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I Got Royalty Inside My DNA (Combo Primer)

Commander / EDH* Aristocrats Casual Combo Counters Infinite Combo Persist Primer Sacrifice UBR (Grixis)

Ocean44

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Land (36)

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Removal - Board Wipes (5)

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Commander: Marchesa, the Black Rose

Maybeboard

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I Got Royalty Inside My DNA

Marchesa sits upon the throne.

Power Play, by Matt Stewart

This is a semi-budget combo deck helmed by Marchesa, the Black Rose that is designed to hang with pods where infinite combos are accepted. Like most Black Rose combo decks, it emphasizes grinding out advantage over your opponents to control the board and dig for combo pieces.

The Queen-to-be gives us tons of options for abusing effects that occur during a creature's lifecycle. We can derive repeatable value at any one of these triggers, and sometimes during multiple:

  • When a creature you control enters the battlefield
  • When a creature you control is sacrificed
  • When a creature you control dies
  • When a creature returns from the graveyard to the battlefield

Resilient

The sacrifice mechanic in Magic is kind of busted. Since it is often a cost, opponents can't respond to it in the same way you can't respond to a player tapping a land for mana. This makes our creatures extremely safe on board once we have ways to give them counters.

Players are also hesitant to spend their single target removal spells on our creatures. Board wipes don't bother us too much, and we have lots of ways to dance around opponents' mass edict effects from things like Grave Pact.

Incremental Value

Everything we do gains us a little piece of value that over the course of the game can put us well ahead of our opponents.

Combo Potential

This deck was built to win with an infinite combo. Take a look at the combos list to see how many are stuffed in here.

Graveyard Hate

Marchesa is extremely weak to repeatable graveyard hate. Opponents can remove our creatures from the yard before Marchesa brings them back at the next end step, completely nullifying our value loops. We're toast if something like Rest in Peacefoil or Leyline of the Void lands and we don't have enchantment removal available.

-1/-1 Counters

-1/-1 counters can wreck our day. They strip away +1/+1 counters, and vice versa. This makes it so that our impenetrable board suddenly becomes all too penetrable.

Enchantments

There are only two card in our colors that can directly remove an enchantment – Feed the Swarm and Chaos Warp. Use them wisely.

Certain White Stax

Cards like Containment Priest and Hushbringer hose us.

This deck was originally built for under $100 USD, and I've slowly upgraded it over the last couple of years. While it's still a "budget" deck in that I'm not running original duals, fast mana, etc., the current TCGPlayer estimated price isn't exactly my idea of a building on the cheap. I hope to write up and maintain a more entry-level Marchesa deck in the future.

That all being said, there are plenty of quick ways to power up or power down this deck.

If you're looking to upgrade this list, a good place to start would be replacing some of the lands with original duals, optimizing the counter magic, and cramming it full of tutors.

Building this particular flavor of deck on a reduced budget isn't likely all that feasible due to the fact that its combo potential comes almost exclusively from cards valued over $15. I would probably pivot more into a midrange deck, replacing those expensive combo pieces with combat enablers that also put +1/+1 counters on your creatures.

Strategy

Get our creatures to stick with our commander's recursion ability, then control the board and dig for infinite combo pieces.

Undeath: Assembling the Pieces

Our first priority is making it nearly impossible for our opponents to remove our creatures for good. We have plenty of redundancy, so it's not the end of the world if a few of our creatures get removed early, but the amount of creatures we have to eventually sacrifice directly impacts our odds of winning the game.

There are a few things we need to get into this position.

We want to minimize the amount of time our creatures spend on board without +1/+1 counters. Dethrone helps us mostly in the early game, but we're reliant on other means once our opponents have developed their board states.

Any of our creatures that provide +1/+1 counters are our best friends in the mid game. Cards like Sage of Fables, Vigean Graftmage, and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed all let our creatures enter with +1/+1 counters on them.

Grixis doesn't have a ton of reliable ways to regularly get counters on our creatures, so it's nice if we can trigger dethrone when we need to, especially in the early game.

We do this by lowering our own life total. We run talismans, pain lands, and shock lands since small increments are best, but effects that can let us pay more significant amounts of life are not unwelcome. Unspeakable Symbol helps us maintain our board position and also makes combats tricky for our opponents to navigate.

Once our creatures are sufficiently sticky, we can start looping them with sacrifice effects for value. Look for ways to sacrifice during each player's turn.

Stifle the Competition: Board Control

We can use our sticky creatures to exert control over the board while we dig for a win con.

Efficient board wipes such as Toxic Deluge, Blasphemous Act, and Living Death are our best options for removal.

A source of burn, such as Flayer of the Hatebound, and any kind of sacrifice loop will let us burn away our opponents' most important creatures in a turn cycle. Then we can start pressuring their life totals.

We run a small suite of counter magic: Glen Elendra Archmage proactively stymies opponents' game plans, and Counterspellfoil and Negate are flexible ways to either stop game-ending threats or protect our board.

Take the Crown: Win Conditions

Finding and executing one of our combos is our primary win-con. All of these close out the game by looping one or more creatures to burn our opponents out with direct damage. Drawing our deck leads to infinite mana, which in turn leads to infinite damage and responses to protect the loop.

Be careful with draw! Despite being labeled "infinite draw", we don't have a way to shuffle our graveyard back into our library, and we can absolutely mill ourselves to death. This isn't usually an issue since we can sacrifice our draw enablers to turn them off once we have all our combo pieces.

It's important to note that none of these combos require Marchesa. She helps us generate enough value to find the pieces, but she sits back and watches the show once her plans have come to fruition.

We can still win even if we don't have an infinite combo on board. We'll need Marchesa, a creature in a sacrifice loop, and a way to turn that sacrifice loop into direct damage.

Flayer of the Hatebound is the poster child of this tactic since he handles both the looping (because of Undying) and the direct damage. With him, Marchesa, and any sac outlet, we can begin delivering 9 direct damage per turn. This might not sound like a ton, but you'll probably be able to melt away any of your opponents' most valuable creatures in a turn cycle. You'll also probably have additional creatures to add to the loop (e.g. Butcher Ghoul or Vigean Graftmage) to increase your damage output per turn. Pretty soon you'll have the entire board under control and can begin systematically burning out your opponents.

Card Selection

Repeatable ways to distribute +1/+1 counters are difficult to come by in Grixis, especially ones that trigger on ETB. For this reason, creatures that are wizards get bonus points for synergies with Sage of Fables and Metallic Mimic.

  1. First Day of Class

    I think this common is going to over-perform in this list. It's essentially a one turn Metallic Mimic for all creature types, and one turn is all we need to activate a combo. It also has fringe utility in that it grants haste or simply gives protection to any creature we play in the same turn, and it lets us rummage.

  2. Metallic Mimic

    Most often this is functionally a second Sage of Fables, though it can be used to protect a creature type of our choice or combo with persist creatures. The fact that is has 1 toughness makes it very susceptible to cheap removal, so it's best to have a way to protect it before playing.

  3. Sage of Fables

    The amount of work this thing does cannot be overstated. It triggers on most of our creatures (including our commander), it draws us cards, and it is a critical piece in many of our combos. We prefer wizard creatures in this list almost solely because this card exists.

  4. Unspeakable Symbol

    A Black Rose staple. It is a means to protect creatures while our commander is in play, a tool for reducing our life total, and even sometimes the differentiator in sticky combat situations. Never leave home without it.

  5. Vigean Graftmage

    I've found this thing's Graft ability to be so useful that I even put Helium Squirter in this deck for a while. It protects itself, it protects other creatures, and it is intrinsic sacrifice fodder. The fact that it can untap our creatures is just gravy.

  6. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

    The big combo baddy himself. For a while he's been getting outpaced as the format speeds up, but what little he doesn't go infinite with he makes nearly un-removable while Marchesa is on the field. He's also a wonderful substitute commander, especially during long, grindy games. Special shout out to his synergy with Sage of Fables.

Each of this deck's sac outlets should be able to support us in the early game and contribute in some way to a combo win. Cheaper is better, and we only have one 4 CMC outlet for reasons that will become obvious.

  1. Carrion Feeder

    Nothing short of an all-star. Cheap to cast, and its abilities to give itself counters and sacrifice itself means it is super sticky and can be abused in any number of loops.

  2. Viscera Seer

    What's not to like? Scry is relevant early, mid, or late game. It benefits from Sage of Fables and our most likely pick for Metallic Mimic. It costs 1 CMC. This one is the full package.

  3. Altar of Dementia

    We'll take all the 2 CMC free sac outlets we can get, and this one opens up an entirely new win condition.

  4. Goblin Bombardment

    This is one of the best sac outlets in our deck and is a personal favorite. From blasting away support creatures early to helping us manage our own life total to going infinite and winning us the game, I'm never unhappy to draw this one.

  5. Ashnod's Altar

    Ramp? Check. Combo potential? Check. Easy to cast? Check. There's rarely a point in the game where this card isn't excellent.

  6. Phyrexian Altar

    See Ashnod's Altar.

  7. Woe Strider

    The newest addition that replaces Yahenni, Undying Partisan. This can contribute to infinite scry combos and can also be retrieved from the graveyard in a pinch.

  8. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

    He draws us cards, he removes our opponents' creatures, and he helps us manage our life total. Heck, there are even fringe situations where he helps us set up for Living Death by discarding creatures. I'm happy to pay 2BB for that kind of utility. His only drawback is that he's a human, so he doesn't benefit from Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. You know what? I'm okay with that, especially since he and Mikaeus can go infinite with two other non-human creatures on our board.

We emphasize repeated incremental draw over large splashy draw to best take advantage of our commander.

  1. Faerie Seer

    I've been surprised with just how effective this little wizard can be. Early and repeatable scry on a flying body, and it synergizes with our wizard subtheme. It's not flashy, but it is a solid utility piece that helps the deck hum.

  2. Ponder

    No matter which way you slice it, seeing three or four cards for one mana is a steal. This is useful at any point in the game, and can be a lifesaver for finding that last piece of the puzzle we need to start comboing off.

  3. Village Rites

    This card is so good! One mana for two cards is always an excellent deal, and we're almost always getting more than that. It also can serve as a protection piece if an opponent tries to steal or exile one of our creatures.

  4. Dusk Legion Zealot

    This is another small utility piece that helps grease the deck's wheels. I'm happy to have card draw on a body at this mana cost, and the life loss is a small bonus.

  5. Impulse

    An efficient way to dig. Whether it's a counter distributor or a sac outlet, we're always looking for something, and this helps us find it.

  6. Plumb the Forbidden

    Two mana to draw as many cards as we have creatures, plus an additional, is a steal.

  7. Sign in Blood

    Another reliable way to get cards into our hand. Not much else to say other than I'm running this over Night's Whisper because I own a copy and like the idea of being able to bop the greedy K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth player.

  8. Baleful Strix

    Early and repeatable draw, and a blocker that trades with the best of them. We don't run a ton of flying, so this is actually very important for defending us against big aerial threats.

  9. Grim Haruspex

    It's a wizard, everyone! This is probably pound-for-pound our best draw enabler.

  10. Midnight Reaper

    See Grim Haruspex, except this one gives us some moderate control over our life total and sees itself die. Better in some scenarios, worse in others.

  11. Body Launderer

    It's on the expensive side, but it opens up an entirely new avenue of play and tends to pay for itself quickly. It's a repeatable way to reanimate anything that ends up in our graveyard, probably from being discarded with his Connive triggers.

  12. Disciple of Bolas

    I had removed this from the list at one point, and that was a mistake. The fact that it's a human is a bummer, but it's indispensable for really churning through the deck in the late game while being one of the only tools we have for stabilizing our life.

  13. River Kelpie

    Lots of people find this too expensive for the effect, especially when compared to our 3 CMC creatures that do effectively the same thing. But in this list, Persist makes River Kelpie 100% worth the extra cost since it will combo with multiple pieces.

    One thing I don't see people mention as much is how it gives us cards whenever a card is played or a creature returns from any graveyard. Reanimator-style decks are very popular in Commander, so we're bound to get tons of value off this thing.

  1. Dark Ritualfoil

    The more I play, the more I think this can find a home in any deck that skews towards black.

  2. Sol Ringfoil, Arcane Signetfoil

    Not much to say here. They go in just about every deck, don't they?

  3. Talisman of Creativity, Talisman of Dominance, and Talisman of Indulgence

    We run these for their speed and ability to help us manage our life total.

  4. Dockside Extortionist

    Enfranchised players know the drill here. A repeatable way to make absurd amounts of mana, this goblin sets us up for getting all the pieces of a combo out on the board in a single turn.

  5. Fellwar Stone

    We need more two-mana ramp, and this provides it. Enough said.

  6. Solemn Simulacrum

    Ol' faithful. Want to see me put a land into play and draw a card? Want to see me do it again? Fun enough when it works to keep it in the list.

  1. Demonic Tutor

    The best tutor in the game. I received a copy as a gift, and Marchesa gets all the toys.

  2. Grim Tutor

    Worse than Demonic, better than Diabolic. The real reason this is here is because I pulled a copy from an M21 booster. This will get replaced with Diabolic Intent one day, which makes a whole lot more sense in this deck.

  3. Imperial Recruiter

    This shows up in a lot of Black Rose lists, and for good reason. It can single-handedly pull nearly any of our combo pieces out of the deck. It's unfortunate that it's a human, but that's an easy tradeoff.

  4. Sidisi, Undead Vizier

    Recur-able tutoring on a sizeable body with a relevant ability? Sign me up! Seriously, this thing puts in work. Fun fact: she can sac herself to her own exploit trigger, so at worst she's a 5 mana tutor. Not great, but not the worst floor.

  1. Pact of Negationfoil

    Early on we need to develop our board, and hopefully we are able to use that developed board to accrue value despite effectively taking a turn off to pay for this.

  2. An Offer You Can't Refuse

    Still testing this one out, but one mana is hard to pass up. Mostly useful for protecting a win attempt, but has inefficient utility as bad ramp/fixing to get us out of a mana bind.

  3. Vandalblast

    Premier artifact removal, but it's on the chopping block. Works against big Dockside Extortionist plays.

  4. Feed the Swarm

    Targeted enchantment removal is here! This is the one card in our colors that saves us from graveyard hate stax pieces. The fact that it can help us manage our life total is gravy.

  5. Reality Shift

    This is premier creature removal in my mind. It's two mana, it exiles, and it has the potential to lock away a non-creature spell as a 2/2 do-nothing creature. Try casting this after an opponent Mystical Tutors for their Cyclonic Rift.

  6. Resculpt

    Challenges Reality Shift for value. The fact that it can hit artifacts is hugely impactful, and we need that kind of flexibility in our rather thin removal suite.

  7. Negate

    Most often this is used defensively to protect a combo.

  8. Counterspellfoil

    Sometimes you just have to say "no" to something.

  9. Chaos Warp

    It's a staple for a reason. For a long time this was the only instant in our colors that could remove an enchantment, and it's still our most versatile removal spell.

  10. Last One Standing

    We love cheap board wipes.

  11. Toxic Deluge

    It's the best board wipe in our colors (arguably the format?), and we especially like that it offers life total management.

  12. Damnation

    Simple, clean board wipe.

  13. Lethal Scheme

    Simply put, some of the best removal available for this deck. It can be as cheap as free, and it adds counters and filters cards while removing a threat.

  14. Glen Elendra Archmage

    This is one of the premier cards in the deck. It is used for combo wins, and it helps defend us until we get there.

  15. Living Death

    This has always been superb, and it got even better with the addition of Dauthi Voidwalker. It often functions as either or both an asymmetrical boardwipe or a way to return a combo from the graveyard to the battlefield and win the game.

  16. Blasphemous Act

    There's nothing quite like wiping the board for one mana.

Some of these will depend on your meta.

  1. Murderous Redcap

    This card wins games. Any infinite sacrifice loop lets you burn the table out.

  2. Flayer of the Hatebound

    The original win condition of this deck, and a old favorite. Effectively has to be exiled to be dealt with. Sadly, it's no longer an "optimal" card, but I can't bring myself to let it go.

  1. Iron Apprentice

    One of the best cards printed for this deck in years, this is essentially a +1/+1 counter battery and enabler for our sacrifice loops.

  2. Malakir Rebirth  

    A nice surprise option to blank some forms of removal and possibly double dip on ETB effects. There have been a few versions of this card printed recently, and we're using this one for its flexibility as a land when we need one.

  3. Dauthi Voidwalker

    A new toy that makes the cut almost purely on it's graveyard hate merits.

  4. Spark Double

    The fact that this gives itself a +1/+1 counter is huge! It innately combos with any persist creature and a sacrifice outlet, it'll always be around, and it'll always be a copy of our best thing.

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95% Casual

Competitive

Revision 50 See all

(3 months ago)

-1 Fellwar Stone maybe
+1 Ledger Shredder main
+1 Pollywog Prodigy main
+1 Warren Soultrader main
Date added 5 years
Last updated 3 months
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

51 - 0 Rares

14 - 0 Uncommons

13 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.55
Tokens Elemental 4/4 UR, Manifest 2/2 C, Treasure, Wicked
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