Vampire Deacon Frost: Decks & Tips for the New Card
The season has all been building towards this! There's been a lot of Power stealing going on this season, but the card that binds it all together has been saved for the final week! Have enough Power thieves and Vampire Deacon Frost transforms into the Crimson Behemoth and steals even more Power! Here's everything I want to try with Deacon Frost!
How Does He Work
You need to have three separate cards on board that have added Power that was stolen from opposing cards. Once this condition has been fulfilled, he'll transform into the Crimson Behemoth. Similar to En Sabah Nur, once tranformed, the new card will then perform its on reveal if it is able. Most cards are susceptible to tech to various degrees, but VDF even more-so as Cosmo, Luke Cage, Cosmic Ghost Rider, and plenty of others can spoil the fun of this very face-up card.
Cards to Reach the Behemoth
We only need 3 cards with stolen Power on board, but how many reliable options do we need to include in a deck? Surely packing just 3 is cutting it too close, but can we get away with 4? Do we need 5? Could we plan on copied cards to get us over the hump?
Best Partners
Silver Sable is the cheapest way to steal Power, while the two new Vampires have each proven powerful even before the release of Deacon Frost. I expect all three of these to be in most Deacon Frost decks, with Vampire Killmonger being basically an auto-inclusion due to his Cost and scaling potential.
Other Cards that Steal
I think it's unlikely that a powerful deck will be found that relies on Scream, but technically the pieces are there with fellow movement-adjacent cards Rocket & Groot and Spider-Punk – both of whom are good enough to be at the top of our list for additional stealers. Cassandra Nova, Dragon of the Moon, and Laufey are very reliable and will be in the mix as well. Boomerang is an interesting consideration that I'm curious to play around with more, but Selene and Dormammu feel like they'll be passed over like Scream.
Softer Synergies
One of the trickier aspects of Deacon Frost's consistency is what to do when our opponent only has low-Power targets in the front row. There is an argument to be made that it doesn't much matter – even if you just hit a 2-Power card, Deacon Frost is a healthy 11 Power, which is passable for a 4-Cost. Of course, we will be stealing a bunch of Power from the opponents cards, meaning they could fill their front row with 0-Power cards! There are a variety of ways to improve our targets like Elektra and Polaris who can move some of the lower-Cost cards out of the way, while Danger can make sure to take out a low-Power target. Both Magneto's have some soft synergy with Deacon Frost – the original can rearrange your opponent's cards, while the new one can place him on the board. Echo is pretty good for surviving in a Cosmo-heavy meta with a key On Reveal, and you may occasionally get lucky and snipe a Luke Cage.
Scosco's Day One Vampire Deacon Frost Decks
Straight Steal
Let's just load our deck with stealers. Hydra Bob gives us another tempo card to try to get the most value out of both Rocket & Groot and Vampire America Chavez. Grandmaster can be powerful as a follow up to Cassandra Nova, Laufey, or even the Crimson Behemoth itself.
Moldy Vamps
I'll take any excuse to play Ronan. This deck isn't reliant on a single strategy – it can win without Ronan or without Deacon Frost, but both are powerful lane winners in their own right leaving us flexible to attack our opponent in the way they are most vulnerable.
Is He Worth It?
He's the lynchpin of a new archetype, one that the whole season has been building towards. Both Vampire Killmonger and Vampire Enchantress have seen plenty of success without him, which bodes well for the full Vampire deck. There is concern about vulnerability to tech, but this will be a formidable meta deck, whether it's the BDIF or just a solid B-tier choice. If you haven't picked up the other stealing Affliction cards from this season, go ahead and skip VDF as well and save for next season. Otherwise, he's a safe pick up.
As the big new centerpiece card, there are plenty of directions to take this card. For several more deck ideas, including my personal favorites for the first day, consider subscribing to support Fourth Location today!
