Marchesa’s Desperate Grad Students

Commander / EDH* UBR (Grixis)

WhattheDeck

Creature (42)

• 1x Alchemist's Apprentice
• 1x Apprentice Necromancer
• 1x Arcbound Ravager
• 1x Arcbound Stinger
• 1x Arcbound Worker
• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Bloodline Necromancer
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cytoplast Manipulator
• 1x Daring Apprentice
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Greater Gargadon
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Hapless Researcher
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Magus of the Moon
• 1x Metallic Mimic
• 1x Nimble Obstructionist
• 1x Overwhelmed Apprentice
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Phyrexian Revoker
• 1x Sage of Fables
• 1x Sidisi's Faithful
• 1x Siren Stormtamer
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Spark Double
• 1x Sparring Construct
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Stern Proctor
• 1x Tribute Mage
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Vedalken AEthermage
• 1x Vendilion Clique
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1x Vigean Graftmage
• 1x Vindictive Lich
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Watcher for Tomorrow

Land (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fiery Islet
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forge of Heroes
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Guildmages' Forum
• 1x High Market
• 1x Inkmoth Nexus
• 3x Island
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Steam Vents
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Watery Grave

Commander (1)

Instant (10)

• 1x Abjure
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Plunge into Darkness
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Thrilling Encore
• 1x Undying Evil
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Artifact (8)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Curse of Opulence
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Goblin Bombardment

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Sideboard

Creature (10)

• 1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
• 1x Benthic Biomancer
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Faerie Seer
• 1x Galecaster Colossus
• 1x Gleaming Barrier
• 1x Marionette Master
• 1x Pilgrim's Eye
• 1x Sedraxis Alchemist
• 1x Tomebound Lich

Instant (7)

• 1x Burnt Offering
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Smelt
• 1x Starstorm
• 1x Tale's End
• 1x Teferi's Time Twist

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Time Warp

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Vicious Shadows

Artifact (1)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar

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Maybeboard

Creature (53)

• 1x Agent of Erebos
• 1x Anathemancer
• 1x Arcbound Crusher
• 1x Arcbound Reclaimer
• 1x Avalanche Riders
• 1x Bearer of the Heavens
• 1x Bloodtracker
• 1x Corridor Monitor
• 1x Cursecatcher
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Dire Fleet Ravager
• 1x Dross Scorpion
• 1x Extruder
• 1x Fatespinner
• 1x Flayer of the Hatebound
• 1x Goblin Engineer
• 1x Goblin Flectomancer
• 1x Goblin Welder
• 1x Izzet Chronarch
• 1x Junk Diver
• 1x Lumengrid Sentinel
• 1x Magus of the Wheel
• 1x Memnarch
• 1x Mesmeric Fiend
• 1x Meteor Golem
• 1x Naban, Dean of Iteration
• 1x Nevermaker
• 1x Noxious Gearhulk
• 1x Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
• 1x Oona's Blackguard
• 1x Patron Wizard
• 1x Phyrexian Dreadnought
• 1x Preyseizer Dragon
• 1x Profaner of the Dead
• 1x Puppeteer Clique
• 1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1x Realmwright
• 1x Sage of Epityr
• 1x Scarecrone
• 1x Scrap Trawler
• 1x Scrapyard Recombiner
• 1x Sower of Temptation
• 1x Sphinx Summoner
• 1x Stonybrook Banneret
• 1x Su-Chi
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x Thalakos Seer
• 1x Thoughtpicker Witch
• 1x Undead Augur
• 1x Vedalken Plotter
• 1x Vela the Night-Clad
• 1x Voidmage Prodigy
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine

Instant (13)

• 1x Act of Aggression
• 1x Boomerang
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Expansion / Explosion
• 1x Kolaghan's Command
• 1x Learn from the Past
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Perilous Research
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Shattering Pulse
• 1x Snap
• 1x Stream of Consciousness
• 1x Subtle Strike

Artifact (3)

• 1x Despotic Scepter
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Time Sieve

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Devastation

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Kindred Discovery

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Being in grad school, I feel a special kind of connection to all those apprentice wizard cards: sacrificing yourself just to show your tenured overlord that you can do something marginally effective to advance their research agenda—only to be brought back to life every quarter to do it all again. I see you Alchemist Apprentice, I see you.

Marchesa was the first deck I built from scratch—I opened her in a conspiracy pack when I started playing Magic and have been brewing Marchesa builds ever since. Right now this is my favorite build—this list is tuned to have Marchesa out by turn 3 and protected with +1/+1 counters and a sac outlet by turn 4 or 5. The cmc is kept as tight as possible.

For anyone unfamiliar, the main engine of Marchesa, the Black Rose decks is getting +1/+1 counters on your creatures and then saccing them for recursive value on both you and your opponents' turns.

There are all kinds of finishers you can play once you have the core engine set up. Some possibilities:

Marchesa engine + extra turn shenanigans:
Archaeomancer + Time Warp
Five artifact creatures + Time Sieve

Marchesa engine + burn every turn:
Vindictive Lich
Kokusho, the Evening Star
Vicious Shadows
Marionette Master
Anathemancer
Dire Fleet Ravager
Flayer of the Hatebound
Purphoros, God of the Forge
Vela the Night-Clad

...etc

Marchesa engine + bouncing all opponents' permanents:
Venser, Shaper Savant
Sedraxis Alchemist
Galecaster Colossus

Marchesa engine + mill effects:
Supreme Inquisitor
Bitter Ordeal

Marchesa engine + disgusting land destruction:
Devastation
Bearer of the Heavens
Jokulhaups
Obliterate

There are also a number of combo ways to win without Marchesa on the board. The easiest combo to set up is:

Sage of Fables OR Metallic Mimic +
Glen Elendra Archmage OR Puppeteer Clique +
Goblin Bombardment OR Carrion Feeder OR Viscera Seer

(I've accidentally won this way a few times ... whoops)

Another sneaky win is to turn Inkmoth Nexus into an artifact, and then swing. If you have Arcbound Ravager on the board, sac all your artifacts to give it 8 or more counters, then sac the ravager to itself and put its counters on the Blinkmoth artifact creature for 10 infect damage.

Finally, a more difficult combo to set up, but doable with all the tutors of the deck, is to win with Thrilling Encore + Archaeomancer + Phyrexian Altar and 4 creatures OR Peregrine Drake + Sac Outlet.

I’ll update this list with a more in depth primer soon. I recently added a Spellseeker package and updated all the instants to fit in the 2cmc range. So far I’ve been really happy and impressed with the Spellseeker/Archaeomancer combo and I’m thinking of phasing out some of the gravestorm combo pieces for more spellslinger and control.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 1 Mythic Rares 51 - 8 Rares 16 - 2 Uncommons 23 - 9 Commons
Cards	103
Avg. CMC	2.64
Tokens	Gold, Manifest 2/2 C, Morph 2/2 C, Servo 1/1 C, Treasure