MegaMatt13, I think all the changes look very reasonable. I have yet to put Virtus the Veiled into play, so I have no comment, but your explanation sounds very reasonable. I addressed Curse of Opulence over at my deck, mainly because it serves as an explanation for why I keep it, not as a reason that you should. As for more draw cards, I struggle with that, too. I consider Phyrexian Arena regularly, I recently was considering Read the Bones, and I think Greed is great. I would probably consider Erebos, God of the Dead over it, mostly for the indestructible and the late game finisher option, but the lower activation cost of Greed is worth considering, and the flavor for Queen Marchesa is pure win.

I like what you are doing here, and I will await hearing about the results.

Bye the way, I am considering killing some more of my babies in an effort to keep up in a stronger meta. Queen Marchesa still wins way more than she should, but I look at my competition, and see some adjustments that can be made. Evolution or Extinction, there are no other options.

precociousapprentice, thanks for taking the time to respond. I agree with you about Erebos. He's been in the deck for a while and performs very well. Shutting off opponents' lifegain is actually quite valuable too. It prevents opponents from "getting out of range" of being killed in the later game. I think I'm going to keep Twilight Prophet for now. She is performing decently and having a flier with reasonably high toughness can be valuable in the deck too.

I haven't cut Curse of Opulence yet...it's just on my list of potential cuts. I agree with your reasoning behind it. I'm just wondering if there may be another option that fulfills that function better. I put Rite of the Raging Storm back in a couple updates ago and it fulfills that role beautifully, giving each opponent a beater that can be used to attack anyone EXCEPT me. I'm thinking of giving Orzhov Advokist another chance in this role. Again it allows opponents to attack anyone except me and gives them a buff to do so. I think my main concern with Curse of Opulence it that it forces me to pick one opponent to put the target on...my hands are on the bloody weapon. Rite of the Raging Storm and Orzhov Advokist provide a general incentive without forcing me to choose who opponents should target.

Any further thoughts on this?

I absolutely love rites of the raging storm, I've gotten it into play twice so far, once alongside duelists heritage, once on it's own.

The time i got it out with duelist's heritage, it was still a 4 players alive game.... within 2 turns, peoples life totals were devestated while I sat comfortably watching them beat each other to death witha 5/1 double strike/trampler. The time i got it out on it's own, it was in a 1v1 scenario and it just turned into a problem over the course of the next few turns for my opponent and let me push for combat damage lethal with just rites of raging storm alone.

I forgot to buy curse of opulence when i ordered my cards last time (but i ordered 5 gold tokens.... lmfao) so I don't have experience with it yet, but I'm super excited to play it. In the case of this curse, I have no problem getting my bloody hand on this weapon. I'll either target it against people I know won't have early game blockers, or against somebody i perceive as my biggest threat. While it makes 1 person angry at you, it makes 2 people angry at them... a good trade IMHO, if they attack you in spite, they are open to getting 3v1'd in return.

Orzhov advokist is something I actually am putting into my final list currently, but also don't own. I've talked with precociousapprentice about it on his page before so i'm going to just copy paste what I posted there back in may.

Orzhov advokist - I love love LOVE this card, but I accept it's not necessarily amazing. It's like a political handshake of "i'll help you if you don't attack me next turn" by force (even if it leaves play, the condition still applies for the rest of the turn). It buffs creatures up around the board, keeps me "safe" (it either lets me know I won't be attacked or if they don't take the counters, it lets me know that something is up, advanced warning system sort of) and the buffed up creatures make for better aikido targets, splashing back even more damage than they would have without the counters :) Just seems like it touches every aspect of the deck in some way.

To which preciousapprentice responded (Speaking also of Vow of Malice/Lightning/Duty which is what is meant by "Vow")

I also have been thinking about Orzhov Advokist. It is a dangerous card to run, but it has a very interesting effect on the game. People are often happy to get a long term pump to their creature for redirecting an attack away from you. This also creates somewhat of an arms race amongst your opponents, as no one wants to be hit with a rapidly growing creature without defending themselves. Before you know it, your opponents are duking it out with ever growing creatures, leaving you to watch them beat each other. This is exactly the kind of situation that benefits an Aikido general. I also ran the Vow cycle early in the evolution of the deck. The problem was that just because they could't attack me doesn't mean that they can't block me. I found them to be a little problematic, and I think Orzhov Advokist is likely exactly the same.

Sorry MegaMatt13, my comments about Erebos, God of the Dead combined comments on my deck with comments on yours. I meant that I am considering adding it into mine. The addition of denying opponents life gain is not lost on me. There is a Karlov deck in my meta that is super strong. Only Solemnity stands between me and a blowout in most games.

To chime in about Orzhov Advokist, I do now run Solemnity. It won't find a way into the deck unless I move away from Solemnity and the other cards that support it. Right now, Solemnity is a total beast. Counter hate is amazing in EDH, and if there was another copy of Solemnity, I would consider adding it. Even when I want people's decks to work for them, there are too many counter engines that will run away with the game if not dealt with. It has become a common tutor target in my deck.

I can definitely see that although it's definitely a meta call. I picked up solemnity + phyrexian unlife and i find them very low value but there's almost no counters in my meta (and it's lower powered 100-200$ decks tops). But I also don't have the high end supporting cards to turn solemnity into an offensive powerhouse like Dark Depths.

I'm also sitting on the edge with erebos, I've added/removed him from my final list a few times now. I feel comfortable with my current level of draws, but a repeatable and hard to remove card draw might be nice...however I don't have many opportunities to utilize my life as a resource due to not much life gain in the deck and having a cats tribal player. (That arahbo +3/+3 eminence really knocks chunks out of my HP before i can get some pillowfort up to dissuade him)... If i make the change, I will likely swap out commander sphere for him. (I'm also considering changing command sphere to mirrage mirror, but there's not too many amazing hits in my meta... probably the best thing available to mirror is Mirari's Wake.)

Maybe If i make 2 cuts to add something like Kambal, Consul of Allocation + Erebos, i might be more comfortable with it. It basically turns kambal into a card draw engine lol.

There is some lifegain in my meta (a couple lifelink artifacts) but usually not too much, so that affect would be appreciated but far from necessary.

Given the amount of combo and even storm I am seeing now, I have considered Kambal, Consul of Allocation. I wish that there was a storm wincon in Mardu that was instant. I will have to depend on Fork and Reverberate to deal with any true storm cards. Kambal, Consul of Allocation is a passable substitute.

I've been thinking about Thrilling Encore and how one could make it more proactive and a couple cards sprung to mind Blasphemous Act and Toxic Deluge.

With enough creatures on board, blasphemous act becomes a 6 mana, 2 card insurrection probably. (Some things live the damage, but you should get a good number of things back)

Toxic deluge is pretty much guaranteed based on how much life you are willing to give up but for 8 mana. Benefit here is that you can nab people's indestructibles through this.

Thrilling encore is interesting, but I don't know if I want to spring for the package (I have blasphemous but deluge is $$$) and figuring out the cuts for it would be terrifying. It seems like a nice 2nd insurrection but I would want to have the option to use it more pro-actively...and currently the only way to do so with this list costs 11 mana. (You were also mentioning bringing in board wipes again and I think if you are keeping thrilling encore you might consider these to play it both as an anti someone elses wrath and a proactive insurrection maybe?)

I guess my evaluation of thrilling encore might also be a meta call for me. I'm primarily the wrath player. We have a cats player with Rout and Divine Reckoning in his deck, a derevi player with no wraths (and no cyclonic rift), and the other player usually has 0-2 wipes (and it's usually kindred dominance or cyclonic rift which are both asymmetrical.)

Bloodytrailz, thanks for your feedback regarding Thrilling Encore. I agree that it's a meta call to an extent. My meta plays with quite a lot of wraths as control is the most common archetype in my playgroup. It's almost guaranteed that someone will wrath the board as the table becomes cluttered with creatures. I have been using Thrilling Encore in response to their boardwipes, not my own. Having said all that, the card is a little conditional. I'm not entirely convinced yet that it's worth holding up 5 mana for. I'm testing it out but it could find itself on the chopping block.

I think it is worth trialing, and I am glad you are looking into it, but I have a hard time thinking that holding up that much mana on a very conditional card is a good idea. That being said, I run Comeuppance, so what do I know?

precociousapprentice, true but I think Comeuppance is somewhat less conditional. it has the flexibility of punishing a greedy X spell to the face as well as being a one-sided boardwipe. Plus it's one mana cheaper which is relevant. I'm very happy with Comeuppance while Thrilling Encore is wait and see :)

I mean, holding up mana is also less punishing if you add in alterior mana sinks like greed, erebos, thaumatic compass etc. Just need some repeatable ways to spend mana and it feels a lot less bad to hold mana up through a turn.

Kind of a problem I see with thrilling encore is due to the CMC being unique within the deck it's hard to bluff without having other ways to spend your mana off turn. Most effects you want to keep mana up for are only 2-3 CMC effects, so people might get suspicious if you start holding up 5 mana really quickly.

How does Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts perform for you? You have a few No Mercy effects built into the deck with Teysa being the most expensive. She is essentially unblockable which would be good for gaining monarch back but I feel like something like Sun Titan would strengthen the deck a lot (Aside from the anti-synergy with Rest in Peace and Merciless Eviction. I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

If I could recommend adding one card I would suggest Mirage Mirror. Its one of those cards that perhaps you have to play with a few times to really appreciate but I know for certain its one card that will never be taken out of my list.

Older20 I agree completely. Mirage Mirror fills so many roles in my deck it is almost silly. I am not sure it has ever hit the table and not changed the game in my favor. The thing that is extra good about it is that, just like counterspells, no one ever expects clone effects in Mardu.

I was waiting for you to upgrade the deck, and see the inclusion of the Xantcha, Sleeper Agent.

JMarostica, thanks for your interest! I've been busy with a couple new C18 commanders, Kestia and Aminatou. I hope to get back to this deck soon!

O.M.G!

MegaMatt13, I'm always too embarrassed to post comments, my English is not good. But I'd like to say that I also have a Queen Marchesa deck.

Today, my Queen Marchesa deck is my favorite commander to play MTG with my friends. Since I chose this commander, I follow your updates here, on the tappedout!!!

Your deck is really cool and has always been a source of ideas and inspiration. Since the C18 spoiler, I've been waiting to see your updates and see the inclusion of Xantcha, Sleeper Agent.

Thank you!