Hello everyone, I'm posting a Marchesa list that has done incredibly well for me, as it not only suits my style, but is insanely fun to pilot. I've been playing since tempest, and have always loved graveyard shenanigans and reanimator, and this new legend has really caught my attention for being not only unique, but incredibly formidable. I built this deck to be not only extremely aggressive, but to be very fluid in changing rolls if the situation required, theres always going to be decks that can put you in a bad spot, so utility for me is key to a good deck. Keep in mind this deck list is not a 1v1 or French list deck, this is strictly built for multiplayer. The deck list that I run is not that budget friendly because I have been collecting cards for many years now, but don't be frightened. Marchesa works with so many different cards that budget options are in no short supply. Now then....
So why play Marchesa, the Black Rose over any of the other grixis generals? This deck was built with aggro in mind, so that's what I will be using as my baseline for comparison.
Marchesa, the Black Rose - Offers several different play styles a solid general that has immediate impact, can get big, is relatively cheap at four mana. She offers self and other creatures you play recursion, she is an anthem, and she plays very well with counters matter cards. Building around her doesn't really require much past adding creatures to a deck, but when you start adding value creatures with great abilities that trigger when they enter the battlefield, she starts becoming an exceptionally strong commander. On the flip side, the more you build around her, the worse you do if she gets tucked. Carefully playing around tuck effects will be one of the many keys to success with her.
Pros:
Resilient to boardwipes.
Generates advantage out even trivial creatures.
Can support a wide variety of deck types.
Can self recur, meaning she can sometimes avoid general tax.
Even at just 4 mana, she has a drastic impact on your board the second she sticks.
Stealing creatures with her can be permanent with a sac outlet.
Cons:
Tuck effects are brutal when you build around her.
Grave hate in any form can stop you stone cold.
Not nearly as fast as a dedicated tuned aggro deck, which can hit you hard before you stabilize.
Being highest life shuts Marchesa, the Black Rose off, which can make things difficult.
Other Commanders: Crosis, the Purger - Decent beater and can really screw over one person if he connects. Good as a grixis control finisher or voltron general. At 6cmc, this guy comes down late and get really expensive to keep on the board. Not really what an aggro deck is looking for.
Garza Zol, Plague Queen - Honestly think this is one of the worst of the grixis legends. Expensive, and does nothing cool really. At 7cmc, she should win you the game, and she doesn't.
Gwendlyn Di Corci - Excellent 1v1 control general. Since I don't play 1v1 EDH at all, she's not good for this. As an aggro general she could be pushed to work, keeping opponents discarding so that they run out of answers for your board. I think this role is way more suited for an aggressive creature though.
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge - Spell slinger on steroids. If I was playing grixis storm, she would be a shoo in. She loves spells, and aggro decks love dudes. If there were some solid token generating spells in these colors with massive impact I could see an aggro deck working with her, but there are not any.
Lord of Tresserhorn - Highly aggressive voltron general. Incredibly hard to play as well. I don't like it personally. Requires a lot to get around his downside, but can hit like a freight train. I honestly think his downside is pretty rough, because I would want my deck to just have oodles of card advantage. I can see him working though.
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy - Pet favorite of mine. Works with possibly 3 cards in EDH to do shenanigans. Not the utility I'm looking for. Great chaos general though. Aggressively costed and probably a vanilla creature in most decks. Marchesa almost always swings as a 4/4 anyway.
Nekusar, the Mindrazer - Public enemy number one. I'm here to play magic and interact with the board, not cast a few wheel effects and win. Plays way better as a combo general with all the wheel effects. He's a very build around general who like spells and not creatures.
Sedris, the Traitor King - Closest thing to Marchesa, and is still quite good. A solid creature type, great ability, it just comes to preference. Honestly it's a toss up for me. Sedris has a great tribe, is stronger out the gate, and lets you reanimate from your grave for mana. I chose Marchesa because she does it passively with a lower cost, but they are both great.
Sol'kanar the Swamp King - Control finisher played for style points. Honestly just an old bad legend that's cool, but not effective as new creatures.
Tetsuo Umezawa - Without his Jitte, this guy is pretty bad. Would still work in a possible control build. Terrible honestly, possible control creature?
Thraximundar - Best voltron general in grixis hands down. He clears his own way, has haste, and gets big. Costs a bunch, but kills fast when he sticks. I would run this guy if my focus was general damage.
Nicol Bolas - The elder dragon himself. Too mana heavy to do anything until late game, but can ruin a player on connecting. Control finisher at best. At 8 mana, he's not a general for an aggro deck in the least.
Deck History:
When Marchesa, the Black Rose was spoiled, I saw tons of potential in her. I wasn't incredibly sure how to best effectively use her, or what kind of shell she would fit best in. I figured out over playing the deck over the months she has been released that a build based on simply abusing enter the battlefield effects was simply amazing. I've played around with lots of creatures, lots of support cards, even the land base has had a major overhaul. From inception to current day, this deck has gone from project to signature deck. I really poured my time and effort into the deck, and the way it plays, definitely shows. I've played the deck almost every weekend since she was released, and I feel like I am really honing in on an exceptionally strong deck list.
Local Meta:
To give you an idea of what I play against on a regular to semi-regular basis, I have listed the decks in my meta of around 12 folks or so. There are more decks that I do play against, but not on any regular basis. What you can take from this list is that my meta is very diverse with everything from wacky fun decks to really cut throat. Out of this list I can't say I have any horrendous match ups, but how fast mono green can be is definitely a concern. Asides from mono green all the other match ups are either fair or in our favor.
Deck stats can be found here.
Right now the non-budget price totals $2077.39 on tcgplayer. (9/18/2014)
Average CMC: 3.66
Well without further ado, let us get dive into the deck with some explanation of cards and why they are effective, and what functions they perform for the deck.
Sac outlets:
These are incredibly important in a fight against tucking, stealing, or bouncing our dudes. Free ones are great, while some are a bit slower but just as powerful.
Carrion Feeder Free sac outlet that comes back with Marchesa easily. Really an all-star. For a one drop he can get enormous, and you can sacrifice it to itself in a pinch vs exiling/bouncing/tucking removal. One of the best sac outlets in the deck.
Viscera Seer Budget option for cheap sac outlet. I don't run one, but is solid. Lets you reuse your creatures while you scry into your deck.
Dimir House Guard 4 drop for Fleshwrither, 2 power for Imperial recruiter, a sac outlet, evasion, and a tutor for any 4cmc card in your deck. I would consider it a staple, it tutors not only Sneak Attack, but also our general, and any other 4 drop creature we want.
Falkenrath Aristocrat Hasty, survives boardwipes(even better if you sac a human for a counter), and 4 drop for Fleshwrither. Excellent sac outlet when you need one to tutor for. It can catch folks really off guard too, as it is really good at pressuring life totals.
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born Can get threateningly big, removal when it attacks, and combo piece. The combo I run in the deck is with this guy in the graveyard along with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, and Sage of Hours, with a Necrotic Ooze on the battlefield. The way it works is ooze can make infinite tokens of itself with Kiki's ability, because the tokens have haste and will have the abilities as well. If someone responds to the ability, you can sac any creature but the original ooze to put a counter on it and untap it, thus starting a new chain. After you have infinite tokens you can swing for the win, or all of them to put infinite counters on 1 ooze. If they try to remove your infinite power/toughness ooze you use Sage's ability to take infinite turns. When played carefully this will always win you the game.
Phyrexian Altar Incredibly busted with Sneak Attack and fuels enormous turns. Pay R to put a creature into play, and sac it to make a R, and you can burn through all the etb creatures you have in your hand. Most times what I use this pair for, is tapping my red sources to play as many dudes as I can, and after I swing with them to get counters courtesy of our general, I sac them to play the rest of my hand, while all of the dudes I sacrificed come back at the end of turn for me.
Miren, the Moaning Well Can pad your life total and act as an outlet in a pinch. Good for a land slot. This land has saved my butt many times, usually eating a huge Carrion Feeder, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, or Preyseizer Dragon. Gaining 10-20 life at instant speed in grixis colors is not something folks expect.
Phyrexian Tower Helps fix if you need to hit one of the double black costed spells in the deck. Helps accelerate us if we have early creatures, or helps save our creatures from all those nasty removal spells that don't just destroy them.
These are all great in this deck. A notable mention goes to Disciple of Bolas, who actually won my a very recent game eating a 23/23 grimgrin, fueling an incredibly explosive turn. Like I said before, gaining 10-20 life in grixis colors is not something folks expect, and drawing that many cards with it can be insurmountable for some decks.
Protection:
We need to protect our board and ourselves, and just like all games, sometimes we can get a slow start. These help you stabilize.
Whip of Erebos is awesome for us padding our life totals and fueling Unspeakable Symbol. They make your board really hard to deal with because you can pump your creatures big on a moments notice and gain a fair amount back.
Disciple of Bolas is a sac outlet on entering, gains you life, and can draw you obscene amounts of cards. Being a 4 drop with 2 power and being a wizard means it works with our creature tutors and Sage of Fables. Excellent creature, I would consider it a staple.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel can help pad your life, or just straight up win you the game. Cloning this or reusing it's entry effect a few times will make short work of most opponents.
Unspeakable Symbol It is one of the best cards in the deck, enabling you to save any creature you want for 3 life as long as Marchesa is out. It lets you lowr your life total at instant speed, pump your creatures, and make your board wicked hard to deal with our general out. This is the one staple card that every list should run for the deck. It feels like it was made for Marchesa, the Black Rose.
Spellskite saves your creatures and occasionally other permanents from getting hit with nasty spells. One trick I've learned playing the deck is that this guy can lower your life by 2 any number of times if you need to lower your life total as long as there's a legal spell or ability to redirect with it. "Yea I'll redirect that spell to my Spellskite 5 times, oh look I'm not highest life total anymore!"
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is a great evasive creature that makes our creatures really hard to remove asides from board wipes. Great value in a three drop, and can set down protection for our general before she hits the field.
Sage of Fables has got to be Marchesa's best friend. It plays well with all of the other wizards in the deck as well, but curving this into our general is awesome. She will enter with a counter, so any attempts to destroy her will just bring her back to her own effect at the end of the turn. Sage also has a great draw ability for extra counters, so that we don't lose momentum after our hand is starting to deplete.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed makes our board incredibly hard to deal with. He is straight up the second in command of the deck. If something nonhuman dies without a counter, it comes right back, and if it does have a counter, our awesome general has got you covered. I can't remember a game I've lost with both of them on the battlefield. This guy also does tons of work while you have a sac outlet, because you get to abuse your entry effects even more.
Vendilion Clique can shore up our combo match up by stripping combo pieces right out of your opponent's hand while giving you a flying threat. It works great with the next card on our list.
Venser, Shaper Savant can shore up our combo match up by ridding the board or stack of combo pieces, and can control the board bouncing a problematic permanent. Bouncing a game winning spell off the stack back to someone's hand and tucking it with Vendilion Clique can save your skin. I've used this controlling duo to great effect, and I get incredible results using them both off of Sneak Attack. When folks see a blue player with no blue open they tend to get the urge to do something silly, like win.
Bombs/Wincons:
Most, if not all of these spells will just outright win you the game if you resolve them at the right time. Living Death, oh I love this card. It is so one sided in this deck it's not even funny. Oh did I mention you can recur it forever with Archaeomancer or Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed? Twilight's Call used to be included, but not even close in power to it.
Jokulhaups, this card resolved should win you the game. You can blow up everything, and get all your dudes back end of turn. Swing while everyone scrambles to regroup. I recently removed it for having the "Primal Surge" problem. (When you cast it folks just scoop in frustration)
Ashling the Pilgrim is a nightmare for your opponents. Its a growing beater, or a board wipe when needed. I removed her recently but is still a good choice.
Sneak Attack is so good in this deck. Clutch of the Undercity is in the deck just to fetch it (or be removal I guess). Combined with Treasonous Ogre, your board can get insane at a moments notice. Anyone looking to build the deck needs to consider getting one. It's really that insane. Instant speed blockers, ramp, draw, life gain, sacrificing, and just about everything else is just absolutely amazing in the deck. If you have your general out, just sneak out all of the creatures you want or can, swing with them for dethrone triggers. When you sacrifice them to Sneak Attack's effect, you get them all back with Marchesa, the Black Rose triggers. Even green players will be jealous when you lay out your hand for a few red mana and smash someone's face in.
Preyseizer Dragon can not only reset your board, abusing etb's, but also hits like a freight train. Never unhappy slamming someone for 20 while blowing up another player with it's trigger. Oh, and devour also works really well with our general, being a really big threat that just doesn't stay down.
Flayer of the Hatebound can outright kill someone off of a Living Death or mass Marchesa recursion. Removal and wincon in one. Don't play the deck without it. Every single creature that comes back from our general's triggers gets to hit something for its power, which is awesome. This guy accelerates our game plan substantially, shredding life totals left and right, and even letting our triggers keep our life in check if needed.
Sage of Hours now this one I didn't think would be any good, but after trying it, I'm sold. With Unspeakable Symbol, 15 life = 1 Turn, which sounds awful, until you draw Whip of Erebos or Gray Merchant of Asphodel.... or you have 2 Marchesas(Sakashima) and a Scourge of the Throne swinging. I was able to not just combo him, but you can take a bunch of consecutive turns and put opponents so far behind, victory is assured.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel can take out opponents really fast even through pillow forts and can really pull you from just about losing to winning out of nowhere. I find that this guy is a solid win condition, as I've won many games just cloning him once or twice with a big board. He isn't strong early, so I always partial him if he's in my starting hand.
Card Advantage/Selection:
This section could all be considered staples, as they all have multiple interactions within the deck and make the deck run like a dream.
Thassa, God of the Sea is here to filter, and to sneak our creatures through unharmed for that valuable +1/+1 counter. Can't remember ever actually swinging with her, but she is an awesome support enchantment. Getting her active can lead to a growing indestructible monster as she is hard to deal with, so her dethrone counters would stack quite nicely.
Entomb almost always looks for Anger for the all important haste we need to be really aggressive. Second target is usually Filth if I have access to haste already. If I have Living Death in hand I can tutor for whatever creature I want or need as well, making this a very versatile tutor.
River Kelpie keeps our hand full passively while we do our thing, and is an absolute card advantage monster in this deck. Just how Flayer of the Hatebound generates advantage by sniping creatures with our graveyard recursion effects, kelpie helps our game plan full steam ahead with cards for those recursions. Never sad to draw him, as it usually translates to drawing at least a whole new hand through a game just for casting it. If it wasn't strong enough, its effect triggers for you if your opponents are playing graveyard stuff as well. Persist is icing on the cake.
Imperial Recruiter has many targets in the deck, and can search for almost as many answers as Fleshwrither. This card is amazing in the deck. Its very expensive, so definitely not budget friendly.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is amazing in any etb heavy creature deck that can run him. Doubling up on any of our entry effects is just straight value. Sometimes he is hard to cast, but well worth the effort in being able to double up on stuff like Solemn Simulacrum.
Mulldrifter is a great value creature in the deck. It's not uncommon for me to draw almost a whole new hand over the course of a game off of just this creature alone. Baleful Strix is a great value creature as well, coming down early, deterring attackers, and turning sideways for flying damage. Both are great early plays and usually help me get traction into mid game.
Solemn Simulacrum helps fix your mana, draws you cards, and thins your deck. Amazing value in the deck. Honorable mention go to Burnished Heart, which I also run. Even though I don't run many basics, they have proven time and time again that ramp and color fixing in a three colored deck is very important. Never sad to see these guys.
Phyrexian Arena and Graveborn Muse are the best gas the deck has. Draws a constant stream of cards and "fixes" our life. While arena dies less, muse does have a bit of an edge by being a tutor target and the fact that I do run a few other zombies increasing it's potential draw.
Sage of Fables is in it's own league of synergy in this deck. It helps put counters on several creatures, namely Marchesa herself, and can draw cards off of excess counters. Chasm Skulker with sage and a bunch of mana will keep your grip full.
Disciple of Bolas is great for padding our life, and can draw big bursts of cards off of whatever we want to sacrifice. Notably I've sacrificed a 23/23 Grimgrin with him, and proceeded to take one of the most explosive turns I've ever had with a deck to date.
Removal/Toolbox:
These are some of the best answers I've found in Grixis Colors.
Tokens got you down? Necroplasm will destroy the ones that are not copies of creature cards.
How about combo? Vendilion Clique will tuck that combo piece right on the bottom of their deck.
Lots of blockers? Filth and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth make sure your creatures casually stroll right into the red zone without blocks.
Enchantment pillow fort? Aura Thief will take that fort and make it your own.
Nasty dude in a grave? Puppeteer Clique can persuade it to your side, where you can either just exile it, or get a counter on it with our general, sac it, then proceed to keep it on our side for as long as you want.
Miren, the Moaning Well seems like a really good sac outlet that can pad our life if need be. Most notable thing I've done already after adding it was having a Grimgrin, Corpse-Born eat my entire board in response to a wrath, and threw him into Miren for 15 life.(And most of it came back end of turn because of Marchesa of course)
Phyrexian Tower can ramp us an additional mana, making double black easier to achieve, while letting us use it as a sac outlet in a pinch as well. Very good land.
Tolaria West can tutor for any land in the deck, usually nabbing urborg or coffers, but occasionally something else.
Distinguishing a good hand from a bad one is paramount in any game of magic, and is no different here. What you are looking for in an opening hand in this deck is access to your colors, and some form of card draw or selection. A hand with access to 2 colors is fine to start with, as long as you have more than 2 lands in your hand. I always partial away my 5-7 drops with the exception of Living Death. Don't be afraid to partial away toolbox answers as we have multiple avenues of tutoring them throughout the game. Stick to lands, ramp, card draw, tutors, and Living Death as the cards you keep when you partial mulligan.
Early turns:
As a three colored deck, you first few turns should consist of aggressive color fixing an laying the groundwork for a turn 4-5 Marchesa. I try to always grab a mountain if I have access to Anger, because that leads to great Turn 4s if you can get it into the graveyard. It's not uncommon for me to have a few small creatures out by then and swing for a few counters. Unlike most tempo/aggro decks, you need to pick your attacks very carefully. If you swing just enough for become higher life than your opponent, it shuts Marchesa, the Black Rose off almost entirely if you don't have a life or counter outlet. A wise opponent with let you hit them and make sure your general is "off" as much as possible. That being said, when you can get counters on your creatures unhindered, do so. You need to squeeze as much value out of your creatures as possible to get ahead. After you assemble a few creatures on the board with counters, don't be afraid to throw them at folks. We want our creatures to die after they get their counters with Marchesa, the Black Rose out. Every time we accomplish this, it brings us closer to a critical mass of advantage, that is really hard for our opponents to overcome.
Mid game:
I consider mid game with this deck when I have Marchesa, the Black Rose and a sac outlet both on the board. The combination of the two is what propels the deck forward into late game. That being said, this deck can hit mid game really early for a commander deck. A turn 3 Phyrexian Altar into a turn 4 Marchesa, the Black Rose is a very reasonable start to mid game. We want to protect her as much as possible, so get a counter on her if you can. Don't be afraid to sacrifice her even if she doesn't have a counter on her if it means saving her from a tuck spell. Tuck spells can shut her down hard. In the event of a tuck spell, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed can act as a second commander, and Fleshwrither can tutor Marchesa, the Black Rose back to play. You should be gathering answers and responding to threat accordingly and netting minor advantages here and there through throwing your creatures under attackers and at you opponents. Every time you can use a creature again pulls us a little closer to our late game. Late game for us, is our strongest phase. We will have some permitted life loss during this phase, through our own effects and through taking attacks. This will keep our dethrone triggering.
Late game:
I consider late game for this deck to be when I can all out swing at a typical player, and kill them through blockers. Whether that is 40+ power on the board, or 20+ power on the board with a Scourge of the Throne out, or in the special case of having Living Death and Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed looping. Another signal that it is late game is when you can Sneak Attack almost a whole hand of creatures into play. These scenarios are what the deck is built to do, and it is good at it. When going for an alpha swing, make sure you do your math right, leaving blockers if needed. You will be at a bit lower life than most of the table (hopefully) and be swinging hard because of it. During late game you can give your dudes pseudo "vigilance" if you need blockers by sacrificing them post combat so that they return end of turn. When you start getting dangerously low on life, you can cast Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Disciple of Bolas and gain some back. Gray Merchant of Asphodel can be a strong win condition if you can recur it multiple times with a full board.
*Special notes*:
People playing life gain decks are going to absolutely hate you, and will be actively trying to destroy you as soon as they can. Be careful to notice whats on the board before turning that last dude sideways. Be very careful of Living Death, while it is one of the strongest effects in the deck for us, recurring it a lot will lead to people play around it, pitching nasty things like Terastodon in their graveyard in anticipation. Sac outlets are incredibly important in this deck, as they can save your dudes from exile/tuck/bounce effects, while abusing their etbs. Playing around grave hate takes a lot more effort. As this deck wants to have creatures moving in and out of the graveyard all game long, grave hate of any form can really put a damper on your game plan. Remove, destroy, bounce, or steal to get rid of whatever grave hate your opponent is packing, and if you can't get rid of it, get rid of them. Sometimes the best removal is player removal, especially when the problem permanent is either Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void. If the player has something they can activate in response, make them use it as soon as possible to keep your momentum going forward.
Advanced Strategies and Match-Ups in Multiplayer:
Against control variants(America/Esper/Bant or any combination of blue/white), you want to try and keep Marchesa on the board as much as possible until they are at lower life. That may be the hardest part of your fight. Keep the pressure on them and try to grab advantages where you can. Do not over-extend into board wipes, because it will give them time to stabilize. A haste enabler is key in these match ups. You are the aggro deck for sure. This holds true to facing combo decks as well. They need to be hit as hard as possible, usually the group will focus them as well, making their demise that much quicker. Against other aggro decks, it really depends on the speed of the other decks. Where my list can play well as a tempo deck, that's not going to cut it when you are taking 15 damage turn 3/4 by a giant Omnath, Locus of Mana, or staring down an elf army turn 3.(Which happens a lot in our meta) If you can't out race them, control them, and play very reactionary. Get advantages when you can, but don't paint a huge target on yourself. Just a general rule I play by : If there is a monogreen deck at the table, it's going to hit faster and harder than you, so play more controlling/midrange.
Tutors and chaining:
There are several chains you can start with some of the tutors to get really explosive turns. You will learn nuances as you play the deck, but here are some examples (Sneak attack makes these really easy).
(12/1/14)
Additions:
+ Flamekin Village (Haste has already been WAY relevant.)
+ Dualcaster Mage (Combos with living death and a sac outlet.)
+ Feldon of the Third Path (Feldon's utility is promising.)
+ Grim Haruspex (Draws way harder than Jace and is easy to recur.)
+ Clever Impersonator (Straight upgrade over student.)
+ Phyrexian Obliterator (Punishes aggro hard and is really fun to clone a bunch. Fun and has been promising in testing so far.)
Removed:
- Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep (Flamekin village has been way more relevant)
- Vendilion Clique (Combo has faded from my meta, so I took this out and added a combo piece)
- Filth (Dead card more often then it should be.)
- Jace, the Mindsculptor (Grim Haruspex draws more cards and can keep coming back)
- Sakashima's Student (Clever Impersonator is pretty much better in every way)
- Bitterblossom (While decent in theory, this card just isn't good in the deck)
(9/30/14)
Additions:
+ Agent of Erebos - Gives me grave hate I can tutor and reuse.
Removed
- Liliana of the Veil - Has almost no synergy with the deck and was just a placeholder for the time being.
(9/9/2014)
Additions:
+ Jace, the Mind Sculptor - It's Jace, might as well run the best walkers
+ Liliana of the Veil - It's Liliana, might as well run the best walkers
+ Graveborn Muse - Card draw for life at 4cmc on a creature. Got a lot going for it.
+ Talisman of Dominance - Good mana rock for fixing, speed, and life loss
+ Izzet Signet - finished cycle of signets
+ Fulminator Mage - Gets rid of all those problematic utility lands and busted stuff like Gaea's Cradle.
+ Dimir House Guard - Sac outlet, tutor, evasive, and can be tutored by both fleshwrither and imperial recruiter. It's like it was made for this deck...
+ Tuktuk Scrapper - Needed more artifact hate. 4cmc and 2 power makes it easily tutored.
Removed:
- Treasonous Ogre - Can fuel explosive plays rarely, but ends up a dead card the other 99% of the time.
- Faceless Butcher - I'd rather steal or clone stuff.
- Shadowblood Ridge - Dropped from 40 to 38 lands, this was a bad land.
- Darkwater Catacombs - Dropped from 40 to 38 lands, this was a bad land.
- Charcoal Diamond - Replaced by a better rock.
- Fire Diamond - Replaced by a better rock.
- Whip of Erebos - Gray Merchant does more work than whip ever did, and can be tutored.
- Vela the Night-Clad - Bad, by the time she was online I usually had Urborg + Filth assembled anyway.
(9/3/2014)
Speeding up the deck and packing as much power and draw as possible. Starting to take on tables without combos relatively easy.
Additions:
+ Phyrexian Arena Awesome for the deck, gives us steam and helps our life total.
+ Chasm Skulker Wicked synergy between Sage of Fables and Marchesa herself.
+ Pain Seer Early card draw and life total fixing. It's no confidant, but that's also on the list to pick up.
+ Bitterblossom Great for holding out against hyper aggressive decks, and gives us bodies to swing with, testing well.
+ Talisman of Indulgence I usually need more red/black than blue, and fixes life and mana over sky diamond, will be adding the other talisman too.
+ Gray Merchant of Asphodel Great for abusing with our etb abuse. Also helps pad life due to all the aggressive life costs.
Removed:
- Sky Diamond < Talismans
- Dictate of Erebos WHAAAAAAT?! Yea I took it out. Living Death does it's job 10000x better and is way more easy to abuse.
- Feast on the Fallen Wow, don't play this, its way worse in play than on paper.
- Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur Yea, with me adding confidant effects and lowering my curve, I dropped him. He doesn't impact games that end before you can cast/cheat him in.
- Cytoplast Manipulator Can durdle a bit, but otherwise rather weak creature overall. I like the exploding squid better.
- Kira, Great Glass-Spinner Has dis-synergy with kiki-jiki/unspeakable symbol/thassa and was really low impact considering I sac to respond to removal anyhow.
-Crumbling Necropolis Enters tapped, trying to clear tapped lands out for speed.
-Diabolic Intent Imperial Recruiter is easily recurred, and has over 20 targets. Seems like a good swap.
+Volcanic Island Final of the ABU duals, just need to get the rest of fetches to finish the manabase.
+Imperial Recruiter Card is a house, I can't wait to abuse it.
(8/19/14) Big Update after a lot of testing. Deck is a force to be reckoned with.
Additions:
Rocks that speed me up and fix have been finally added.
+1 Sol Ring
+1 Sky Diamond
+1 Fire Diamond
+1 Charcoal Diamond
+1 Dimir Signet
+1 Rakdos Signet
Other Additions
+1 Feast on the Fallen This card is awesome in multiplayer, seldom does this not give you at least a counter on a turn rotation. Works wonders with Vela.
+1 Eldrazi Monument Funny story, I did an edh cube draft where I had this and Marchesa. Play it, it's stupid good.
+1 Chaos Warp Answers almost anything in red at instant speed. Too good to not run.
+1 Puppeteer Clique This card is wicked with recursion, especially when you get to re-recur other peoples stuff.
+1 Márton Stromgald I swung for over 1k with with him and a sakashima copying him on board. Oh did I mention you can tutor him too?
+1 Faceless Butcher Tutorable, recurrable, exiling removal that loves to be abused like oblivion ring. No idea why I wasn't running this guy.
+1 Falkenrath Aristocrat I missed having a tutorable sac outlet.
+1 Aura Thief The best answer to double hexproof-propaganda-sphere-of-safety pillow forts i have ever seen. Also steals lots of cool things like Mirari's Wake
+1 Necroplasm Token deck got you down? How bout a recurring board wipe?
+1 Badlands Got my hands on one
Removed:
-1 Viscera Seer Falkrath Aristocrat beats face and is tutorable.
-1 Ashling the Pilgrim Necroplasm does her job way better, killing tokens even when they are enormous.
-1 Iron Myr Replaced by better rocks
-1 Silver Myr Replaced by better rocks
-1 Leaden Myr Replaced by better rocks
-1 Nightscape Familiar Terrible placeholder really. Love that its gone lol.
-1 Voidmage Prodigy This deck plays better as aggro or tempo than control, also low number of wizards.
-1 Blind Zealot This is a good on paper, bad in play example. Bad slow removal that always does nothing.
-1 Archaeomancer Xiahou Dun works much harder, and never really did anything.
-1 Master of Waves Replaced by Marton Stromgald who is hideously overpowered in comparison.
-1 Zealous Conscripts Was never that great without Kiki-Jiki, and I never needed to combo kill anyone.
-1 Skullclamp Never really worked well in the deck, no tokens without master of waves as well.
-1 Chromatic Lantern Replaced by better rocks
-1 Darksteel Ingot Replaced by better rocks
-1 Obelisk of Grixis Replaced by better rocks
(6/23/14) -1 Island
+1 River of Tears
(6/26/14) (Massive overhaul and streamlining) Removed:
-1 Mountain
-1 Swamp
-1 Deserted Temple more color producing lands to smooth the deck out
-1 Deathgreeter - Did nothing except shut Marchesa off for the most part
-1 Dark Impostor - Too mana intensive to be effective
-1 Hellrider - Slams someone hard every once and again, but i was just not fond of it
-1 Falkenrath Aristocrat Have enough sac outlets, needed more utility.
-1 Rakdos, Lord of Riots Too colored mana symbols in the deck to abuse him
-1 Keranos, God of Storms did pretty much nothing every time i cast him
-1 Thundermaw Hellkite deck wanted something a little more explosive
-1 Havengul Lich most of the time it was just a very costly solemn reanimator
-1 Harvester of Souls lowering the curve made me cut him
-1 Blightsteel Colossus lowering the curve, this as the first to go
-1 Twilight's Call replaced with a mana rock to speed the deck up
-1 Temporal Extortion replaced with a mana rock to speed the deck up
-1 Jokulhaups people get butt hurt when you cast this, replaced with a mana rock to speed the deck up
-1 Chaos Warp was never relevant over grabbing venser
-1 Dack Fayden a single faithless looting 99% of the time
Added:
+1 Phyrexian Tower awesome synergy in the deck
+1 Shadowblood Ridge more fixing, will swap with a filter when i get them
+1 Darkwater Catacombs more fixing, will swap with a filter when i get them
+1 Iron Myr Cheap mana to increase speed
+1 Silver Myr Cheap mana to increase speed
+1 Leaden Myr Cheap mana to increase speed
+1 Chromatic Lantern Cheap mana to increase speed
+1 Darksteel Ingot Cheap mana to increase speed
+1 Obelisk of Grixis Cheap mana to increase speed
+1 Nightscape Familiar Lowers our curve and can swing
+1 Voidmage Prodigy Sac outlet and counter spell on feet, has been excellent
+1 Filth Synergy with Urborg is incredible
+1 Master of Waves Puts lots of bodies on the board, can get out of hand very fast
+1 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed GY recursion for our enchantments or dudes, while being unblockable for the most part
+1 Vela the Night-Clad Gives evasion and massive life loss.
+1 Preyseizer Dragon Absolutely disgusting. It's like hitting someone with a freight train
+1 Diabolic Tutor An arguably better Demonic Tutor in this deck
+1 Skullclamp Busted artifact draw? Sounds Good.
(7/2/14)
-1 Island
-1 Swamp
+1 Tolaria West Tutors urborg + coffers, and can mana fix in a pinch.
+1 Miren, the Moaning Well Life gain and a sac outlet that doesn't eat a deck slot really, seems good.
Rest of the fetch lands, I want to run the full gambit of fixing as it's a tri-color deck.(Yay reprints!) Clever Impersonator is going to be incredible in the deck, and any other blue edh deck out there. Mer-Ek Nightblade seems like it fits all our tutor criteria and makes it a nightmare to combat our dudes.
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)
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)
Nice call on Xiahou Dun! I missed that and just added him, let me ask - why temporal extortion? Shuts us off if it fires, and we have access to better time walks anyway.
I was actually running it to help opponents get into the red zone, but it's actually sweet tech. In a pinch temporal extortion lets us cut our life to trigger dethrone.
I've considered cutting it and twilight's call, but I'm just not sure for what yet.
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)
Blind zealot came about from an effort to replace as much removal as possible with creature versions that I could abuse. The best part about it is that it can also start hitting hard with intimidate fairly easy.
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)
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)
I do like the deck very much though. Grave Betrayal seems hilarious with Marchesa, you might want to try that.
Also, take a look at Dimir House Guard, which is a lot more flexible than Fleshwrither. It can find Sneak Attack as well as function as a sac outlet.
Any reason you don't play Demonic Tutor?
Ardeyn
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- A single spark of passion can change a man forever. -
Ob’s amazing but your playgroup will probably hate you. He is a Vorinclex tier douchebag.
There's already a Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur in the 99... this deck clearly isn't about making friends, haha. Might as well add Stranglehold, too!
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EDH: B Chainer, Dementia Master B | UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG | WRG Marath, Will of the Wild WRG | UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR | UBG Tasigur, the Golden Fang UBG
Modern: WBG Abzan Company WBG | UBR Grixis Delver and/or Twin UBR | U Merfolk U
WBG Anafenza, the Foremost WBG WUR Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR
WUBRG Horde of Notions WUBRG WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon WUBRG URG Maelstrom Wanderer URG UBG Damia, Sage of Stone UBG WUG Roon of the Hidden Realm WUG WUG Rafiq of the Many WUG WUG Deveri, Empyrial Tactician WUG BRG Prossh, Skyraider of Kher BRG WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain WBG UBR Nekusar, the Mind Razer UBR WBR Kaalia of the Vast WBR UG Prime Speaker Zegana UG UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG WB Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter WB WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
I do like the deck very much though. Grave Betrayal seems hilarious with Marchesa, you might want to try that.
Also, take a look at Dimir House Guard, which is a lot more flexible than Fleshwrither. It can find Sneak Attack as well as function as a sac outlet.
Any reason you don't play Demonic Tutor?
Ardeyn
Actually Flayer of the Hatebound does combo with living death, just not how you think. You sac your board, and put flayer back due to undying. All of your dudes come from exile, end of turn your previous board comes back hitting hard. Dimir House Guard is one of the cards I need to test for sure, for sheer flexibility. Not sure I'd drop fleshwrither for it, due to it tutoring dudes into play directly, while being great with counters. As far as demonic tutor goes, I just don't have one honestly, I think if I did get a copy it would most likely be great, as i'm adding Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed as soon as I get it in the mail. Grave Betrayal is just too expensive and not easily recurred in this deck. It was one of the first cards I cut when testing the deck, if I played it more control, it would probably be excellent, in my current list, it doesn't really have an impact at all.
Ob’s amazing but your playgroup will probably hate you. He is a Vorinclex tier douchebag.
There's already a Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur in the 99... this deck clearly isn't about making friends, haha. Might as well add Stranglehold, too!
My meta is pretty degenerate, so there is a a lot less hating going on. We kind of all expect each other to do really busted things, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Stranglehold, and other really big hoser cards are really common. Every single green deck here has a Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger pretty much as well. I'm kind of forced to play hard ball, so you can let up on the nastiness if need be.
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)
Ob’s amazing but your playgroup will probably hate you. He is a Vorinclex tier douchebag.
There's already a Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur in the 99... this deck clearly isn't about making friends, haha. Might as well add Stranglehold, too!
My meta is pretty degenerate, so there is a a lot less hating going on. We kind of all expect each other to do really busted things, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Stranglehold, and other really big hoser cards are really common. Every single green deck here has a Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger pretty much as well. I'm kind of forced to play hard ball, so you can let up on the nastiness if need be.
Yeah, that's understandable. Forgive me if I've misconstrued your post, but it wasn't my intention to be nasty. If your meta really is that cutthroat, then by all means cheat out Jin-Gitaxias all day long. But if you meant that I can lay off the nastiness in my own deck, then yeah--I already kind of do that, as I have a greater collection of truly broken cards than many of the people I regularly play with. I actually just traded away my own Jin-Gitaxias because he's been sitting in my folder for well over a year now.
On another note, you should try out Shivan Harvest. Repeatable nonbasic land destruction with potentially zero downside is just vicious.
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EDH: B Chainer, Dementia Master B | UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG | WRG Marath, Will of the Wild WRG | UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR | UBG Tasigur, the Golden Fang UBG
Modern: WBG Abzan Company WBG | UBR Grixis Delver and/or Twin UBR | U Merfolk U
WBG Anafenza, the Foremost WBG WUR Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR
WUBRG Horde of Notions WUBRG WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon WUBRG URG Maelstrom Wanderer URG UBG Damia, Sage of Stone UBG WUG Roon of the Hidden Realm WUG WUG Rafiq of the Many WUG WUG Deveri, Empyrial Tactician WUG BRG Prossh, Skyraider of Kher BRG WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain WBG UBR Nekusar, the Mind Razer UBR WBR Kaalia of the Vast WBR UG Prime Speaker Zegana UG UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG WB Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter WB WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
Oh i wasn't saying you were nasty, sorry if thats how it reads. I was more meaning the mean things in the deck
And shivan harvest looks awesome, I'd probably cut temporal extortion for it. Hitting a cradle or coffers and getting another etb sounds way awesome. Thanks for the recommendation!
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)
So I am just going to throw this one out there...Marton Stromgald. He is dumb. Do I need to explain? He turns a few weenies into throne flippers...
If he wasn't so small or buffed himself I would consider running him. I've been actually trying to lower my curve a bit, so he could be a heavy hitter replacement for a 6 drop or so. I'll look into testing him.
On a side note:
Tonight I played lots of friendly games versus aggro decks. This list needs more speed.
Sower of Temptation is such a good creature for this deck, it turned so many bad situations for profit. Havengul Lich, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Hellrider are all most likely being cut.
Lich and Aristocrat have never really done anything for the deck, and Hellrider, while good on paper, has not been pulling much weight at all.
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)
It is true that Marton doesn't buff himself, and is a bit fragile; honestly he is a bit of a glass cannon. But that is why he is good in Marchesa: because it doesn't matter. He can be fragile. He still gets a +1/+1 counter for attacking (this triggering his ability). If they block and kill him so what? He has not only done his job, but he is coming back at eot. And of course @ 4 comic he is tutor able via fleshwrither.
Very true, I'll throw him in and see how he plays. I'm most likely going to add some signets and other mana rocks to the deck to increase the speed. Wish there were more mana dorks in grixis than just the myrs.
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)
I like your list and as you've said seems to be a bit on the slow side against heavy aggro decks.
I love shivan harvest in this deck.
Have you thought about these possible cards in the deck.
Thoughtpicker Witch
Oona's Blackgaurd
Puppeteer Clique
Purphorous God of the Forge
Skullclamp
Sol Ring
Attrition
Demonic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Toxic Deluge
Diabolic Intent
Phyrexian Reclamation
Chromatic Lantern
Power Conduit
Tymaret, the Murder King
Dominus of Fealty
Insurrection
Stalking Vengeance
Vela the Night Clad
Don't you like Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch? Her ability interacts very well with counters. Underworld Cerberus have good interactions with Graveyard as well, and he can be a pain to block, specially while you are triggering dethrone on him. The funny thing is that he still triggers Marchesa, since "he dies". So he goes to exile and comes back to play after.
Exava actually doesn't do a thing for the deck. She doesn't give +1/+1 counters herself, and by the time they hae counters from Marchesa, they are already attacking so haste is irrelevant. She is good with unleash, but urabrask and anger are straight up better here. Thrumming bird may have potential.
I like your list and as you've said seems to be a bit on the slow side against heavy aggro decks.
I love shivan harvest in this deck.
Have you thought about these possible cards in the deck.
Thoughtpicker Witch
Oona's Blackgaurd
Puppeteer Clique
Purphorous God of the Forge
Skullclamp
Sol Ring
Attrition
Demonic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Toxic Deluge
Diabolic Intent
Phyrexian Reclamation
Chromatic Lantern
Power Conduit
Tymaret, the Murder King
Dominus of Fealty
Insurrection
Stalking Vengeance
Vela the Night Clad
Things i will be testing/adding: Vela, the Night Clad : is in, she seems to be absolutely sick granting evasion and a a lot of life loss quickly. Diabolic Intent : is a situationally better Demonic Tutor in this deck. Skull Clamp : might be put back in as i've lowered the curve a bit, I'll be editting my list tomorrow night, I have quite a few things i'm changing tomorrow night when i get time. Vampiric Tutor/Demonic Tutor : shoe in's if i had them. Will look to get them after the mana base is optimized. Chromatic Lantern : mana fixing is tempting, not sure if i would run this over darksteel ingot for removal reasons. Phyrexian Reclamation : This one seems solid, need to pick up a copy. Sol Ring : Why the hell was this not in my list? Guess we all have brain farts sometime Puppeteer Clique : Seems pretty good, reanimating other people's graves for profit, while getting to keep the creature if we have a sac outlet? Seems solid.
Things I have already tested: Tymaret, the Murder King/Power Conduit : Adorable more than anything. I wish he could hit creatures, and both are just incredibly slow with too little effect. Toxic Deluge : Has never been useful to me, I cut it for Jokulhaups. Oona's Blackgaurd : Great on paper, sick in 1v1 i'd imagine. Bad in multiplayer to be honest. Purphorous God of the Forge : Easy way to get yourself killed is to play this guy, Prophet of Kruphix, Seedborn Muse, or Nekusar, the Mindrazer. He also hands us the "throne" way too fast, making Marchesa flounder a bit. Thrummingbird : Adorable, would run it in a heartbeat if I ran a full gambit of walkers, other than that it's just "meh" Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch : One of the first cards I cut, literally does nothing for the deck. It would've been super busted if she just gave your dudes unleash.
Too expensive color wise, too expensive mana wise(we reanimate or cheat dudes in), and not enough effect(we already run flayer of the hatebound) respectively. Attrition : Seems decent making etb removal even stronger, not sure what I would honestly drop for it. Between Venser/Sower/Flayer and others i have little issue with creatures. Kokusho, the Evening Star : Has a similar problem to why I don't run Grey Merchant in this deck. We cannot have the most life, period, unless we are about to win. Only exception which is kind of hilarious, is you could combo him with Unspeakable Symbol, a sac outlet, and Marchesa, but that seems a bit much as a 4 piece combo that can only be used once a turn. Thoughtpicker Witch : Personally I like my sac outlets to be free, so I can maximize my turns/mana. Wouldn't be bad, just not for me
I will be revising my list tomorrow night when I get a chance, but I have quite a few changes in mind, I'll be speeding this deck up by lowering the curve for one. Other low impact cards will be getting cut as well.
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)
I did a massive update to the list today for those who are interested, I've been really streamlining the deck. It's starting to play like a well oiled machine
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)
Hello everyone, I'm posting a Marchesa list that has done incredibly well for me, as it not only suits my style, but is insanely fun to pilot. I've been playing since tempest, and have always loved graveyard shenanigans and reanimator, and this new legend has really caught my attention for being not only unique, but incredibly formidable. I built this deck to be not only extremely aggressive, but to be very fluid in changing rolls if the situation required, theres always going to be decks that can put you in a bad spot, so utility for me is key to a good deck. Keep in mind this deck list is not a 1v1 or French list deck, this is strictly built for multiplayer. The deck list that I run is not that budget friendly because I have been collecting cards for many years now, but don't be frightened. Marchesa works with so many different cards that budget options are in no short supply. Now then....
So why play Marchesa, the Black Rose over any of the other grixis generals? This deck was built with aggro in mind, so that's what I will be using as my baseline for comparison.
Marchesa, the Black Rose - Offers several different play styles a solid general that has immediate impact, can get big, is relatively cheap at four mana. She offers self and other creatures you play recursion, she is an anthem, and she plays very well with counters matter cards. Building around her doesn't really require much past adding creatures to a deck, but when you start adding value creatures with great abilities that trigger when they enter the battlefield, she starts becoming an exceptionally strong commander. On the flip side, the more you build around her, the worse you do if she gets tucked. Carefully playing around tuck effects will be one of the many keys to success with her.
Pros:
Resilient to boardwipes.
Generates advantage out even trivial creatures.
Can support a wide variety of deck types.
Can self recur, meaning she can sometimes avoid general tax.
Even at just 4 mana, she has a drastic impact on your board the second she sticks.
Stealing creatures with her can be permanent with a sac outlet.
Cons:
Tuck effects are brutal when you build around her.
Grave hate in any form can stop you stone cold.
Not nearly as fast as a dedicated tuned aggro deck, which can hit you hard before you stabilize.
Being highest life shuts Marchesa, the Black Rose off, which can make things difficult.
Other Commanders:
Crosis, the Purger - Decent beater and can really screw over one person if he connects. Good as a grixis control finisher or voltron general. At 6cmc, this guy comes down late and get really expensive to keep on the board. Not really what an aggro deck is looking for.
Garza Zol, Plague Queen - Honestly think this is one of the worst of the grixis legends. Expensive, and does nothing cool really. At 7cmc, she should win you the game, and she doesn't.
Gwendlyn Di Corci - Excellent 1v1 control general. Since I don't play 1v1 EDH at all, she's not good for this. As an aggro general she could be pushed to work, keeping opponents discarding so that they run out of answers for your board. I think this role is way more suited for an aggressive creature though.
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge - Spell slinger on steroids. If I was playing grixis storm, she would be a shoo in. She loves spells, and aggro decks love dudes. If there were some solid token generating spells in these colors with massive impact I could see an aggro deck working with her, but there are not any.
Lord of Tresserhorn - Highly aggressive voltron general. Incredibly hard to play as well. I don't like it personally. Requires a lot to get around his downside, but can hit like a freight train. I honestly think his downside is pretty rough, because I would want my deck to just have oodles of card advantage. I can see him working though.
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy - Pet favorite of mine. Works with possibly 3 cards in EDH to do shenanigans. Not the utility I'm looking for. Great chaos general though. Aggressively costed and probably a vanilla creature in most decks. Marchesa almost always swings as a 4/4 anyway.
Nekusar, the Mindrazer - Public enemy number one. I'm here to play magic and interact with the board, not cast a few wheel effects and win. Plays way better as a combo general with all the wheel effects. He's a very build around general who like spells and not creatures.
Sedris, the Traitor King - Closest thing to Marchesa, and is still quite good. A solid creature type, great ability, it just comes to preference. Honestly it's a toss up for me. Sedris has a great tribe, is stronger out the gate, and lets you reanimate from your grave for mana. I chose Marchesa because she does it passively with a lower cost, but they are both great.
Sol'kanar the Swamp King - Control finisher played for style points. Honestly just an old bad legend that's cool, but not effective as new creatures.
Tetsuo Umezawa - Without his Jitte, this guy is pretty bad. Would still work in a possible control build. Terrible honestly, possible control creature?
Thraximundar - Best voltron general in grixis hands down. He clears his own way, has haste, and gets big. Costs a bunch, but kills fast when he sticks. I would run this guy if my focus was general damage.
Nicol Bolas - The elder dragon himself. Too mana heavy to do anything until late game, but can ruin a player on connecting. Control finisher at best. At 8 mana, he's not a general for an aggro deck in the least.
When Marchesa, the Black Rose was spoiled, I saw tons of potential in her. I wasn't incredibly sure how to best effectively use her, or what kind of shell she would fit best in. I figured out over playing the deck over the months she has been released that a build based on simply abusing enter the battlefield effects was simply amazing. I've played around with lots of creatures, lots of support cards, even the land base has had a major overhaul. From inception to current day, this deck has gone from project to signature deck. I really poured my time and effort into the deck, and the way it plays, definitely shows. I've played the deck almost every weekend since she was released, and I feel like I am really honing in on an exceptionally strong deck list.
To give you an idea of what I play against on a regular to semi-regular basis, I have listed the decks in my meta of around 12 folks or so. There are more decks that I do play against, but not on any regular basis. What you can take from this list is that my meta is very diverse with everything from wacky fun decks to really cut throat. Out of this list I can't say I have any horrendous match ups, but how fast mono green can be is definitely a concern. Asides from mono green all the other match ups are either fair or in our favor.
4 Marchesa, the Black Rose
1CMC
1 Sidisi's Faithful
1 Entomb
1 Sol Ring
1 Carrior Feeder
2CMC
2 Dimir Signet
2 Izzet Signet
2 Rakdos Signet
2 Talisman of Dominance
2 Talisman of Indulgence
2 Dark Confidant
2 Pain Seer
2 Baleful Strix
2 Sage of Hours
2 Spellskite
2 Fathom Feeder
3CMC
3 Unspeakable Symbol
3 Crypt Rats
3 Chasm Skulker
3 Phyrexian Altar
3 Burnished Hart
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Matter Reshaper
3 Imperial Recruiter
3 Grim Haruspex
3 Sage of Fables
3 Olivia, Mobilized for War
3 Dualcaster Mage
3 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
3 Feldon of the Third Path
4CMC
4 Dack's Duplicate
4 Clever Impersonator
4 Sakashima the Imposter
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Sower of Temptation
4 Corpse Augur
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Profaner of the Dead
4 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
4 Anger
4 Marton Stromgald
4 Aura Thief
4 Tuktuk Scrapper
4 Venser, Shaper Savant
4 Disciple of Bolas
4 Dimir House Guard
4 Clutch of the Undercity
4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
4 Necrotic Ooze
4 Fleshwrither
4 Sneak Attack
5 River Kelpie
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
5 Eldrazi Monument
5 Urabrask the Hidden
5 Mulldrifter
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
5 Living Death
5 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
5 Puppeteer Clique
5 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
6CMC
6 Scourge of the Throne
6 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
6 Flayer of the Hatebound
7CMC
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
Lands
2 Swamp
3 Mountain
3 Island
0 Polluted Delta
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Flooded Strand
0 Marsh Flats
0 Wooded Foothills
0 Drowned Catacombs
0 Sulfur Falls
0 Dragonskull Summit
0 Blood Crypt
0 Watery Grave
0 Steam Vents
0 Badlands
0 Volcanic Island
0 Underground Sea
0 Command Beacon
0 River of Tears
0 Riptide Laboratory
0 Command Tower
0 Phyrexian Tower
0 Miren, the Moaning Well
0 Flamekin Village
0 Bojuka Bog
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Creeping Tar Pit
0 Opal Palace
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
0 Cabal Coffers
0 Westvale Abbey
4 Marchesa, the Black Rose
Card draw/selection (Sorted by CMC/Alphabetical)
1 Entomb
2 Baleful Strix
2 Pain Seer
3 Burnished Hart
3 Chasm Skulker
3 Grim Haruspex
3 Imperial Recruiter
3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Sage of Fables
3 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Clutch of the Undercity
4 Fleshwrither
4 Graveborn Muse
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
5 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
5 Mulldrifter
5 River Kelpie
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
Sac Outlets(Sorted by CMC/Alphabetical)
1 Carrion Feeder
3 Phyrexian Altar
4 Dimir House Guard
4 Disciple of Bolas
4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
5 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
Tool Box (Sorted by CMC/Alphabetical)
2 Spellskite
3 Dualcaster Mage
3 Feldon of the Third Path
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Necroplasm
4 Agent of Erebos
4 Aura Thief
4 Sower of Temptation
4 Tuktuk Scrapper
5 Puppeteer Clique
2 Sage of Hours
4 Márton Stromgald
4 Necrotic Ooze
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
4 Sneak Attack
5 Eldrazi Monument
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
5 Living Death
6 Flayer of the Hatebound
6 Preyseizer Dragon
6 Scourge of the Throne
Utility (Sorted by CMC/Alphabetical)
3 Chaos Warp
3 Unspeakable Symbol
4 Anger
4 Clever Impersonator
4 Dack's Duplicate
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Sakashima the Impostor
4 Venser, Shaper Savant
5 Shadowborn Demon
5 Urabrask the Hidden
6 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
Ramp (Sorted by CMC/Alphabetical)
1 Sol Ring
2 Dimir Signet
2 Izzet Signet
2 Rakdos Signet
2 Talisman of Dominance
2 Talisman of Indulgence
Lands (Alphabetical)
0 Badlands
0 Blood Crypt
0 Bojuka Bog
0 Cabal Coffers
0 Command Tower
0 Creeping Tar Pit
0 Dragonskull Summit
0 Drowned Catacomb
0 Flamekin Village
0 Flooded Strand
0 Island (x3)
0 Lavaclaw Reaches
0 Marsh Flats
0 Miren, the Moaning Well
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Mountain (x3)
0 Opal Palace
0 Phyrexian Tower
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Riptide Laboratory
0 River of Tears
0 Steam Vents
0 Sulfur Falls
0 Swamp (x2)
0 Tainted Isle
0 Tainted Peak
0 Tolaria West
0 Underground Sea
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
0 Volcanic Island
0 Watery Grave
4 Marchesa, the Black Rose
Creatures (Sorted by CMC/Alphabetical)
1 Carrion Feeder
2 Baleful Strix
2 Pain Seer
2 Sage of Hours
2 Spellskite
3 Burnished Hart
3 Chasm Skulker
3 Dualcaster Mage
3 Feldon of the Third Path
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Grim Haruspex
3 Imperial Recruiter
3 Necroplasm
3 Sage of Fables
3 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Anger
4 Agent of Erebos
4 Aura Thief
4 Clever Impersonator
4 Dack's Duplicate
4 Dimir House Guard
4 Disciple of Bolas
4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
4 Filth
4 Fleshwrither
4 Graveborn Muse
4 Márton Stromgald
4 Necrotic Ooze
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
4 Sakashima the Impostor
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Sower of Temptation
4 Tuktuk Scrapper
4 Venser, Shaper Savant
4 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
5 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
5 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
5 Mulldrifter
5 Puppeteer Clique
5 River Kelpie
5 Shadowborn Demon
5 Urabrask the Hidden
6 Flayer of the Hatebound
6 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
6 Preyseizer Dragon
6 Scourge of the Throne
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
3 Chaos Warp
4 Clutch of the Undercity
1 Entomb
Sorceries
5 Living Death
Support permanents (Sorted by CMC/Alphabetical)
3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Phyrexian Altar
3 Unspeakable Symbol
4 Sneak Attack
5 Eldrazi Monument
Ramp (Sorted by CMC/Alphabetical)
1 Sol Ring
2 Dimir Signet
2 Izzet Signet
2 Rakdos Signet
2 Talisman of Dominance
2 Talisman of Indulgence
Lands (Alphabetical)
0 Badlands
0 Blood Crypt
0 Bojuka Bog
0 Cabal Coffers
0 Command Tower
0 Creeping Tar Pit
0 Dragonskull Summit
0 Drowned Catacomb
0 Flamekin Village
0 Flooded Strand
0 Island (x3)
0 Lavaclaw Reaches
0 Marsh Flats
0 Miren, the Moaning Well
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Mountain (x3)
0 Opal Palace
0 Phyrexian Tower
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Riptide Laboratory
0 River of Tears
0 Steam Vents
0 Sulfur Falls
0 Swamp (x2)
0 Tainted Isle
0 Tainted Peak
0 Tolaria West
0 Underground Sea
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
0 Volcanic Island
0 Watery Grave
Deck stats can be found here.
Right now the non-budget price totals $2077.39 on tcgplayer. (9/18/2014)
Average CMC: 3.66
Well without further ado, let us get dive into the deck with some explanation of cards and why they are effective, and what functions they perform for the deck.
These are incredibly important in a fight against tucking, stealing, or bouncing our dudes. Free ones are great, while some are a bit slower but just as powerful.
Carrion Feeder Free sac outlet that comes back with Marchesa easily. Really an all-star. For a one drop he can get enormous, and you can sacrifice it to itself in a pinch vs exiling/bouncing/tucking removal. One of the best sac outlets in the deck.
Viscera Seer Budget option for cheap sac outlet. I don't run one, but is solid. Lets you reuse your creatures while you scry into your deck.
Dimir House Guard 4 drop for Fleshwrither, 2 power for Imperial recruiter, a sac outlet, evasion, and a tutor for any 4cmc card in your deck. I would consider it a staple, it tutors not only Sneak Attack, but also our general, and any other 4 drop creature we want.
Falkenrath Aristocrat Hasty, survives boardwipes(even better if you sac a human for a counter), and 4 drop for Fleshwrither. Excellent sac outlet when you need one to tutor for. It can catch folks really off guard too, as it is really good at pressuring life totals.
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born Can get threateningly big, removal when it attacks, and combo piece. The combo I run in the deck is with this guy in the graveyard along with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, and Sage of Hours, with a Necrotic Ooze on the battlefield. The way it works is ooze can make infinite tokens of itself with Kiki's ability, because the tokens have haste and will have the abilities as well. If someone responds to the ability, you can sac any creature but the original ooze to put a counter on it and untap it, thus starting a new chain. After you have infinite tokens you can swing for the win, or all of them to put infinite counters on 1 ooze. If they try to remove your infinite power/toughness ooze you use Sage's ability to take infinite turns. When played carefully this will always win you the game.
Phyrexian Altar Incredibly busted with Sneak Attack and fuels enormous turns. Pay R to put a creature into play, and sac it to make a R, and you can burn through all the etb creatures you have in your hand. Most times what I use this pair for, is tapping my red sources to play as many dudes as I can, and after I swing with them to get counters courtesy of our general, I sac them to play the rest of my hand, while all of the dudes I sacrificed come back at the end of turn for me.
Miren, the Moaning Well Can pad your life total and act as an outlet in a pinch. Good for a land slot. This land has saved my butt many times, usually eating a huge Carrion Feeder, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, or Preyseizer Dragon. Gaining 10-20 life at instant speed in grixis colors is not something folks expect.
Phyrexian Tower Helps fix if you need to hit one of the double black costed spells in the deck. Helps accelerate us if we have early creatures, or helps save our creatures from all those nasty removal spells that don't just destroy them.
These are all great in this deck. A notable mention goes to Disciple of Bolas, who actually won my a very recent game eating a 23/23 grimgrin, fueling an incredibly explosive turn. Like I said before, gaining 10-20 life in grixis colors is not something folks expect, and drawing that many cards with it can be insurmountable for some decks.
We need to protect our board and ourselves, and just like all games, sometimes we can get a slow start. These help you stabilize.
Whip of Erebos is awesome for us padding our life totals and fueling Unspeakable Symbol. They make your board really hard to deal with because you can pump your creatures big on a moments notice and gain a fair amount back.
Disciple of Bolas is a sac outlet on entering, gains you life, and can draw you obscene amounts of cards. Being a 4 drop with 2 power and being a wizard means it works with our creature tutors and Sage of Fables. Excellent creature, I would consider it a staple.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel can help pad your life, or just straight up win you the game. Cloning this or reusing it's entry effect a few times will make short work of most opponents.
Unspeakable Symbol It is one of the best cards in the deck, enabling you to save any creature you want for 3 life as long as Marchesa is out. It lets you lowr your life total at instant speed, pump your creatures, and make your board wicked hard to deal with our general out. This is the one staple card that every list should run for the deck. It feels like it was made for Marchesa, the Black Rose.
Spellskite saves your creatures and occasionally other permanents from getting hit with nasty spells. One trick I've learned playing the deck is that this guy can lower your life by 2 any number of times if you need to lower your life total as long as there's a legal spell or ability to redirect with it. "Yea I'll redirect that spell to my Spellskite 5 times, oh look I'm not highest life total anymore!"
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is a great evasive creature that makes our creatures really hard to remove asides from board wipes. Great value in a three drop, and can set down protection for our general before she hits the field.
Sage of Fables has got to be Marchesa's best friend. It plays well with all of the other wizards in the deck as well, but curving this into our general is awesome. She will enter with a counter, so any attempts to destroy her will just bring her back to her own effect at the end of the turn. Sage also has a great draw ability for extra counters, so that we don't lose momentum after our hand is starting to deplete.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed makes our board incredibly hard to deal with. He is straight up the second in command of the deck. If something nonhuman dies without a counter, it comes right back, and if it does have a counter, our awesome general has got you covered. I can't remember a game I've lost with both of them on the battlefield. This guy also does tons of work while you have a sac outlet, because you get to abuse your entry effects even more.
Vendilion Clique can shore up our combo match up by stripping combo pieces right out of your opponent's hand while giving you a flying threat. It works great with the next card on our list.
Venser, Shaper Savant can shore up our combo match up by ridding the board or stack of combo pieces, and can control the board bouncing a problematic permanent. Bouncing a game winning spell off the stack back to someone's hand and tucking it with Vendilion Clique can save your skin. I've used this controlling duo to great effect, and I get incredible results using them both off of Sneak Attack. When folks see a blue player with no blue open they tend to get the urge to do something silly, like win.
Most, if not all of these spells will just outright win you the game if you resolve them at the right time. Living Death, oh I love this card. It is so one sided in this deck it's not even funny. Oh did I mention you can recur it forever with Archaeomancer or Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed? Twilight's Call used to be included, but not even close in power to it.
Jokulhaups, this card resolved should win you the game. You can blow up everything, and get all your dudes back end of turn. Swing while everyone scrambles to regroup. I recently removed it for having the "Primal Surge" problem. (When you cast it folks just scoop in frustration)
Ashling the Pilgrim is a nightmare for your opponents. Its a growing beater, or a board wipe when needed. I removed her recently but is still a good choice.
Sneak Attack is so good in this deck. Clutch of the Undercity is in the deck just to fetch it (or be removal I guess). Combined with Treasonous Ogre, your board can get insane at a moments notice. Anyone looking to build the deck needs to consider getting one. It's really that insane. Instant speed blockers, ramp, draw, life gain, sacrificing, and just about everything else is just absolutely amazing in the deck. If you have your general out, just sneak out all of the creatures you want or can, swing with them for dethrone triggers. When you sacrifice them to Sneak Attack's effect, you get them all back with Marchesa, the Black Rose triggers. Even green players will be jealous when you lay out your hand for a few red mana and smash someone's face in.
Sakashima the Impostor acts as a 2nd Marchesa, which makes our dudes get scary big fast, especially when paired with Scourge of the Throne. Everything in the deck is great to be cloned. Primary targets are usually our general, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Scourge of the Throne or Márton Stromgald. There is a dramatic difference going from any one of these creatures to facing two of them.
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur pads your hand and fills your graveyard. I usually don't have to cast him, Living Death or Sneak Attack cheat him in. Recently removed but incredibly strong with Sneak Attack.
Preyseizer Dragon can not only reset your board, abusing etb's, but also hits like a freight train. Never unhappy slamming someone for 20 while blowing up another player with it's trigger. Oh, and devour also works really well with our general, being a really big threat that just doesn't stay down.
Flayer of the Hatebound can outright kill someone off of a Living Death or mass Marchesa recursion. Removal and wincon in one. Don't play the deck without it. Every single creature that comes back from our general's triggers gets to hit something for its power, which is awesome. This guy accelerates our game plan substantially, shredding life totals left and right, and even letting our triggers keep our life in check if needed.
Sage of Hours now this one I didn't think would be any good, but after trying it, I'm sold. With Unspeakable Symbol, 15 life = 1 Turn, which sounds awful, until you draw Whip of Erebos or Gray Merchant of Asphodel.... or you have 2 Marchesas(Sakashima) and a Scourge of the Throne swinging. I was able to not just combo him, but you can take a bunch of consecutive turns and put opponents so far behind, victory is assured.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel can take out opponents really fast even through pillow forts and can really pull you from just about losing to winning out of nowhere. I find that this guy is a solid win condition, as I've won many games just cloning him once or twice with a big board. He isn't strong early, so I always partial him if he's in my starting hand.
This section could all be considered staples, as they all have multiple interactions within the deck and make the deck run like a dream.
Thassa, God of the Sea is here to filter, and to sneak our creatures through unharmed for that valuable +1/+1 counter. Can't remember ever actually swinging with her, but she is an awesome support enchantment. Getting her active can lead to a growing indestructible monster as she is hard to deal with, so her dethrone counters would stack quite nicely.
Entomb almost always looks for Anger for the all important haste we need to be really aggressive. Second target is usually Filth if I have access to haste already. If I have Living Death in hand I can tutor for whatever creature I want or need as well, making this a very versatile tutor.
Clutch of the Undercity tutors for Sneak Attack almost always. If I already have access to Sneak Attack, it has loads of targets and can be removal as well.
River Kelpie keeps our hand full passively while we do our thing, and is an absolute card advantage monster in this deck. Just how Flayer of the Hatebound generates advantage by sniping creatures with our graveyard recursion effects, kelpie helps our game plan full steam ahead with cards for those recursions. Never sad to draw him, as it usually translates to drawing at least a whole new hand through a game just for casting it. If it wasn't strong enough, its effect triggers for you if your opponents are playing graveyard stuff as well. Persist is icing on the cake.
Fleshwrither tutors for removal (Venser,Shaper Savant), clone (Sakashima the Impostor being the best), ramp (Solemn Simulacrum), or combo piece (Necrotic Ooze, Archaeomancer, Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed), and sac outlet (Falkenrath Aristocrat) while being reusable if it had a counter on it. I wouldn't run the deck without it. This thing is insanely versatile in that it can be almost anything in the deck for 3BBBB. It may sound steep, but finding your general, or finding that answer you need to not lose is absolutely not to underestimated.
Imperial Recruiter has many targets in the deck, and can search for almost as many answers as Fleshwrither. This card is amazing in the deck. Its very expensive, so definitely not budget friendly.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is amazing in any etb heavy creature deck that can run him. Doubling up on any of our entry effects is just straight value. Sometimes he is hard to cast, but well worth the effort in being able to double up on stuff like Solemn Simulacrum.
Mulldrifter is a great value creature in the deck. It's not uncommon for me to draw almost a whole new hand over the course of a game off of just this creature alone. Baleful Strix is a great value creature as well, coming down early, deterring attackers, and turning sideways for flying damage. Both are great early plays and usually help me get traction into mid game.
Solemn Simulacrum helps fix your mana, draws you cards, and thins your deck. Amazing value in the deck. Honorable mention go to Burnished Heart, which I also run. Even though I don't run many basics, they have proven time and time again that ramp and color fixing in a three colored deck is very important. Never sad to see these guys.
Phyrexian Arena and Graveborn Muse are the best gas the deck has. Draws a constant stream of cards and "fixes" our life. While arena dies less, muse does have a bit of an edge by being a tutor target and the fact that I do run a few other zombies increasing it's potential draw.
Sage of Fables is in it's own league of synergy in this deck. It helps put counters on several creatures, namely Marchesa herself, and can draw cards off of excess counters. Chasm Skulker with sage and a bunch of mana will keep your grip full.
Disciple of Bolas is great for padding our life, and can draw big bursts of cards off of whatever we want to sacrifice. Notably I've sacrificed a 23/23 Grimgrin with him, and proceeded to take one of the most explosive turns I've ever had with a deck to date.
These are some of the best answers I've found in Grixis Colors.
Tokens got you down? Necroplasm will destroy the ones that are not copies of creature cards.
How about combo? Vendilion Clique will tuck that combo piece right on the bottom of their deck.
Nasty creature? Sower of Temptation/Shadowborn Demon you can steal it or kill it.
Artifacts? Tuktuk Scrapper will pop that artifact and punish them for it.
Land? Fulminator Mage loves to hit that greedy mana base.
Lots of blockers? Filth and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth make sure your creatures casually stroll right into the red zone without blocks.
Enchantment pillow fort? Aura Thief will take that fort and make it your own.
Nasty dude in a grave? Puppeteer Clique can persuade it to your side, where you can either just exile it, or get a counter on it with our general, sac it, then proceed to keep it on our side for as long as you want.
Graveyard combo? Bojuka Bog/Agent of Erebos will eat those graves up, ensuring your Living Death goes off without a hitch.
Anything else? Venser, Shaper Savant, Chaos Warp, Clutch of the Undercity
These lands fill in some roles that give the deck extra functionality without sacrificing creature slots.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Cabal Coffers is insane, enough said.
Riptide Laboratory bounces a few key creatures in this list, helping reuse etbs and protect against removal.
Opal Palace does a great job ensuring Marchesa enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter, and can fix mana in a pinch.
Fetches (Flooded Strand, Polluted Delta, Bloodstained Mire, Misty Rainforest, Scalding Tarn, Verdant Catacombs, Arid Mesa, and Marsh Flats can be used aggressively to grab dual lands, or shock lands if your desired opponent has less life than you as well. Windswept Heath is the only fetch that cannot grab anything for our deck.
Miren, the Moaning Well seems like a really good sac outlet that can pad our life if need be. Most notable thing I've done already after adding it was having a Grimgrin, Corpse-Born eat my entire board in response to a wrath, and threw him into Miren for 15 life.(And most of it came back end of turn because of Marchesa of course)
Phyrexian Tower can ramp us an additional mana, making double black easier to achieve, while letting us use it as a sac outlet in a pinch as well. Very good land.
Tolaria West can tutor for any land in the deck, usually nabbing urborg or coffers, but occasionally something else.
Creeping Tar Pit/Lavaclaw Reaches are creatures when needed and can hold counters on them really well.
Distinguishing a good hand from a bad one is paramount in any game of magic, and is no different here. What you are looking for in an opening hand in this deck is access to your colors, and some form of card draw or selection. A hand with access to 2 colors is fine to start with, as long as you have more than 2 lands in your hand. I always partial away my 5-7 drops with the exception of Living Death. Don't be afraid to partial away toolbox answers as we have multiple avenues of tutoring them throughout the game. Stick to lands, ramp, card draw, tutors, and Living Death as the cards you keep when you partial mulligan.
As a three colored deck, you first few turns should consist of aggressive color fixing an laying the groundwork for a turn 4-5 Marchesa. I try to always grab a mountain if I have access to Anger, because that leads to great Turn 4s if you can get it into the graveyard. It's not uncommon for me to have a few small creatures out by then and swing for a few counters. Unlike most tempo/aggro decks, you need to pick your attacks very carefully. If you swing just enough for become higher life than your opponent, it shuts Marchesa, the Black Rose off almost entirely if you don't have a life or counter outlet. A wise opponent with let you hit them and make sure your general is "off" as much as possible. That being said, when you can get counters on your creatures unhindered, do so. You need to squeeze as much value out of your creatures as possible to get ahead. After you assemble a few creatures on the board with counters, don't be afraid to throw them at folks. We want our creatures to die after they get their counters with Marchesa, the Black Rose out. Every time we accomplish this, it brings us closer to a critical mass of advantage, that is really hard for our opponents to overcome.
I consider mid game with this deck when I have Marchesa, the Black Rose and a sac outlet both on the board. The combination of the two is what propels the deck forward into late game. That being said, this deck can hit mid game really early for a commander deck. A turn 3 Phyrexian Altar into a turn 4 Marchesa, the Black Rose is a very reasonable start to mid game. We want to protect her as much as possible, so get a counter on her if you can. Don't be afraid to sacrifice her even if she doesn't have a counter on her if it means saving her from a tuck spell. Tuck spells can shut her down hard. In the event of a tuck spell, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed can act as a second commander, and Fleshwrither can tutor Marchesa, the Black Rose back to play. You should be gathering answers and responding to threat accordingly and netting minor advantages here and there through throwing your creatures under attackers and at you opponents. Every time you can use a creature again pulls us a little closer to our late game. Late game for us, is our strongest phase. We will have some permitted life loss during this phase, through our own effects and through taking attacks. This will keep our dethrone triggering.
I consider late game for this deck to be when I can all out swing at a typical player, and kill them through blockers. Whether that is 40+ power on the board, or 20+ power on the board with a Scourge of the Throne out, or in the special case of having Living Death and Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed looping. Another signal that it is late game is when you can Sneak Attack almost a whole hand of creatures into play. These scenarios are what the deck is built to do, and it is good at it. When going for an alpha swing, make sure you do your math right, leaving blockers if needed. You will be at a bit lower life than most of the table (hopefully) and be swinging hard because of it. During late game you can give your dudes pseudo "vigilance" if you need blockers by sacrificing them post combat so that they return end of turn. When you start getting dangerously low on life, you can cast Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Disciple of Bolas and gain some back. Gray Merchant of Asphodel can be a strong win condition if you can recur it multiple times with a full board.
People playing life gain decks are going to absolutely hate you, and will be actively trying to destroy you as soon as they can. Be careful to notice whats on the board before turning that last dude sideways. Be very careful of Living Death, while it is one of the strongest effects in the deck for us, recurring it a lot will lead to people play around it, pitching nasty things like Terastodon in their graveyard in anticipation. Sac outlets are incredibly important in this deck, as they can save your dudes from exile/tuck/bounce effects, while abusing their etbs. Playing around grave hate takes a lot more effort. As this deck wants to have creatures moving in and out of the graveyard all game long, grave hate of any form can really put a damper on your game plan. Remove, destroy, bounce, or steal to get rid of whatever grave hate your opponent is packing, and if you can't get rid of it, get rid of them. Sometimes the best removal is player removal, especially when the problem permanent is either Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void. If the player has something they can activate in response, make them use it as soon as possible to keep your momentum going forward.
Against control variants(America/Esper/Bant or any combination of blue/white), you want to try and keep Marchesa on the board as much as possible until they are at lower life. That may be the hardest part of your fight. Keep the pressure on them and try to grab advantages where you can. Do not over-extend into board wipes, because it will give them time to stabilize. A haste enabler is key in these match ups. You are the aggro deck for sure. This holds true to facing combo decks as well. They need to be hit as hard as possible, usually the group will focus them as well, making their demise that much quicker. Against other aggro decks, it really depends on the speed of the other decks. Where my list can play well as a tempo deck, that's not going to cut it when you are taking 15 damage turn 3/4 by a giant Omnath, Locus of Mana, or staring down an elf army turn 3.(Which happens a lot in our meta) If you can't out race them, control them, and play very reactionary. Get advantages when you can, but don't paint a huge target on yourself. Just a general rule I play by : If there is a monogreen deck at the table, it's going to hit faster and harder than you, so play more controlling/midrange.
There are several chains you can start with some of the tutors to get really explosive turns. You will learn nuances as you play the deck, but here are some examples (Sneak attack makes these really easy).
Rune-Scarred Demon/Imperial Recruiter > Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker > Copy Demon/Recruiter > Clone (Demon/Recruiter)(Repeat for all clones) > Anything else you need.
Imperial Recruiter > Dimir House Guard > Any 4 cmc thing you need.
(12/1/14)
Additions:
+ Flamekin Village (Haste has already been WAY relevant.)
+ Dualcaster Mage (Combos with living death and a sac outlet.)
+ Feldon of the Third Path (Feldon's utility is promising.)
+ Grim Haruspex (Draws way harder than Jace and is easy to recur.)
+ Clever Impersonator (Straight upgrade over student.)
+ Phyrexian Obliterator (Punishes aggro hard and is really fun to clone a bunch. Fun and has been promising in testing so far.)
Removed:
- Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep (Flamekin village has been way more relevant)
- Vendilion Clique (Combo has faded from my meta, so I took this out and added a combo piece)
- Filth (Dead card more often then it should be.)
- Jace, the Mindsculptor (Grim Haruspex draws more cards and can keep coming back)
- Sakashima's Student (Clever Impersonator is pretty much better in every way)
- Bitterblossom (While decent in theory, this card just isn't good in the deck)
(9/30/14)
Additions:
+ Agent of Erebos - Gives me grave hate I can tutor and reuse.
Removed
- Liliana of the Veil - Has almost no synergy with the deck and was just a placeholder for the time being.
(9/9/2014)
Additions:
+ Jace, the Mind Sculptor - It's Jace, might as well run the best walkers
+ Liliana of the Veil - It's Liliana, might as well run the best walkers
+ Graveborn Muse - Card draw for life at 4cmc on a creature. Got a lot going for it.
+ Talisman of Dominance - Good mana rock for fixing, speed, and life loss
+ Izzet Signet - finished cycle of signets
+ Fulminator Mage - Gets rid of all those problematic utility lands and busted stuff like Gaea's Cradle.
+ Dimir House Guard - Sac outlet, tutor, evasive, and can be tutored by both fleshwrither and imperial recruiter. It's like it was made for this deck...
+ Tuktuk Scrapper - Needed more artifact hate. 4cmc and 2 power makes it easily tutored.
Removed:
- Treasonous Ogre - Can fuel explosive plays rarely, but ends up a dead card the other 99% of the time.
- Faceless Butcher - I'd rather steal or clone stuff.
- Shadowblood Ridge - Dropped from 40 to 38 lands, this was a bad land.
- Darkwater Catacombs - Dropped from 40 to 38 lands, this was a bad land.
- Charcoal Diamond - Replaced by a better rock.
- Fire Diamond - Replaced by a better rock.
- Whip of Erebos - Gray Merchant does more work than whip ever did, and can be tutored.
- Vela the Night-Clad - Bad, by the time she was online I usually had Urborg + Filth assembled anyway.
(9/3/2014)
Speeding up the deck and packing as much power and draw as possible. Starting to take on tables without combos relatively easy.
Additions:
+ Phyrexian Arena Awesome for the deck, gives us steam and helps our life total.
+ Chasm Skulker Wicked synergy between Sage of Fables and Marchesa herself.
+ Pain Seer Early card draw and life total fixing. It's no confidant, but that's also on the list to pick up.
+ Bitterblossom Great for holding out against hyper aggressive decks, and gives us bodies to swing with, testing well.
+ Talisman of Indulgence I usually need more red/black than blue, and fixes life and mana over sky diamond, will be adding the other talisman too.
+ Gray Merchant of Asphodel Great for abusing with our etb abuse. Also helps pad life due to all the aggressive life costs.
Removed:
- Sky Diamond < Talismans
- Dictate of Erebos WHAAAAAAT?! Yea I took it out. Living Death does it's job 10000x better and is way more easy to abuse.
- Feast on the Fallen Wow, don't play this, its way worse in play than on paper.
- Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur Yea, with me adding confidant effects and lowering my curve, I dropped him. He doesn't impact games that end before you can cast/cheat him in.
- Cytoplast Manipulator Can durdle a bit, but otherwise rather weak creature overall. I like the exploding squid better.
- Kira, Great Glass-Spinner Has dis-synergy with kiki-jiki/unspeakable symbol/thassa and was really low impact considering I sac to respond to removal anyhow.
(8/27/14)
Got my hands on an Imperial Recruiter and a Volcanic Island today. Deck is coming along nicely.
-Crumbling Necropolis Enters tapped, trying to clear tapped lands out for speed.
-Diabolic Intent Imperial Recruiter is easily recurred, and has over 20 targets. Seems like a good swap.
+Volcanic Island Final of the ABU duals, just need to get the rest of fetches to finish the manabase.
+Imperial Recruiter Card is a house, I can't wait to abuse it.
(8/19/14) Big Update after a lot of testing. Deck is a force to be reckoned with.
Additions:
Rocks that speed me up and fix have been finally added.
+1 Sol Ring
+1 Sky Diamond
+1 Fire Diamond
+1 Charcoal Diamond
+1 Dimir Signet
+1 Rakdos Signet
Other Additions
+1 Feast on the Fallen This card is awesome in multiplayer, seldom does this not give you at least a counter on a turn rotation. Works wonders with Vela.
+1 Eldrazi Monument Funny story, I did an edh cube draft where I had this and Marchesa. Play it, it's stupid good.
+1 Chaos Warp Answers almost anything in red at instant speed. Too good to not run.
+1 Puppeteer Clique This card is wicked with recursion, especially when you get to re-recur other peoples stuff.
+1 Márton Stromgald I swung for over 1k with with him and a sakashima copying him on board. Oh did I mention you can tutor him too?
+1 Faceless Butcher Tutorable, recurrable, exiling removal that loves to be abused like oblivion ring. No idea why I wasn't running this guy.
+1 Falkenrath Aristocrat I missed having a tutorable sac outlet.
+1 Aura Thief The best answer to double hexproof-propaganda-sphere-of-safety pillow forts i have ever seen. Also steals lots of cool things like Mirari's Wake
+1 Necroplasm Token deck got you down? How bout a recurring board wipe?
+1 Badlands Got my hands on one
Removed:
-1 Viscera Seer Falkrath Aristocrat beats face and is tutorable.
-1 Ashling the Pilgrim Necroplasm does her job way better, killing tokens even when they are enormous.
-1 Iron Myr Replaced by better rocks
-1 Silver Myr Replaced by better rocks
-1 Leaden Myr Replaced by better rocks
-1 Nightscape Familiar Terrible placeholder really. Love that its gone lol.
-1 Voidmage Prodigy This deck plays better as aggro or tempo than control, also low number of wizards.
-1 Blind Zealot This is a good on paper, bad in play example. Bad slow removal that always does nothing.
-1 Archaeomancer Xiahou Dun works much harder, and never really did anything.
-1 Master of Waves Replaced by Marton Stromgald who is hideously overpowered in comparison.
-1 Zealous Conscripts Was never that great without Kiki-Jiki, and I never needed to combo kill anyone.
-1 Skullclamp Never really worked well in the deck, no tokens without master of waves as well.
-1 Chromatic Lantern Replaced by better rocks
-1 Darksteel Ingot Replaced by better rocks
-1 Obelisk of Grixis Replaced by better rocks
(6/23/14) -1 Island
+1 River of Tears
(6/26/14) (Massive overhaul and streamlining) Removed:
-1 Mountain
-1 Swamp
-1 Deserted Temple more color producing lands to smooth the deck out
-1 Deathgreeter - Did nothing except shut Marchesa off for the most part
-1 Dark Impostor - Too mana intensive to be effective
-1 Hellrider - Slams someone hard every once and again, but i was just not fond of it
-1 Falkenrath Aristocrat Have enough sac outlets, needed more utility.
-1 Rakdos, Lord of Riots Too colored mana symbols in the deck to abuse him
-1 Keranos, God of Storms did pretty much nothing every time i cast him
-1 Thundermaw Hellkite deck wanted something a little more explosive
-1 Havengul Lich most of the time it was just a very costly solemn reanimator
-1 Harvester of Souls lowering the curve made me cut him
-1 Blightsteel Colossus lowering the curve, this as the first to go
-1 Twilight's Call replaced with a mana rock to speed the deck up
-1 Temporal Extortion replaced with a mana rock to speed the deck up
-1 Jokulhaups people get butt hurt when you cast this, replaced with a mana rock to speed the deck up
-1 Chaos Warp was never relevant over grabbing venser
-1 Dack Fayden a single faithless looting 99% of the time
Added:
+1 Phyrexian Tower awesome synergy in the deck
+1 Shadowblood Ridge more fixing, will swap with a filter when i get them
+1 Darkwater Catacombs more fixing, will swap with a filter when i get them
+1 Iron Myr Cheap mana to increase speed
+1 Silver Myr Cheap mana to increase speed
+1 Leaden Myr Cheap mana to increase speed
+1 Chromatic Lantern Cheap mana to increase speed
+1 Darksteel Ingot Cheap mana to increase speed
+1 Obelisk of Grixis Cheap mana to increase speed
+1 Nightscape Familiar Lowers our curve and can swing
+1 Voidmage Prodigy Sac outlet and counter spell on feet, has been excellent
+1 Filth Synergy with Urborg is incredible
+1 Master of Waves Puts lots of bodies on the board, can get out of hand very fast
+1 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed GY recursion for our enchantments or dudes, while being unblockable for the most part
+1 Vela the Night-Clad Gives evasion and massive life loss.
+1 Preyseizer Dragon Absolutely disgusting. It's like hitting someone with a freight train
+1 Diabolic Tutor An arguably better Demonic Tutor in this deck
+1 Skullclamp Busted artifact draw? Sounds Good.
(7/2/14)
-1 Island
-1 Swamp
+1 Tolaria West Tutors urborg + coffers, and can mana fix in a pinch.
+1 Miren, the Moaning Well Life gain and a sac outlet that doesn't eat a deck slot really, seems good.
Rest of the fetch lands, I want to run the full gambit of fixing as it's a tri-color deck.(Yay reprints!)
Clever Impersonator is going to be incredible in the deck, and any other blue edh deck out there.
Mer-Ek Nightblade seems like it fits all our tutor criteria and makes it a nightmare to combat our dudes.
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)
Upcoming Pictures of the deck.
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)
Roon of the Pod People (Roon of the Hidden Realm)
Sydri, Super Genius (Sydri, Galvanic Genius)
Marchesa, the Black Rose
Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
Retired:
Grimgrin's Corpse-Beats (Grimgrin, Corpse-Born) | Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge | Varolz, the Scar-Striped (1v1) | Glissa, the Traitor
I've considered cutting it and twilight's call, but I'm just not sure for what yet.
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)
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)
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)
I do like the deck very much though. Grave Betrayal seems hilarious with Marchesa, you might want to try that.
Also, take a look at Dimir House Guard, which is a lot more flexible than Fleshwrither. It can find Sneak Attack as well as function as a sac outlet.
Any reason you don't play Demonic Tutor?
Ardeyn
There's already a Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur in the 99... this deck clearly isn't about making friends, haha. Might as well add Stranglehold, too!
B Chainer, Dementia Master B | UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG | WRG Marath, Will of the Wild WRG | UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR | UBG Tasigur, the Golden Fang UBG
Modern:
WBG Abzan Company WBG | UBR Grixis Delver and/or Twin UBR | U Merfolk U
WBG Anafenza, the Foremost WBG
WUR Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR
WUBRG Horde of Notions WUBRG
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon WUBRG
URG Maelstrom Wanderer URG
UBG Damia, Sage of Stone UBG
WUG Roon of the Hidden Realm WUG
WUG Rafiq of the Many WUG
WUG Deveri, Empyrial Tactician WUG
BRG Prossh, Skyraider of Kher BRG
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain WBG
UBR Nekusar, the Mind Razer UBR
WBR Kaalia of the Vast WBR
UG Prime Speaker Zegana UG
UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG
WB Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter WB
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
Actually Flayer of the Hatebound does combo with living death, just not how you think. You sac your board, and put flayer back due to undying. All of your dudes come from exile, end of turn your previous board comes back hitting hard. Dimir House Guard is one of the cards I need to test for sure, for sheer flexibility. Not sure I'd drop fleshwrither for it, due to it tutoring dudes into play directly, while being great with counters. As far as demonic tutor goes, I just don't have one honestly, I think if I did get a copy it would most likely be great, as i'm adding Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed as soon as I get it in the mail. Grave Betrayal is just too expensive and not easily recurred in this deck. It was one of the first cards I cut when testing the deck, if I played it more control, it would probably be excellent, in my current list, it doesn't really have an impact at all.
My meta is pretty degenerate, so there is a a lot less hating going on. We kind of all expect each other to do really busted things, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Stranglehold, and other really big hoser cards are really common. Every single green deck here has a Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger pretty much as well. I'm kind of forced to play hard ball, so you can let up on the nastiness if need be.
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)
Yeah, that's understandable. Forgive me if I've misconstrued your post, but it wasn't my intention to be nasty. If your meta really is that cutthroat, then by all means cheat out Jin-Gitaxias all day long. But if you meant that I can lay off the nastiness in my own deck, then yeah--I already kind of do that, as I have a greater collection of truly broken cards than many of the people I regularly play with. I actually just traded away my own Jin-Gitaxias because he's been sitting in my folder for well over a year now.
On another note, you should try out Shivan Harvest. Repeatable nonbasic land destruction with potentially zero downside is just vicious.
B Chainer, Dementia Master B | UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG | WRG Marath, Will of the Wild WRG | UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR | UBG Tasigur, the Golden Fang UBG
Modern:
WBG Abzan Company WBG | UBR Grixis Delver and/or Twin UBR | U Merfolk U
WBG Anafenza, the Foremost WBG
WUR Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR
WUBRG Horde of Notions WUBRG
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon WUBRG
URG Maelstrom Wanderer URG
UBG Damia, Sage of Stone UBG
WUG Roon of the Hidden Realm WUG
WUG Rafiq of the Many WUG
WUG Deveri, Empyrial Tactician WUG
BRG Prossh, Skyraider of Kher BRG
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain WBG
UBR Nekusar, the Mind Razer UBR
WBR Kaalia of the Vast WBR
UG Prime Speaker Zegana UG
UG Edric, Spymaster of Trest UG
WB Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter WB
WU Grand Arbiter Augustin IV WU
And shivan harvest looks awesome, I'd probably cut temporal extortion for it. Hitting a cradle or coffers and getting another etb sounds way awesome. Thanks for the recommendation!
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)
If he wasn't so small or buffed himself I would consider running him. I've been actually trying to lower my curve a bit, so he could be a heavy hitter replacement for a 6 drop or so. I'll look into testing him.
On a side note:
Tonight I played lots of friendly games versus aggro decks. This list needs more speed.
Sower of Temptation is such a good creature for this deck, it turned so many bad situations for profit.
Havengul Lich, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Hellrider are all most likely being cut.
Lich and Aristocrat have never really done anything for the deck, and Hellrider, while good on paper, has not been pulling much weight at all.
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)
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)
There is always The drowned, but they are pretty terrible...scratch that. thought they were a dork, they aren't they just regenerate...I love shivan harvest in this deck.
Have you thought about these possible cards in the deck.
Thoughtpicker Witch
Oona's Blackgaurd
Puppeteer Clique
Purphorous God of the Forge
Skullclamp
Sol Ring
Attrition
Demonic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Toxic Deluge
Diabolic Intent
Phyrexian Reclamation
Chromatic Lantern
Power Conduit
Tymaret, the Murder King
Dominus of Fealty
Insurrection
Stalking Vengeance
Vela the Night Clad
Things i will be testing/adding:
Vela, the Night Clad : is in, she seems to be absolutely sick granting evasion and a a lot of life loss quickly.
Diabolic Intent : is a situationally better Demonic Tutor in this deck.
Skull Clamp : might be put back in as i've lowered the curve a bit, I'll be editting my list tomorrow night, I have quite a few things i'm changing tomorrow night when i get time.
Vampiric Tutor/Demonic Tutor : shoe in's if i had them. Will look to get them after the mana base is optimized.
Chromatic Lantern : mana fixing is tempting, not sure if i would run this over darksteel ingot for removal reasons.
Phyrexian Reclamation : This one seems solid, need to pick up a copy.
Sol Ring : Why the hell was this not in my list? Guess we all have brain farts sometime
Puppeteer Clique : Seems pretty good, reanimating other people's graves for profit, while getting to keep the creature if we have a sac outlet? Seems solid.
Things I have already tested:
Tymaret, the Murder King/Power Conduit : Adorable more than anything. I wish he could hit creatures, and both are just incredibly slow with too little effect.
Toxic Deluge : Has never been useful to me, I cut it for Jokulhaups.
Oona's Blackgaurd : Great on paper, sick in 1v1 i'd imagine. Bad in multiplayer to be honest.
Purphorous God of the Forge : Easy way to get yourself killed is to play this guy, Prophet of Kruphix, Seedborn Muse, or Nekusar, the Mindrazer. He also hands us the "throne" way too fast, making Marchesa flounder a bit.
Thrummingbird : Adorable, would run it in a heartbeat if I ran a full gambit of walkers, other than that it's just "meh"
Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch : One of the first cards I cut, literally does nothing for the deck. It would've been super busted if she just gave your dudes unleash.
Going through the other things,
Too expensive color wise, too expensive mana wise(we reanimate or cheat dudes in), and not enough effect(we already run flayer of the hatebound) respectively.
Attrition : Seems decent making etb removal even stronger, not sure what I would honestly drop for it. Between Venser/Sower/Flayer and others i have little issue with creatures.
Kokusho, the Evening Star : Has a similar problem to why I don't run Grey Merchant in this deck. We cannot have the most life, period, unless we are about to win. Only exception which is kind of hilarious, is you could combo him with Unspeakable Symbol, a sac outlet, and Marchesa, but that seems a bit much as a 4 piece combo that can only be used once a turn.
Thoughtpicker Witch : Personally I like my sac outlets to be free, so I can maximize my turns/mana. Wouldn't be bad, just not for me
I will be revising my list tomorrow night when I get a chance, but I have quite a few changes in mind, I'll be speeding this deck up by lowering the curve for one. Other low impact cards will be getting cut as well.
Let me know what you guys think I should cut
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)
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)