Rotation is nearly upon us. The farewell tour for Scars of Mirrodin and M12 is underway even as the excitement and hype of a new set steadily increases. The days of endlessly refreshing our favorite spoiler site are upon us and there is the promise of new cards, new decks and a new standard coming soon.
Return to Ravnica cards are the new shiny, but there are also existing cards that will rise from obscurity and become some of the best cards of the new format. Oliva Voldaren is one such card.
Olivia Voldaren has seen some play in Standard already, Patrick Chapin was an early proponent and included her in his Grixis Control deck. More recently she has appeared in some Reanimator lists as an additional threat.
A threat she is. At four mana she enters the game and presents an immediate airborne clock that becomes more formidable with additional mana investment. She drinks the blood of opposing creatures and either tosses their lifeless form aside or leaves them…transformed.
For 1R Olivia can do 1 damage to another creature and turn that creature into a vampire. Awesome flavor and a useful ability, she can one shot mana dorks, chump blockers, wizards who delve into secrets but have yet to find any, souls that linger, and many other currently playable creatures. Return to Ravnica is poised to add to the buffet with what is shaping up to be a very interesting and highly playable cycle of hybrid one drops, including Dryad Militant and Judge’s Familiar.
As Olivia dines she gains +1/+1 counters and becomes an even bigger aerial attacker. Her second ability is to turn opposing vampires, whether of her making or not, into thralls to do her bidding. For 3BB you can gain control of another Vampire as long as Olivia is around to keep them in line.
With enough mana at your disposal Olivia can take over a game: killing blockers, stealing creatures, and growing in size before serenely floating over to dispatch your opponent. Return to Ravnica holds considerable promise for Olivia. The red and black Cult of Rakdos is back, one of five guilds taking center stage in the first set of the block.
The Right Deck
Where does Olivia belong? Reanimation strategies will be around after rotation. Those lists will play black for [card]Unburial Rites[/card] and [card]Griselbrand[/card] and many will play red for [card]Faithless Looting[/card]. Olivia has a lot to offer that type of deck and can play a strong supporting role. I don’t want her to simply be a role-player however; she deserves to be a star.
Olivia is well suited to anchor a midrange control deck. If successfully built, this deck will rely on creature removal to get through the early game and fend off later threats, start dropping its own threats on turn 4, and then leverage a large mana pool to keep casting creatures and direct damage spells to close out games.
Attrition and Answers
The best way for a red and black deck to interact with an opponent and thwart their game plan is through creature removal. We will want to employ both sweepers and single target removal.
Dreadbore, a Return to Ravnica card in Rakdos colors, is a new single target option and a selling point for this deck:
Dreadbore BR
Sorcery
Destroy target creature or planeswalker
This card has been a long time coming and is very powerful. The ability to handle any creature or planeswalker for two mana is something we want. We’re definitely playing it.
As for other single target options, [card]Pillar of Flame[/card] will continue to answer creatures you don’t want hitting the graveyard, [card]Geralf’s Messenger[/card], [card]Gravecrawler[/card] and [card]Strangleroot Geist[/card] for example. [card]Searing Spear[/card], [card]Brimstone Volley[/card] and [card]Flames of the Firebrand[/card] are all potential options based on what creatures need burning.
We will need more certain removal for big creatures that are out of reach of burn spells. Dreadbore is great but a sorcery, we 
want an instant speed companion. [card]Murder[/card] is the best current option, but a 1B replacement for [card]Doom Blade[/card] and [card]Go for the Throat[/card] coming out of Return to Ravnica would be better. The spoiling of Abrupt Decay (BG) and Supreme Verdict (UW) alongside our own Dreadbore (BR) make me think that removal is going to come in the form of guild themed gold cards in this block, so we may not get it.
This deck will also need an early game sweeper, like the rotating [card]Whipflare[/card] and [card]Slagstorm[/card], to combat fast starts by aggro decks and reset creature based ramp strategies. [card]Bonfire of the Damned[/card] is certainly worth playing, but without mana dorks and a miracle it is not as good early and more of a later game sweeper and reach card for us. [card]Rolling Temblor[/card] is potentially playable, but it costs three for 2 damage and whiffs against Insectile Aberration and spirit tokens. [card]Cower in Fear[/card] is instant speed and one-sided, but it also costs three and won’t sweep away two toughness creatures. A reprint of [card]Pyroclasm[/card] would be perfect. Add that to Olivia’s Return to Ravnica wish list.
Another answer card in Rakdos colors was recently spoiled by Manadeprived.com:
Slaughter Games 2BR
Sorcery
Slaughter Games can’t be countered by spells or abilities.
Name a nonland card. Search target opponent’s graveyard, hand, and library for any number of cards with that name and exile them. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
Alex Hayne’s ManaD article does a great job discussing this card and I recommend you read it. Slaughter Games will be in our sideboard and will be sided in to handle threats and problem cards other than creatures and planeswalkers. The fact that we know it will resolve is a key to its playability.
Friends in High Places
Olivia is the centerpiece of our deck and the mistress in charge of its stable of creatures. On either side of her on the curve sit 
two creatures that fit perfectly into this deck:
You can’t ask for much more at three mana than [card]Vampire Nighthawk[/card]. He is an all-star blocker, a [card]Murder[/card] with wings, but much more than that. He can be an aggressive and evasive attacker. The lifelink is significant and helps stabilize against and then outrace more aggressive decks.
[card]Thundermaw Hellkite[/card] will make its presence felt in standard and should be a strong partner for Olivia. A 5/5 flier for 5 mana is a serious threat and win condition. The enter the battlefield ability paves the way for Olivia and the Nighthawk to attack unopposed by tapping down potential blockers. The one damage puts Olivia 1R away from consuming a pesky Insectile Aberration or other x/2 flier.
I consider these three to be the blue chip creatures for the deck, but there are other options worthy of consideration:
[card]Bloodline Keeper[/card] takes our deck a little bit tribal. He is a relevant attacker that could get ridiculous if he flips, not impossible with a host of other vampires in the deck. Olivia can aid his cause by using her 1R ability on your own creatures, making your [card]Thundermaw Hellkite[/card] a 7/7 vampire dragon with a Lord of Lineage (flipped Keeper) in play. He also creates 2/2s and only costs 4 mana.
[card]Bloodgift Demon[/card] is a 5/4 flier for 3BB who trades you one life for one extra card during each upkeep: non-negotiable.
[card]Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis[/card] is a 5/5 flying with exalted for 4BB. The turn he is played he can grant Olivia or a Hellkite a +1/+1 through exalted. In later turns he can swing alone as a 6/6 and force your opponent to sacrifice a creature.
Carnival Hellsteed from Return to Ravnica is another option:
Carnival Hellsteed 4BR
Creature – Nightmare Horse
5/4 first strike, hasteUnleash (You may have this creature enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. It can’t block as long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Unleash is the Rakdos mechanic in Return to Ravnica and it seems fairly good. I probably want my six drop to be swinging instead of blocking and a 6/5 first strike bashing in the turn it is played is good.
This steed does not have flying, sadly, and evasion is important in this deck. We want to fly over blockers and outclass or remove any flying creatures on our opponent’s side of the battlefield. Still, this steed may be worth a look.
The Reach of Flames
This deck will need to generate a lot of mana to win. That mana can be poured into a game changing inferno like [card]Bonfire of the Damned[/card] or a game ending blast like [card]Devil’s Play[/card].
[card]Bonfire of the Damned[/card] will serve as a late game sweeper and direct damage spell and will do so well.
[card]Devil’s Play[/card] is a way to finish off our opponent in the late game when we can put quite a bit of mana into X. It can serve as scalable creature removal in a pinch and can be used with little remorse due to the option to flash it back later.
A third option for reach, coupled with hand disruption, is Rakdos’s Return:
Rakdos’s Return XBR
Sorcery
Rakdos’s Return deals X damage to target opponent. That player discards X cards.
This Return to Ravnica spoiler could have a home in this deck. It can’t target a creature, but does present an opportunity to put your opponent in top deck mode if you can cast it early enough.
More Mana
This deck wants a large reservoir of mana to fuel Olivia’s abilities and to cast its creatures and game ending sorceries. [card]Gilded Lotus[/card] helps this plan considerably and can really put a [card]Bonfire of the Damned[/card] or [card]Devil’s Play[/card] over the top by adding RRR.
Chromatic Lantern from Return to Ravnica will help as well:
Chromatic Lantern 3
Artifact
Lands you control have “T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool”
T: add one mana of any color to your mana pool
Not only does it provide one extra mana of any color, but it makes all our lands equal, ensuring we always have the color we need.
Putting it All Together
It is a little early to know exactly what removal cards will be most useful in the coming standard, and there are a couple gaps in our plan, mainly a low cost sweeper. Regardless, here is a decklist to start off with:
[Deck title=”The Cult of Olivia by Nick Vigabool (Future Standard)”]
[Creatures]
*4 Vampire Nighthawk
*3 Bloodline Keeper
*3 Olivia Voldaren
*4 Thundermaw Hellkite
*2 Bloodgift Demon
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*2 Bonfire of the Damned
*2 Devil’s Play
*3 Pillar of Flame
*4 Dreadbore
*3 Murder
*3 Chromatic Lantern
*2 Gilded Lotus
[/Spells]
[Lands]
*4 Blood Crypt
*4 Dragonskull Summit
*8 Mountain
*9 Swamp
[/Lands]
[/Deck]
I’m anxiously awaiting the Rakdos Charm, additional removal options in red and black, and other cards to complement Olivia. I’m also interested to hear what you think of this deck and this column in general. Leave a comment and let me know!
Nick Vigabool (@MrVigabool)