The Grand Pappy of Innistrad Edgar Markov is back, and this time with some new frame treatments to get your teeth stuck into! His much-needed reprint drops with Innistrad Remastered, which releases on January 24th, 2025.
Alongside Regular, Old Border and Showcase Frame Fang treatment, there will be a harder to find Horror Movie Poster style version in Collector Boosters. Personally, I’m partial to the Judge Promo or the Showcase Fang Frame, but really, there’s something for everyone.
EDGAR MARKOV
Edgar Markov is one of the original Eminence Commanders that come with abilities that work even when the creature is in the command zone. A contentious ability due to just how powerful it is, Edgar’s Eminence gives you 1/1 Vampire tokens when you cast Vampire spells, allowing you to curve out much faster and cash in tokens for value, aristocrats style.
When you’re finally ready to cast him, he swoops in as a hasty 4/4 first strike, putting a +1/+1 counter on each Vampire you control – whether they attacked or not.
Edgar decks are all about finding the balance between buffing vampires, going wide, putting counters on things, and using tokens and smaller bodies to cash in for value.
Here are some of the more fang-tastic cards we enjoy playing in Edgar brews.
OH LORDS, THEY COMIN’
One of the ways you’ll buff your vampires in an Edgar build is with Lords. There are many to choose from, including Legion Lieutenant and Markov Baron. Lords can die to removal or wraths, though, so spread out your buffs into multiple baskets.
Etching of the Chosen works well here, as it lets you sacrifice peons to save your stronger more impactful vampires. It also doubles as a sacrifice outlet if you need to get any triggers going.
Patchwork Banner is the new all-star from Bloomburrow, and it works great in an Edgar Deck. Generally speaking, mana rocks get in the way of curving out when it comes to more aggressive typal decks. This mana rock helps that 3 mana for a rock be more lastingly impactful.
If you add any lord to the deck, our pick is Stromkirk Captain. Giving First Strike to the rest of the team comes in clutch way too often.
YOU GOTTA BREAK A FEW 1/1 VAMPIRES TO MAKE AN OM-NOM-NOM-ELETTE
Getting a free 1/1 token every time you cast a vampire is a real treat, and you have to make the most of it. Sure, Skullclamp is the obvious way to go here, but don’t limit yourself to cracking skulls. Crack the whole vampire.
The LCC precon Blood Rite came with some sweet upgrades for Edgar. Master of Dark Rites basically gives you a Dark Ritual every turn, as long as you keep spending the mana on more vampires. That’s hot.
You can also turn them into Demons with Clavileno, and provided you have another way to sacrifice them (or just chump block!) they come back as a 4/3 flyer, and also draw you a card. That’s basically free real estate.
Speaking of easy ways to cash in your pawns, Falkenrath Pit Fighter and Vampire Gourmand both come down early to give you plenty of card advantage for your troubles. Who even needs to run Vampiric Rites anymore?
I’ve always loved running Living Death in all of my black creature-based decks, and the new one-sided effect Lich-Knights’ Conquest feels tailor-made for an Edgar deck. You can bin off some token vampires and/or treasure/blood tokens and bring back your actual-factual Vampires from the yard.
REMOVAL (NOT JUST OF BLOOD)
While you might be draining blood or even life totals with pinger effects, you’ll also need to keep on top of removing your opponents’ things to achieve victory.
One of my favorite tech cards is Retribution of the Ancients. In combination with +1/+1 counter effects and Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter, you can have removal on tap whenever you might need it. It’s a low-curve investment that pays dividends if you get an engine going with cards like Cordial Vampire, Cathars’ Crusade and Felisa, Fang of Silverquill.
We’ve already spoken about how useful those extra tokens are, but have you checked out some of the removal on offer that can abuse that supply of bodies? Rite of Oblivion came first, and is a favorite of mine in most Orzhov decks at this point. But we also got Ruthless Lawbringer in OTJ who gives you a vampire version on a stick. The best part is that in Edgar decks, he fuels himself.
Midnight Vow’s Vampiric Bloodline deck was a great take on Rakdos vampires, debuting many sweet Vampire typal cards that are useful for Edgar. One that I think can do a lot of work in 2024 is Midnight Arsonist. Sure, he doesn’t destroy treasures or mana rocks, but he will annihilate Food, Clues, and key pieces like Equipment, or The Ozolith. Burning down The Great Henge is evidently too much of an ask, but otherwise? Sweet little removal spell.
Keeping on top of graveyards is really important, and so outsourcing that job to an evasive vampire that can get larger and weather a lot of board wipes and removal is a no-brainer. Still, I don’t see it in as many Edgar lists as it deserves. I guess people don’t remember this was a Vampire as well as a Dragon.
One thing I like to do in typal decks is take advantage of any removal that can’t be used against me, because it means if any opposing deck steals my spells to cast them for free, they are useless most of the time against me and my permanents.
A one-sided wrath like Olivia’s Wrath is an easy inclusion for this reason, but so is Victim of Night. Who even plays Werewolves anymore? The worst they can do is try to combo with a Zombie, but that won’t come up often anyways.
TEMPO PLAYS
Big tempo plays like Vein Ripper are a lot of fun in Edgar decks. While you can run low to the ground, running some chunkier vampires is a good way to help you play a more midrange strategy, which can be a good way to shore up your mid-late game if you aren’t running combos. Vein Ripper can do this by making boardwipes a very unattractive prospect.
Reanimation and lifegain are two ways to make fatties work better for you, so including WAR Sorin can help to keep cards flowing and fish vampires out from the yard.
Cheating Vein Ripper or Vish Kal into play can be a really powerful move, though, so Sorin Imperious Bloodlord is definitely worth a look.
FOUNDATIONS HAS SOME BLOODY GOOD CARDS IN
If you do love combos, then Bloodthirsty Conqueror is the card for you. It performs one half of the famous lifedrain combo that started with Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond, and it’s a Vampire. What more could you ask for?
If you just want more evasiveness and more card draw, then High-Society Hunter might be up your alley. This draws cards like Harvester of Souls, and can munch on your tokens if there’s nothing else appetizing around.
PERSONAL PICKS
To close things today, here are a few of my personal picks.
Shadow Alley Denizen might look like she’s more of a low-curve aggro Edgar card, but she can help push through your damage in midrange builds too. Besides, she looks cool as anything.
You can’t play a Vampires deck without a Captivating Vampire or New Blood. These mind control effects are seriously fun, and open up crazy lines of play. I once stole an Atla Palani with this, changing the word “Egg” to vampire. Now my vampires really could make me an omelette.
Finally, we’re on Innistrad, and we’re going wide, so that’s a reason to run one of my favorite finishers ever printed: Westvale Abbey // Ormendahl, Profane Prince.
Westvale is a way to get through a gummed up board state, and generally a lot of fun to pull off.
END STEP
I hope that’s enough to get your teeth stuck into as you prepare to brew an Edgar deck. There’s a lot of cool lines of play, and I think I just convinced myself to rebuild my Edgar deck… Oh no!
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer and a member of the Commander Format Panel. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.