Love the build!

What do you think about Edifice of Authority over Pacification Array?

It is not able to tap artifacts, however it costs only to activate and once it has three brick counters, it is quite strong blocking activated abilities.

zenia thanks for the suggestion. edifice looks like a decent card. I prefer pacification array's flexibility though. not only does it prevent attack, it can also tap down blockers. this makes it a great political card when opponent A is trying to attack opponent B

Agreed, MegaMatt13. zenia, being able to use all your pieces to not just stop attacks, but to redirect them at your opponents, that is the real power of a political Queen Marchesa. edifice of authority may stop an attack, and later may even stop an ability, but I would rather that my opponents keep all their offense at full strength, just be unwilling to target me with it. edifice of authority stops them from being able to attack my opponents, and leaves a blocker around to discourage people from attacking them until later in the game. Interesting, but I think it would not replace Pacification Array.

how about Reciprocate it's an exile for 1, and it kinda "displays" what will happen to opponents that attack you and not each other.

Sismir, I know this is not directed my way, but I would like to chime in. I think that any targeted removal needs to be the least conditional possible. This is even more conditional than Condemn, in that you can't even get rid of something when it attacks someone else. Reciprocate is only good for those attacking you. I would not run it over Condemn, and I wouldn't run Condemn. That is just me, though.

Sismir, really appreciate the suggestion. As precociousapprentice mentioned Reciprocate is a bit too conditional. I want to be able to remove a threat before it has the chance to hit me. Also, sometimes I want to remove a threat targeting someone else for political reasons.

100+ upvotes! Awesome, and congrats, your deck is freakin' wicked! Queen Marchesa for Victory!!!!!!!

Exsanguinate is a card that will always go in an out of my deck. Great wincon, can sweep up several low life opponents, or can stall a loss if you cast it for even a mid range amount. Just an all around solid card. That being said, it comes out regularly to make room for things I want to try. My Wishboard is it's present home, which is a great location for it for me. I can get it for with Burning Wish, but it also gives me access to things like Insurrection and Austere Command. If I cut Burning Wish, I am not sure which I would replace it with, Exsanguinate or Insurrection. Either way, it will alway occupy a flex spot in the deck, because it is not key to the functioning of the deck, but it is amazing when you need it. Thaumatic Compass is pretty great. It has made a great showing in 2 of the last games and played a key role. The last game it didn't show up. What did show up was Teferi's Protection . I won the game against a semi-mirror match against a newly minted Bant Aikido deck. It went Demonic Tutor and Enlightened Tutor to get Master of Cruelties and Key to the City, cast Master of Cruelties. Opponent casts Path to Exile on Master of Cruelties. I cast Teferi's Protection , saving my entire board. Pass the turn, my opponent gets nothing, and passes the turn, knowing she is at least mostly dead. I draw the Key to the City, cast it, and tap and discard to Key to the City on Master of Cruelties, attacking with Master of Cruelties. This bypasses my opponent's Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker, Clever Impersonator cloned No Mercy, and her Delaying Shield, as well as a held Dawn Charm to put her at 1 life. I transmute Shred Memory into Price of Progress and cast it, knowing that she doesn't have enough to pay the mana to Delaying Shield to save herself next turn. Pass the turn, and good game. This was after she let an Insurrection through to take out both other opponents earlier in the game when she could have Dawn Charmed to save them. I was expecting her to hold a fog, so I took out them instead of her. She ended up dyeing with that Dawn Charm in hand. Super interesting to see the deck in a multiplayer against another Aikido deck, this one with arguably more control and defense in the form of blue control and green rattlesnakes, but with less aggression. The aggression won out. Mardu aikido is amazing, super fun, and will probably always be my favorite. Thanks for helping me to build my deck, and congrats on the 100+ upvotes. The deck is truly rad.

precociousapprentice, totally agree with you regarding Insurrection and Exsanguinate as finishers. Ultimately I am going with Insurrection for flavour reasons...it's more of a true aikido card. Nice army you have there...mind if I borrow it for a turn?

Thaumatic Compass is already proving its worth...so easy to flip and it is just nasty combined with any other pillow fort effect.

That sounds like a very intense matchup. Aikido vs. Aikido can lead to very long games of back and forth. What commander was she playing? Angus Mackenzie?

Thank you for all the support you have given. I love how our decks seem to inspire each other.

She is my daughter playing a Phelddagrif Aikido deck I am working on with her. "Hey, I'll give you a hippo and a card if you can take out his commander right now." Gifts, clones, stealing, pillow fort, green rattle snakes, and a purple winged hippo. She had been envious of my Marchesa for a while, but when she saw the potential of the gifting purple hippo, she immediately started deck building. I am helping her tune it. Right now we need to work on card draw. We have it disguised as a typical group hug deck with things like Howling Mine, Propaganda, and Ghostly Prison, but I outpaced her with card draw using The Monarch and snake tokens to collect cards off of an Edric our opponent was playing. She didn't get her card draw, chose to Clever Impersonator a No Mercy instead of the Edric, and when she Control Magic'd Marchesa from me, she never got an assassin token in for damage to steal The Monarch due to a Maze of Ith, a Kor Haven, and an Ophiomancer. I just outdrew her, collected 3 tutors and a wish, and then went for the kill. I had Disrupt Decorum Remanded twice before she Counterspelled it. She put up a remarkable fight, considering. I think her Phelddagrif Aikido will end up pretty brutal. Not at all oppressive, since it will play like my Marchesa, but will surprise a lot of people expecting the cute blonde girl with the purple hippo to be playing group hug, only to catch their own creatures and combos in their faces for a loss.

Deserted Temple works really well for any land enchanted with Underworld Connections. You practically get a Night's Whisper with buyback every turn.

Heya MegaMatt!

I absolutely love this list and I've made my own list inspired by it (Queen Marchesa, Politics & Pillow Forts .. I've given you credit in the deck description as well). (Ok, I'll be honest here, It's the same list with about 10 card changes that suit my interests / needs a bit better). Just as a clarity thing up front, I do not yet have this deck, these changes are simply of my own mind / thoughts / desires.

Vampiric Tutor >> Terminate -Budget purpose and terminate is just a solid removal.

Strip Mine + Scavenger Grounds >> Mountain & Plains -No need for these cards in my casual level meta... the worst lands around are like, command tower and path of ancestry in a tribal deck. Also, no one really plays with a recursion package.

Rest in Peace >> Crystal Ball -Again, no need for graveyard hate. Crystal ball is a card I really enjoy the power of in a control deck.

Wild Ricochet >> Wear / Tear -I'm just not in love with wild ricochet I guess. Wear and Tear can always find good use at the tables I play at. (I run a copy in my current "main" deck, which is a boros depala vehicles deck and it really pulls it's weight everytime it comes into hand)

Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker >> Kambal, Consul of Allocation -Ok, so this one i'm not sure about, in my mind I'm just not impressed by Michiko. I understand she's a rattlesnake effect, except I really find her rattlesnake effect underwhelming when my opponent can just sac a token or low powered artifact or basic land and just keep hammering me in the face. I'm a bit more preferable to the taxing effect that Kambal has on the game while buffering my health pool to allow my more preferable rattlesnake effects to have more chances to activate.

Gossamer Chains >> Crown of Doom -Ok, this one is purely for flavor. I love crown of doom's "hot potato" effect. I know it's not a high powered card by any means but it fits the whole idealogy of the deck and it's a crown in a deck commanded by a queen? Yummy flavor! Even if it weren't for crown of doom, I'd change it for Vow of Malice most likely to play politics with (and it's defensive and unlike the other vows, it barely inhibits our ability to attack the player with this enchantment if we so please. White vow gives vigilance, red vow gives first strike... both are bad if we attack the player that has them.)

Demonic Tutor >> Diabolic Tutor -Budget plain and simple.

Wayfarer's Bauble >> Sol Ring -Obvious. (I know about the ban in your playgroup, just making the necessary adjustment to my playgroup)

Austere Command >> End Hostilities or Fumigate -I use austere command in my previously mentioned boros vehicles deck and I love it there. I only have 3 (of 26) creatures at or above 4 CMC and only a single enchantment that doesn't stick around... giving me 2 great modes to activate. On this deck I have a harder time seeing when you would want to blow up all artifacts or all enchantments or ALL creatures (<3 and 4> CMC creeatures). I've slotted in a removal that I feel fits decently and again is a nod to my personal meta. (1 person only has 1 deck that is green/white cats and equip, and another player plays the same deck). We only have 1 equippable artifact and we have a way to unequip it at will. (Sunforger activation > Boros charm or Teferi's into End hostilities... 7 mana, wipe not my creatures and not my permanents attached to said creatures). Another one I'd consider if I didn't have problems with equipment would be Fumigate for the life buffer.

Again, I just want to echo the fact that I absolutely love every concept of this deck, most of these changes are just to better fit my budget, playgroup or flavor. (I actually am going to be starting with an even more budget version that better fits my current price range). I'm definitely open to being persuaded against my choices here if you feel super strongly for a card that I'm thinking about replacing.

I'd give this a +10 vote if I could!

Hey, I commented on this a while ago about the version of this that I was building, anyway I've built it, have been playing it for a while and it's now one of my favourite decks. Feel free to come and take a look. Marchesa's spikey pillow fort

I'm curious about your findings with Price of Progress in a marchesa list. I suppose the theory is just that by the time you want to cast it, your opponents are lower HP than you are due to the lay low nature of the deck that they will die and you will survive? I know pernicious runs like 3 different landcount matters damage spells and I'm just not sure how he maintains his life total. Although with his most recent addition of Wound Reflection I could see those spells being even more potent with their new ratios of damage.

I'm actually thinking about putting in my new version of my Boros vehicles deck. (Tossing out the dwarf theme, putting Aurelia as the commander and adding +10 good boros based cards where 10 kinda lackluster dwarves used to be).

That deck runs 30 basics / 36 lands, so I'm thinking that slotting price of progress in would be a great way to churn out a huge amount of damage later in the game when my opponents are starting to build their wall of fatties and my trains have begun to run out of steam.

Bloodytrailz, I am also interested in what MegaMatt13 finds with Price of Progress. It has been a staple wincon for me for some time. It is not at all uncommon to find myself facing 1 or more opponents with only 20-30 life, 10-15 non-basics, and for me to have any of Solitary Confinement, Delaying Shield, Worship, Wound Reflection, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Teferi's Protection , Selfless Squire, or even just enough life to withstand the blast. Even if it doesn't quite wipe everyone else out, it always ends up being a pretty insurmountable advantage that allows me to bring the game to an end with another attack. In EDH, Price of Progress just ends up being the most efficient single card attack I have seen, and it is easy to combine with many other cards for a huge swing in the game. It almost always does 40+ damage for 2 mana, at instant speed! For any deck that has the potential to have some way of having a life advantage in the late game, it is really worth it to run it, especially if you have ways to make it asymmetric, either through high numbers of basics in your deck or with self preservation effects.

Hello! great list, i have been considering on build a deck inspired on this list, but on my group is much less competitive, do you recommend replacing some cards that doesnt do well on my meta like price of progress, for other stuff on the notable exclusions like crackling doom that works excellent on my group?

Curious what you think about Baird, Steward of Argive

I know he's just a bad windborne muse, but he does stack another likeliness to draw a disincentive for opponents to hit us.

I would run Mastermind's Acquisition over Diabolic Tutor. You could easily run a sideboard of situational cards like Blasphemous Act, Innocent Blood, Abolish, Snuff Out, Hour of Revelation, Reanimate, Raze, Fragmentize, etc. which would give you more options at your disposal while still costing the same amount of mana.

Agreed StopShot. It was an easy include for me when I saw it.

MegaMatt13, I know we have different metas, and I also know that we have different amounts and styles of pillow fort for our decks, but I am always surprised to hear how Price of Progress isn't pulling weight for you like it does for me. I may win more with Price of Progress than anything else. With some damage prevention or delay, it is a huge asymmetric bomb. 10-20 damage per opponent at instant speed is not uncommon. It can be dangerous to play, but basically so can just about everything in the deck. Played at the right time, I win. I get your meta issues, but it may be the most efficient damage dealer in my meta.

StopShot and precociousapprentice, thanks for your suggestion. My playgroup hasn't used sideboards historically. I could broach the subject with them. If so, I would definitely include Mastermind's acquisition.

in terms of Price of Progress, it's still in for now. Sometimes it works wonders. it blew out an Ur-Dragon opponent with all of their shocks in play haha. However sometimes it just sits in my hand. it works best if I have Teferi's Protection, Delaying Shield, or Righteous Aura.

Always apprecoiate the feedback! I'll be curious to hear how the new Battlebond cards work for you. So far I'm loving Stolen Strategy.

In terms of boardwipes that deal with graveyard shenanigans, I've recently included Play of the Game in my marchesa deck and it really performs. It also can be a great political tool.

MegaMatt13, I think all the changes look very reasonable. I have yet to put Virtus the Veiled into play, so I have no comment, but your explanation sounds very reasonable. I addressed Curse of Opulence over at my deck, mainly because it serves as an explanation for why I keep it, not as a reason that you should. As for more draw cards, I struggle with that, too. I consider Phyrexian Arena regularly, I recently was considering Read the Bones, and I think Greed is great. I would probably consider Erebos, God of the Dead over it, mostly for the indestructible and the late game finisher option, but the lower activation cost of Greed is worth considering, and the flavor for Queen Marchesa is pure win.

I like what you are doing here, and I will await hearing about the results.

Bye the way, I am considering killing some more of my babies in an effort to keep up in a stronger meta. Queen Marchesa still wins way more than she should, but I look at my competition, and see some adjustments that can be made. Evolution or Extinction, there are no other options.

precociousapprentice, thanks for taking the time to respond. I agree with you about Erebos. He's been in the deck for a while and performs very well. Shutting off opponents' lifegain is actually quite valuable too. It prevents opponents from "getting out of range" of being killed in the later game. I think I'm going to keep Twilight Prophet for now. She is performing decently and having a flier with reasonably high toughness can be valuable in the deck too.

I haven't cut Curse of Opulence yet...it's just on my list of potential cuts. I agree with your reasoning behind it. I'm just wondering if there may be another option that fulfills that function better. I put Rite of the Raging Storm back in a couple updates ago and it fulfills that role beautifully, giving each opponent a beater that can be used to attack anyone EXCEPT me. I'm thinking of giving Orzhov Advokist another chance in this role. Again it allows opponents to attack anyone except me and gives them a buff to do so. I think my main concern with Curse of Opulence it that it forces me to pick one opponent to put the target on...my hands are on the bloody weapon. Rite of the Raging Storm and Orzhov Advokist provide a general incentive without forcing me to choose who opponents should target.

Any further thoughts on this?