I'm actually trying to add more burn to my Marchesa with the goal of always doming the lowest life total. I attack the high life totals to get those sweet +1/+1s but I still want to win and winning involves eliminating players. If someone's life total is too low for you to conceivably attack for a Dethrone, just kill them off.
Does anyone have a current decklist? I tore Marchesa apart roughly 8 months ago and built Ghave (a deck that really only shares the sac for value theme). Well Ghave isn't going anywhere but I miss Marchesa. Also, I gotta say... this commander has gotten spoiled rotten recently with all her new toys (other than that crown... she don't need no stinking crown).
Erebos? Seems like a filler card to me, and too mana intensive to use his draw abilities for this deck.
I was thinking Hope of Ghirapur for fun annoying recursion. Gonna add and see.
Anyone already had the pleasure of playing with Marchesa's new toys? Curious how they played out! For me, Metallic Mimic, Yehenni, Undying Partisan and Treasure Keeper all made it in, but unfortunately can't play a game until next week..
All in all set looks great so far, my Brago and Ezuri both got new stuff as well ^^
Anyone already had the pleasure of playing with Marchesa's new toys? Curious how they played out! For me, Metallic Mimic, Yehenni, Undying Partisan and Treasure Keeper all made it in, but unfortunately can't play a game until next week..
All in all set looks great so far, my Brago and Ezuri both got new stuff as well ^^
Metallic Mimic is a superstar. He is just as busted as we thought. He's Sage of Fables on crack because not only is he cheaper but he can change his type around mid-game to better fit the tech you have. You can loop anything with a pulse now, not just wizards. I highly recommend looping a Solemn Simulacrum once a turn for a round.
Treasure Keeper is cool. Only played him once so far in a very weird game. We do planechase EDH a lot and an opponent decided to play Chaos Warp with Glimmervoid Basin out there. He then followed it with a Swords to Plowshares so that's why he was willing to risk the nasty creatures coming out. Obviously I was ill-prepared for this particular form of removal since I had just been warp world'ed so all keeper ended up doing was getting sac'ced instead of plowed to net me a permanent instead of additional life and hand off the throne to someone else. Not terribly exciting but not bad either.
Yahenni, Undying Partisan hasn't made it onto the battlefield yet. Sac effects are always good, I'm not really expecting much more out of him. Maybe if I face off against a token deck sometime he'll do something awesome.
I haven't gotten too many games in yet. I handed it off to someone else to try out, although he wasn't able to set up modular madness in any of his games (the deck is not that intuitive to learn).
This may not be the right place to ask, but I will anyway:
say I have three creatures on board, all with +1/+1 counters: Marchesa, a Trinket Mage, and a clone. Opponent wraths. Marchesa will bring them all back, but they're all separate triggered abilities and are all going on the stack at the same time, right? Which in turn means that I can arrange them so that the clone comes back last (and is thus able to copy the Trinket Mage)?
This may not be the right place to ask, but I will anyway:
say I have three creatures on board, all with +1/+1 counters: Marchesa, a Trinket Mage, and a clone. Opponent wraths. Marchesa will bring them all back, but they're all separate triggered abilities and are all going on the stack at the same time, right? Which in turn means that I can arrange them so that the clone comes back last (and is thus able to copy the Trinket Mage)?
That's correct. Marchesa sets up delayed triggers for each creature that happen at the same time and you may order them however you please since they are all your triggers. You may put them onto the battlefield in whatever order you want.
Modern: UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy: UWBMiracles
Edh: UUUThassa Control WWWHokori Stax GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy BBBGriselbrand French List RBGShattergang(Super Villians) RWGHazezon Flicker UBRMarchesa Aggro URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)
Any updates new ideas for Marchesa now Aether Revolt is made its trickle effects? I for one am trying Noosegraf Mob in my deck, (non infinite, midrange). Seems like quite the creature spewer and easily recurrable.
Part of the value of Marchesa is that she generates tons of value. However in my experience, to play her the most effectively, you will want to have creatures on board before she comes down. If you want a t-4 Marchesa, you need 1-3 drop creatures to get the most value out of her.
I would recommend against adding additional 6-drops, and instead add more 1-3s. Curving out feels amazing in this deck.
I wholly concur with this. I'm currently using five six drops - Deathrender, Helm of Possession, Scourge of the Throne, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Flayer of the Hatebound. Two of those are 4 cost artifacts with two mana activations, I'm thinking of cutting Helm because it costs too much for its affect and use Aetherworks Marvel instead. Reducing this number is critical, which is why sometimes I ponder of cutting the Dragon even though it has massive damage amounts and when a Deathrender doesn't perform as well I get a little antsy and want to cut it.
Anyway, I've been pushing my creature curve as long as possible but to maintain a midrange, I'm going with more 'brute force' creatures than utility ETBs. A Turn 3 Yahenni, Undying Partisan or Prohphetic Flamespeaker is way more important than some four, five or six drop. I've included Thrummingbird as a way to quickly gain +1/+1 counters to focus down the table and I'm looking for more creatures that scale very quickly for that. The next set that'll be very helpful for Marchesa is the next one that abuses +1/+1 counters as a mechanic.
The only problem my Marchesa is having right now is lack of mana consistently due to not having the Shadowmoor Filterlands and I need to get a card advantage engine going or I'm in big trouble. I'm thinking of putting in Notion Thief as a way to combat other players draws while supplementing my own. I need a ton of card advantage to keep my pain train going, as my creatures' +1/+1 status is continually being reset. This has made me explore other options, like Wight of Precinct Six - no matter how many +1/+1 counters on him, he's going to be bigger than any other starting creature probably.
Flayer, mikeaus, and scourge for me, and I still run rune-scarred as my only thing above 6. I have won quite a few games off of a sneak-attack into a rune scarred into every clone in my deck copying rune scarred. I think keeping the curve as low as possible is the way to go, but play what you like.
Modern: UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy: UWBMiracles
Edh: UUUThassa Control WWWHokori Stax GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy BBBGriselbrand French List RBGShattergang(Super Villians) RWGHazezon Flicker UBRMarchesa Aggro URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)
As I have been playing this more, having more value 2 and 3 drops really makes the difference between games.
Even if you get wiped early, having a lower CMC of in your deck lets you top-deck more live draws as the game goes on. This also makes it so that you can run fine on 4-6 lands, instead of having to get to 8 mana in order to make 2 plays a turn. If the game goes long, most of your mana is probably spent recasting Marchesa anyways. Mikaeus and Flayer have both proven themselves crazy game-enders. I cut Scourge of the Throne because too consistently I had the highest life total by the time the dragon came down.
Because I had a lower curve, it let me cut a bunch of the 2 mana rocks, because I don't really want to be playing them anymore. I would much rather play creatures turns 1-4 than making mana rocks.
As I have been playing this more, having more value 2 and 3 drops really makes the difference between games.
Even if you get wiped early, having a lower CMC of in your deck lets you top-deck more live draws as the game goes on. This also makes it so that you can run fine on 4-6 lands, instead of having to get to 8 mana in order to make 2 plays a turn. If the game goes long, most of your mana is probably spent recasting Marchesa anyways. Mikaeus and Flayer have both proven themselves crazy game-enders. I cut Scourge of the Throne because too consistently I had the highest life total by the time the dragon came down.
Because I had a lower curve, it let me cut a bunch of the 2 mana rocks, because I don't really want to be playing them anymore. I would much rather play creatures turns 1-4 than making mana rocks.
I run Legion Loyalist as a low drop that works surpringly well here. His haste makes him very resilient and he's quite the surprise for your opponents... just think of him as a mini Marton Stromgald (that doesn't have to make it around the table to be relevant).
Hey there guys a little while back I posted a comment about Indomitable Creativity and if it has a place in this deck or not. After a few weeks of playing with it in I think it 100% deserves a spot in this deck. I have been able to use it around 5 times in these few weeks and every time I got it in hand getting the triple red wasn't to hard to do (I am running nearly all fetches, shocks, and a few lands that tap for any color). Whenever I used it I would normally have marchesa out and 1-2 creatures and all had +1/+1 counters on them so for x=3 I would get to have all the creatures I killed re enter the battlefield so more etb triggers, and I would get 3 creatures (40ish creatures and like 8 artifacts in my deck) from my library out into play which would just double my boardstate. You can also pay one more into it to snipe someones commander dead and in my meta a lot of my players aren't very creature good stuff deck so they normally get a mana rock, or some value creature, but not normally a big crazy creatures like blightsteel or anything. So I think you guys should take a second look at this card and test it out in your deck.
I was initially interested in Indomitable Creativity but I think it would cause me to restructure my deck too much to include. I have a Black bias in my Marchesa, being able to get RRR consistently would mean using much more expensive lands. I use the standard ramp package of Sol Ring, the two Talisamsn, the three Signets, Chromatic Lantern and Ashnod's Altar. Yes, I acknowledge Phyrexian Altar would be better but it's $30 so... I'll stick to my two dollar solution.
This means after retooling my deck to getting RRR more consistently, it would have to be without Artifact mana because I wouldn't want to hit that on Creativity resolving. Now, it does seem like my deck might be heading in that way. Especially with the Solrune Hive Mind agreeing that getting early utility drops, but then again, I would need to improve my mana base signifcantly with Shocks, Fetches, etc. If I did that I could probably cut a lot of the artifact mana and could have the bodies that would really be able to take advantage of an Indomitable Creavitivty. But if I'm lacking in artifact mana I couldn't ramp it out as hard, so it seems to be a Catch-22.
That's why I'm not using Indomitable Creativity. Currently I am tempted with adding Kokusho, the Evening Star in place of Scourge of the Throne as there's been times when I'm a dangerously low on life. Notion Thief is another creature I'm thinking of adding in place of the Scourge because aggro needs draw for Gas to keep up the pressure. Marchesa might not take as many losses as other traditional aggro decks, but she still needs to up the threat factor. Marchesa can't allow the Battlecruiser Magic to come online and tries to kill the table before that with her scaling threats. If someone can answer it, we're in trouble.
I'm also realizing that I'm a little light on Sac outlets. Currently, I am toying with Sadistic Hypnotist but I didn't like it. Too often I would sacrifice creatures to strip hands, then someone would topdeck a kill spell and permanently kill a creature because it only resurrected at the end of my turn instead of during an opponent's. Another sac outlet I am toying with the idea of is Culling Dias, we need draw and a way to kill our creatures and it does both.
With all of these factors, I'm currently holding off on making changes. The upcoming set is Nicol Bolas' home plane, I'm hoping for some Grixis goodness.
Otherwise, the last big change was adding Aetherworks Marvel after seeing other Marchesas in my meta really abuse it.
I absolutely love Sadistic Hypnotist. If I can land it I typically can strip at least one opponent's hand, and you typically target the most threatening one. More often than not I can just kill all opponents' hands, and then you basically win. I also run Mindslicer, and occasionally Sire of Insanity because that effect is just so powerful.
First off, I mostly Lurk also wall of text incoming. But this thread is amazing, I have been flowing it for some time. Great job Solrune and everyone else. I would love input/advice from fellow Marchesa players. I have been playing my Marchesa list for about a year now, but EDH since Innistrad.
I would like to improve my mana base with fethces, however all my money for that has gone into my Omnath, locus of rage land matters deck. (Good lord is he fun!)
Thanks for reading I would love feedback or suggestions. Are my cuts on track? Any better ideas?
Apologies for formatting errors, I am new to posting here.
Has anyone ever tried running Sunder? Seems like being the only player w/ a respectable board and then casting an effective Armageddon might be useful.
@ Alavaster7: I disagree with the Skullclamp cut. I think you just need to lower your curve, which will allow for more 'inefficiencies' that Equipment needs. If you perfectly curve, you don't have time to pay Equipment costs. If you have less expensive cards, suddenly you do. Hell, I'm considering adding a few Swords of X and Y to my Marchesa to give my dorks more punch.
Otherwise, I agree with every cut except for Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch and Swiftfoot Boots. To me, the Witch seems so overrated. Sure, she's a 4/4 with Haste and First Strike that 'never dies' but you can do better than that at four mana. Her other ability of giving creatures with +1/+1 counters Haste does nothing in this deck - if they already have +1/+1 counters, they've already swung at someone to Dethrone. As for the Boots, Marchesa draws a lot of hate. Your whole strategy revolves around having her stick around. If no one in your meta is running any spot removal, sure, you could get away with the Boots. I'm actually looking for even more ways to protect Marchesa - such as with Kira, Great Glass-Spinner.
As for your testing list, I use everything in there except Spellskite but that's because it costs $20, not because I don't want it. There's no Matter Reshaper vs Treasure Keeper, it's use both! If you can get them looping with some combination of Metallic Mimic/Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and a sac outlet, you generate insane advantage. I have started testing Hanweir Garrison, in addition to the Battlements, as a way to go wide, but also because of some digging I did when I played around with an Infect version of Marchesa and discovered Breath of Fury. Garrison and that is an infinite attack step but more importantly, Breath is a psuedo-sac outlet and good even if we're not swinging forever.
I'm looking to add one or two more sac outlets, so I can tell you that Yahenni, Undying Partisan works out perfectly. He's also part of my 'growers' package where I have very large guys that people need to block or they'll take a lot of the face. I use Grave Pact to accelerate his accumulation of +1/+1 counters but to be honest, it's unnecessary. People will naturally try to Wrath the board and that's when Yahenni gets big.
@ Slikwilly: I think Jokulhaups is the definite haymaker. If you're going to piss off the table, might as well win. It's also easy to telegraph with 5 mana open. And since we're playing Aggro, leaving mana unspent is hurtful - specifically with Marchesa being a tempo deck. After all, we don't have the big mana combos or creatures that everybody else in the format does; we grow our beaters.
My build is quite different, but here is my input on the cards you are testing.
Spellskite: An unkillable spellskite is a thing to behold. Even more so for me where I'm abusing modular shenanigans and therefore have the opportunity to re-protect it without attacking. Keep in mind that skite is a disruption tool as well as protection. Treasure Keeper: It is decent, but not crazy. Unless you have modular shenanigans or bad mike. Then it is crazy. Metallic Mimic: Fantastic card. You can name human or wizard, but if you have shapeshifters that keep their creature type, they get looped too. I accidentally figured this out when saccing Duplicant. Westvale Abbey: Pretty hard to have the 5 creatures you want to sac for this thing. Colorless land slots are premium too. Hanweir Battlements: I have no experience with the card. I have no space for it. Yahenni, Undying Partisan: need to find room to test.
Out of cuts, I personally am still a fan of clamps, although my deck is pretty well suited to using it.
Modern: UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy: UWBMiracles
Edh: UUUThassa Control WWWHokori Stax GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy BBBGriselbrand French List RBGShattergang(Super Villians) RWGHazezon Flicker UBRMarchesa Aggro URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)
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Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
4 Marchesa, the Black Rose
By CMC
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Sol Ring
1 Entomb
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Baleful Strix
2 Talisman of Indulgence
2 Talisman of Dominance
2 Rakdos Charm
2 Izzet Charm
2 Dimir Charm
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Swiftfoot Boots
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Diabolic Intent
2 Spellskite
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Metallic Mimic
2 Cyclonic Rift
3 Yeheni, Undying Partisan
3 Grim Haruspex
3 Fire Covenant
3 Sage of Fables
3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Filigree Familiar
3 Drana, Liberator of Malikir
3 Unspeakable Symbol
3 Toxic Deluge
3 Necropotence
3 Phyrexian Altar
3 Ashnod's Altar
3 Fulminator Mage
4 Grave Pact
4 Anger
4 Erebos, God of the Dead
4 Disciple of Bolas
4 Dimir House Guard
4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
4 Sakashima, the Impostor
4 Aura Thief
4 Graveborn Muse
4 Greed
4 Marton Stromgald
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Corpse Augur
4 Fleshwrither
4 Sneak Attack
4 Ogre Battledriver
4 Smothering Abomination
4 Stunt Double
4 Dack's Duplicate
4 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Clever Impersonator
4 Venser, Shaper Savant
5 Living Death
5 Sadistic Hypnotist
5 Dictate of Erebos
5 Urabrask, the Hidden
6 Flayer of the Hatebound
6 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
6 Consecrated Sphinx
I was thinking Hope of Ghirapur for fun annoying recursion. Gonna add and see.
All in all set looks great so far, my Brago and Ezuri both got new stuff as well ^^
GEzuriG
WURaffUW
WBAyliBW
GOmnathG
URMizzixRU
Metallic Mimic is a superstar. He is just as busted as we thought. He's Sage of Fables on crack because not only is he cheaper but he can change his type around mid-game to better fit the tech you have. You can loop anything with a pulse now, not just wizards. I highly recommend looping a Solemn Simulacrum once a turn for a round.
Treasure Keeper is cool. Only played him once so far in a very weird game. We do planechase EDH a lot and an opponent decided to play Chaos Warp with Glimmervoid Basin out there. He then followed it with a Swords to Plowshares so that's why he was willing to risk the nasty creatures coming out. Obviously I was ill-prepared for this particular form of removal since I had just been warp world'ed so all keeper ended up doing was getting sac'ced instead of plowed to net me a permanent instead of additional life and hand off the throne to someone else. Not terribly exciting but not bad either.
Yahenni, Undying Partisan hasn't made it onto the battlefield yet. Sac effects are always good, I'm not really expecting much more out of him. Maybe if I face off against a token deck sometime he'll do something awesome.
I did get one game with Metallic Mimic and Treasure Keeper together. I already had a sac outlet and Treasure Keeper so I decided to tutor for a Metallic Mimic via Whir of Invention and name construct.
It is exactly as busted as it sounds. I had a win condition in hand and so I won that small game pretty shortly after.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
say I have three creatures on board, all with +1/+1 counters: Marchesa, a Trinket Mage, and a clone. Opponent wraths. Marchesa will bring them all back, but they're all separate triggered abilities and are all going on the stack at the same time, right? Which in turn means that I can arrange them so that the clone comes back last (and is thus able to copy the Trinket Mage)?
That's correct. Marchesa sets up delayed triggers for each creature that happen at the same time and you may order them however you please since they are all your triggers. You may put them onto the battlefield in whatever order you want.
Draft it Here!
UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy:
UWBMiracles
Edh:
UUUThassa Control
WWWHokori Stax
GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy
BBBGriselbrand French List
RBGShattergang(Super Villians)
RWGHazezon Flicker
UBRMarchesa Aggro
URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)
Part of the value of Marchesa is that she generates tons of value. However in my experience, to play her the most effectively, you will want to have creatures on board before she comes down. If you want a t-4 Marchesa, you need 1-3 drop creatures to get the most value out of her.
I would recommend against adding additional 6-drops, and instead add more 1-3s. Curving out feels amazing in this deck.
Anyway, I've been pushing my creature curve as long as possible but to maintain a midrange, I'm going with more 'brute force' creatures than utility ETBs. A Turn 3 Yahenni, Undying Partisan or Prohphetic Flamespeaker is way more important than some four, five or six drop. I've included Thrummingbird as a way to quickly gain +1/+1 counters to focus down the table and I'm looking for more creatures that scale very quickly for that. The next set that'll be very helpful for Marchesa is the next one that abuses +1/+1 counters as a mechanic.
The only problem my Marchesa is having right now is lack of mana consistently due to not having the Shadowmoor Filterlands and I need to get a card advantage engine going or I'm in big trouble. I'm thinking of putting in Notion Thief as a way to combat other players draws while supplementing my own. I need a ton of card advantage to keep my pain train going, as my creatures' +1/+1 status is continually being reset. This has made me explore other options, like Wight of Precinct Six - no matter how many +1/+1 counters on him, he's going to be bigger than any other starting creature probably.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Draft it Here!
UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy:
UWBMiracles
Edh:
UUUThassa Control
WWWHokori Stax
GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy
BBBGriselbrand French List
RBGShattergang(Super Villians)
RWGHazezon Flicker
UBRMarchesa Aggro
URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)
Even if you get wiped early, having a lower CMC of in your deck lets you top-deck more live draws as the game goes on. This also makes it so that you can run fine on 4-6 lands, instead of having to get to 8 mana in order to make 2 plays a turn. If the game goes long, most of your mana is probably spent recasting Marchesa anyways. Mikaeus and Flayer have both proven themselves crazy game-enders. I cut Scourge of the Throne because too consistently I had the highest life total by the time the dragon came down.
I have started playing a few 2s and 3s even though they don't have much synergy with Marchesa, like Dark Confidant, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, Dualcaster Mage, and Prophetic Flamespeaker.
Because I had a lower curve, it let me cut a bunch of the 2 mana rocks, because I don't really want to be playing them anymore. I would much rather play creatures turns 1-4 than making mana rocks.
I run Legion Loyalist as a low drop that works surpringly well here. His haste makes him very resilient and he's quite the surprise for your opponents... just think of him as a mini Marton Stromgald (that doesn't have to make it around the table to be relevant).
This means after retooling my deck to getting RRR more consistently, it would have to be without Artifact mana because I wouldn't want to hit that on Creativity resolving. Now, it does seem like my deck might be heading in that way. Especially with the Solrune Hive Mind agreeing that getting early utility drops, but then again, I would need to improve my mana base signifcantly with Shocks, Fetches, etc. If I did that I could probably cut a lot of the artifact mana and could have the bodies that would really be able to take advantage of an Indomitable Creavitivty. But if I'm lacking in artifact mana I couldn't ramp it out as hard, so it seems to be a Catch-22.
That's why I'm not using Indomitable Creativity. Currently I am tempted with adding Kokusho, the Evening Star in place of Scourge of the Throne as there's been times when I'm a dangerously low on life. Notion Thief is another creature I'm thinking of adding in place of the Scourge because aggro needs draw for Gas to keep up the pressure. Marchesa might not take as many losses as other traditional aggro decks, but she still needs to up the threat factor. Marchesa can't allow the Battlecruiser Magic to come online and tries to kill the table before that with her scaling threats. If someone can answer it, we're in trouble.
I'm also realizing that I'm a little light on Sac outlets. Currently, I am toying with Sadistic Hypnotist but I didn't like it. Too often I would sacrifice creatures to strip hands, then someone would topdeck a kill spell and permanently kill a creature because it only resurrected at the end of my turn instead of during an opponent's. Another sac outlet I am toying with the idea of is Culling Dias, we need draw and a way to kill our creatures and it does both.
With all of these factors, I'm currently holding off on making changes. The upcoming set is Nicol Bolas' home plane, I'm hoping for some Grixis goodness.
Otherwise, the last big change was adding Aetherworks Marvel after seeing other Marchesas in my meta really abuse it.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
I will give Indomitable Creativity a shot over Wake the Dead.
After rereading through this entire thread I have suspect cards for why my deck has felt lackluster.
Cut list:
warstorm surge seems so good. Costs too much for the decks tempo replacing with maybe river kelpie ?
feast on the fallen out for sneak attack when I can afford one.
skullclamp This cut feels heretical. One of the best cards in the format, but valid points were raised in this thread. It has under performed.
swiftfoot boots out for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
void shatter out for Dualcaster mage (mage is a bomb in my meta)
blind zealot out for Aura Thief (Suck it meta crushing sigarda enchantress deck)
exava, rakdos blood witch out for maybe mulldrifter ?
diabolic tutor out for Rune-Scarred Demon
I recently swapped in vandal blast just to try it and compare it to tuktuk, my meta has some heavy artifact decks.
Cards I am currently play testing:
What is your feedback on play testing any of these?
treasure keeper - whats the verdict on him vs matter reshaper ?
spellskite - Heavy spot removal meta. If I slip on counters things get blasted.
metallic mimic - So far gravy/10.
Hanweir battlements - This card is well worth the slot imo.
Westvale Abbey - Haven't drawn it yet
Yahenni, Undying Partisan - Seems perfect in theory. Have yet to play him.
I would like to improve my mana base with fethces, however all my money for that has gone into my Omnath, locus of rage land matters deck. (Good lord is he fun!)
Thanks for reading I would love feedback or suggestions. Are my cuts on track? Any better ideas?
Apologies for formatting errors, I am new to posting here.
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Command Tower
1x Crumbling Necropolis
1x Dragonskull Summit
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x Hanweir Battlements
1x High Market
6x Island
5x Mountain
1x Opal Palace
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Riptide Laboratory
1x Shivan Reef
1x Steam Vents
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Sulfurous Springs
8x Swamp
1x Underground River
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Westvale Abbey
Creature (34)
1x Anger
1x Baleful Strix
1x Blind Zealot
1x Carrion Feeder
1x Chasm Skulker
1x Clever Impersonator
1x Dack's Duplicate
1x Dimir House Guard
1x Disciple of Bolas
1x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
1x Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
1x Falkenrath Aristocrat
1x Flayer of the Hatebound
1x Fleshbag Marauder
1x Fleshwrither
1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1x Grim Haruspex
1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
1x Marton Stromgald
1x Metallic Mimic
1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1x Oona's Blackguard
1x Phyrexian Delver
1x Profaner of the Dead
1x Reef Worm
1x Sage of Fables
1x Scourge of the Throne
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Spellskite
1x Treasure Keeper
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Viscera Seer
1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Swan Song
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Void Shatter
Sorcery (7)
1x Blasphemous Act
1x Diabolic Tutor
1x Dread Return
1x Living Death
1x Reanimate
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Vandalblast
Artifact (11)
1x Ashnod's Altar
1x Dimir Signet
1x Izzet Signet
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Rakdos Signet
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Talisman of Dominance
1x Talisman of Indulgence
Enchantment (6)
1x Dictate of Erebos
1x Feast on the Fallen
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Rhystic Study
1x Unspeakable Symbol
1x Warstorm Surge
Otherwise, I agree with every cut except for Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch and Swiftfoot Boots. To me, the Witch seems so overrated. Sure, she's a 4/4 with Haste and First Strike that 'never dies' but you can do better than that at four mana. Her other ability of giving creatures with +1/+1 counters Haste does nothing in this deck - if they already have +1/+1 counters, they've already swung at someone to Dethrone. As for the Boots, Marchesa draws a lot of hate. Your whole strategy revolves around having her stick around. If no one in your meta is running any spot removal, sure, you could get away with the Boots. I'm actually looking for even more ways to protect Marchesa - such as with Kira, Great Glass-Spinner.
As for your testing list, I use everything in there except Spellskite but that's because it costs $20, not because I don't want it. There's no Matter Reshaper vs Treasure Keeper, it's use both! If you can get them looping with some combination of Metallic Mimic/Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and a sac outlet, you generate insane advantage. I have started testing Hanweir Garrison, in addition to the Battlements, as a way to go wide, but also because of some digging I did when I played around with an Infect version of Marchesa and discovered Breath of Fury. Garrison and that is an infinite attack step but more importantly, Breath is a psuedo-sac outlet and good even if we're not swinging forever.
I'm looking to add one or two more sac outlets, so I can tell you that Yahenni, Undying Partisan works out perfectly. He's also part of my 'growers' package where I have very large guys that people need to block or they'll take a lot of the face. I use Grave Pact to accelerate his accumulation of +1/+1 counters but to be honest, it's unnecessary. People will naturally try to Wrath the board and that's when Yahenni gets big.
@ Slikwilly: I think Jokulhaups is the definite haymaker. If you're going to piss off the table, might as well win. It's also easy to telegraph with 5 mana open. And since we're playing Aggro, leaving mana unspent is hurtful - specifically with Marchesa being a tempo deck. After all, we don't have the big mana combos or creatures that everybody else in the format does; we grow our beaters.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Spellskite: An unkillable spellskite is a thing to behold. Even more so for me where I'm abusing modular shenanigans and therefore have the opportunity to re-protect it without attacking. Keep in mind that skite is a disruption tool as well as protection.
Treasure Keeper: It is decent, but not crazy. Unless you have modular shenanigans or bad mike. Then it is crazy.
Metallic Mimic: Fantastic card. You can name human or wizard, but if you have shapeshifters that keep their creature type, they get looped too. I accidentally figured this out when saccing Duplicant.
Westvale Abbey: Pretty hard to have the 5 creatures you want to sac for this thing. Colorless land slots are premium too.
Hanweir Battlements: I have no experience with the card. I have no space for it.
Yahenni, Undying Partisan: need to find room to test.
Out of cuts, I personally am still a fan of clamps, although my deck is pretty well suited to using it.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
Draft it Here!
UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy:
UWBMiracles
Edh:
UUUThassa Control
WWWHokori Stax
GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy
BBBGriselbrand French List
RBGShattergang(Super Villians)
RWGHazezon Flicker
UBRMarchesa Aggro
URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)