The Lost Caverns Of Ixalan Blood Rites Commander Deck Guide

Vampires are already one of Magic: The Gathering’s most fearsome creature types, but what if you could turn your relatively fragile Vampires into bloodthirsty Demons? That’s the plan with Clavileño, First of the Blessed, a holy cleric who recognizes the shortcomings of fangs and replaces them with wings and claws.

The Blood Rites deck is all about Vampire swarms that become far more deadly Demons after they attack. With a few budget upgrades, we can even enhance those vampires to come back again and again, providing Clavileño with a never-ending supply of vampires to turn into Demons. Read on to discover how.

Blood Rides Commander Deck List

Here’s the full Blood Rites deck list broken down by card type.

Blood Rites Commander Deck Key Themes

The most obvious theme for Blood Rites is Vampires. You have cards that make lots of Vampire tokens (like March of the Canonized, Mavren Fein, Charismatc Conqueror, and Sorin), cards that make Vampires bigger (like Legion Lieutenant, Etchings of the Chosen, and Radiant Destiny), as well as cards to keep your Vampires in play (like Timothar, Kindred Boon, and Dusk Legion Lieutenant).

From this solid core of Vampires comes several potential commanders. Clavileño, First of the Blessed offers a consistent bonus to your Vampires by potentially turning any of your smaller Vampires (or Vampire tokens) into 4/3 flying Demons. On top of that, every Vampire that makes the transition (by dying) also draws you a card.

All that Clavileño needs is a consistent way of offing his own Vampires once they’ve attacked. Blocking opponents is one method, but it might not necessarily result in a dead Vampire. Luckily, Blood Rites has plenty of sacrifice outlets, such as Viscera Seer, Master of Dark Rites, Indulgent Aristrocrat, Bartolome del Presidio, and Etchings of the Chosen.

Clavileño‘s ability doesn’t end after the attack. So long as the Vampire attacks once, Clavileño can bestow his Demon curse, and then that Vampire becomes a potential sacrifice outlet.

Blood Rites next most potent commander is Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher. Although more expensive at five mana, Carmen arguably offers the most potential by growing with every sacrifice you or an opponent makes. On top of that, she reanimates a permanent every time she attacks too.

While Carmen is undeniably powerful, she’d benefit more from a deck that’s primarily focused on causing players to sacrifice cards and not necessarily a Vampire-themed token deck. For this reason, we’re going to stick with Clavileño as our commander for Blood Rites as he’s just a better overall fit.

Our other potential commanders are Bartolome del Presidio, Elenda, the Dusk Rose, and Vona, Butcher of Magan. Elenda isn’t a bad alternative to Clavileño, but the other two aren’t the best fit for the rest of Blood Rites cards.

Blood Rites Commander Deck Analysis

Typal decks live and die on their typing, so you’ll be happy to note that all 36 (including the commander) creatures in Blood Rites are Vampires. There’s also a good number of removal spells (eight if you include several Vampires), board clears (Damn, Austere Command, and Olivia’s Wrath), and ramp (eight with Master of Dark Rites).

Clavileño provides this deck with built-in card draw, which means the deck can afford to be light on sources of draw. Champion of Dusk, Village Rites, Pact of the Serpent, and Welcoming Vampire provide decent supplemental card draw to go along with everything you draw from Clavileño.

It seems a shame to be running black without much in terms of reanimation. Redemption Choir and Bloodline Necromancer help a bit, but we’ll be looking into ways of bringing back sacrificed Vampires for Clavileño to sacrifice again.

Oathsworn Vampire is a fantastic card to sacrifice for Clavileño thanks to its ability to be played from the graveyard. We’ll be looking at adding another card like this in the budget upgrades section.

Underperforming Cards

There are quite a few cards in Blood Rites that are just not worth the mana investment. Cards like Sanctum Seeker, Bloodtracker, Timothar, and Glass-Cut Heart are all either slow effects that require multiple turns to pay off, cost way too much mana for too little effect, or both.

Nighthawk Scavenger isn’t a bad card, per se, but it doesn’t do much more than offer deathtouch in the late game. Martyr of Dusk and Dusk Legion Zealot are likewise poor late-game draws, and Radiant Destiny offers less than Legion Lieutenant overall.

Order of Sacred Dusk also isn’t bad on its own, but in a deck that wants to swing with an army of Vampires and Demons, exalted isn’t exactly a great keyword to give the team.

Blood Rites Commander Deck Budget Upgrades

With 12 cards removed, our replacements are going to offer more efficient reanimation, a few interesting new synergies, and a bit more flexibility to deal with threats as they emerge.

Other Budget Upgrades To Consider

Vraan, Executioner Thane is generally just a better Blood Artist and would be a strict upgrade. Generous Gift, Stroke of Midnight, and Fracture are great removal spells that could replace Utter End or Return to Dust.

Vanquish the Horde is better than Olivia’s Wrath as there are times when you’ll want to clear the board but you don’t have enough Vampires in play to do it. And finally, Caves of Koilos is a cheap pain land that could easily replace a swamp or plains.