I have two goals for today’s article. One is that I’d like to give you a comprehensive Deck Guide for the Standard deck I chose to register for the Streets of New Capenna Set Championship, Grixis Vampires. The other is that I’d like to offer some insight into the process through which a new deck idea can be honed into something that 12 players choose to play in one of the most important tournaments of the year!

If you’d like to start from an earlier point in my New Capenna brewing process, check out these previous articles. 

New Capenna Standard Brew - Riveeter Vivien Pod!

Reid’s starting his Standard brews with what he knows best, tapping into Jund for some toolbox options with Riveteer Vivien Pod!

New Capenna Standard Brew - Riveteer Treasures

With more spoilers revealed, Reid’s redoing his Riveteer brew, this time focusing on making max profit with Standard Riveteer Treasures!

New Capenna Standard Brew - Riveteers Fight Rigging

Fight Rigging is almost as good as Luminarch Aspirant in Standard, and even has the potential to just kill opponents out of nowhere!

New Capenna Brews - RB Vampires with Evelyn

Vampires never managed to catch on during Crimson Vow Standard, but Evelyn and Ob Nixilis from New Capenna may help change that!

New Capenna Brews - Standard Grixis Vampires and Reviews

The Ob Nixilis menace has hit Standard, and Reid’s brewing with (and against) it with some of his old decks and a new Grixis Vampires list!

Here’s one of the first things I posted in our team’s Discord channel, shortly after the new set was released.

My personal process was centered around the red and black cards from Streets of New Capenna, originally working a lot with Riveteers Charm, Strangle and Ob Nixilis, the Adversary. As a team, we played a bunch with Riveteers Midrange and Riveteers Treasures, plus revisited Fight Rigging alongside Ziatora, the Incinerator and Valki, God of Lies. 

Teammate Raphael Levy even landed on Riveteers Treasures for the Championship, and I was inches away from choosing it myself, right up until the deck submission deadline!

However, instead of Strangle, Charm and Ob Nixilis, the cards that wound up surviving our rigorous testing process were Corpse Appraiser and Evelyn, the Covetous. 

Appraiser is the perfect three-drop. It gives you a relevant body, digs you towards removal spells or more action, fills your graveyard for later use and even provides graveyard hate against annoying creatures like Kami of Transience, Tenacious Underdog and Malevolent Hermit. 

Crucially, Appraiser is awesome with Reflection of Kiki-Jiki. This pairing represents a way to lock up the game against removal-light decks like Runes. 

Evelyn caught my eye right away, since long-term value cards like this always appeal to me. That said, with powerful five-drop options like Goldspan Dragon, Elspeth Resplendent and Lier, Disciple of the Drowned to compete with, I didn’t have a lot of hope that she’d pass the high bar for competitive tournament play. 

However, it turned out that Evelyn was hitting the format just right, being immune to Vanishing Verse and with five toughness allowing her to dodge Voltage Surge, Dragon’s Fire and The Meathook Massacre. You can easily work around The Wandering Emperor by declining to attack, and she can successfully block commonly-played threats like Esika’s Chariot. 

Evelyn was the secret weapon we needed to get an edge in black midrange mirror matches, which we expected to be a key to succeeding at the Championship. 

Here’s where I settled, with most of my teammates being just a small handful of cards different.