Vindictive Lich

Creature — Zombie Wizard

When Vindictive Lich dies, choose one or more. Each mode must target a different player.

• Target opponent sacrifices a creature.
• Target opponent discards two cards.
• Target opponent loses 5 life.

Combos

• Stronghold Assassin + Vindictive Lich

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

Discussion (50)

scotchtapedsleeves on Marchy March and the Funky Bunch

9 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

Wickked on Henzie's true power

1 year ago

I really like the deck. It looks very similar to mine. My first thought is that you have a bunch of lands that come in tapped. A bunch of the dual lands are relatively cheap these days. I like to use the Shock, Pain, Filter, Battlebond, Check, and Slow lands. They come out untapped and can tap for 2 colors. Lands are always a great investment for your collection, they make your deck run allot smoother and once u have them you can use them in whatever deck of those colors. There are a couple of creatures I would also suggest if your looking to upgrade Pathbreaker Ibex can overrun your opponents defenses, Archon of Cruelty is a great blitz target as well as huge threat if left on the field to swing a couple times, Vindictive Lich is an amazing card in this deck in so many ways. The deck looks like a buncha fun as is, and I'm happy to see people brewing with Henzie's unique playstyle. Heres a link to my deck so you can give me some critiques. Let me know what you think of my suggestions.

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Gangsta's Paradise - Henzie "Toolbox" Torre

Commander / EDH Wickked

SCORE: 7 | 13 COMMENTS | 670 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

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Kripkenstein on Tergrid EDH

1 year ago

I can really recommend Vindictive Lich for this deck. He forces sacrifices and discards. Also Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos are really good. Priest of Forgotten Gods is a very good sac outlet for this deck, as it ramps, draws cards and forces sacrifices as well.

I use them in my Teysa EDH Teysa Karlov Commander which has a similar theme.

cac1212 on Teysa Karlov

2 years ago

Ok I messed up and can't edit my comment so I'll continue from where I left off:

...Of course all commander decks need some good card draw, and black gives us plenty of options. We have plenty of access to cards like Night's Whisper which is always good, but since we want to kill our creatures we generally prefer to opt for things like Village Rites or repeatable triggers (which Teysa doubles for extra value) like Midnight Reaper or Dark Prophecy. These will help us get to the pieces we need to win. If you start off a combo such as Reveillark + Karmic Guide (a well-known combo that many player will try to stop very quickly. Consider removing this if your opponents tell you that your degenerate deck is only played by beta cucks) with repeatable card draw on board, you'll run into what you need to win eventually.

I personally like to (or maybe need to) run LOTS of removal to make sure our opponents don't trample all over us before we can set up our finishing turns. Targeted removal is my drink of choice, but good board clears like Merciless Eviction (which unfortunately doesn't let our creatures die if we cant sac them all first) and Austere Command can be easily subbed in if you find yourself going against lots of wide boards.

We love our recursion in this deck. All of our petty fodder and nasty big-hitters like Kokusho, the Evening Star (a card that can be subbed out for a tutor for a more combo/high power deck. I decided to leave him to help cope with the loss of Yosei, the Morning Star . I just think they're neat!) and Vindictive Lich are practically begging to be brought back to life to once again experience the sweet touch of death. Killing our creatures once is good, killing them twice is better. Also, if one of your three essential components gets hit by removal early, your opponents with audibly moan when they come back later. Thus, take out some recursion if you become the one at the table who inspires fear and loating.

Combos

Our main combo that will win us the game every time it's out (even without Teysa) is Reveillark combined with Karmic Guide. If Reveillark is in your graveyard, put in karmic guide and bring it back, sac karmic guide, then sac reveilllark to bring back karmic guide, rinse and repeat. Of course, we need a sac outlet to kill our combo pieces and our Blood Artist-type cards or card draw death-triggers to get one out to make the most of this. Best of all, we have a tutor card, Final Parting, which tutors out BOTH of our combo pieces! Simply put reveillark in the grave and bring in karmic guide on the next turn, or the same turn if you have 10+ mana from all of our juicy ramp. As I said above, infinite combos are mean and unfun to play against, so be careful. This one at least needs 4 cards, none of which are our commander, to win the game so it's not nearly as bad as others, but if you need to take it out, don't worry! Teysa will still eek out massive value from all of our other cards and get you plenty of wins without tilting your playgroup. Other infinite combos not included in this deck include Nim Deathmantle + a token generator such as Ministrant of Obligation + Ashnod's Altar or alternatively Reassembling Skeleton + Phyrexian Altar + token death-trigger like Blight Mound. There are many variations of these which I won't go into depth here.

Early Game Strategy

In your opening hand, you ideally want to have a ramp spell or two (preferably a creature to be used as fodder later like Loyal Warhound), one or maybe two removal spells, some fodder, some card draw, and lands. We don't want too many basic plains in our hand or we'll stifle our creature ramp cards like Boreas Charger (keep in mind Knight of the White Orchid can tutor our double land Godless Shrine). We won't worry about board clears or heavy hitters until later. Hangarback Walker may not seem like a good opening card at first, but he can quickly become a big threat in the midgame if played on turn 2 (or turn one with sol ring) and used as a mana sink with his tap ability which adds a counter to him for one mana on future turns. Recursion we don't want at all until we start killing our creatures. Tutors can be good, but the tutors I have included in this deck (with the exception of Ranger of Eos who is great in our first hand) are more useful in the mid/late game since they either put things in our graveyard (Unmarked Grave) which requires we have recursion, give our opponents a tutor as well (Scheming Symmetry or Wishclaw Talisman), or scale off of how many lands we have (Beseech the Queen). We won't be needing a sac outlet until later and we can be reasonably sure well run into one eventually if we have card draw; if not we can always use our small sacs like Phyrexian Tower to suffice in the mean time. Our protection spells can come in handy, but only keep these if we have our other good early game cards in hand.

Mid Game

In the mid game phases (~turns 4-6), don't get too hasty and play Teysa early if you have something else that is part of our 3 essential components (fodder, sac outlet, blood artist-type) which you don't already have on the board. It's often advantageous to instead opt for more card draw or removal on these turns to prolong our window of opportunity to pop off our game winning turns instead of playing Teysa before she is needed. Even though she does double the value of nearly everything we do, we dont necessarily need her on board to win, and we really only need her on the turn or two before our winning turn.

Late Game

All that's left to do once we have our three basic components is to start getting out as many token makers as we can to start reaping what we have sewn. Ideally we want repeatable card draw and recursion to draw into more and more creatures that we can sac on every turn. Even without our infinite combo we can do massive damage just with our tokens and by bringing back our creatures. Graveyard hate from our opponents can really hurt us, but with any luck we can out-pace our opponents with our ramp/card draw.

Miscellaneous Mechanics

If you're about to have something exiled, sac it! Let no fodder go to waste. You can also sac a creature as it is about to take combat damage after blockers are assigned without having any damage go through to you.

Brought Back can be used on our fetch land Marsh Flats for extra ramp. Consider adding more fetch lands to up the power level a bit.

Closing Notes

Have fun with Teysa! Add your own spin to things and let me know what card you love/hate. This deck is still in developement and will be changing bit by bit in the future. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments and I'll do my best to get to them. This is my first deck that I've posted on any platform and I'm excited to see what y'all think!

dlombart on Marchesa, the Black Rose

2 years ago

Hi, just want to compliment you with your build of Marchesa. I love the input of the MLD's as a wincon, since you'll mst likely take the win through combat damage while the opponents are rebuilding.

I also see that you have a discard subtheme (Dauthi Mindripper & Sadistic Hypnotist being personal favorites of mine!). Ever thought of adding Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip to the 99? She isn't the most popular card around, but would go very well with your MLD and discard. Maybe a 'win-more' card here, and as I said, not too popular in the community. But maybe on theme here. Tried it myself, but chickened out because nobody in my playgroup was really fond of it. But given you've included the MLD, it seems that you could very well be able to withstand the heat ;) An other possible inclusion, could be Vindictive Lich? Has the dying effect, discard theme and a wizard subtype with synergizes well. They could possibly fill in the slot of Thalakos Deceiver (though I love this card too :D)? Not really a theft theme in your deck?

You really have a whole collection of fun cards here! And I'm definitely going to consider including Bearer of the Heavens! 'Hey if you didn't want to lose all of your permanents, you should've have let you hit me with it! :D'

Kind regards!

ReturnMySquishies on Marchesa - Till Death Don't we Part

2 years ago

@LastLaugh

I'd love to hear your thoughts on cuts, I've already started hunting down the cards I have. Spark Double, Carrion Feeder, Flayer of the Hatebound, Grim Haruspex, Oona's Blackguard, Gray Merchant of Asphodel and perhaps Butcher of Malakir in place of Vindictive Lich I can definitely do. Triskelion will be showing up in December for that sweet, sweet Mikaeus, the Unhallowed combo too. Thank you for your suggestions, I'll be adding the rest to the buy list!

Last_Laugh on Marchesa - Till Death Don't we Part

2 years ago

I have several suggestions for you and I'll try to break it down by category.

ETB/DEATH Trigger Abuse: Spark Double feels like it was custom made for Marchesa and either allows you to abuse any etb/death trigger on everyone's turn thanks to that automatic +1+1 counter or it copies Marchesa for double Dethrone. Metallic Mimic/Sage of Fables/Vigean Graftmage all allow you to abuse etb/death triggers on everyone's turn or immediately protects Marchesa. Sac Metallic Mimic to rename its creature type as needed. Sages draw is nice in a pinch. Vigean allows 2 free sacs every turn (itself plus 1 other). Marchesa's recursion are all separate triggers so the creatures enter in whatever order you want and this is HIGHLY abuseable.

Card Draw: Grim Haruspex is worth its weight in gold here.

Discard: These can put opponents into topdeck mode to seal up games tighter than a dolphin's butthole. Oona's Blackguard, Vindictive Lich, and Sadistic Hypnotist.

Sac Outlets: Goblin Bombardment can only reliably be dealt with by 2 colors. Carrion Feeder protects itself with +1+1 counters and ends up pretty beefy. Falkenrath Aristocrat can protect itself via haste, indestructible, and/or +1+1 counters.

Non-Combat Finishers: Gray Merchant of Asphodel/Kokusho, the Evening Star (especially with Vigean Graftmage or Metallic Mimic) WILL end games even if you think the life gain is counter productive (spoiler alert: it's not). Flayer of the Hatebound is 36 damage (w/ 4 players) in one trip around the table thanks to Undying and punishes people who play Solemnity by going infinite. Terror of the Peaks can do some serious damage also.

Feel free to check out my list for ideas. I've been playing Marchesa for about 8 years now and can help suggest cuts if you'd like. Upvotes on any of my decks are appreciated. Every Masochist Needs a Marchesa to Love Them

brianizbrewtal on Meren, Mischievous Mortician

2 years ago

This deck looks fun! I love seeing other Meren decks. And no worries, plug away!

If there's just one card to take from my deck, it would be Dark Confidant. Losing life from that can be harsh at times, but it really boosts that hand. Plus, that's what Kokusho is there for and you don't really have high mana costs so wouldn't be that brutal :) I really think you should add Phyrexian Tower as that can be such a great sac outlet. I've never not used the two mana it's provided me. My current set up is brand new and haven't tested it out, but Vindictive Lich really seems like it's going to make my friends sigh which makes me very happy. One more suggestion is getting Vampiric Tutor bc if mike n trike are is your main goal then that add to your tutor possibilities.