I wanted to take my Cliffhaven Vampire's out for a spin so I came up with the following. I have tried to build a synergistic deck with Life Gain > Ally > Vampire.

VISIT TO CLIFFHAVEN (60 cards)

Creatures (Life Theme) (17 cards)
1 x Indulgent Aristocrat
2 x Serene Steward
3 x Lone Rider
1 x Ondu War Cleric
1 x Kalastria Healer
1 x Lantern Scout
2 x Vampire Envoy
1 x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
2 x Drana's Emissary
1 x Gisela, the Broken Blade
2 x Cliffhaven Vampire

Creatures (Utility) (6 cards)
1 x Selfless Spirit
1 x Smuggler's Copter
1 x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 x Zulaport Chainmage
2 x Restoration Gearsmith

Instant/Sorceries (Control + Life) (6 cards)
1 x Blessed Alliance
1 x Tandem Tactics
3 x Essence Extraction
1 x Alms of the Vein

Filler (6 cards)
1 x Declaration in Stone
2 x Skywhaler's Shot
1 x Murder
1 x Diabolic Tutor
1 x Witness the End

Planeswalker (1 card)
1 x Sorin, Grim Nemesis

Land (Life Theme) (2 cards)
2 x Shambling Vent

Land (22 cards)
6 x Plains
5 x Swamp
2 x Isolated Chapel
1 x Foundry of the Consuls
2 x Rogue's Passage
2 x Sandstone Bridge
1 x Mortuary Mire
3 x Forsaken Sanctuary

The Lone Riders need to transform early. By T4 this can be done with Essence Extraction, etc. I need to let first strike handle small game for a while and save the Murder/etc for bigger game, at least until theSerene Steward's can grow me something big myself. Also, once you have 30+ life, you can take some big hits and just not worry about it.

Any thoughts? I know that some of my Utility and Filler cards could probably be optimized.

It is remarkably unfocused with so many 1 and 2 ofs. Do you not have all the cards?

it's a good strategy in tournament. opponent can never guess what you may have even they knew the decklist.

Sarcasm, I assume?

Ouch.

Well, I was posting for advice after all. I know this deck isn't a rock star, but it has more thought than I think maybe you are giving credit. That said, which cards specifically do you think I short-changed? I may indeed not have them all.

Here is my thought process, sorry for the long post.

I tried to focus from a thematic standpoint. I didn't focus on having 4 of one card, just that the cards made sense working together. And I'm not looking for a tournament deck, just a versus deck that is fun and has a good shot at winning.

DECK BACKBONE - CARDS ARE MAXED OUT

I added all I had of the Tandem Tactics, Lantern Scout, Lone Rider, Serene Steward, Drana's Emissary, Essence Extraction, Alms of the Vein, Gisela, Cliffhaven Vampire, and Kalitas. If there are more of these, then I don't have them. These are the backbone of the deck. All the other cards are intended to support these in some way.

The goal is to have as many separate "gain life" triggers going off so that (A) I have way more life than I need and (B) the Serene Steward and the Cliffhaven's can trigger and (C) the Lone Rider's can transform.

Secondarily, there are removal cards to keep me alive if my opponent gets out something big, but ideally to also feed the Kalitas.

I have been winning many games because I can pick away at my opponent's health while gaining a large amount of health myself. Then I can use the Rogue's Passage to sneak through a pumped up creature (Kalitas or anything Serene Stewarded) as a finisher.

CARDS THAT ARE NOT MAXED OUT ON PURPOSE

I did not max out these cards, but they have good synergy with the backbone as individuals.

Vampire Envoy (2 of 4) - Life-gain + vampire + ally = all themes. They feed the Ondu, Zulaport & Copter to boot. They block copters, thopters and servos. I love these! These are also a nice combo with the Serene Steward: attack with Envoy and then pump it with the resulting Steward effect. Maybe I should add 2 more of these. I just worry that I get dealt 4 in a row since they are nice for combo's only OK on their own, I thought 2 was enough.

Smuggler's Copter (1 of 2) - Speed up getting to my combos. Nice Envoy tapper. Not core to the deck so 2 seemed excessive. Also, I'm seeing a lot of anti-artifact and this is my only artifact atm. Usually dies fast.

Ondu War Cleric (1 of 3) - Good synergy with both life gain and ally. Just need to keep ally's untapped until my opponent's end step. My concern is that there are only so many allies to tap and these are only 2/2's, so I didn't want to go overboard with these. I could see adding more of these back in however.

Zulaport Chainmage (1 of 4) - Ally synergy - but no life gain or vampire. Only so many allies to tap. Better stats than Ondu but also a pretty high CMC to justify too many I felt.

Kambal, Consul of Allocation (1 of 2) - Very useful for the life theme (too bad not an ally). However, it is Legendary, so why risk drawing 2?

Indulgent Aristocrat (1 of 3) - I needed to lower the curve and there are definite synergies (life, vampire). However, I didn't want more because I really don't have the sacrifice fodder. I could replace.

Diabolic Tutor (1 of 3) - Speed up getting Kalitas or a Steward. More seemed excessive - and really I just need to find the Kalitas.

CARDS THAT CAN EASILY BE REPLACED

Witness the End is clearly out of place, I suppose I should replace it with another Blessed Alliance (life with a possible removal and/or ally tapping) or something non-thematic but generally useful like Skywhaler's or Fragmentize. In my defense, during game-play I seemed to have enough removal, so I put this in just to slow down the tempo as I build life.

Foundry of the Consuls can go as well. Intended as late game sacrifice fodder for the Aristocrat, but that is not really a core theme. I could do another Rogue's passage or basic land I guess.

Restoration Gearsmith - When I start going to town with the Serene Steward or Kalitas, they become murder bait. Thus, Restoration Gearsmith has proven useful. In a BW deck they are better than Gravediggers, but technically the Gearsmith's are not thematic so I could ditch them. More Zulaport's perhaps?

Selfless Spirit - is just filling a low CMC slot and has general usefulness. It was originally intended to be able to capitalize upon Campaign of Vengeance (which I have since removed) by attacking with everything and then sacrifice it to save all my other creatures. Even though CoV is out, it is still nice to be able to attack / block with several life-linked creatures that can't die - for zero mana cost. I get the life and with Serene Steward up - all my white mana goes to creating +1/+1 counters. This could get replaced, just not sure what to fill the slot with.

CARDS THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE CUT

I had Campaign of Vengeance in the deck which worked thematically, but such a high CMC that if often went uncast. Perhaps this one should come back, but I can't see having 2+.

Certain Death fits thematically, but again I'm afraid of the high cost.

In both of these cases, these are great towards the end of game, and my games go long because I gain so much life. However, I'm screwed if my hand gets filled with them early.

Ok, trying a more focused version with:
- Smuggler's Copter
- Restoration Gearsmith
+2 Ondu War Cleric
- Zulaport Chainmage
- Lantern Scout
+2 Vampire Envoy

- Skywhaler's Shot
- Witness the End
- Diabolic Tutor
+ Blessed Alliance
+2 Campaign of Vengeance

- Foundry of the Consuls
+ Rogue's Passage

It doesn't make sense to me to only run a single aristocrat. The odds of you being able to drop it T1 are extremely low, and while you do have some synergies W/ other vampires in the deck, it's not enough to justify the slot IMHO. I also don't like the single copy of Alms - particularly with no madness outlets. I think you have better options for lifegain than that card (deck doesn't seem very fast, so it seems better to have a removal option with lifegain instead of lifedrain with lifegain). The 3rd card I would pull is the Chainmage, who I see as a pretty poor card for its mana cost.

In their spots I would consider running +1 K.Healer, +1 Blessed Alliance, and +1 Ob Nixilis. If no Ob in collection, then another Healer or B.Alliance.

EDIT: noticed you posted some changes while I was doing this post - I think you were way better off without C.o.Vengeance...

Thanks for the advice!

I keep waffling on CoV. It has won games for me. If I can nip him down to 10 health and I have 5 creatures and 1 of them is the Cliffhaven, then I attack with 5 creatures, CoV procs 5 times, Cliffhaven procs 5 times, he is dead before the battle. It is a fun way to win. But I understand that this is an edge case.

No Ob Nixilis

I'll try your variations - thanks again!

Oh, I just realized I only have 1 K healer. I agree that would be a great card. I'll have to figure out how to make due.

Ok, I have cleaned it up and I'm ready for another round of feedback. I think people were underwhelmed with this deck when I started brewing it and it was admittedly a little rough due to my lack of card inventory. However, I listened to the feedback and have been investing my gold digging for the cards people recommended. The deck is working better and better. I'm not expecting tournament quality - but it wins quite a bit in versus.

Overall, this deck is fun to play and the synergies start to really steamroll mid-game. It can be a bit slow, and vs aggro decks I can go down fast. However, if I can hang on, I start to gain life back pretty fast. One game, for example, I was down to 4 life in T5 against aggro Gruul, but ended up winning with over 40 life. The advantage of the deck is that the mechanism that makes it all work is life gain and when the game slows down, I usually get more and more life, which is never a bad thing.

REMAINING WORK:

I tried Ob Nixilis Reignited, however, I've never gotten him to his ultimate (either because I win before I get to it, or he is removed). Sorin, Grim Nemesis, on the other hand, for one more mana, potentially does in-your-face damage for that same card draw plus is more synergistic overall. That said, though I was warned against it, I still am toying with Campaign of Vengeance for this slot - it does in-your-face damage plus each attacking creature is a separate life trigger for all. Every time I have played it, it has been an instant win for me, whereas the walkers can help turn the tide but they aren't insta-win. Frankly, Serene Steward tends to be a sink, so often these high CMC cards just sit in my hand un-cast.

Lastly, I'm still playing with the balance of the instant's/sorceries. The Dazzling Reflection may draw some questions. I often found myself casting Blessed Alliance for only the life gain to trigger effects. So, while another Skywhaler's or Declaration in Stone could replace it, I found that having an extra source of life gain for triggers was worth the fact that it doesn't necessarily remove the target. Anguished Unmaking in place of Murder was a trade up though.

THE CURRENT STATE DECK:

Creatures
2 x Serene Steward
3 x Lone Rider
3 x Ondu War Cleric
2 x Kalastria Healer
4 x Vampire Envoy
3 x Drana's Emissary
2 x Bloodbond Vampire
1 x Gisela, the Broken Blade
2 x Cliffhaven Vampire

Instants/Sorceries
3 x Blessed Alliance
1 x Tandem Tactics
1 x Skywhaler's Shot
1 x Dazzling Reflection
1 x Declaration in Stone
3 x Essence Extraction
1 x Anguished Unmaking
2 x Live Fast

Planeswalker
1 x Sorin, Grim Nemesis

Land
6 x Plains
6 x Swamp
2 x Shambling Vent
2 x Isolated Chapel
3 x Rogue's Passage
2 x Sandstone Bridge
3 x Forsaken Sanctuary

Deck is screaming for Filigree Familiar

I'd also throw in an Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim

Ever After or Liliana, The Last Hope wouldn't hurt either since your only forms of recursion are the two gearsmiths.

Also I'd drop Forsaken Sanct and Sandstone Bridge because they're awful. Throw in 2 Blighted Steppe, a Westvale Abbey then 2 more basics or something.

Whats with all the random 1 and 2 ofs? Do you have all the cards?