Minor Vampire
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Artist's Comment
"This is totally one of my pet projects - I have always loved the Vampire's game mechanics, and the Spore art just never quite did it any justice. I tried to get this guy in a nice and gloomy light, and I think that's working out quite well for him! There's been a lot of revisions to him before he came to where he's at now, though - I feel the original ones may well have been just a tad too gory. Oh, and there's also a Twilight-friendly version out there : " -vrt
Card Description & Usage
Quick Facts:
- Using Liquid Shadow on Vampire will only poison it, because Vampire is already vampiric.
- Vampire + Antimatter = Ouch. Vampire heals you for the amount equal to its ATK, so if its ATK is negative, it damages you. There are decks based around Antimatter and Liquid Shadow, turning enemy creatures vampiric then inverting their ATK.
- You'll only receive healing if Vampire attacks successfully. So, if the attack is blocked and doesn't go through, you get nothing.
Ah, the Vampire. The being of Darkness that drains the lifeblood of others to strengthen itself. All damage dealt by Vampire is returned to you as healing, making it a great tool to get Elemental Mastery.
Like some of the other Darkness cards, Vampire weakens your opponent and strengthens yourself at the same time. It steals your opponent's HP and heals you, a perfect example of Darkness's play style. What makes this creature better than others is its advantage: damaging for 2 and healing for 2 means a net advantage of 4; upgraded, damaging and healing for 4 is a net gain of 8.
By itself, the Vampire doesn't look like much; you may think that only 2 damage and heal is insignificant. Sure, it's cheap, but even with 6 of them they're not very effective. If that's what you think, then you're indeed very, very wrong. You should know that when a Vampire is buffed and its ATK increased, the healing given to you is increased as well. If you use Blessing on a Minor Vampire twice, then you will have an impressive 8/8 creature that heals you for 8 HP per turn! This alone makes Vampire very useful, as it can be buffed to increase its healing potential.
Because it requires buffing by other cards to truly shine, Vampire is a card that synergizes with many other cards. When combined with the following cards, it can be very powerful:
Fractal | Fractal
Fractal creates copies of the target creature in your hand until your hand is completely filled. You need to pay the quanta costs to summon those duplicated creatures, so creatures with low cost work best with Fractal. Minor Vampire has a cost of 3 
, which fits in this low-cost range quite nicely; the upgraded Vampire is twice as powerful and more expensive, but it could still work. If you manage to generate a swarm of Vampires, you will receive massive amounts of healing each turn, easily getting Elemental Mastery.
Adrenaline | Epinephrine
Adrenaline is nifty but complex little spell that allows a creature to attack and use passive abilities multiple times per turn; smaller creatures gain more additional attacks. By itself Vampire has very low ATK, so it will attack multiple times when Adrenaline is cast on it. For Minor Vampire, it will attack four times, dealing 2+2+2+2 damage, which is in total 8; for the upgraded Vampire, it will attack three times, dealing 4+3+2 damage, which is equal to 9. A single use of Adrenaline is able to transform Vampire from a weak 2-attacker to a whopping 8-attacker, which is very powerful.
Blessing | Improved Blessing
Blessing is a buffing spell that gives the target creature +3/+3. Obviously, it can be used to buff Vampires to make their ATK stronger, and thus giving greater heal. Now, you may think that Adrenaline is better because it gives a greater buff, but that's not necessarily true; Adrenaline does not increase the HP of the creature, but Blessing increases Vampire's HP so that it is less vulnerable to creature control.
Nightfall | Eclipse
Nightfall is an unique global effect permanent that gives all Darkness and Death creatures +1/+1; Eclipse gives +2/+1. Vampire is a Darkness creature, so it can be used in combination with this card. Unlike other buffing cards, which only apply to individual Vampires, Nightfall gives all Vampires on the field a buff. This can be especially useful, when you have lots of Vampires on the field.
