Roses are Black

Commander / EDH Counters Sacrifice UBR (Grixis)

MagicMerlin

Creature (29)

• 1x Aboleth Spawn
• 1x Apprentice Necromancer
• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Braids, Arisen Nightmare
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cytoplast Manipulator
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Hostage Taker
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Iron Apprentice
• 1x Kalain, Reclusive Painter
• 1x Metallic Mimic
• 1x Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ^Flip
• 1x Olivia Voldaren
• 1x Opposition Agent
• 1x Sage of Fables
• 1x Saiba Cryptomancer
• 1x Satoru, the Infiltrator
• 1x Thought Sponge
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
• 1x Zealous Conscripts

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Dack Fayden

Land (34)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Creeping Tar Pit
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x Guildmages' Forum
• 1x High Market
• 1x Island
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Xander's Lounge

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Black Market Connections
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Goblin Bombardment
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Uncivil Unrest
• 1x Unspeakable Symbol

Artifact (13)

• 1x Agatha's Soul Cauldron
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Spawning Pit *list*
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x The Ozolith

Instant (7)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Counterflux
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Feign Death
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Slip Out the Back
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Mark of Mutiny
• 1x Seize the Spotlight

Commander (1)

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My "pet" EDH deck

The main strategy is to get Marchesa, the Black Rose out asap, the list includes a couple of cmc 2 Manarocks as well as Kalain, Reclusive Painter to do so T3. T2 is possible with Sol Ring or Ancient Tomb and a Manarock, but it is unlikely. T4 is still good if combined with an effect that let's Marchesa enter with a +1/+1 counter (like Opal Palace, Sage of Fables) since her second ability also will apply for herselfe and at least saves her from destruction. After that the deck aims to build a board presence with a couple of creatures that generate value when entering or leaving the battlefield as well as at least one sacrifice-outlet. Ideally there is a way to continuously give my creatures +1/+1 counters without the need to attack. For that purpose, the following cards are extremely good powerhouses: Uncivil Unrest (AMAZING when untouched), Unspeakable Symbol (even if it should not be used to often to early) or Metallic Mimic (naming humans). Also cards like Iron Apprentice or Cytoplast Manipulator and even Agatha's Soul Cauldron can protect one fellow companion. Marchesa, the Black Rose and her second effect are the bread and butter of the deck strategy, so there is additional protection like Saiba Cryptomancer, Feign Death or Slip Out the Back. All of those are great because they are cheap and protect her (or another creature) "twice", one time directly and with a +1/+1 counter for later.

The biggest threads are Rest in Peace/Dauthi Voidwalker like effects, since the entire strategy get's disabled once one of those cards hit the battlefield. Unfortunately, grixis has a hard time dealing with enchantments, the best options imo are Feed the Swarm, Chaos Warp and the very funny combination of Zealous Conscripts and Braids, Arisen Nightmare. Also countering the stuff in the first place (even if this deck only runs 2 counterspells) or copying a Reclamation Sage effect with Aboleth Spawn would work.

The deck runs a couple of tutors but no instant-win combo (because I think they are extremely boring). The win-condition is not really focused on single cards but more on "out-valueing" your opponents (only exception is a Gray Merchant of Asphodel that gets sacrificed and resurrected once per turn of each player).

Marchesa obviously enables a theft-themed playstyle, I run some of those options like Mark of Mutiny, Cytoplast Manipulator or Seize the Spotlight but it is no main theme of the deck. Instead there are other nasty interactions like Opposition Agent, Braids, Arisen Nightmare or Grave Pact. Since my board should not care about destruction to much I also included Damnation and Blasphemous Act.

Biggest painpoint while building the deck (at least for my wallet) was the manabase. 3 colored without green requires some investments to ensure that you wont get mana-screwed while not losing tempo to tapped lands. Therefore I play loads of fetch lands, filter lands, any color lands and pseudo-dual-lands. Some of those require to pay life, but most of the time that isn't even a bad deal since you want to trigger Marchesa's dethrone, at least in the first couple of turns. Only very few lands like Castle Locthwain or Phyrexian Tower got some build in utility for the deck. I still keep Creeping Tar Pit in the list, even if it is slow and very rarely turns into a creature, but if it does, it is quite fun because it keeps +1/+1 counters and can be resurrected by marchesa.

I love playing this deck because it got a lot of recurring value, card draw and a lot of flexibility (one simple example: you could use Slip Out the Back to get rid of a lethal attacker). The main strategy is mostly the same every game (Marchesa + Creatures + +1/+1 counters) + a way to sacrifice stuff), but still every game plays out very differently. The deck definitely packs a punch (at least in my playgroups) but it is far from beeing unstoppable. I think it could roughly be a 7.5 (maybe even an 8 or higher if nobody has any answer to the resurrecting effect) on the 1-10 power scale.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	7 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 51 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.76
Tokens	2/2 C Artifact Creature Spawn, Emblem Dack Fayden, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Treasure
Folders	Commander Decks