Not true. Not only is that conditional with Marchesa on the board (not to mention +1/+1 counters), but even so it brings creatures back at the beginning of the next end step. Great utility, and reusable? Yes, absolutely. Still telegraphed, still predictable. You do you, man. I mean after reading "After playing modern as my primary format, eventually the commander peasantry annoyed me to the point that I stooped to their level." in your description I already know your type. I was just trying to help so your opponents don't wreck you... at the end of your turn.

As Epajula not so eloquently stated, Marchesa offers a delayed trigger so ETB's are far from intant speed although death triggers would be instant speed. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Sneak Attack (get one, it's worth its weight in gold here) helps speed things up with these sorts of triggers though. I don't run very many instants myself, just Vampiric Tutor and Cyclonic Rift but they're very impactful. I'd suggest investing in some tutors like Diabolic Intent and Demonic Tutor as well to search up let pieces.

epajula: "My type." I think that you're taking this a bit too personally, my friend. Before going for ad hominem, I would take a step back and cool down. My opponent's aren't wrecking me by any stretch of the word. The politics of not being hit for a bunch of damage from Blood Artist triggers is a strong deterrent for meddling. I do hear your argument, and will test out Unspeakable Symbol at the soonest opportunity.

Last_Laugh: I do believe that Sneak Attack is in the list. As for tutors, I'll probably invest in them when I'm not buying into Ad Nauseam. Will have trouble picking what to cut. Also: is the amount of mana-producing permanents in the deck sufficient in your eyes? I've heard from quite a few edh players that my landbase is a bit slim, but I'm also not running a whole lot of huge bombs.

I only run 1 more mana rocks than you do (3rd signet) but I also run Ancient Tomb which ramps.

The other major thing I'm noticing is your avg cmc is a bit high. Yours is 4.03 vs 3.49 myself.

Now .54 doesn't sound like much but each mana only adds up to something like .025 so that's like me replacing 4x 1 drops with just over 4x 6 drops.

You're a bit flooded at 5 drops, I'd look there first for cuts to lower your curve and avg cmc.

Last_Laugh There are only 6 five drops as opposed to 12 six drops. I'll look into replacing those with tutors or Unspeakable Symbol.

Lol I meant 6... fat fingered that one.

Last_Laugh I'll put in some work on honing the list. I don't really want to allocate that much of my budget towards Ancient Tomb and some of the more expensive tutors, but I'll trade for them as I see them.

Understandable, took me awhile to track down my tutors, fetches, etc.

One other thing is yes, you're short a few lands. You run 33 lands, Sol Ring, and 4 rocks. Sol Ring I count as 1 land and rocks that cost 2 or less as .5 each which brings your 'land' count up to 36. This math has worked great for me so far (pretty sure I read it somewhere online). I'd find room for 2 more lands to bring that count up to 38.

Last_Laugh That's a result of my testing, actually. In all of my games with 33 lands, I run into mana drought maybe one out of every 15 or 20 games. I'm mana starved 1 in every 50 games (in other words, it's happened twice ever). 36 lands (counting mana rocks as you said), works perfectly well in my experience.

Discussion question: What do you think as Bontu the Glorified as a sac outlet? I hold the opinion that it's one of the worst options, but maybe it's better than Sadistic Hypnotist? It's a Zulaport Cutthroat and Viscera Seer in one card, but you have to pay... Ready? Set? DISCUSS!

Upvoted the The Rose Has Thorns! so hard I upvoted this one!

JK love this list too!

I appreciate that! This was the first of the two, and also my first commander deck. I originally built it to counter the immense slew of boardwipes in my meta. It's an absolute joy to pilot.

I hope it only gets better here on out!

DarkStarStorm,

Love your deck (+1)!!! I swapped a few cards I was running with some of yours, I am going to try out Vindictive Lich and Filigree Familiar, but Death Cloud is a stroke of genius!!! I was running Jokulhaups and that was mostly successful.

I have a couple of recommendations for you as well, I think you should swap your Sifter of Skulls for Pawn of Ulamog. Pawn is cheaper, makes makes a spawn if it dies, and it's a vampire which matters sometimes (Patron of the Vein and Metallic Mimic.

Also, I would swap Wurmcoil Engine with Kokusho, the Evening Star. It has flying and when it dies it usually nets you 15 life and dishes out 15 damage (5 for each opponent). With a graft creature (see below) you are able to dish out 20 damage/round and heal 80 life.

My meta must be different than yours as well because I have a really hard time with enchantments and you seem to be running light on enchantment "answers" like All Is Dust.

My last and most important recommendation is creatures with the keyword "graft" e.g. Vigean Graftmage (which I see you are running but I run them all). Here is why, if you control a graft creature and another creature comes into play under your control (by casting it or by Marchesa's ability) you can put a +1 counter on the creature as soon as it hits the battlefield, no dethrone required. If you control your commander and a sac outlet as well, you can sac the creature and trigger it's enter the battlefield or death trigger on each of your opponents turns as well as your own (~4x/turn). just dont forget to sac your graft creature while it still has one +1 counter and when they all return to the battlefield stack the triggers so the Graft creature enters the battlefield first so it can redistribute the +1 counters.

Please come check out my Marchesa deck as well. Marchesa, Death & Betrayal

MagicBlake Great input here! I was mainly running the Sifter of Skulls because it's more aggressive than Pawn. The plus one power doesn't seem like much, but it's the difference between one dethrone trigger presenting lethal and two. I may just run both! It's certainly a powerful effect. Kokusho I don't like because it is guaranteed to put you outside of dethrone range for the foreseeable future. You get use out of Wurmcoil even if you don't want to gain life. I have the option of blocking/attacking with the lifelink token. Otherwise Kokusho is simply a big flying beater. I will certainly consider Jokulhaups. Thankfully Death Cloud has not attracted any hate from my playgroup considering that the game ends shortly after I cast it. Jokulhaups should be in a similar state.

All Is Dust is really a poor option. You lose sac outlets in the process of clearing out a Sphere of Safety that you can simply win over the top of with Blood Artist effects. You don't need to attack to win in a Marchesa list. IF I need to get someone's Island Sanctuary off the field, then Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, Nevermaker, and Dominus of Fealty are sufficient. Cyclonic Rift is a fantastic choice as well, but I am voting for its ban with its exclusion from my list.

I agree that Graft creatures are good in the deck, but most of them have mediocre to extremely weak effects outside of their use in protecting your board and being a sac target each turn. Both of those result in a useless deck if sac outlets or your commander are kept off of the field. That's why I run substitutes like Metallic Mimic, Olivia, Mobilized for War, Unspeakable Symbol, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, as well as creatures that enter with counters natively. If the graft creatures had any effects that were even decently powerful on their own, I'd consider running them along Cytoplast Manipulator. As it stands, its substitutes outclass it.

Hello, where did you find that Marchesa art? It’s fantastic!

scumbling1 https://www.pinterest.com/cherry2945/black-rose/?lp=true

It's hard to track down exactly. I wish it were her official art considering the original is inconsistent with the promo art from the same set and Queen Marchesa herself. She looks so old and pale in the original.

Yeah, no kidding! I love the character and mechanics of both Marchesas, but the Queen looks so much more vibrant. The Black Rose looks like my weird old aunt on Halloween; not a pleasant picture.

The art you’ve featured has a strong Tierese Nielsen or RK Post vibe — both artists of which I’m a big fan.

Thanks for the link!

scumbling1 In that case you should check out my Queen Marchesa deck. The link is at the bottom of this article. I definitely agree with your take on the original. "weird old aunt on Halloween" sums it up nicely.

I have another color wheel breaker for you to consider, Gate to Phyrexia. Also, did you ever try Aura Thief? It's really good if you have a lot of stuff like Sylvan Library, Ghostly Prison, Aura Shards etc. in your meta.

Last_Laugh You already suggested both of those on March 21, 2018. My issue with them is that Gate to Phyrexia isn't a proper sac outlet as it is restricted to upkeep, and Aura Thief doesn't excel in my metagame (5C Dragons, Meren). Chaos Warp has been filling the void for me perfectly.

Whoops. I remembered that I'd suggested Aura Thief but not so much on Gate... my bad. I have the same problem with Aura Thief, it's definitely meta specific.

Last_Laugh Which, to be fair, doesn't mean that it shouldn't be in the deck, just that my meta doesn't vy for its inclusion in THIS list. I should honestly add cards to the sideboard just to show off situational picks that fit the archetype but should only be included in certain metas. You've given me some food for thought, and I may just try that out.

what about K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth or something like Devouring Hellion . I was just considering these, would love your opinion on how they work for marchesa.

mavryk I am currently considering K'rrik, but need to dig out a slot for him...it's tough. As for Devouring Hellion? Mortician Beetle is typically my pick for a card like that. In my experience, a "big creature with a vague synergy with the deck" usually ends up falling short. Thraximundar tends to falls into that category as well, by the way. Anyway, K'rrik is a powerful pick for the deck and I am most definitely looking to include it.