Insurrection is particularly good if you have a free sac outlet..

what do you think about Everlasting Torment? Your creatures will return without any -1-1 counters after dying right?

also Dominus of Fealty could be useful. especially pair with Claws of Gix

Curious as to why you're not using things that come in with +1/+1 counters (unleash etc.) and things that get +1/+1 counters as they die (undying). The idea with Marchesa seems to be to have essentially immortal creatures as long as she is on the field, then add your sac shenanigans to that

I suspect that it's because there are no good unleash creatures, and he's already running the two most profitable creatures related to undying: Flayer of the Hatebound and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. The whole point of recurring creatures in this deck is to abuse ETB effects, and there just are no other unleash/undying creatures with added value than what's already in the decklist. We don't want random dudes returning from the dead just because they can; we want them to bring us some presents from whatever hell they crawl out of ;).

Persist, however, is another story. Persist creatures also come back without Marchesa, and they actually have more synergy with her than either unleash or undying creatures do, because you can negate their -1/-1 counters by swinging with dethrone active, allowing their abilities to be reused over and over again. So two of the best persist creatures for this deck are already there: Puppeteer Clique and River Kelpie. I would like take this chance to point out that Glen Elendra Archmage would also be boss in here, but with it comes the problem of cutting something to make room for it.

And yeah, I see Glen Elendra Archmage in the first round of cuts... but it's just so good!

Thank you that was a good explanation. I love learning new aspects to cards - especially in EDH where there are so many interactions. I think my own meta might also be unusually aggressive.

Marchesa the Blood Bender am going for a slightly different approch though I'm not sure how it will work and it's still w.i.p.

Instead of relying on Mikeaus at all I did put as many of the ok undying creatures in as I could and tried to find as many cards similar to Flayer of the Hatebound as I could to get value out of the consistent reanimations.

I think you have some great stuff in there my too suggestions are to add Insurrection and also Victimize as it is ridiculous.

Hey check out my deck Grixis Agro this is my marchesa deck check it out and see if there is anything that i should change

Wow, awesome comments people! Sorry for the delay, it's been a long weekend and start of this work week. It's far too late to jump into all of these suggestions tonight (I should have been in bed hours ago), but I hope to get to them after work tomorrow. Err, today? Whatever, shortly!

I like the suggestions!
Let me start with spentbullets.
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born into Repay in Kind is a fantastic call. Grimmy is great when you run better recursion and/or when you run Necrotic Ooze. And Repay has SOOO much potential to just win a game out of anywhere.
Bident of Thassa into Attrition is a decent call as well. Bident never seemed to net me cards the way it seemed like it would on paper. But, I'm going to replace Bident with Power Conduit here. You suggested Power Conduit into Fleshwrither, which is a potential slot it could go, but I am thinking of keeping writher. I still want Attrition so...
Claws of Gix into Attrition. Claws mana cost is hard to keep open as it is only useable as an outlet, not a removal tool like attrition. As I am dropping the claws, I will replace Zealous Conscripts with Thalakos Deceiver.
Opal Palace into Academy Ruins, another interesting idea. I do use the palace once in a while, but not often enough nor with with an appropriate impact on board state to make it an essential piece. Academy should do some nice things here.
Carrion Feeder into Viscera Seer, your point on the lack of evasion in carrion feeder is fair here, and seer lets me pick up a bit of the card advantage lost with bident.
The interaction between Coalition Relic and Power Conduit is nice, and has kept me going back to it. I don't agree with dropping the talismans however. But my eye keeps going to the Signets as a replacement target. Problem is, which one? The answer is all of them obviously. In addition to relic I will add Mind Stone and Mana Crypt.
I really don't care for Vampiric Tutor as it doesn't put the card into your hand. It's a net card loss. Clutch of the Undercity does some great work, as both removal and search. Its also uncounterable.
I ran both Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact before, and they were good, if a bit static. But they are stultifying to play against and it's random removal. I originally replaced them with Shadowborn Demon and Phyrexian Obliterator. shadowborn lets you pick your target with a drawback that isn't really. and Obliterator doesn't slow your opponents from playing cards, it merely convinces them to point those cards elsewhere.
And Glen Elendra Archmage is amazing. It goes semi-infinite when next to Sage of Fables. But it is a purely reactive card and I want to push this deck to be proactive.

griffstick!
Marton Stromgald is amazing. attacking with 3-4 other dudes (not hard in this deck) makes for a formidable army pointing someones way. Copy Marton with Sakashima the Impostor and watch those number get big enough to end a player or a game very suddenly. He stays. :)
Insurrection is a fantastic card but I don't want too many end game cards in the deck. For now I will be trying out Repay in Kind, as it seems to be a solid finisher. But I will put insurrection into the maybe pile.
The more I look at Wake the Dead the less I like it. Outside of comboing with Mikaeus, it only really nets you some blockers. So I think I will pass on it.

astroknotts
Everlasting Torment is nasty for sure, but it's fairly bad for us, as it turns off lifegain for us as well, which we need that to maintain a balanced gamestate. Also +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters negate each other, see rule 121.3. If a permanent has both a +1/+1 counter and a -1/-1 counter on it, N +1/+1 and N -1/-1 counters are removed from it as a state-based action, where N is the smaller of the number of +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters on it. So your creatures likely won't have the needed +1/+1 counter for marchesa to bring back. And Dominus of Fealty is intriguing but I am going away from Claws of Gix at the moment.

TheDreamer
Victimize is awesome but I am pushing to have any effect in the deck on a body, as non-creature effects really lack synergy with the deck.

So changes I am considering are:
-Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
-Bident of Thassa
-Opal Palace
-Carrion Feeder
-Claws of Gix
-Zealous Conscripts
-Dimir Signet
-Rakdos Signet
-Izzet Signet

+Repay in Kind
+Power Conduit
+Academy Ruins
+Mana Crypt
+Coalition Relic
+Mind Stone
+Thalakos Deceiver
+Attrition
+Viscera Seer
Any further thoughts on this?

I really appreciate the comments and suggestions, thank you all!

Heya, glad to see you liked some of my suggestions. I hope they end up being fun! I'm tempted to dismantle my Nekusar wheel deck to rebuild Marchesa. One other thought: sorry if I missed this in change logs, but have you considered City of Brass and/or Mana Confluence? Paying life for mana helps to keep you from having the highest life total, but I understand there's also a need to limit these effects so you don't just burn yourself out.

I see what you mean but some I think some effects are worth it and you can always Archaeomancer to get them back and sac Archaeomancer and she'll come back if you have Sage of Fables out. (because of wizard effect)

thanks for that ruling insight.. Ive heard people say the -1/-1 counters and +1/+1/ counters cancel each other out.. but i did not realize they actually remove each other from the creature (i was thining they stay and just equalize the bonus on power/toughness). I will have to change at least a few cards out from my deck now. :p

Ever think about Cytoplast Manipulator and any sacrifice outlet?

Hey, been awhile. How's your deck performing? Have you cut the bulk of your anti-tuck tech since the rule change?

Hey you know what're awesome? Vacations, vacations are awesome. I should take one soon...

obitus - I have one and I would love to make it work, but the effect is temporary, requires some delicate timing/prep as well as requires a tap effect to use. So she stays in my box.

sup spentbullets. Yeah it has been a bit.

Deck does great, it's the little engine that could. I get regulat complaints of how hard to disrupt it is. Fun. :P

For the most part yes, most of the sac effects are still there. My playgroup LOVES to target them. The transfigure and transmute effects are all gone however. I really didn't expect that ruling to happen, but I welcome it for the most part. I am hoping for more ability to deal with really troublesome commanders. Tuck, and clone effects before their nerfing, was the best way to do that. We shall see I guess.

I thought the effect is permanent, you just need a sac outlet. Once the creature dies with a +1/+1 counter it comes back to you.

Its temporary if you don't have a sac outlet.

You're right, obitus, you get to keep the creature if you have a sac outlet and Marchesa in play. The only problem I see with Cytoplast Manipulator is that it, like 00argopile mentioned, requires some setup (namely haste and available mana to activate), making it kind of a worse Sower of Temptation, which sits at the same CMC.

The best option I have seen for stealing a creature is Thalakos Deceiver. I currently run Dragonlord Silumgar because of his ability to snag a planeswalker as well.

I see what you mean, good point. She does require set up.

Any thoughts on the following cards?

1x Predator Dragon
1x Preyseizer Dragon
1x Necropolis Regent
1x Cauldron Dance
1x Balthor the Defiled

I really like Preyseizer Dragon, and I play it in my own Marchesa list. That said, since the last time I contributed to your deck here I've forsaken the 75% deck construction philosophy and have tuned my deck to be a little more cutthroat. I'm up to 47 creatures, and, of the cards you just listed, I run only Preyseizer.

In an effort to suppress my mana curve, I've tried to limit the number of 5+ CMC creatures in my deck. But since I am running so many dudes, my list of high-cost creatures is still pretty long. I'm currently running the following:

5-drops
Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Mulldrifter, Puppeteer Clique, River Kelpie, Sidisi, Undead Vizier

6-drops
Flayer of the Hatebound, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Preyseizer Dragon, Scourge of the Throne

7-drop
Rune-Scarred Demon

Predator Dragon isn't nearly as good as Preyseizer, I probably wouldn't run it personally. Balthor the Defiled seems cute but I think Living Death does this job well enough already, and I think we have enough graveyard recursion as it is. I fear that investing too deeply in the reanimation strategy increases our vulnerability to graveyard hate, which by virtue of our commander is already a glaring weakness for us. Cauldron Dance also seems a little too cute, although it is a pretty interesting 2-for-1. It may just highly costed for what it does. My biggest worry regarding Necropolis Regent is that triple black can be particularly hard for me to get to, as black is the color I tend to need the least of. However, it might be easier in your deck since your concentration of black spells seems much higher than mine.

At any rate, how have you been liking your deck?

List updated. Took a break for a few months from magic, got a new job, finally have time to sit down and play magic. Picked up entomb and vampiric tutor recently. Have an Imperial Recruiter incoming. Thoughts?

Haven't checked all the updates or comments but perhaps Diabolic Intent has a spot in this deck?

Diabolic Intent was in the deck for a long time. I cut it recently to work in other cards. It's in my maybe pile, not in my maybe board but I will correct that shortly. The deck doesn't hurt for search whatsoever, but with the theme it runs, spell effects with legs are just better than straight spells.