Heartless Summoning: A Love Story

Commander / EDH* Control Counters Midrange Multiplayer Sacrifice UBR (Grixis) Undying

Pilot

Land (35)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crosis's Catacombs
• 1x Darkwater Catacombs
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x High Market
• 2x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Isle
• 1x Tainted Peak
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Watery Grave

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Insurrection
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Mark of Mutiny
• 1x Mass Mutiny
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Slave of Bolas
• 1x Victimize

Creature (25)

• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Flayer of the Hatebound
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x It That Betrays
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Puppeteer Clique
• 1x Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Sage of Fables
• 1x Sakashima the Impostor
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Thraximundar
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
• 1x Zealous Conscripts

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Breath of Fury
• 1x Grave Betrayal
• 1x Heartless Summoning
• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Sneak Attack
• 1x Unspeakable Symbol

Commander (1)

Artifact (14)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Deathrender
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Quicksilver Amulet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Vedalken Orrery
• 1x Whip of Erebos

Instant (8)

• 1x Act of Aggression
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Grab the Reins
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Terminate

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Introduction

This is a primer for my Marchesa, the Black Rose deck designed with 4 players in mind for a casual EDH game. Now first things first. I update this deck with cards whenever I have something special to me that I want to show off. This is a very old deck, and I stand by its approach of deck build. I want to play the biggest, most evil cards I happen to own. YOU WILL be the target, an d this is favorite deck to play. She also happens to be my second commander I've ever built around and is my oldest deck still constructed. Some cards will feel outdated, and they are. But I'm not really overly concerned if I win quicky, or if I win at all. Suggestions are welcome, but this is not the Marchesa deck for you if you are looking for the most efficient and up to date list. I want to play my biggest, most expensive cards I happen to own, and then I want them to stick around, so I can look at them, and tap them sideways every once in a while :)

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The Primer

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Overview

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Reading this decklist

This deck list has been divided into a categories but the current list is too specific and I will need to spend time working on this sections. For now the default view is not split into its categories. The current categories I have created are: #Card_Draw #Counters #CounterSpells #Lands #Life_tax #Mana_Fixing #Protection #Ramp #Recursion #Removal #Sac_Outlet #Steal #Tutors #Utility

Deck colors

Most of the pay-offs in this deck are black and include cards like, Necropotence Sheoldred, Whispering One Grave Betrayal Massacre Wurm and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. All high cost CMC cards with a lot of black pips. Blue is added for additional card draw even though black doesn't need the help. Red is really only used for steal spells which function as removal.

Deck strengths

To further expand on my description of this deck I started in the colors section, let me take some time to explain the strengths of this deck list and how it plays. Usually, you want to get Marchesa, the Black Rose out as soon as possible and protect her by getting a +1/+1 counter on her by attacking or using effects like Unspeakable Symbol. As stated in the introduction, effects the synergize with +1/+1 counters allow your creatures to become extremely resilient to removal. Another strength of this deck is its ability to play somewhat politically, or rather, completely ignore politics. Because of how dethrone works, you are incentivized to attack the player with the most life as long as you don't have the most life. Additionally, since dethrone activates as you attack, and Marchesa, the Black Rose's second ability can still trigger if she is removed after or tat the same time as your other creatures that are sent to the graveyard, you are free to disregard your opponent's board state. Since you are simply looking at the player currently on the "throne" while declaring attacks, you are typically excused from retaliation. If fact, I often find my opponents attacking each other to keep their life totals lower then mine in hopes of removing the ability to collect dethrone triggers.

Deck weaknesses

This desk's biggest weakness is how top heavy this deck can be. It can easily fall behind other decks.

General strategy

This is a midrange ramp deck designed to create a 'sticky' board state that is resilient your opponents answers. Marchesa, the Black Rose's second ability will return creatures to the battlefield that dies under your control if they had a +1/+1 counter on them. With effects that give undying, or persist, your opponents with need to remove your creatures three times to keep them in the graveyard. The main goal of this deck, and how we deal with threats is by stealing your opponents creatures with cards like Act of Aggression (and sometimes other permanents with cards like Aura Thief or It That Betrays) and then keep them utilizing Marchesa, the Black Rose's dethrone ability and a sacrifice outlet. The main strategy for this deck is steal your opponents threats, and then find a way to keep them. Your first method for keeping your opponent's stuff is to useMarchesa, the Black Rose's second ability along side effects like Grab the Rains or Slave of Bolas.

Early game

Play Marchesa, the Black Rose as early as possible then attack and trigger dethrone to get those +1/+1 counters on your creature so they are protected. Next is to build your board state with rocks and play cards that provide sac out lets like Carrion Feeder or Viscera Seer and Unspeakable Symbol for a reliable way to place +1/+1 counters and protect your creatures who may not attack. Unspeakable Symbol is a power house in this deck as it also helps to keep you off the "thrown" and opens up more opportunities to trigger dethrone when attacking.

Mid game

During the mid game, your board state should be well established. Hold up Counterspells to keep your opponents from gain an advantage if you can properly identify threats as they are played. Otherwise, hold counter plays for when your opponents attempt to answer your commander or key cards.

Late game

By the late game, you should be in a strong place to start pulling off some mean combos that steal and keep your opponents creatures.

Contingency plan

"CONTINGENCY PLAN" TEXT GOES HERE.

Mulligans

"MULLIGANS" TEXT GOES HERE.

Matchups and sideboarding

"MATCHUPS AND SIDEBOARDING" TEXT GOES HERE.

Combos and synergies

I've talked a few times about the goal of this deck and creating a 'sticky' board state that is hard to remove. Now lets talk about what that looks like, and some of the combos that can happen because of it. Lets imagine

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Card Choices Explained

Lands

"LANDS" TEXT GOES HERE.

Creatures

"CREATURES" TEXT GOES HERE.

Other cards

"OTHER CARDS" TEXT GOES HERE.

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Other Information

Building this deck

"Look, I know this deck is bad. When I built this deck, I could not have anticipated power creep and I have to recognize it's a collections of cards that will continue to become more under-powered as years go on. But with this bloated deck of and. The thing is, I love jank, and this deck stands as a live monument. A true testament to the person I was when I started playing with these commander cards in a 6 player pod. We showed up religiously to play magic with our collective assortment of jank, and it was glorious. .

Event record

Event record

"EVENT RECORD" TEXT GOES HERE.

Change log

Change log

"CHANGE LOG" TEXT GOES HERE.

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Feedback

"FEEDBACK" TEXT GOES HERE..

The coding for this primer was developed by Epochalyptik here.

Date added	9 years
Last updated	1 week
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	101
Avg. CMC	3.79
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Morph 2/2 C, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink
Folders	EDH Signature Decks, EDH brews