Nice deck. I would love to hear how Mathas, Fiend Seeker is working for you. I play Queen Marchesa: Politics, Aikido, and Control, and I don't think that he has a home in my deck. I would love to see someone use him well, though.

Thanks mate, I actually haven't had a chance to thoroughly test Mathas yet. A key part of this deck is to not treasure you own creatures much; many times I have played Marchesa turn 3 and board wipe turn 4 just to gain Monarch and begin the incremental value. Its important to get creatures that generate value quickly; so not sure how Mathas fits into that - but I like what little play testing I've done so far.

Just some recent changes:

Mathas, Fiend Seeker -> Erebos, God of the Dead

Mathas has just been too slow and only really pays off with a board wipe. He isn't terrible - just mediocre. Erebos has always fitted perfectly into the deck - not the most exciting card either but efficient and useful.

Sheoldred, the Whispering One -> Insurrection Insurrection is just a more powerful card which wins games. Sheoldred doesn't really fit into the style of the deck either - if I want the recursion some time in the future I will probably use a Sun Titan.

I've also put in Arcbond, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser & Vampire Nighthawk after drawing inspiration from precociousapprentice's very cool Queen Marchesa deck. I've played with Arcbond before in an old infect deck and its surprisingly powerful. Fits very well into my build of Queen Marchesa.

Excellent deck description, i came here to see how you formatted that section and some notable inclusion you may have. My Marchesa deck focuses on lifegain swings and deters opponents from attacking me like any respectable Marchesa deck. Kaeverek is an interesting inclusion, the cmc for what you are getting is a little high for me when you could just include a vial smasher for 3 mana. I feel like erebos, god of the dead doesn't do enough for me to include it, i don't find opponents gaining enough life and i can draw enough cards through the queen and paying two mana is annoying. Check my list out and tell me what you think.

Thanks for commenting! The CMC for Kaeverek is quite high but with the amount of ramp that I run + Marchesa's card draw into lands I never really have issues casting him. He does draw an awful lot of hate though. I found vial smasher's damage below what I would like and it doesn't hurt 3+ players enough. Erebos could be cut - however occasionally shuts down entire decks + my mana curve is pretty low so using that extra 2 mana every now and then is no problem.

Rough New Years Update:

Before I get to the Ins/Outs I wanted to share an image that I created in the hopes of getting a custom playmat done for my favourite EDH deck. It is a very subtly edited artwork version of the Queen herself - just with my spin / interpretation as Marchesa as a battle/pain queen that has fought for her position. Link: https://imgur.com/a/YLne9

Out:

Grenzo, Havoc Raiser Didn't impress too much - will still keep on the Maybe list

Aura of Silence I still really like this card - but going to try Mana Web as an alternative Stax option

Painful Quandary Really gets the attention of the entire table in a bad way. I still like it though.

Olivia Voldaren Was actually perfectly happy with the utility Olivia provided so this might be very temporary

Fumiko the Lowblood Love this card - another temporary swap most likely

Debt to the Deathless + Exsanguinate + Gray Merchant of Asphodel Removed the entire package in favor of more control / action

Harsh Mentor Didn't do quite enough - was powerful on occasion but a lot of the time just a bear

Vial Smasher the Fierce Not enough damage - warps how I sequence spells as well which I didn't like

Erebos, God of the Dead This guy is always in and out - could always be brought back into the fold

In:

Mana Web Trialling this card which I have wanted to for ages - interested to see how it performs

Sword of Feast and Famine + Sword of War and Peace Makes regaining Monarch a lot easier. War and Peace is surprisingly good as with the inherent card draw in the deck you often have a large hand size which can net you a lot of life

Talisman of Indulgence + Mind Stone More ramp to enable turn 3 Queen Marchesa

Deflecting Palm Trialling this to avoid losing Monarch (Often opponents only attack with only enough to steal Monarch) and occasionally to reverse blow out the game.

Grave Titan A big threat which works well with Purphoros, God of the Forge

Archfiend of Depravity Trying this fella' out. Have wanted to for a while.

No suggestions, just wanted to say that I like this deck and I very much like your mindset. Keep it up.

Thanks Woiteck! Much appreciated.

I really like the concept of your deck! I have been playing combo until now (elves, graveyard, artifacts) and am looking for a fairer/more controlling deck. Is there a reason that you don't play Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth & Crypt Ghast? Also Viridian Longbow or Thornbite Staff are nice recursive creature removal with all your deathtouchers.

Thanks Gagaguru for your feedback! I haven't really considered adding Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth before but have thought about Crypt Ghast many times. They obviously work very well together but outside of the scenario I'm not certain how good Crypt Ghast would work in the deck. I should probably look into trying out those cards though.

Viridian Longbow and Thornbite Staff would fit very well into this deck too - I will definitely playtest them and see how they perform.

You could also consider playing 1-2 more lands. With 36 manaproducing lands the probability of not hitting the 4th land by turn 4 is around 30%. If you up your land count to 38, it drops to around 25%. This is a question of personal preference though. (I like playing Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse in my 3 colour decks, although they are a bit slow.)

Ah sorry, the numbers are more like 38% and 32% percent, but the argument stands. Cheers!

I have thought about squeezing one more mana-producing land in the deck - however the two drop mana rocks function very well as a buffer for that 4th land as they allow me to play Queen Marchesa on turn 3 and the extra draw helps tremendously with those extra land drops. I have played this deck maybe a hundred times now and its quite rare to get mana screwed and miss land drops. I do also actually run Evolving Wilds in this deck - I must have forgotten to to add it.

My future plans to the deck are to include the 3 on-colour fetch lands and include Sun Titan for a tonne of recursion. Don't have the $$ at the moment to pick up the cardboard yet though. :)

Pretty disappointing set from Guilds of Ravnica. The only consideration for me is Crush Contraband which could possibly replace Return to Dust. The removal of the semi-sorcery speed requirement and a less restrictive mana requirement at the expense of less flexibility makes it a tough call. Crush Contraband would work a lot better with Sunforger as well. Not sure about this one.

Yo your art is dope man keep it up

never really felt like she is any good in free for all... + with all those pillow fort jank spells you use you're not really aiming for a competitive deck it seems like or are you looking for help?...

If you're looking to add some sort of Stax you could look to replace some of the "pillow fort jank pay more to attack crap" for the likes of Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon or even more removal as in proper board wipes...

I have been running a top tier 1v1 list for a very long time now and have a lot of tournament wins on its name as well so if you're looking for some upgrades or ideas for removal feel free to check it out...

京 What are we if not slaves to this torment? 京 1v1

Thanks for the comment. I've played this deck with good results in 4 player games for a long time now. I've played over 100 4 player games on Xmage with minor variations of this build and I would estimate my winrate sits at 50% or more. This isn't a cEDH deck - as my deck description says - "This deck is what I like to call the 100% 75% deck. It doesn't do anything unfair, it doesn't employ any infinite combos and it lets other players play their decks, but it is 100% built to be strong and earn every win."

I love winning and always play to win but your recommendations don't fit the philosophy behind this deck as I actually like my opponents playing their decks and interacting with what they are doing.

Lastly, 1v1 Commander is a completely different game to 4 player FFA - its like comparing apples and oranges. Not sure what I could gain from looking at 1v1 lists.

didn't know you weren't aiming for competitiveness so my apologies for that, it's just that I saw your deck on the banner and usually people tend to put it there to get help and attention from better players... My list has certain interactions and removal that could still be crucial at certain CEDH pods that play the fastest decks around in any meta, but I am pretty sure that isn't needed it seems like in your group :) .

Anyway I'll let you enjoy your casual philosophy, just feel it's not really worth anyone's time to push it on the banner or featured deck queue though ;)

Ravnica Allegiance thoughts: Overall I don't much like this set in terms of commander potential. Hardly any cards are relevant to the number of decks that I currently have unfortunately. However there are two cards that I am thinking about as additions to this deck:

Smothering Tithe

This is a fantastic card and one that I think will quickly become a staple in white-heavy EDH decks. It adds mana fixing, ramp, and artifact-relevance. I am strongly considering adding it to the deck - its just a matter of cutting a card - perhaps Twilight Prophet or Kambal, Consul of Allocation although I like both cards quite a lot. If I did find a place for Smothering Tithe it would perhaps open up the potential for adding Karn, Scion of Urza as a replacement to Phyrexian Arena as both a draw engine and artifact beatdown.

Bedevil I have been looking for more answers to Planeswalkers in this deck for a while after coming up against a few Superfriends decks in my meta. This card may be a consideration for that - however Utter End is still probably significantly better as it both exiles and hits enchantments.

What are your thoughts on the new set?

I see you are looking for Planeswalker removal, ever consider Hero's Downfall

Hi Treetom, I haven't to be quite honest. Flexibility is huge with this deck and Hero's Downfall is both limited in what it hits + it can't be tutored with Sunforger . I would run both Bedevil and Utter End instead.

Your deck looks sick and fun to play. Reminds me somewhat of mine. Nice deck building!

I was looking to make a Marchesa deck with some political/Monarch strategies. This deck is definetely a toolbox type of deck with answers to everything which is really nice but one of the main things I'm struggling with is finding wincons/threats to when most likely you end up as one of the two players left through politics. Anything come up through your testing that you liked as win cons?

Thanks BlazinT! Much appreciated.

MattN7498 Thanks for your comment. The nice part of this deck is that there are numerous cards that can win you the game that wouldn't normally be considered wincons. Of course Gisela, Blade of Goldnight equipped with Sunforger gets the job done real quick so does Price of Progress , Rakdos Charm , Deflecting Palm , Bloodchief Ascension , and Master of Cruelties and many others.

If none of those seem to get the job done you may choose to use someone else's wincon with Mirage Mirror , Stolen Strategy , Word of Seizing , Necromancy , or Reverberate

I've played this deck countless times now and I've never worried about closing out games - the later the game goes the more confident that I have a lock on it.