MTG is a beloved game – and a significant reason for that is its excellent suite of tribes and creature types. Vampires are easily one of our favorites. It isn’t hard to see why we players love these mischievous, haughty aristocrats. So, then, which are the best MTG vampires?
The best MTG vampires are low-cost creatures with powerful synergies. You can cast these vampires early, and they remain valuable throughout the game. However, other, more expensive vampires can end a game on their own if the opponent cannot answer them.
We can move onto the list now that we know what to keep aware of when playing vampires. It isn’t in any ranked order since each vampire is helpful in specific decks. However, all of these cards are must-includes for tribal strategies.
Best MTG Vampire Cards
1. Edgar Markov
The undisputed best vampire Commander, Edgar Markov, packs a deadly suite of abilities that can end a game in only a few attacks.
No wonder then that Edgar Markov is the 4th most popular Commander on EDHREC, leading over 750 decks.
This original version of Edgar has two primary abilities, and they’re both great. The first is the Eminence ability, which gives you a free 1/1 vampire token every time you cast a vampire spell – excellent in tribal builds.
The second puts a +1/+1 counter on all of your vampires whenever Edgar attacks – also amazing.
2. Vampire Nighthawk
Vampire Nighthawk was one of the best-costed black creatures for its time, and it’s no slouch today either.
This three-mana vampire has flying, deathtouch, and lifelink. With abilities like those, the damage is guaranteed, as is life-gain.
This bloodsucker also has an excellent competitive history, with five Top 8s across Pro Tours and Worlds. Players have used it in every archetype too.
At the same time, aggressive strategies can benefit from Vampire Nighthawk’s evasion, and combo decks profit off its ability to block and kill nearly any attacker.
3. Bloodghast
Few vampires are a more persistent and immediate threat than the infamous Bloodghast.
This dangerous undead costs you only two mana, but you won’t need to cast it often. You can return it from your graveyard to the battlefield whenever you play a land.
Bloodghast is not a card that your opponent can kill once. In a graveyard-focused deck, this vampire can quickly surprise your opponent in considerable numbers.
It’s no surprise that it’s a Dredge staple with ten Top 8s in World Championships and the Pro Tour.
4. Welcoming Vampire
Welcoming vampire is a rare example of a white card draw and an excellent standard.
Whenever another creature with a power of two or less enters under your control, you can draw a card. Even though this ability only triggers once per turn, it earned Welcoming Vampire a slot in over 13,000 EDHREC decklists.
Not only that, but Welcoming Vampire is still a vampire card. So, while it’s excellent in white weenie strategies, vampire tribal decks benefit from it too.
5. Blood Artist
Another low-cost, high-impact vampire, Blood Artist, enables dozens of dangerous combos.
It drains your opponent’s life whenever a creature dies – yours or your opponent’s. This easy, consistent trigger and reliably destructive pinging make Blood Artist one of the best MTG vampires.
Blood Artist remains a staple in any strategy prepared to sacrifice its creatures, notably aristocrat decks. In these builds, it’s seen four Mythical Invitational and World Magic Cup Top 8s.
6. Knight of the Ebon Legion
Easily one of the best black one-drops of all time is Knight of the Ebon Legion, a 1/2 vampire.
It’s one of the strongest because the Knight remains relevant in the mid and late games, unlike most other small creatures. If a player lost at least four life at the end of their turns, this vampire gets a +1/+1 counter.
If you have extra mana, you can also temporarily boost Knight of the Ebon Legion’s stats and give it deathtouch, making it even deadlier.
With abilities like these, Knight of the Ebon Legion was an automatic include in Standard Aggro Decks. It picked up four Players Tour Top 8s.
7. Twilight Prophet
While Twilight Prophet’s stats might not awe you, its ascend ability certainly will have you running to buy a playset of this unique vampire.
If you control ten or more permanents, you draw an extra card in each turn. You reveal that card, too, and each opponent loses life equal to its mana value. You gain that much life.
This ability is excellent – like Dark Confidant’s draw, only you gain life instead of losing it. Because of that card advantage, Twilight Prophet is an automatic addition to most black Commander decks.
It’s excellent in vampire tribal, especially since it rewards you for playing flashy, high-cost vampires.
8. Viscera Seer
Viscera Seer is one of the best one-mana sac outlets in MTG.
Viscera Seer lets you scry one as many times as you want per turn at no cost other than losing a creature. As well as being a way to filter your draws, this bloodsucker also synergizes with sacrifice strategies.
Because of this deadly ability, Viscera Seer has the prestige of being an excellent vampire card in both Commander and the 60-card formats.
It sees use in 13% of all EDHREC decks, and it has two Top 8s in Worlds and the Pro Tour.
9. Vampire Hexmage
Vampire Hexmage enabled one of the deadliest combos of all time.
You can sacrifice it to remove all the counters from a target. When combined with Dark Depths, you can create the incredible 20/20 Marit Lage token creature as soon as your second turn.
Even if you don’t have Dark Depths, Vampire Hexmage isn’t useless. Its ability to remove counters is still helpful – it can kill a planeswalker.
With such versatility, it is no surprise that Vampire Hexmage has ten Top 8s across professional-tier Standard and Extended tournaments.
10. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
One of the most potent legendary vampires, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, combines graveyard hate, token generator, and excellent stats in one package.
Pro players in every format from Modern to Pioneer realized this and have used Kalitas to earn eighteen Top 8s across various high-level tournaments.
One of the reasons Kalitas is so imposing is that it can win a game singlehandedly. It can go wide by making an army of 2/2 zombies, or it can go tall by sacrificing those zombies to buff itself.
Few decks can counter both strategies, especially if you back up the Traitor of Ghet with counterspells or recursion.