I'm used to thinking of vampires as relatively
solitary creatures, as they often were in
various other settings (Dracula comes to mind).
Then again, a lot of other settings have
developed the idea of vampires as a society, a
twisted dark reflection of human society. If
Olivia Voldaren is that society's queen on
Innistrad, Bloodline Keeper is its field
marshal: the one who bears the unglamorous but
necessary continuous ability that transforms
vampire decks from a collection of powerful
creatures into an unstoppable army of the night.
Yes, five vampires is a lot to keep on the field
at any one time, but the payoff is worth it, and
even if he doesn't flip, any time he gets to put
tokens into play, you come out ahead. I could
see him being adopted even in competitive games,
as black decks will surely be tempted to be on
the right side of Elspeth's ability. And the art
is even more gothic than the rest of this gothic
set.
Today's card of the day is Bloodline Keeper
which is a four mana Black
3/3 vampire with Flying that can tap to put a
2/2 vampire token with Flying into play and for
one Black can transform into Lord of Lineage if
you control five or more vampires. Lord of
Lineage is a 5/5 with Flying with the same tap
ability and gives other vampires you control
+2/+2.
Four mana is reasonable for a 3/3 with Flying,
though the effects make this an excellent
addition to an existing theme or can be used in
nearly any Black deck that can benefit from a
Flying aspect. Vampires have been making
for strong decks in recent sets and this
definitely continues that trend, which should
promote competitive play for the foreseeable
future.
In Limited both Flying and Token generation are
game-winning effects and both in a single card
that also has Flying is one of the easiest first
picks possible. The double Black is a
small concern out of four mana, but that is not
going to overwhelm the threat of a Flying swarm.
Unless your Sealed pool of Black cards is
terrible this almost demands to be played and
even if not running Black in Booster this has to
be drafted to prevent others from playing it
against you. Easily one of the best
creatures in the set for Limited and should not
be overlooked.
Welcome to the Pojo.com Card of the Day
section. We are looking at Bloodline Keeper/Lord
of Lineage today. The Bloodline Keeper is a rare
creature vampire that costs two generic and two
black mana, and is a 3/3. Bloodline Keeper has
flying and allows you to tap it to put a 2/2
Vampire creature token into play. Then Bloodline
Keeper says that you may pay one black mana to
transform him, only if you have five or more
vampires in play. Bloodline Keeper then becomes
Lord of Lineage. A 5/5 flier that gives all
other vampires +2/+2, and still allows you to
tap to put a vampire token into play that is a
2/2.
No doubt one of the best cards from Innistrad in
my opinion. When looked at in limited it is easy
to see why it benefits people to try and draft
this and Parallel Lives. The fact that you would
be producing tons of vampire token in no time
flat makes it an obvious choice above and beyond
Limited, Constructed decks are begging for this
card to be toyed with. Designing a Jund Vampire
deck could very easily play out with the new
cards in Innistrad that are red, and of course
the token production is aided by many cards in
green. However, you could also just as simply go
black and white, or mono-black. The new vampires
tie in quite nicely with those from Zendikar,
and have the makings for some serious power.
Let us not also forget the card from New Phyrxia that
helps this card out very much, Xenograft.
Choosing Vampires would make all of your
creatures Vampires, which should allow the
transform ability to go off even faster, and
then the pump ability would benefit all of your
creatures.
Four mana for such a creature is a bargain, yet
many people are hesitant because of the cost. I
would have expected something this amazing to be
five or six mana at the very least.
