Political Intrigues - Mardu EDH Primer

Commander / EDH Control Group Slug Multiplayer Pillow Fort RBW (Mardu) Theme/Gimmick

Tamsin

Instant (4)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Crackling Doom
• 1x Utter End

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Approach of the Second Sun
• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Council's Judgment
• 1x Deadly Tempest
• 1x Death Grasp
• 1x Debt to the Deathless
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Fumigate
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Obliterate
• 1x Ruinous Ultimatum

Enchantment (15)

• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Boon Reflection
• 1x Delaying Shield
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Fight or Flight
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Gideon's Intervention
• 1x Island Sanctuary
• 1x Karmic Justice
• 1x Mystic Barrier
• 1x Righteous Aura
• 1x Sanguine Bond
• 1x Solitary Confinement
• 1x Sphere of Safety

Artifact (12)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Crawlspace
• 1x Mardu Banner
• 1x Meekstone
• 1x Norn's Annex
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Tamiyo's Journal
• 1x Well of Lost Dreams

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Kaya, Ghost Assassin

Creature (19)

• 1x Agent of Masks
• 1x Defiant Bloodlord
• 1x Felidar Sovereign
• 1x Harsh Mentor
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1x Kiku, Night's Flower
• 1x Magister of Worth
• 1x Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker
• 1x Mogis, God of Slaughter
• 1x Patron of the Kitsune
• 1x Protector of the Crown
• 1x Purity
• 1x Silent Arbiter
• 1x Stuffy Doll
• 1x Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
• 1x Vizkopa Guildmage
• 1x Windborn Muse
• 1x Zo-Zu the Punisher

Land (35)

• 1x Akoum Refuge
• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Bloodfell Caves
• 1x Boros Garrison
• 1x Boros Guildgate
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Forsaken Sanctuary
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Nomad Outpost
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 1x Orzhov Guildgate
• 5x Plains
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Rakdos Guildgate
• 1x Rocky Tar Pit
• 1x Sanctum of Eternity
• 1x Scoured Barrens
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Wind-Scarred Crag

Commander (1)

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Sideboard

Instant (5)

• 1x Comeuppance
• 1x Dawn Charm
• 1x Deflecting Palm
• 1x Mana Tithe
• 1x Rakdos Charm

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Choice of Damnations
• 1x Disrupt Decorum
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Lightmine Field

Creature (1)

• 1x Fumiko the Lowblood

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Introduction

This is my gimmicky Queen Marchesa deck. It has a Pillowfort and Political theme, with a couple of combo finishes, and relies on life-gain and drain. There are a few group-slug cards in there, to really amp up how fast a game can end with this kinda of deck. This deck used to be political garbage, and it just never pulled its own weight at the table, so I made a lot of edits over a long period of time.

Changelist

2021/07/25 - Took out Throne of the High City and put in Sanctum of Eternity they're very similar with regards to reclaiming the monarch, and I basically never had to sacrifice throne once while I had it.

Disclaimer

My playgroup is fairly casual, and we're all broke students, so I don't have access to a lot of expensive cards I would love to put in this deck cough The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale cough. I do make some exceptions for what I call mid-tier pricing, which is about $20, depending on how much I love the card, or how essential it is. If you think my deck doesn't fit in these hubs feel free to tell me why, or which hubs it fits in better. I've always been under the impression Group Slug was the opposite of Group Hug, but I've seen it be crazy gimmicky burn too.

Why Play Marchesa//You'll Love This Deck If...

Marchesa is Mardu colors, which just happen to be my favourite colors. Until now, most of the commanders released for Mardu have been re-animator, or aggro-based - You could make arguments about Oros being a control commander, but he's basically never worth running in my opinion. Marchesa offers a body with both deathtouch and hase, a card, and sometimes a token for 4 mana. This means you can focus on many different ways to build her. I know Voltron is semi-popular, but pillowfort and tokens seem to be the most popular builds for her.

Mardu has clearer strengths and weaknesses than the other 3-color combos, which is one of the reasons I like it a lot. If it's a permanent, Mardu can deal with it, and if it's on the stack, you probably can't - excluding the two white counterspells that exist.

If you like control, but have too many blue decks already, you should give this deck a try. If you like black-red, but sometimes enchantments ruin your day, you should probably play Kaalia of the Vast instead. If you like white black, but wish you had cards to play politics with, and more good damage reflection cards, then I would give this deck a try.

Deck History

Pillowfort has always been one of the strategies I have been drawn to. I used to have a Karona Pillowfort deck. It was awful to the point of non-function. I moved on to both running Teysa, and Narset. Teysa worked well, but I wanted to use more of the good cards I had in red and blue. The pillowfort in Narset was dead cards, as running more combo material would have meant I didn't need the pillowfort cards. The second I saw Queen Marchesa spoiled, I knew I was building this deck. Unlike other pillowforters, Marchesa makes sure you don't fall behind on cards, which is usually the worst thing about running pillowfort. There are several cards used to convert combat damage into life loss, and cards to negate it completely. If you don't cast anything with Solitary Confinement on the battlefield, you're invulnerable, unless someone makes you discard cards.

This deck used to run a lot more Monarch cards, and a lot less life-drain, and a lot more voting cards, but they were too low-impact, so I removed them. As I started to lose the Monarch status less and less, I took out cards that made me the Monarch, since usually I could recast my commander. I kept in the land though because it's a nice surprise, it still taps for mana, and I opened it, so there.

Deck Strategy

This deck wants to get a mild pillowfort down, such as Ghostly Prison as early as possible. Other cards that you can afford to play out early, but offer better defences, are Delaying Shield, Mystic Barrier and Crawlspace. These should be cards that protect you enough to play your Queen Marchesa, but don't have such a steep cost for keeping them around, like Solitary Confinement or Island Sanctuary. These are also your cards you can afford to have removed. During this stage of the game you want to keep your tutors back, and hold onto them. If you start out with pillowfort like Solitary Confinement or Righteous Aura people will use their answers on them and kill you. If you start with less valuable pillowfort, they still have to use their answers on it, but you get to play your better stuff later.

When it feels like an opponent is building up a good board-state, you have two options - use a board wipe, or play some more pillowfort, and hope they don't get rid of it. The second is preferred, since there will be times when you need a board-wipe to avoid losing, and you can't afford to skip drawing a card to Island Sanctuary or something. After you're sure you're more secure you can start digging into your library to assemble your combo, or find finishers. Debt to the Deathless is my favourite, but you can also use cards like Teysa on opponents without life-gain to beat them up.

I will also add, as a control deck, your main concern is to meet your land drops every turn, so you can afford to pay for your better pillowforts and your threats later on.

Potential Includes

If someone at your table runs tokens a lot, I would put in a Rakdos Charm for a finisher. If you want a little more politcal sway, I would include Rainbow Vale and Spectral Searchlight. Aikido can be a good way to win against all sorts of decks, and I would put them in if you're having trouble finishing people off. Dawn Charm and Mana Tithe are also fun to use now and again, to surprise people with counterspells.

Playing Against Marchesa

{W} Weenie Strategies should: Destroy/Exile the taxing cards and Crawlspace Cards. You can attack straight through a Righteous Aura most of the time, but a Ghostly Prison is going to ruin your day. Non-Weenie Strategies should: Destroy the damage-prevention cards like Solitary Confinement and Righteous Aura but pay for the taxes you can afford.

{U} Should counter or bounce cards that prevent their strategies. If you're going wide, counter the taxing cards, if you're going tall, countering the prevention cards, and if you're combo-ing, you should just ignore Marchesa unless it looks like it can combo off, and then use your counters.

{B} Make the Marchesa player discard as often as you can. You don't get the best options for dealing with her enchantments and artefacts, so hopefully you're paired up with a color that can

{R} The other color that can't touch Marchesa's enchantments should aim to hit her with a Stigma Lasher effect. If you're paired with Black, and have no way of dealing with her enchantments, burn, discard, "damage cannot be prevented", and "players cannot gain life effects" should help a lot.

{G} The main card you should watch out for is Island Sanctuary. If you don't have fliers you'll probably just have a bad time if you can't deal with it. f you're going wide/tokens, waiting until late game and using cards like Fracturing Gust can help, but only if you think the Marchesa player doesn't have a Rakdos Charm or something to instantly kill you.

Cards Chosen//Feedback

This list is designed to be budget, whilst having as many fun interactions as possible. I like Pariah + Stuffy Doll or playing cards like Approach of the Second Sun and Liliana Vess. The sideboard contains options that I cut, or swap in depending on match-up, such as the synergy of Fumiko the Lowblood and Lightmine Field, or Choice of Damnations. There are a few non-bos in this deck, but that comes with playing cards that achieve your goal by different means.

Cards with extort, such as Blind Obedience paired with Well of Lost Dreams creates situations where your spells read: "Pay {X}{WB} Each opponent loses one life, you gain X life, and you draw X cards, where X is the number of opponents you have." Which is basically always worth it in my opinion

Feel free to critique me, but note that I won't be including cards like Avacyn, Angel of Hope due to price and ubiquity.

Thanks for reading.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	1 year
Exclude colors	UG
Key combos	Pariah + Stuffy Doll
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 7 Rares 14 - 2 Uncommons 13 - 1 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.17
Tokens	Assassin 1/1 B w/ Haste, Clue, Ogre 3/3 R, Spirit 1/1 WB, The Monarch
Folders	For the Love of Mardu!, The Queen, Ideas for Decks, me, Group hug decks, cool, Interesting Commander Decks, Commander, Interesting, Marchesa