Mama, just killed a man

Commander / EDH* Aikido Pillow Fort RBW (Mardu)

shermhcw

Instant (19)

• 1x Arcbond
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Comeuppance
• 1x Crib Swap
• 1x Deflecting Palm
• 1x Delirium
• 1x Despark
• 1x Fire Covenant
• 1x Fork
• 1x Hide / Seek
• 1x Lapse of Certainty
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Price of Progress
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Reiterate
• 1x Shattering Blow
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Tithe

Artifact (10)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Crawlspace
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sunforger
• 1x Talisman of Conviction
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Sorin Markov

Land (37)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dark Depths
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Glacial Chasm
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mistveil Plains
• 7x Mountain
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 2x Plains
• 6x Plains
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Sunbaked Canyon
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Thespian's Stage

Creature (9)

• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1x Master of Cruelties
• 1x Silent Arbiter
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Vampire Nighthawk
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Commander (1)

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Acidic Soil
• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Divine Reckoning
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Open the Armory
• 1x Pain's Reward
• 1x Planar Cleansing
• 1x Repay in Kind
• 1x Reverse the Sands
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Vindicate
• 1x Wrath of God

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Celestial Convergence
• 1x Delaying Shield
• 1x Force Bubble
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Phyrexian Unlife
• 1x Smoke
• 1x Solemnity

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LONG MAY SHE REIGN

Politics - Aikido - Control

I'll spare you the Sun Tzu quotes and what not and get down to the nitty gritty.

Intro

Why do you like playing Magic? Most likely because you enjoy playing the actual card game. Casting spells, controlling creatures, making decisions, drawing cards and the whole 9. This deck is unique because we want our opponent to do all of these things and maybe even have fun. The strategy is simple but complicated. Build a pillowfort, let your opponents do their thing, then use their resources against them later in the game for the win.

This deck is fun because at the start of the game and maybe even halfway through the game, you won't be too sure of your win condition. Your win condition relies directly on your opponent and the actions they take throughout the game. This deck forces you to think constantly, consider all possible scenarios and try to capitalize when the timing is right. For me, this is the perfect storm.

Politics

Queen Marchesa introduces the monarch, which is a great political tool that allows you influence the attacks of other players. You either benefit from drawing an extra card, or pass the monarch to an opponent and hope other players attack them to gain the monarch.

Pillowfort

It's important to find a balance between an effective pillowfort and not annoying your opponent. We do not want to raise any alarms. We want to deter the opponent from attacking but not annoy them too much. What's annoying? Stopping someone from playing their deck, or making someone feel like they aren't playing Magic.

Solemnity + Glacial Chasm prevents all combat damage to you until one piece is removed

Solemnity + Delaying Shield works the same way

Solemnity + Force Bubble works the same way

Solemnity + Phyrexian Unlife works the same way

Delaying Shield + Mirage Mirror also works the same way

We can use budget tutors like Beseech the Queen, Weathered Wayfarer and Idyllic Tutor to get most of the combo pieces.

Stax

This build includes light stax to control the combat phase as well as slow down/slightly annoy our opponents. I may remove stax if too many folk complain about it. We would rather be viewed as a non-threat rather than the guy slowing down the whole board.

Ghostly Prison taxes your opponents if they choose to attack you.

Crawlspace and Silent Arbiter slow down the combat phase and give you favorable blocking matchups.

Smoke and Thalia, Heretic Cathar slow down your opponents and annoy them

Win Cons

The way to win with this deck is to make it to then end of the game and kinda figure it out. Half the time that I think I'm winning I end up losing and half the time I think I'm losing I end up winning out of nowhere. This is what makes the deck so fun for me.

Individual Cards + Combos

Sunforger too much good stuff

Price of Progress + Reverberate is more powerful than you think

Torment of Hailfire + any damage doubler

Master of Cruelties sets opponents life at 1 if they don't respect him

Sorin Markov sets opponents life to 10 if they don't respect him

Pain's Reward start a bidding war with someone and hopefully lose a bunch of life. Then repay in kind and drop everyone down to your life total.

Deflecting Palm is my favorite bluff ever. I leave open and dare them to attack

Comeuppance does the same thing but for all attackers and damage sources

Backlash can kill an opponent in they pump their creature too much

Fling your marit lage at someone when they try to exile it

Repay in Kind Pillowfort didn't work out this time and you are low on life? So is everyone else.

Reverse the Sands same as above

Rakdos Charm works against go wide strategies

Celestial Convergence my playgroup likes to grind things out and this clock gets things moving in a stalled game.

Reiterate + Reverberate and Fork are versatile answers that can be found with sunforger. Double one of your wincon spells. Copy an opponents counterspell and target their counter on the stack.

CREDIT

Based off this primer by alexjustdoit and seabody http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/primer-political-subterfuge-marchesa-aikido/

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	98
Avg. CMC	3.15
Tokens	Assassin 1/1 B w/ Haste, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Marit Lage, Shapeshifter 1/1 C, Soldier 1/1 W, The Monarch