I play a similar deck with Athreos, God of Passage as my commander. I now have no friends and play alone ;)

HAHAHA SOLO COMMANDER! THATS THE WORST!

Sometimes the games get dragged out for months but I always win in the end :)

Quick question : why Inventors' Fair with only 9 artifacts in the whole deck? Both abilities requires 3 or more artifacts to work...

Also : Zurgo Helmsmasher, Akroma's Memorial, Hero's Downfall (an instant speed Ruinous Path!), Ankle Shanker...

Good question. The answer is it used to have a lot more artifacts. At one point there were 2 gearhulks and more mana-rocks. It needs to come out.

Thank you for the other suggestions. I will definitely pick up Akroma's Memorial, and Hero's Downfall. I have an Ankle Shanker that can definitely find a home here.

Cool deck!...but cmon man filosofem is the best burzum album by far

Ekaan92 glad you like it!! Filosofem is definitely one of the best for sure, not arguing that at all.

One of my favorites along with Det Som Engang Var.. and Fallen.. Belus etc.

Saying which Burzum album is "the best" is nearly impossible. Other than the "prison" albums they are all masterpieces. I even like the newest stuff. Umskiptar is great if you haven't listened to it. Even though its mostly spoken word on top of pretty much acoustic music with very little metal let alone black metal.

Fair enough I'll agree with that, Even though I like filosofem more as a album I sitll think Det som en gang var is the best song Varg has ever done, Umskiptar was great!

Thran Dynamo, Zo-Zu the Punisher, and Gamble would be good!

Thanks dude. I will add those to the list!

If you're playing Mardu angel/demon tribal, why not Kaalia of the Vast as your commander?

Primarily $$$, but Queen Marchesa is pretty sweet either way. Monarch is great for extra card draw. The the assassin tokens are good for Ormendahl. I plan on switching to Kaalia.

I listened to the song btw. Im not for the vocals, but the music is nice.Anyway, for a little protection, you could run Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts

NyxDragon Teysa was in the deck but I cut it when i was trying to force the theme. She could definitely find a home here again.

Hey, looks like a fun start. I have wanted to make a midrange Mardu deck for a while. They always look super fun. I have a few suggestions for the list, and a question that you may consider.

First, it looks like your ramp could be improved. I am not sure how much of this is due to budget/availability, and how much is because you just haven't yet dealt with polishing this area of the deck yet. A good base for any non-Green 3 color deck is all 3 appropriate signets and a Chromatic Lantern. After that, I like to add 4-6 other ramp cards.

The question I would love to hear you answer is, why Queen Marchesa? This deck seems like you would have instant improvement if you swapped in Kaalia of the Vast. Swap out a few of the weaker creatures, add in some of the most amazing red dragons, and you are set with a midrange Mardu deck. If there is something that Queen Marchesa gives you that I am not seeing, let me know, and then we can hone in on that.

Once we hone in on what your commander gets you, and decide what midrange gets you, then we can polish up the rest of the deck. And as always, take my suggestions with a grain of salt. I don't know your fun or your meta, so you obviously know best.

First of all, thank you for the upvote and taking the time to help with this.

To answer your questions:

Queen Marchesa gives me an early play in a deck where I have lots of top end flyers. She also is an easy way to have additional card draw (monarch). Plus deathtouch blockers. Kaalia is probably the better commander but the $35 price tag keeps me from picking her up. Its probably worth it but on the flip side.. I really do like Marchesa, she fits the secondary goal of the deck which is a hatebear/control strategy. Not exactly a "prison", "pillowfort" or "death and taxes" but similar (if that makes any sense). I want to control the board without having to just kill shit and blow stuff up. I would love to win without having it be just an all out brawl (I have Surrak for that). I would love for this deck to be more like that. I just already had the whole angel/demon thing going.

This started out as an orzhov deck with Obzedat, Ghost Council as the commander. The main reason I built it was because I didn't like white and wanted to force myself to play it. It soon became my favorite deck to play, then shifted towards angels/demons. I ended up adding red for primarily 4 cards Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Master of Cruelties, Rakdos, Lord of Riots, and Aurelia, the Warleader. They fit the theme and were too good to pass up.

I definitely want to keep the angel/demon theme intact but would love this deck to have more control to it. I have a hard time cutting stuff at this point. Everything is good, you know? When I saw your list I was like "Unholy fucking shit man this is disgusting! How do I implement something like this in my Mardu list?"

You bring up a good point on ramp. That is an area of the deck I have basically neglected. Thoughts on cuts in favor of the signets and other rocks (possibly even shit like Burnished Hart and Pilgrim's Eye)?

Some people love Burnished Hart and Pilgrim's Eye. I never end up playing them. I even always end up remoiving Solemn Simulacrum, but that is also a great card. I just don't really like the semi-manadork cards.

For Queen Marchesa, I lean toward mana fixing and and ramp in the to CMC slot. These allow you to cast your Queen earlier than turn 4, and get the Monarch our early. The Signets, Mind Stone, Talisman of Indulgence, these all get cast turn 2, ramping into a turn 3 Queen Marchesa. If you want her for early board presence, early card draw, and early defense/control, concentrate on getting her out early. Your curve is much higher than mine, but every one of those cards gets you your big fatties 1 turn earlier.

After that, add in ramp that either seriously fixes like Chromatic Lantern or Coalition Relic, or that gives a huge amount of ramp, like Thran Dynamo or Gilded Lotus.

As far as control goes, you could immediately and very cheaply upgrade the control elements by swapping To the Slaughter and Tribute to Hunger out for Fleshbag Marauder and Merciless Executioner. CMC isexactly the same, both can be sacrificed to themselves or you can sacrifice another creature to them, and they hit all players, not just one. Given that the other player decides, I never found that the instant speed was that important compared to hitting everyone.

I will have to think about your use of Queen Marchesa.I totally get where you are coming from. It just may take me a while to understand how to best position Queen Marchesa to stand in for Kaalia of the Vast in a midrange angels/demons deck.

Those are great suggestions. Thank you again. I hadn't even considered the Marauder and the Executioner. Fucking brilliant. I will work on those over the next couple days. I know I have marauder and some of the signets. Those alone should improve how the deck operates. The chromatic lanturn and the other one will have to wait a week or so. But I will highly prioritize them.

Hi RUST-O, a very different version of Marchesa than mine but I like it :)

I agree with preciousapprentice about adding mana rocks.

I also think bringing your mana curve down will help. You'll find the deck runs more smoothly once you bring average CMC below 4. Iona would be one that I cut due to being 9 mana and drawing a lot of hate.

Angel of Invention, Gisela, the Broken Blade, and Baneslayer Angel are some great midrange angels.

Eerie Interlude is a great protective spell.Marshal's Anthem is a great recursion spell.

Oh... In non-green decks I love Wayfarer's Bauble. Super cheap way to fix your mana and rampHope this helps

Thanks dude.

Those are solid suggestions!!

I will check out your list.

MegaMatt13's deck is super solid, and may potentially be more in lione with yours than mine is. Our decks are very similar, and the differences may be at least as instructive as the similarities. Check it out.

Glad you found it helpful. You may wanna check out my Odric deck: Odric's Angelic Army

It was the closest I got to "angel tribal". there may be some inspiration for you there.

MegaMatt13, your list is really sweet too!

In an effort to keep my deck truly midrange. I think I not have the amount of pillowfort-type enchantments that both of your lists have. I am going to try and have my creatures do the work instead. I may have to stray from the theme a little to accomplish that.

Marshal's Anthem looks super fucking promising. I also really like Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker from your list. Thats the kind of thing I need to add.

I think you're right about Iona. I have only cast her 2x ever. It feels really good when she resolves though that's for sure. BUT.. 9 mana is a stupid amount.

I will make some changes to this either tonight or tomorrow.Please let me know what you dudes think!!

Thank you both again for the suggestions. This is exactly the reason I love tappedout.

RUST-O, a bit more overall advice: I try to give a "mission statement" to each of my decks. That helps focus the deck and cut out cards that don't move towards the mission.

For example, my Marchesa deck's mission is "dissuade people from coming after me until I can steal a win by using their own strength against them".

My Odric deck's mission is "create an intimidating army of angels and use Odric so they share abilities between them".

If you're wanting to go the more midrange aggro route, I would focus on cards that help with that: Haste enablers, extra combat steps, or cards like Ankle Shanker that improve attackers. Keep ramp, removal, card draw, and a little recursion as they're important in every deck and then cut anything else that doesn't stick to the theme.

Hope I'm helping and not confusing further lol

I got you man. I hadn't really thought of it for this deck.

I guess I'm a little unsure which route I want to go. I am drawn to creature decks, see my Surrak deck.

I just want to build something that isn't just turning dudes sideways. Maybe this deck should remain midrange and I should focus the other aspirations on my Jaleva deck.

Completely Adequate: Surrak Dragonclaw

Under A Serpent Sun