MTG Salvation

After reading the topic from Toonamiguy about Marchesa, I made different lists to a 1v1 game, but I feel that I can't think in any new ideas to she become more fast, and possibly be competitive. So, I'm asking for you help to improve this. My meta is very competitive.

The deck itself doesn't go necessarily for a aggro strategy, but can control with discard, MLD, milling, soft and hard locks, and counterspells. I tried to remove a maximum possible of high cmc, retaining only the things I suppose that are really important. I also optimized the mana base, with artifacts, but in some tests I got many lands and few creatures. I retired all the artifact ramp to be more linear, and noticed that I don't want to play Marchesa on T3 unless I had a perfect opening hand, and this can paint a target over her in earlier turns. There's some infinite combos, but I'm afraid that I can't find them in time to win, even there's some draw engines. Retired the original combos (Mikaeus + Triskellion, Kiki-Jiki + Pestermite) due the necessity of more consistency for longs games. Some cards in the list I didn't acquired yet, and things like Sneak Attack are out of my budget.

On Watchlist, there's some thinks I want to try, but don't know wath to cut to test them. Some counters had the UU in cost, and can be a bit dificult to reach them fast enough.

You could get some ideas from my list, it's built for a cut throat multiplayer meta.

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

A few recommendations to your list I would recommend:

Drop vicious shadows, add sneak attack : Sneak Attack is incredible.
Drop Altar of dementia, and all the infect dudes, they are pretty much all bad besides skittles as they don't focus on your opponent from the same angle.
Add haste enablers like Anger, Urabrask the Hidden, Hammer of Purphoros
Add Kira, the Great Glass-Spinner, protect your general from tuck and exile.
Drop Maralen of Mornsong for Zealous Conscripts(Kiki's best friend)

I don't want to go for a totally aggro route, let's see if the changes are good.

Removed some few times used cards (Rhystic Study, Stranglehold, Maralen) , to put more synergic ones (Pestermite, Zealous Conscripts, Urabrask). Not sure if needs more haste enablers, but more tests may change this. I don't know if Kira is really necessary, not much tuck and exile in my meta. Sneak Attack still out of my budget.

I tried again to reduce the medium cmc of the deck, but still not sure if it's fast enough to be Duel Competitive.

Here's my deck...so far I played in 3 events and I'm 9-0 with it, I realllllly like it. It's always nice to fetch for a shockland, leave it untap just to lose some life

http://magic-ville.com/fr/decks/showdeck.php?388477

So what do you do once you have the life advantage? You seem to lose a lot of synergy that the deck has... Right? Or do you just expect to be ahead by that point so that it no longer matters?

In the end, It really doesn't matter. When you start the game, you do want to lower your life total, cast something like True Name Nemesis, a flying creature and then Marchesa. All your guys have dethrone with counter on them. No matter what they do, they will comeback (always nice to have counter magic of course). I often go down to 16-17 by myselft to keep up with my opponent and be sure to have dethrone. Fetch a shockland untapped, use mana confluence, add a U with shivam reef etc....and so far, It's been pretty good. The only matchup that gave me a hard time was Prossh cause he still make guys when you counter it...and the fact that my opponent had a grave pact in play

After many playtests with my friends, we went to a small tourney here, and I failed miserably with this deck. My original idea was to be aggro and control the board, but didn't happen one single time. I don't know if the deck have many failures, or if was just unlucky of mine, but every opponent had better opening hands, and consistence on draws and tutors. So, after seeing the list from xchrisbx (some posts ago), I accept that I need to play with control style rather than aggro. I removed some high cmc to improve with control spells, like counters and removals, and I hope this changes helps my deck to be more competitive inf futures tourneys.

The decks I fought on the tourney was Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, GAAIV, Thraximundar and Maelstrom. My playgroup are composed by Saint-Traft, GAAIV, Wydwen, Marath x2, Skithiryx, Sharuum, Atheros, Nahiri, the Lithomancer.

Small changes, to accomodate more control spells:

- Duskmantle Seer, + Graveborn Muse. Help my opponent more than me, so changed it.
- Serendib Efreet, + Herald of Torment. Better option, due two ways to cast it.
- Creeping Tar Pit, - Lavaclaw Reaches, + Island, + Mountain. They are good, but I need to fight some nonbasic land hate.
- Sanity Gnawers, - Thoughtpicker Witch, - Distress. Viables, but they are a bit slow to make a good effect (3cmc, need to sac a creature, double BB on cost).
- Treasure Cruise, - Spell Pierce. Good spells, but they are for more controlish list.
+ Urabrask the Hidden. Needed a haste enabler for a resolved Living Death.
+ Rolling Earthquake. Good mass removal, don't target, punishes all players.
+ Arcane Denial, + Memory Lapse, + Miscalculation. Fast counters to stop dangerous spells, even if just delay them.

Im working on a Marchesa deck as well. A couple questions for you. How do you like Fire Covenant? I'm debating running it in my list but i have a couple concerns? I know in Marchesa life loss isnt so bad and sometimes is even a boon, but do you ever find it makes you lose to much life? Do you ever wish it was a more reliable board wipe like Toxic Deluge, to deal with hexproof, shroud, protection and indestructible?

If you click my link in my signature you can check out my deck if you ever feel the need for inspiration.