While Blade might be Marvel's most famous Vampire Hunter, he hasn't always been the most effective vampire-killer. Instead, that distinction belongs to Doctor Strange, who wiped out all of Marvel's vampires after going up against one of literature’s most iconic and powerful supernatural beings: Dracula.
In 1983's "The Montesi Formula," a story in Doctor Strange #59-#62 by Roger Stern, Dan Green, Steve Leialoha, Terry Austin, Rick Magyar, Bob Sharen, Jim Novak, Janice Chiang and Joe Rosen, Strange teams up with Wong, supernatural detective Hannibal King, occult investigator Frank Drake and the notorious Blade as they set about to rid the world of vampires indefinitely.
Strange and his allies cross paths with many evil entities as they battle to locate the Darkhold (a grimoire containing the scrolls of Elder God Chthon) and set into motion the Montesi Formula – a spell which reverses Vampirism, hereby terminating the supernatural threat of vampire worldwide at once.
Having defeated the Children of the Night, Strange contacts Scarlet Witch about the whereabouts of the Darkhold. Arriving at Avengers Mansion, he is set upon by Dracula and his servants who he fights off alongside King, Captain Marvel, and Scarlet Witch. Strange hinders Dracula’s attempt to get the text by teleporting it to Castle Mordo to be cloaked by a pre-existing aura of dark magic. Knowing that Dracula has eyes on the Sanctum Sanctorum, Strange cleverly employs Sara Wolfe and Morgana Blessing as decoys to enable him, as Wong, King, Drake and Blade to transport to the castle.
Once inside, Strange engages with the Darkhold inside the castle’s inner chamber, an effective illusion that dupes Dracula into believing that he has succumbed to its dark powers. However, this is merely a smart ploy by Strange who has manipulated the creature into believing that he has the upper hand. And so, as Dracula attempts to retrieve the text, he is transported to the Astral Plane where Strange awaits. The two battle in the metaphysical environment as Strange’s allies on the ground surround their physical bodies. As the Montesi Formula reaches completion, all vampires – Dracula included – are wiped from existence.
While that action effectively erased vampires from the Marvel Universe for most of a decade, the effects of that spell eventually wore off in 1990's Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme 14, by Roy and Dann Thomas, Jackson Guice, Christie Scheele and Janice Chiang. In that issue, Morbius reveals that the Book of Vishanti's Vampiric Verses have counteracted the Darkhold’s Montesi Formula, hereby weakening the spell and allowing many of the vampires formerly destroyed by Strange to return to the land of the undead.
Despite what was a seemingly successful attempt, Strange's intent to wipe out vampires for good ultimately failed. But regardless of their re-emergence, Strange has arguably gone further than any other Marvel character in terms of taking out vampires. Despite Blade’s successes, he has yet to eradicate as many as Strange did, especially in that short a time frame. Strange’s ability to wipe the entire threat from existence (albeit briefly) in one fell swoop is a pretty spectacular feat, particularly considering that it is Blade’s aim in life to eliminate the threat for good.
Furthermore, in Marc Guggenheim and Howard Chaykin's Blade #11-#12, the hunter achieves the opposite of his goal when he unwittingly fulfills the Tryana prophecy and revives all dead vampires in 2007. The ancient prophecy – intended to return lost vampire souls – was unknowingly fulfilled by Blade when he freed his father Lucas Cross from prison and fed upon virgin blood. When Dracula returns (courtesy of Cross having cut a deal with the creature), he tries to convince Blade to complete the final part of the prophecy by returning a fragment of the stake used to destroy him back into the ground at Castle Dracula. A fight ensues upon Blade’s refusal, and the remnant mistakenly comes into contact with the ground. Despite the prophecy's fulfillment, it is not the lost souls of vampires that are returned, but those of the deceased creatures themselves.
Though it remains to be seen if the threat could ever truly be stamped out, Strange’s intelligence, power and heroics undoubtedly reaffirm the idea that he is, in fact, Marvel’s best vampire slayer, even if Blade spends more time at it.