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.
Really wanna highlight Springleaf Drum in particular. This card has just been stellar as an ultra-efficient ramp option. Overperforms and plays much better than it looks. Think of it as a colorless Bird of Paradise with haste, cuz that's exactly how it plays in this deck. It generally taps down a token with summoning sickness and has almost zero drawbacks for Edgar decks. Easily as good as Legion's Landing (if not better than) if you're playing that as ramp.
That's some spicy technology there. If I still had my Edgar deck I would slam that in.
One piece of budget draw that I didn't see you mention was Minions' Murmurs. Any particular reason why?
You also don't have enough draw to not get behind when someone inevitably wipes the board. You've got four draw pieces: Skullclamp, Harmonize, Outpost Siege and Temple Bell. I run 10 draw spells in my decks minimum. For example, Arch of Orazca is a fairly low opportunity cost that should probably go in every deck that will have a lot of mana on their hands. Since you're not afraid of giving your opponents cards with Temple Bell, that means you can easily play Mikokoro, Center of the Sea at very little opportunity cost.
My Gahiji is also a fun casual deck with a gimmick of making my Creatures Vigilant to dissuade people from attacking, so you can probably take a look and lift some ideas. It's got a few expensive cards but that's because I've had them since forever. They can easily be replaced by something else.
There are a few more cards I have earmarked as underperforming but these were the absolute dreck.
The idea of having Vigilance is that the Ranging Raptors would be attacking and blocking, continually becoming Enraged and netting me many lands. That's the theory, in practice I would hum and haw over if I should make a block. I didn't want to lose this 2/3 and it could be so much cooler too! Well, that makes me stupid and greedy, so I axed the card for Farhaven Elf who I will gladly toss under the bus if need be.
Trapjaw was too expensive and cumbersome to pull off what I wanted. I'm putting Akroma's Vengeance in its place as that keeps my Planeswalkers alive to rebuild, defend themselves or set up Ults.
Mentor of the Meek just didn't trigger properly, it was by far the worst card in the deck. Blasphemous Act is another Wrath if the deck needs it. Too bad I'm cutting two Dinosaurs at present for it.
The little lifelinkers didn't really do much nor does curving out into the Warleader. It's not like this is an Aristocrats build with Skullclamp to take advantage of the bodies. I did think of putting Archangel of Thune into the deck but I have seen how other lifegain decks get collapsed on when they get her out. Instead, I'm going with a more insidious body. Kambal will slowly drain my opponents, inoffensively, while I position for advantage. I was wracking my head over some sort of Creature with an Activated Ability to take advantage if I land a Seedborn Muse, such as a Dark Impostor but I wanted to keep it simple. Kambal is also a 3 drop meaning he can be recurred with Sun Titan.
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?
On the haste enablers you should checkout Rhythm of the wild (great for protecting vaevictis when you cast him AND gives him haste) and Xenagos, god of revels. I have been eyeing Dragon Breath but can't find a slot for it to take,however, I am also trying out Arlinn Kord/Arlinn, embraced by the moon for some new spice atm(haste enabler, token generator, and removal/board pump if you flip her).
I guess I can understand the value cards, however, same could be said for the Nissa, Vital Force you removed. YMMV but I have Birthing Pod and Haunted Crossroads and both have won me games if not removed in a couple turns (and they synergize well with what vaevictis wants to do)
I cut Birthing Pod because I don't have a curve that can support it, the deck mostly poops out tokens for fodder instead of Creatures. I tried Haunted Crossroads but I didn't like it. To be fair, I got lucky and have a Volrath's Stronghold in the deck which is a fairly low opportunity cost way of getting the same effect. I am pretty happy with how Hasty Asmadi is in my list. The only thing I can think of is to perhaps add Oblivion Stone as another Wrath.
Dragon Breath sounds really good on paper, but it hasn't been working well for me. Mainly because you need to find a way to pitch it before Vaevictis is summoned; which is difficult unless you have a source of card filtering or you have a way to easily sacrifice one of your early drops. Else you'd need to cast Vaevictis at 8 mana for the initial haste. It does get stupidly broken after the 2nd cast though.
Guardian Project does work, huh? I don't think I run too many actual Creatures; I make plenty of tokens, so I am not certain if it would be effective. Harvester of Souls actually sounds like a great idea, though it is pushing the mana curve upwards.
Noted on Dragon Breath. Here I thought the player was a genius when I stumbled across it, but if I recall their build was more Discard oriented with the idea to run Enchantments that hit hands while Asmadi hits the board. So, that's probably what made it so absurdly good in that list.
Oh yeah, your advice above on negotiating targets has really worked wonders. It doesn't immediately put me into Archenemy, I can instead peck away at the player in the lead and then pivot when I think I'm far enough ahead.
I like the direction you have taken the deck, I am a huge fan of the land recursion package for Vaevictis. I was wondering about your opinion on Seedborn Muse and Nullmage Shepherd. How do you find these perform in your deck? Have you tried more haste enablers in the list?
With your recent revaluation of the different cards in the deck, have you looked at Lifecrafter's Bestiary? While the scry 1 on upkeep is good for vaevictis, the cast trigger seems less synergistic with your commander. Similarly, Sunbird's Invocation and Primeval Bounty won't trigger on attacks with vaevictis.
Thanks! Nullmage is OK, it just gives me something to do on an end step. As for Seedborn Muse, it is silly as it almost always is. A lot of this deck uses activated abilities, whether that's making making Kobolds, draw cards or Ramp and that's just the Lands. So, a Seedborn Muse at the very minimum gives me pseudo-Vigilance but on the higher end, it lets me get really far ahead between all of my Activated abilities between all of my permanents.
One Haste enabler that I've toyed with using is Dragon Breath. Gives Vaevictis Firebreathing so he can count to 21 faster, it repeatedly reattaches whenever he hits the field and also gives him something can could Sac 'for free'. I don't really have room for that; perhaps I should also figure out a way to get Anger in my yard but I'm pretty happy with the Haste situation with the deck. Since I've added all of those Signets, I'm getting Asmadi out far faster than most opponents can deal with.
The Scry of Lifecrafter's Bestiary is useful to help me dig. I know I won't get anything when a Creature hits play, but if gives me something to do with the excess mana on my turn to dig deeper. It might be the weaker of my draw engines but since I recently added it, it still needs testing. As for Sunbird's Invocation or Primeval Bounty, they're just absurdly good value pieces that if left uncontested will win me the game.
This deck idea started as a pseudo-meme where I said that Vigilance is the best keyword. Everybody kept giving me ***** for it, yet in a lot of my decks people noticed that I was hard to attack into due to how often my Creatures would be untapped. I decided to make a Vigilance deck and decided to go with Gahiji, which will give people even less incentive to attack me. At first, I thought to use a ton of Tappers, so that I have something to do on an End Step but then I found out all of the good Tappers aren't in Naya. Afterwards, I realized that the main criticism of Planeswalkers is that they're difficult to defend, but if I have tons of untapped Creatures, it will be difficult for my opponents to punch through before I get some obnoxious Ult off. Plus if the goal is to give everything Vigilance, Dinosaur's Enrage and Amonkhet's Exert mechanics work wonders if you don't tap.
After being on the receiving end of Ethereal Absolution, I decided I needed to get me some of that. Daxos likes to keep mana open to respond, so this gives me a way to hate out Graveyeards and make 1/1 Fliers who will protect my face or just be generic fodder. First Response felt like it was the most similar, so it got the axe.
I wanted a bit more life gain, so again, I went to axe a wincon in the form of Glistening Oil. Polluted Bonds is what I think to be lowkey enough that hopefully people won't mind the Shock and see how my life total is slowly ticking upwards.
I dislike colourless, so Temple had to go. In its place is Emeria, who should help with Daxos' many deaths and help me dodge tax. After looking at my colours, I think I am a little too black heavy, so I swapped a Swamp for a Plains. This also helps turn Emeria on.
Sandwurm was great to protect Kresh's face and made sizeable bodies. Asmadi flies and brings other fliers along as well. Courser will let me dig deeper for those Land Drops, the life gain will probably not be insignificant and seeing what is on top will help my decisions for Asmadi when I swing.
As I added better token makers, Dragonmaster Outcast started to look clunkier with time. I also realized that 5/5 Fliers are actually less desirable than a buttload of anything else. Loyal Apprentice starts work faster and has Haste to quickly get a Dethrone; Goblin Rabblemaster's tokens have Haste and when he swings, he scales quite quickly; Hanweir Garrison puts out two bodies and melds for the meme; and, Sifter of Skulls has been nothing but absolutely absurd since I've tested it. Even though Outcast is cheap, he effectively tries to compete with my six drops for power and lacks that. In his place is Curse of Opulence, which should help the deck get more explosive starts and colour fix me the few times when I'm shy of a colour.
I wanted Phyrexian Tower for the mana boost and as another Sac Outlet. I did briefly think of cutting a Swamp; however, that would make the Tainted Isle weaker. So while I lose a colour by cutting the Isle, it wasn't necessarily going to give me what I wanted anyway.
With the culling of a few sacred cows in the previous update, I looked at other cards that I considered 'must haves' with new eyes. Dragon Broodmother's Triple Red is too difficult for this deck to reliably pull off, I can remember a few times where she sat in my hand uncastable. In her place comes the Ogre Slumlord, who will protect my board with the Deathtouch Rats. The Rat's 1/1 nature also means I can feed them to Skullclamp without any problems, plus the rest of the Sac Outlets. Broodmother's token creation was linear while the Slumlord's scales with the board.
Seasons Past is an amazing recursion piece but it is a non-permanent which hurts Asmadi. I believe this is an artifact of when the deck had Kresh at the helm. I have a variety of ways to put Creatures or Lands back into play from the Graveyard, so while I might be cut off from recurring Enchantments and Artifacts, I think I can risk that with minimal cost. I put Asceticism in Past's place as that is an ultimate way to protect Asmadi and my board; best case, I cheat it in and have 2 mana open to protect Asmadi. Worst case, I tap out to play it and force an opponent's Wrath.
Daxos is still getting targeted pretty hard, which is damned annoying since all I've done since its inception is continually pull his teeth out. His reputation and actions previously still stain the deck's reputation.
Lose for a while, maybe. I've had to play a meta-game of changing reputation before. It usually takes longer to do that when winning a fair proportion of the games than it does if you just suck for a while and lose until they stop focusing Daxos. Still requires patience, but it could still be possible to avoid disassembling it.
Also, just noticed the Ruric Thar link in your sig. Did you know "Ruric Thar" isn't first-name and last-name? Both of their heads have distinct identities while sharing a body. One is Ruric, and the other is Thar.
I tore Edgar apart and I decided to put the good stuff in this deck. Grafted Exoskeleon doesn't one shot any players with most of my Creatures, so it got the axe. I figure Leonin Warleader is one of the most synergistic Creatures I could run. Vampiric and Demonic Tutors are better draw than Dawn of Hope or Phyrexian Reclamation could ever hope to be. This also lets me set up the Seasons Past loop with Vampiric if I really want to be a dick.
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.
One piece of budget draw that I didn't see you mention was Minions' Murmurs. Any particular reason why?
You also don't have enough draw to not get behind when someone inevitably wipes the board. You've got four draw pieces: Skullclamp, Harmonize, Outpost Siege and Temple Bell. I run 10 draw spells in my decks minimum. For example, Arch of Orazca is a fairly low opportunity cost that should probably go in every deck that will have a lot of mana on their hands. Since you're not afraid of giving your opponents cards with Temple Bell, that means you can easily play Mikokoro, Center of the Sea at very little opportunity cost.
My Gahiji is also a fun casual deck with a gimmick of making my Creatures Vigilant to dissuade people from attacking, so you can probably take a look and lift some ideas. It's got a few expensive cards but that's because I've had them since forever. They can easily be replaced by something else.
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Ranging Raptors
1 Trapjaw Tyrant
1 Mentor of the Meek
The idea of having Vigilance is that the Ranging Raptors would be attacking and blocking, continually becoming Enraged and netting me many lands. That's the theory, in practice I would hum and haw over if I should make a block. I didn't want to lose this 2/3 and it could be so much cooler too! Well, that makes me stupid and greedy, so I axed the card for Farhaven Elf who I will gladly toss under the bus if need be.
Trapjaw was too expensive and cumbersome to pull off what I wanted. I'm putting Akroma's Vengeance in its place as that keeps my Planeswalkers alive to rebuild, defend themselves or set up Ults.
Mentor of the Meek just didn't trigger properly, it was by far the worst card in the deck. Blasphemous Act is another Wrath if the deck needs it. Too bad I'm cutting two Dinosaurs at present for it.
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Leonin Warleader
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Talisman of Dominance
Noted on Dragon Breath. Here I thought the player was a genius when I stumbled across it, but if I recall their build was more Discard oriented with the idea to run Enchantments that hit hands while Asmadi hits the board. So, that's probably what made it so absurdly good in that list.
Oh yeah, your advice above on negotiating targets has really worked wonders. It doesn't immediately put me into Archenemy, I can instead peck away at the player in the lead and then pivot when I think I'm far enough ahead.
One Haste enabler that I've toyed with using is Dragon Breath. Gives Vaevictis Firebreathing so he can count to 21 faster, it repeatedly reattaches whenever he hits the field and also gives him something can could Sac 'for free'. I don't really have room for that; perhaps I should also figure out a way to get Anger in my yard but I'm pretty happy with the Haste situation with the deck. Since I've added all of those Signets, I'm getting Asmadi out far faster than most opponents can deal with.
The Scry of Lifecrafter's Bestiary is useful to help me dig. I know I won't get anything when a Creature hits play, but if gives me something to do with the excess mana on my turn to dig deeper. It might be the weaker of my draw engines but since I recently added it, it still needs testing. As for Sunbird's Invocation or Primeval Bounty, they're just absurdly good value pieces that if left uncontested will win me the game.
5 Gahiji, Honored One
Creature - 25
1 Serra Ascendant
2 Humble Defector
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Eternal Witness
3 Evolution Sage
3 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
3 Orzhov Advokist
3 Runic Armasaur
3 Selvala, Explorer Returned
3 Tireless Tracker
3 Wayward Swordtooth
3 Wood Elves
4 Angelic Field Marshal
4 Beast Whisperer
4 Captain Sisay
4 Loyal Unicorn
4 Mina and Denn, Wildborn
4 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
5 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
5 Seedborn Muse
5 Tendershoot Dryad
6 Aurelia, the Warleader
6 Dragon Broodmother
6 Realm Seekers
Planeswalker - 10
3 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
4 Arlinn Kord
4 Huatli, Radiant Champion
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
4 Xenagos, the Reveler
5 Huatli, Warrior Poet
5 Nissa, Vital Force
6 Ajani Unyielding
6 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
6 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
1 Curse of Opulence
1 Reconnaissance
2 Brave the Sands
2 Quest for Renewal
4 Smothering Tithe
8 Sandwurm Convergence
Artifact - 4
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
2 Sword of the Animist
3 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
Sorcery - 8
2 Farseek
2 Nature's Lore
3 Cultivate
3 Kodama's Reach
4 Skyshroud Claim
5 Hour of Promise
5 Urza's Ruinous Blast
6 Akroma's Vengeance
6 Mob Rule
6 Seasons Past
Instant - 7
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Boros Charm
2 Constant Mists
2 Heroic Intervention
3 Beast Within
3 Inspiring Call
4 Crush Contraband
Nonbasic Lands - 21
0 Arch of Orazca
0 Blighted Woodland
0 Canopy Vista
0 Cinder Glade
0 Emeria, The Sky Ruin
0 Gavony Township
0 Karn's Bastion
0 Kessig Wolf Run
0 Kher Keep
0 Kor Haven
0 Krosan Verge
0 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
0 Myriad Landscape
0 Sacred Foundry
0 Scattered Groves
0 Sheltered Thicket
0 Stomping Ground
0 Temple Garden
0 Terrain Generator
0 Thespian's Stage
0 Windswept Heath
5 Forest
5 Mountain
6 Plains
1 Inspiring Call
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1 Realm Seekers
1 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Custodi Soulbinders
1 Twilight Drover
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Evolution Sage
1 Karn's Bastion
1 Combat Celebrant
1 Forest
1 Serra Ascendant
1 Mob Rule
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Leonin Warleader
1 Twilight Drover
1 Leonin Warleader
1 Custodi Soulbinders
1 Skullclamp
1 Dragonmaster Outcast
1 Glorybringer
1 Sun Titan
1 Path of Mettle
1 Urza's Ruinous Blast
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Wayward Swordtooth
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Captain Sisay
1 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
1 Shamanic Revelation
1 Hull Breach
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Garruk's Packleader
1 Assemble the Legion
1 Rishkar's Expertise
1 Selvala, Explorer Returned
1 Constant Mists
1 Quest for Renewal
1 Smothering Tithe
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Windswept Heath
1 Champion of Rhonas
1 Ripjaw Raptor
1 Always Watching
1 Explosive Vegetation
2 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Nissa, Vital Force
1 Harmonize
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Ranging Raptors
1 Trapjaw Tyrant
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Ethereal Absolution
1 Polluted Bonds
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 First Response
1 Glistening Oil
1 Temple of the False God
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
I wanted a bit more life gain, so again, I went to axe a wincon in the form of Glistening Oil. Polluted Bonds is what I think to be lowkey enough that hopefully people won't mind the Shock and see how my life total is slowly ticking upwards.
I dislike colourless, so Temple had to go. In its place is Emeria, who should help with Daxos' many deaths and help me dodge tax. After looking at my colours, I think I am a little too black heavy, so I swapped a Swamp for a Plains. This also helps turn Emeria on.
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Sandwurm Convergence
1 Curse of Opulence
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Dragonmaster Outcast
1 Tainted Isle
I wanted Phyrexian Tower for the mana boost and as another Sac Outlet. I did briefly think of cutting a Swamp; however, that would make the Tainted Isle weaker. So while I lose a colour by cutting the Isle, it wasn't necessarily going to give me what I wanted anyway.
1 Ogre Slumlord
1 Asceticism
1 Dragon Broodmother
1 Seasons Past
Seasons Past is an amazing recursion piece but it is a non-permanent which hurts Asmadi. I believe this is an artifact of when the deck had Kresh at the helm. I have a variety of ways to put Creatures or Lands back into play from the Graveyard, so while I might be cut off from recurring Enchantments and Artifacts, I think I can risk that with minimal cost. I put Asceticism in Past's place as that is an ultimate way to protect Asmadi and my board; best case, I cheat it in and have 2 mana open to protect Asmadi. Worst case, I tap out to play it and force an opponent's Wrath.
I think this might be what I need to do. :/
Noted and changed.
1 Leonin Warleader
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Dawn of Hope
1 Phyrexian Reclamation