Game of Thrones (Marchesa Primer)

Commander / EDH

MagicalHacker

Manabase (37)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Kor Haven
• 1x Mind Stone
• 4x Mountain
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Mystifying Maze
• 1x Nomad Outpost
• 5x Plains
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Rugged Prairie
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Sol Ring
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Tainted Peak
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Ramp (7)

• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Spot Removal (5)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Karmic Justice
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Pillow Fort (25)

• 1x Archangel of Tithes
• 1x Assemble the Legion
• 1x Crawlspace
• 1x Dread
• 1x Farsight Mask
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Intrepid Hero
• 1x Island Sanctuary
• 1x Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1x Kor Haven
• 1x Koskun Falls
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker
• 1x Mystifying Maze
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Orzhov Advokist
• 1x Royal Assassin
• 1x Slumbering Dragon
• 1x Solitary Confinement
• 1x Sphere of Safety
• 1x Sun Droplet
• 1x Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
• 1x Windborn Muse

Draw (8)

• 1x Farsight Mask
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Mind's Eye
• 1x Painful Truths
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp

Tutors (5)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Commander (1)

Goading (11)

• 1x Angel's Trumpet
• 1x Antagonism
• 1x Avatar of Slaughter
• 1x Bitter Feud
• 1x Charging Cinderhorn
• 1x Fumiko the Lowblood
• 1x Goblin Spymaster
• 1x Grand Melee
• 1x Keldon Twilight
• 1x Season of the Witch
• 1x Warmonger Hellkite

Goad Rewards (10)

• 1x Avatar of Slaughter
• 1x Bitter Feud
• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Crown of Doom
• 1x Duelist's Heritage
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Pain Magnification
• 1x Rite of the Raging Storm
• 1x Wound Reflection

Win Conditions (7)

• 1x Archangel of Tithes
• 1x Assemble the Legion
• 1x Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1x Luminarch Ascension
• 1x Skirsdag High Priest
• 1x Slumbering Dragon
• 1x Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts

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Maybeboard

Other (8)

• 1x Angelic Skirmisher
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Boros Reckoner
• 1x High Priest of Penance
• 1x Noble Purpose
• 1x Prismatic Geoscope
• 1x True Conviction
• 1x Whip of Erebos

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Music

Introduction

Have you ever lost a game of Magic: the Gathering from someone dealing combat damage to you until you had 0 or less life? If not, welcome to the game, where that exact method is the MOST common way that people lose. If you have, wouldn't you like to play a deck that lets your opponents play, but not kill you that way? If that idea interests you, and you also like the idea of forcing your opponents to attack each other because you are so untouchable, then continue reading...

History

History of the First Pillow Fort Effect

Pillow fort effects have been part of the game since its very beginning; back in 1993, when the first Magic cards were released, there were multiple cards printed that had pillow fort effects. That's right, not just one pillow fort card, but TWO. While we aren't playing Forcefield , we ARE playing Island Sanctuary! When it comes to these the two cards from Alpha that pillow fort, the card design of making it difficult for opponents to kill you with combat damage has been a part of the game from its very inception to the current day.

History of the Pillow Fort Deck

Many decks through the history of Magic have employed pillow fort effects to stay alive. A couple of examples include Collected Bant of Modern employing Intrepid Hero, Martyr of Modern and White Stax of Legacy employing Ghostly Prison, and Archangel of Tithes. While in these decks the pillow fort role is a subtheme, the reason is not that pillow fort cards are not good enough, but rather that they are so good single-handedly that the rest of the deck can focus on utilizing the advantage that the pillow fort cards generate. Plus, Commander's high life total, multiplayer nature, and other aspects make pillow fort cards and decks even more powerful than they could be in other formats.

History of the Pillow Fort Commanders

While the history of the pillow fort design is long-reaching, the design of a legendary creature that helps a pillow fort deck is relatively recent. In everyone's favorite block, Kamigawa, the very first legendary creatures based on pillow fort designs were made when we got Patron of the Kitsune then Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker. After then, we see a huge burst of legendary creatures great for pillow fort: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, Zedruu the Greathearted, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Isperia, Supreme Judge, Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts, Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, Gahiji, Honored One, Narset, Enlightened Master, Daxos the Returned, Queen Marchesa, and finally Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis. Of these, two clear patterns emerge. Firstly, many of these commanders have pillow fort designs, and secondly, many of these commanders help creatures attacking your opponents. Of these, the most inexpensive that does both is Queen Marchesa by making deathtouch tokens and introducing monarch to the game. These two abilities and her color identity makes her a prime commander to helm a commander deck that wants to capitalize on pillow fort by making opponents attack each other, which is the key strategy behind this very deck.

Notable Inclusions

Pillow Fort Cards

• Archangel of Tithes/Ghostly Prison/Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs/Koskun Falls/Sphere of Safety/Windborn Muse: One of the best types of pillow fort cards are ones that still allow opponents to attack you, but make them pay mana to do some, and the reason has to do with the psychology behind it. No one wants to pay mana without getting cards from it, but the card isn't actually stopping anybody from attacking you outright, so it doesn't seem as powerful. Sneaky!

• Farsight Mask /Dread/Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker/No Mercy/Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts: The next category is the category of cards that punish opponents that choose to hurt you. In the same sneaky psychology of the previous category, no one likes to lose advantage or give you advantage without getting advantage in return, but since these don't outright stop creatures from attacking you (at least the first time), they don't seem scary enough to get rid of.

• Gisela, Blade of Goldnight/Solitary Confinement: If opponents are still attacking you with all the disadvantage and paid mana to get through your pillows, then just make the amount of damage they're actually dealing significantly less with cards that prevent or redirect damage over and over.

• Intrepid Hero/Kor Haven/Maze of Ith/Mystifying Maze/Royal Assassin: While not technically pillow fort cards, these act like pillow fort cards with such a high amount of pillow fort cards by being able to pick off and prevent damage from individual creatures over and over.

• Ophiomancer/Queen Marchesa: You know what else can pick off creatures? Creatures with deathtouch. So why not play some creatures that make tokens with deathtouch?

• Everything else: Everything else in this category is going to be used to limit how many creatures can attack us without limiting how many creatures can attack opponents and to gain life when opponents lose life.

Goading

• Avatar of Slaughter / Fumiko the Lowblood /Goblin Spymaster/ Grand Melee / Warmonger Hellkite : Now that we are well equipped to stave off creatures from attacking us, if we force all of our opponents' creatures to attack, they have no option but to either attack each other or suffer the consequences for attacking us.

• Angel's Trumpet/ Antagonism /Charging Cinderhorn/ Keldon Twilight / Season of the Witch : While not as forceful as the above category, these cards put your opponents in the position where they want to attack. As previously mentioned, since these cards don't outright force players to attack they don't get the attention they deserve, but an added benefit is that they are more effective at subtly inciting feuds between opponents.

• Avatar of Slaughter / Blood Feud / Crown of Doom /Duelist's Heritage/Gisela, Blade of Goldnight/Pain Magnification/Rite of the Raging Storm/Wound Reflection: Lastly, we have a couple cards that help opponents deal more damage when they attack each other. We could add more, but these are the very best of the best of this category.

• Everything Else: All the other cards in this category either help out to also make creatures attack or give me some kind of benefit when they attack my opponents.

Other Spells

• Farsight Mask / Graveborn Muse /Mind's Eye/Queen Marchesa/Painful Truths/Phyrexian Arena/Skullclamp: As long as we can draw lots and lots of cards, we can set up a very large grid of pillow fort cards and goading cards. In that way, drawing cards are very important for this deck.

• Hedron Archive/Mind Stone/Sol Ring/Thran Dynamo/Worn Powerstone: While this deck doesn't need ramp as much as many other decks since it doesn't run a lot of 7+ drops or require mana to activate abilities each turn, it still can utilize the best of the best ramp to help power out the pillow fort pieces and goading pieces mentioned in the previous point.

• Archangel of Tithes/Assemble the Legion/Dragonmaster Outcast/Luminarch Ascension/Skirsdag High Priest/ Slumbering Dragon /Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts: These are the win conditions of the deck, in that they will help close out a game once the pillow fort and goading machine have been assembled. Whether it's making our existing creatures hard to block, making a crazy amount of tiny tokens, or making one or more big flying tokens each turn, these cards are going to apply real pressure, even in commander.

• Everything Else: From tutors to spot removal to recursion, this deck is playing a couple of staples to round out the deck and help us survive long enough to build our pillow fort and goading machine.

Lands

• Ancient Tomb/Myriad Landscape: Lands that ramp are good since they help us get more mana without actually taking up a new spot in the deck.

• Everything Else: We have already talked about some lands in previous categories, but everything else we didn't talk about either ensure we aren't color screwed early in the game or help us with doing some staple effects.

Notable Exclusions/Room for Diversity

• Orzhov Signet/Boros Signet/Rakdos Signet: While these are great cards in a deck that needs more ramp, this deck has all the ramp it could ever need, and playing 2-drops that only ramp by one are going to be too small of an effect for this deck.

• Temple of Triumph/Temple of Silence/Temple of Malice: While Temples are great in 2-color decks, they aren't great in 3-color decks since we have enough options to make the mana we need on lands that don't enter the battlefield untapped.

• Crackling Doom: While this card seems great, sometimes the biggest creature an opponent controls isn't the biggest threat to us. Especially when we want those big creatures to attack our opponents.

• Orzhov Advokist: This card could eventually find a place in the deck, but at the very worst, no opponent takes the bait, which means that it's just used as a way to add two +1/+1 counters to one of our creatures each upkeep, which doesn't really help any particular aspect of the deck.

• Blood Reckoning/ Flameblade Angel /Hissing Miasma/Marchesa's Decree/Norn's Annex: Making opponents lose life for attacking is not very effective except when they have low amounts of life, and once we get to that point, we should be able to close out the game pretty quickly.

• Caverns of Despair /Ensnaring Bridge/Magus of the Moat/Silent Arbiter: While these are pretty effective pillow fort cards, the fact that they also give free pillow fort to our opponents makes them a nonbo in a deck like this. Basically, they interfere with our ability to goad creatures into attacking our opponent.

Conclusion

To summarize this primer, pillow fort combined with goading can be used effective to provoke opponents to attack each other when committed to as a heavy theme, and Queen Marchesa's abilities of making deathtouch tokens and introducing monarch to the game in the colors of Mardu make her an excellent commander for pillow fort.

Top Ranked	Achieved #31 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 61 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 1 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.41
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Assassin 1/1 B w/ Haste, Demon 5/5 B, Dragon 5/5 R, Goblin 1/1 R for Goblin Spymaster, Lightning Rager, Ogre 3/3 R, Snake 1/1 B, Soldier 1/1 RW, Spirit 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 WB, The Monarch
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