MTG Salvation

This is my first cut at a Marchesa deck. I built it from the remnants of my Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge deck, and initially has many of the same creatures--vampires and wizards. Most of the vampires got trimmed out despite the counter synergies, but I still found many of the wizards valuable and worked well with Marchesa and one of her better new supporting cast members, Sage of Fables.

The deck has been performing well, but it could perform better and I foresee some weaknesses. Any input or experiences from folks who have been using their own decks with good results is certainly appreciated.



Future considerations:

Here's a few cards I am considering trying to find a spot for:


Latest update:
Several improvements to the mana base
New Tech!
1) Deathrender (and Godo, Bandit Warlord to fetch it) promises an easy way to get several creatures into play.
2) Mindslicer provides great tech against counter-heavy card advantage tech.
3) Added Grim Haruspex from Khans

Change Log:

6/27/14:
- Brainstorm
- Dreadbore
- Fleshbag Marauder
- Dismiss
- Mulldrifter
+ Swan Song
+ Marchesa's Smuggler
+ Oona's Blackguard
+ Blind Zealot
+ Wild Ricochet

10/8 several updates:
Deathrender
Godo, Bandit Warlord
Mindslicer
Grim Haruspex
Fetchlands from KTK

Hey there Psion! I've been running a very fun list myself, you can see it here:

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/562460-solrunes-marchesa-the-black-rose-flipping-thrones

Ive been compiling and testing cards pretty aggressively if you need some ideas, I try to go through each choice and the thoughts behind them.

theonecalledrune, yep I saw it and commented there. You are the one who turned me on to the Blind Zealot tech. Let me know how your actual play goes.

I'm trying these changes:

- Brainstorm
- Dreadbore
- Fleshbag Marauder
- Dismiss
- Mulldrifter
+ Swan Song
+ Marchesa's Smuggler
+ Oona's Blackguard
+ Blind Zealot
+ Wild Ricochet

Mulldrifter seems like the sketchiest loss. My card draw is strong, but giving up Mulldrifter may be too much.

Considering I am adding some rogues, I wonder if Knowledge Exploitation could solve my enchantment woes. And for that matter, if there are any other rogues that would go well in the deck.

Quote from Psion »

theonecalledrune, yep I saw it and commented there. You are the one who turned me on to the Blind Zealot tech. Let me know how your actual play goes.

I'm trying these changes:

- Brainstorm
- Dreadbore
- Fleshbag Marauder
- Dismiss
- Mulldrifter
+ Swan Song
+ Marchesa's Smuggler
+ Oona's Blackguard
+ Blind Zealot
+ Wild Ricochet

Mulldrifter seems like the sketchiest loss. My card draw is strong, but giving up Mulldrifter may be too much.

Considering I am adding some rogues, I wonder if Knowledge Exploitation could solve my enchantment woes. And for that matter, if there are any other rogues that would go well in the deck.

I would add sygg, river cutthroat if you were going rogues, but main thing here, is mulldrifter is incredibly good, I would run that over swan song or wild richochet. Blind Zealot is incredibly strong, it's either a repeatable doom blade or evasive beater, can't really lose in either situation, of course unless your facing a black heavy meta

Quote from theonecalledrune »

I would add sygg, river cutthroat if you were going rogues, but main thing here, is mulldrifter is incredibly good, I would run that over swan song or wild richochet. Blind Zealot is incredibly strong, it's either a repeatable doom blade or evasive beater, can't really lose in either situation, of course unless your facing a black heavy meta

Thinking about it a bit more, I think it's best to keep Mulldrifter, but the card I think I'll cut for it is Deep Analysis. It almost does the same thing, but I'm more likely to recur Mulldrifter, and like you say, it's an evasive beater (potentially a pretty sizable one with Marchesa powering it).

I think I'll op test Wild Ricochet and Swan Song for a bit before I give up on those though.

Sygg does seem pretty good.

Looking through your list I see a a few potential upgrades that will I think improve it a bit, while being some-what budget friendly.

- Dismiss + Hinder
- Soul Manipulation + venser, shaper savant(absolutely amazing in the deck)
- dark impostor + shriekmaw/Shadowborn Demon(absolutely amazing in the deck)
- into the core + shatterstorm
- crosis's charm + hero's downfall
- mercurial chemister + carrion feeder(absolutely amazing in the deck)

Those additions would set you back about 25 bucks or so, which isn't bad and will improve the deck a bunch I think. I put them in the order of importance that I think will work for you. After those I would start adding money to that manabase, starting with shocks and checks, moving up eventually to fetches then duals.

Updated the deck with fetchlands, Grim Haruspex, Greater Gargadon, Deathrender, and Godo. Bandit Warlord

Edit: oh, and Mindslicer, which has been an absolute house against card advantage strategies.