Got the Thran Dynamo I needed. Drew it both games and it immediately paid huge dividends.
One game I managed to Scrap Mastery both a Mirrorworks and a Thran Dynamo, among other things, made a copy of the dynamo, and then proceeded to make double copies of everything else I got back. Insane. I had an Arcbound Ravager so boardwipes couldn't touch me, and someone tried to double Gilded Drake my stuff which got stopped by both my Spellskites. Spellskite was MVP for helping making this deck nigh-unanswerable outside of yard hate.
Have you considered running cards like Chromatic Lantern, Coalition Relic, Darksteel Ingot, Commander's Sphere, or Phyrexian Altar in place of your signets? Your Signets and Talismans feel like you are trying to color fix. The above cards are 1 more mana, but fix a lot more. They also allow you to be sneakier with what type of mana you have available to scare people with counterspell/removal mana.
Have you considered running cards like Chromatic Lantern, Coalition Relic, Darksteel Ingot, Commander's Sphere, or Phyrexian Altar in place of your signets? Your Signets and Talismans feel like you are trying to color fix. The above cards are 1 more mana, but fix a lot more. They also allow you to be sneakier with what type of mana you have available to scare people with counterspell/removal mana.
My signets and talismans do a tiny bit of color fixing (mostly to hit all three colors by turn 4), but they are actually primarily there to accelerate from 2 to 4 because quite a good portion of my useful stuff is at 4cmc. Chromatic Lantern is less necessary because I don't play a large quantity of double colored costs at low cmcs due to the artifact nature of the deck.
Going from 3 to 5 doesn't speed up the deck with respect to the mana curve nearly as effectively as going from 2 to 4.
Vampiric Tutor I would throw in there but I'm just trying out other stuff because I'm already pretty tutor heavy. Deathmantle is solid but I'm currently trying to find space for cards that can put the hurt on opponents quickly once I've gathered enough of an advantage. Smothering Abomination is a card I've tried in the past with other decks but it has the problem of being somewhat poor when you are behind and your engines are being disrupted.
So.... Humility is a card.. I just now realized that I only have two pieces of enchantment removal in the deck. I now believe I want more than jut those two. I also find myself wanting a third sweeper because this deck does VERY well whenever someone plays a sweeper that doesn't exile.
Expropriate is a card I've been playing "just for fun" and I feel like it is ultimately replaceable for theme purposes. I also will pick this because I am unwilling to up my curve any further and I'm okay with playing expensive removal in this slot. Here are some of my options.
Spine of Ish Sah:
Upsides: Artifact tutorable. Easy to sacrifice to get it back. Hits lands.
Downsides: Sorcery speed. 7 to kill one thing feels pretty bad.
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker:
Upsides: He's the Nicolfather! Pretty easy to protect in this deck. Stealing creatures can be better than destroying them. Ultimate ability is hilarious.
Downsides: Can be killed to little benefit in certain boardstates. Draws a lot of attention.
Oblivion Stone:
Upside: Artifact tutorable. Sweeper. Can be recurred. Hits everything.
Downside: Hits all of my noncreature artifacts too (except lands). Costs way too much money for what it does.
Cyclonic Rift/other mass bounce:
Upside: Best versions are instant speed.
Downside: Doesn't actually remove the problem. If symmetrical, can affect me. Cyc rift banned in my meta.
My vote would be with Oblivion Stone or Cyclonic Rift. O-Stone for the recursion, Rift for the indefensible nature of an Instant that clears the board.
Strengthening Ballista seems to be right up your alley! XX Artifact creature that comes into play with X +1/+1 counters, pay 4 to put a +1/+1 counter on it. It also has Remove a +1/+1 counter to ping a target. This means it goes Infinite with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed or Infinite Mana. Being an XX Artifact means your Trinket Mage can search it up for you.
There's a lot of goodies in this set for your particular build. Looks like you'll need to do an overhaul!
Here are high considerations that may not be guaranteed but are strong contenders
Yahenni, Undying Partisan - Very good sac outlet that can actually push for damage Scrap Trawler - This is a generally better Myr Retriever and will be treated as such. The ability is not optional however you can easily control the order in which you sacrifice things to not disrupt your loops. The main problem is that I might already be oversaturated with recursion and thus may want another effect in its slot. Whir of Invention - Good tutor but the triple blue can potentially be quite difficult. A lot of my really good stuff is cmc2 so I won't need to improvise for very much for this to be good. Gets Spellskite at instant speed! Inspiring Statuary - Synergizes well with tokens and equipment but a good number of my noncreature artifacts are manarocks. Provides some resilience to Stony Silence. I also run a decent number of nonartifact spells for this. (I have an approximate 1:1 ratio of nonland artifacts to nonland nonartifacts) Strengthening Ballista - Good for the infinite combo only. Add if I intend on doing this.
Likely cuts: Expropriate - I already mentioned that I would do this Thopter Spy Network - This thing is okay but a little slow for my tastes. Tutoring up skullclamp should solve the draw issues more effectively, although it is amazing with skullclamp itself
Bouncelands - Reduce the ETB tapped lands. Myr Retriever - Scrap Trawler is probably better. I might not even need the latter though since I do have a metric ton of recursion. Arcane Denial - 1 counterspell is just to make people try to play around them even when I don't pack them. However, it doesn't really work.
Okay. So, for the post-AER list, here are my list of changes and the explanations for them.
First, a better understanding of the strategy and what it means for the deck.
In continuing to play the deck, I realized that by far the biggest advantage this deck has over a typical Marchesa build is the concept of placing +1/+1 counters AT INSTANT SPEED with extremely resilient enablers. This means that my strategy hinges very much on cards like the modular creatures and Steel Overseer. This method is also encouraged in my metagame over a more traditional aggro approach because many players employ tools to lessen the effectiveness of aggro strategies. This is why I play cards like Vicious Shadows, which also synergize extremely well with the modular strategy. As such, I will likely be trying to add more infinite sac outlets and absolutely more modular creatures in the future. I don't want to always have to fetch ravager every single game.
Also, cards that make mana on sacrificing are disgustingly good with the modular strategy. Ashnod's Altar needs to make it in as well. Phyrexian Tower in certain boardstates becomes a painless Ancient Tomb that adds black. That is nuts.
Tl:dr: Less aggro, more combo-ey.. Result should be slightly better than the same.
Now, onto the cards.
Removing
- Rakdos Carnarium - It's time I shaved the ETB tapped lands and I have a lot more RB duals in my possession than the others, so this was the best cut for Spire of Industry.
- Thopter Spy Network - If you can't get an attack in with an artifact creature by the time you play this then the card is slow at its job. The thopters are nice but ultimately not necessary
- Expropriate - This is an out-of-theme and out-of-focus card and I know it.
- Arcane Denial - Having only one counterspell is unreliable and it doesn't make people play around it when I don't have it because the likelihood of me having it is too low.
- Myr Retriever - Scrap Trawler does its job more effectively because I can sacrifice other things and still get my desired recursion. The card itself is also quite weak.
- Mirrorworks - This card costs a lot in a deck that needs to lower its curve and is an unnecessary manasink. Also very slow.
Adding
+ Spire of Industry - Painland for all colors in artifact builds. Never let go of it.
+ Whir of Invention - Triple blue is rough, but a lot of the best artifacts in this build are low CMC and can be fetched out without paying actual mana into the X cost.
+ Metallic Mimic - Auto-protects Marchesa and can play some of the "role" of the modular creatures in a pinch.
+ Treasure Keeper - Good medium-cmc payoff card. Probably gets completely out of hand if looped.
+ Scrap Trawler - A generally upgraded Myr Retriever. The non-optional nature could interrupt modular loops but considering that you're choosing the order in which you sacrifice your own things, if done right should not be an issue.
+ Arcbound Worker - I chose this modular creature over all the other options because of its 1CMC and the idea of fetching it off of Trinket Mage. The fact that I believe this was played in very old affinity decks is a sweet bonus to the theme.
Also updting the list of top priority includes if there is space.
this or trying to incorporate an infinite combo with mana rocks and codex shredder.
I cannot imagine playing this deck without Nihil Spellbomb. Being able to hose graveyards is far too important of an option. It also cycles for a card in a pinch.
Capsule is fine and same with transmogrant, but I'm very tight on space and so can't go overboard with trinkets.
Also, if you want to do infinite combos, run a Walking Ballista. You need Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and an infinite sac outlet to do infinite damage, but it's much easier to avoid telegraphing it because you can pay 0 for ballista rather than 6 for Triskelion. Also, you can fetch Ballista easily with literally any artifact tutor in the deck.
Lastly, not even sure that I need Scrap Trawler on this list. It might get punted for the Ashnod's Altar I've been wanting to fit in.
Hi, looks like you have another fun deck here. I really enjoy your style of not using the most busted win-cons and infinite stuff and I hope to see more clever commander decks from you. But enough ass kissing, I have a few dumb questions.
With metallic mimic, is construct the best creature type to pick? And what do you mean it auto protects Marchessa? I must be missing something.
If you did have the oblivion stone, ashnod's altar, and mox opal, what would you replace? There's so many things serving important purposes in this deck, it's really tough making cuts. What about a Chrome Mox?
Metallic Mimic comes down and you name Wizard. Marchesa can come in on Turn 4 'protected', the only thing that can ruin your day is a Counterspell which a lot of players don't want to use on a Creature. Then if she dies when randomly swinging, she comes back and the Mimic puts another +1/+1 on her. You only name another creature type when you want to go Infinite, for example I use "Goblin" when I have my Murderous Redcap but Plush might name Construct to go Infinite with the Walking Ballista and a Sac Outlet.
The rest I can't speak for because I'm going with a different direction.
Honestly, I don't know what I'm cutting for any of these cards.
However, I think my initial suspicions were correct in that I'm less likely to need Scrap Trawler because there hasn't been a time where I really needed something back from my gy to really want this card. Basically, I'm saying that I have enough recursion or I simply don't care and have adequate replacements ready. I might consider cutting Dictate of Erebos for Oblivion Stone if my creature removal is adequate enough. That being said, grave pact effects are very insane in here.
I own a Mana Crypt, but throwing it in here is overkill for my group. However, that would easily replace a land. I mean, there's quite literally zero downside to running this card as you can easily sacrifice it if the potential damage to yourself proves to be a problem. I think running Mox Opal will require running Mana Crypt too in order to keep the artifact count sufficiently high to make it good on turn 1-2. What one would cut for opal, I have no idea.
I had someone else pilot this deck today and it got hated out so hard even with a less experienced pilot.
Lastly, I just realized that this block alone gave me around 12-13 amazing cards as well as cards I'm not even running because there's no space for them. This means that I'm no longer in the position of having to go out of my way to find good artifact creatures. In fact, at this point, I have an overabundance of good options now. I'm kind of tempted to throw in Walking Ballista just to see how well it works, but of course I have to get that temptation after the price spikes due to it being good in standard.
I like the ballista here more than Hangarback Walker because you can just use it as utility removal if you have modular creatures to sacrifice every turn. More importantly though, it can allow you to respond at instant speed, a option that the deck critically lacks. However, it isn't good without your modular or infinite combos. Nonetheless, if you wanted to play the most powerful things you can regardless of how well everyone else accepts it, I think running a Walking Ballista is probably mandatory.
As it turns out, I completely forgot that Ruins of Oran-Rief is a card. It's like an Opal Palace for colorless artifact creatures! More importantly, it also works when something enters from the graveyard!
I also have concluded that I probably don't need Scrap Trawler's effect. The fact of the matter is that while it is a good card, it only fulfills the function of recursion and I have many multipurpose cards that also fulfill the function.
As a side note, the Odyssey lands are surprisingly good because it makes excess colorless mana more useful for casting Marchesa
Lastly, I was able to play a couple games with the deck against different individuals. They of course had never seen the deck before and kind of remarked about how many affinity deck cards they saw out of my deck. Then I started looping Sphinx Summoner every turn and killed everyone very rapidly with Vicious Shadows.
The next game, I ate every single targeted removal spell out of a 5 player game.
Gotta love the cheap modular creatures. I want them literally every game and this will help ensure that.
I'm playing for aggro-combo midgame instead of early aggression because my meta is geared to fight or race it. Maybe...possibly... because of another deck I own.
I'm playing for aggro-combo midgame instead of early aggression because my meta is geared to fight or race it. Maybe...possibly... because of another deck I own.
I wonder which one could it be glad you let the Crusher back in there. 2005 Timmy me approves
Also, funny coincidence - a friend of mine has been building a Marchesa arcbound tribal list recently. I tossed him a link to this build, maybe he'll get some ideas from you. Cool-ass deck!
Making a deck like this is my next project. I love the idea and the loops that can be created with Marchesa. I'll be using your list as a base. Ever considered including Herald of Anguish? Not the most ideal sac outlet, but its' effect is pretty crippling and it should be cheap with all of your artifact creatures. I'll post my list once I'm finished. I can't wait to build and play this
Ruins of oran-rief is just bad. Played with it several games and every time I wished it would etb untapped and in practice the additional +1/+1 doesn't matter at all especially because you can't put it on marchesa. It be playable if it could +1/+1 counter on each colorless creature like the original but it can't.
Herald of Anguish... actually seems pretty interesting. I think if I have enough low cmc artifact creatures, this thing can be cast for as low as 5 mana, which is probably the most ideal situation. The sac outlet mode of it is also no joke. It is expensive, but there are a lot of utility creatures you can kill with it. If I had to cut a creature to throw it in, it'd probably be black gearhulk.
I haven't actually drawn Ruins yet. I agree that the ETB tapped nature of it is unappealing. It probably shouldn't have much of an impact if you have a good ratio of modular creatures and sac outlets.
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
just a question, did you ever wish lightning greaves were swiftfoot boots when you drew them? i was wondering since i was looking for another haste effect in my own version of the deck.
just a question, did you ever wish lightning greaves were swiftfoot boots when you drew them? i was wondering since i was looking for another haste effect in my own version of the deck.
Greaves exists for 2 reasons in the deck
A) Giving haste to creatures you played this turn so you can attack and get counters
B) Additional shields for Marchesa
As a result, there is never a situation that comes up where you need to target something that has shroud.
One game I managed to Scrap Mastery both a Mirrorworks and a Thran Dynamo, among other things, made a copy of the dynamo, and then proceeded to make double copies of everything else I got back. Insane. I had an Arcbound Ravager so boardwipes couldn't touch me, and someone tried to double Gilded Drake my stuff which got stopped by both my Spellskites. Spellskite was MVP for helping making this deck nigh-unanswerable outside of yard hate.
- Worn Powerstone
- Rite of Replication
+ Thran Dynamo
+ Expropriate
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
Vampiric Tutor is also pretty solid in any deck. Smothering Abomination might also be interesting in your deck. Nim Deathmantle might also interest you in that it can act as commander/combo protection.
Current EDH
Akroma W | Tymna and Bruse RBW
My signets and talismans do a tiny bit of color fixing (mostly to hit all three colors by turn 4), but they are actually primarily there to accelerate from 2 to 4 because quite a good portion of my useful stuff is at 4cmc. Chromatic Lantern is less necessary because I don't play a large quantity of double colored costs at low cmcs due to the artifact nature of the deck.
Going from 3 to 5 doesn't speed up the deck with respect to the mana curve nearly as effectively as going from 2 to 4.
Vampiric Tutor I would throw in there but I'm just trying out other stuff because I'm already pretty tutor heavy. Deathmantle is solid but I'm currently trying to find space for cards that can put the hurt on opponents quickly once I've gathered enough of an advantage. Smothering Abomination is a card I've tried in the past with other decks but it has the problem of being somewhat poor when you are behind and your engines are being disrupted.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
Expropriate is a card I've been playing "just for fun" and I feel like it is ultimately replaceable for theme purposes. I also will pick this because I am unwilling to up my curve any further and I'm okay with playing expensive removal in this slot. Here are some of my options.
Spine of Ish Sah:
Upsides: Artifact tutorable. Easy to sacrifice to get it back. Hits lands.
Downsides: Sorcery speed. 7 to kill one thing feels pretty bad.
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker:
Upsides: He's the Nicolfather! Pretty easy to protect in this deck. Stealing creatures can be better than destroying them. Ultimate ability is hilarious.
Downsides: Can be killed to little benefit in certain boardstates. Draws a lot of attention.
Oblivion Stone:
Upside: Artifact tutorable. Sweeper. Can be recurred. Hits everything.
Downside: Hits all of my noncreature artifacts too (except lands). Costs way too much money for what it does.
Cyclonic Rift/other mass bounce:
Upside: Best versions are instant speed.
Downside: Doesn't actually remove the problem. If symmetrical, can affect me. Cyc rift banned in my meta.
As a final note, I ended up winning the Humility game with 1/1 token producers and Cranial Plating. I had Humility, Torpor Orb, Ensnaring Bridge, AND Maze of Ith (With Rings of Brighthearth) to fight through. Gotta love it when your creations can potentially fight through its worst nightmares.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
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
There's a lot of goodies in this set for your particular build. Looks like you'll need to do an overhaul!
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
Metallic Mimic - Too good
Treasure Keeper - This thing is five varieties of busted and this + Arcbound Ravager alone will make you pull out a good chunk of your deck in very short order.
Spire of Industry - No real drawbacks!
Here are high considerations that may not be guaranteed but are strong contenders
Yahenni, Undying Partisan - Very good sac outlet that can actually push for damage
Scrap Trawler - This is a generally better Myr Retriever and will be treated as such. The ability is not optional however you can easily control the order in which you sacrifice things to not disrupt your loops. The main problem is that I might already be oversaturated with recursion and thus may want another effect in its slot.
Whir of Invention - Good tutor but the triple blue can potentially be quite difficult. A lot of my really good stuff is cmc2 so I won't need to improvise for very much for this to be good. Gets Spellskite at instant speed!
Inspiring Statuary - Synergizes well with tokens and equipment but a good number of my noncreature artifacts are manarocks. Provides some resilience to Stony Silence. I also run a decent number of nonartifact spells for this. (I have an approximate 1:1 ratio of nonland artifacts to nonland nonartifacts)
Strengthening Ballista - Good for the infinite combo only. Add if I intend on doing this.
Here are cards I will not be running.
Pia's Revolution - Redundant recursion and it disrupts Arcbound Ravager loops. No thanks.
Trophy Mage - Not enough 3cmc artifacts to tutor
Paradox Engine - This card works best with BIG manarocks, of which I only run two. Becomes a bigger consideration if I add Mana Crypt and Mox Opal.
Tezzeret the Schemer - Daretti does creature removal better and if I wanted a Tezz I'd play Agent of Bolas.
Mechanized Production - I'm not looking to run Followed Footsteps. I'll only ever meet the alt wincon with myrs.
Hope of Ghirapur - Not bad and it fits the theme, but I have literally no space for this!
Likely cuts:
Expropriate - I already mentioned that I would do this
Thopter Spy Network - This thing is okay but a little slow for my tastes. Tutoring up skullclamp should solve the draw issues more effectively, although it is amazing with skullclamp itself
Bouncelands - Reduce the ETB tapped lands.
Myr Retriever - Scrap Trawler is probably better. I might not even need the latter though since I do have a metric ton of recursion.
Arcane Denial - 1 counterspell is just to make people try to play around them even when I don't pack them. However, it doesn't really work.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
Treasure Keeper looks exactly within your wheel house as well.
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
Oh my goodness. Now I need a spot for this too?
*head explodes*
Not getting lands is a bummer, but a lot of my craziest stuff is at 3cmc and below! Also I'm seriously okay with this hitting mana rocks.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
First, a better understanding of the strategy and what it means for the deck.
In continuing to play the deck, I realized that by far the biggest advantage this deck has over a typical Marchesa build is the concept of placing +1/+1 counters AT INSTANT SPEED with extremely resilient enablers. This means that my strategy hinges very much on cards like the modular creatures and Steel Overseer. This method is also encouraged in my metagame over a more traditional aggro approach because many players employ tools to lessen the effectiveness of aggro strategies. This is why I play cards like Vicious Shadows, which also synergize extremely well with the modular strategy. As such, I will likely be trying to add more infinite sac outlets and absolutely more modular creatures in the future. I don't want to always have to fetch ravager every single game.
Also, cards that make mana on sacrificing are disgustingly good with the modular strategy. Ashnod's Altar needs to make it in as well. Phyrexian Tower in certain boardstates becomes a painless Ancient Tomb that adds black. That is nuts.
Tl:dr: Less aggro, more combo-ey.. Result should be slightly better than the same.
Now, onto the cards.
Removing
- Rakdos Carnarium - It's time I shaved the ETB tapped lands and I have a lot more RB duals in my possession than the others, so this was the best cut for Spire of Industry.
- Thopter Spy Network - If you can't get an attack in with an artifact creature by the time you play this then the card is slow at its job. The thopters are nice but ultimately not necessary
- Expropriate - This is an out-of-theme and out-of-focus card and I know it.
- Arcane Denial - Having only one counterspell is unreliable and it doesn't make people play around it when I don't have it because the likelihood of me having it is too low.
- Myr Retriever - Scrap Trawler does its job more effectively because I can sacrifice other things and still get my desired recursion. The card itself is also quite weak.
- Mirrorworks - This card costs a lot in a deck that needs to lower its curve and is an unnecessary manasink. Also very slow.
Adding
+ Spire of Industry - Painland for all colors in artifact builds. Never let go of it.
+ Whir of Invention - Triple blue is rough, but a lot of the best artifacts in this build are low CMC and can be fetched out without paying actual mana into the X cost.
+ Metallic Mimic - Auto-protects Marchesa and can play some of the "role" of the modular creatures in a pinch.
+ Treasure Keeper - Good medium-cmc payoff card. Probably gets completely out of hand if looped.
+ Scrap Trawler - A generally upgraded Myr Retriever. The non-optional nature could interrupt modular loops but considering that you're choosing the order in which you sacrifice your own things, if done right should not be an issue.
+ Arcbound Worker - I chose this modular creature over all the other options because of its 1CMC and the idea of fetching it off of Trinket Mage. The fact that I believe this was played in very old affinity decks is a sweet bonus to the theme.
Also updting the list of top priority includes if there is space.
TOP PRIORITY
- Ashnod's Altar
HIGH PRIORITY
- Oblivion Stone
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
this or trying to incorporate an infinite combo with mana rocks and codex shredder.
I cannot imagine playing this deck without Nihil Spellbomb. Being able to hose graveyards is far too important of an option. It also cycles for a card in a pinch.
Capsule is fine and same with transmogrant, but I'm very tight on space and so can't go overboard with trinkets.
Also, if you want to do infinite combos, run a Walking Ballista. You need Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and an infinite sac outlet to do infinite damage, but it's much easier to avoid telegraphing it because you can pay 0 for ballista rather than 6 for Triskelion. Also, you can fetch Ballista easily with literally any artifact tutor in the deck.
Lastly, not even sure that I need Scrap Trawler on this list. It might get punted for the Ashnod's Altar I've been wanting to fit in.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
With metallic mimic, is construct the best creature type to pick? And what do you mean it auto protects Marchessa? I must be missing something.
If you did have the oblivion stone, ashnod's altar, and mox opal, what would you replace? There's so many things serving important purposes in this deck, it's really tough making cuts. What about a Chrome Mox?
The rest I can't speak for because I'm going with a different direction.
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
However, I think my initial suspicions were correct in that I'm less likely to need Scrap Trawler because there hasn't been a time where I really needed something back from my gy to really want this card. Basically, I'm saying that I have enough recursion or I simply don't care and have adequate replacements ready. I might consider cutting Dictate of Erebos for Oblivion Stone if my creature removal is adequate enough. That being said, grave pact effects are very insane in here.
I own a Mana Crypt, but throwing it in here is overkill for my group. However, that would easily replace a land. I mean, there's quite literally zero downside to running this card as you can easily sacrifice it if the potential damage to yourself proves to be a problem. I think running Mox Opal will require running Mana Crypt too in order to keep the artifact count sufficiently high to make it good on turn 1-2. What one would cut for opal, I have no idea.
I had someone else pilot this deck today and it got hated out so hard even with a less experienced pilot.
Lastly, I just realized that this block alone gave me around 12-13 amazing cards as well as cards I'm not even running because there's no space for them. This means that I'm no longer in the position of having to go out of my way to find good artifact creatures. In fact, at this point, I have an overabundance of good options now. I'm kind of tempted to throw in Walking Ballista just to see how well it works, but of course I have to get that temptation after the price spikes due to it being good in standard.
I like the ballista here more than Hangarback Walker because you can just use it as utility removal if you have modular creatures to sacrifice every turn. More importantly though, it can allow you to respond at instant speed, a option that the deck critically lacks. However, it isn't good without your modular or infinite combos. Nonetheless, if you wanted to play the most powerful things you can regardless of how well everyone else accepts it, I think running a Walking Ballista is probably mandatory.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
Aether revolt has added some interesting ways to take this deck, for sure.
I also have concluded that I probably don't need Scrap Trawler's effect. The fact of the matter is that while it is a good card, it only fulfills the function of recursion and I have many multipurpose cards that also fulfill the function.
As a side note, the Odyssey lands are surprisingly good because it makes excess colorless mana more useful for casting Marchesa
- Izzet Boilerworks
- Dimir Aqueduct
- Scrap Trawler
+ Ruins of Oran-Rief
+ Sunken Ruins
+ Ashnod's Altar
Lastly, I was able to play a couple games with the deck against different individuals. They of course had never seen the deck before and kind of remarked about how many affinity deck cards they saw out of my deck. Then I started looping Sphinx Summoner every turn and killed everyone very rapidly with Vicious Shadows.
The next game, I ate every single targeted removal spell out of a 5 player game.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
My curve is too high and I'm wondering and without the crazy finishers it feels less efficient than Wurmcoil Engine
+ Arcbound Stinger
Gotta love the cheap modular creatures. I want them literally every game and this will help ensure that.
I'm playing for aggro-combo midgame instead of early aggression because my meta is geared to fight or race it. Maybe...possibly... because of another deck I own.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
I wonder which one could it be glad you let the Crusher back in there. 2005 Timmy me approves
Also, funny coincidence - a friend of mine has been building a Marchesa arcbound tribal list recently. I tossed him a link to this build, maybe he'll get some ideas from you. Cool-ass deck!
It is just bad.
I haven't actually drawn Ruins yet. I agree that the ETB tapped nature of it is unappealing. It probably shouldn't have much of an impact if you have a good ratio of modular creatures and sac outlets.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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Greaves exists for 2 reasons in the deck
A) Giving haste to creatures you played this turn so you can attack and get counters
B) Additional shields for Marchesa
As a result, there is never a situation that comes up where you need to target something that has shroud.
Everything else is ravager food.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.