Bloodline Keeper – Innistrad Remastered
Date Reviewed: January 21, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 2.50
Casual: 5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 4.13
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
I’ve been saying things like this a lot recently, but the original Innistrad set is now as long ago from now as Tempest was from original Innistrad. It feels like much less because the set was so incredibly popular, and has done so much to shape the Magic eras that came after it. Consider how it reintroduced flashback to modern Magic, setting the mechanic on a path to becoming pseudo-evergreen. Consider how it ramped up the concept of top-down design and theme-based sets, which now describe the majority of releases. Consider even something as simple as how many people’s cubes use humans and vampires as major kindred themes.
And even a colossus like Edgar Markov owes surprisingly much to a now much older card like Bloodline Keeper. Long before Commander was the thing it is now, this card was already generating swarms of vampires that blot out the sky, and while it’s notably slower than the would-be lord of Innistrad, it provides attackers, blockers, and fodder that an opponent can’t keep up with unless they answer the Keeper. It is just as well that it’s easy to answer, because there is sometimes no coming back from the game states it can generate, especially once it transforms into a Glorious Anthem variant.
Am I the only one who looks at this art and hears the music from the first level of the original Castlevania for NES?
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Bloodline Keeper is a scary sort of creature if it’s left to entrench itself. A free 2/2 each turn is quite nice, and while it doesn’t flip immediately, Lord of Lineage provides a massive buff to Vampires. That free Vampire each turn adds up, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that it goes infinite with Intruder Alarm (which is fun). Anything that repeatedly generates tokens is quite a threat, and Bloodline Keeper’s affordable cost gives it a good place in the mid-end Vampire decks it often will sit atop of. It is fragile before it flips, but the flip trigger is instant speed, and 5 toughness can help it duck around a lot of things that might otherwise present a problem.
Constructed: 2.5 (bit too slow to get going, and too fragile in most board states)
Casual: 5
Limited: 5 (it got upshifted for a reason)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4.25
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Magic the Gathering Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We would be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
