“Hospitality is sacred in Ulgrotha. Especially when you’re on the menu.”

An opening hand for the future

The first edition of Battleworld made its debut at the Edge-man Championship 2026, and by the time the last spells were cast and the final boards dismantled, one thing was clear: Battleworld is the real deal—and it’s an absolute blast! And I hope it’s here to stay.

With that in mind, I’ll be shining a spotlight on Battleworld from time to time—through event reports, observations from the table, and, most importantly, deck features. This post marks the first of what I hope will become a small ongoing series: a look at individual Battleworld decklists, why they exist, how they play, and how they express the format’s unique philosophy.

It felt only appropriate to begin with an old aristocrat who has been waiting patiently for the world to slow down enough to appreciate him again.

Welcome to the Dark Barony.

Battleworld, with its slower pacing, evolving board states, and emphasis on atmosphere over optimization, is the perfect stage for the Baron’s return. This deck, Dark Barony, is a vampire-themed domain built not around speed or inevitability, but around control, sacrifice, and narrative cruelty—the kind of Magic that could have leapt straight off the pages of InQuest or The Duelist during the mid 90’s.

The Battleworld Mindset

Battleworld isn’t about showing up with the sharpest knife—it’s about bringing the most interesting one. With limited resources, and multiplayer tension baked into the format, decks need to do more than goldfish. They need to participate.

Dark Barony participates by:

• Letting opponents build boards… then feeding on them
• Turning “bad” creatures into valuable resources
• Making combat feel dangerous, political, and occasionally fatal
• This is not a deck that wins quickly. It wins inevitably, one drained creature at a time.

Welcome to the Dark Barony

But the Baron is nothing without his court. This is a vampire ecosystem, not a pile of individual threats. Every creature—no matter how small—has a role to play at the table.

Rats!

Bog Rats look laughable at first glance. They nibble. They chump. They die. Perfect!

In Dark Barony, Bog Rats are:

• Early blockers that discourage chip damage
• Dangerous when fueld with Blood Lust
• Sacrificial offerings to fuel vampire growth
• Currency in a larger economy of death

With the Brine Shaman in play, those rats don’t just die—they become power, pumping your vampires at instant speed and turning meaningless bodies into meaningful pressure.

And sometimes, death isn’t even the end.

Through the dark rituals of Soul Exchange , a fallen vampire can be “revived” by offering it up again—its essence reclaimed, the rat transformed, the cycle continuing. In this deck, sacrifice is not loss. It’s refinement.

Theft, Shrinkage, and Fine Dining

Combat is where Dark Barony stops being “that weird Sengir deck” and becomes a crime scene.

• Sorceress Queen is the kitchen staff. No matter how enormous the entrée, she has a way of turning it into something appropriately bite-sized. A towering behemoth becomes a 0/2, and suddenly your vampires aren’t “outmatched”—they’re served.
• Blood Lust—the Barony’s favorite party trick. On paper, it’s just a stat boost. In practice, it’s the moment the chandelier crashes and everyone realizes they should’ve left hours ago. Blood Lust makes even the lowliest creature matter: your Bog Rats go from “disposable garnish” to surprise blood fueled assassins, and in the other direction! It can really ruin your opponent’s combat math (and their mood) for the rest of the turn.

In the Dark Barony, anything can be lethal, and nothing is ever truly “just a rat.”

How it plays

A typical game unfolds like a slow gothic novel:

Early Game
You establish blockers, look harmless, and let others posture. Rats appear. Vampires lurk.

Midgame
The engine comes online. Sacrifice outlets, theft effects, and stat manipulation turn combat into a nightmare puzzle for your opponents.

Late Game
The Baron presides over a battlefield littered with the remains of “better” creatures. Your vampires are large, your opponents are cautious, and every attack feels like a mistake.

This deck doesn’t demand attention early—but it commands it later.

Strenghts and weaknesses

Strengths

• Exceptional creature control
• Scales naturally with longer games
• Thrives in multiplayer tension
• Turns opponent resources into your own

Weaknesses

• Vulnerable to enchantment-heavy strategies
• Relies on board presence more than spells
• Can struggle if rushed down early

Like any good villain, Dark Barony is strongest when given time—and clever opponents will try not to grant it.

The list

Why Baron Sengir Still Matters

There’s something deeply satisfying about making an old, overlooked legend work—not by modernizing it, but by giving it the right home.

Battleworld doesn’t ask, “Is this card efficient?”
It asks, “Is this card interesting?”

Baron Sengir is interesting because he tells a story. A story about feasts and famine, about servants and sacrifices, about power accumulated not through speed, but through inevitability.

Pull up a chair. The Baron insists…