Marchesa, Political Queen of Pillows
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 235 | 152 COMMENTS | 38326 VIEWS | IN 137 FOLDERS
Playtesting changes —June 27, 2017
A number of changes based on playtesting. Taking out cards that underwhelmed me in practice:
Mystifying Maze ---> Kor Haven: I should have purchased Kor Haven a long time ago. It's far better than Mystifying Maze. It's ability only costs 2 mana to the Maze's 4 mana. Plus the Maze had the strange side effect of "flickering" the opponent's creature, giving him any ETB effects the creature may have.
Nevinyrral's Disk ---> Austere Command: When I want a sweeper, I want it NOW. The waiting a turn for the disk was often too much. Austere Command is a beautifully flexible card with its modal choices of what to sweep.
Blasphemous Act --->Path to Exile: The deck doesn't need as many sweepers as my other control decks. My other sweepers have the upside of either flexibility of what they remove or they bypass indestructibility and graveyard shenanigans. Blasphemous Act had neither of these upsides. I much prefer the targeted removal of threats at instant speed that Path to Exile gives.
Rite of the Raging Storm ---> Backlash: the Rite was a fun card but often not high impact enough. Also, it was a "non-bo" with Kismet/Blind Obedience/Authority of the Consuls since the creature I was giving to my opponents to hit each other with would come into play tapped. I decided to add Backlash as a second Delirium. The "untapped creature" clause is a bit annoying but I'm willing to test it out.
Marchesa's Decree ---> Norn's Annex: I've discovered that I really don't need any other cards that interact with the Monarch mechanic. Norn's Annex imposes a higher cost on opponents for attacking than Marchesa's Decree.
Mountain ---> Tainted Remedy: The average CMC of the deck has dropped and the Monarch mechanic helps ensure I hit my land drops. I'm going to test running one fewer lands. My playgroup does have some lifegain decks floating around. I found I was weak to this so I'm bringing back Tainted Remedy.
Flytrigreen says... #1
Have you considered Koskun Falls as another pillow effect? I use it in my deck, and it works pretty nicely. Tapping one creature isn't all that bad.
June 21, 2017 3:45 p.m.