MTG Combo: Fleshbag Marauder + Merciless Executioner

TheProxyCentral on Marchesa 1.0.1

8 years ago

First of all thank you very much for your extensive help mate!

I don't have an actual budget for this deck, I intend to make it my most powerful deck, in time, so I am willing to invest in something that is going to be absolutely broken, but I am not going so far as to get all the fetches and original duals :) I always look for a balance between value and strength and being commander a fun format I'm not too keen in running many cards over 20$ unless there is really no other option for that effect. This being said, of course that my main list is made of cards I currently own, being most of my percieved improvements so far in the maybeboard for budget reasons only.

I'll start from the bottom:

• Vampire Nighthawk is my Wurmcoil Engine right now. In the few multiplayer tests I've made, I've succeded to lower my life total enough to make dethrone work, but if there is someone succeding in an attrition game or if I'm facing a Lifegain deck (and there are both Oloro, Ageless Ascetic and Karlov of the Ghost Council on my playgroup) I tend to need a little bit of residual lifegain to keep myself alive long enough to secure the win. Taurean Mauler is a huge beacon, since it gets big real fast and everyone turns to it while I build my board further, for the same reason Hellhole Flailer gets some sneaky damage in - it's not broken, but I like clunky cards sometimes :) Of all those the one I like the most is Mausoleum Wanderer, don't mind the spirit part of the text - With so many ways to put counters on it, it works much like Glen Elendra Archmage most of the time, reason why I'm a bit low on countermagic, since I can recurr both of these.

• I didn't know Aura Thief but it looks brilliant! I'm already trying to find the Chaos Warp in my LGS, it's one of the big priorities ;)

• Shriekmaw or Nekrataal have the advantage of targeting, when compared with Fleshbag Marauder + Merciless Executioner , I can't really get rid of something like a Blightsteel Colossus (not that I find myself on the wrongside of one of those often, but there are other annoying targets that I just need to get rid of sometimes) for instance. Mulldrifter is part of my draw plan, but with cards like Greed (or Necropotence) for that matter might prove redundant.

• As for tutors, as I said, budget is not the issue once I find that the card is going to be brilliant. In the meantime, while I don't trim what's in excess and crunch the numbers a bit better, there's not much of a point on investing in something like a Mystical Tutor for instance, since I might end up with not many significant targets for it. For now I'm running the budget-est version of it in Diabolic Tutor to see how it goes, and will probably upgrade it in time.

• For counterspells, as I previously wrote, I heavily rely on Glen Elendra Archmage and Mausoleum Wanderer since I can recurr them and lock the game most of the times (at least in my playgroup). I am not investing in a Force of Will and maybe not even in Pact of Negation for the reasons I went on before, I just don't enjoy playing cards of that power level and price in commander and therefore there is no point on spending money on those. I like to brew and I could probably make 2 decks with the money I'd spend in a FoW, I get much more fun doing that than winning all the games with no question. Swan Song and Arcane Denial were on my original list though since I thought I owned copies of those when I bought the remaining cards, and turned out I didn't! :D

• I don't know why Willbreaker isn't there. It was in the original list even before Beguiler of Wills and Thalakos Deceiver and it is pretty good too, I just got out of it at first because of its higher CMC.

• Slave of Bolas comes with the sac outlet itself. I've been on the wrong end of one of those and it is worth every mana spent. It allows you to attack with the creature, use it with dethrone, and you get the creature you stole permanently since it will have a counter and will come back in EoT. Act of Treason doesn't seem very relevant and Grab the Reins doesn't allow me to attack for dethrone before I sac their creature. Reins of Power will lose me Marchesa for the turn and therefore is not very useful in this matter as well. The tokens are just meant to gain board presence and chump whenever I need it. Grave Titan takes over games, Chasm Skulker and Reef Worm provide incremental advantage on board while they are huge targets for exile effects, keeping other more important pieces on board or at least in the graveyard where I can get them back still.

• As for the mana rocks, that's a good point! :) I'm not much into Magic Christmas Wonderland scenarios (neither they seem to like me! lol) but I'll probably adjust that to maximize the chance!

• Controlling the life total hasn't been an issue except when playing against something like Ezuri, Claw of Progress that can one shot me most of the time. Whenever I don't have a way to lose life myself I just don't block most attacks. And if no one attacks I'm gaining board presence anyway. This being said Lim-Dul's Vault doesn't seem to impactful and Toxic Deluge is too expensive (moneywise) for the advantage it grants when compared to other board wipes. Treasonous Ogre is one inclusion to consider since it is also a way to get around one or two mana lacking for some big plays and allows for that additional control.

• Necropotence... Well :D There's no question to its power, but I've never played with it, and it needs a bit of getting used to it. I'll probably proxy it up and try it out to see if it's worth the investment or if I manage to suck with a card this powerful. (I used to run Deathreap Ritual in my Meren deck and took it out simply because I never remembered its triggers... Played tenths to hundreds of games with that card and I only remembered it on my own turns. It was not a question of power, it was just not a card I "knew" how to play with and that didn't even took much skill lol)

• Gray Merchant of Asphodel is a beating even in this deck, most of the times it drains for more than 5, but even so, Kokusho, the Evening Star is more reliable most of the time and besides, it's a flyer that can end a game right away as well. At this point I don't own any, so I started with the budget version that gets a similar job done as well.

• Grim Haruspex, absolutely no question, you're right! I don't even know how I didn't think of that earlier, but that's a change I'm doing as I write down this comment! :)

As for next investments (being cards I will include and still don't own), Chaos Warp, Treasonous Ogre and Fellwar Stone or Coldsteel Heart are definitely on the way in, from my maybeboard I'm seriously considering Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Wurmcoil Engine as the next big money cards and with the latter, probably I'll try and make way for a Saheeli Rai.

I'll update the list as I make the changes in the deck ;)

Once again, thank you very much for your help!! I'll check your deck right away too! ;)

kameenook on PerfectDisguise

9 years ago

If you're still looking for sacrifice effects: Fleshbag Marauder + Merciless Executioner make a ham sandwich out of your opponents creatures. Then if you want to go deeper, Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip to reuse them (Bloodghast works with Smallpox and aforementioned cards). I should stop putting ideas in your hand hehe, good luck with your deck!