Thought Sponge
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Thought Sponge

Creature — Sponge

Flash

Thought Sponge enters the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to the greatest number of cards an opponent has drawn this turn.

When Thought Sponge is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, draw cards equal to its power.

scotchtapedsleeves on Marchy March and the Funky Bunch

8 months ago

Hey! Coming over from Reddit to give some advice.

First off, some overarching themes that I notice:

  • Draw vs Card Advantage - A lot of the cards in your "Draw" category don't actually provide any impactful draw, only scrying and cantrips. I'm an enormous fan of Fell Stinger and Thought Sponge. Easily repeatable draw effects that dump cards in your hand. Scry isn't useful unless you're drawing a ton of cards or are doing some topdeck manipulation.

  • Your creatures are too big - Marchesa appreciates small bodies with big effects rather than big bodies with meh effects. For this reason, I would take out Combustible Gearhulk, Vindictive Lich, Vengeful Ancestor, and Gyruda, Doom of Depths. Playing lots of small, cheaper bodies lets your deck fly under the radar until it pops off. It will also give you more targets for Imperial Recruiter.

  • Aristocrats style - Marchesa doesn't play like your typical aristocrats deck, Blood Artist isn't very effective when you're only sacrificing 2-3 creatures a turn. It's also counterintuitive to Dethrone. Abusing ETB and LTB effects is more important than slowly draining opponents

  • Not enough counter distribution - You only have 5 cards under counters and they're all either situational or restrictive. Drop some Thran Vigil type cards in there and you'll go far

Overall, you're too reliant on creatures for draw, removal, etc. Run some efficient draw and removal spells

Next up, cards I recommend removing. I've playtested most of these and they're not nearly as impactful as they seem.

  • Blood Artist - Covered this above, you don't want to gain life
  • Combustible Gearhulk - Opponents will often just take the damage early game and late game you do NOT want to be spending 6 mana on a 6/6 with no impactful ETB.
  • Vindictive Lich - An alright card, not fantastic though. I'm very pressed for 4 drops in my deck so it didn't make the cut.
  • Vengeful Ancestor - Not a very impactful card. You're running Kardur, Doomscourge so this card is just overshadowed.
  • Gyruda, Doom of Depths - 6 mana to maybe cheat in one creature? Not a huge fan. If you want to replace it with a grave robber effect Puppeteer Clique is better. Still not fantastic, it didn't make the cut in my deck
  • Aether Channeler - A fine card, the mode selection is okay. I'm not in love with the effects it gives though
  • Morbid Opportunist - Only one draw a turn? Blasphemy
  • Woe Strider Free sac outlets are nice, but I find I get overrun with them when I have more than 5 in a deck. Also more expensive just to scry? Not a fan
  • Dauthi Voidwalker Will generate so much hate. Unless you can fend off your opponents don't run it
  • Faerie Artisans Not the kind of stealing Marchesa likes, tokens aren't the name of the game here. Something like Zealous Conscripts will take you much further
  • Phantom Steed Same as above, tokens are nice but this isn't a great card
  • Ravenous Chupacabra Too much mana for removal. Black and blue have much cheaper options

There are more that I personally wouldn't run, but that's up to how you like to play your deck.

Now for some cards I would include in every Marchesa deck

  • Thran Vigil - Allows you to immediately sac creatures that come back + an extra layer of protection
  • Uncivil Unrest - Same as above but you can also give haste to fresh casts. Double damage doesn't hurt
  • Fell Stinger - Repeatable, powerful draw on a deathtouch body
  • Thought Sponge - Incredible draw engine. Sac it on opponents turns every time it enters and you'll draw AT LEAST 6 cards a turn cycle.
  • Iron Apprentice - Great 1 drop, can distribute counters if you're having trouble and is sacrifice fodder
  • Rakdos Cackler - sacrifice fodder
  • Flayer of the Hatebound - This card gets a bad rap but it's great in Marchesa
  • Herald of Secret Streams - Wincon alert! This card sneaks under the radar until you hit someone with 25 unblockable damage
  • The Ozolith - Expensive, but who doesn't want to keep their counters for 1 mana!

Of course, please take a look at my deck if you need inspiration. It's pretty casual, but the synergies can be backbreaking if your opponents don't keep you in check. I also have a ton of cards in my maybeboard that I'm considering or have saved for later.

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/guess-whos-back-back-again-and-again/?cat=custom&sort=&cb=1689648313

scotchtapedsleeves on Murders and Acquisitions (Marchesa Superiority)

9 months ago

Ender666666 My land base is definitely something I should improve, but I don't want to spend money on lands...

I've found that I have the highest life total more often than not, pain lands are something I've considered buying for a while. This is my only paper deck atm, so it deserves some investment. It plays very well despite losing dethrone often though. My main powerhouses are creatures that enter with +1/+1 counters that I can immediately sac for benefits, like Thought Sponge and Iron Apprentice.

scotchtapedsleeves on Murders and Acquisitions (Marchesa Superiority)

9 months ago

Hey Ender, been a while! I'm still working hard on my Marchesa deck if you'd like to steal some ideas. As for my suggestions:

Hostage Taker is huge as it can steal artifacts.

Imperial Recruiter Can tutor for most cards in my deck, your creature's powers seem a bit higher.

Iron Apprentice is incredible

Thought Sponge is a fantastic draw engine. I find myself drawing 5+ cards each cycle if opponents don't deal with it

Thran Vigil Adds a +1/+1 counter to every creature that re-enters, protecting them immediately and allowing you to sac them.

Uncivil Unrest Does the same as above but for all creatures that enter, also a wincon

Reins of Power Is a favourite of mine against token players. Sac all your creatures to steal an opponents, then you have the option to sac them for a ton of mana with an Altar or get +1/+1 counters on them and sac them as soon as Marchesa reenters the battlefield in your end step.

Aetherworks Marvel has played fairly well

Scroll of Fate Lets you cheat out lands, enchantments and artifacts as Marchesa only checks the card type when it's on the battlefield

Last One Standing is hilarious, same with Saw in Half

Living Death is an incredible board wipe, especially if you sac all your stuff beforehand

I have over 100 cards in my maybeboard that I haven't gotten around to sorting out, but here are some standouts I'm looking to include.

Imposter Mech seems like it could be incredible. Once you get a +1/+1 counter on Marchesa you don't really want to attack with her, so you can use her to crew the mech each turn

Urborg Scavengers Is repeatable grave hate with some bonuses

Kardur, Doomscourge Is dirty

Fell Stinger is a reliable source of draw, can sacrifice itsself in a pinch

Body Launderer seems incredible. Card selection and recursion

scotchtapedsleeves on Murders and Acquisitions (Marchesa Superiority)

9 months ago

Hey Ender, been a while! I'm still working hard on my Marchesa deck if you'd like to steal some ideas. As for my suggestions:

Hostage Taker is huge as it can steal artifacts.

Imperial Recruiter Can tutor for most cards in my deck, your creature's powers seem a bit higher.

Iron Apprentice is incredible

Thought Sponge is a fantastic draw engine. I find myself drawing 5+ cards each cycle if opponents don't deal with it

Thran Vigil Adds a +1/+1 counter to every creature that re-enters, protecting them immediately and allowing you to sac them.

Uncivil Unrest Does the same as above but for all creatures that enter, also a wincon

Reins of Power Is a favourite of mine against token players. Sac all your creatures to steal an opponents, then you have the option to sac them for a ton of mana with an Altar or get +1/+1 counters on them and sac them as soon as Marchesa reenters the battlefield in your end step.

Aetherworks Marvel has played fairly well

Scroll of Fate Lets you cheat out lands, enchantments and artifacts as Marchesa only checks the card type when it's on the battlefield

Last One Standing is hilarious, same with Saw in Half

Living Death is an incredible board wipe, especially if you sac all your stuff beforehand

I have over 100 cards in my maybeboard that I haven't gotten around to sorting out, but here are some standouts I'm looking to include.

Imposter Mech seems like it could be incredible. Once you get a +1/+1 counter on Marchesa you don't really want to attack with her, so you can use her to crew the mech each turn

Urborg Scavengers Is repeatable grave hate with some bonuses

Kardur, Doomscourge Is dirty

Fell Stinger is a reliable source of draw, can sacrifice itsself in a pinch

Body Launderer seems incredible. Card selection and recursion

Anyway, that concludes my rant. Hope all is good with you!

Max_Hammer on Kadena "Surprise tool for later" …

1 year ago

For those that are curious on the changes I made to the deck

What I'm taking out: Show

What I'm putting in to replace it: Show

I also plan on changing out some other lands, but above are the utility lands only.

multimedia on Your Local Aquarium

2 years ago

Hey, well done on a low budget, nice flavor of sea creatures.

Consider expanding on looting? Looting is draw and then discard.

A reason to play more looting is to have more instants or sorceries in your graveyard for Octavia. Another reason is Wonder which is a card you want to discard and when it's in your graveyard and you control an Island gives all your creatures flying especially Octavia. Pair the flying effect of Wonder with Stormtide Leviathan who's a big sea creature upgrade. He makes all nonflying creatures unable to attack, but Wonder gives all your creatures flying.

Whelming Wave will consistently wreck your opponents creatures and not bounce your creatures including Octavia. Sol Ring and Arcane Signet are staple budget mana rocks in Commander. Kefnet's Monument reduces the mana cost all of your blue creatures and each time you cast a blue creature you get to tap an opponent's creature who could be a blocker.

Sea-Dasher Octopus and Thought Sponge are some small sea creature upgrades. Deep-Sea Kraken is another budget big sea creature upgrade. It's ability to remove time counters from itself whenever any opponent cast a spell is good in multiplayer Commander.

Good luck with your deck.

kpres on

3 years ago

Wow, very cool deck!

For zombies in blue, I would suggest Rooftop Storm and Havengul Lich , but that's all I can think of right now.

Also there are a few dudes with Eternalize that have abilities that scale with their power. Any other 1/1 that gets better when it's bigger would work. Champion of Wits , Thought Sponge , Flesh Carver , Mausoleum Wanderer , Old Man of the Sea .

Also there's this guy that you can exile from your graveyard with the Eternalize ability, and then re-cast from exile. Eternal Scourge

RunningEagle on The Black Rose Never Dies

3 years ago

A must have card is Thought Sponge. With a sac outlet it will be drawing you cards like crazy.

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