Vampiress Build:
The point of the Vampiress Build is to build an army around a relatively strong core creature (16 mana base, 26 with enchants) while still leaving enough options to flex around your opponent's build.
If your opponent goes creature heavy, you will want to back up your Vampiress with a Dark Pact. This is so that you have two "bigs" to Guard against swarms, so that they cannot focus fire and blow up either one of them. (Without spending a teleport etc)
Against a control deck, you will want to back up Vampiress with a swarm of bats and imps, but you don't want to overcommit to a swarm. (Due to Mordoks and Suppression Orb) If you see a Mordoks or Orb come out, immediately switch out of creatures and into equipment.
Against a solo/equipment build you want to go equipment yourself. The goal is to make both your Warlock and the Vamp into a threat, and make it difficult for the other guy to deal with both.
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Double Big Build: (anti Creature)
(16) Round 2 (+9):
(25) Full action summon Vampiress (-16)
(9) Quick cast place facedown Bear Strength on Vamp (-1)
(8 ) Round 3 (+9):
(17) Full action summon Dark Pact Bloodreaper (-13, -4Life)
(4) Quick cast place facedown Vampiric on Darkpact (-1)
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This variant gives you the most tactical options against a creature swarm. It's main drawback is that you are well into "negative mana" territory with at least 10 mana worth of unrevealed enchants, and no protective equip on your Mage.
Your goal with Double Big is to keep both of your creatures alive, and to use Guard to keep enemies off your Mage. Vampiress is the best possible Guard because she gets to leech life AFTER she has taken damage.
You will have no mana, so plan to use a Guard or a Melee attack almost every round. During Preparation, always prepare one card you plan to use (ie, Agony) and one "oh shit" card based on what you are most afraid of. For example if your opponent seems to be preparing a trap zone full of foxes that he can teleport you into, ready a Teleport so you can get out.
During every turn, pass actions whenever you can, so that you get to act after most of the enemy swarm has already acted. Pick off opponent creatures whenever you can safely do so, but do NOT overextend. Think about firepower-on-target like a game of chess - if the other guy has a bunch of units capable of converging on one square, don't move into that square.
As long as you can constantly kill enemy creatures without losing creatures of your own, you will slowly build up a mana advantage. Either use that to put curses on the opposing Mage or equipment on yourself. (Especially if u are nervous about being nuked)
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Vampire Bats: (anti Control)
(16) Round 2 (+9):
(25) Full action summon Vampiress (-16)
(9) Quick cast facedown Bear Strength on self (-1)
(8 ) Round 3 (+9):
(17) Full action summon Darkfenne Bat (-5)
(12) Quickcast: either equipment on self (-X) or a Block on bat (-1)
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Vampire Bats are designed to kill control builds. Against mana siphon, the Darkfenne Bat can be replaced by a Moonglow Faerie, or alternatively a Mage Staff. (Anti ethereal)
The Vampiress should draw the other guy's control spells. Against teleport and enfeebled, simply Shift Enchantment your cheetah speed (-1). Against Banish, laugh at the other guy spending 14 mana to banish a 17 mana (16+1) stack. Against sleep, I'd recommend the ghoul rot or Deathlink + shift enchantment trick.
Don't get more than 3 bats out at once. If a Mordoks or Suppression orb comes out, having 4 creatures will hurt a lot but not kill you, while having 5+ is lethal. If you already have 4 creatures, focus on Equipment.
Bats are fascinating because their attack deals nearly no damage but has a 1/3 chance to apply Rot. Rot is ridiculously powerful against anyone without Purify/priestess. Actually, it's still pretty good against priestess because it uses a full action. Maintaining an action advantage is key.
Never attack into Guard with bats. Any damage will kill a bat, and you want your bats to stay alive so they can swoop in again and again and keep rolling 9+ Rot. Use knockdown or use attacks from Vamp and Lock to break Guards before attacking with Bats.
The reason to use a Bat Swarm only versus control decks is that Bats kill very slowly. It takes a bunch of rounds to get a stack of Rots, and it takes even more rounds for those Rots to deal damage. Creature and equipment builds WILL kill you before your bats inflict enough damage to matter.
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Vampire Fisticuffs: (anti Beatdown)
(16) Round 2 (+9):
(25) Full action summon Vampiress (-16)
(9) Quick cast facedown Bear Strength on Vamp (-1)
(8 ) Round 3 (+17):
(17) Quick cast Demonhide Armor (-8 ) or Elemental Cloak (-6)
(9-11) Reveal Cheetah Speed (-3) and move into same square as enemy, then shift enchantment cheetah speed to Vampiress (-1)
(5-7) Reveal Bear Strength on Vamp (-3), move it and attack enemy.
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The objective of this deck is to very quickly make your Mage defensively focused, and make your Vampiress offensively focused. This puts the Beatdown guy in a really bad position. If he goes for your mage he will simply get destroyed by the Vamp. There is absolutely no way he can kill off your lock before lock + Vamp destroy him. Throw in a Bloodreapered Imp (-5, -2Life) as soon as you can and you will win.
If the opponent goes for your Vamp, that is when things get interesting. With a 7 dice vampiric attack, the Vamp can easily heal itself, but it is very possible to blow up a Vamp in a single battlefury attack. This is where initiative and quickcasts become key.
If your opponent is sufficiently equipped to blow up Vamp, you need to do whatever you can to prevent it. If you have initiative it is simple. Battle Fury the vampiress and attack twice to leech health. But if you don't have initiative, you need to save her with a single Quickcast. Block (-3) will deflect one attack but a battlefury will still strike once. A Teleport (-6) on a non Fast opponent can prevent both attacks.
Consider placing your Mage on Guard next to the Vampiress to make her even harder to kill.
If you can keep both your Mage and your Vampiress alive, you can and will win against other Beatdown decks. This includes Lord of Fire builds - since the Vamp is 8 mana cheaper than lord of fire, your Mage will have an 8 mana equipment advantage which should include fire resist.
