Marchesa, soon-to-be Queen

Commander / EDH Attrition Casual Midrange UBR (Grixis)

Schauzeit

Land (37)

• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Guildmages' Forum
• 8x Island
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 11x Swamp
• 1x Vivid Marsh
• 1x Watery Grave

ETB (9)

• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths
• 1x Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• 1x Hostage Taker
• 1x Liliana's Standard Bearer
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Spark Double
• 1x Watcher for Tomorrow

+1/+1-Counters (7)

• 1x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 1x Guildmages' Forum
• 1x Herald of Secret Streams
• 1x Myr Scrapling
• 1x Oona's Blackguard
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Unspeakable Symbol

Protection (4)

• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Siren Stormtamer
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Teferi's Time Twist

Interaction (16)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x By Force
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Dreadhorde Butcher
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Hostage Taker
• 1x Negate
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Spiketail Hatchling
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Vindictive Lich
• 1x Voidmage Prodigy

Ramp (12)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Captain Lannery Storm
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

Wrath (5)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Chain Reaction
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Last One Standing
• 1x River's Rebuke

Finisher (2)

• 1x Flayer of the Hatebound
• 1x Herald of Secret Streams

Commander (1)

CardAdvantage (14)

• 1x Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Chart a Course
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Liliana's Standard Bearer
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Painful Truths
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Village Rites
• 1x Watcher for Tomorrow

SacOutlet (8)

• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Falkenrath Aristocrat
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Village Rites
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Woe Strider
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan

---

The Idea

A Marchesa, the Black Rose deck that is highly interactive and is based on attrition and card advantage.

I enjoy drawing cards, interacting with my opponents, and winning with small synergistic creatures instead of big haymakers. I think this deck reflects this well. The main idea is to abuse the recursiveness of Marchesa with powerful (ETB) triggers like Gonti, Lord of Luxury and free sacrifice effects like Carrion Feeder. We win the game by having more resources than our opponents, destroying or countering their high-value targets, and mostly one-sided wrath effects whenever the board gets overbearing.

Notable Inclusions / Pet Cards

I prefer ETB effects over death triggers because we don't always have a sacrifice outlet on the board.

• Spiketail Hatchling: Not quite a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, but still good. The threat of activation is more powerful than the activation itself.
• Decree of Pain: While 8 mana is a ton, the card advantage generated by this card makes winning that much more possible.

Cutting Board

Currently I think more creatues would probably be good. The cards I first want to replace are:

• None

History

Nov 29, 2021

Sadistic Hypnotist

Additional Sac Outlet. Powerful effect and according to feedback, sorcery speed isn't that bad

Cuts

• Bomat Courier: One of my pet cards, but does not do enough :(

Jun 8, 2021

Myr Scrapling

Technically not legal yet. Repeatable +1/+1-Counters, can sac itself, protects Marchesa, is cute. Probably my favorite card from MH 2.

Feed the Swarm

Black does enchantment removal now. Marchesa folds to some enchantments like Rest in Peace or Overwhelming Splendor, so this is a necessary inclusion. Replaces Into the Roil. While the latter is a bit more flexible, it's purpose was to interact with enchantments mostly.

Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths

Has a good ETB: I love card draw and mini games.

Village Rites

I want to try this card out as a cheap sac outlet and source of card advantage. Replaces Sign in Blood because they have similar roles.

Cuts

• Dack's Duplicate: clones are a bit awkward with Marchesa's ability. I like one cloning effect but two is too much. Spark Double is a way better clone because it can clone Marchesa (and Gonti and Atris) and also comes with a free +1/+1-Counter.
• Marchesa's Smuggler: While the activated ability is strong, it's too much mana. Haste is nice, but Marchesa's recursion happens on end step anyway.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 33 - 0 Rares 29 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.76
Tokens	Goat 0/1 W, Morph 2/2 C, Treasure