Marionette Jackpot

Standard Artifact Budget Combo UB (Dimir)

OuroDaiko

Instant (12)

• 2x Depths of Desire
• 4x Fatal Push
• 2x Opt
• 2x Revolutionary Rebuff
• 2x Vraska's Contempt

Sorcery (4)

• 2x Drag Under
• 2x Pirate's Prize

Land (22)

• 2x Drowned Catacomb
• 2x Field of Ruin
• 2x Ifnir Deadlands
• 6x Island
• 10x Swamp

Artifact (6)

• 2x Bontu's Monument
• 4x Treasure Map  ^Flip

Creature (14)

• 2x Contraband Kingpin
• 4x Dire Fleet Hoarder
• 4x Marionette Master
• 4x Ruthless Knave

Planeswalker (2)

• 2x Tezzeret the Schemer

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Sideboard

Instant (5)

• 2x Hour of Glory
• 3x Negate

Sorcery (6)

• 3x Doomfall
• 3x Duress

Creature (4)

• 1x Deadeye Plunderers
• 3x Weaponcraft Enthusiast

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Quaint little U/budget deck, based on the Monument/Marionette deck courtesy of MTGGoldfish: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/budget-magic-93-20-tix-mono-black-monument-standard

This deck was really strong before I tinkered (and as someone freshly returning to MTG, I likely just made it worse), but in an attempt to make this my own, I thought about introducing a splash of color to the mono-black deck presented, and ended up doubling down on the treasure-generation aspect while eschewing most of the natural black sacrifice strategy.

Line of Play

So, as you may be able to guess, the core of this deck is the Marionette Master. Going into this I wanted to focus on three priorities:

S1 - Generate treasures ($$$) in a consistent and varied manner.

S2 - Scry/draw often to keep the cards rigged.

S3 - Stall/control to live long enough to cash in.

Our win condition is also painfully simple:1. Math. Marionette will be doing 4 damage per artifact, so if untouched, have five artifacts ready to move from field to grave. This will almost always be treasures (the only other artifacts we have are Weaponcraft Enthusiast servos, which provide their own fun interaction).2. Play Marionette. Give her 3 1/1 upgrades, bringing her to the aforementioned 4 power.3. Sacrifice and watch the health drain away.

As someone who's always been fond of the cruel control decks of years past, this deck just feels good. Due to how long the setup for the combo takes, unless you've been playing an extremely lucky defense you're likely going to be pretty low on life and about to take lethal next turn, when you play the Marionette and just OHKO your opponent. It feels very much like controlled gambling, building up stacks of treasure until you walk to the counter and ask to cash out your jackpot.

Creatures

2CMC

Dire Fleet Hoarder - Greedy Body Bag. Chump blocker that generates treasure for being chumped. Cheap and dispensable, hoarders do a decent job stalling the turns out while steadily building our $$$. Fulfills S1 nicely. 8/10

Contraband Kingpin - Wall Street Banker. Decent defensive stats on a budget, works well for our combat-averse strategy. In addition, as treasure rolls in he provides some more scrying to make sure we're in control. A cheap drone for S2 and a sturdy blocker. 7/10

3CMC

Ruthless Knave - Greedy Backstabber/Frontstabber. Our main butcher, synergizes well with the hoarder, giving us three treasures for three mana, but even on other peons he serves well for those last ditch measures where you need to generate or die. The mana cost is a little much given that we have plenty of other generation tools that don't remove a chump blocker. 7.5/10

6CMC

Marionette Master - Rigged-Game Gambler. A high mana cost and relatively weak stats are not even close to bringing her ability down in this regard. Fabricate will always be used for the counters, making our math simply a matter of multiplying 4's. As stated in the flow above, Marionette should really only be played when you've got lethal damage set up, so as to cement the surprise. Once she's on the field, the sacrifices (and ergo damage) can't be countered. One-turn K.O. is the name of the game, usually from full-life. 11/10

Artifacts

2CMC

Treasure Map   - *X marks the $$$. A perfect match for our stall-and-bomb deck. Not only does it generate a treasure chest of $$$ after three taps, but it serves as a scry during the stall, helping maximize our draw cards, and then after we've got our loot, it's even nice enough to be a colorless land. Almost as core as Marionette. 10/10

3CMC

Bontu's Monument - Tourist Trap. One of the cores of the original version, I've downsized it to reflect our moving focus away from creature summon/sacrifice for $$$, but since all of our creatures are still black, it's worth keeping a copy and a spare in. 8/10

Instants

1CMC

Opt - Weighted Dice. Scry and Draw for one mana, pretty simple. A redo with a bit of chance removed. 8/10

Fatal Push - Personal Foul. Pretty standard card now. One mana for a potential assassination of a 4CMC. Hard to pass up. 10/10

2CMC

Revolutionary Rebuff - OBJECTION! Cheap counter, or at least a tax. Fulfills our S3 requirement in either case. 8/10

3CMC

Depths of Desire - Mulligan. More $$$. Essentially a pricey unsummon that generates a treasure. Not the best but it helps out S1/S3. 6/10

4CMC

Vraska's Contempt - Medusa's Affection. Another meta card that is just extremely strong. Goodbye gods and behemoths, and the small life gain helps with our stalling. Expensive both in mana and card price. 8/10

Sorceries

1CMC

Harsh Scrutiny - Banned Cards. A small filler to work out some cheap control and more scrying. 7/10

3CMC

Drag Under - Mulligan V2. Another expensive unsummon, this time filling out our S2 priorities instead of S1. 6/10

4CMC

Pirate's Prize - Sea Mining. Two cards and two treasures for four mana is not the best investment, but it fills two priorities extremely well. 7/10

Sideboard

Duress and Negate - For those times when some more control is more important than drawing/scrying.Doomfall - Flexible sorcery that works as a less-restricted Duress or an assassination.Weaponcraft Enthusiast and Deadeye Plunderers - For some more token/artifact play with a brute-force win condition.Hour of Glory - For when the two Vraska's aren't enough.

I'd like to again generally thank MTGGoldfish.com for their various series that have certainly helped get me back up to speed, and specifically thank SaffronOlive for the base of this deck, which intrigued me from the moment I laid eyes on it.

I'm sure there are things I can upgrade or swap out, and perhaps some issues with my evaluation of existing cards, so by all means let me hear your thoughts. I think Planeswalkers are neato, so I'll think about budgeting up to one of the two Maybe's above. Cheers!

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Splash colors	UB
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 12 - 2 Rares 16 - 7 Uncommons 14 - 6 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.84
Tokens	Emblem Tezzeret the Schemer, Etherium Cell, Servo 1/1 C, Treasure
Folders	Standard Brews