Vampire's Kiss MTG Card


Vampire’s Kiss offers card advantage and life manipulation, vital for black deck players. Its instant speed optimizes strategic play, but its discard cost requires careful deck integration. Despite its mana cost and specificity, Vampire’s Kiss has potent potential for combo synergies in MTG.
Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityCommon
TypeSorcery

Text of card

Target player loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. Create two Blood tokens. (They're artifacts with ", , Discard a card, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.")

Young vampires gorge themselves at every meal, but their elders have learned to savor the smallest bite.


Cards like Vampire's Kiss

Vampire’s Kiss is a noteworthy spell in the realm of life manipulation cards in Magic: The Gathering. It’s similar to cards like Alms of the Vein, which offers direct life point exchange but doesn’t impact the board with a Vampire creature token creation. Vampire’s Kiss not only grants you life but also chips away at your opponent’s, adding strategic depth and a potential swing in board advantage with its token.

When considering Feast of Blood, another card comparable in vampire-themed decks, we see a stronger focus on creature removal at the cost of having two vampires in play to enable it. Though powerful, it does not directly affect life totals or card advantage. Conversely, Vampire’s Kiss, though offering less removal potency, provides a unique blend of life gain, opponent life loss, and board presence, which can be significantly beneficial in the right context.

Assessing the value in comparison to its counterparts, Vampire’s Kiss presents a balanced option for players seeking to manipulate both life totals and maintain board presence in a vampire deck, holding its own in Magic: The Gathering’s array of life-affecting spells.

Alms of the Vein - MTG Card versions
Feast of Blood - MTG Card versions
Alms of the Vein - MTG Card versions
Feast of Blood - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Vampire's Kiss by color, type and mana cost

Drain Life - MTG Card versions
Demonic Tutor - MTG Card versions
Sinkhole - MTG Card versions
Word of Binding - MTG Card versions
Soul Exchange - MTG Card versions
Dry Spell - MTG Card versions
Hymn to Tourach - MTG Card versions
Mind Knives - MTG Card versions
Shattered Crypt - MTG Card versions
Disturbed Burial - MTG Card versions
Death Stroke - MTG Card versions
Exhume - MTG Card versions
Imperial Edict - MTG Card versions
Decompose - MTG Card versions
Chainer's Edict - MTG Card versions
Walk the Plank - MTG Card versions
Nausea - MTG Card versions
Distress - MTG Card versions
Cruel Edict - MTG Card versions
Macabre Waltz - MTG Card versions
Drain Life - MTG Card versions
Demonic Tutor - MTG Card versions
Sinkhole - MTG Card versions
Word of Binding - MTG Card versions
Soul Exchange - MTG Card versions
Dry Spell - MTG Card versions
Hymn to Tourach - MTG Card versions
Mind Knives - MTG Card versions
Shattered Crypt - MTG Card versions
Disturbed Burial - MTG Card versions
Death Stroke - MTG Card versions
Exhume - MTG Card versions
Imperial Edict - MTG Card versions
Decompose - MTG Card versions
Chainer's Edict - MTG Card versions
Walk the Plank - MTG Card versions
Nausea - MTG Card versions
Distress - MTG Card versions
Cruel Edict - MTG Card versions
Macabre Waltz - MTG Card versions

Decks using this card

MTG decks using Vampire's Kiss. Dig deeper into the strategy of decks, sideboard cards, list ideas and export to play in ARENA or MOL.

#NameFormatArchetypeEvent
BRBR PauperPauper Challenge 32 2024-05-10
BurnBurn PauperBurnPauper Challenge 32 2024-05-10
BB PauperPauper Challenge 64 2024-05-19
Rakdos BurnRakdos Burn PauperBlack BurnPauper Challenge 32 2024-05-10
Mono-Black BurnMono-Black Burn PauperBlack BurnPauper Preliminary 2024-05-13

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Vampire’s Kiss provides an upper hand with its ability to draw cards while also causing your opponent to lose one. This keeps your hand filled while diminishing your opponent’s resources.

Resource Acceleration: This card also grants you additional life, which can be crucial for decks that thrive on life gain for powering up creatures or activating abilities, providing a dual advantage.

Instant Speed: The swiftness of Vampire’s Kiss as an instant means it can be utilized at the most strategic moment, often at the end of your opponent’s turn, to ensure no opportunity is wasted and no mana goes unspent.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Vampire’s Kiss forces a player to discard a card upon casting. While sometimes useful for graveyard strategies, it can be detrimental when the player needs all cards in hand to maintain board presence and momentum.

Specific Mana Cost: This card has a black mana cost which makes it exclusive to black-aligned decks or those with a sufficient mana base for color fixing, potentially limiting its versatility in a diverse range of decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The mana investment for Vampire’s Kiss is considerable when compared to other cards with similar effects. Players may find that their mana could be used more efficiently on alternative cards that provide greater value or have a more immediate impact on the game state.


Reasons to Include Vampire’s Kiss in Your Collection

Versatility: Vampire’s Kiss offers the flexibility to fit into a variety of black decks. Its ability to cause loss of life while providing life gain can be pivotal in tight games, making it a solid sideboard choice or even a main deck staple in life-drain strategies.

Combo Potential: This card weaves seamlessly into synergistic strategies that revolve around life total manipulation. Its capability to fluctuate life totals can be the cornerstone in combos that depend on life gain or loss thresholds to activate powerful effects or win conditions.

Meta-Relevance: With aggressive decks often swinging the tide of gameplay, having a card that can mitigate some incoming damage while dwindling an opponent’s life is beneficial. Vampire’s Kiss has a place in an environment where stabilization against fast-paced decks is crucial for securing victory.


How to Beat

Vampire’s Kiss is a card that often flies under the radar in the vast catalog of Magic: The Gathering’s spells. As a dark charm that siphons life from an opponent while offering potential card advantage, it can be subtly powerful in the right setting. To effectively counteract Vampire’s Kiss, players need to focus on maintaining life total stability, leveraging instant-speed removal or counterspells to stop it before its effects take hold. Utilizing cards like Tormod’s Crypt can also be an essential strategy, mitigating the card advantage Vampire’s Kiss could potentially provide by exiling the opponent’s graveyard before they benefit from it. Moreover, employing life gain strategies can offset the life loss caused by the Kiss, keeping you safely out of its grasp. Remember that Vampire’s Kiss requires a combination of timing and resources; disrupting this combo can deflate its potential, keeping you in control of the game.


Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Vampire's Kiss MTG card by a specific set like Innistrad: Crimson Vow and Innistrad: Double Feature, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Vampire's Kiss and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Vampire's Kiss Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2021-11-19 and 2022-01-28. Illustrated by Ilse Gort.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12021-11-19Innistrad: Crimson VowVOW 1362015NormalBlackIlse Gort
22022-01-28Innistrad: Double FeatureDBL 4032015NormalBlackIlse Gort

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Vampire's Kiss has restrictions

FormatLegality
StandardLegal
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PauperLegal
FutureLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
BrawlLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Vampire's Kiss card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date Text
2021-11-19 If the target player is an illegal target as this spell tries to resolve, you won't gain 2 life and won't create any Blood tokens.