MTG Salvation

Okay, the second I saw her spoiled for Conspiracy, Marchesa, the Black Rose immediately tickled my fancy. Here's a Grixis-colored legend that has a lot of unique mechanics not common for Grixis - mainly +1/+1 counter manipulation. However, this opened the floodgates of inspiration for me. Not only do a lot of creatures that fit this color pie enter the battlefield with +1/+1 triggers already (and a lot of artifact creatures as well (modular)), but a lot of other mechanics can be abused - mainly undying, unleash, and graft. Also, devour becomes brutal as it becomes a way to sacrifice a ton of creatures that will undoubtedly return to play at the end of turn. This provides a canvas to paint some exquisite carnage!

I really hope to be the one to break this general and eventually get some Primer classification. So, any ideas, suggestions, comments would be greatly appreciated! I fell in love with Marchesa, the Black Rose the moment I saw her and apart from some pretty expensive cards (Sneak Attack and dual lands) this deck is relatively inexpensive. Most of the cards are crappy rares, uncommons, or commons. So most of you could even build it with cards you have hanging around 'cause even the sets are relatively new as well. The only money would be for the lands. And it's never a bad investment in MtG to invest in lands. So it's actually a great and easy deck to build if interested. It's some-what intermediate level difficult to pilot (sometimes the strategy needs to change on the fly when having an aggro-theme in a multiplayer environment) but it's pretty manageable. Anywho, on with the unveiling!


This deck wants to hit as hard as possible as fast as possible. However, this deck also takes advantage of the Grixis color pie to include some staxing effects as well. Basically this deck is all boardwipe with instant recuperation. Creatures either already enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters thus pretty much making them immortal thanks to Marchesa, the Black Rose and combined with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed all non-humans are pretty much guaranteed to never die. The "lords" category takes advantage of creatures with +1/+1 counters on them (with the exception of Mikaeus who gives a boost and undying) giving all creatures with +1/+1 counters on them an ability.

The deck has synergy by the bucketload and has a mid/range aggro feel to it coupled with some stax. The deck can also win by burning and paining thanks to cards like Blood Artist, Purphoros, God of the Forge, etc. Though control and pillowfort decks can hurt me, I doubt they can recover from boardwipes like Nevinyrral's Disk and Obliterate. Obliterate and Jokulhaups are brutal here. Nobody's got any lands and the only creatures around are mine!

This deck can also produce an insane amount of mana (Phyrexian Altar, Black Market, etc.) to cast an epic Exsanguinate. Not so much so as to entirely win the game, but maybe take out those near-death players and gain a good amount of life to ensure my eventual victory.


This deck is running like a charm. Whenever it stalls it doesn't really stall 'cause I'll always be attacking and sac-ing to burn, etc. Wipes don't hurt me in the slightest. Sure, Cyclonic Rift, Devastation Tide, Terminus, Final Judgement, Merciless Eviction, etc. can really hurt but then again all I'd have to do is eliminate the Esper player as fast as possible.

Cards I'm considering but yet have spots for them:
Stensia Bloodhall and Shivan Gorge are lands that help for creatures with bloodthirst, which I would like to include in the deck but yet have some space for any of them (really want to add Furyborn Hellkite). I'd also like to add some creatures with devour to really take advantage of some of the stax cards and cards that take advantage of creature death (like Preyseizer Dragon and Predator Dragon). I also want to find space for Crosis's Attendant. His sacrifice provides UBR for a measly 1. That's BR for Tymaret, the Murder King to use his ability or for Olivia Voldaren as well. Then he just comes back at end of turn. Either way, he sac's himself to activate stax effects. Self sac-ing and mana? I would really like to find some space for him. I somewhat would like to add Devastation, just so I have a third card that gives the deck a Ernamageddon feel. These become especially broken mid-to-late game.

So! Again, any suggestions, ideas, comments are greatly appreciated and desired! Thanks for reading!

Reserved.

I think some of your choices in constructing this deck are pretty sweet, but there are a bunch of questionable includes here.

Armory of Iroas is really slow and doesn't grant any other abilities. You probably just want to use Marchesa to add counters to your attacking creatures. I'd replace this with a mana rock.

Elixir of Immortality and Feldon's Cane don't really do anything. I'd probably just jam one of the Eldrazi that shuffle your graveyard back into your library in this spot if I were looking for that sort of effect, especially because you're already running Sneak Attack. If you're trying to protect your graveyard from Bojuka Bog style effects, I recommend Witchbane Orb because it also just randomly hoses other targeted effects as opposed to doing absolutely nothing when your opponents aren't trying to exile your graveyard. That said, shuffling your graveyard back into your library is a pretty hard nombo with Marchesa because all of the creatures that were going to come back due to her ability will now be in your library, unable to return to the battlefield.

Power Conduit Lets you move one counter once per turn cycle from one creature to another, which is kinda cute with unleash I guess. (emergency blockers?) but it seems really weak. I get that a lot of your creatures come back with counters on them already, so you can use it immediately, but taking counters off of your dudes doesn't look like what you want to be doing. There are admittedly very few +1/+1 counter enablers in grixis colors, but Dragon Blood just seems better despite the mana cost being higher. I'd also include Mephidross Vampire over this, too. Plus, it makes your Blade of the Bloodchief slightly better.

Bloodfray Giant and Evernight Shade aren't particularly impressive creatures in Commander. Even if you get them back for free, most of your opponents' creatures will outclass them fairly quickly. Bloodfray giant is at least a little undercosted and has trample, but Evernight Shade is really weak, especially in a three color deck. I can't ever imagine a situation where I want to spend mana to make this guy better than a ridiculously overcosted Grizzly Bears. I think you'd be better of swapping these out with sweet creatures to recur each turn, like Hellhole Flailer (he can sacrifice himself to basically lava axe somebody and comes in with a +1/+1 counter!) and Solemn Simulacrum.

Sage of Hours is never ever going to get to 5 counters unless you do something like immediately pay 15-30 life to Unspeakable Symbol. That actually sounds really awesome now that I think about it, but outside of that situation, this guy would just be better off as a Time Warp if your goal is to take a bunch of extra turns. Especially since you can recur Archaeomancer.

Rockslide Elemental falls into same camp as Evernight Shade, and that camp is called "Overcosted tiny creatures that you have to jump through a bunch of hoops for before they're even remotely a threat."

Oona's Blackguard wants to put +1/+1 counters on creatures so bad, but the only other rogue in the deck is Taurean Mauler, so it just ends up as a Larceny that dies to creature removal and doesn't necessarily affect all of your creatures.

Rage Forger will certainly be forging your rage as you realize that the only creatures in your deck that this puts a +1/+1 counter on are Taurean Mauler and Ashling the Pilgrim, both of which can get +1/+1 counters just fine by themselves. This just wants to be a Hellrider.

Triskelion is pretty cute with Marchesa and a free sac outlet, but a really boring way to combo the table out with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed.

Ordeal of Purphoros is bad. Commander is a format where Lightning Bolt is bad, and this card is much worse than bolt. You'd be much better off using one of the rings from Magic 2013.

Ordeal of Thassa is similarly bad. It's a tall order for a creature wearing one of these to survive long enough to use it. Just run Concentrate or something if you want to draw cards. You've got blue, you don't need to settle for easily disrupted conditional drawing.

Crypt of Agadeem 14 black creatures probably isn't enough to run this. Also ideally, your creatures aren't actually spending much time actually in your graveyard for this to be much better than just a Swamp.

Thran Quarry The drawback here is significant. A basic would be better, probably.

Hello there!
I think you'll want to streamline your deck to take advantage of some of the better ETB creatures that exist and also see if there's a way where you can just put a +1/+1 counter on a creature at will.
For creatures that have good and useful ETB effects,
Solemn Simulacrum is prolly the best thing you could ask for. It has ETB abilities and it also has death abilities. This is prolly the perfect card for this deck.
Rune-Scarred Demon is also good and if there were a way to give it +1/+1 counters at will and a sac outlet then you would be fantastic.
Deadeye Navigator is not necessarily a card that has relevant abilities, you'l' be wanting a similar effect that your commander brings to the table. Deadeye is an obvious inclusion here and really shines in repeating ETB effects.
Havengul Lich would also be really strong as a reanimator here and combined with River Kelpie makes for great card advantage.
These are just some initial thoughts on cards that you can add to replace the cards that Oracletext is suggesting you take out. I agree with his suggestions. Other card effects that you'll want are cards that give your creatures haste so that they can immediately take advantage of Marchesa's ability. The real power of this type of deck will come when you can abuse your creatures by sacrificing them with +1/+1 counters so that Marchesa reanimates them for free and can do that each turn.
Thinking about your deck, Mikaeus single-handedly becomes the most powerful card in your deck. He will always be your first tutor target and the thing you most desperately want to protect. While Marchesa enables her own effect, Mikaeus makes her effect unconditional, meaning you can put +1/+1 counters and your dude without having to depend on attacking your opponent. Your graveyard will want to be protected as well so that people can't mess with it easily. There's a Cerebrus from the Theros set that would be a good inclusion here.

@ Oracletext:
Thanks for the solid advice and thorough analysis! Yeah, I was so excited with this general that I took a bunch of cards I had laying around (and some leftovers from my Nekusar, the Mindrazer EDH and just saw what I could muster together! Okay, so let me go through your suggestions point for point:

• Armory of Iroas: yeah, it might seem slow, though it's a good alternative (granted not as good as) Blade of the Bloodchief or
• Unspeakable Symbol. But removing it does give me space for Chromatic Lantern.
• Elixir of Immortality and Feldon's Cane: definitely, the deck could do without these. That's frees up two slots (for
• Dragon Blood and Devastation).
• Power Conduit: thanks for the suggestion of replacing it with Mephidross Vampire!
• Bloofray Giant, Evernight Shade, and Rockslide Elemental: Hellhole Flailer I actually forgot to put in the list - I even have the card physically in the deck. Don't know what happened there :/. Solemn Simulacrum would be good but I don't run basic lands in tricolored EDH decks. But now I have three slots freed up! Preferably three creatures.
• Sage of Hours: that one's staying. He gets those counters on faster than you think.
• Rage Forger and Oona's Blackguard: These may not be as useful as could be due to their tribal nature. However, they are cheap to cast. Otherwise this deck would be too expensive manawise. But I understand your point. Besides, they can always be used as sac-fodder.
• Hellrider was actually a card I was considering adding in. Let's see if there'll eventually be some space in there for it.
• Triskelion: Triskelion goes infinite with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. It stays for sure!
• the Ordeals: yeah, I get what you mean. They're in there more for the ability to grant +1/+1 counters more than their ability when sacrificed. But the rings seem like a good thing to replace them with (which I was trying to see how to find space for them anyways so thanks for that!).
• Crypt of Agadeem: maybe I can play another utility land. Maybe Maze of Ith.
• Thran Quarry: not as bad as it seems. The worst that can happen is it getting destroyed but this deck is too creature heavy for that to happen. And by the time it does it's already accomplished it goal. Besides, this deck run Obliterate and Jokulhaups so my lands are gonna go bye-bye anyways à la Ernamageddon.

@ benjameenbear:
Welcome to MTG Salvation! Thanks for the recommendations. I'll probably add Rune-Scarred Demon for sure being as he'd get resurrected every turn! As for Havengul Lich I don't really need to cast creatures from the graveyard. They get reanimated automatically and for free thanks to Marchesa, the Black Rose.

Thanks for all your recommendations! A report with how it's testing and what the new decklist is will be posted eventually!

Okay, here's the new decklist with some (almost) changes. It's much more efficient and I decided to point out some possible infinite combos that ensue:

Infinite combos:

• Glen Elendra Archmage/River Kelpie/Murderous Redcap + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + sac outlet = infinite creature recursion
• Glen Elendra Archmage/River Kelpie/Murderous Redcap + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Ashnod's Altar/Phyrexian Altar = infinite colorless mana/infinite U/B/R
• Sage of Hours equipped with Blade of the Bloodchief + infinite creature recursion = infinite turns
• Triskelion/Murderous Redcap + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + sac outlet = infinite damage + infinite creature recursion
• Butcher of Malakir/Grave Pact + infinite creature recursion = opponents' creature board wipe
• Deathbringer Thoctar + infinite creature recursion = infinite damage
• Workhorse + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed = infinite colorless mana + infinite creature recursion
• Blood Artist + infinite creature recursion = infinite damage + infinite life
• Flayer of the Hatebound/Purphoros, God of the Forge/Stalking Vengeance/Warstorm Surge + infinite creature recurson = infinite damage
• Harvester of Souls/River Kelpie + infinite creature recursion = infinite draw
• Black Market + infinite creature recursion = infinite black mana
• infinite creature recursion → Goblin Bombardment = infinte damage

edit:
Excluding dual lands, Sneak Attack, and Damnation, this deck costs around $375 to build (due in part because of the lands which are the only cards that fluctuate between $10-$30). All other cards are either crap rares or extremely easy to obtain commons and uncommons that more than likely you'll either have or know people who have a bunch of them. If you're looking for a cheaper build, you can replace the dual lands with the Odyssey filter lands (or Lorwyn/Shadowmoor filter lands if you're able to afford them), use Decree of Pain instead of Damnation, and use a land for Sneak Attack to help accelerate the deck a bit more. These changes greatly reduce the amount of money this deck'll cost ya (at least I'm fortunate enough to have these cards). Of course, Marchesa, the Black Rose herself has not been taken into consideration, but let's hope she won't be as expensive as Dack Fayden will probably be!

Until next update!

Sunder and Zur's wierding are awesome cards

Well, casting Zur's Weirding after casting Sunder is basically game over - if you've got life enough, that is ;).

Wierding with a strong creature or two and no answers in Hand is already gg.

Zur's Weirding + Leyline of the Void = scoop up

Hey, thanks for posting this! I've been trying to come up w/ a 'Geddon-based Marchesa list and this one fits the bill the closest. I would only suggest a couple of efficient tutors such as Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor and Mystical Tutor to support the game-plan. Also, I think you would like Death Cloud since your dorks can come back and nobody would have a hand left to try to deal w/ their return. Sure works for me. Also, outside of Lighting Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots I feel that other haste effects would be unnecessary since you'd most likely cast a world-wrecking spell after you've attacked w/ dethrone to make sure your creatures return. Just my 2 cents.

Hmmm... How do you feel about just having some enter-the-battlefield value dorks (e.g. the Primordials) just to support Marchesa's 3rd ability to replace some low-impact +1/+1 counter-based creatures?

No sweat! Well, there are dozens of ways to play with this deck. I also considered using creatures with devour, bloodthirst, and modular. They work great. But as the available cardpool was too high, I had to eliminate some strategies so as to get the 99 cards limit.

I didn't include tutors because all the cards work so well and have such great synergy. Also, I don't really need to go infinite combo all the time. Usually, the beatdown is enough. If the game progresses far enough, I'd usually be able to set up going infinite anyways. What I do want to make room for is Leyline of Anticipation, Leyline of the Void, and Zur's Weirding.

I've been incredibly busy lately so I haven't had much time to test this deck out further, but I'll probably have an updated decklist along with playtest findings by the end of next week.

Yup, I used part of your creature base to assemble my list, used only the ones that can be independently useful and strong and not rely too much on each other. I also included pure value ETB dorks w/ effects that are REALLY WORTH IT when they come back Yeah; usually one Obliterate effect ought to do it. You can swap out the Curse of Stalked Prey for Leyline of Anticipation, since I tested the card to be underwhelming at times due to it being just focused on one player.

Yeah, this deck works extremely well since it's not so combo-dependent. Most of the creatures work on their own and the only real important combo is Marchesa + Mikaeus.

Coincidentally, I had just made that exact swap (Curse of Stalked Prey for Leyline of Anticipation) being as I really needed to add Leyline of Anticipation to this deck. There's a lot of ways to use sacs to generate mana during every other player's turn since they come back thanks to Machesa. I can literally play my whole hand by the time it's my turn again. Also, playing wraths at instant speed is a big plus!

All I need to do is find some space for Leyline of the Void and Zur's Weirding. They lock down the game the second they're in play. They make you an instant target being as losing life to Weirding means you can always use dethrone and also eliminates cards your opponents could draw to hurt you. Yet, with that combo locked down, the game's as good as yours.

hmm... Garza Zol, Plague Queen and Sphinx of Magosi for card-draw with +1/+1 counters? I even have Graveborn Muse and Bloodgift Demon because they can come back anyway.

Sphinx of Magosi is a great card if you can manage the mana. I'm also seriously considering adding Vela the Night-Clad. However, she makes opponents lose life, which may hinder dethrone. Still, if I sac enough creatures, they'll lose life pretty fast.

Hello there! If you need some ideas, I have been fine tuning a list myself with the help of many others.

You can see it here.

I go through pretty much the whole gambit of options and what works and what hasn't worked for me. Hope that helps!

Quote from theonecalledrune »

Hello there! If you need some ideas, I have been fine tuning a list myself with the help of many others.

You can see it here.

I go through pretty much the whole gambit of options and what works and what hasn't worked for me. Hope that helps!

Lol, yeah, I saw your post and it's pretty decent! There are a couple of things I would eliminate (like Archaeomancer since you only run 4 instants/sorceries), the 3 Myr, Anger, Filth, Master of Waves, Voidmage Prodigy, and Fleshwrither). At first glance they don't seem to fit in and upon closer inspection, there are a lot more cards out there that you can fill those gaps with.

I've yet to update my list because I've found that the boardwipes I've been using became superfluous. I switched them out for Quicksilver Amulet (really picked up the pace as to dropping fatties really fast), Vela the Night-Clad, Urabrask the Hidden, and Diabolic Intent. I'm still undecided as to whether adding any more B tutors or not but I like playing with what I get. From what you can tell by my dissection, this deck has a lot of different ways to play.

The myr will most likely be replaced by signets to help speed the deck up as well. Master of waves I am most likely cutting due to being a bit win-more. Archaeomancer is on the chopping block for the very reasons you stated and because he is way outclassed by Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed.

Now for the things I wouldn't play Marchesa without:
Anger is absolutely insane, I would only cut it if they print a really strong haste enabler. It is the (used to be)sole reason I run Entomb. Haste is that good. Filth is an answer me or die quickly anthem for the deck, granting evasion with urborg, tomb of yawgmoth out.

Voidmage Prodigy + Sage of Fables + Marchesa, the Black Rose = A swinging board lock. Voidmage has saved my hide from many combos so far, and will continue to do so.(Marchesa is a wizard too in a pinch!)

Fleshwrither is a recurring creature tutor on steroids. It can be any number of things for just 1BB. I've done this line in particular quite a few times:
Sac fleshwrither, grab xiahou dun, sac xiohou dun, recur living death, cast living death, sac fleshwrither, grab necrotic ooze, sac xiohou dun, recur living death. For 11 mana I tutored two creatures, boardwiped(usually), and have a living death still in hand, with a necrotic ooze that usually has some insane abilties. One of the best creatures in the deck honestly, and that's without it being recurred by marchesa.

Those are some pretty card dependent combos that wouldn't necessarily carry synergy amongst each other. You should consider having even more tutors to better your chances. And yes, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed is pretty broken. Even more so if you had some B tutors.