I'm trying to make it as aggressive as possible. currently at 101 cards. I think I might have too many 3-drops. I should be losing plenty of life with my own cards and opponents doing damage to me to avoid being on the throne. I don't entirely rely on Marchesa for counters, which I think is important.
Do I have too few lands? I have Sol Ring, but wasn't sure if it was worth it in this deck.
Am I missing anything important? How can I make this deck even faster?
You run some very strong cards for aggro, but other cards baffle me. Since you posted in the multi-player EDH forum, I assume that this deck was created for multi-player games. Against multiple opponents, spot effects effects don't maintain card parity and some of your creatures don't even justify the space they take up. Anyways, the topic of Marchesa aggro has been detailed to a great extent in Solrune's thread, enough to answer a most of your questions. Good luck improving your deck.
Quite a few of the vanilla-ish creatures that simply get +1/+1 counters as they come into play should be taken out. Those creatures don't have much of an effect on the board state to justify their card slot and their recursion factor simply makes the target on Marchesa bigger. The ideal creature for a Marchesa aggro deck serves utility to directly support that strategy as well as provide a body to beat with and abuse.
For example, Splatter Thug is a cute beater. Simply having a 3/3 first strike that MAY recur when Marchesa is on the field is not enough. Chasm Skulker is one of the strong cards you run. They both tend to be dumb beaters, but Chasm Skulker has insane synergy with the rest of a typical Marchesa build when you draw multiple cards, make an army, and recur it again! What you may want to replace the thug with is Burnished Hart. Mana is a problem even for aggro decks sometimes and Burnished Hart does that role well even without Marchesa recurring it. In addition, it even has a 2/2 body that can help add in some damage - just shy one attack from coming into play as strong as the Thug.
Looking back on my words, I realize that I sounded a bit condescending. I apologize for that, but I still stand behind Solrune's thread. He explains his choices very well and avoids the trap of running cards simply because they interact with the general - each card provides insane synergy, aggro-relevant utility (like spot removal), or card advantage. I have only enough time to provide general advice, but Solrune has kept track of all of the juicy details.
just try not to copy the decklist card for card, Solrunes deck is agreesive yes, but it is an infinite combo deck. well last time i read his decklist.
Cyxics is right about the vanilla cretures, they just dont pack enough punch in multiplayer.
So my suggestions to delete:
Rakdos Cackler
Stormblood Berserker
Butcher Ghoul
Dusk Hunter Bat
gore-house Chainwalker
Splatter Thug
Dead Reveler
Helium Squirter
Also in Multi unless you can get some more value out of discard, the 1 for 1's ARE not worth it.
Duress, Thoughtseize ect. Terrible. Try discard that hits all opponents! Death Cloud is a good example of a game ender discard in Marchesa. that was its 1 card for you 3 for opponents like Syphon Mind
Thank you for the more constructive criticism! I appreciate that a lot more.
I'll be making some changes in my list for better stand-alone creatures. Is there any merit to keeping the mana curve low? I tried to top out at 5, with the only exception being Mikaeus.
4 Marchesa, the Black Rose
Draw (7)
3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Grim Haruspex
4 Graveborn Muse
4 Tezzeret's Gambit
4 Mindless Automaton
5 Bloodgift Demon
5 River Kelpie
+1/+1 Creatures (23)
1 Rakdos Cackler
2 Ashling the Pilgrim
2 Thrill-Kill Assassin
2 Stormblood Berserker
2 Butcher Ghoul
2 Duskhunter Bat
2 Gore-House Chainwalker
2 Marchesa's Smuggler
2 Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
3 Taurean Mauler
3 Dark Impostor
3 Rockslide Elemental
3 Necroplasm
3 Splatter Thug
3 Chasm Skulker
3 Pyreheart Wolf
3 Dead Reveler
3 Hellhole Flailer
4 Treasonous Ogre
4 Dack's Duplicate
4 Hound of Griselbrand
5 Helium Squirter
6 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Carrion Feeder
2 Invisible Stalker
2 Oona's Blackguard
3 Bloodflow Connoisseur
3 Blind Zealot
4 Fleshwrither
4 Dimir House Guard
4 Aura Thief
4 Mer-Ek Nightblade
Haste (4)
2 Lightning Greaves
3 Hammer of Purphoros
4 Anger
5 Urabrask the Hidden
+1/+1 Counter distributors (3)
1 Blade of the Bloodchief
2 Curse of Stalked Prey
3 Unspeakable Symbol
Removal/Discard/Burn/Counters/Bounce (14)
1 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
2 Negate
2 Countersquall
2 Counterspell
3 Reckless Spite
3 Heat Stroke
3 Toxic Deluge
4 Slaughter
4 Clutch of the Undercity
5 Living Death
5 Dictate of Erebos
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
3 Propaganda
5 Increasing Ambition
Lands (36)
8 Swamp
7 Island
7 Mountain
1 Sulfurous Springs
1 Underground River
1 Shivan Reef
1 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Cabal Pit
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Tolaria West
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Command Tower
1 Opal palace
I'm trying to make it as aggressive as possible. currently at 101 cards. I think I might have too many 3-drops. I should be losing plenty of life with my own cards and opponents doing damage to me to avoid being on the throne. I don't entirely rely on Marchesa for counters, which I think is important.
Do I have too few lands? I have Sol Ring, but wasn't sure if it was worth it in this deck.
Am I missing anything important? How can I make this deck even faster?
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
You run some very strong cards for aggro, but other cards baffle me. Since you posted in the multi-player EDH forum, I assume that this deck was created for multi-player games. Against multiple opponents, spot effects effects don't maintain card parity and some of your creatures don't even justify the space they take up. Anyways, the topic of Marchesa aggro has been detailed to a great extent in Solrune's thread, enough to answer a most of your questions. Good luck improving your deck.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
For example, Splatter Thug is a cute beater. Simply having a 3/3 first strike that MAY recur when Marchesa is on the field is not enough. Chasm Skulker is one of the strong cards you run. They both tend to be dumb beaters, but Chasm Skulker has insane synergy with the rest of a typical Marchesa build when you draw multiple cards, make an army, and recur it again! What you may want to replace the thug with is Burnished Hart. Mana is a problem even for aggro decks sometimes and Burnished Hart does that role well even without Marchesa recurring it. In addition, it even has a 2/2 body that can help add in some damage - just shy one attack from coming into play as strong as the Thug.
Looking back on my words, I realize that I sounded a bit condescending. I apologize for that, but I still stand behind Solrune's thread. He explains his choices very well and avoids the trap of running cards simply because they interact with the general - each card provides insane synergy, aggro-relevant utility (like spot removal), or card advantage. I have only enough time to provide general advice, but Solrune has kept track of all of the juicy details.
Cyxics is right about the vanilla cretures, they just dont pack enough punch in multiplayer.
So my suggestions to delete:
Rakdos Cackler
Stormblood Berserker
Butcher Ghoul
Dusk Hunter Bat
gore-house Chainwalker
Splatter Thug
Dead Reveler
Helium Squirter
Also in Multi unless you can get some more value out of discard, the 1 for 1's ARE not worth it.
Duress, Thoughtseize ect. Terrible. Try discard that hits all opponents! Death Cloud is a good example of a game ender discard in Marchesa. that was its 1 card for you 3 for opponents like Syphon Mind
Add in some more bombs that include depth. Also most are very budget friendly! Marchesa likes a bargain
Puppeteer Clique if you can get one is an all star here
Ogre Battledriver
Grim Haruspex
Gray Merchant of Asphodel Hits every opponent, and its a enter play trigger (Better than Kokusho in this deck)
Necropolis Regent
Disciple of Bolas
Solemn Simulacrum
Sage of Fables
Sepulchral Primordial
Diluvian Primordial
Molten Primordial
ect ect
I'll be making some changes in my list for better stand-alone creatures. Is there any merit to keeping the mana curve low? I tried to top out at 5, with the only exception being Mikaeus.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Here is Dual Commander list if you want some inspiration.
BChainer, Dementia Master(Big Mana/Reanimator)
BRRakdos, The Showstopper (Mass Life Loss/Ramp)
BUThe Scarab God (Zombie Tribal/Control)
BWKarlov of the Ghost Council (Life Gain)
BGJarad, Golgari Lich Lord (Stompy/Dredge)
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher (Tokens/Non-infinite Combo)