Actually, this is an important thought. Whenever you make a decision about a card, the actual game effects are important, but so is what that card does to behavior at the table. This is true of both opponent behavior and my behavior. The deck may be stronger objectively with the addition of things like Wrath of God or Damnation, since having them in the deck gives powerful options, but I played them too often. I should have held them in almost every situation I played them in. It changed my behavior, and that made the deck work less optimally than it could. That same idea can be brought to the play of your opponents. Opponents do not overreach when there is a threat of a board wipe. I want to be patient and wait things out as much as possible, and I want them to overreach as much as possible. So board wipes were out, even thought they are VERY powerful. Every choice should be like that.

Okay this game was savage, I'm now banned from playing this deck,(Ghartu token/counters, Ezuri unblockable, Heliod swarm). The Ghartu eventually amassed and army of massive tokens with counters and a bunch of outlast creatures on the field, we flashed out our best friend,Selfless Squire, and stopped 94 damage. Exiled his only blocker and swung for lethal. Then the Heliod player scooped because he didn't want to deal with the boardstate, the Ezuri player had a Kalonion Hydra and several 10/10 squids (Chasm Skulker and Ezuri) we used Dawn Charm to prevent the damage (Up to 198 on Squire). Then used Act of Aggression to steal the Kalonnion on our turn, swing with Squire (Who then was doubled) and with his Hydra. He stack blocked and survived with 2 health. We held onto an Anethomancer from the early game and he happened to have a reliquary tower and Llanowar reborn. We dropped it to a fit of hysteria and swear words. I will let you guys know any more funny stories if I get to play again but that may be it for a time!

Has War Cadence been considered? A sort of reverse Ghostly Prison that can be used with other people's attacking creatures seems up this deck's alley as a swarm complement to Key to the City, with the downside that's it's overall more expensive and less versatile (also maybe more aggravating but I'm not sure); I dunno if there's room for it.

Anyway, damn cool deck you got here, keep it up

Wow, War Cadence is not one I have seen before. Very interesting. I am going to get one and try it. I have not yet wrapped my head around it, but it looks like it has potential. I wish that it was a land, but it still may prove to be good. Thanks Coward_Token.

@ Sensei/precociousapprentice, I've been look at this deck as a type of catch all deck and really reading what you say to get myself as appropriate in a mind set as I can to optimally pilot this deck. But I was curious if there are answers to some fringe decks like Mill. We have a deck or two floating around my lgs that I haven't had to go up against yet but don't see an out for us there. I'd love to hear your thoughts

I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I am a student still, not yet a master. :-)

Mill is not present at all in my meta. I will have to consider this. Give me a bit to do some research and consider things. It is now on my list of to-do items. I have a feeling it will be similar to fighting combo/control decks, but I am not really that familiar with them, so I will have to check into it.

To ensure that it remains pertinent to you, tell me about the mill deck you face. How does it actually accomplish the mill win? Is there a deck list I can look at?

precociousapprentice I have at last printed out and commanded the armies of our Queen!

I've got in a total of five 1v1 against my brother so far, playing a list identical to yours. I've gone 2-3 but have not been discouraged as the deck is built for multiplayer and my political talents are of no use when facing a single assailant.

I learned a lot. But still have much to learn. I was able to understand and see the card choices and how they work, though I did end up losing often due to my inexperience with the deck. Tutors will be especially tricky to figure out.

All that said, the deck puts up a hell of a fight, win or lose, and every game won or lost was close and extremely fun. The deck played much better facing the aggressive Kaalia and Zurgo decks, and somewhat weaker against fast combo and mill.

Ahhh yes! I play against mill to! Excellent! We can find ways to use their attacks against them together! Here is my brother's deck: To Mill a Mockingbird. Not necessarily a typical example of a mill deck but you'll find some common tropes in there. Additionally, here is my combo deck that also mills with Altar of the Brood out when combo-ing: IntruZur Alarm | Zur EDH. Those are the mill enemies I face anyway.

W3R3PLATYPUS, after looking into some common Mill decks, as well as the decks listed above by Suns_Champion, I think I have an initial recommendation. This comes from the basic premise of this deck, take what they do best, that thing that creates the excess that the deck uses to win, and punish them for it. Unfortunately, I don't yet have a way of doing that suddenly and surprisingly, but that may not matter.

First, it seems like the best Mill decks are actually just combo decks. They set up a situation where a few cards played will Mill the opponent's entire deck, usually utilizing a few key permanents to create a Mill engine that can be made infinite. Many do not have much else for wincons, and basically depend on some amount of overlapping combos. There are a few deck types that use Mill as a secondary win, but many of those are already susceptible to the weapons of this deck, so they are not really as much of a problem. Our pillow fort, our Aikido wins against go wide strategies, and our control should all keep those decks off balance enough already. It seems like the Mill decks that will be the biggest problem are decks that basically ignore the opponent until the wincon combo is assembled. These make our pillow fort mostly useless. They typically utilize some infinite combo for mana by dropping creatures in an infinite loop. This suggests a way to combat them.

First, I don't think that typical Mill protection is really worthwhile. You could play an Eldrazi titan, but it would not otherwise be useful. Cards like Feldon's Cane are a finite solution to what is often an infinite problem, and can't reliably protect you. I suggest that you don't go after either of these strategies.

When facing a dedicated Mill deck, go aggressive. When a deck does best by ignoring the opponent, keep them from ignoring you. Attack. Put the pressure on. Race them to the win. This deck has some speed, so use it. Be proactive. Aggressively remove combo pieces, both from the battlefield as well as out of the deck with Hide/Seek. Take out central combo pieces and hamstring them. Even if they have backup combos, make it harder to stumble into a combo. Try to get Solitary Confinement out to keep from being targeted. Without even changing things in the deck, you can change how you typically play, and and you can punish them for their typical game plan.

For changes to the list that are good options, changes that will make the deck good against more than just mill, I would suggest playing cards that punish creatures coming into play. Suture Priest, Trespasser's Curse, Rampaging Ferocidon are all powerful against many strategies, and with any of those out, you can basically shut down almost all of the Mill combos in the listed decks, as well as most of the mill strategies in many of the decks I looked at. The decks that could be created without a creature cycle typically use infinite mana for an large X spell. You could try Parallectric Feedback for these decks. Lastly, you could play Island Sanctuary to elect not to draw on your draw step. This could be used as a pillow fort card, but would also allow you to keep playing even with no cards in your deck.

In any case, I think that Mill is a pretty corner case strategy that is hard to make work very consistently, they are mostly non-interactive combo decks with an infinite Mill wincon, and going aggressive to put them on a short clock, playing some pillow fort that protects against Mill, being proactive about eliminating the combo pieces with your control, and adding a few cards that work on multiple strategies but that will kill their ability to go infinite, that should help take care of Mill.

Also Suns_Champion, I think that your losses potentially are a result of the fact that combo, especially Mill, is often stronger against a single opponent since they don't have to outrace multiple players all at once, and this deck is often weaker against a single opponent since there is no offense to piggyback before the non-damage wincon is dropped. This deck was never meant to play under these conditions. Going 2-3 in this situation with a deck that you had never played is actually surprisingly good. I am not discouraged by your performance at all. Nice work. Try adding another opponent or two and I bet the balance shifts dramatically.

I love the theme of this deck! It avoids my biggest problem with grouphug style decks, they seem to focus more on taking advantage of poor threat assessment from other players than actual politics. However, given my collection and disposable income, this deck is all but a pipe dream. Do you have any thoughts outside the obvious (e.g. cutting expensive lands) to get the deck down to a couple hundred bucks without killing the theme? Thanks!

NotEaster, check out the update I posted on 11/13/17. We should start our conversation there, and get more specific if you have questions on the things discussed. It is definitely possible to go budget. Or at least compared to this list. No one tell my wife what these cards are worth, OK?

I read through the section, and there was a lot of helpful advice! I'm gonna be spending a few weeks on this list (I plan on ordering the cards I need with some of my tax return!), so I'll probably be dropping back in with a question or two, and maybe asking you to take a look at whatever list I come up with if you have the time. Regardless, thanks for putting up a list and guide to a cool archetype I didn't know existed, and for taking the time to offer me some help!

While we're on the topic of card prices, I assume that's the reason you've got Cruel Tutor over Imperial Seal? (400+ bucks for an inferior Vampiric Tutor? Jeez.)

(Also I guess you've intentionally rejected Grim Tutor & Diabolic Tutor for their extra cost and Diabolic Intent because the deck's only expendable creatures are Ophiomancer tokens.)

Coward_Token, that is exactly right. I would potentially run them all, but the tutor suite I have is pretty good, and I have a hard time with the extra $800 for a slight optimization.

Hey, back again! I've got a list cooking, based off of yours and a budget-friendly version I found by another user (he credited you, the list is quite similar). I have some questions.

Are there any acceptable cheap(er) sideboard cards to replace Yawgmoth's Will, or should I scrap the effect entirely? All the similar effects I could find would only hit certain kinds of cards (e.g. creatures or instants+sorceries), which I'm worried could undermine the card's purpose.

On a similar note, at what point do wheel effects not become efficient enough to replace Wheel of Fortune? Reforge the Soul and Wheel of Fate are similar, but they both have significant downsides (especially seeing as the miracle cost on reforge is basically irrelevant).

Finally, I'm wondering if Solitary Confinement is too dependent on cards I'm not sure I want to shill out for, like Tithe. I've considered Phyrexian Arena, but that card must have been considered by you when making the deck, so its exclusion makes me nervous. Was the card advantage it gave too threatening to fit the deck?

Oh and I'm glad I could point out War Cadence to you; have you yet you try out Brutal Hordechief as well?

Its active ability is pretty expensive but has similar applications as Cadence by forcing the defending player to focus all their blockers on an inconsequential attacker, letting the rest of them trough. In addition, it can be used as a sort of in-combat removal by e.g. forcing an opponent's Platinum Angel to block a Snake token or even during other people's fights by using the defending player's creatures to take out a threatening attacker even though it would be disadvantageous for both sides (although the latter might be politically counterproductive by encouraging people to not attack each other and/or only attack you).

Its attacking trigger can't be abused too hard by the deck right now (especially with Master of Cruelties; too bad the trigger isn't delayed until after combat eh?), but you do have decent synergy in the tokens from Marchessa & Kazuul, plus the entire creature board when Insurrection is wished for.

Coward_Token, War Cadence and Brutal Hordechief are very different. I can't use Brutal Hordechief on other players' turns. I am only allowed to use it to aid myself, and this deck is not optimized for it. It also forces blocks, it does not make things unblockable. That means that I can't use it politically or as an Aikido play. It is just a heavy threat from me, and can never enhance other players' games. Very different cards. I considered it, and it doesn't fit, in my opinion.

NotEaster, Yawgmoth's Will is just a mass recursion for dramatic swing turns. Since my swings are mostly sorcery and instant based, I would consider Mizzix's Mastery. I have considered it myself in this list, but went for the broader card. Sometimes I consider the change anyway. If yours are not sorcery and instant based, consider something like Replenish (too expensive), or maybe Living Death. Depends on your list. You just want something to allow you to replay your big turns at a later time if they end up in your graveyard.

I would go Reforge the Soul to replace Wheel of Fortune, even without the miracle. Swings are not possible with suspend. There are also some bigger draw spells in black that may be good.

Phyrexian Arena is not too powerful, it is just not as swingy as I like. I run Necropotence, more powerful and more swingy. I advocate for Phyrexian Arena for card draw for those who don't run other, more subtle but more swingy, card draw.

Why wouldn't the Hordechief's ability be availabe on other people's turns? It doesn't have the usual "Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery." clause, and one of its errata says

"In a multiplayer game, if more than one player activates Brutal Hordechiefs activated ability on the same turn, the controller of the last ability to resolve will choose how any creatures controlled by players who didnt resolve this ability will block."

I don't see how the above would be relevant if the ability couldn't be used at Instant-speed

Now, even if I'm right here it's debatable whether it's good enough since as you pointed out it doesn't provide actual evasion, only "pseudo-evasion" that requires one or more (expendable) attacking creatures to tie up blockers so that others can come trough

Sorry, I wasn't totally clear. You are right, and I had partially misinterpreted the activated ability. You are right and that can be used on other players' turns. The damage ability just makes it a threat, and the activated ability still forces blocks, not allows the attacker to go unblocked. I still don't feel it really fits as well as others. It definitely could be used to control how attack phases go, but it is expensive, and does not seem as easy to use politically.

Hey again! I've been tinkering and I think I've got a list that's cleaned up enough to be seen now:

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/marchesa-aikido-attempt/

If you have the time to glance over it I'd love to hear suggestions. I tried my best to replace expensive cards with similar versions while not making major changes to the structure of the deck. If any of my replacements stand out as questionable to you, I'd love to know.

Thanks for all the help, not just replying to my comments, but in writing a helpful primer and sharing an interesting deck with the world!

Late night thought: Have you considered Arch of Orazca? I was reading through the comment archive and it seemed as though it might solve some of your problems with Sea Gate Wreckage as a late game draw engine.

My late night thought was misguided, on further consideration. I think the activation cost is too expensive for the "can usually be paid for with excess mana" bonus that other overcoated effects like Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip have.

That was my initial thought, NotEaster. That doesn't mean that my initial thought was correct, and so I was reconsidering, and allowing myself time to think. I do love utility lands that mesh well with the needs of the deck, but that is a high cost for that ability.

Thank you, this is an extremely fun deck, very cool indeed.I just built my own Queen Marchesa, one quite thoroughly inspired by yours, and its really upped some fun interactions in my Meta. Unfortunately, the cost of some of the tutors has made me set them aside, but they will be replaced with transmute cards, a fantastic addition! Thanks again, this is working hilariously in my Meta.

(https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/queen-marchesa-aikido-playing-with-fire/) (Here if you want to check it out)

I have to compliment you on your deck style and design - it has been a regular source of inspiration for my own deck. I think it is also part of what makes Queen Marchesa such a great commander - that you can build her in truly unique and stylistic manners.

I recently added Backlash into my deck and it has been doing work in my playtesting. I was wondering if you have playtested Wound Reflection and Mirage Mirror. I've found Wound Reflection is an absolute powerhouse and actually doesn't draw that much hate. It quite often catches people completely unawares.

Mirage Mirror I'm still trying out and was wondering if you have tested it. Its versatility has really impressed me so far - copying Ghostly Prison or copying a Sword of Feast and Famine I've just felt a lot safer when I've had it out.

Lastly I'm thinking of adding another fog effect in my deck. Which would you choose between Dawn Charm and Batwing Brume?

Older20, I like the suggestions.

Wound Reflection is pretty great, but I find it pretty expensive. I have not tried it, so I could be totally wrong. I would worry about the hate it would bring, but it could be similar to Duelist's Heritage, leading to hate against the original damage dealer, not my enhancement. The fact that it is opponents instead of players makes it pretty nice.

Mirage Mirror is a card I have been trying to make work in other decks. I had it in my Sente: The Politics and Metaphor of Stones deck for a bit, but it just didn't jive well. I can see it being very versatile in this deck. Clone in Mardu is a really great idea for Aikido. My only hesitation is that it doesn't do anything by itself. I guess the majority of the deck doesn't do anything by itself, so that might not be a problem, but that is my worry. I should try it out.

As for Dawn Charm vs Batwing Brume, I would say it depends on what you need. The modal spell nature of Dawn Charm is really amazing, especially in Mardu. Counterspells in white are the best. Dawn Charm has been in the deck since the beginning, and Batwing Brume earned a place later. That being said, if you need another wincon, and your meta has a decent amount of go-wide decks, Batwing Brume is really quite good. In the end, I would lean Dawn Charm unless your meta is full of tokens, then go Batwing Brume.

StuffyM, the Transmute cards are amazing! Cheap. Modal. Tutor. If you can't get the common tutors, load up on Transmute!