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Resistance is Feudal

Commander / EDH* Aikido Casual Control Multiplayer Pillow Fort RBW (Mardu)

Philoctetes

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Land (35)

Enchantment (10)

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Artifact (11)

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Commander: Queen Marchesa

Creature (16)

Sorcery (5)

Resistance is Feudal

UPDATE: This deck is NO LONGER ACTIVE! I acquired a very cool alternate art Zurgo Helmsmasher and have changed commanders. I have uploaded that deck here:

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The Spirit of Self-Sacrifice

Commander / EDH Philoctetes

SCORE: 2 | 110 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Hello and welcome to my Queen Marchesa list! I have played The Queen (Long May She Reign) since she first came out in Conspiracy: Take the Crown. I fell in love with the Gothic Art and the concept of The Monarch rule, which I felt would create interesting political games, which I excel at and are my favorite playstyle. She has taken many iterations over the past year+, the only constant being a pillow fort sub-theme. She started as a Mardu blink deck, transformed into Mardu "Good-Stuff" when I moved the blink package to a Ruhan deck, and then for the longest time she was a heavy Rakdos-Punisher/Insanity style deck, going heavy B-R for the inspirational card and it's ilk, Havoc Festival. Even with that interesting theme in mind, I just found that I didn't enjoy playing her as much as other decks in my roster.

I was debating dismantling the deck until I happened upon a very well made Aikido Marchesa list by precociousapprentice - Queen Marchesa: Politics, Aikido, and Control. From his Primer:

From precociousapprentice and his primer Queen Marchesa: Politics, Aikido, and Control -

"Queen Marchesa: Politics, Aikido, and Control is a political control deck designed for multiplayer casual play, especially in metas with a relatively large and rotating pool of players. It plays with a style in the theme of reality TV shows like Survivor in that making it to the end is as much a function of not making yourself a target as it is about moment to moment personal strength, and then once you have made it to the end, you steal victory out of the jaws of defeat.

This deck is designed to play politics a little differently than most. Many people understand politics as manipulation, trickery, and obfuscation, making alliances and breaking them, hoping to gain advantage against an inferior or unprepared intellect. That is not the extent of politics, and this deck is not meant for that. There is a philosophy in chess theory that it is rarely to your advantage to attempt to trick an opponent, for if their skill is equal or superior to yours, it won't work, and you are likely the one getting tricked. Instead, you should create board states that force your opponents to make moves or take positions that are their most rational choice. Your overarching strategy is to encourage the truly good players to not align their resources against you, but to spend resources accomplishing your goals. Your entire goal is to place no obstacle, whether material or psychological, in the way of them helping you to win. You accomplish this by making them, their deck, and their plays into your resources for winning the game, and for them to aid you willingly in this goal, not through manipulation, but because that is their best possible play."

After that introduction and further exploration of the very well put together list, I was hooked. this is my philosophy about multiplayer magic in general, and I aim to encourage cold-minded rationality in my playgroup already. If you love political strategy, I encourage you to more fully explore precociousapprentice's decklist - it is truly a masterclass on the archetype. Queen Marchesa: Politics, Aikido, and Control

That being said, my list varies from his, with a sub-package of some of the "Rakdos Insanity" still remaining, centered now around Repercussion and Heartless Hidetsugu. I will go further in depth on my choices and why below in my card choice panels.

Card Choices

The Queen is her own form of card draw, so while I typically look to include 10+ card draw spell in a deck, the number is under here. I do have a couple of cantrips in the deck which I will detail in other categories. I included Scry or Loot effects here as well, as there are often multiple options in hand to discard that don't feel like losing assets. It is notable that Solitary Confinement requires good repeatable draw to function properly, but The Monarchy really assists there.
Ten ramp spells is my go-to for most decks, but this deck has an insanely low curve. I have prioritized 2 mana ramp spells to turbo out T3 Queen Marches|Marchesa. Only other ramp is Ashnod's Altar which is powerful for reasons detailed under "Sac Outlets", in addition to enabling some powerful turns with our few token producers.
Pillow Fort is critical to playing our political game. Most Queen Marchesa decks feature this category, for good reason. To develop control over The Monarchy, we need to create clear incentives and deterrents, the proverbial Carrot and the Stick. Pillow Fort effects typically act as a tax on resources, making the prospect of attacking you seem less worthwhile compared to other folks. Stage one of our political framework, this is usually the most obvious set of incentives. I believe that table talk is important here - make sure people know why attacking you doesn't make sense. Like Geo-politics, a clear set of conditions allows other state actors to make the most rational decisions.
Rattlesnake Effects are part 2 of your political deterrents. These are somewhat similar to Pillow Fort effects, but much more overt in their nature. Attack us and suffer the consequences.
Aikido effects are best described by the card Deflecting Palm. Use their own aggression against them. This is part 3 of your political deterrent. Never broadcast your hand, but similarly never miss an opportunity to make a statement that the rest of the field CANNOT mistake. Never leave an explicit challenge unpunished, never fail to live up to your threats, and never cross the terms you've created under an alliance.

This category includes fogs, redirects, copies, and threaten effects.

A good politician knows when it's time to make friends. These tools will allow you to influence the table more proactively by conferring some boon on another player. Be careful not to swing too hard into bed with one player, however - you cannot tie yourself down with foreign alliances. Subtle application is the best application, moderation in all things my friends. You know you've done it right when your patron feels like they won out on the deal, the target of your patron is mad at them and not you, and you spent nearly no resources to coordinate it all.
These are your win conditions, and some holdovers from my previous iterations of the deck. A light touch is needed - no one wants to deal with that unpredictable Rakdos player at the table. Don't show your true colors until you can remove some heads.
Necessary for all decks, these are some removal spells I will have access to. These can often act as Aikido or Carrot effects by virtue of your table talk. It's all about framing, use your words like resources.

I chose to include some Mass Removal as a fail safe button, but often you aim to let boards develop and manage the chaos. "Chaos is a Ladder" after all.

There are several categories wrapped up here. Every deck needs cards to fill gaps, graveyard hate, tutors, incidental lifegain, etc.
I won't elaborate on this too much. I tried to keep colorless sources to a minimum with the mana intensive low curve. I don't own ABUR Duals, my fetches and shocks are stretched across 12 EDH decks, and I love Karoo lands. Total of 8 CIPT lands, which I don't want to increase. Land count is low (34 mana producing), so is the curve, and lots of land tutors in various forms.

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NEW COMMANDER — Dec. 7, 2017
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Hello All! Thanks for the continued interest in my deck!

I have acquired a very cool alternate art copy of Zurgo Helmsmasher, and as a result have converted my Aikido deck to be piloted by him. You can find that here:

deck chart

The Spirit of Self-Sacrifice

Commander / EDH Philoctetes

SCORE: 8 | 3 COMMENTS | 1540 VIEWS | IN 3 FOLDERS

NEW COMMANDER — Dec. 7, 2017
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First Round Edits — Sept. 19, 2017
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Revision 3 See all

(7 years ago)

Top Ranked
  • Achieved #64 position overall 7 years ago
Date added 7 years
Last updated 7 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

5 - 0 Mythic Rares

43 - 0 Rares

32 - 0 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.89
Tokens Assassin 1/1 B w/ Haste, Gold, Rat 1/1 B, Snake 1/1 B, Spirit 1/1 C, Monarch Emblem
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