[Cunning Queen] - Queen Marchesa Political Control
Commander / EDH Burn Competitive Control Group Hug Multiplayer RBW (Mardu)
Instant (10)
-
1x
Anguished Unmaking
- 1x Dawn Charm
- 1x Deflecting Palm
- 1x Fork
- 1x Generous Gift
- 1x Hide / Seek
- 1x Red Elemental Blast
- 1x Teferi's Protection
- 1x Vampiric Tutor
Sorcery (10)
Enchantment (20)
- 1x Aura of Silence
- 1x Bedlam
- 1x Duelist's Heritage
- 1x Exquisite Blood
- 1x Ghostly Prison
- 1x Grand Melee
- 1x Grasp of Fate
- 1x Greater Auramancy
- 1x Mana Flare
- 1x Necropotence
- 1x No Mercy
- 1x Oblivion Ring
- 1x Phyrexian Arena
- 1x Rest in Peace
- 1x Rite of the Raging Storm
- 1x Smothering Tithe
- 1x Soul Snare
- 1x Sphere of Safety
- 1x Stolen Strategy
- 1x Wound Reflection
Artifact (14)
Creature (11)
- 1x Agent of Erebos
- 1x Crypt Ghast
- 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
- 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
- 1x Goblin Spymaster
- 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
- 1x Mesa Enchantress
- 1x Orzhov Advokist
- 1x Royal Assassin
- 1x Twilight Prophet
- 1x Xantcha, Sleeper Agent
Land (34)
- 1x Ancient Tomb
- 1x Arcane Lighthouse
- 1x Arid Mesa
- 1x Badlands
- 1x Blood Crypt
- 1x Bloodstained Mire
- 1x Bojuka Bog
- 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
- 1x City of Brass
- 1x Command Tower
- 1x Exotic Orchard
- 1x Forbidden Orchard
- 1x Godless Shrine
- 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
- 1x Kor Haven
- 1x Marsh Flats
- 1x Maze of Ith
- 2x Mountain
- 3x Plains
- 1x Plateau
- 1x Prismatic Vista
- 1x Sacred Foundry
- 1x Scrubland
- 1x Serra's Sanctum
- 1x Smoldering Marsh
- 1x Strip Mine
- 5x Swamp
Commander (1)
Sideboard
Instant (3)
Sorcery (2)
Creature (2)
Cunning Queen
"Those who seize power must have the means to hold it." —Queen Marchesa
This is my attempt at a slightly different Queen Marchesa build. Unlike most decks I could find, this one doesn't revolve around building an army and overpowering the board: I prefer the Machiavellian approach of scheming and controlling your opponents in fighting each other for our own benefits.
While not every cards might the best possible choices, I tried to build a flavourful yet competitive multiplayer deck in the Black Rose's image: deceitful, calculating, devious, ruthless. Like the Queen I employ a network of assassins to carefully remove threats and protect the throne. Extort is used to slowly and sneakily weaken other players while we setup our play for power.
A major aspect of the strategy is to keep our intents obscure and avoid attention, all while making allies and supplying them with resources to kill others. This is why I opted for many Group Love cards ( Ghirapur Orrery , Rite of the Raging Storm , Orzhov Advokist ) but also tried to avoid cards that would bring too much heat and hatred ( Kambal, Consul of Allocation , Mogis, God of Slaughter , Polluted Bonds ).
- You like multiplayer and the politics aspect of EDH Commander
- You can manage multiple combos
- You like being in control and having multiple ways of winning
- You're patient and enjoy slowly killing your opponents
- You enjoy messy board states
- You like graveyard interactions and reanimation
- You're more into aggro decks, especially with big creatures
- You would rather kill your opponents swiftly
- You are very competitive
Key aspects of the deck
For those who don't know, Monarch is a player designation that was introduced in Conspiracy: Take the Crown. This mechanic fully works in the Commander format and allows the current monarch to draw a card at the beginning of his end step. (You can read the full rules here).
This card advantage is a great asset - especially since not a lot of players use it in EDH - and as soon as our Queen comes out we will automatically get it. Don't worry too much if you would come to lose the title: the deck is packed with other drawing power and it will just attract attention to someone else. We will also get nifty little assassins which might prove ket assets later in the game.
Unsurprisingly the main goal of this deck is to get enough protection on the board to allow us to boost our life, gain momentum and draw the cards we need to pull off combos.
There are many ways of protecting the throne: either by preventing players from attacking you, making sure we don't take any damage or simply having enough life points to absorb it all.
Here are a few cards & combos for this aspect:
- Crawlspace , No Mercy , Sphere of Safety and Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts will discourage anybody from attacking us
- Pariah + Iroas, God of Victory or Erebos, God of the Dead will nullify any damage taken
- Protector of the Crown , Comeuppance and Selfless Squire are also good as "fog" effects
- Blind Obedience was a perfect fit with the Extort keyword and because it affects artifacts. Authority of the Consuls is a good protection against haste with life gain and would be a good chice too.
- Venser's Journal , Sangromancer , Exquisite Blood , Alhammarret's Archive will provide a sustained source of life gain
One the best things about this deck is the vast array of ways you can win. I played multiple games where I had 2 or 3 different win conditions in my hand and could pull the trigger any time I wanted.
Based on the assumption that you will often have one of the highest life totals on the table, burning your opponents for the win is often going to be a solid option. The rest of the time you will have multiple alternatives to get the victory.
Here are a few cards & combos for this aspect:
- You can extort every opponents to slowly consume their life with Crypt Ghast and Pontiff of Blight
- The good old fashion multiplayer burn in late game using Acidic Soil , Debt to the Deathless and Exsanguinate
- Master of Cruelties with Whispersilk Cloak or after a fresh board wipe
- If you can get Purity on the board before using a burn spell it will result in you getting a lot of life
- It might be just my playgroup but people are always gaining life. Plugging a Tainted Remedy in the deck was just enough to make sure things don't get out of hands, and paired with Swords to Plowshares it can be a great burn.
With the amount of protection and all the love that this deck offers, probably nobody will want to attack us. That is not enough though: we need to make sure that they won't just sit and wait. Therefor I've added multiple cards that force creatures to attack, and some utilities to make sure we won't suffer from this.
Here are a few cards & combos for this aspect:
- Iroas, God of Victory is a superstar here. Not only will he prevent all damage to our attacking creatures, he will also facilitate regaining the Monarch (because of Menace) if we want
- Keldon Twilight , Basandra, Battle Seraph , Rite of the Raging Storm will force people to attack
- Avatar of Slaughter , Aku Djinn , Orzhov Advokist will buff other creatures and provide incentives to attack
- Dictate of the Twin Gods will speed up the killing process. I was previously using Bitter Feud but it was bringing too much heat on me.
- Illicit Auction is really fun and can turn out to be a great asset if nobody feel like bidding.
- I wanted to include cards that gain control of creatures because it can cause a huge surprise and even possibly win games. Insurrection
- Make people draw with Howling Mine + Icy Manipulator .
The most important dimension for me when building a new deck is to always follow a theme. It provides me with a very coherent guideline and make sure that every games I play is like telling a story.
If you ask yourself why I didn't included Card X or Card Y it might simply be that it didn't quite fit in there. I value the fun and immersion way above the competitiveness but feel free to replace anything you want!
Here are a few cards & combos for this aspect:
- If you follow the story, Kaya, Ghost Assassin is an assassin and ghost hunter working for Marchesa d'Amati. I felt she was mandatory in this deck.
- I wanted to find a spot for other assassins, especially my favorite MTG card Royal Assassin . Decided to include Guul Draz Assassin and Kiku, Night's Flower as well.
- A lot of other cards directly involving Marchesa were included: Marchesa's Decree , Throne of the High City
- Found some pretty cool cards depicting the manipulation and control done by the Queen. Perfect to remember your opponents who's pulling the strings. Cruel Entertainment , Head Games
- Initially I thought about using a life gain/drain strategy that included maybe ways of cheating death ( Ali from Cairo , Phyrexian Unlife , Exquisite Archangel ), life manipulation ( Beacon of Immortality , Reverse the Sands , Heartless Hidetsugu , Soul Conduit , Wound Reflection ) and win in funky ways ( Repay in Kind , Approach of the Second Sun ). After play testing this strategy I was ending up too often with unusable cards in my hands.
Board Wipes
Spot Removals
Fog
Tutors
Burn
Protection
I would LOVE to get your comments on this deck. Got any combo in mind, card suggestion, concerns, ways to improve it or whatever, please drop them in the comment section. And as always, if you like this deck don't forget to smash the +1 button!
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Revision 37 See all
(4 years ago)
| -1 | Chaos Warp | main |
| +1 | Crypt Ghast | main |
| -1 | Dark Depths | main |
| -1 | Force Bubble | main |
| -1 | Glacial Chasm | main |
| +1 | Goblin Spymaster | main |
| -1 | Grand Abolisher | main |
| -1 | Land Tax | main |
| -1 | Mountain | main |
| +1 | Oblivion Ring | main |
| +1 | Praetor's Grasp | main |
| +1 | Sensei's Divining Top | main |
| -1 | Solemnity | main |
| +2 | Swamp | main |
| +1 | Wheel of Fortune | main |
| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 6 years |
| Last updated | 4 years |
| Legality | This deck is Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 8 - 0 Mythic Rares 58 - 5 Rares 20 - 3 Uncommons 4 - 2 Commons |
| Cards | 100 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.94 |
| Tokens | Assassin 1/1 B w/ Haste, City's Blessing, Elephant 3/3 G, Goblin 1/1 R for Goblin Spymaster, Lightning Rager, Spirit 1/1 C, Monarch Emblem, Treasure |
| Folders | Interesting, What Other People Made, hi, Liked Decks, EDH, make it, Marchea, Queen Marchesa, EDH Decks |
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