MTG Salvation

Cut for the curve: Kraum's awesome but he's also pretty expensive. It would be better to have low drops so that I have a board presence when Marchesa comes down. Mindblade Render fits in that by being a potential card advantage engine. I have multiple Warriors so it might even be possible to have a different Warrior get the draw trigger. Life loss is also a bonus.

Adjustments on my deck's floor: Sneak Attack has an absurd ceiling, it was so much potential, and I do remember it makes for some crazy plays. Unfortunately, there have been times when it sat dead in my hand or I drew into it without a need. Considering the last few changes have pushed my curve a little upwards, I'll use Shifting Shadows to get ridiculous Creatures into play for such a small opportunity cost.

Loyal Subordinate is great and I would welcome it if my deck was slower. Unfortunately, I chunk my opponents down instead of slowly slicing slivers away. This means that I frequently don't have a player I can farm +1/+1s from. With my deck's concern towards draw with my last few updates, I put in Thief of Sanity and I got lucky enough to play it today. This card is absolutely bonkers. It lets you deny opponents critical pieces, it gains you access to out of colour options. If you have even a slightly aggressive Marchesa build, do yourself a favour and test the Thief out.

Bumping up draw: At first, I thought of just cutting Mindblade Render for Sygg, as I figured Sygg was just flat out better but then I saw the Render in action. After that, I wanted more so I decided to cut the Marshal whose ability seems to be a bit bloated. In Sygg goes to draw me cards.

I got the idea of the Thief of Sanity from Lokotor's Marchesa list. After seeing how good it was, I went over the list again for ideas. I spotted Treasure Nabber and thought to myself "Yeah, there's tons of rocks in the meta and throughput is always a problem, which the Nabber solves. At the very minimum, it's an efficient body." I also saw his reasoning for why he cut Herald of Secret Streams and I've got to agree with his assessment of it having a higher floor than I imagined. I can probably recall at least one game where it won me th game due to its factors; however, there have been times when I remember it being a dead draw or I just didn't have time to cast it. So I'm giving that a try. We'll see if his reasoning stacks up; he's got an aggressive list but he isn't running aggro like I am.

I've been missing out on Blue the last few games, so I decided to add a blue dual. Tainted Peak is the least reliable dual in the deck and gets the axe.

Have you ran Dracoplasm in this deck before? I'm thinking about adding it for next month. Glad to see you added the Thief, I have had some wonderful interactions with it.

I'm also running Stolen Strategy, and in three games since adding, have not had it in my hand. Is it too slow? All those extra cards seem nice mid-game. I cut my Whip of Erebos for it.

Quote from Hellfiend »

Have you ran Dracoplasm in this deck before? I'm thinking about adding it for next month. Glad to see you added the Thief, I have had some wonderful interactions with it.

No, I'm running an Aggro build so I don't have time to run things that eat my own board.

Quote from Hellfiend »

I'm also running Stolen Strategy, and in three games since adding, have not had it in my hand. Is it too slow? All those extra cards seem nice mid-game. I cut my Whip of Erebos for it.

Again, I'm running an Aggro build so I don't have time to use a Stolen Strategy. That would definitely be under contention if I ran the Stealy Marchesa and I would probably test it in a Midrange build. I run tons of Creatures that draw me cards so that I can keep moving forward as my Creatures die, whether or not they're coming back. Taking a turn off from pressuring the board isn't worth it in my eyes which is what Stolen Strategy does. If the deck could support it, I would rather run Sunbird's Invocation.

What do you think about Judith and Mayham from the new set? I'm going to try and pick both of them up. I've used Mayham on arena and it's a lot of fun.

Quote from Hellfiend »

What do you think about Judith and Mayham from the new set? I'm going to try and pick both of them up. I've used Mayham on arena and it's a lot of fun.

I'm definitely going to try Judith, she looks exactly what this deck is trying to do. The other cards I'm considering is Benthic Biomancer due to being a low-to-the-ground card advantage engine. With the goodies Marchsea gets every set, I'm certain there's someone on development that keeps sneaking cards into reality for her.

I'm not interested in Spawn of Mayhem for Marchesa, though he's a for sure slot in for my Rakdos, Lord of Riots deck. He's an efficient, evasive body. That's nice but let me put something into perspective: he costs the same as Marchesa. Is he 'as good as Marchesa' good? Hell no. Toothy, Imaginary Friend, Falkenrath Aristrocrat and Glen Elendra Archmage are pretty damn good, they're almost on par with Marchesa while also complimenting her capabilities. This is why I've been trimming my CMC 4 and above, I'm even thinking of axing Flayer of the Hatebound. I'm playing Aggro, so I'm not going to have a lot of mana to windmill slam down big threats. I need tight, efficient bodies because I am leveraging the early game against every other battlecruiser deck that by the time they get their momentum I've already run them over.

Ravnica Allegiance: Adding Benthic for more low to the ground draw. I cut Flayer because it finally drifted into 'win more' territory that I found a lot of lists have mentioned. It has been responsible for lots of wins over the years but it requires some amount of setup.

Legion Warboss, unfortunately, was a disappointment. I thought he would be a second Goblin Rabblemaster that can also protect my Commander with Mentor. That Mentor possibilities never came up; Marchesa starts too big for him and just looking at him in comparison to Rabblemaster leaves the Warboss severely lacking. Too many times when I drew it, I wouldn't be happy unless my opponents forced me to discard and it made the choice easier as fodder. I'm trying Sifter of Skulls in its place. Warboss cut the Sifter, so this is just a revert. I never drew the Sifter when I ran it previously, so I don't have a good feel for it but I think it has 'as good as Marchesa' potential.

I didn't pick up Judith, the Scourge Diva because of what I believe is a pumped up price due to speculation.

Guilds of Ravnica Update: Trying out Judith who I think will be pretty damn good. I had already earmarked Olivia as an axe awhile ago. I found that people would continually target Marchesa and before I knew it, I was out of cards. I rather have Marchesa sit our a round or two, giving the illusion of the deck faltering before I put her back and go for the throat. The damage output on Judith is far more than Olivia.

I'm trying out Mausoleum Wanderer as another way to protect my board, specifically Marchesa. I know it seems like a contradiction that I'm axing Olivia, who protects Marchesa, but the cost is too damned high. Wanderer has evasion, which is great for getting in and if I keep using Dethrones instead of attacking the threats, it'll be so big that no one will be able to pay the tax. I also think that players are going to try to play around it as much as possible. This means that it's probably going to do a lot of work that I won't even notice, such as having a player not pay Rhystic Study because they want to be able to pay the Wanderer off. Some silly synergy is Kokusho, the Evening Star and Kira, Great Glass-Spinner being Spirits for Wanderer's trigger.

Finding a cut for Wanderer was a tad difficult. In my mind, I was thinking of getting rid of Stubborn Denial but it is such a good card. I already have so few Counterspells that I shouldn't be axing more, especially if the goal is to have counter backup to protect Marchesa. I started thinking about the floors on cards and Combat Celebrant came up. Much like Márton Stromgald, the Celebrant does nothing if I'm behind or if it doesn't have a +1/+1 counter on it. He makes me greedy and stupid so I won't Skullclamp him for draw because of the potential damage numbers. I do remember in the last few games not having the time to cast the Celebrant. If I can't devote time to a 3 mana Creature, then he is probably safe to cut.

With the increase of spot removal hitting Marchesa and colour-screw I've had in the last few months, I decided to add Opal Palace and Guildmages' Forum. My Creatures are so efficient I think it will be OK for me to overpay on them when I'm coloured-screwed. It is OK to pay 2 for Benthic Biomancer if I don't have Blue anywhere else. Palace and Forum will have Marchesa come into play with +1/+1 counters, so that there's less for me to worry about regarding 'dies to removal'. I decided to axe the two Checklands because they could possibly ETBT; I did think of removing Tainted Isle but the fact that it always comes into play untapped leaned me towards the Checks.

This cut hurt: The fact of the matter is I was looking at my 5+ drops and realized they pretty much win me the game if left unanswered. Looping Kokusho, the Evening Star or Gray Merchant of Asphodel once or twice usually seals the game. An unanswered Consecrated Sphinx wins you the game. Sheoldred, Whispering One definitely wins you the game, killing my opponent's Creatures and raising my own so I am less reliant requiring Dethrone. Then my eyes went to Grimgrin. He's great but he isn't 'win-the-game' material. Destroying Creatures and being a Sac Outlet which I can use for the ole Morphling-Block made me overly fond of him. Unfortunately, as the deck improves and people put more pressure on it, I need to put every card through a rigorous analysis. Grimgrin is awesome but he does not fit in the same categories as Kokousho, Gary, Sheoldred or Con Sphinx.

I'm going back to try Sadistic Hypnotist. Previously, I would use him a bit stupidly or timidly. He isn't a Sac on Demand outlet like Grimgrin, but if he resolves then it probably means the end for my opponents. The difference between now and then is that I've added a crapload of token makers, meaning I don't have a problem throwing away my Creatures as much as I did before. Sifter of Skulls has been absurd, Desecrated Tomb makes tons of Bats and Loyal Apprentice was what tipped the scales towards a solid amount of token makers (Dragonmaster Outcast, Goblin Rabblemaster and Hanweir Garrison). In theory, I should be able to toss the Hypnotist down and eat my opponent's hands by feeding the Minion tokens and returning Bodies.

He's also got a bit more protection than Grimgrin in that I could name Human with my Metallic Mimic and have him come in with a +1/+1 counter. Kira, Great Glass-Spinner has been doing work over the last few weeks stopping my board from being answered. He's also a Human for Path of Ancestry.

An upgrade and a flaw removed: As I added better token makers, Dragonmaster Outcast started to look clunkier with time. I also realized that 5/5 Fliers are actually less desirable than a buttload of anything else. Loyal Apprentice starts work faster and has Haste to quickly get a Dethrone; Goblin Rabblemaster's tokens have Haste and when he swings, he scales quite quickly; Hanweir Garrison puts out two bodies and melds for the meme; and, Sifter of Skulls has been nothing but absolutely absurd since I've tested it. Even though Outcast is cheap, he effectively tries to compete with my six drops for power and lacks that. In his place is Curse of Opulence, which should help the deck get more explosive starts and colour fix me the few times when I'm shy of a colour.

I wanted Phyrexian Tower for the mana boost and as another Sac Outlet. I did briefly think of cutting a Swamp; however, that would make the Tainted Isle weaker. So while I lose a colour by cutting the Isle, it wasn't necessarily going to give me what I wanted anyway.

The last big ticket upgrade: I pulled the trigger and bought a Tomb today. I think that's pretty much the heights of big ticket items for me. ABUR Duals are outside of my price range. I guess hope for reprints of Fetches?

I was looking into Marchesa decks when I came across this one, and it seems really fun to play! Really nice work so far! Quick question though. Since you run Grand Coliseum, wouldn't Crumbling Necropolis be almost strictly better in that case? Also, maybe a reality shift (or something similar) would be nice to increase spot removal against big threats. I know that when I was demo-ing this, an eldrazi swinging at me could get really bad when I don't have the best cards to defend myself.

Quote from Bronze »

I was looking into Marchesa decks when I came across this one, and it seems really fun to play! Really nice work so far! Quick question though. Since you run Grand Coliseum, wouldn't Crumbling Necropolis be almost strictly better in that case? Also, maybe a reality shift (or something similar) would be nice to increase spot removal against big threats. I know that when I was demo-ing this, an eldrazi swinging at me could get really bad when I don't have the best cards to defend myself.

Thank you.

Grand Coliseum deals damage to yourself so that you can get off of the Throne. There are countless of times when I've paid pain mana when I didn't need colour fixing or on an opponent's end step to hurt myself so that I tied with an opponent's life total on my next turn's Combat step so Dethrone would trigger.

In regular Magic, Red Deck Wins and other aggressive strategies try to get under your opponent's big spells. EDH is the format for big spells and it is almost impossible to play traditional Aggro. Due to Marchesa's return clause, I can play traditional aggro and get under these big spells. By the time they're casting Eldrazi, their life is low and they're more willing to block than go on offence. With the amount of tokens the deck produces, I am fine with sacrificing them to Annihilator and then just chump blocking with something that will probably come back anyway.

I don't run spot removal because to quote a great player "There is no wrong threat" and this deck just continually spews out threats. The Counterspells I have are to protect Marchesa, if she stays in my Graveyard the deck falters badly though sometimes I still have enough kill pressure to win the game going on fumes. Due to my meta's love of using Stifle on Marchesa's return trigger, I am using Dawn of the Dead when that should probably be a Reanimate or if I spend more money a Bitterblossom. Though I don't think the deck needs to be expensive, I've just been tuning this for three-ish years.

I hope that answers your questions.

Chaff reduction: I like Dawn of the Dead but it is admittedly overcosted for what this deck is trying to do. I have been thinking of cutting it but the amount of times people will sandbag Stifles to keep Marchesa in the graveyard kept me from doing that. The LGS had a sale and I decided to add Nicol Bolas as he can resurrect Marchesa, he has a way to deal with Planeswalkers if I don't want to swing at them and he's a draw engine.

I did think of cutting Consecrated Sphinx and Shifting Shadow. Sphinx because it doesn't do as well as it would if it were in a Control deck. If a Control deck manages to stick a Sphinx, they manage to go so far ahead. In comparison, this deck's draw is more lacklustre. I decided against that because Sphinx is still really good. The reason why I wanted to cut Shifting Shadow is that it never did what is was supposed to do, in that it would always get removed. While that is disappointing, I thought about it and realized that it's such a threatening card that my opponent's must answer it. That's what made me keep the Aura.

Out of everything else, Dawn of the Dead was the most similar to form and function. I can also loop Nicol Bolas if I name Dragons with Metallic Mimic to strip my opponents for their hands.

CMC shaving: Shifting Shadow is great in a different build, such as Midrange or Aristocrat, because you can protect the Enchantment plus you're attempting to build value. While my deck looks similar to Lokotor's due to the low-to-the-ground curve nature, but he's going more Aristocrat while I'm going more RDW. When I cast a noncreature spell, it has to have a huge impact for the amount of pressure I am taking off of the board. Unfortunately, Shifting Shadow doesn't. I don't like Prophetic Flamespeaker but it is the same CMC and I did like it when it was in the deck. It's the best I've got for now, the Flamespeaker is definitely earmarked for a cut.

Sheoldred costs too much, even if her effect is very powerful. Kraum has evasion and Haste which is a desirable trait in an Aggro build. I want continual draw which Kraum does provide and not the hatred that Sheoldred draws.

Consecrated Sphinx also draws a lot of hate for not much of a payoff. In a control deck, your hand being fuelled by the Sphinx pulls you way ahead. Considering this deck taps out most of the time, I am not really benefiting from the extra cards. I get choked off by the amount of cards compared to the deck's throughput. In its place is another card I'm taking from Lotokor's Marchesa build. I'm not too fond of it either but I need CMC shaving. Another earmark for the next card that gets printed to replace this.

Wow, this War of the Spark has a ton of goodies I'm going to want to test.

Spark Double can be a second copy of Marchesa, thereby protecting my board even more. Double Dethrone is a nice bonus. It also goes infinite with Glen Elendra Archmage, a Sac Outlet and some way to deal damage. Goblin Bombardment fulfills both of those, but I could always use Blood Artist and co. with any Sac Outlet.

Bolas's Citadel is a top end draw engine I should probably test. The deck wants to lose life, it wants to play out lots of threats and the Citadel also can let me Sac my board for protection or reach. I think it might not make the cut but I'm willing to test it to see. A lot of noncreatures give my opponents breathing room, as I play that instead of another threat, but the Citadel lets me churn out threats the turn it comes down.

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin does what this deck wants. Protects itself with a +1/+1 counter, poops out tokens to go wide and it also goes tall to put pressure on my opponent for blocks.

Dreadhorde Butcher looked attractive until Mayhem Devil was spoiled. Might still need to test it, but as far as I'm concerned, Mayhem Devil is a slam dunk. So many people sacrifice all sorts of permanents, such as Fetches or Steves, and that's without my Grave Pact out. There's also plenty of Aristocrat-style decks running around that I could easily take advantage of that. With the Devil dealing damage to any target, this means that the deck can easily take out Planeswalkers without needing to send a guy at them.

It's unlikely that War will print other cards I would want at this point, but I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised. This is already enough goodies that is making me go "How will they all fit?!"

War of the Spark changes: Krenko puts a +1/+1 counter on himself, allowing for Dethroneless comebacks if I'm ahead on life. He also will make tokens and then deck loves going wide, as Marchesa also makes them tall. Being Goblins also synergizes with [c]Goblin Rabblemaster[/b], as he gets quite large on offence when swinging with all of his Goblinoid buddies. Prophetic Flamespeaker was already marked as a cut.

Mayhem Devil was a little hard to consider, as I already have so many pingers. I thought of cutting Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Judith, the Scourge Diva and Hissing Iguanar. Zulaport and Blood Artist gain me life, plus they're lower on the CMC. Judith's +1/+0 is just too good to pass up, even if she stipulates nontoken deaths. So I looked at the Iguanar, he procs anytime another Creature dies, which is fairly similar to Mayhem Devil but I think it will come up more often. Let's go with an abundance of threats to ping people to death, so I started looking at other cards. Dross Harvester is good but he is a little awkward, I'm willing to test Mayhem Devil in its place.

Remembering my lessons from my Edgar Markov deck, I know that Grave Pact is powerful but it is giving my opponents a turn of breathing free. They then proceed to collapse on me until I am dead. Hell, the deck has a reputation that people will kill it even if I'm clearly behind because they don't want it to spring back and get them. I think that Grave Pact is a card that helps me win games I'm winning and does nothing for games I am losing, the question is how much it does in the middle? Enter Spark Double, a Creature that can create infinites or just be a backup Marchesa. The deck does fold if Marchesa gets hated out, so this extra layer of resiliency is good.

Neheb and Kraum are very similar as bulky card draw engines with evasion. Kraum does have Haste in his corner, but the rest of his flaws when compared to Neheb made me make the change. Kraum costs more and this deck is trying to be low to the ground. Kraum doesn't guarantee card draw, especially if we're entering the midgame and people are playing their one big spell. Neheb, on the other hand, lets us dig for better options and he generates mana at the same time. That seems fairly absurd to me, so I'm giving him a whirl to see if my gut is correct.

Left Impaler Shrike out of considerations for cuts because I've yet to see it in action.

So... I've found out that I've been playing Desecrated Tomb incorrectly, the correct way has only just been pointed out to me. I thought that Marchesa's delayed trigger that returns Creatures did that all at the same time. i.e. Three Creatures died with +1/+1 counters, the three come back at the same time and create one Bat. That's not the case. They would each resolve the return trigger individually, meaning I would get three Bats. I already thought the card was amazing, this brings it up to a whole new level of ridiculous.

Yes, that is how that card works. Honestly, if you got one bat out of 3 simultaneous returns, I wouldn't consider it worth running because you wouldn't be able to get at least 3-4 bats out of it. However, given the way it currently works, you can definitely get 3+ bats out of it. I run Genesis Chamber in my build instead (because they make artifact tokens and I care significantly less about attacking) and it makes a stupid ton of myrs. You don't get quite that quantity but the quality of them having flying makes up for it for your goal.

Oh yeah, is Bolas's Citadel on your test list? You don't have a crazy way to abuse it, but I found that it happens to just be good by itself. It does a silly Experimental Frenzy impression while still allowing you to play from your hand.

After seeing a Bolas's Citadel in action, I definitely want to test it. Just didn't put in my first wave of considerations.

Feel bad for the cut but it feels right: Haven't even taken Neheb out for a spin, but he's the one I cut. This effectively means I pushed my average CMC up by one, as Neheb replaced Kraum, Ludevic's Opus. Any other choices didn't feel like the right cut or were too costly of a CMC increase. Neheb gave me draw and mana, Bolas gives draw and by paying life to cast spells it effectively allows me to skirt around mana costs. I hope to bring Neheb back, but I don't know what doesn't feel right yet.

Since it seems that Marchesa is my pet deck, it made sense to give her the very best after Daxos was torn apart for the umpteenth time:

Yawgmoth, Than Physician is everything this deck wants and more. Wow.

Though I am disappointed that Yawgmoth has a card now.