Sengir Vampire [Alpha Pop 6]

I was fortunate to meet the artist and get the slab signed in Nov 2022

Grading

Overall       9.5 GEM MINT

Centering  9

Corners      9.5

Edges           9.5

Surface       9.5

This copy of Alpha Sengir Vampire is graded BGS 9.5 with a 9 centering subscore due to its feint print dot on the back of the card.  The picture below shows another Alpha Sengir Vampire and the common white print dot.

Rarity & Collectability

Because the Alpha Sengir Vampire suffers from both centering issues and the lower left print dot, it is extremely difficult to grade in BGS 9.5 condition or better.  Even though this card is at uncommon rarity with 4,500 copies, it remains only population 6 and of those copies only 1 has been graded in with quad subscores.  

Impressions & Artwork

Anson Maddocks paints an unholy vampire extending a tongue towards a bloody artery.  The painting is simple, detailed but not overly complex as to allow a clear focus on the hairless head of the blood drinker.  The yellow skin tone is splashed with the red all the way back to a sharp ear perhaps hinting at a brighter past.  

Anson brought an edge to early cards that cannot be easily replicated now.  He is one of the great artists that set the tone for important cards like Maze of the Ith, Living Wall, Sengir Vampire and Cyclopean Tomb.

Hard to call someone of his renown underappreciated but I think that he is in comparison to Tedin, Frazier, Poole and Rush.  He didn’t get as lucky with commissions of the most powerful cards as the others did. I can only imagine how Anson would have imagined Chaos Orb or Demonic Tutor.  In a different era of fewer sensitivities, cards like Sengir Vampire allowed creative artists like Anson the necessary freedom to create artwork that would be forever imprinted into our memories, and we were all the better off for it.  Thank you Anson.

Usage & Gameplay

Sengir Vampire was the important antagonist to the Serra Angel due to both cards being 5 mana cost for a 4|4 flying creature.  I wonder how many Serra Angels perished to Sengir's bite?

Nostalgia

So many black decks in the 90's featured Sengir Vampire as it was prevalent in the revised white border edition which brought widespread popularity to the game.   It was a good card then, and will always remind me of playing on the carpeted living room of my friend JonY who lived in my neighborhood as it was his favorite card to feature alongside Underworld Dreams.  

After a night of slamming cardboard a group of devious teens would play ding dong ditch - a game where you rang the doorbell and ran away leaving your neighbors perplexed at the empty front door.  Before we left the house we’d scramble what pocket change we had to order Pizza Hut delivery and tip with bottle rockets. Then we’d take the empty pizza box and leave a childish note along with a bunch of trash at our neighbor’s front porch thinking that they’d never catch on who “Pizza Man Jon” was.  If any of this sounds too stupid to be true, then you’d be giving too much credit to the mental prowess of the type of teenage kids playing with Sengir Vampire.