Marchesa, Murderous Mistress of Mayhem

Commander / EDH Budget Casual Counters Dethrone Sacrifice Theft UBR (Grixis)

Talbain

Land (36)

• 1x Bloodfell Caves
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dismal Backwater
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Forge of Heroes
• 3x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 1x Jwar Isle Refuge
• 9x Mountain
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Rupture Spire
• 6x Swamp
• 1x Swiftwater Cliffs
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Transguild Promenade
• 1x Tyrite Sanctum
• 1x Vivid Crag
• 1x Vivid Creek
• 1x Vivid Marsh

Sacrifice (10)

• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Goblin Bombardment
• 1x Spawning Pit *list*
• 1x Attrition
• 1x Bloodflow Connoisseur
• 1x Woe Strider
• 1x Immersturm Predator
• 1x Skyclave Shadowcat
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist

Burn (4)

• 1x Kardur, Doomscourge
• 1x Thundering Raiju
• 1x Stalking Vengeance
• 1x Vicious Shadows

Draw (12)

• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Triarch Praetorian
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Sage of Fables
• 1x Bloodtracker
• 1x Skyclave Shadowcat
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x River Kelpie
• 1x Novijen Sages

Utility (11)

• 1x Siren Stormtamer
• 1x Oona's Blackguard
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Attrition
• 1x Pyreheart Wolf
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Herald of Secret Streams
• 1x Kardur, Doomscourge
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Sapphire Drake
• 1x Lord Xander, the Collector

Counters (6)

• 1x The Ozolith
• 1x Thran Vigil
• 1x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 1x Sage of Fables
• 1x Unspeakable Symbol
• 1x Thundering Raiju

Beats (5)

• 1x Thrill-Kill Assassin
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Hellhole Flailer
• 1x Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
• 1x Hound of Griselbrand

Commander (1)

Theft (12)

• 1x Act of Treason
• 1x Hijack
• 1x Mark of Mutiny
• 1x Threaten
• 1x Gisa, Glorious Resurrector
• 1x Grab the Reins
• 1x Ray of Command
• 1x Slave of Bolas
• 1x Zealous Conscripts
• 1x Conquering Manticore
• 1x Molten Primordial
• 1x Insurrection

Ramp (7)

• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum

-Life (3)

• 1x Unspeakable Symbol
• 1x Souldrinker
• 1x Treasonous Ogre

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Maybeboard

Other (5)

• 1x Wizard Class
• 1x Sneak Attack
• 1x Spark Double
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• 1x Uncivil Unrest

Draw (2)

• 1x Vampiric Rites
• 1x Culling Dais

-Life (1)

• 1x Black Market Connections

Land (1)

• 1x Nesting Grounds

Removal (5)

• 1x Canoptek Tomb Sentinel
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Butcher of Malakir

Ramp (2)

• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Phyrexian Altar

Utility (1)

• 1x Mer-Ek Nightblade

Sacrifice (3)

• 1x Culling Dais
• 1x Fain, the Broker
• 1x Phyrexian Altar

Theft (3)

• 1x Harness by Force
• 1x Captivating Crew
• 1x Grave Betrayal

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Originally someone else's hyper budget deck called "Marchesa the Sticky Fingered." I've made significant modifications. The original focused on building an army of cheap synergistic creatures (with undying, unleash, graft, etc.) and developing them with Marchesa's ability, then supplementing with theft shenanigans. This was fun but pretty slow by itself, and because the creatures started small, surviving a board wipe still felt like too large a setback. My version guts the old army a bit to favor more utility and sacrifice effects.

Marchesa creates an enduring board presence that can fly a bit under the social radar because it always attacks someone who is arguably "winning." Aside from slowly adding +1/+1 counters to the board, Marchesa also enables a shenanigan where you use a temporary theft card, attack with the creature to get the counter, sacrifice it, and Marchesa's ability activates letting you keep the creature as if the theft were permanent.

One thing I used to hate about this deck was the feeling when you've only got one sac outlet or something, somebody removes it, and there you sit with like a hand full of theft and nothing to do until you draw another outlet. I tried to build as much redundancy in as possible, and lots of synergistic draw sources so hopefully there will always be something to exploit for advantage.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	3 weeks
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 28 - 0 Rares 34 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.55
Tokens	2/2 C Artifact Creature Spawn, Goat 0/1 W, Morph 2/2 C, Squid 1/1 U