to target a card on the field and destroy it. Use Vampire Grace’s effect to force your opponent to send a certain type of card (Monster, Spell, or Trap) from their Deck to the GY and trigger Kingdom’s effect.

While this card may look like another Continuous Spell that’s already in the game, Call of the Mummy, there are a few reasons why this one is a better choice in this deck: it can be searched by Retainer, it doesn’t require you to have an empty field to activate its effect, it can be used as activation cost for either Vampire Retainer or Vampire Familiar after its effect is activated and it allows you to gain back some Life Points, which are a very important resource in this deck.

This card was notably better in the TCG: in a 20-30 cards format, there’s a higher chance that you will draw into your Field Spell either before or together with this card.

Vampire Takeover allows you to activate Vampire Kingdom for deck and only from there, which means that, if you draw Vampire Kingdom, Takeover becomes a dead card.

In addition to getting the Field Spell out, Takeover also Special Summons a Vampire monster from your Graveyard in Defense Position.

The only problem this card has, other than becoming a dead card after you draw your Field Spell, is that it’s a Trap Card.

-Using Life Points as a resource with only 4000 at your disposal and Cyberdark Edge around is admittedly not that great. A Cyberdark Edge equipped with Leng Ling is capable of inflicting 2500 damage in a single turn, which is exactly where paying for Vampire Familiar, Retainer and Domain would leave you.

• Disrupting your plays is generally pretty easy: a single Treacherous Trap Hole or Six Style - Dual Wield is all it takes to completely set you back.
  
  
• The Sanctified Darklord can negate the effects of Gozuki and Samurai Skull, pretty much forcing you to end your turn unless you have Vampire’s Desire available, or it can be used on Vampire Vamp and Vampire Grace. Having Hey, Trunade! or any other type of back row removal is mostly irrelevant in this case.
  
  
• The activation of the Vampire Kingdom or Vampire’s Domain can be negated by Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En. Too bad you need Domain to get Vamp out and get rid of the Level 5 “Six Samurai” Synchro.

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