Conscripts added for the ability to go Infinite with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker as well as their general utility of stealing my opponent's creatures, sacrificing them after the attack and keeping them forever. With the shift away from Blue and more towards Red, I felt like cutting the Estuary was OK due to it unreliably being untapped like Cairns is always untapped.
I saw that I shifted away from a Blue bias to a Red one, after the Black predominance; this made cutting the ETBT Temple easy for a Tainted Peak. I did have a game where I drew Tainted Isle and didn't draw a Swamp; I did manage which makes me feel like it's a better choice. I did cut an Island for the Shockland for its dual-type. Considering the expensive of U/R Duals, I think I'm done with my mana base for a while - including U/B due to the B/R dominance.
I like Wight, hasn't done me any wrongs but when I realized that Phantasmal Image's price bottomed out I decided to pick it up. I cut Wight because every other Creature in the deck serves a solid purpose while Wight is merely beefcake. With cutting down my curve, I've eliminated all my Clones which gets rid of the Flayer of the Hatebound and Murderous Redcap Infinite. Adding the Image adds the combo back in.
After this, I have literally no idea what to cut if something comes out as a 'must add' to Marchesa. And I just saw a Cloudfin Raptor in the wild, which I think is pretty clever. The question is if it is clever enough to find room.
I like Chasm Skulker but a lot of people absolutely hate on him. I can kind of understand, Marchesa as an aggro deck needs lots of card draw and this is a card that benefits from draw but doesn't contribute. I like him because I see him as a force multiplier. Dies as a 5/5? Now I have 4 1/1s that turns into 2/2s and 3/3s on each turn until they're dealt with, they also come with evasion! But the universal reviling of the card has made me earmark it as a switch. The Constable, if it comes down early and is not answered could end the game for my opponents. Hit someone for 2 and then return 2 Lands with it only getting worse as turns progress piqued my interest. Also, it's my tech against Pillowforts - bounce the ways that hinder my attacks and then get in there.
We'll see if it is a flop or good.
Otherwise: manabase feels good, deck functions well if left unmolested where only card draw would be a nice thing to add. A suggestion I've seen is add Dark Prophecy as a way to A) Fix my Draw B) Lower my life. It's something I'm considering but besides River Kelpie the deck is incredibly tight. I'd like to add some cards to Marchesa but seriously, I need to look for something to cut. I don't know what to cut which is why I opted for Chasm Skulker - I think its great but I'll listen to the masses for this experiment.
Edit: So after mention Dark Prophecy I was like "Why not use this?" I mean, most decks don't because they lack the manabase to do so but Marchesa's is good. I have no problems with other BBB cards like Necropotence and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, so why not try something that lowers my life and draws me cards the two issues the deck sometimes has so, today's changes actually look like this:
After seeing how much work Harsh Mentor does in a game, I just had to get me one of those. It took a lot of group effort to try to find a cut for Marchesa as I feel like the deck is incredibly tight. After going through my options, the suggestion of Sin Prodder came up. It's solid, a 3/2 Menace that draws or deals damage. Draw is something that the deck starves for, but I've made quite a few upgrades since then. With an improvement to my Draw suite, I can probably drop something that kinda draws, kinda does damage for something that definitely does. As always, an Aggro deck enjoys its curve being lowered.
After this, I'm not sure what to cut. Maybe Taurean Mauler? I like it because it triggers +1/+1s off of three of my 'tribal' Creatures; Metallic Mimic, Sage of Fables and Oona's Blackguard. This means I can loop it repeatedly to Sac Effects. Plus it does get quite big after a round of being on the table.
With all of the cards spoiled in Hour of Devastation, I might be interested in Razaketh, the Foulblooded but he's above my curve. So much so, I don't know what to cut and so I won't be adding him.
Sure, he's another Sac Outlet and a way to lower our life total, but my Marchesa is an Aggro deck: I need to run a curve that's low to the ground. I only have three six drops, and one of those is an Equipment that costs 4 with Equip 2. Not sure if I could afford to run Razaketh.
After doing a recount, I realized my Marchesa has 101 cards; not 100. Now I got to figure out what to cut. My initial instinct is to cut a Swamp but that could just be my inner bad player.
5 mana bouncer? I think Dinrova Horror is probably better than the Riftwing. Which then begs are these 5 or 6 drops worth their slot? This is an aggro deck firstmost with combo as a backup. I don't have time to play around with bouncing and I can't say either option is better than any other of my 6 drops.
I've also eliminated all of my other Saboteurs unless they cause hands to be discarded, so even though Looter il-Kor has Shadow I don't think it's worth it.
Dinrova Horror?
That card is terrible. haha, to think you even name it
I think we started to moved toward lower casting cost cards from Solrune listing as the deck clunked alot on 4 mana stuff, so when I have to remove my Venser for my other deck, I found Riftwing Cloudskate a suitable replacement for the effect.
Riftwing Cloudskate - as my Meta have alot of gods. It is just a good answer. I always considered it a "high ceiling" card, where if you have it in your starting hand and you suspended it on turn 2. it come out exactly on turn 5, which is great, because Marchesa just came out a turn earlier, undo a permanent and have flying , and a dethrone bonus. Having 4 creatures attacking with dethrone on turn 5 is just fun, if you get that Suspend hand.
I don't usually considered it as a 5 drop, but normally a 2 drop, but sometimes I am just glad to cast it as a 5 drop too.
As for looter, I am still running Anger, living death and Wonder.. looter il kor is godsent actually.
in fact there was a time, I like looting so much that I removed all the mana rocks for more lands and 2 more wizard looters.
Math is hard, I had 101 cards in the deck. Cards that were considered for cuts were: Taurean Mauler, Prophetic Flamespeaker, Cephalid Constable, Harsh Mentor and Aetherworks. Aetherworks was cut because it is a card that requires setup to really get going; great if ahead or at parity but was a dead draw if I was behind and needed a quality topdeck. Mentor was looked at just because I haven't drawn it yet and I want to see if it works too much against me. Constable is still in testing but the theory is scary good plus it did OK one game. Flamespeaker and Mauler were more in-depth looked at with various flaws but their upsides were worth more than Marvel.
For the Flamespeaker, the +1/+1 Counters on Double Strike makes for massive damage gains, there are times Trample is quite desirable and it is card draw. Gas is important with Aggro, as it is draw or die whenever things don't go your way. As for the Mauler, it gets big but also the synergy by having every Creature type means that Sage of Fables, Oona's Blackguard and Metallic Mimic always give it a +1/+1 Counter, this makes the Mauler be excellent Sac Fodder. Lastly, the Mauler is surprisingly resilient, as it always gains a +1/+1 Counter before a Wrath which means that even if the rest of the team gets Wrathed away due to a back-to-back Wrath, the Mauler comes back.
With those bonuses against their weaknesses, the Marvel got the cut. Marvel also happens to cost 4 mana which again, as a hardcore Aggro deck, I got to manage my curve.
I agree with the cut. I've never personally ran the card but I felt it required a LOT of set up or it's kinda do-nothing.
I'm personally testing Razaketh, I'll let you know how it goes. Granted my deck is an odd combination of aggro and grindy midrange with more lifegain and board clearers than usual that can get me into the late game, so it may be more viable in my list.
Just a quick question for the more practiced Marchesa, TBR players; How effective/powerful is Mikaeus? I held off on finding one because it was proving tricky to find but I lucked into one and I'm trying to decide on whether it's destined for Marchesa or Meren. I just noticed that apart from just Marchesa herself there are a decent number of Humans in my (and most) Marchesa builds so I'm just wondering how effective Mikaeus generally turns out to be?
Side note, I think Razaketh (preferably with a way of cheating it out) could be extremely powerful in Marchesa. Razaketh + Sneak Attack shenanigans sounds exactly like where we want to be.
My gameplan is all about force multiplication. It is very hard to race a table, so the goal of the deck is to put out as many smallish guys and grow them fast. I do this with either making little tokens, providing +1/+1 counters from Marchesa or others and generally surprise the table down before they realize that Marchesa actually can't handle crackbacks. Mikaeus provides there.
He's also a big body, which matters for Blocks on the turn he comes down or on the attack. It also does mean that I randomly aren't going to get focused down.
As for his Destroy Humans clause; quite honestly I forget about it. Mostly because Mike's universal Undying provides me with so much value I can quickly out value my opponents. This is where he really shines, as I can feed my Creatures to a Sac Outlet for benefit and then do it all over again.
Which brings me to my final point: he's a combo piece. While him and Murderous Redcap are an outright win, he also helps me assemble my other Infinites or things that end games (i.e. Looping Grey Merchant of Asphodel). I'm pretty sure no matter if you put him in your Meren or Marchesa, the result will be the same.
I'm cutting out combo cards and trying to streamline my curve as much as possible. Marchesa is one of the few Commanders who can actually play a traditional aggro plan, with landing Creatures on curve and turning them sideways. This came about because of the amount of times I've been unhappy with drawing one half of a combo piece that just didn't perform well. I had a fruitful discussion over some ways I could lower my curve so that's why I cut the Lantern and Altar; I very rarely have time to cast them for their mana properties. Spawning Pit sacrifices as well as Altar but also provides me with 2/2 bodies to go wide with, especially since Marchesa's Dethrone lets me count up to 120 faster.
Throne of the God-Pharaoh is one of the best prints for managing the Aggro game. It rewards you for turning sideways by lowering each player's life total; finally a great solution to those hiding behind pillowforts.
Spellshock lets me hurt myself with casts in case I'm somehow the highest life total. One of the biggest problems the deck had was dipping too low in life and having someone take me out with a wild haymaker as they were on their way out. While I don't want to run more life gain as that makes my job more difficult prior to the 'keep away' transition where I don't want my life to lower any more but still finish the job of my weakened foes. Spellshock definitely does that, as every single cast takes out their life total. This is also why I run Scab-Clan Berserker, it lowers their life total but the Renown mechanic works so well with Marchesa's recursion.
Kiki-Jiki and Zealous Conscripts are the first batch of combo cards to cut. They both didn't feel great to draw only one half of; meanwhile I got cards like Hanweir Garrison and Hanweir Battlements that I can draw either to help me in my aggro built. With this is mind, I'm thinking of cutting Murderous Redcap as it only goes infinite, otherwise I don't really like its purpose. Phyrexian Delver because I only really use it to grab the other half of disrupted combos, it costs too much at five for me to want to play. I rather try to get a 3 drop down with some mana open. The only other combo-piece I'm thinking of cutting is Mikaeus, the Unhalloweed. I think he's safe for now because his passive +1/+1 and Undying make for a mean force multiplier which is exactly what you need when you want to count to 120.
I feel like the combo route is fine when you have a lot of tutors. This deck doesn't have that density, so you're more likely than not going to find them disappointing some amount of the time.
I have a lot of tutors so that route works better for me. In fact, I found a win con that was fiendishly good but it is unplayable in traditional Marchesa lists.
With this, I've cut all the combos from my decks. Redcap felt weak whenever I didn't see Mikaeus, the Unhallowed or Metallic Mimic. Delver was to bring back a Creature that would help me combo off, otherwise it didn't do that much for me.
I had previously earmarked Treasure Keeper for a cut for Vindictive Lich, but I'm keeping it in because it helps with keeping pressure up. The Lich goes in to help with the goal of counting to 120. With the cuts of Chromatic Lantern and Ashnod's Altar, I've also upped my deck's threat count off of the Treasure Keeper's death trigger.
The last pick is another one of my force multipliers. That's the name of the game when you're trying to take down 120 worth of life, you need things that hit multiple players. Grenzo's Ruffians come out to some amazing math, as a sole attack turns them into 4/4s with a Dethrone trigger. That number can only climb and climb sharply if I start focusing on spreading out my damage. Just in the smallest example, if the Ruffians hit a player for 4 and both opponents take 4 that's accomplishing 10% of my goal with 12 damage out of 120. I've already seen the positive ways Throne of the God-Pharaoh chops life totals down so I don't mind another way to do that.
The next card I could possibly consider is Ankh of Mishra and/or Zo-Zu the Punisher. An opponent today found Spellshock to be so threatening that they had to answer it; big mana isn't really in Marchesa's wheelhouse so I see this as another way to absolutely cut the table down. Of course, just like Spellshock, one of these cards can also help me get off of the Throne when I swing at someone.
Ruin Raider draws me cards and lowers my life, two things I want in Marchesa. I cut Taurean Mauler due to same CMC and it felt the weakest. It was a tough cut because I like the dopey looking Changeling but it has tons of hidden synergy. The continual +1/+1s made it excellent sac fodder, it always bounced back from Wraths because it got a +1/+1 from the cast meaning even back-to-back Wraths wouldn't strip me of a board. Plus it came into play with a +1/+1 a lot due to all of the +1/+1 counter Lords I have. Overall, I had to make a tough choice with this cut and I hope to somehow put the Mauler back into the deck again in the future.
Deathrender was an easier cut. I count it as a 6 drop due to the Equip cost and while it was incredible if I was ahead or at parity, I need to be more concerned about being behind with the shift into aggro. Herald helps the turn it comes down and it was a card I was on the fence with until the changes to make this a full on aggro deck. Getting in there is important and Herald will take you there. Honestly, I am a little skeptical but I've got to play a few matches before making a decision.
I've had a beef with Attrition for a while. A lot of the time I wanted a Sac Outlet that was free. Also, a surprising amount of Creatures I face are immune to its benefits. I am not happy with Falkenrath Aristocrat but I cannot discount its place in an aggro deck. It has Haste and Evasion which is great for Aggro. It can survive past Wraths and can even its own +1/+1 Counters. The most important aspect is that its Sacrifice is free and that's what I want. I also feel like my curve still stays intact because Attrition costs four in my eyes, three to play and one to Activate. Aristocrat doesn't bump up my average and slow me down.
What are your thoughts on Dire Fleet Ravager? Seems like it would be a solid include in a aggro Marchesa deck since you'll be lowering everyone's life totals, making it easier to swing in for the remaining points of life (Also helps you stay off the throne since it lowers your own life total. It even has some cute synergies with Sage of Fables/Metallic Mimic + Marchesa since it's a wizard.
With my build? It's too expensive. Hell, I am currently contemplating cutting Mikaeus, the Unhallowed because I never have time to play him. My other 5+ drops are definite blowouts. Right now the deck's challenge is to hurt the table while staying off of the Throne and then slam the brakes on the self inflicted damage and coast to victory or grab a lifegain spell/ability to keep myself out of lethal crackback. The Dire Fleet Ravager would hurt the table but it would also do the same to me - gathering the table's ire and bringing myself to that lethal crackback.
I think I already have better draw than a one-shot instant. A lot of midrange decks do benefit from bursts of card draw but since I'm playing 'traditional aggro', I need to be playing threats that may draw me cards rather than something that doesn't push my board state. In other midrange decks, I would rather use Painful Truths, Read the Bones or Night's Whisper to draw cards. I want as strings-free draw as possible with my burst of draw and Marchesa likes the life loss. Otherwise, I need to be developing my board whether that's with Enchantments that keep me drawing, like Rhystic Study, Necropotence or Phyrexian Arena; or with Creatures that provide card advantage, such as Ruin Raider, Grim Haruspex or Baleful Strix.
And if I really do need a burst of draw, I do have one of the best draw spells in the game: Wheel of Fortune.
When I saw how much work the Ferocidon did on Game Knights and in my own experience, I decided to get in on the action. What's great is that it also hurts myself when all my Creatures come back which helps keeping me off of the Throne. It also stops lifegain which sometimes becomes a problem when I'm trying to kill a player and they just keep escaping from a lethal swing. I originally didn't want to put the Ferocidon in because it would stop my lifegain but I think I run enough sac outlets that I can get rid of the dinos when I need to. When I decided to add in the Dino, I looked at a bunch of cards to cut: Prophetic Flamespeaker, which I dismissed because I need draw; Grenzo's Ruffians, but I've yet to resolve them and I want to see them in action prior to a cut; and Mikaeus.
I knew I was going to make significant changes to my manabase by removing Signets for more threats. By cutting the three signets, I knew one of the replacements had to be a land. With my acceleration cut, it gave me permission to cut Mikaeus. He's at the top of my curve and I found that I rarely had time to cast him. Sure, he's an absolute beast but he's got nothing of Flayer of the Hatebound who immediately gives me 9 damage to assign with a Sacrifice outlet. Flayer has been responsible for a variety of my wins by killing one player, and then sacrificing my board to nuke the last player standing. Mikaeus gives me more steam, I fully acknowledge that, but I almost always wanted to play out two threats versus just him.
With the cut on the Signets, I decided to add two more damage multipliers: Impact Tremors and Ankh of Mishra. I got inspired with Ankh after seeing how much work it did in a game I had. One of the players was playing Arahbo, Roar of the World and he played Anhk. It easily did 20+ damage to opponents. For my Marchesa, it's another way to keep myself off of the Throne and punishes decks that Ramp hard which my deck does struggle against. Impact Tremors is just another way to count to 120, especially since I will be double dipping with a Creature's original ETB and their return from Marchesa. I just realized Tremors is also an Infinite with Glen Elendra Archmage and either Sage of Fables or Metallic Mimic (set to Wizard) with a Sac Outlet. Unlike my previous Infinites, each of these cards are good in a vacuum.
Lastly, I needed to add a land if I was cutting back on Rocks. It's a weird feeling, as I've been trying to find ways to lower my land counts with every deck. I thought for a moment of adding a Swamp, just to make the odds of my Taint lands turning on, the Tango lands entering untapped and ditto with the checklands. I decided to add Path because I wanted more card smoothing. Most people think Path requires you to name a Creature type - that is not the case. It just checks if you share a Creature type and Marchesa shares her Humanity or Wizardry with a third of my Creatures. I think that warrants testing. I don't think I'll be cutting the Talismans because they can ping me.
I feel like I can cut back on the draw that Reclamation offers, as it rarely offers me a lot. I added Nighthawk in because he answers the question that should be asked every time you aim to improve your deck "How do I lose?" How do I lose? In Marchesa's case, I can't get in and die on crackback; my life dips too low and I get taken out with an AOE or split attacks; or I get outsized. Nighthawk answers all three of those problems. Flight is evasion, meaning he goes over a lot of trouble blockers. Nighthawk has Lifelink, meaning that while I may be put on the Throne more than I like, I have found that my life drops really fast in this current build, I am even considering more Lifelink Creatures. There have been games where I won by attacking an opponent who was on the Throne in the single digits; I'd prefer to lose out on points of damage but be at a safer life total. Lastly, the Deathtouch means that he can trade with anything that blocks him, so I won't be uselessly slamming into bigger Creatures. Considering the Cost of 1B Activation, with Reclamation's Cost of B, I feel like Nighthawk trades evenly on the CMC front.
Flamekin's Village ETBT is not worth the trade off of possibly giving a Creature Haste, so I am putting in one of those flexible color producing lands.
1 Graven Cairns
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Choked Estuary
1 Sakashima the Impostor
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
1 Watery Grave
1 Tainted Peak
1 Island
1 Temple of Epiphany
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
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Wight of Precinct Six
After this, I have literally no idea what to cut if something comes out as a 'must add' to Marchesa. And I just saw a Cloudfin Raptor in the wild, which I think is pretty clever. The question is if it is clever enough to find room.
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
1 Cephalid Constable
1 Chasm Skulker
We'll see if it is a flop or good.
Otherwise: manabase feels good, deck functions well if left unmolested where only card draw would be a nice thing to add. A suggestion I've seen is add Dark Prophecy as a way to A) Fix my Draw B) Lower my life. It's something I'm considering but besides River Kelpie the deck is incredibly tight. I'd like to add some cards to Marchesa but seriously, I need to look for something to cut. I don't know what to cut which is why I opted for Chasm Skulker - I think its great but I'll listen to the masses for this experiment.
Edit: So after mention Dark Prophecy I was like "Why not use this?" I mean, most decks don't because they lack the manabase to do so but Marchesa's is good. I have no problems with other BBB cards like Necropotence and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, so why not try something that lowers my life and draws me cards the two issues the deck sometimes has so, today's changes actually look like this:
1 Cephalid Constable
1 Dark Prophecy
1 Chasm Skulker
1 River Kelpie
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
1 Harsh Mentor
1 Sin Prodder
After this, I'm not sure what to cut. Maybe Taurean Mauler? I like it because it triggers +1/+1s off of three of my 'tribal' Creatures; Metallic Mimic, Sage of Fables and Oona's Blackguard. This means I can loop it repeatedly to Sac Effects. Plus it does get quite big after a round of being on the table.
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
Sure, he's another Sac Outlet and a way to lower our life total, but my Marchesa is an Aggro deck: I need to run a curve that's low to the ground. I only have three six drops, and one of those is an Equipment that costs 4 with Equip 2. Not sure if I could afford to run Razaketh.
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
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've also eliminated all of my other Saboteurs unless they cause hands to be discarded, so even though Looter il-Kor has Shadow I don't think it's worth 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
That card is terrible. haha, to think you even name it
I think we started to moved toward lower casting cost cards from Solrune listing as the deck clunked alot on 4 mana stuff, so when I have to remove my Venser for my other deck, I found Riftwing Cloudskate a suitable replacement for the effect.
Riftwing Cloudskate - as my Meta have alot of gods. It is just a good answer. I always considered it a "high ceiling" card, where if you have it in your starting hand and you suspended it on turn 2. it come out exactly on turn 5, which is great, because Marchesa just came out a turn earlier, undo a permanent and have flying , and a dethrone bonus. Having 4 creatures attacking with dethrone on turn 5 is just fun, if you get that Suspend hand.
I don't usually considered it as a 5 drop, but normally a 2 drop, but sometimes I am just glad to cast it as a 5 drop too.
As for looter, I am still running Anger, living death and Wonder.. looter il kor is godsent actually.
in fact there was a time, I like looting so much that I removed all the mana rocks for more lands and 2 more wizard looters.
1 Aetherworks Marvel
For the Flamespeaker, the +1/+1 Counters on Double Strike makes for massive damage gains, there are times Trample is quite desirable and it is card draw. Gas is important with Aggro, as it is draw or die whenever things don't go your way. As for the Mauler, it gets big but also the synergy by having every Creature type means that Sage of Fables, Oona's Blackguard and Metallic Mimic always give it a +1/+1 Counter, this makes the Mauler be excellent Sac Fodder. Lastly, the Mauler is surprisingly resilient, as it always gains a +1/+1 Counter before a Wrath which means that even if the rest of the team gets Wrathed away due to a back-to-back Wrath, the Mauler comes back.
With those bonuses against their weaknesses, the Marvel got the cut. Marvel also happens to cost 4 mana which again, as a hardcore Aggro deck, I got to manage my curve.
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'm personally testing Razaketh, I'll let you know how it goes. Granted my deck is an odd combination of aggro and grindy midrange with more lifegain and board clearers than usual that can get me into the late game, so it may be more viable in my list.
Side note, I think Razaketh (preferably with a way of cheating it out) could be extremely powerful in Marchesa. Razaketh + Sneak Attack shenanigans sounds exactly like where we want to be.
He's also a big body, which matters for Blocks on the turn he comes down or on the attack. It also does mean that I randomly aren't going to get focused down.
As for his Destroy Humans clause; quite honestly I forget about it. Mostly because Mike's universal Undying provides me with so much value I can quickly out value my opponents. This is where he really shines, as I can feed my Creatures to a Sac Outlet for benefit and then do it all over again.
Which brings me to my final point: he's a combo piece. While him and Murderous Redcap are an outright win, he also helps me assemble my other Infinites or things that end games (i.e. Looping Grey Merchant of Asphodel). I'm pretty sure no matter if you put him in your Meren or Marchesa, the result will be the same.
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
1 Spellshock
1 Throne of the God-Pharaoh
1 Scab-Clan Berserker
1 Spawning Pit
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Chromantic Lantern
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Ashnod's Altar
Throne of the God-Pharaoh is one of the best prints for managing the Aggro game. It rewards you for turning sideways by lowering each player's life total; finally a great solution to those hiding behind pillowforts.
Spellshock lets me hurt myself with casts in case I'm somehow the highest life total. One of the biggest problems the deck had was dipping too low in life and having someone take me out with a wild haymaker as they were on their way out. While I don't want to run more life gain as that makes my job more difficult prior to the 'keep away' transition where I don't want my life to lower any more but still finish the job of my weakened foes. Spellshock definitely does that, as every single cast takes out their life total. This is also why I run Scab-Clan Berserker, it lowers their life total but the Renown mechanic works so well with Marchesa's recursion.
Kiki-Jiki and Zealous Conscripts are the first batch of combo cards to cut. They both didn't feel great to draw only one half of; meanwhile I got cards like Hanweir Garrison and Hanweir Battlements that I can draw either to help me in my aggro built. With this is mind, I'm thinking of cutting Murderous Redcap as it only goes infinite, otherwise I don't really like its purpose. Phyrexian Delver because I only really use it to grab the other half of disrupted combos, it costs too much at five for me to want to play. I rather try to get a 3 drop down with some mana open. The only other combo-piece I'm thinking of cutting is Mikaeus, the Unhalloweed. I think he's safe for now because his passive +1/+1 and Undying make for a mean force multiplier which is exactly what you need when you want to count to 120.
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 have a lot of tutors so that route works better for me. In fact, I found a win con that was fiendishly good but it is unplayable in traditional Marchesa lists.
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.
1 Grenzo's Ruffians
1 Vindictive Lich
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Phyrexian Delver
I had previously earmarked Treasure Keeper for a cut for Vindictive Lich, but I'm keeping it in because it helps with keeping pressure up. The Lich goes in to help with the goal of counting to 120. With the cuts of Chromatic Lantern and Ashnod's Altar, I've also upped my deck's threat count off of the Treasure Keeper's death trigger.
The last pick is another one of my force multipliers. That's the name of the game when you're trying to take down 120 worth of life, you need things that hit multiple players. Grenzo's Ruffians come out to some amazing math, as a sole attack turns them into 4/4s with a Dethrone trigger. That number can only climb and climb sharply if I start focusing on spreading out my damage. Just in the smallest example, if the Ruffians hit a player for 4 and both opponents take 4 that's accomplishing 10% of my goal with 12 damage out of 120. I've already seen the positive ways Throne of the God-Pharaoh chops life totals down so I don't mind another way to do that.
The next card I could possibly consider is Ankh of Mishra and/or Zo-Zu the Punisher. An opponent today found Spellshock to be so threatening that they had to answer it; big mana isn't really in Marchesa's wheelhouse so I see this as another way to absolutely cut the table down. Of course, just like Spellshock, one of these cards can also help me get off of the Throne when I swing at someone.
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
1 Ruin Raider
1 Herald of Secret Streams
1 Taurean Mauler
1 Deathrender
Deathrender was an easier cut. I count it as a 6 drop due to the Equip cost and while it was incredible if I was ahead or at parity, I need to be more concerned about being behind with the shift into aggro. Herald helps the turn it comes down and it was a card I was on the fence with until the changes to make this a full on aggro deck. Getting in there is important and Herald will take you there. Honestly, I am a little skeptical but I've got to play a few matches before making a decision.
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
1 Falkenrath Aristocrat
1 Attrition
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
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
And if I really do need a burst of draw, I do have one of the best draw spells in the game: Wheel of Fortune.
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
1 Rampaging Ferocidon
1 Ankh of Mishra
1 Impact Tremors
1 Path of Ancestry
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Dimir Signet
1 Izzet Signet
1 Rakdos Signet
I knew I was going to make significant changes to my manabase by removing Signets for more threats. By cutting the three signets, I knew one of the replacements had to be a land. With my acceleration cut, it gave me permission to cut Mikaeus. He's at the top of my curve and I found that I rarely had time to cast him. Sure, he's an absolute beast but he's got nothing of Flayer of the Hatebound who immediately gives me 9 damage to assign with a Sacrifice outlet. Flayer has been responsible for a variety of my wins by killing one player, and then sacrificing my board to nuke the last player standing. Mikaeus gives me more steam, I fully acknowledge that, but I almost always wanted to play out two threats versus just him.
With the cut on the Signets, I decided to add two more damage multipliers: Impact Tremors and Ankh of Mishra. I got inspired with Ankh after seeing how much work it did in a game I had. One of the players was playing Arahbo, Roar of the World and he played Anhk. It easily did 20+ damage to opponents. For my Marchesa, it's another way to keep myself off of the Throne and punishes decks that Ramp hard which my deck does struggle against. Impact Tremors is just another way to count to 120, especially since I will be double dipping with a Creature's original ETB and their return from Marchesa. I just realized Tremors is also an Infinite with Glen Elendra Archmage and either Sage of Fables or Metallic Mimic (set to Wizard) with a Sac Outlet. Unlike my previous Infinites, each of these cards are good in a vacuum.
Lastly, I needed to add a land if I was cutting back on Rocks. It's a weird feeling, as I've been trying to find ways to lower my land counts with every deck. I thought for a moment of adding a Swamp, just to make the odds of my Taint lands turning on, the Tango lands entering untapped and ditto with the checklands. I decided to add Path because I wanted more card smoothing. Most people think Path requires you to name a Creature type - that is not the case. It just checks if you share a Creature type and Marchesa shares her Humanity or Wizardry with a third of my Creatures. I think that warrants testing. I don't think I'll be cutting the Talismans because they can ping me.
We'll see how this experiment plays out.
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
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Flamekin Village
Flamekin's Village ETBT is not worth the trade off of possibly giving a Creature Haste, so I am putting in one of those flexible color producing lands.
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