Uh, a 6? 7? It's probably my most tuned, most piloted deck as it started as a pet project that's evolved into something new. I did a brief foray into cEDH but I found it boring. The majority of my interest in EDH is being creative. It is easy to make a good deck, I am more interested in taking an unusual theme and making that good. cEDH is just a race to the most efficient which leaves little for creativity; they're the most boring decks for me to make and while playing them is rewarding it is difficult to get a good cEDH pod. The majority of players aren't building cEDH to play cEDH, they build a facsimile of cEDH just to pubstomp players who don't know any better. This behaviour is poisonous as it turns away particular players and others adapt the mentality of spending more money is the only way out, which then locks another batch of players out. Because sadly, frequently, the only way to improve a cEDH deck is to spend more money; while something that is less powerful lets you be creative with different themes or trying something new out.
I think Benthic Biomancer is a better Looter than Looter il-Kor. It's a Wizard so it benefits from Metallic Mimic and Sage of Fables, allowing you to repeatedly Sacrifice it for value. It would also ETB with a +1/+1, so that instantly draws you a card. If you don't have that, you can just swing each turn to get more Loots. It also protects itself in a pinch by Adapting in response to removal.
Magmasaur is too costly for my build to consider. My cards that cost 5+ are there to win me the game, not do cute things. That's one of the things that sucks about this particular build is that I don't have time to do silly things, I need to be efficient with my win. Since you're going more midrange, you can afford to do some more card advantage tricks. One of the best cards I saw for a Midrange Marchesa was Pilgrim's Eye; it flew in for damage and colour fixed his budget mana base but also ensured he would have a land drop each turn for his expensive Creatures.
Hello Tev. I noticed you are playing a good amount of the combo pieces I'm using in my combo-centric Marchesa build.
I'm wondering if you've considered added Murderous Redcap into the mix. He combos with Spark Double and a sac. outlet for infinite damage. You just have double copy redcap, sac. it, it persists, but it gets a counter, but then you give it persist again.
Then you can also go redcap plus Metallic Mimic plus sac. outlet for infinite damage. Why do you currently have mimic in the build? Is it just to help Marchesa get a counter primarily?
I'm also wondering if you have thought about Exsanguinate for this list. It can help protect you against dying on the crackback while also draining all opponents. Anyway, I love the list! I may pick up some tasty goodies from it if I end up not liking the combo. route I'm taking with my deck.
Are you running Skullclamp? I've always loved that in a Marchesa build.
One more question, it seems like the deck is low on card draw. Are you finding that to be a problem? Do you tend to run out of cards before the game is over? It seems like cutting a couple of creatures for cards like Concentrate or Ambition's Cost might help. It's just my guess, but I have never played an EDH deck as low to the ground or aggro as yours before either.
Of course I'm running Skullclamp; it's ridiculous. I hope that Wizards prints it into the ground again, it made sense as a $2 card but at five bucks a pop that's too much.
Adding the Murderous Redcap would increase my curve too much. The idea is to keep swarming with a never ending supply of threats. This is why I'm not going with a Combo route or adding some X Spell Finisher. I'm already running one if I manage to tutor it up: Glen Elendra Archmage + Metallic Mimic/Sage of Fables + Sac Out + any damage dealer, i.e. Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat
The deck is not low on card draw. Aside from the 'one shot' tutors of Demonic Tutor and Imperial Recruiter, these are all of the draw engines:
That's 17 draw engines, that's more than what you run in your list. Granted, I would need to flip Nicol Bolas but there have been times when I kept him around as Sac Fodder to strip my opponents of their hands. As the deck tries to be aggressive as possible, I care for card quality instead of obsessing with quantity which allows me to run various Loot effects.
I've been testing Shrike, by which I mean it's been in the deck and I'm hoping to see it in action which hasn't occurred. Then Yawgmoth was spoiled and I knew to throw the bird out ASAP. Yawgmoth is everything this deck wants to do and more: sac outlet, life loss, card draw, utility and on a reasonable body. I'm not happy that they finally decided to give Yawgmoth a card, but at least it was before he ascended to godhood.
I know, right? What a cool card. Also, sorry to hear about Daxos's demise. Also also, cool to watch you add Bolas Rock to decks. Also also also, I don't think I thanked you for this anywhere, but I started very actively paying attention to cards' "floors" after reading that somewhere in your threads and it helped me produce a functioning Feather with a relatively short tuning phase.
Thank you.
Yay. Marchesa hits 7 just before this site's demise.
You've helped me out too. I make my decks and the usual crowd ask their questions which makes me re-evaulate even harder. They introduce ideas and make me defend my picks. In one way, it sucks that a lot of my decks are so very off of the beaten path, because people very rarely comment and make me justify why the deck is built the way it is. On the other, I know it's probably an excellent resource for people to look into - hence the high view counts on my more unusual decks. I would like to thank you and others for taking the time to help me tune decks.
Haven't even taken Neheb out for a spin, but he's the one I cut. This effectively means I pushed my average CMC up by one, as Neheb replaced Kraum, Ludevic's Opus. Any other choices didn't feel like the right cut or were too costly of a CMC increase. Neheb gave me draw and mana, Bolas gives draw and by paying life to cast spells it effectively allows me to skirt around mana costs. I hope to bring Neheb back, but I don't know what doesn't feel right yet.
So... I've found out that I've been playing Desecrated Tomb incorrectly, the correct way has only just been pointed out to me. I thought that Marchesa's delayed trigger that returns Creatures did that all at the same time. i.e. Three Creatures died with +1/+1 counters, the three come back at the same time and create one Bat. That's not the case. They would each resolve the return trigger individually, meaning I would get three Bats. I already thought the card was amazing, this brings it up to a whole new level of ridiculous.
Krenko puts a +1/+1 counter on himself, allowing for Dethroneless comebacks if I'm ahead on life. He also will make tokens and then deck loves going wide, as Marchesa also makes them tall. Being Goblins also synergizes with [c]Goblin Rabblemaster[/b], as he gets quite large on offence when swinging with all of his Goblinoid buddies. Prophetic Flamespeaker was already marked as a cut.
Mayhem Devil was a little hard to consider, as I already have so many pingers. I thought of cutting Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Judith, the Scourge Diva and Hissing Iguanar. Zulaport and Blood Artist gain me life, plus they're lower on the CMC. Judith's +1/+0 is just too good to pass up, even if she stipulates nontoken deaths. So I looked at the Iguanar, he procs anytime another Creature dies, which is fairly similar to Mayhem Devil but I think it will come up more often. Let's go with an abundance of threats to ping people to death, so I started looking at other cards. Dross Harvester is good but he is a little awkward, I'm willing to test Mayhem Devil in its place.
Remembering my lessons from my Edgar Markov deck, I know that Grave Pact is powerful but it is giving my opponents a turn of breathing free. They then proceed to collapse on me until I am dead. Hell, the deck has a reputation that people will kill it even if I'm clearly behind because they don't want it to spring back and get them. I think that Grave Pact is a card that helps me win games I'm winning and does nothing for games I am losing, the question is how much it does in the middle? Enter Spark Double, a Creature that can create infinites or just be a backup Marchesa. The deck does fold if Marchesa gets hated out, so this extra layer of resiliency is good.
Neheb and Kraum are very similar as bulky card draw engines with evasion. Kraum does have Haste in his corner, but the rest of his flaws when compared to Neheb made me make the change. Kraum costs more and this deck is trying to be low to the ground. Kraum doesn't guarantee card draw, especially if we're entering the midgame and people are playing their one big spell. Neheb, on the other hand, lets us dig for better options and he generates mana at the same time. That seems fairly absurd to me, so I'm giving him a whirl to see if my gut is correct.
Left Impaler Shrike out of considerations for cuts because I've yet to see it in action.
Wow, this War of the Spark has a ton of goodies I'm going to want to test.
Spark Double can be a second copy of Marchesa, thereby protecting my board even more. Double Dethrone is a nice bonus. It also goes infinite with Glen Elendra Archmage, a Sac Outlet and some way to deal damage. Goblin Bombardment fulfills both of those, but I could always use Blood Artist and co. with any Sac Outlet.
Bolas's Citadel is a top end draw engine I should probably test. The deck wants to lose life, it wants to play out lots of threats and the Citadel also can let me Sac my board for protection or reach. I think it might not make the cut but I'm willing to test it to see. A lot of noncreatures give my opponents breathing room, as I play that instead of another threat, but the Citadel lets me churn out threats the turn it comes down.
Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin does what this deck wants. Protects itself with a +1/+1 counter, poops out tokens to go wide and it also goes tall to put pressure on my opponent for blocks.
Dreadhorde Butcher looked attractive until Mayhem Devil was spoiled. Might still need to test it, but as far as I'm concerned, Mayhem Devil is a slam dunk. So many people sacrifice all sorts of permanents, such as Fetches or Steves, and that's without my Grave Pact out. There's also plenty of Aristocrat-style decks running around that I could easily take advantage of that. With the Devil dealing damage to any target, this means that the deck can easily take out Planeswalkers without needing to send a guy at them.
It's unlikely that War will print other cards I would want at this point, but I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised. This is already enough goodies that is making me go "How will they all fit?!"
Shifting Shadow is great in a different build, such as Midrange or Aristocrat, because you can protect the Enchantment plus you're attempting to build value. While my deck looks similar to Lokotor's due to the low-to-the-ground curve nature, but he's going more Aristocrat while I'm going more RDW. When I cast a noncreature spell, it has to have a huge impact for the amount of pressure I am taking off of the board. Unfortunately, Shifting Shadow doesn't. I don't like Prophetic Flamespeaker but it is the same CMC and I did like it when it was in the deck. It's the best I've got for now, the Flamespeaker is definitely earmarked for a cut.
Sheoldred costs too much, even if her effect is very powerful. Kraum has evasion and Haste which is a desirable trait in an Aggro build. I want continual draw which Kraum does provide and not the hatred that Sheoldred draws.
Consecrated Sphinx also draws a lot of hate for not much of a payoff. In a control deck, your hand being fuelled by the Sphinx pulls you way ahead. Considering this deck taps out most of the time, I am not really benefiting from the extra cards. I get choked off by the amount of cards compared to the deck's throughput. In its place is another card I'm taking from Lotokor's Marchesa build. I'm not too fond of it either but I need CMC shaving. Another earmark for the next card that gets printed to replace this.
I like Dawn of the Dead but it is admittedly overcosted for what this deck is trying to do. I have been thinking of cutting it but the amount of times people will sandbag Stifles to keep Marchesa in the graveyard kept me from doing that. The LGS had a sale and I decided to add Nicol Bolas as he can resurrect Marchesa, he has a way to deal with Planeswalkers if I don't want to swing at them and he's a draw engine.
I did think of cutting Consecrated Sphinx and Shifting Shadow. Sphinx because it doesn't do as well as it would if it were in a Control deck. If a Control deck manages to stick a Sphinx, they manage to go so far ahead. In comparison, this deck's draw is more lacklustre. I decided against that because Sphinx is still really good. The reason why I wanted to cut Shifting Shadow is that it never did what is was supposed to do, in that it would always get removed. While that is disappointing, I thought about it and realized that it's such a threatening card that my opponent's must answer it. That's what made me keep the Aura.
Out of everything else, Dawn of the Dead was the most similar to form and function. I can also loop Nicol Bolas if I name Dragons with Metallic Mimic to strip my opponents for their hands.
I was looking into Marchesa decks when I came across this one, and it seems really fun to play! Really nice work so far! Quick question though. Since you run Grand Coliseum, wouldn't Crumbling Necropolis be almost strictly better in that case? Also, maybe a reality shift (or something similar) would be nice to increase spot removal against big threats. I know that when I was demo-ing this, an eldrazi swinging at me could get really bad when I don't have the best cards to defend myself.
Thank you.
Grand Coliseum deals damage to yourself so that you can get off of the Throne. There are countless of times when I've paid pain mana when I didn't need colour fixing or on an opponent's end step to hurt myself so that I tied with an opponent's life total on my next turn's Combat step so Dethrone would trigger.
In regular Magic, Red Deck Wins and other aggressive strategies try to get under your opponent's big spells. EDH is the format for big spells and it is almost impossible to play traditional Aggro. Due to Marchesa's return clause, I can play traditional aggro and get under these big spells. By the time they're casting Eldrazi, their life is low and they're more willing to block than go on offence. With the amount of tokens the deck produces, I am fine with sacrificing them to Annihilator and then just chump blocking with something that will probably come back anyway.
I don't run spot removal because to quote a great player "There is no wrong threat" and this deck just continually spews out threats. The Counterspells I have are to protect Marchesa, if she stays in my Graveyard the deck falters badly though sometimes I still have enough kill pressure to win the game going on fumes. Due to my meta's love of using Stifle on Marchesa's return trigger, I am using Dawn of the Dead when that should probably be a Reanimate or if I spend more money a Bitterblossom. Though I don't think the deck needs to be expensive, I've just been tuning this for three-ish years.
I pulled the trigger and bought a Tomb today. I think that's pretty much the heights of big ticket items for me. ABUR Duals are outside of my price range. I guess hope for reprints of Fetches?
I think Benthic Biomancer is a better Looter than Looter il-Kor. It's a Wizard so it benefits from Metallic Mimic and Sage of Fables, allowing you to repeatedly Sacrifice it for value. It would also ETB with a +1/+1, so that instantly draws you a card. If you don't have that, you can just swing each turn to get more Loots. It also protects itself in a pinch by Adapting in response to removal.
Magmasaur is too costly for my build to consider. My cards that cost 5+ are there to win me the game, not do cute things. That's one of the things that sucks about this particular build is that I don't have time to do silly things, I need to be efficient with my win. Since you're going more midrange, you can afford to do some more card advantage tricks. One of the best cards I saw for a Midrange Marchesa was Pilgrim's Eye; it flew in for damage and colour fixed his budget mana base but also ensured he would have a land drop each turn for his expensive Creatures.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Adding the Murderous Redcap would increase my curve too much. The idea is to keep swarming with a never ending supply of threats. This is why I'm not going with a Combo route or adding some X Spell Finisher. I'm already running one if I manage to tutor it up: Glen Elendra Archmage + Metallic Mimic/Sage of Fables + Sac Out + any damage dealer, i.e. Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat
The deck is not low on card draw. Aside from the 'one shot' tutors of Demonic Tutor and Imperial Recruiter, these are all of the draw engines:
1 Bolas's Citadel
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Loyal Drake
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Mindblade Render
1 Necropotence
1 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
1 Rhystic Study
1 Sage of Fables
1 Skullclamp
1 Smuggler's Copter
1 Sygg, River Cutthroat
1 Thief of Sanity
1 Toothy, Imaginary Friend
1 Viscera Seer
1 Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1 Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
1 Impaler Shrike
I've been testing Shrike, by which I mean it's been in the deck and I'm hoping to see it in action which hasn't occurred. Then Yawgmoth was spoiled and I knew to throw the bird out ASAP. Yawgmoth is everything this deck wants to do and more: sac outlet, life loss, card draw, utility and on a reasonable body. I'm not happy that they finally decided to give Yawgmoth a card, but at least it was before he ascended to godhood.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Yay. Marchesa hits 7 just before this site's demise.
You've helped me out too. I make my decks and the usual crowd ask their questions which makes me re-evaulate even harder. They introduce ideas and make me defend my picks. In one way, it sucks that a lot of my decks are so very off of the beaten path, because people very rarely comment and make me justify why the deck is built the way it is. On the other, I know it's probably an excellent resource for people to look into - hence the high view counts on my more unusual decks. I would like to thank you and others for taking the time to help me tune decks.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Though I am disappointed that Yawgmoth has a card now.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Intent
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1 Bolas's Citadel
1 Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1 Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
1 Mayhem Devil
1 Spark Double
1 Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
1 Prophetic Flamespeaker
1 Dross Harvester
1 Grave Pact
1 Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
Mayhem Devil was a little hard to consider, as I already have so many pingers. I thought of cutting Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Judith, the Scourge Diva and Hissing Iguanar. Zulaport and Blood Artist gain me life, plus they're lower on the CMC. Judith's +1/+0 is just too good to pass up, even if she stipulates nontoken deaths. So I looked at the Iguanar, he procs anytime another Creature dies, which is fairly similar to Mayhem Devil but I think it will come up more often. Let's go with an abundance of threats to ping people to death, so I started looking at other cards. Dross Harvester is good but he is a little awkward, I'm willing to test Mayhem Devil in its place.
Remembering my lessons from my Edgar Markov deck, I know that Grave Pact is powerful but it is giving my opponents a turn of breathing free. They then proceed to collapse on me until I am dead. Hell, the deck has a reputation that people will kill it even if I'm clearly behind because they don't want it to spring back and get them. I think that Grave Pact is a card that helps me win games I'm winning and does nothing for games I am losing, the question is how much it does in the middle? Enter Spark Double, a Creature that can create infinites or just be a backup Marchesa. The deck does fold if Marchesa gets hated out, so this extra layer of resiliency is good.
Neheb and Kraum are very similar as bulky card draw engines with evasion. Kraum does have Haste in his corner, but the rest of his flaws when compared to Neheb made me make the change. Kraum costs more and this deck is trying to be low to the ground. Kraum doesn't guarantee card draw, especially if we're entering the midgame and people are playing their one big spell. Neheb, on the other hand, lets us dig for better options and he generates mana at the same time. That seems fairly absurd to me, so I'm giving him a whirl to see if my gut is correct.
Left Impaler Shrike out of considerations for cuts because I've yet to see it in action.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Spark Double can be a second copy of Marchesa, thereby protecting my board even more. Double Dethrone is a nice bonus. It also goes infinite with Glen Elendra Archmage, a Sac Outlet and some way to deal damage. Goblin Bombardment fulfills both of those, but I could always use Blood Artist and co. with any Sac Outlet.
Bolas's Citadel is a top end draw engine I should probably test. The deck wants to lose life, it wants to play out lots of threats and the Citadel also can let me Sac my board for protection or reach. I think it might not make the cut but I'm willing to test it to see. A lot of noncreatures give my opponents breathing room, as I play that instead of another threat, but the Citadel lets me churn out threats the turn it comes down.
Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin does what this deck wants. Protects itself with a +1/+1 counter, poops out tokens to go wide and it also goes tall to put pressure on my opponent for blocks.
Dreadhorde Butcher looked attractive until Mayhem Devil was spoiled. Might still need to test it, but as far as I'm concerned, Mayhem Devil is a slam dunk. So many people sacrifice all sorts of permanents, such as Fetches or Steves, and that's without my Grave Pact out. There's also plenty of Aristocrat-style decks running around that I could easily take advantage of that. With the Devil dealing damage to any target, this means that the deck can easily take out Planeswalkers without needing to send a guy at them.
It's unlikely that War will print other cards I would want at this point, but I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised. This is already enough goodies that is making me go "How will they all fit?!"
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1 Prophetic Flamespeaker
1 Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
1 Impaler Shrike
1 Shifting Shadow
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Consecrated Sphinx
Sheoldred costs too much, even if her effect is very powerful. Kraum has evasion and Haste which is a desirable trait in an Aggro build. I want continual draw which Kraum does provide and not the hatred that Sheoldred draws.
Consecrated Sphinx also draws a lot of hate for not much of a payoff. In a control deck, your hand being fuelled by the Sphinx pulls you way ahead. Considering this deck taps out most of the time, I am not really benefiting from the extra cards. I get choked off by the amount of cards compared to the deck's throughput. In its place is another card I'm taking from Lotokor's Marchesa build. I'm not too fond of it either but I need CMC shaving. Another earmark for the next card that gets printed to replace this.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
1 Dawn of the Dead
I did think of cutting Consecrated Sphinx and Shifting Shadow. Sphinx because it doesn't do as well as it would if it were in a Control deck. If a Control deck manages to stick a Sphinx, they manage to go so far ahead. In comparison, this deck's draw is more lacklustre. I decided against that because Sphinx is still really good. The reason why I wanted to cut Shifting Shadow is that it never did what is was supposed to do, in that it would always get removed. While that is disappointing, I thought about it and realized that it's such a threatening card that my opponent's must answer it. That's what made me keep the Aura.
Out of everything else, Dawn of the Dead was the most similar to form and function. I can also loop Nicol Bolas if I name Dragons with Metallic Mimic to strip my opponents for their hands.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Grand Coliseum deals damage to yourself so that you can get off of the Throne. There are countless of times when I've paid pain mana when I didn't need colour fixing or on an opponent's end step to hurt myself so that I tied with an opponent's life total on my next turn's Combat step so Dethrone would trigger.
In regular Magic, Red Deck Wins and other aggressive strategies try to get under your opponent's big spells. EDH is the format for big spells and it is almost impossible to play traditional Aggro. Due to Marchesa's return clause, I can play traditional aggro and get under these big spells. By the time they're casting Eldrazi, their life is low and they're more willing to block than go on offence. With the amount of tokens the deck produces, I am fine with sacrificing them to Annihilator and then just chump blocking with something that will probably come back anyway.
I don't run spot removal because to quote a great player "There is no wrong threat" and this deck just continually spews out threats. The Counterspells I have are to protect Marchesa, if she stays in my Graveyard the deck falters badly though sometimes I still have enough kill pressure to win the game going on fumes. Due to my meta's love of using Stifle on Marchesa's return trigger, I am using Dawn of the Dead when that should probably be a Reanimate or if I spend more money a Bitterblossom. Though I don't think the deck needs to be expensive, I've just been tuning this for three-ish years.
I hope that answers your questions.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Talisman of Dominance
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs