Yu - Gi - Oh! Vampire Deck

Welcome all! Today we've got a very dangerous deck, one that I believe will emerge in the top tier of this next format with the January 2014 Ban List dismantling so many of the current top decks. It combines the pure swarming speed of zombies with a new search engine, consistent destruction through the field spell, a powerhouse of a boss monster, and the noble charm that comes with the undead blood suckers... That's right, it's the Vampire Deck, and it redefines "deadly"!

Hunters of the Night

Monsters(18):

3x Goblin Zombie

2x Mezuki

1x Pyramid Turtle

3x Shadow Vampire

3x Vampire Duke

3x Vampire Sorceror

3x Zombie Master

Spells(14):

3x Book of Life

1x Burial from the different dimension

1x Dark hole

3x Instant Fusion

2x Mystical Space Typhoon

3x Vampire kingdom

1x Recurring Darkness

Traps(10):

1x Bottomless Trap hole

1x Compulsory Evacuation Device

2x Dimensional Prison

1x Fiendish Chain

2x Mirror Force

1x Torrential Tribute

2x Vampire Takeover

Extra:

3x Crimson Knight Vampire Bram

3x Reaper On the Nightmare

1x Adreus, keeper of Armageddon

Zombies never die...

In the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! Zombies are notoriously known for rising from the graveyard and swarming the field full of monsters. Cards like Zombie Master and Mezuki allow players to special summon zombies from their graveyard given a certain condition.

Zombies also have great search cards in Pyramid Turtle and Goblin Zombie. Pyramid Turtle, when destroyed by battle, can search for any Zombie-Type monster from your deck with 2000 defense or less and Special Summon it right to the field!

Similarly Goblin Zombie will send a Zombie with 1200 or less defense from your deck to your hand when it is sent to the graveyard. Goblin Zombie is special because it doesn't have to be destroyed, if you tribute or synchro with it the effect will still trigger.

Finally Book of Life is one of the best "recursion-style" spell cards in the game. It's usefulness rivals Rekindling in it's game changing ability. While reviving one of your own monsters you also remove one of your opponent's which can swing a game of resources in your favor.

This deck makes use of all of these important Zombie specific cards to fuel an almost unlimited number of plays. Plays made possible by the new Vampire Archetype support from Shadow Specters!

Vampires bring a new dynamic to Zombie deck-building

Prior to Shadow Specters the Vampire archetype only consisted of five monsters, Vampire Lady, Vampire Lord, Vampire's Curse, Vampire Dragon and Vampire Genesis. Red-Moon Baby was later Errata'd to be Vampire Baby.

Although Lord and Curse were useful, each being able to revive itself should it be destroyed in a particular way, the Archetype as a whole had no synergy and even with all of the Zombie support, duelists couldn't truly create a Vampire deck with any merit.

Shadow Specters brought seven more Vampire cards to the table and with them the archetype found a strategy it could support and a boss monster it can abuse.

Of the seven new cards, Vampire's Grace is the only one not to make the cut. It's effect causes the player to spend 2000 life points just to get her out, and being level 6 she can't support the rest of the strategy in making rank 5 xyz monsters.

How does the Vampire deck work?

Four Words. Crimson Knight Vampire Bram. Vampire Bram is the key to this decks success. Every move you make is to get him on the field. Vampire Bram has two amazing effects. Once per turn you can detach one XYZ material to select one monster in your opponents graveyard and special summon it to your side of the field. This makes it easy to XYZ summon even more monsters, while overpowering your opponent with their resources.

Crimson Knight Vampire Bram also embodies the undead. When destroyed by battle or card effect Bram will be special summoned in defense during your next Standby Phase. Despite having 0 defense Bram is virtually indestructible. Unless your opponent can remove him from play he'll keep coming back. Fortunately even if you do lose one Bram you can easily make more!

Next are Shadow Vampire and Vampire Duke. Both of these Level 5 Vampires special summon another vampire when they are normal summoned, Shadow from the Deck and Duke from the Graveyard.

The idea is to bring out a Level 5 Vampire to create Bram. If you special summon Vampire Duke you can trigger his second ability to mill a specific card from your opponent's deck, which combos with Vampire Kingdom to destroy a card prior to Bram's entrance.

Vampire Sorcerer makes the whole plan just a little bit easier to execute. When destroyed by an opponent's card in any way you can search your deck for any Vampire card, including spells and traps. Next you can remove Sorcerer from the Grave to normal summon a high level vampire without a tribute! As you can see most every card is used to bring your high level Vampires to the field, and XYZ summon.

Takeover the game with Vampire Takeover!

Finally Vampire's receive trap support in the form of Vampire Takeover. This awesome trap can be activated if the only monster(s) on your side of the field are Zombie. You may take a Vampire Kingdom spell card from your DECK and place it active on the field, then special summon a vampire from your graveyard in defense position.

This card is absolutely game-changing. Activated at the end of your opponent's turn sets up an easy Crimson Knight Vampire Bram that your opponent probably isn't ready for.

Vampire Takeover can also lead to huge field position. Along with activating the field spell from the deck, which is crazy good, if you special summon Vampire Duke through the second ability you can trigger Duke's ability and as a result trigger Kingdom to destroy a card on the opponents field!

This deck is meant to control the field, hand, graveyard, and even deck through Zombie mechanics and Vampire effects. Find the right plays at the right time to ensure your success!

Let's Make This Deck Better!

This deck combines the speed Zombie monsters have with the synergy the new Vampires create. But with your help it can be even better! Test it out! Build it and let me know how it works for you in a comment below! Thanks for visiting, I'll see you next time!