A Song of Loyalty and Betrayal

Commander / EDH Combo Infinite Combo Multiplayer Primer UBR (Grixis)

Enral

Thy Dominion (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 2x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Act of Betrayal (4)

• 1x Cytoplast Manipulator
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Puppeteer Clique
• 1x Sower of Temptation

Thy Loyal Subjects (33)

• 1x Augury Owl
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bloodthrone Vampire
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cytoplast Manipulator
• 1x Flayer of the Hatebound
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Lightning Mauler
• 1x Metallic Mimic
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Murderous Redcap
• 1x Nevermaker
• 1x Oona's Blackguard
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Puppeteer Clique
• 1x Sage of Fables
• 1x Sower of Temptation
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Urabrask the Hidden
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1x Vigean Graftmage
• 1x Vindictive Lich
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Voidmage Prodigy
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan

Slay the Traitors (6)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Goblin Bombardment
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Commander (1)

Illegitimate Inheritance (14)

• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Unspeakable Symbol
• 1x Whip of Erebos

Thy Craftiness (8)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Shattering Pulse
• 1x Sneak Attack
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

Search The City (5)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

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Maybeboard

Other (2)

• 1x Bribery
• 1x Phyrexian Arena

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A Song of Loyalty and Betrayal

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Introduction

This is the first part of Marchesa's journey to becoming the queen (see the second part here). Do you like the Game of Thrones? Do you like controlling the board with politics and threats? Do you enjoy playing synergistic strategies? Do you like having the versatility to win via combat or infinite combos? If your answer is yes, then Marchesa is the commander for you. Capitalizing on her craftiness, ruthlessness, and wide-reaching influences to secure her throne, who dares question her authority and legitimacy?

The Game of Thrones

The basic strategy

The benefit of playing Marchesa is that she is a natural pillowfort. Experienced players will usually not want to lower your life total to enable her immortal army dethrone mechanic. This can help us to have more control over our life totals and effective political maneuvering throughout the game to position ourselves in a favorable state. When it comes down to the foundation of the deck, it boils down to either setting up the game so that Marchesa and her army is immortal and can never be removed or to assemble a winning combo as soon as possible depending on the pod she is playing against. This deck is capable of a consistent turn 6 win uninterrupted but usually is able to fight through the hate with the right setup. The strategy can be divided into three phases:

1. Deploy phase - Play efficient creatures like Baleful Strix that could be abused with Marchesa later in the game as well as setting up protection and haste like Lightning Greaves/Spellskite. This is where the decision to play Marchesa early or later gets decided. If there are adequate protection for her early game, getting her out early is probably the right decision. However, if there are no protection pieces at all, getting Marchesa out early is reckless and should be avoided at all costs.

2. Offensive phase - After deploying necessary threats and protection, start setting up an immortal board by getting the counters on the creatures. The main goal of this phase is to have Marchesa and her army be in a position to be immortal through her recursive counter engine, however assembling an infinite combo to win at this point is not uncommon too. Graveyard hate like Leyline of the Void/Rest in Peace hurts us the most and needs to be dealt with proactively or reactively using cards like Arcane Denial or Chaos Warp.

3. Conqueror phase - You should have a formidable boardstate at this point. Win the game with a massive army or assemble any infinite combo (described in section below) to end the game.

Getting the +1/+1 counters

Using dethrone to get the counters is not reliable and there are other ways of getting them without manipulating our life totals in hopes of getting us to the promise land. Therefore cards like Blood Artist and Kokusho, the Evening Star could be further abused without worrying about being on the throne. Graft creatures like Cytoplast Manipulator not only bypass our dependency on life totals, but also can be abused with value creatures on every players' turns by sacrificing them together and have Marchesa bring them back EoT. The graft creature will be able to graft one +1/+1 counter on the value creature for maximum abuse. Cards like Metallic Mimic also allow us to abuse multiple creatures with the same creature type as the mimic. For example, by having mimic come in naming wizard, I could potentially abuse almost 40% of my creature base on each of the players' turns. I also have Unspeakable Symbol to put +1/+1 counters on creatures at instant speed.

Stealing creatures permanently

Marchesa's second ability lets us steal any creatures permanently as long as it has a delayed trigger and we are able to put a +1/+1 counter on them before sending them to the graveyard. Cards like Sower of Temptation becomes very abusive as we can steal a creature, put a +1/+1 counter on it, and sac it to have it come back as a brand new creature under our control. We can then sac SoT to have it steal another new creature and can be done on every players' turn if we have the setup listed in the above subsection. The same could be done with Puppeteer Clique where it can actually steal up to two creatures permanently due to it's persist ability.

Combos and Synergies

Primary Win Condition: Infinite Combos

The following infinite loop which is either initiated by Glen Elendra Archmage or Puppeteer Clique forms an infinite combo loop to win with either Goblin Bombardment/Altar of Dementia as sac outlets or Flayer of the Hatebound/Blood Artist on the field. Alternatively, if the sac outlet is Viscera Seer, we can sac "infinitely" to scry the finishing combo piece at the top to either draw it on the spot to win or doing it at opponent's EoT:

• Glen Elendra Archmage + Sage of Fables + Sac Outlet
• Glen Elendra Archmage + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Sac Outlet
• Glen Elendra Archmage + Metallic Mimic + Sac Outlet

The following lines of play deals infinite damage to everyone:

• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Murderous Redcap + Sac outlet
• Metallic Mimic + Murderous Redcap + Sac outlet

Secondary Win Condition: Drain Everyone to Death

You must be wondering why we have Kokusho, the Evening Star in Marchesa that wants to usually have lower health than her opponents. As discussed in the previous section above, our build does not depend on the "dethrone" mechanic as much as other builds do. Even if we have the highest life total in the pod, there are still numerous ways for us to get +1/+1 counters on our creatures to abuse their value every turn. With the amount of pain/shock lands and cards that make us lose our life, our life total is often dangeoursly low mid to late game that if we don't win by then, we can't possibly survive till late game if anything goes wrong. The nice thing about running Kokusho over Gary (Gray Merchant of Asphodel) is that we have control over when we have to gain life and how much life we will be gaining. Running Kokusho also gives us the comfort of having a life cushion later in the game and inevitability. This is our alternate win condition in a slow game when we have got the entire board locked down:

• Marchesa, the Black Rose + Kokusho, the Evening Star + Unspeakable Symbol/(Vigean Graftmage/Cytoplast Manipulator/Metallic Mimic) + sac outlet = Drain the table at the end of each player's turn. In a typical 4 player game, sac Kokusho end of player's turn to get him back (with Marchesa's ability) while using Unspeakable Symbol or saccing the graft creature to put a +1/+1 counter on it to be sac'd on another player's turn (ad nauseaum). Each round in a four player game will drain each player 15 life while gaining us 45 life (45 - 9 = 36 life if using Unspeakable Symbol). This means that the game will usually end between two to three turns if our opponents don't gain a ton of life back in between. As you can already tell, this combo gets more degenerate the more players there are in the pod. Commanders like Meren have also abused this combo every round with her reanimate ability but is a lot slower and less effective than Marchesa as we can do it every turn to accelerate everyone's demise. With Necropotence and Thought Vessel/Reliquary Tower in play, we will be able to draw a ton of cards each round to inevitably win. Without Marchesa, this combo could only be used once a round with Phyrexian Reclamation/Volrath's Stronghold and is very mana intensive.

Other Notable Combos

• Marchesa, the Black Rose + graft creature (Vigean Graftmage/Cytoplast Manipulator) + value creature (e.g. Mulldrifter) + sac outlet = recurring value every turn by saccing value creature with graft creature together in order to have them come back end of every turn.
• Marchesa, the Black Rose + Voidmage Prodigy + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed/Metallic Mimic/Sage of Fables = Reusable counter spell for .
• Reliquary Tower/Thought Vessel + Necropotence = Draw as many cards as life permits.
• Marchesa, the Black Rose + Gilded Drake + Venser, Shaper Savant = Steal a creature a turn.
• Marchesa, the Black Rose + Puppeteer Clique/Sower of Temptation + Sac Outlet = Steal up creatures permanently (up to two with P.Clique). Play P.Clique to get a creature from opponent's graveyard. If there is another target, sac P.Clique to have it come back to steal another creature. Attack player with both his creatures to trigger dethrone and sac them. Since the game treats every creature that enters the battlefield as a new object, the exile trigger from the Clique reanimating the creature won't even happen, since from the game's POV that creature died already. So at the beginning of your end step there will only be Marchesa's trigger which will net us a permanent control of our opponent's creature(s).
• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed/Metallic Mimic + River Kelpie + Sac Outlet = Draw entire library (retired)

Tutor Guide

The general rule of thumb for tutoring comes down to what is most needed now or in the immediate future to progress our game plan. Depending on the pod, the tutor target might be different. For example, it is generally safe to tutor for cards like Sage of Fables early game to protect Marchesa if is absent as common creature removal like Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares isn't an early threat. Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is usually the safest protection to tutor for all general purposes of targeted removal protection. If our hand is emptying out faster than we can refill, tutoring for a draw card to set up a draw engine is probably the best move forward. If our life total is getting low late game, tutoring for Kokusho, the Evening Star wouldn't be a bad idea as both a life saver and a game ender.

Imperial Recruiter

• Protection Package: Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, Cytoplast Manipulator, Metallic Mimic, Sage of Fables, Vigean Graftmage, Voidmage Prodigy, and Spellskite

• Draw Package: Baleful Strix and Mulldrifter

• Disruption Package: Venser, Shaper Savant, Blood Artist, Oona's Blackguard, Sower of Temptation, Nevermaker, and Murderous Redcap

• Sacrifice Package: Bloodthrone Vampire, Carrion Feeder, Yahenni, Undying Partisan, and Viscera Seer

• Utility Package: Archaeomancer, Augury Owl, Phantasmal Image, Phyrexian Metamorph, Vigean Graftmage, and Cytoplast Manipulator

Other Tutors (not listed above)

• Protection Package: Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Arcane Denial, and Pact of Negation

• Draw Package: Necropotence and Grim Haruspex

• Disruption Package: Cyclonic Rift, Gilded Drake, Toxic Deluge, Shattering Pulse, Chaos Warp, Flayer of the Hatebound, Bribery, and Reality Shift

• Sacrifice Package: Goblin Bombardment and Altar of Dementia

• Utility Package: Skullclamp, Sensei's Divining Top, Thought Vessel, Phyrexian Reclamation, Sneak Attack, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Vendilion Clique, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Unspeakable Symbol, and Puppeteer Clique

Bribery Targets

The following are popular generals in my meta that would probably have a good Bribery target:

• Atraxa, Praetors' Voice: Atraxa surprisingly doesn't run a lot of big splashy creatures and has a variety of builds so they are probably not the best commander to use bribery on. However, if they have every indication of running the flash-hulk combo variant, they are definitely prime target. Their creatures that we can benefit from are Prime Speaker Zegana, Eternal Witness, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Sun Titan, Protean Hulk, Reveillark, and Spike Weaver.

• Karador, Ghost Chieftain: If you have a Karador in the pod, he is the BEST target for Bribery PERIOD. The choices are endless and often game ending. Examples are Sheoldred, Whispering One, Ashen Rider, Sun Titan, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Eternal Witness, Karmic Guide, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Protean Hulk, Woodfall Primus, Terastodon, and Avenger of Zendikar. They carry some of our combo pieces so it's a great target to finish our combo to win.

• Meren of Clan Nel Toth: Similar to Karador, they have great targets like Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Protean Hulk, Woodfall Primus, Terastodon, and Avenger of Zendikar. They carry some of our combo pieces so it's a great target to finish our combo to win.

• Kaalia of the Vast: This is another GREAT target for bribery. Notable creatures are Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Angel of Serenity, Platinum Angel, Iona, Shield of Emeria, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Master of Cruelties, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Aurelia, the Warleader, Utvara Hellkite, Akroma, Angel of Fury, Akroma, Angel of Wrath, and Sire Of Insanity.

• Boros/Aggro Oriented Generals: In general, aggro generals run cards like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Aurelia, the Warleader, and Iroas, God of Victory.

• Mono Blue Generals: They are usually the worst target unless it is known that they run Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur.

Notable Exclusions

• Grave Pact/Dictate of Erebos: Often quickly removed, attracts too much attention, and does not generate enough value worthy of inclusion.

• Grave Betrayal: It is a huge removal magnet in addition to it's high cmc and does not survive a turn when out which usually translates into me timewalking myself.

• Living Death: Can backfire and too risky for my liking.

• Mark of Mutiny/Frenzied Fugue/Helm of Possession: Too redundant and does not further the deck's goal to be worth the inclusion.

• Merciless Executioner/Fleshbag Marauder: Often ends up just being an overcosted Innocent Blood. Contrary to common belief, it is very hard to make them worth the inclusion for abusing since I have to have another creature to sacrifice and get a counter on them to reuse again. Not worth it in this build IMHO.

• Sidisi, Undead Vizier: Same reasons as above. Often is just an overcosted tutor and is more suitable in Meren than Marchesa.

• Shriekmaw: The "nonblack" creature clause is a huge limitation in my meta.

• Scourge of the Throne: Great finisher for more aggrocentric builds but I opt for a combo finish.

• Abyssal Gatekeeper: Looks like a great card and needs testing.

• Mimic Vat: Was in the list but too mana intensive.

• Custodi Lich: Could be an interesting inclusion, needs more testing.

• Thalakos Deceiver: Too slow and there are other better steal effects.

• Burnished Hart: Run too little basics for this to be worth the inclusion, also sinking 6 mana to ramp is a bad idea.

• Solemn Simulacrum: Same idea as above. Run too little basic to get full value out of this and 4 mana for a draw 1 card effect is meh when we have Baleful Strix.

• River Kelpie: Overcosted Grim Haruspex although the persist is nice.

• Profaner of the Dead: Exploit is actually pretty hard to abuse without a proper engine going. Cyclonic Rift does the job better and can be recurred with Archaeomancer later for more use.

• Disciple of Bolas: Same reason as above.

• Reef Worm/Chasm Skulker: While having tons of tokens for free is nice, it does not further our gameplan and the impact is minimal at best.

Footnotes

A deck build around Marchesa's abilities will never be competitive and that's a reality most people find hard to believe. Her ability is extremely strong and when abused will usually put the controller at a board position that is way ahead of everyone. The problem is that competitive decks have the capability of winning uninterrupted by turn 3 or 4 while decks build around Marchesa wants to go for a more mid range game. Without going full storm combo in order to be competitive (therefore just using her for her colors), Marchesa is best played in a "75%" pod (not too casual and not too competitive) to get full satisfaction and enjoyment of the deck. Therefore we can only hope to optimize Marchesa as more cards get introduced into the cardpool and enjoy the journey of getting the throne.

"When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground." - Cersei Lannister

Top Ranked	Achieved #24 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	6 years
Key combos	Metallic Mimic + Murderous Redcap Glen Elendra Archmage + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed Glen Elendra Archmage + Sage of Fables Glen Elendra Archmage + Metallic Mimic Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Murderous Redcap
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.64
Tokens	Manifest 2/2 C, Morph 2/2 C
Folders	My EDH Brews, Interesting EDH PRimers, EDH Memes, Grixis ideas, Primers, Great Ideas, Other User Made Decks, Marchesa the Majesty, Decks of Interest, EDH Ideas