Commander
Deck list
View this Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose Vampire and Lifegain tribal in Archidekt
Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
Vito is Sanguine Bond with a body and apparently is a friend of Elenda, the Dusk Rose.
Vito's ability is very straight forward and this deck is very combat heavy with secondary wincons in massive lifegain bursts. Unfortunately Vito doesn't give any synergies to vampires so the tribal theme is completely optional and works as a artificial restriction for the deck.
Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose in EDHREC
In EDHREC Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose has a bit over a thousand decks, 1099. Most of the decks are lifegain decks (1000+) and vampire tribals (~500 decks).
Possible themes for Vito
Full Lifegain theme
This specific deck tech is intentionally watered down in power level by having only vampire creatures and focusing on vampires in combat. Having only lifegain as a theme instead will make the deck a lot more powerful with new wincons like Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Kokusho, the Evening Star and K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth. Also card draw is more feasible with creatures like Disciple of Bolas and get more recursion with Witch of the Moors.
Strategy
Early game and mulligans
I was surprised how weak mono black is in the early ramp and I've come to the conclusion that black is the weakest color to ramp in commander as the artifacts bring close to zero synergies compared to blue. Black does have some rituals like Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual but in the singleton format it is not enough. As a balance to the early ramping black does have the best mana duplicators like Crypt Ghast and Nirkana Revenant. And without doubt the most removals and the best graveyard shenanigans in the format.
Knowing blacks weak early ramp the deck relies solely on the usual colorless artifacts Sol Ring, Arcane Signet and Commander Sphere for ramping. Having 3 lands is solid starting hand and 2 works if you have a card draw spell like Sign in Blood available. Also look out for any <3CMC lifegain creatures, and the best ones are Indulgent Aristocrat, Vampire Cutthroat and Vampire of the Dire Moon. Other great plays include Expedition Map, Prism Ring and Pristine Talisman.
Do remember, Vito is completely useless in the deck unless you get life, so try to avoid playing Vito if you don't have any lifegain creatures to take advantage of.
Mid game
T4 to T6 are mid game where you eat away the strongest players life by tiny cuts you get from lifegain creatures and from tax effects like Trespasser's Curse, Blood Artist and Bastion of Remembrance. As the decks idea is to gain as much life as possible it is not a bad idea to kill your own creatures in combat and gain life, if you are still able to take out opponents creatures.
The deck runs a fair amount of removals to balance the weak early ramp so use them to guide your opponents at each others by making deals and providing free real estate by opening ways to other opponents.
Great mid game plays include Marauding Blight-Priest, Pawn of Ulamog, Silversmote Ghoul, Veinwitch Coven, Bloodtracker, Kamber, the Plunderer and Well of Lost Dreams.
Late game
T6+ are the late game and you should have been draining you opponents equally to avoid being targeted. Preparing for closing the game you should have some kind of interaction and some of the wincons or even multiple ones. The deck gets fair amount of life so don't be afraid to tank the hits to avoid losing creatures with blocking.
Winning the game
This Vito deck is surprisingly strong creating value and keeping you alive with the lifegain. This allows you to stay in the game even though your deck is actually quite bad at ending the games. Strong wincon is the Vito + Exquisite Blood combo and then massive Exsanquinate with the help of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or Cabal Coffers. Other strong game enders are Malakir Bloodwitch, Sanctum Seeker and Coat of Arms with Vitos lifegain effect.
Who is the deck for
If you enjoy janky tribal decks and have a tooth for lifegain and enjoy mono decks then I can warmly recommend you Vito vampire tribal with lifegain deck. But if you are looking for a stronger version of a lifegain vampire tribal I would recommend looking into Licia, Sanguine Tribune as you have over 40 creatures available and you don't have to rely on vampires like Blood Burglar or Child of Night to get the needed creatures for the deck.
I'd say the Power level is max 6 due to the color and tribal restrictions (unless you go for the Vito + Exquisite Blood combo only).
