Welcome to my Marionette Master Control Deck! I'm fairly new to the world of magic, starting just before Ixalan pre-release, and one of the first rares I opened was Marionette Master herself. With the inclusion of the treasure mechanic in Ixalan I knew it was something I wanted to try so I've spent the past month fine tuning my list which resulted in a 4-0 record at FNM a couple weeks ago (we had a draft last Friday) without losing a single game. While I was super proud of myself I know that there is still plenty of room for improvement so I am definitely open to suggestions. Now I'll cover my card selections and reasoning behind them.
This deck plays similar to the UB Control decks out there except our win conditions are Marionette Master (just sacrifice 5 treasures to deal 20 damage!), Tezzeret the Schemer with his ultimate turning our treasures into 5/5 beaters, and Vraska, Relic Seeker (note: Vraska is optional and can be replaced with a 4th Marionette Master). Now how do we get to 5 treasures for the MM combo kill? We start things off with Treasure Map
, possibly my favourite Ixalan card, which is our engine alongside Search for Azcanta
(this card is nuts), and allows us to fix our draws before giving us 3 treasures and the ability to sacrifice them to draw cards. Tezzeret can also provide pseudo treasures with his +1 while Spell Swindle can absolutely blow our opponent out of the water if they don't play around it.
Now the trick is to survive until we can pull off our combo. I have designed my mainboard to give me the best possible chance against the two best decks at the moment, Temur Energy and Ramunap Red. As a blue deck we have plenty of counterspells to go alongside Spell Swindle with Censor providing great early game value or cycling in the late game while Supreme Will is very flexible and can be used as a counter or to dig for a specific card. Essence Scatter is excellent against creature based decks but I only run a pair as they can be a dead card against control decks. Disallow on the other hand counters everything and is excellent. Fatal Push is probably the best removal spell in standard right now and is a staple with 4 copies. 1 copy of Essence Extraction provides some good early removal against Ramunap Red or other aggro decks. If our opponents manage to sneak creatures under our shields, Bontu's Last Reckoning allows us to reset the board at the expense of giving our opponent essentially a free turn so it is a last resort. Vraska's Contempt is an excellent answer to either Planeswalkers or annoying creatures such as Hazoret the Fervent or The Scarab God.
Land base is pretty simple with 4 Drowned Catacomb's, 2 Fetid pool's, 1 Forest, 8 Swamp, 7 Island, and 2 Field of Ruin to destroy flip lands such as Search for Azcanta
while also allowing us to reliably grab our Forest to play Vraska, Relic Seeker and triggering revolt for Fatal Push.
Sideboard is still a work in progress but Negate and Duress are staples against more control orientated matchups. Jace's Defeat can also be brought in while being an excellent counter against blue cards such as Whirler Virtuoso or Torrential Gearhulk. Arguel's Blood Fast can provide excellent draw support in control matchups. Consign / Oblivion is a tech card I put in after having a turn 3 Solemnity played against me which completely shut me down but is also useful against enchantment heavy decks if they manage to stick one to the board. Yahenni's Expertise is good against aggro and token decks. 3 copies of Gifted Aetherborn can be brought in against aggro decks to try and clog up the board but also make excellent additions against control decks after they sideboard out all of their removal. Doomfall is an excellent card that can exile a big threat if its the only creature on your opponents side of the board, or attack their hand to remove future threats. Gonti, Lord of Luxury is a great card to bring against energy decks. Finally, Lost Legacy is brought in the counter combo decks like God-Pharaoh's Gift or Approach or our own deck.
So that's my deck as it stands now. Like I said, feel free to provide suggestions and share your own experiences with Marionette Master decks!
