Originally, Vampires in Magic were concepted as mono-Black, with early luminaries like Sengir Vampire, Baron Sengir, and Crovax the Cursed.

With the release of 2011's Innistrad, though, Vampires branched out into Red, and the advent of Commander brought with it new roles for Vampires.

There are currently 84 Legendary Vampires in Magic, mostly in the Rakdos (/), Mardu (//), and Grixis (//) color identities.

Today, I'm going to rank the best Legendary Vampires you can rely on to be your Commander.

The Top Vampires in MTG Ranked

• 6. Lord Xander, the Collector
• 5. Verrak, Warped Sengir
• 4. Strefan, Maurer Progenitor
• 3. Anje Falkenrath
• 2. Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
• 1. Edgar Markov

Green, as you can see, very rarely gets Vampires, as they're flavored as undead creatures that selfishly feed on the living to sustain their unnatural lives. Only a couple of possible Commanders exist in Mavren and Ghalta and Rayami, First of the Fallen.

Now, let's check out the top-ranked Vampire Commanders.

6. Lord Xander, the Collector

Expensive but threatening, Lord Xander, the Collector makes enemies when he hits the board. That's okay, though, as he also strains your opponents' resources when he enters or dies. There's nothing other than Creature type that suggests a Vampire deck, but he does feel as though he's bending your opponents to his sinister will when he's on the table.

Every Vampire needs a familiar, and Xander loves Displacer Kitten more than most. Blinking the bloodsucking mafioso means another round of discards, but it will also push you up the Brackets while crowning you the archenemy, so be careful.

The best vamps for a Lord Xander deck include Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker, Szadek, Lord of Secrets, and Roaming Throne, while he also loves Bruvac the Grandiloquent, Singularity Rupture, and Spark Double.

5. Verrak, Warped Sengir

A Legendary riff on Vampire Nighthawk, Verrak, Warped Sengir is an unassuming card as a 2/2 for . In practice, though, Verrak lets you double up on any payment that requires life, which can include cards as powerful as Necropotence, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, and Warren Soultrader.

Notably, Verrak lets you double up on fetchlands. You can pay an extra one life when you crack a Marsh Flats or Prismatic Vista to skim out two Swamps or Plains from your library, thus letting Verrak serve as ramp in Orzhov (/).

Vampirically, Verrak is best friends with Vona, Butcher of Magan and Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher, who gets a counter (and counteracts the life loss) whenever you sacrifice a fetchland. Add Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz to let you benefit from all that sacrifice, and you have a potent Vampire cadre.

4. Strefan, Maurer Progenitor

A bit on the fragile side, Strefan, Maurer Progenitor ramps up in power the more pain you're able to pass out to the players at the table, including yourself. He plays a bit like recent favorite Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls but doesn't provoke the same antagonistic response as the dreaded Elder Demon.

Cards like Pestilence and Pyrohemia let Strefan make four Blood tokens per turn, and big Vampires like Necropolis Regent, Olivia, Crimson Bride, and Vein Ripper let you turn those Blood tokens into an ambush attack.

Of course, you can go a different route with Strefan, using the Blood tokens not to ramp out Vampires, but to trigger cards like Crime Novelist and Juri, Master of the Revue, or you can team him up with Anje, Maid of Dishonor or Evereth, Viceroy of Plunder to drain the table.

3. Anje Falkenrath

The headlining Commander from the Rakdos Commander 2019 deck, Anje Falkenrath does quirky things with Madness and Mayhem cards. She was printed before Mayhem existed, of course, so she won't untap when you cast a card with Mayhem, but she's excellent at the head of a discard-themed Vampire deck.

Luckily, between Blood tokens and Anje's ability, you'll find plenty of ways to discard cards for value, and you get to run Cool but Rude, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Monument to Endurance, Gamble, and Glint-Horn Buccaneer.

Anje's favorite Vampires include Asylum Visitor, Ivora, Insatiable Heir, Anje's Ravager, and Bloodhall Priest, while fellow undead (but not Nosferatu-style undead) Bone Miser lets you get additional value from the cards you discard to feed Anje.

2. Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose

Restricting yourself to mono-Black is tough when there are so many Red, White, and Blue Vampires, but Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose rewards your devotion. Forming a combo with Exquisite Blood and any way to gain a single point of life or serving up a single-player death ray with Blood Tribute, Vito is a feared Commander. Add Sanguine Bond and Bloodthirsty Conqueror for redundancy, and you have the core of a very on-theme Vampire drain deck.

Vito is both feared and hated, though, so if you reveal him from the Command Zone, you'll earn a target on your back, but mono-Black can handle the heat with mass removal. Secrets of Strixhaven's Withering Curse, for example, holds off any swarms and interacts well with Vito himself.

1. Edgar Markov

No surprise here. Vampires are clustered in the Mardu triad, and Edgar Markov lets you use the best Vampires from all three of those colors and rewards you for embracing typal strategies. For years, he was one of the priciest Commanders, clocking in at above $100 at his peak before a reprint in Innistrad Remastered.

Edgar may now be a fraction of that price, but he's lost none of his potency. He enables a swarm of Vampire tokens with Ixalan favorites like Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle and Clavileno, First of the Blessed while ensuring you can produce an undead army while he's still in the Command Zone.

Edgard rewards you for locking into Vampires, builds your army without risking himself, and ends the game in short order when he finally arrives, all of which adds up to a supremely dominant Commander.

Dishonorable Mentions

Thirty-three years' worth of Legendary Vampires means they can't all be winners. Homelands' Irini Sengir, fun vintage Venters art aside, is a real nadir for the bloodsuckers, and Valentin, Dean of the Vein is frustrating for being an interesting card that can't be run in 98% of Vampire decks, as his fused counterpart, Lisette, Dean of the Root, grants him a Golgari (/) color identity.

The remaining 82 Legendary Vampires vary in playability. Baron Sengir and Shauku, the Endbringer were exciting thirty years ago, but you'll rarely find them included in Vampire decks today. While I celebrate the entire panoply of Vampires, today, we'll be focusing on the top Legendary Vampires to lead Commander decks.

Conclusion

There's security in Vampires. They've been part of Magic since the beginning and are a preexisting fantasy concept that still plays well in the modern era. They're also adaptable to various Magic settings: some Vampires are feral and primal, as on Zendikar, some are elegant and civilized, as on Innistrad, and some are fully assimilated into society, as on Ravnica.

Really, the only issue with building a Vampire Commander deck is cutting yourself down to 99 cards. There are 421 Vampires legal to play in Commander and even restricting them to a Mardu or Grixis identity still leaves you with hundreds of possible picks.

Start with your preferred playstyle and find a color combination that works for it. Interested in combo decks? Look into Vito. Love aggressive rush decks? Edgar is there for you, along with his field Commanders Stromkirk Captain and Legion Lieutenant.

For a truly unexpected Vampire deck, go with Ghalta and Mavren and swarm the board with innumerable tokens.

To help narrow it down, the list of essential Vampire cards I wouldn't leave the crypt or casket without including Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Stensian Sanguinist, Emeritus of Woe, Cordial Vampire, and Captivating Vampire.

It's hard to imagine a Magic without Vampires. They've been here since Alpha but didn't fully come into their own until midway through the game's history. Here's hoping for another fifteen years of feral sanguiphages and seductive nobles and countless Commander games won by a massive Flying Edgar Markov.