Commander Deck Tech: Vadmir, New Blood

When we think of Voltron, we think of big, fearsome creatures. How about surprising your opponents with a harmless creature that will quickly grow into a brutal threat? This is Vadmir, New Blood!

We don't know where this character is from, but I can't help but to think of New Blood when I see Vadmir, New Blood. This is just a theory, but it would be interesting to see more about him in Innistrad lore.

Our goal is to win as fast as we can with commander damage. We'll grow Vadmir, New Blood when we commit crimes on other players' turns.

Vadmir, New Blood grows exponentially - our goal is to buff him with +4/+4 (four counters) every round in standard games with 4 players. Like so, we'll play him on turn 2 and then have a big threat on the board on turn 3: 6/6, Menace, Lifelink.

You'll commit a crime whenever you cast a spell, activate an ability, or put a triggered ability on the stack that targets:

An opponent;

A spell or ability controlled by an opponent;

A permanent controlled by an opponent;

or a card in an opponent's graveyard.

After you cast this spell, activate an ability, or put a triggered ability on the stack, you'll commit a crime - whether they resolve or not.

Our main criminals are Hex Parasite and Merrow Bonegnawer, whose abilities you can use, without paying anything, every turn. They're the best options for your openings. As every card that interacts directly with your opponents commits crimes, I'll list only the ones we added exclusively to do that.

They are all useful in some way, big or small, but their main role is to grow your commander.

Our mana base mostly has basic lands and some utility lands that let us commit crimes.

Our focus is synergy, so we added Arcane Lighthouse and Detection Tower. They'll let us target what we need when we wouldn't normally be able to.

Desert triggers our commander's ability on enemy turns, and also creates advantage in combats occasionally. Mystifying Maze, as it temporarily exiles specific creatures, is also a removal for Hydras, 0/0 creatures with counters, and many others.

Accelerators

To explore more synergies, we decided to add mana rocks, mana dorks, and other ways to guarantee our game plan and interact with our opponents.

Thaumatic Compass is Ixalan's Maze of Ith. Liquimetal Torque and Scuttlemutt are fascinating tools, and there is a surprising number of situations in which changing either a creature's type or color is relevant for your match.

Liliana of the Dark Realms is always a star because she creates a lot of value, is versatile, and does a lot of things. She constantly gives you mana, removes threats, or turn all your swamps into Lake of the Dead.

Vadmir, New Blood is a lifelink machine, and also an incredible card; particularly for black, which uses life as a resource quite often.

Draining life points is another way to finish matches and interact with your opponents, and also favors our synergies. However, we'll mostly use this resource to create card advantage.

Card Draw

Our commander will give us countless life points, so, we'll use them as best as we can: to draw more cards.

Keen Duelist is one of the best ways to do this. This is our mini Dark Confidant - it deals a lot of damage to our opponents, commits crimes, and also gives us extra cards. I've always liked this card, but in this deck, in particularly, it is simply incredible!

Indulgent Tormentor is a funny creature that, after a few rounds, starts drawing every turn; you better believe it, it's better than it seems. Phyrexian Arena and its sister, Eye of Vecna, show up in any black deck.

Skeletal Scrying is explosive. It is a black Braingeyser, which is perfect to get some gas or just access a mana-sink.

Recursion

Among the cards we added for recursion, we have Victimize, which returns two creatures for you for very little mana, and Writ of Return, which takes advantage of our commander's evasion to create even more advantage constantly.

The best way to commit a crime and double your value is to attack your opponent's resources. So, we use many target removals, and also some global removals that let you target something.

Target Removals

Hex Parasite simply deals with any planeswalker by devouring their loyalty counters. However, we can use it to remove any type of counter, which means we can disable lands, artifacts, some enchantments, and many others. This creature is just fantastic.

Retribution of the Ancients uses our counters to remove enemy creatures for just one black mana. Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief is a powerful creature that also removes your opponent's creatures. It's important to stress that you can pick to use these abilities and just commit crimes without destroying any permanents.

Xenic Poltergeist is one of the rare ways to deal with black artifacts. Its ability is versatile, as it makes artifact creatures vulnerable, and the other great thing about it is that, when you transform equipment, you'll unequip it.

Mass Removals

Tetzimoc, Primal Death is incredibly precise; it removes many target creatures simultaneously, and, each time you target one of them, you'll commit a crime. This means it may be a constant source of interaction with your commander for you.

Decree of Pain is quite versatile and creates resources for us if we cycle it. It is also difficult to counter because it is an ability. It's devastating against token-based decks.

Protection

Our priority is protecting our queen, well, our King in this case. This deck's greatest strength is our commander, so keeping him on the board is crucial for our victory.

Cloak and Dagger gives us more power and Shroud, and you can equip it when your commander enters play. Keep in mind that Vadmir, New Blood's ability, the one that gives you counters, doesn't target anything and isn't affected by Shroud restrictions.

Agent of the Shadow Thieves deals with the toughest defenses effortlessly, and, as we can change the color of our permanents, not even protection from black can stop us. Blessing of Leeches gives our creatures some extra life against most removals that are popular nowadays, as long as they don't involve exile. You can also use it several times on the same turn, which means you'll regenerate your creatures any time someone tries to remove them.

Other Interactions

It's tough to classify what a few of the cards we added actually do, so we decided to list them separately. Blade of the Bloodchief speeds up the pace of the game significantly; with it, you'll be able to finish the game from early to mid game with commander damage. Fireshrieker also does the same, as it boosts our commander's damage.

Mirage Mirror is incredibly versatile. It commits crimes every turn, and turns into the tool you need whenever you need, so it is simply fantastic.

This alternative list was the first version of this deck I created, and it is more thematic and less concise. Nonetheless, its game plan is strong and it has a lot of flavor.

Vadmir, New Blood is a fun, consistent commander. The fact it costs very little mana and has several abilities makes him a strong Voltron unit.

If you have a bigger budget, Vraska, Betrayal's Sting, Hatred, Agatha's Soul Cauldron, and The Ozolith are great additions. We considered using Kaervek, the Punisher, but eventually decided to create a deck entirely dedicated to him. Nonetheless, he is also a strong addition to this list because his similarities with Horobi, Death's Wail for the crime mechanic can be interesting with cards like Baton of Morale and Sorceress Queen.

Thank you for reading, and good luck!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to tell us in the comment section below! I'll try to answer everyone;