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Marchesa, Glam Rock Supervillain

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Primer UBR (Grixis)

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Lands (37)

Counters For Others (10)

Utility (5)

Protect The Queen (3)

Infect (2)

Removal (17)

Pay Life (12)

Sac Outlet (10)

Wrath (5)

Recursion (2)

Commander (1)

Commander: Marchesa, the Black Rose

Draw (15)

Ramp (11)

Death Trigger (7)

ETB Trigger (1)

Lifegain (1)

Maybeboard

Other (32)

So we all know that Marchesa likes to be attacking whoever is on the throne. Early builds of this deck that I made were absurd, Rube-Goldberg-esque machines designed to spend life as much as possible. It was fun, but oi is it annoying to have to do algebra to figure out how much life you should sacrifice to get maximum ROI for each turn. Foggedhabowdit.

So the new build is about finding other ways to get counters on my darlings, and then grinding the game out by taking advantage of our superior strategic depth.

Machesa, The Black Rose has two abilities, and we win more when we know how to properly take advantage of them.

Dethrone is pretty dang cool. Giving dethrone to your team is pretty dang cool too. But Marcy starts off as a 3/3, and we can't rely on dethrone to grow her too much. I'm sure there's a dope voltron build for her, but this here ain't it; we're not going for the commander damage kill. It's the second ability she has that we're gonna focus on. Turning all of our creatures with counters on them into undying (hahah, get it?) monsters is going to be much more profitable in the long term. Marchesa lets you mess with some of the most basic rules of the game: that a dead creature stays dead. As long as Marchesa is out, we ruin the math that every other deck is operating on. Pure card advantage, attrition style. As long as we keep counters on our creatures (and have some sac outlets), our opponents cannot profitably remove them without losing card advantage. We can also gain advantage by sacrificing our creatures for profit.

The first lesson: keep the Queen alive. Marcy has a big target on her back and keeping her in the game is key. So we've contracted the best tailors and costumers in the supervillain community to make sure her wardrobe is on point. We've got the Lightning Greaves, the Champion's Helm, and the Whispersilk Cloak to make sure that she's around for the whole game, looking fabulous.

Other options here are Swiftfoot Boots, Mask of Avacyn, and General's Kabuto. Right now I've found three guard artifacts is enough, but depending on your meta YMMV. I like how cheap the Greaves are, and the Cloak and Helm both give Marcy a little more punch that helps in an aggro deck. Whatever it takes to keep the fuzz off your back.

So our look is down, how to we arm our clique of revolutionists and conspirators?

Our revolutionary conspiracy needs as many of our creatures as possible to be countered up. We need ways to do this reliably, so these are the Capi, the Team Captains that are going to let us be as degenerate as we can be.

Unspeakable Symbol is the classic Marcy tech. Turn on your dethrone and protect your creatures at instant speed! What could be better?

Drana, Liberator of Malakir is the gold standard for putting counters on our creatures. Remember that the first strike damage phase happens before the regular combat damage phase, so when Drana swings first, everyone else will do more damage.

Blade of the Bloodchief does WORK for a rinky dink lil artifact. It's perfect for enabling big gross plays where you sacrifice your entire board for the ETBs and the LTBs.

Sage of Fables is probably the all-star for turning us on. A very large number of our cards will enter ready to start dying turn after turn, AND she lets us turn extra counters into cards. Chef-Finger-kiss emoji!Metallic Mimic does a very solid impression of Sage of Fables and lets us pick different creature types. Lovely!

Novijen Sages is just wonderful with a sac outlet. Put a counter on all of your entering creatures and then sac it before you get rid of the last one, and it reloads. And it draws cards!

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed was obviously gonna show up here, duh-doi. Draw your whole deck with River Kelpie. Kill all the opponents with Murderous Redcap. Lock the other players out of the game with Glen Elendra Archmage. I dunno, do what feels right to you. You can also run Murderous Redcap and Triskellion for the classic Mike-Trike kill, but I found it kinda boring and I don’t really run tutors, so eh.

For completion's sake, Oona's Blackguard deserves mention here. I don't run other rogues in the deck, so this lil fairy won't be putting counters on anything. But the ability will shut someone out of a game. When our whole strategy revolves around putting counters on our squad, Oona's Blackguard means our lil beaters are also wrecking people's hands. So congrats, OB, you're at the Team Captain table.

So we've met the team captains, but let's take a look at the goons, the brawlers, the comrades who don't wait for someone to give them permission to have counters.

Early versions of the deck ran a bunch of unleash creatures that were fast and big hitters, but most of them were basically French vanilla beaters, and that wasn't really delivering the way I wanted. So now we're emphasizing creatures that get counters for doing stuff we want to be doing. Special priority has been given to creatures that have free, instant speed sacrifice outlets, and ones that kill or remove threats.

The Regicides

The first three I'm going to highlight here all get counters for killing other creatures. Olivia Voldaren might not be the Black Rose, but the lady runs the battlefield. She'll steal your enemy's commander, she's beat face, she's clear the board of those damn chump blockers. Grimgrin, Corpse-Born will put the pressure on the table. Frankenstein's Monster here kills a creature and grows whenever he attacks, AND he lets you sacrifice your own creatures to put a counter on himself. Remember that he doesn't need to be tapped to sacrifice creatures to him. Thraximundar is a finisher for the ages. There are few things that feel better than watching the player who said that attacking is useless in EDH sweat as Thrax trashes their board and their life. Sacrifice For the Cause

Sometimes revolution requires sacrifice. These two vampires are fast threats that let you sac other creatures to save themselves. Yahenni, Undying Partisan is a new include but they pull their own weight like a champ. Wrath the board, sacrifice something, and watch her get huge. Falkenrath Aristocrat was the creature that taught me how great sacrificing your own permanents is. They both survive boardwipes like a Theros God, they eats your lil buddies, and god help you if you get Blade of the Bloodchief on 'em. Flesh-Eater Imp eats people and turns out poison counters, and can pump itself for a kill. Nice.

The Rest

The other three self-generating counter creatures are all fun. Ob Nixilis, Unshackled can take over games with set up. He'll close out a game by hitting, and severely punishes people gettin' frisky with tutors and ramp. Patron of the Vein is removal, graveyard hate, and also helps pump up our other vamps. Flayer of the Hatebound is how we get around pillow forts and can serve as a win condition. When we're set up it's very difficult for our opponents to remove our creatures, so you can sac most of your board on every second main phase for truly gross amounts of damage.

So our boss looks fantastic, we're armed, and we've got a supergroup of power hitters and rockstars that make the Traveling Wilburys look like a bunch of amateurs. How do we make sure that we can always sacrifice our creatures whenever we want to?

We've got a fierce looking squad of unkillable super villains. How do we get the most out of them?

Ashnod's Altar is money to burn, fuel for the fire, a third analogy. Free sac outlet, free mana, it does work.

Greater Gargadon is weird, but I love it. It can be suspended on turn one, and is a free sac outlet until oops look at that, a giant monster!

Ravenous Chupacabra lets you kill creatures repeatedly when you grave-blink it. It's nice. I'd like to be able to do it more than once a cycle, but it's nice.

Viscera Seer is a free sac outlet, cheap, in two relevant tribes, and lets us filter through our deck. What's not to love?

High Market is a sac outlet on a land, which is nice. The lifegain is incidental, but pretty appreciated. You end up burning life pretty fast here, and so a source of lifegain here and there provides strategic depth.

Our engine is set up. We've got counters, we've got sac outlets, we're ready to kick butt. This is where we want some gas. Some juice. Some nitro.

Grim Haruspex is gonna turn your Infernal Machine into a card draw river. This guy is gonna get you to the late game with style.

Vela the Night-Clad is another LTB life loss trigger, which alone would be nice. Giving the whole team Intimidate, that's just gravy. Delicious, murderous gravy. Combos with Rite of Replication for hilarious results.

Aura Thief solves a really big problem the deck has: enchantments. Grixis doesn't have a lot of options for getting rid of enchantments, but if you can't beat em, steal em! Thanks for the Burgeoning, Yidris! Thanks for the Warstorm Surge, Omnath! Don't let the True Conviction hit you on the way out!

And lastly, my hands down favorite death trigger in the deck, Bearer of the Heavens. If I win the game without Atlas himself, it's not a real win. Get the big boi out. Everyone says "Oh #%¥*!" Get a counter on him. Everyone starts crying. Swing with him. Sacrifice him. End step trigger: destroy all permanents. End step trigger: return BotH to play. Beginning of next end step: return all other creatures you control to play. If you can do this you win. Do it. Is it mass land destruction? Well, yes. Should you have any trouble winning quickly when you still have all your creatures and everyone is desperately trying to get enough land out to play Commander's Sphere? No. No you shouldn't.

We want to wreck up everyone else' so fun don't we? Of course we do!

We've got three non-giant wrath effects in the deck. It's important to remember that when we're set up, wraths are our friends. We're gonna recover much much faster than everyone else. Always try to aim it so you can wipe the other person's board and keep as much of your own as possible.

Last One Standing is fun because it's cheap and doesn't impact us too much. Blasphemous Act is super easy to do in multiplayer, so go forth an blaspheme. Deadly Tempest can punish the opponent for having lots of creatures and not running any sac outlet.

To wreck up artifacts, nothing beats n overloaded Vandalblast, so let em have it. Goblin Cratermaker will give you a repeatable way of trashing an artifact and punishing people who play eldrazi.

Vindictive Lich is a fun include that lets us hurt a bunch of people in a bunch of ways. He’s a wizard, so arming him up is easy, and he loves to hand out presents to our opponents. How sweet!

Every revolution needs agitprop to get the people's support! Which I guess is card draw for the purposes of this primer!

Baleful Strix is cheap, draws us a card, and can trade for a much bigger creature. She'll do work when she's dying once or twice a turn cycle.

Morbid Curiosity gives us draw, a sac outlet, and is a little variable.

May as well keep the ball rolling with Rhystic Study. It's draw, it slows down opponents, it's great.

Hostage Taker is fun on a bun. She's creature and artifact removal and let's you cast it yourself!

Bloodtracker Lets you pay life for counters and draws when he dies. Marvelous.

Throne of the High City is another fun Monarch source. When you need the land it's a land, when you're done with it, draw at the end of the turn.

Disciple of Bolas is another card that does work here. It's a death trigger, its life gain when we need it, it's potentially a bunch of card draw. You can put a counter on her and do it again and again and again.

Revolution ain't cheap. We've got some good ways of getting ahead.

We've got the standard Grixis mana rocks. Sol Ring, Fellwar Stone, MindStone, Rakdos Signet, Commander's Sphere, Talisman of Indulgence. Wayfarer's Bauble and Sword of the Animist grab us actual lands.

You know that Marcy got the best toys.

Hex Parasite is a ton of fun. Kill a planeswalker, get in for a little damage, or just make sure we're not on the throne. Lots of versatility for .

Phyrexian Reclamation lets us pull back anything that's been killed before it's time. It's also a way of manipulating our life.

God-Eternal Bontu

Peregrine Drake

Simic Fluxmage

Noosegraf Mob could be a good include, and make a bleep ton of zombies.

Triskellion is a win-con with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. Could be worth the slot.

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Date added 9 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

7 - 0 Mythic Rares

47 - 0 Rares

24 - 0 Uncommons

9 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.68
Tokens Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Morph 2/2 C, The Monarch, Treasure
Folders Marchesa, sacrifice
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