LIGHTNINGROD'S GUIDE TO MARCHESA (AND ALSO KINDA JUST LIKE POLITICS DECKS IN GENERAL)
The goal of this deck is to be flexible to any multiplayer game state and to generally keep the target off of yourself at all times, all while faithfully recreating the feeling of creating and ruling your own kingdom. While you've deflected attention from yourself (or appeared harmless--note the painland subtheme!) you can accrue resources, easily manage your life total, and generally keep yourself in a strong position while you prepare to make a big move. The absolute most important part of playing this deck is preparation. Most of the wincons and power plays require the player to carefully read the board state and pick the right moment to execute, or everything falls flat. Except for maybe Sorin and Necromancer's Covenant, there aren't really any massive easy bombs in the deck--and that's on purpose, because bombs in multiplayer draw hate! Cards like Last Laugh and Plague of Vermin can easily win you the game if you, ahem, play your cards right.
Tips:
ITS OKAY IF YOU LOSE THE MONARCHY. You can get it back easily by recasting your commander, there are plenty of good sources of card advantage in the deck (plus non-monarch marchesa synergizes with skullclamp!) and it's often better to have the rest of the table fighting over it.
WHY PAINLANDS? Because they're awesome! And also because there's a decent amount of lifegain in this deck, and while lifegain in general is considered a weak strategy, if you're at 100 life when everyone else is at 25 you will get hated on. There's also a fair amount of synergy with them in the deck, especially Darien. Note: occasionally, you'll get burned and only draw painlands as your mana sources. That just sort of happens. Hope you draw into your lifegain or prevention. Shrug.
WHY THE COUNTERSPELLS? Because they're awesome too! This deck currently packs three counterspells, with a few more being tested. This is both a lovely surprise and a way to shore up those occasional big plays. They should almost always be used defensively. As discussed below, a lot of the interactive cards can function as self-defense or as an intervening measure, but if you're going aggressive and using Withering Boon on another player's Solemn Simulacrum, you're not only wasting a card, but you're also being an asshole, and people don't like assholes. In fact, if you're an asshole, don't play this deck. Cuz you'll lose.
WHY [SEEMINGLY WEAK OR USELESS CARD]? Because accruing resources while diverting attention is a really thin line to walk, and plan A of this deck is to eventually get too well defended and well populated to be stopped. Cards like that are in the deck because you're basically creating an economy on your side of the field, and the efficiency of that economy is paramount.
WHY [SEEMINGLY AGGRESSIVE AND OVERPOWERED CARD]? Well yeah, that would go against the theme, wouldn't it. And the fact is that the planeswalkers, Heliod, Necromancer's Covenant, and a few others are occasionally dead draws. However, each one fills a vital role in the deck. 3 walkers is a lot, especially in edh, but each one covers so much ground in the above ultra-efficient economy that not including them would seriously weaken the deck overall. The trick to casting them is twofold, (and both of these will be further elaborated on later): 1. Make sure the walker will not be the biggest threat on the field. With 2 of the 3 (Sorin being the exception) this is relatively easy to accomplish. With Sorin, it's very difficult to stick the landing, but as a source of card advantage and spot removal he's invaluable. To get him out, you usually have to rely on 2. casting bombs as responses to threats. Players will be much more forgiving of scary cards like Sorin if you cast him when, say, another planeswalker is about to ult, and then minus him. All the walkers have threat negation abilities: sorin's minus, elspeth's plus, and pretty much all of gideon--remember Marchesa's deathtouch tokens!
KNOW HOW LAST LAUGH, SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, AND GRIP OF CHAOS WORK. These three relatively niche cards are obscenely powerful in this deck and can, in order, end games, save games, and ruin games better than any other card that your playgroup won't hate you for playing. However, once again, all three require preparation and foresight. Last Laugh is in the right circumstances a one-card combo that leads to a boardwipe and multiple game losses the turn it gets cast, Solitary Confinement combos with the monarchy (or with marchesa and skullclamp) to make you untouchable (at the expense of card advantage!) and Grip of Chaos basically pulls down the Iron Curtain and completely derails the game, probably guaranteeing you (and whoever else gets lucky) a planeswalker ult. This deck is built to take advantage of weird cards like this, but they are NEVER automatic wins on the draw, or even automatic coups in your favor. The deck itself is fragile, so playing any of these at the wrong time and incurring hate or appearing too powerful will be very bad news and might even cost you the game.
Which brings us to our next tip: IF YOU'RE ATTACKING, YOU'RE EITHER ABOUT TO LOSE OR ABOUT TO WIN. While some instances (Necromancer's Covenant) are basically wincons on the attack, unless you can win the game in one turn or have serious high ground (see below) you should never be on the offensive. The deck makes a lot of tokens, but mostly for shenanigans (Springjack Pasture + Trading Post is the dream combo) or for defense. If you swing with them, or any creature, you're going to draw hate that you won't be able to handle. If you ever become the biggest problem on the field, you will often not be able to defend yourself.
However, KNOW WHEN TO ATTACK. Despite the various explosive situations that the deck allows you to engineer, the eventual plan is to have enough defensive enchantments and/or tokens on the field that you can start steamrolling. The window for when it's smart to go on the offensive is very small, usually only one turn if it happens at all. If you get too big too soon or too late, you risk being unable to handle the crackback. Ideally, you should start attacking the moment your token army gets too big to ignore--no sooner, no later.
Furthermore, IF PEOPLE AREN'T BEING SMART, YOU'LL HAVE PROBLEMS. The suite of interaction is designed around a field of rational humans doing rational human things, including attacking people who threaten them. If someone isn't utilizing proper threat assessment or if the game grinds to a halt (often because of Grip of Chaos, lol) then, while you can certainly survive, you'll have a lot of dead draws, and you have a much greater risk of being labeled a threat. I come from a meta where every attack is remembered and retributed in time. Yours may not be like that, but I'd say it goes without saying that Atarka attacking you now is a more pressing issue than Marchesa making Goat tokens.
As an aside, an indestructible or protected Darien goes infinite with Last Laugh and at least two other creatures on the board. This combo can be stopped whenever you want by reordering the Darien and Last Laugh triggers. Use this information wisely, and be grateful you don't have to do the mid-game mind math I did to figure out how it works and if its interruptible.
Finally, as stupid as it is, HAVE FUN. This deck isn't gonna stand up competitively and will have serious trouble winning a two player game. It's meant to create fun, healthy, and interesting multiplayer games. Most political decks work on the M.O. of curating a game instead of playing one, and mine is no exception. On top of that, the deck is designed to look underpowered, so a lot of times it will feel underpowered. Just trust in the process and the economy, and don't sweat it too much if your opponents are powering out 25/25s or casting a billion spells a turn. If you play the deck right, none of that is headed your way anyhow.
