Marchesa, Be Right Back (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Marchesa, Be Right Back

Commander / EDH* Casual Control Counters Counterspell Multiplayer Sacrifice UBR (Grixis)

Larga

Land (36)

Value (7)

Removal (17)

+1/+1 Generator (12)

Draw (8)

Protection (5)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Marchesa, the Black Rose

Ramp (13)

Sac Outlet (12)

Counter (5)

Clones (1)

1x Spark Double

Sideboard

Ramp (1)

1x Dockside Extortionist

Maybeboard

Other (2)

Removal (1)

1x Avalanche Riders

Value (1)

1x Shifting Shadow

Who am I?

Hi, i'm an edh player, i don't play competitive, i just wanna have fun with my friends and try to win. I love building decks and i'm always trying to find better and funnier solution to improve my decks. Usually i'm starting with a budget deck and after some games, if is it worth, i replace some budget cards with stronger ones.

Why Marchesa?

When I built this deck, I was looking for a tricolor deck, with high synergy and we can say complex, with a lot of possibility behind every turn. Well, I found the right commander for me.
I think Marchesa is a really funny commander. You can choose a lot of theme with her and she makes the deck super resilient.
Dethrone seems legit in a friendly table. I attack you, since you got the most life, nothing personal :D. This ability provides the fuel for the engine of the deck and I'm talking about the other ability of Marchesa. She will bring back all the creatures that died with a +1/+1 counter on them (including herself). EVERYONE will come back ASAP (at the beginning of the next end step*), they'll just make a trip to the graveyard. Starting with this, you can create a wonderful deck.
After few years of playing and testing it, I can say that it's my favorite deck by far.

Game plan/Deck Engine

My first idea was a theft deck, use spells like Mark of Mutiny, attack with your opponents creature and then sacrifice them to permanently control all of them. But what if you opponents don't play good creature? or rarely play it? That's why I choose a more solid solution.
Marchesa makes your creature hard to remove, they keep coming back so I decided to abuse it. The deck is based on creatures and more specifically on creature with good ETB/LTB trigger. They do everything for me: removal, counter opponents spells, draw, sacoutlet, ramp, generate thousand of value.
This is a control/aristocrat based deck. One of my main goal in game is to hard control the board, trying to block other player's answer.
Basically i just:

play creature and get value
put a +1/+1 counter on it
sac it
creature come back at the end of turn, generating more value
Repeat from point 2

But let's go into a deeper description.
All you need are:

+1/+1 Generator:
Marchesa, the Black Rose is the main source. You just need to attack the player with the most life (or tie the most life) to get a +1/+1 counter, you don't have to deal damage. To do so sometimes you have to lower yourself, there are different way to do it in the deck, including ping yourself with your ability. Generate +1/+1 counter is the most important thing in the deck, don't be afraid of losing some life points for that.
If you can't use Dethrone for some reason, Unspeakable Symbol is simply perfect. Allow you to lower your life and instantly generate +1/+1 counter.
Another solution is Kalain, Reclusive Painter, slower but can helps. Really useful to avoid removal before you get the first counter.
Some creatures can generate their own +1/+1 counters:
Drana, Liberator of Malakir (amazing +1/+1 generator that allow you to attack away from throne)
Carrion Feeder
Iron Apprentice
Spark Double (copy Marchesa with him is one of the strongest play you can do)
Yahenni, Undying Partisan
Flayer of the Hatebound
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Immersturm Predator

These lands can generate counters Guildmages' Forum, Guildmages' Forum and Opal Palace
Metallic Mimic is really strong here, you can change the creature type everytime you want to. You can abuse ETB/LTB trigger even in your opponents turn.
Oona's Blackguard and Sage of Fables allow you to do the same stuff with your Rogues and Wizards (Marchesa is a Wizard and there are a lot of good Wizards in the deck)

Iron Apprentice

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

Sac Outlet:
As soon as your creatures have counters on them, they are ready to be sacrificed, generating value immediatly and when they are coming back at the end of turn.
All my choises are instant speed and free, so i can do it without problem even on my opponents turn or in response to exile or some kind of removal:
Immersturm Predator
Ashnod's Altar
Phyrexian Altar
Carrion Feeder
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Goblin Bombardment
Viscera Seer
Yahenni, Undying Partisan
High Market
Phyrexian Tower
Creature with nice ETB/LTB ability:
As I said before, my creatures do different jobs for me and they do it multiple times:
Removal
Card draw
Ramp
Protection
Face Damage
Counter spell
Theft/clone
Generic value

The game plan is playing Marchesa and generate +1/+1 counter as soon as possible. After that you can enjoy the game, control your opponents and generate a wide board full of threat. I just attack to generate +1/+1, creature without ETB/LTB effect can just sit as soon as they get the first +1/+1 counter. I kept the avarage CMC quite low, there are just few creature with cmc higher than 4, so I may easily play more than a creature on my turn. If your opponents don't find a way to remove Marchesa, you will slowly and kindly dominate the game.
There are few combos in the deck but I'm not playing for that, usually I win via combat damage after exhausting my opponents.

Card Selection

Lands

1x Swamp, 1x Mountain, 1x Island. All will be one phyrexian full art basic land cause they are nice.
This is a tricolor deck, without green, so we must look for the best untapped land that provides multicolor.
Excluding dual land (too expansive for me) we got:
3x Shocklands. Cause they can lower my life points and they ETB untapped
3x Painlands + City of Brass and Mana Confluence. Same reason as shockland: Untapped and lower my life points.
3x Checklands
3x Bondlands
3x Innistradlands

Fabled Passage, Command Tower, Forbidden Orchard, Exotic Orchard, Reflecting Pool, Clearwater Pathway

Scalding Tarn, Marsh Flats, Temple of Malice (I’m going to replace Marsh Flats and Temple with Polluted Delta and Bloodstained Mire as soon as they get reprinted)

Utility Lands

2x Sacrifice land: Phyrexian Tower and High Market

3x +1/+1 land to help our engine: Guildmages' Forum, Forge of Heroes and Opal Palace

Malakir Rebirth really good utility land, can save a good creature without a counter on it.

Plaza of Heroes another really nice land. In case of emergency break glass, tap 3 and exile it.

Ramp

Mana rocks:

1 mana: Sol Ring

2 mana: 2x talisman (always good in this deck), 2x Guild Signet + Arcane Signet and Fellwar Stone.

3 mana: what? We have to look like a good edh deck.

Altars:

Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar they are remembered for another job, especially in this deck, but they produce mana, so yes. They are fine.

Creature:

Kalain, Reclusive Painter I really like this card, is one of my favorite turn 2 play. On turn 3 it let you play Marchesa with a +1/+1 counter on it. It’s not a broken card, but works really good in this deck.

Atsushi, the Blazing Sky I mainly use the “create 3 treasure ability”, but also the first ability is really nice if you don’t need mana. He took the place of Solemn Simulacrum for obvious reasons:

- 3 treasure vs 1 tapped basic land (I have 3 total basic land in the deck, even if I reuse it I can’t get that much value)
- Both of them have some kind of draw ability
- Better body, 2/2 vs 4/4 flier with trample
- Same CMC

Dockside Extortionist another Treasure generator, THE TREASURE GENERATOR. This card is OP in every red deck. Immagine using his ETB trigger every turn.

Mahadi, Emporium Master and Pitiless Plunderer they are both good.

They both create a good amount of treasure token if we have some +1+1 generator and we sacrifice our creature.

Counterspell/Protection

We have Mana Drain, Swan Song and Fierce Guardianship as classic instant counterspell and 2 creature:

Siren Stormtamer repeatable 1 mana counter spell/ability that target you or a creature you control

Glen Elendra Archmage same story, counter non creature spell AND she has persist, really tricky in a +1/+1 deck.

Playing with this 2 creature on the board can be really frustrating for opponents and can deeply influence their choise, creating a psychological war.

Malakir Rebirth , Feign Death and Plaza of Heroes can save a creature at instant speed, Spellskite can do the same, multiple times and can also lower our life. (sometimes he can also “steal” some good spell that our opponents cast on their creature, ask Feather, the Redeemed player for more info) Deflecting Swat is simply OP

+1/+1 Generator

Excluding Marchesa and the 3 lands that we mentioned before, we have:

Drana, Liberator of Malakir +1/+1 counter generated during combat, just like Marchesa, but if you can’t use dethrone this will be your best friend. She can spread +1/+1 counters on every attacking creature and she does it before the other “normal” creature damage phase, since she has first strike.

Kalain, Reclusive Painter Her second ability is really nice if you wanna play a creature with an instant +1/+1 on it thanks to the treasure created by our friends. In a standard scenario, there is no need to use more then one for every creature.

Unspeakable Symbol this is normally a bad card, but it’s amazing in this deck.

Iron Apprentice, Sage of Fables, Metallic Mimic, Uncivil Unrest and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed let you abuse your ETB/LTB trigger on every single turn.

The first one can die and return every turn if you have Marchesa on the battlefield and everytime he share a +1/+1 counter with someone else.

The other 3 works on every creature of a certain type (Wizard for Sage of Fables, we got a lot of them in the deck, including Marchesa. The choosen type with metallic mimic and all non-Human with Mikaues. Unfortunately we got a lot of human in the deck, but I’m going to try it anyway, should work very well even in this situation). We can’t say the same for Oona's Blackguard since we don’t have any other rogue in the deck atm.

Sac Outlet

We got 2 lands, 1 creature with Exploit card:Sidisi, Undead Visier and 8 free to use classic altar.

Goblin Bombardment ping small creature, ping face, ping ourself to lower our life if we can’t use dethrone. Really good.

Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar free mana, always good.

Artifact and enchantment are usually harder to remove and they are a safer choice for aristocrat decks, but with Marchesa the creature are really hard to remove if you keep a counter on it. That’s why I preferred them over some other artifact like Altar of Dementia.

Carrion Feeder 1 mana, auto +1/+1 generator, really solid

Viscera Seer 1 mana, scry. Another good option.

Yahenni, Undying Partisan haste can easily get counter, he also get indestructible , really really strong. The only bad thing is that he can’t sacrifice himself, so you can’t save him from exile.

Falkenrath Aristocrat more or less like Yahenni. Haste, indestructible, we have a lot of Human and can sacrifice herself.

Immersturm Predator Another indestructible sac outlet with graveyard hate. This one could be replaced with Yawgmoth, Thran Physician. I have it in another deck atm but could be our best sac outlet by far.

Draw

Rhystic Study blue staple

Necropotence auto include in this deck. I usually don’t use it too aggressively. I just keep my hand full and manage my life points.

I already talked about Atsushi, the Blazing Sky and Sage of Fables, but I don’t use their draw ability very often.

Watcher for Tomorrow uncommon choice here, but works very well. Hideaway option instead of classic draw is really good. He is a Wizard so if you have Sage of Fables on the battlefield you can just look for the best card from top 4 of your library every turn.

Grim Haruspex simply amazing in this deck and every aristocrat deck. We don’t play token here, so every death is a draw.

Thought Sponge another card specifically printed for this deck. You can sac it on each opponents turn. In the worst scenario is a free draw 2 card.

Board Wipe

I play 3 board wipe, they are really cheap and I use it just in case of emergency if I can’t control the board with my creature’s spot removal. In this deck every board wipe look like In Garruk's Wake but for 1/3 mana cost. Anyway this isn’t always the smartest option if you don’t have an instant way to put a +1/+1 counter on Marchesa or some other key creatures.

Blasphemous Act, Last One Standing and Toxic Deluge(really good also to lower your life points).

Tutor

Sidisi, Undead Vizier if you find a way to get a free +1/+1 you can just sac herself everyturn.

Imperial Recruiter only 2 or less power creature tutor, but we have 24 option in the deck, choose wisely.

Removal

One shot removal

Chaos Warp Grixis doesn’t have a lot of solution against enchantment. You have to keep it for something really annoying like Solemnity of Rest in Peace

Repeatable Removal

Oona's Blackguard not a classic removal for the board, but we can remove threats from our opponent’s hand.

Dictate of Erebos “passive removal”, in an aristocrat deck like this can be deadly, with a good +1/+1 generator it’s a board wipe and you can instantly kill every creature played by your enemy.

Accursed Marauder just to stay in theme.

Goblin Bombardment, Dreadhorde Butcher, Juri, Master of the Revue, Flayer of the Hatebound small spot removal + face damage for late game (or lower your life points)

Irreverent Revelers Artifact removal

Ravenous Chupacabra Creature removal

Canoptek Tomb Sentinel Non land removal for just 4 mana, amazing. Replaced Meteor Golem

Vindictive Lich I love this card, it’s an amazing control card and another Wizard

Junji, the Midnight Sky another discard effect, he can also reanimate something good

Hostage Taker can be used to remove creature or artifact and steal it

Sower of Temptation You can steal something, put a +1/+1 on it and sacrifice it to permanently control it. Sometimes you can just steal it and in case of emergency sacrifice it.

Other stuff

Kokusho, the Evening Star gain life doesn’t synergize with the game plan but this is so cool and can be used to end the game or save our life.

Kardur, Doomscourge really good for buying time and create some chaos. This is also really fun

Mob Rule this is a finisher, you can steal almost all the creature on the battlefield and then keep all of them if you used Dethrone. (or just sacrifice it after combat)

Spark Double a jolly, can do everything and change it every turn according to the situation.

Final consideration

As you can see I focused my choice on repeatable effect over some staple used in this color pie.
For a more competitive deck you can play some cards like Feed the Swarm, Deadly Rollick, tutor like Diabolic Intent, Vampiric Tutor and Diabolic Tutor too increase the chance to find an answer against something (especially enchantment) that kill our game. If you wanna have more fun, just go for some more expensive solution on a creature and repeat the process. I never cried because I didn't have Feed the Swarm or another instant/sorcery removal and my opponent played Hushbringer blocking my deck. Sometimes that kind of things aren't bad just for you so you can wait for somebody else to remove it, or it's just gg. Go for the next :) .

Mulligan

The deck is well balanced, it should't be hard to find at least 1 sac outlet and some creature to generate value, just be sure to play Marchesa asap, so if you get some ramp is good.

Wincon

Combo:

Again, this is not a combo deck, playing combo is not my plan, but i just wanna mention some combo or good interaction (I choose the cards in the combo just because they are good for the deck and I like them regarless of the combo).

Glen Elendra Archmage+Sage of Fables generate different infinite loops based on the sac outlet you have:
+ Carrion Feeder = infinite +1/+1 counter on him
+ Goblin Bombardment = infinite damage
+ Viscera Seer = infinite scry
Glen Elendra Archmage also provides a lot of counters for non creature spells (based on your available, the sac outlet is not needed here)

Of course pairing these infinite death loop with other creatures like Grim Haruspex or Flayer of the Hatebound provides additional value (infinite draw/infite damage), but we are talking about 4 cards combo...quite hard to set it up.
Flayer of the Hatebound+Sage of Fables+Ashnod's Altar = infite damage

Other good Stuff:

The engine behind this deck is really powerful, you can get value from your creature every turn, if you can generate +1/+1 counter, but the funnier thing is doing it on your opponents turn.
Flayer of the Hatebound for example can be sacrificed every turn twice thanks to the undying ability (sac it, deal 5 damage to any target and come back. Sac it again, deal 4 damage and come back at the end of turn).
Sage of Fables, Iron Apprentice, Metallic Mimic and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed allow you to generate value during every turn and this is super powerful Other possible finisher can be any wrath spell if you got Marchesa and all your board with +1/+1 counters or Mob Rule for massive attack or just to make your board bigger if you can put a counter on them and sac it before the end of turn.
Spark Double is probably one of the strongest creature in the deck. He enter with his own counter and can do everything, from copying Marchesa for making the board even more resilient, to amplifing whatever you need, copying removal creature if you need more removal and so on.

Wishlist

28/11/2020

IN Juri, Master of the Revue -> OUT Thief of Sanity (Flying isn't enough for make him easy to activate, looks like an useless creature too often)
IN Supernatural Stamina -> OUT Reef Worm (generate a big board is not my plan, add a good protection for Marchesa or an usefull creature)

17/12/2020:

IN Kokusho, the Evening Star -> OUT Evil Twin

20/02/2021:

IN Drana, Liberator of Malakir -> OUT River Kelpie (replacing a bit to slow draw card for another amazing +1+1 generator)
IN Malakir Rebirth -> OUT Swamp (good protection card with land on the back)
IN Arcane Signet -> OUT Commander's Sphere (better ramp)
IN Thought Sponge -> OUT Impaler Shrike (better draw)

25/04/2021:

IN Toxic Deluge -> OUT Chain Reaction (Better board wipe)
IN Pitiless Plunderer -> OUT Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge (Better ramp)
IN Kardur, Doomscourge -> OUT Arcbound Worker (not enough synergy with the deck for my friend Arcbound Worker, added a new fun cards)

26/07/2021:

IN Avalanche Riders -> OUT Supernatural Stamina (I was destroying everything except lands, why not?)
IN Immersturm Predator -> OUTAltar of Dementia
IN Blood Crypt -> OUT Swamp
IN Shipwreck Marsh -> OUT Fetid Pools

24/10/2021:

IN Feign Death -> OUT Undying Evil (just better)
IN Kalain, Reclusive Painter -> OUT Feast on the Fallen (new interesting creature, ramping and helping add +1/+1 counter)
IN Metallic Mimic -> OUT Baleful Strix (Amazing card, unfortunatly removing card draw)
IN Dictate of Erebos -> OUT Puppeteer Clique (aristocrat staple now that i'm not running mono black aristocrat deck anymore)

25/11/2021:

IN Necropotence -> OUT Liliana's Standard Bearer (Better draw engine that allow me to lower my life)
IN Fabled Passage -> OUT Dimir Aqueduct
IN Vindictive Lich -> OUT Gonti, Lord of Luxury (both really fun cards, but i wanna try Vindictive Lich)
IN Dauthi Voidwalker -> OUT Archaeomancer

21/12/2021:

11/03/2022: (New amazing dragons from kamigawa)

IN Junji, the Midnight Sky -> OUT Voidmage Prodigy
IN Atsushi, the Blazing Sky -> OUT Solemn Simulacrum

22/04/2022:

IN Iron Apprentice -> OUT Cytoplast Manipulator (amazing card for this deck)

2023: During the year i also added Dockside, Deflecting Swat, Fierce Guardianship and some good lands, i didn't keep track of everything, my bad.

IN Mikaeus, the Unhallowed -> OUT Dauthi Voidwalker (Dauthui failed his test, lets try Mikaeus

22/04/2022:

IN Accursed Marauder -> OUT Plaguecrafter (cheaper)

10/08/2024:

IN Mahadi, Emporium Master -> OUT Pawn of Ulamog
IN Uncivil Unrest -> OUT Profaner of the Dead

Here are some cards that i'd like to try:

Bloodstained Mire

Polluted Delta

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Deadly Rollick

Smothering Abomination

My other decks

Bontu, Mrs Crocodile Dundee
Snakes. Why'd It Have To Be Snakes?
Did Someone Say Extra Combat?
Come on, You Weren't Attacking with This
Ghired Create a Token that's a Copy of WHAT?

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Feedback and are welcome!

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97% Casual

Competitive

Top Ranked	Achieved #3 position in Commander / EDH UBR (Grixis) 4 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	1 week
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 57 - 1 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.12
Tokens	Bird 1/1 W, Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Morph 2/2 C, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure
Folders	Sparring decks, EDH Decks, saved decks, Dimir Surveil, Marchesa, Decks for Mag
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