The 16 Best Vampire Lords in Magic Ranked

Vampire Nocturnus | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

Creatures of the night like vampires are inherently powerful; they often boast superhuman reflexes and strength, and those who prowl the shadows of Magic’s planes and cards are no different. Vampires have plenty of history in Magic, and abundant support.

A significant portion of that support comes from lords, creatures that enhance the vampires you control with power, keywords, and other boons. Vampire lords are often the backbone of the vampire deck, and they make a collection of cards into a lethal attack force. But which are the best?

What Are Vampire Lords in MTG?

Bloodlord of Vaasgoth | Illustration by Greg Staples

Vampire lords in MTG are creatures that make your vampires better in some way. Traditionally, this would be with a simple anthem effect, but this list goes further than a mere +1/+1 to the vampire lords that give your team keywords and other benefits, including +1/+1 counters.

#16. Order of Sacred Dusk

It feels strange to give your vampires exalted. While undoubtedly powerful, it feels counter-intuitive since vampire decks generally go wide. Still, Order of Sacred Dusk has haste, and you probably need to tap your whole team to convoke it, so you always get one good hit in thanks to exalted.

#15. Crossway Troublemakers

Crossway Troublemakers is fairly narrow since it only boosts attacking vampires, but it hits pretty hard. Lifelink helps you to stabilize, which you need by the time you land a 6-mana threat, and team-wide deathtouch makes blocking a nightmare. Toss in a powerful death trigger that rewards trading in combat or that helps to rebuild after a board wipe, and you have a decent, if expensive threat.

#14. Rakish Heir

Rakish Heir is a little different than your average lord since it doesn’t provide keywords or a direct anthem, but giving your vampires counters when they connect fills the same role of enhancing your bloodsuckers. It’s a big ask to require your vampire to connect, however, and it sucks that they don’t reap the rewards of the counter until the turn after that… on the flipside, those counters stick around long after Rakish Heir eats a removal spell.

#13. Thirsting Bloodlord

Thirsting Bloodlord is your cookie-cutter lord. Pay some mana, get an anthem for your vampires. It’s fine and it’s playable, but there are many better options than this.

#12. Vampire Socialite

Vampire Socialite is basically a cheaper version of Rakish Heir with a far easier bar to clear to receive its +1/+1 counters. You don’t even need to attack to enable the Socialite; a bit of direct damage from Creeping Bloodsucker or Impact Tremors lets your vampires become much stronger.

#11. Death-Priest of Myrkul

Death-Priest of Myrkul tacks additional text to Thirsting Bloodlord, which is all it takes to make it a much more interesting card. The Death-Priest itself might not be a vampire, but I wouldn’t be embarrassed to run it. Squeezing out a few tokens with sacrifice outlets gives your vampire deck an aristocratic spin that lets you draw on ample black synergies.

#10. Falkenrath Gorger

Falkenrath Gorger doesn’t add to your vampires on the board, but rather in your hand. Vampires, especially in Rakdos (), often dabble with madness synergies. You don’t get a mana discount from the Gorger, but it allows you to ignore timing restrictions, which effectively gives all your vampires flash.

#9. Bloodlord of Vaasgoth

Bloodlord of Vaasgoth makes all your other vampires fantastic threats. Bloodthirst is easy to enable, so you can often count on this creature to be a 6/6 flying monster that enables bloodthirst for all your other vampires—after they receive it from this lord, of course. It’s an excellent threat, tempered only by the delay in its power boost.

#8. Vampire Nocturnus

Vampire Nocturnus might have the most potential of any vampire lord. Two power and flying to all your vampires is incredibly impactful, and it ends the game in a flash.

But the anthem depends on the top of your deck. That’s fine in mono-black, but the best vampire commanders these days include red, white, or both, and you can just brick. A lord you can nullify by cracking a fetch is rather dicey.

#7. Bloodline Keeper / Lord of Lineage

Bloodline Keeper needs a little work to become the lord, but Lord of Lineage is worth it. +2/+2 for your team swings most games in your favor, especially since Bloodline Keeper provides a board of tokens for the Lord to enhance. It’s a one-card army if you have the time to invest into it.

#6. Edgar, Charmed Groom / Edgar Markov’s Coffin

Edgar, Charmed Groom has fine stats, but it’s an exciting lord because it doesn’t die. Unless an opponent exiles it, Edgar simply retreats into Edgar Markov's Coffin to rebuild for a few turns before waking up again. This works particularly well in Commander since it rebuilds your board after the inevitable sweeper.

#5. Markov Baron

Cheap cards with convoke are always handy because they often cost little to nothing; you only need three creatures for Markov Baron to be free. You can even play a free lord at instant speed with madness, which vampire decks often dabble in! All that is excellent value considering that a 3-mana lord would be playable with little extra text.

#4. Legion Lieutenant

Legion Lieutenant stands out for its low mana cost. Vampire lords don’t get cheaper than this without strings attached, like Vampire Socialite. This one’s just a 2-mana Glorious Anthem that works within all your synergies, and it’s worth playing if your deck already has white in it.

#3. Stromkirk Captain

Stromkirk Captain provides tons of aggressive power. Lords are generally aggressive because turning your creatures sideways is the best way to exploit a power buff, but first strike kicks it up a notch because it makes blocking hard on your opponents. If you can give your vamps deathtouch with Order of Sacred Dusk or a more general deathtouch enabler, your opponents simply can’t interact in combat.

#2. Captivating Vampire

Captivating Vampire provides two angles of attack for your vampire deck. You get the traditional power boost for when you’re ahead, but the second ability gives you something to do with your vampires if you end up in a board stall or if attacking for a bunch of damage isn’t worth letting your opponent control a nasty threat. Note that this isn’t a Control Magic effect that goes away when Captivating Vampire dies; if that ability resolves, the creature is yours to keep.

#1. Edgar Markov

Edgar Markov might be the best vampire in the game, at least as far as Commander is concerned. You get a power boost whenever it attacks or enters in the form of +1/+1 counters, but the real charm is that it staples a free token onto every vampire you cast. It elevates every vampire you play with board presence, which makes many of the other vampire lords stronger because they have more creatures to pump. You really can’t go wrong with this in the command zone; which other lord makes your cards better without the need to cast it?

Wrap Up

Legion Lieutenant | Illustration by Zezhou Chen

Vampire lords are pretty diverse, and they offer everything from the traditional +1/+1 to extra creatures and ways around timing restrictions. However you leverage them, they make your night-clad army much, much stronger.

What’s your favorite vampire lord? How many colors do you think is best for a vampire EDH deck? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord.

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!