Not sure if anyone else is considering it, but I Reanimate’d an opponent's Vilis this afternoon and it made me seriously consider running one as the top end/cheat in creature in my list.
The natural synergy with all the life loss in Marchesa is quite significant. Between Reanimate,Unspeakable Symbol, Treasonous Ogre, Yawgmoth, all the painlands, etc I ended up drawing over half my library by recouping life from Whip of Erebos.
Might have been a one-time success but the card definitely made an impression.
Since a few people are sharing their different approaches to playing Marchesa I figured I'd share my list, in case anyone is looking for some ideas to incorporate into their own list. I started out trying to build an ultra-fast deck that ended up getting hated out rather quickly, so I pivoted a little bit into a more value-oriented list that doesn't look like the biggest threat at the table immediately. There are a few combos in the list, but I wouldn't say I manage to pull any of them off too frequently and rarely feel the need to look for them deliberately.
Out of curiosity, has anyone tried out Jet Medallion or Nightscape Familiar in their Marchesa lists? I've noticed in my games that my primary issue is being choked on mana and simply not being able to do enough things per turn. I've already put in Jet Medallion and I'll be adding Nightscape Familiar soon as well, since both cheapen about half my spells for the colors concerned, so I figure they're worth trying.
Most non-green decks struggle to keep up with the ramp that green decks have access to, so my logic is that making spells cheaper is as close a substitute as Grixis is likely to get outside of Rituals or cards like Treasonous Ogre. The other advantage is both those cards facilitate a turn 3 Marchesa and help generate early momentum, which is something I often struggle with and it means opponents have sufficient time to get answers to keep Marchesa off the table. Setting up early advantage seems like the best way to transition from aggro to mid-range IMO, the achilles for my deck seems to be stumbling early and never managing to catch up.
Edit: Bloodghast hasn't been amazing yet so far, the double black is a bit of a nuisance early in the game and later on other things are more important so it just rots in hand, unfortunately.
Just a random thought I've had lately is about the viability of Bloodghast. Generally Marchesa decks run a lot of sacrifice outlets or synergies that consistently need fuel, like Skullclamp, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Viscera Seer, etc. I've noticed in the last few games I've played with the deck that I often want to sacrifice an arbitrary creature to achieve some effect but I don't want to use a creature with a +1/+1 counter that will be vulnerable until my next turn.
I'm going to give Bloodghast a shot and see how it functions for a while.
Just a quick question for the more practiced Marchesa, TBR players; How effective/powerful is Mikaeus? I held off on finding one because it was proving tricky to find but I lucked into one and I'm trying to decide on whether it's destined for Marchesa or Meren. I just noticed that apart from just Marchesa herself there are a decent number of Humans in my (and most) Marchesa builds so I'm just wondering how effective Mikaeus generally turns out to be?
Side note, I think Razaketh (preferably with a way of cheating it out) could be extremely powerful in Marchesa. Razaketh + Sneak Attack shenanigans sounds exactly like where we want to be.
I'm sure you'll get really good use out of Whip, Tev. Because the deck is generally really abusive of its own life total having ways to not die to another opponent doing something crazy (Got Comet Storm'd to death for 22 by a Mizzix deck recently on T6 after having Phantasmal Image copy my Pain Seer -_-) having ways to stabilize your own life total is really crucial. Whip is also 4CMC so much easier to dig for consistently, and the synergy with Whip + Unspeakable Symbol is fantastic. I'd also agree on Living Death, because most Marchesa builds tend to be low to the ground and relatively fast (in EDH terms at least) we're never going to have stacked Graveyard's like a Meren/Karador type list where Living Death probably gets like 8-12 targets on average, so I think it's a good cut.
Something I've realized with the Marchesa deck is every card really, really needs to pull its weight, establishing advantage early in the game is crucial so sitting with a hand of 5/6 drops that are too situational or not impactful enough is a bit of a death sentence, so like Plush says if a cut seems controversial but you've noticed how it's a dead card too often it's definitely the right call, I'm kind of in that situation with River Kelpie. On paper (excuse the pun) it seems amazing, but its cost is generally too high and I think our card advantage engines need to be at much lower CMC, things like Grim Haruspex/Pain Seer/Dark Confidant/Phyrexian Arena are more where we want to be.
I'm on the same page about Flayer I think, I've never cast it and gained huge advantage from it within the first two turns of it being down. When you're behind it's doing nothing to catch you up, and if you're ahead it's too win-more. Instant impact really seems crucial for this deck to maintain its tempo.
Also, as an aside, how has everyone been finding Combat Celebrant? I've been super impressed, I run Lightning Mauler as an early haste enabler and it's amazing how quickly the deck can rack up damage early in the game with Celebrant and a couple of other higher power creatures.
I run a very similar list to yours and I'd say Whip of Erebos is a great inclusion. If you've got ways to manipulate your life total, Unspeakable Symbol being the most ideal, the Whip makes it possible to make your creatures quite massive while simply recouping the lost life through combat. The ability to recur a relevant creature from the GY should you need it also isn't irrelevant. I played a game recently where my opponent Wheel'd with Jace's Archivist and dumped Scourge of the Throne in my GY, the Whip allowed me to bring it back while I had Unspeakable Symbol out and take out the remaining two opponents with the two combat steps. Whip is a synergistic card in this build in general I think.
I'd also recommend trying out Perplex if you can find a cut for it, it's a fair soft counter in certain contexts but most of all you can Transmute it to find Unspeakable Symbol or any other 3CMC card you may require, but mostly it's just a second copy of Unspeakable Symbol.
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The natural synergy with all the life loss in Marchesa is quite significant. Between Reanimate,Unspeakable Symbol, Treasonous Ogre, Yawgmoth, all the painlands, etc I ended up drawing over half my library by recouping life from Whip of Erebos.
Might have been a one-time success but the card definitely made an impression.
1x Carrion Feeder
1x Sidisi's Faithful
1x Viscera Seer
1x Baleful Strix
1x Dark Confidant
1x Lightning Mauler
1x Metallic Mimic
1x Nightscape Familiar
1x Phantasmal Image
1x Sage of Hours
1x Spellskite
1x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
1x Fleshbag Marauder
1x Grim Haruspex
1x Matter Reshaper
1x Sage of Fables
1x Thassa, God of the Sea
1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
1x Dack's Duplicate
1x Disciple of Bolas
1x Falkenrath Aristocrat
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Treasonous Ogre
1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1x River Kelpie
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1x Zealous Conscripts
1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1x Scourge of the Throne
1x Sire of Stagnation
1x Rune-Scarred Demon
1x Mark of Mutiny
1x Victimize
1x Windfall
1x Living Death
1x Insurrection
1x Blasphemous Act
Enchantments
1x Dark Tutelage
1x Fervor
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Unspeakable Symbol
1x Sneak Attack
1x Dictate of Erebos
Artifacts
1x Lotus Petal
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
1x Dimir Signet
1x Izzet Signet
1x Jet Medallion
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Rakdos Signet
1x Talisman of Indulgence
1x Ashnod's Altar
1x Bident of Thassa
1x Whip of Erebos
Instant
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Go for the Throat
1x Rakdos Charm
1x Terminate
1x Chaos Warp
1x Clutch of the Undercity
Lands
1x Blood Crypt
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Bojuka Bog
1x City of Brass
1x Command Tower
1x Crumbling Necropolis
1x Dragonskull Summit
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x Flooded Strand
1x Grand Coliseum
1x High Market
3x Island
3x Mountain
1x Polluted Delta
1x Riptide Laboratory
1x Shivan Reef
1x Smoldering Marsh
1x Spinerock Knoll
1x Steam Vents
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Sulfurous Springs
1x Sunken Hollow
3x Swamp
1x Tainted Isle
1x Tainted Peak
1x Temple of Deceit
1x Temple of Epiphany
1x Underground River
1x Watery Grave
Since a few people are sharing their different approaches to playing Marchesa I figured I'd share my list, in case anyone is looking for some ideas to incorporate into their own list. I started out trying to build an ultra-fast deck that ended up getting hated out rather quickly, so I pivoted a little bit into a more value-oriented list that doesn't look like the biggest threat at the table immediately. There are a few combos in the list, but I wouldn't say I manage to pull any of them off too frequently and rarely feel the need to look for them deliberately.
Most non-green decks struggle to keep up with the ramp that green decks have access to, so my logic is that making spells cheaper is as close a substitute as Grixis is likely to get outside of Rituals or cards like Treasonous Ogre. The other advantage is both those cards facilitate a turn 3 Marchesa and help generate early momentum, which is something I often struggle with and it means opponents have sufficient time to get answers to keep Marchesa off the table. Setting up early advantage seems like the best way to transition from aggro to mid-range IMO, the achilles for my deck seems to be stumbling early and never managing to catch up.
Edit: Bloodghast hasn't been amazing yet so far, the double black is a bit of a nuisance early in the game and later on other things are more important so it just rots in hand, unfortunately.
I'm going to give Bloodghast a shot and see how it functions for a while.
Side note, I think Razaketh (preferably with a way of cheating it out) could be extremely powerful in Marchesa. Razaketh + Sneak Attack shenanigans sounds exactly like where we want to be.
Something I've realized with the Marchesa deck is every card really, really needs to pull its weight, establishing advantage early in the game is crucial so sitting with a hand of 5/6 drops that are too situational or not impactful enough is a bit of a death sentence, so like Plush says if a cut seems controversial but you've noticed how it's a dead card too often it's definitely the right call, I'm kind of in that situation with River Kelpie. On paper (excuse the pun) it seems amazing, but its cost is generally too high and I think our card advantage engines need to be at much lower CMC, things like Grim Haruspex/Pain Seer/Dark Confidant/Phyrexian Arena are more where we want to be.
I'm on the same page about Flayer I think, I've never cast it and gained huge advantage from it within the first two turns of it being down. When you're behind it's doing nothing to catch you up, and if you're ahead it's too win-more. Instant impact really seems crucial for this deck to maintain its tempo.
Also, as an aside, how has everyone been finding Combat Celebrant? I've been super impressed, I run Lightning Mauler as an early haste enabler and it's amazing how quickly the deck can rack up damage early in the game with Celebrant and a couple of other higher power creatures.
I'd also recommend trying out Perplex if you can find a cut for it, it's a fair soft counter in certain contexts but most of all you can Transmute it to find Unspeakable Symbol or any other 3CMC card you may require, but mostly it's just a second copy of Unspeakable Symbol.