Marchesa Brings Back the Dead

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Counters UBR (Grixis)

Squirrll

Creature (42)

• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Benthic Biomancer
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Bloodtracker
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Corpse Augur
• 1x Cytoplast Manipulator
• 1x Dack's Duplicate
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Disciple of Griselbrand
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Dominus of Fealty
• 1x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 1x Dreadhorde Butcher
• 1x Flayer of the Hatebound
• 1x Fulminator Mage
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Herald of Secret Streams
• 1x Hostage Taker
• 1x Judith, the Scourge Diva
• 1x Keiga, the Tide Star
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Olivia, Mobilized for War
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 1x Reef Worm
• 1x River Kelpie
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Siren Stormtamer
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Trophy Mage
• 1x Vindictive Lich
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
• 1x Zealous Conscripts

Land (36)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Forge of Heroes
• 1x Guildmages' Forum
• 8x Island
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Submerged Boneyard
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Unspeakable Symbol
• 1x Warstorm Surge

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Mark of Mutiny
• 1x Sign in Blood

Commander (1)

Artifact (7)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Bolas's Citadel
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Creativity

Instant (6)

• 1x Bedevil
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Terminate

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General

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This deck primarily serves as a Grixis aggro deck that looks to abuse Marchesa, the Black Rose's second ability to bring back creatures with +1/+1 counters on them to assemble a value engine, that can lead to anything from a virtually unkillable board state to an infinite damage combo.

The key cards in this deck outside of the commander herself are the sac outlets. There are a variety of them in this deck with some notable ones being Viscera Seer & Ashnod's Altar which are both repeatable, free and the scry or 2 mana they provide can also be extremely helpful. Viscera Seer on top of being a great sac outlet is also a creature itself meaning if you do need to sacrifice it if it has a counter put on it at the end of the turn he'll come back making it especially hard to deal with. Ashnod's, on the other hand, is easily found through the use of Trophy Mage, which itself can be recurred to help find Phyrexian Altar, or other artifacts. One more outlet of note is Sidisi, Undead Vizier. While the sac trigger only happens on her ETB, you can sac then return her to keep this going and the ability to search up whatever you want is amazing, plus if you have some way to put a counter on her before that sac trigger goes off you can keep sacking her to herself for repeated value.

Now for the +1/+1 counters themselves. The primary way you are putting them on creatures is with Marchesa's dethrone ability, but there are some other ways this deck has of putting counters on things. The best of these is Unspeakable Symbol. Not only does it keep your life low to help trigger dethrone, but it can be done at instant speed allowing for all kinds of ways to save your creatures or mess with your opponents. Olivia, Mobilized for War is another good way of getting creatures set up with a counter right when the enter along with haste, so long as you can spare the cards in hand.

This deck does have an infinite combo, though it is a bit jank in all honesty. It revolves around Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Judith, the Scourge Diva, any free repeatable sac outlet and a persist creature such as River Kelpie or Glen Elendra Archmage. Because Mikeaeus gives all non-human creatures undying when one of these creatures dies they can come back with a +1/+1 counter on them and Judith triggers allowing you to deal 1 damage to something, the next time you sac this creature you can have its persist trigger happen having it come in with a -1/-1 counter instead, and because it has no +1/+1 counter on it you are free to sac it again and have the undying trigger bring it back all the while dealing 1 damage to whatever you want. Flayer of the Hatebound also works in place of Judith if you want, and can deal more damage, though it is more expensive. While yes this is a lot to set up, the advantage of this combo is that each and every one of the pieces needed for it to go off are great in their own right so they don't just sit in your hand doing nothing.

The rest of the deck is what you'd expect, a bit of artifact ramp so you don't fall behind. I mainly chose creatures with good ETB or on death effects to abuse such as Baleful Strix or Gray Merchant of Asphodel so that you can gain an advantage by sacrificing them over and over. Bitterblossom and Phyrexian Arena are there to help keep my life total low so that dethrone can keep triggering along with providing a fairly decent upside for the life they're taking. If you ever find your life total too low Disciple of Griselbrand and Gray Merchant can help you get back up fairly quickly.

Overall the deck is a black to play, especially if you are a fan of sacrifice or creature-based strategies. The deck is a bit soft to graveyard hate, especially in the form of enchantments, but if all else fails you have a lot of fairly cheap creatures that can just kill people through combat damage alone. It's also worth noting that because of how often you are swinging at people commander damage from Marchesa can add up and with the help of something like Unspeakable Symbol killing people that way is always a valid strategy.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.30
Tokens	Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Fish 3/3 U, Kraken 9/9 U, Morph 2/2 C, Squid 1/1 U, Treasure, Whale 6/6 U, Zombie 2/2 B