the new Yahenni, Undying Partisan would be great in here.

Wurmlover: He was already in the deck.

oh crap, my bad. i mean, in terms of lands, Command Beacon is always helpful. what is your meta like?

i was just looking and saw Flayer of the Hatebound. I think that maybe 1 or 2 more undying creatures might be helpful to take full advantage of that card. things like Geralf's Messenger and the like.

Wurmlover: My playgroup is a good mix of spot removal and wraths (thus the high anti-spot removal package). Bojuka Bog is heavily played in every deck that have thus Stifle is included. Down in my LGS the meta is a little bit more diverse with a good amount of graveyard hate commonly RIP/LoTV/Scavenging Ooze.

Geralf's Messenger seems like it would be interesting, will test it out. Thanks for your suggestions!

the best part is if you combo undying creatures with Retribution of the Ancients that way you get nearly invincible creatures. it also serves as spot removal if needed

I like the concept. Have you considered making the deck a bit more combo-centered?

I would make the deck revolve around Kiki-jiki and Splinter Twin. Add cards like Pestermite, Deceiver Exarch, Intruder Alarm, etc. That should give it more consistency.

Also, i'd stay away from the tap lands and the non-essential utility lands like Riptide Laboratory and Volrath's Dungeon. In my experience, they more often than not slow you down.

I'll try and give more suggestions in the future. Hope the ones above help.

if you are putting mikey in there why not put in Triskelion since it goes infinite with mikey and marchesa out

GMD_1090: Hi, Mikey is there for Glen Elendra and redcap's combo..I'm honestly not a big fan of Trisk due to his CMC and being useless on his own although the two card combo is nice. I might reconsider him in the future.

Well an additional consideration is that trike is a a solid defensive price as well since he has counters built-in. But I will admit, I do not run him in my own Marchesa deck.

This is definitely the best Marchesa deck I've seen on the site (besides my own, of course, hehehe). I think a low-curve deck is the best way to play Marchesa and you've clearly got that here. I'm just gonna shotgun some suggestions from my personal experience with the deck.

First off, you have no graft creatures, and I strongly urge you to try them. At least replace Olivia, Mobilized for War with Vigean Graftmage, which does the same thing without having to discard cards, and has crazy upside. Assemble a sac outlet, a value creature, Marchesa, and a grafter, and you can sac the grafter and value creature on your turn, return them on end step, then repeat the process on each opponent's turn. With your amount of tutors, Vedalken Graftmage should probably be good enough since it's the lowest CMC grafter, but Cytoplast Manipulator or Helium Squirter might be worth trying as well.

Please play Bribery. Protean Hulk is legal and you will take it and that will be the whole game.

Trinket Mage is a house, and he comes with plenty of options. You even own a Mana Crypt, so I feel as though you have no excuse. I understand the 3 drop slot is crowded but Trinket Mage for Mana Crypt is a net 1 mana play, and he can also find Skullclamp and Sensei's Divining Top. Basically, recurring it will quickly leave you with a ton of mana and cards. I also play Heap Doll and Arcbound Worker which look poor but the Doll can recur itself alongside Marchesa without a sac outlet and you currently lack grave hate, and the Worker can recur a value artifact creature on each player's turn like a graft creature would.

Dark Confidant and Grenzo, Dungeon Warden are strong 2drops that also synergize pretty well with Marchesa. I'd rather play a Confidant on 2 than a Signet, that's for sure. On that note, I've tried most of the 2drops you're currently playing, and been disappointed with Lightning Mauler, Signets, Lightning Greaves, Nightscape Familiar, and Blood Artist. The mana cards are nice but if you have another 2drop it's usually better to play that and then the rocks are not great for the rest of the game. Meanwhile, haste enablers are basically just inferior graft creatures, and while they're nice for curving out, I think playing a value creature or sac outlet on 2 is far better and worth going all in on.

Reality Shift and Arcane Denial are nice and cheap but I prefer my interaction to cost 0 mana with stuff like Snuff Out, Submerge, and whatever free counterspell floats your boat.

Necropotence feels a little unnecessary when you can just draw a billion cards anyway by assembling the Marchesa engine. Though it is a damn good card, and nice to have when the Marchesa thing gets broken up.

Phyrexian Metamorph is the second best clone, and a 3 mana clone is usually real damn good. Phantasmal Image is great and while Metamorph is a bit worse, it's still quite solid.

Big Game Hunter is probably the best removal guy. I like drawing a zillion cards then casting him for B in my cleanup step. Fulminator Mage is another utility 3 that can really come in handy, and it recurs itself alongside Marchesa without the need for a sac outlet.

Play Mindslicer. It's a great way to beat combo and battlecruiser alike. You'll rebuild from it better than anybody else. Well, sometimes the graveyard decks will get you, but they might not be well set up enough by turn 4 to do anything.

I feel like the wheels sorta come off here when you get above 3 cmc. Murderous Redcap does combo but is a dead draw too often otherwise, and the same is true of Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Kiki is trying to do what your deck already does, and does it slower. Kiki can recur an ETB once per turn cycle while a graft creature usually gives you 4 (1 for each player in the game). Treasonous Ogre is cool but red mana isn't terribly useful and Ashnod's Altar is more efficient ramp. Definitely consider Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar, they're more explosive sac outlets than Yahenni and Bloodthrone Vampire (though admittedly somewhat more vulnerable). River Kelpie is too much to pay for a Grim Haruspex effect, Grimgrin is quite slow and it sucks having to wait turns and then pay so much for a sac outlet, and Zealous Conscripts is strong but I've often found I'd much rather cast Treachery or Act of Aggression (which is also instant speed removal). Time Warp is great but feels rather out of place and I like to be flashy and go for the big Temporal Trespass. Getting a value creature on board and having a 3 mana time walk is pretty nice when trying to recover from getting your field picked apart.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed actually sucks because of the "non-Human" clause. Double recurring is sweet value but graft creatures also let you recur your creatures a ton while also protecting themselves AND marchesa.Also, I've found that you don't really need a combo finisher. Just getting your engine online is usually enough, and when it isn't, kill them all with Flayer of the Hatebound damage. Then again, I understand if your local meta makes a combo finish necessary.

Blasphemous Act is quite often a 1 mana Damnation. Curve Vigean Graftmage into Aura Thief into Marchesa (grafted) plus Blasphemous Act and steal all the enchantments and kill all the dorks, woohoo!

Lastly, Abyssal Gatekeeper is nice for similar reasons to Nevermaker, since it can be instant-speed removal on board when needed. However, I just cut it from my build, because you just can't cast it until you have everything else in place because people love to 2 for 1 you by killing it which will kill anything else you've played, so I recommend against it.

I feel like this is the most well-built Marchesa deck I've seen so far and you have a good understanding of how best to use the commander, and that understanding will advance once you cast a Vigean Graftmage.

flapjackwars: Thanks for your thoughtful comments! I agree with your Bribery suggestion now that Protean Hulk is unbanned. Graft creatures are indeed worth testing out again... I might just have to try Vigean Graftmage. Your choice of 0 cost removal is great and is worthy of consideration..although Reality Shift has its merits of answering indestructible creatures which is not uncommon in my meta. Big Game Hunter is more of a meta call IMHO...I've tested him and often times find close to no targets on the board for him to be worth the inclusion. Thanks again for your insight and I will definitely consider your suggestions! Cheers :)

Hey thanks for commenting on my Reddit post.

After looking over your list, I actually found a few more WinCon combos that you don't have include. They may all be a little too costly, but here we go:

Oona's Blackguard/Metallic Mimic + Nearheath Stalker + Sac Outlet = infinite loop that wins with Flayer of the Hatebound/Blood Artist/Falkenrath Noble

Geralf's Messenger + Metallic Mimic + Sac Outlet = Infinite loop win without any additional cards

Geralf's Mindcrusher + Metallic Mimic + Sac Outlet = Infinite loop milling for the win

pesmerga87: Thanks for the suggestions but hate to Hurst your bubble cos those combos actually don't work. Undying don't trigger if they die with +1 counters. Persist however, works.

Oh right, I knew that, it was just a Memory Lapse

I was assuming Marchesa was out, which does keep them coming back.However, it also stalls them until the end step. Unlike persist. Thus, what I was talking about in my reply on Reddit. But, somehow I forgot that in a few hours. hahahaha.

Oh!!! So, I was thinking about Undying a bit more, and I think I found a legit value combo. Although, it would work much better in deck focused around modular.

However, if you have a sac outlet, 2 undying creatures, Pawn of Ulamog and Novijen Sages - you can draw infinitely and have an additional colorless mana for each card that you've drawn.

I still feel like it's not worth it to build Marchesa as a Twin deck when decks with more colors can play the Twin plan faster and more consistently. The commander really supports an all-in build-around plan. Something like Mindslicer or Apocalypse will usually win you the game as long as you get your value engine online, and cutting slow duds like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed lets your deck be mostly cantrips and value creatures which can quickly find your 1-card wincons.

Anyway, tappedout pinged me, so i'm back again to plead and beg you to at least play Dark Confidant, Trinket Mage, Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Metamorph, Mindslicer, and Bribery. They're all, in my humble opinion, far too good to pass up on in any Marchesa deck. Trinket Mage getting Mana Crypt or Sol Ring is a thousand times better than a 2 mana rock (that you're playing instead of curving out with creatures) and Mindslicer is a pretty easy way to beat Bojuka Bog and other reactive nonsense, and before I start ranting again, I'll suggest cutting Olivia, Yahenni, Grimgrin, Treasonous Ogre, Blood Artist, Martyr of Frost, and River Kelpie, which I consider your worst 7 non-combo cards, but also consider dropping all the combos and just going with the "I win" spells.

It's also possible that I place too much emphasis on Marchesa in my playstyle, and I've certainly played games where the table made me their enemy and shut down my value engine, so maybe playing a combo backup plan is worth it. It just feels to me like if you're playing creature combo you should be playing some sort of green deck for Birthing Pod or Survival of the Fittest or Food Chain etc etc

flapjackwars: Appreciate the suggestions and feedback. I agree that the altars are a good addition and will look into another relook at my deck when I'm free. Not so sure about dark confidant due to the potential of dealing myself a ton of damage..what are your experience with it and how do you deal with the life loss?

With a low curve the damage is pretty comparable to something like a turn 1 Mana Crypt and the spike in power is similar too. Basically, even if it reveals 6 drop then 6 drop then 5 drop, it's survived 3 turns, so you've probably won. It's very difficult to lose if you have it stick on turn 2. Also the graft guys can block anything and just come back, and enable their partner to do that as well, so you don't really need to worry about getting beaten down.

What are your thoughts on using Fabrication Module and Decoction Module in combination?

If I'm not mistaken, this could essentially put a +1/+1 on every one of your creatures as they enter the battlefield.

Thus, doing the same thing as Sage of Fables or Metallic Mimic without the limitation of creature type.

pesmerga87: Hi, I'm not a big fan of those cards as they requires constant mana investment (4 mana every turn versus free with sage is a lot) and can't be reanimated every turn with Marchesa unless you have two of them in play. Sage and Mimic are two of the best (I would even say staple) creatures in the deck and I would never replace them till something even better comes around. It's totally not comparable. The limit of creature type on mimic could be reset if you sac it and have it come back again. I do also run 40% wizards so sage does apply to my most important creatures.

Definitely not suggesting replacing Sage or Mimic. I agree that they are much better, since they only require themselves to work.

I was thinking more of using them for redundancy.

Whats a good card to try out instead of imperial recruiter?

Heyzuse: Sidisi, Undead Vizier is a great replacement for Imperial Recruiter. Hope that helps!

It does thanks, what about Imperial Seal if you don't mind me asking?