Last One Standing

Sorcery

Choose a creature at random, then destroy the rest.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

scotchtapedsleeves on Murders and Acquisitions (Marchesa Superiority)

5 months ago

Hey Ender, been a while! I'm still working hard on my Marchesa deck if you'd like to steal some ideas. As for my suggestions:

Hostage Taker is huge as it can steal artifacts.

Imperial Recruiter Can tutor for most cards in my deck, your creature's powers seem a bit higher.

Iron Apprentice is incredible

Thought Sponge is a fantastic draw engine. I find myself drawing 5+ cards each cycle if opponents don't deal with it

Thran Vigil Adds a +1/+1 counter to every creature that re-enters, protecting them immediately and allowing you to sac them.

Uncivil Unrest Does the same as above but for all creatures that enter, also a wincon

Reins of Power Is a favourite of mine against token players. Sac all your creatures to steal an opponents, then you have the option to sac them for a ton of mana with an Altar or get +1/+1 counters on them and sac them as soon as Marchesa reenters the battlefield in your end step.

Aetherworks Marvel has played fairly well

Scroll of Fate Lets you cheat out lands, enchantments and artifacts as Marchesa only checks the card type when it's on the battlefield

Last One Standing is hilarious, same with Saw in Half

Living Death is an incredible board wipe, especially if you sac all your stuff beforehand

I have over 100 cards in my maybeboard that I haven't gotten around to sorting out, but here are some standouts I'm looking to include.

Imposter Mech seems like it could be incredible. Once you get a +1/+1 counter on Marchesa you don't really want to attack with her, so you can use her to crew the mech each turn

Urborg Scavengers Is repeatable grave hate with some bonuses

Kardur, Doomscourge Is dirty

Fell Stinger is a reliable source of draw, can sacrifice itsself in a pinch

Body Launderer seems incredible. Card selection and recursion

scotchtapedsleeves on Murders and Acquisitions (Marchesa Superiority)

5 months ago

Hey Ender, been a while! I'm still working hard on my Marchesa deck if you'd like to steal some ideas. As for my suggestions:

Hostage Taker is huge as it can steal artifacts.

Imperial Recruiter Can tutor for most cards in my deck, your creature's powers seem a bit higher.

Iron Apprentice is incredible

Thought Sponge is a fantastic draw engine. I find myself drawing 5+ cards each cycle if opponents don't deal with it

Thran Vigil Adds a +1/+1 counter to every creature that re-enters, protecting them immediately and allowing you to sac them.

Uncivil Unrest Does the same as above but for all creatures that enter, also a wincon

Reins of Power Is a favourite of mine against token players. Sac all your creatures to steal an opponents, then you have the option to sac them for a ton of mana with an Altar or get +1/+1 counters on them and sac them as soon as Marchesa reenters the battlefield in your end step.

Aetherworks Marvel has played fairly well

Scroll of Fate Lets you cheat out lands, enchantments and artifacts as Marchesa only checks the card type when it's on the battlefield

Last One Standing is hilarious, same with Saw in Half

Living Death is an incredible board wipe, especially if you sac all your stuff beforehand

I have over 100 cards in my maybeboard that I haven't gotten around to sorting out, but here are some standouts I'm looking to include.

Imposter Mech seems like it could be incredible. Once you get a +1/+1 counter on Marchesa you don't really want to attack with her, so you can use her to crew the mech each turn

Urborg Scavengers Is repeatable grave hate with some bonuses

Kardur, Doomscourge Is dirty

Fell Stinger is a reliable source of draw, can sacrifice itsself in a pinch

Body Launderer seems incredible. Card selection and recursion

Anyway, that concludes my rant. Hope all is good with you!

SivertOL on Mistress Judith's Dungeon of Devils

1 year ago

Oh, I like this! Has been so into the Devil / Hell tribal lately ^_^

Have you considered Last One Standing?

I feel it fits with the crazy flavor of this archtype. The deck has often a lot of dudes standing around, so big chance for you, and even if one of your opponents has the last one standing, you have 3-7 ping damage to distribute.

Checky on Big Problems Require The Maddest Solutions

1 year ago

DreadKhan I have been asking with my most destructive friends, who help me with my most hateful decks like this one, and we have seen that Snuff Out is hard to cast for the alternative cost since I only run like 8 swamps, and all the MLD I run it's even harder, and the Price of Fame is so useful bc of the big and flyer commanders I'm used to see, and the surveil is a great selection. For the moment I will not put it inside. But the Phyrexian Purge, they have said that it's a very good option, but what you were saying with the 3 dmg wraths, my playgroup is more like swarm decks, small creatures rather than big beefy 8/8 or something, so the 3 dmg wraths are pretty good, and I have consulted the option of Fire Covenant, but the instant speed and the mana less to kill all the 2/2 and 1/1 is better than 3 life per creature. I have very few matchups where purge is better than fire covenant. I thought the swap for Last One Standing, but it's still in process of studying. Very helpful the ideas and I appreciate them a lot bud :)

Last_Laugh on Marchesa - Till Death Don't we Part

2 years ago

Ok, I'll try to leave my reasoning or experience with why I'm suggesting it.

Read the Bones - Single use draw here is underwhelming.

Bearer of the Heavens- At 10 mana this effect is overpriced. Jokulhaups if you really want this effect (granted it misses enchantments and walkers). I stopped running the effect because if I didn't tutor for it asap it felt like I was prolonging the game instead of making the optimal play EVERY game. It got old and felt kinda cheesy tbh.

3x lands - You've got a lower curve than I do and you also run 1 more piece of ramp with a good amount of card draw. Assuming your playgroup aren't nazis and do casual mulligans of course.

Herald of Secret Streams- I know this will sound weird, but you want to be clearing out some creatures in combat. The inevitable crackback after you smack someone for 15+ damage is much more severe otherwise. I've tried this card on 2 separate occasions because it seems like exactly what we'd want. I personally switched to Legion Loyalist and haven't looked back.

Grave Betrayal- Another card that does amazing things in Marchesa so this one is really your call. From personal experience it felt winmore at that point in the game and I'm really not sure I'd personally run it without Dictate of Erebos/Grave Pact.

Terminate/Bedevil - I've found boardwipes like Blasphemous Act, Damnation, and Last One Standing to be more helpful towards winning than spot removal. Enchantment removal is the exception here and Feed the Swarm and Chaos Warp are 100% needed.

Diabolic Tutor - Underwhelming when you have Demonic/Vampiric Tutors. Diabolic Intent on the other hand can be even better than Demonic Tutor here. I feel like this might just be a typo though.

Tales End - Never ran it but it feels like the weakest of your counter suite. Glen Elendra Archmage would better serve you and doubles as a combo piece with Mikaeus and any free sac outlet (infinite mana w/ Ashnod's Altar, infinite damage with Goblin Bombardment, and infinite discard with Sadistic Hypnotist).

Syr Konrad - Good card but at 5 mana there's better options.

Solemn Simulacrum - As a 4 drop he just feels clunky in the deck. I can't count the amount of times it just sat in my hand.

Teferi's Ageless Insight - I've admittedly never tried this card but I foresee it doing nothing and just sitting in your hand when you don't a draw engine to pair with it. Skullclamp might be the better answer here.

There's a few other cards I'm eyeballing as cuts but haven't personally tried. Things like Chainer because I find 4 drops to be a little clunky due costing the same as our commander. His recursion may be well worth it but I'd rather run Phyrexian Reclamation for the life loss. Rootwater Thief is another I'm eyeballing because he has to connect to trigger his ability... but if you see a lot of the same decks and are familiar with their combo pieces he could be an absolute stud.

legendofa on How You Feel Could Tell …

2 years ago

I have a couple of EDH decks whose focus is less on winning and more on messing with the table. If your deck isn't really designed to be the Last One Standing, what would be the best way to determine its power level? Like a pure group hug or randomizer deck.

Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 8: Rakdos …

2 years ago

Brothers, sisters, and assorted non-binary siblings, welcome to the riot! You like throwing waves of frothing, hasty lunatics at your opponent AND profiting when said lunatics die? We got you! You like watching the world burn and don’t mind getting caught in the flames? We got you! You like anarchy? The purge movies? Gender reveal parties? We got you! Rakdos is the proud home of those who take pleasure at the expense of others, the sort of people who like to mix Skittles and M&Ms in the same party bowl. If that sounds fun, then just you wait: in the house of red and black, that sort of misbehavior is only the appetizer.

Haste and sacrifice. Vampirism and burn. Discard in both barrels. This is a beautifully synergistic color pairing that belongs in the same league as peanut butter and chocolate. Heath Ledger’s joker undoutably played a rakdos deck: things like Havoc Festival, Last One Standing, and Sire Of Insanity are all up the clown’s alley. There are a number of themes we can cover here, but as usual we’re settling for three: Discard, WAAAAGH, and Pain. As always, please bear in mind that the point isn’t a discussion of the competitive but rather as a celebration of the thematic.

Discard

This is both red’s primary draw resource and a uniquely black removal technique. Combining those aspects makes for a deck that both ruins opponent’s hands and digs through your own cards at shocking speed. Granted, you won’t have a big hand, but who cares? Suddenly you've got an overpacked graveyard at your black-hearted beck and call. Red self-mill and black reanimation, people, with just a naughty touch of haste. Discard a pile of hate and then pitch said pile straight into combat. You won’t be sorry.

A regular teddy bear, Chainer’s second coming is a real treat for anyone who left their graveyard hate at home. Haste on a stick is only a perk: suddenly your graveyard is only as full as you want it to be, and probably full of friendly, group-huggy things like Ravenous Chupacabra or Combustible Gearhulk. Yes, the table will certainly love you and your unending, undying deck of unbearable hellbeasts. Undoubtably.

Ok, this guy is horrifying, as you would expect of the king of Grixis. Anyone not running tokens is going to be mighty twitchy about seeing this guy hit the field, and who needs a hand anyway? Rakdos evidently loves empty hands, and rewards you for ensuring that particular misery has company. Consider, if you will, the fulsome, vicious suite of cards tied to poking those who discard. Consider Experimental Frenzy. Consider all the madness cards you could play (or, you know, just play Anje Falkenrath instead). And, if you get tired of the simple gains synergy can win you, you can always Demonfire someone.

THIS. This is neat. Leave aside the look on the face of that certain someone who steals everything on the board. Pay no mind that Seize the Day and all it’s red cousins can make Blim an unholy terror. Forget that you can pass off Demonic Pact, Grid Monitor, and whatever other obnoxiousness you can think of. None of that matters, no. This, for all you glorious nutters out there, is an excuse to finally play Nuisance Engine. That’s the takeaway here.

WAAAGH

Anyone can run tokens or big creatures, but only in Rakdos do you find the conjunction of boardwide haste and sacrifice. Harnessing right, proper WAAGH energy means not just drowning opponents in a tide of zippy little shits but also capitalizing on all that death to cause even more mayhem. Did you ever want to hold a bundle of fireworks, light them all at once, and watch whatever you point them at turn into a smoking, shredded pile of giblets? Here’s the lighter, fellas.

Treasure tokens. Nuff said.

There are a number of nasty combos here that I’d rather not spread. I’ll just say that long ago, I played many, many depressing games against a Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund deck. There was self-milling involved, and Living Death. Evidently, someone decided what the deck needed, rather than burning, was fewer moving parts. That someone deserves a long, interesting life in all the worst ways.

This guy makes me laugh. The idea of ruining the table’s carefully laid plans to off you and instead throwing them into combat with each other is absolutely hilarious. It’s like a Fog designed by someone with pyromania-by-proxy syndrome, and that second block of text the equivalent of throwing gasoline on an already burning house. Get a Conjurer's Closet in there and watch the fun.

Pain

Forget destroy effects. Those are too easy. Direct damage. -X/-X. -1/-1 counters. Life loss. All of the nastiness you can fling at opponents and creatures is under the umbrella of this color pairing. If you like blasting the unholy hell out of your opponents and their minions, this is the arsenal you’re looking to plunder. Stuff like Blasphemous Act, Toxic Deluge, or Orcus, Prince of Undeath will leave a smoldering crater of a battlefield, across which you’ll doubtless be stepping with appropriate gribbliness. Or launching that demonfire we talked about. Whatever works.

Ah, the original Mr. Stop-Hitting-Yourself. I’ve had my eye on this guy for over a decade. Do I own the deck? No. Do I intend to? Again, no. But the prospect here is so, soooo satisfying to think about. To hell with infinite combo fruitwaffles. Damned be those green jackasses ramming X cost spells down the table’s collective throat. Kaervek’s mean, but keeps it clean. Like, nuclear fire sterile clean, and the best part? It’s all self-inflicted!

We really can’t talk red-black without discussing demon himself (hehehe). This guy’s been piloting one of my decks for years, and for good reason. The lord of riots likes to pass out rewards for smacking people. Do you like to be rewarded for smacking people? I do. Rewarded with free things... Eldrazi things. Eldrazi things that tutor more things (Conduit of Ruin), reanimate more things (Artisan of Kozilek), or… well, you can always go for broke and just ruin someone else's things (Void Winnower). Run artifacts, like Hangarback Walker. Run X drops, like Maga, Traitor to Mortals. Run anything you like. Run everything you like. Just have fun running them for next to nothing.

-1/-1 counters, magic’s analogue for injury and agony. We really shouldn’t talk red-black without talking about Wither, the Everlasting Torment of a keyword that was a precursor to the dark days of Infect. It’s safe to say we all have opinions, for good or ill, about Infect’s place in commander. That said, if you want to play with -1/-1 counters and aren’t fond of green or dealing with those opinions, Scorpy’s first line of text makes this guy an overwhelmingly safe bet. Rocking crap like Black Sun's Zenith is the easy answer: let’s make this fun, discard a crapload of cards, and watch your opponent’s boards melt into obscene card advantage while your Archfiend of Ifnir giggles in the corner.

And for my personal favorite...

There is an unfortunate element of “screw you in particular” to Xantcha: declaring open season on somebody’s life total sends a particularly unpleasant message. This is another commander that, laying aside the card advantage, doesn’t bolster your deck, which makes for an interesting challenge. I’ve said it before, one hallmark of a good deck is the capability of functioning without its commander… though if you build this hateful beast, I suggest you pack lots and lots of ramp. Just ‘cause.

That's it for this round. Thoughts and questions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed it, and will come back next week for Gruul!

Prior Articles:

Dimir

Azorius

Green, with links to the other mono-colors

ChaosClaws on Marchesa, the Black Rose

2 years ago

Last_Laugh I've always considered Metallic Mimic but found it awkward. Never realized you can kill it to reset the creature type and it definitely goes in as another way to protect Marchesa. Kokusho is funny but I've been trying to heavily lower the curve on the deck. Mikaeus shenanigans are my favorite way to win along with Juri, Master of the Revue + Dockside Extortionist . Last One Standing is a favorite board wipe of mine I just don't know what to pull out. I definitely think Gary is insane but I have too many decks that win off of it and my playgroup wouldn't appreciate another deck that does the same thing. Thanks for the suggestions I can always use more!