Lethal Scheme

Instant

Convoke (You may tap your creatures as you cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for {1} or one mana of that creature’s colour.)

Destroy target creature or planeswalker. Each creature that convoked this spell connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.)

Legality

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

Discussion (16)

Archon_Bel on Yawgmoth

1 month ago

Always nice to see another Yawgmoth user. I personally prefer Funeral Room / Awakening Hall due to the mass reanimate it can provide in the late game.

Regarding reanimation spells, I feel Victimize is a must have since it's amazing value in a deck like this. Chthonian Nightmare can also recur many of your creatures every turn.

I'm curious why you're not using any of the cheap reanimation enchantments like Animate Dead and Necromancy. I get your reasoning in using the instant revives for protection, but I like the option of being able to revive things on my own timing.

Spymaster's Vault gets you some great card selection potential with enough sacrifices.

Some favorite sac fodder providers I enjoy are Weaponcraft Enthusiast, Chittering Witch, and Sengir Autocrat. Like the Wriggling Grub, they provide the most bang for your buck.

Since you're running Vindictive Vampire, Phyresis might be a nice tech to include for her as a way of getting around either massive life totals or not having your undying combo out.

Lethal Scheme is another option for planeswalker removal, letting you squeeze a bit extra use out of your creatures and giving you extra card selection.

Not a suggestion, but I think it's fair to classify Nest of Scarabs as a boardwipe lol.

_AoxomoxoA_ on Veni, Vidi, Vici

7 months ago

10/21/2024 Revisions

Why?

I would consider this update the final trimming of the really fatty parts of this deck. The main goal here was to remove some cards that only semi-synergized with the deck and to replace them with cards that really shine light on where this deck succeeds. These changes massively upgrade the token generation capability and the payoff for having them. The cards removed from here were in no ways bad cards, they just didn't quite see eye-to-eye with what the deck should be doing: Generating tokens and being very aggressive, punishing a lack of removal and interaction while also being resilient to creature board wipes. The legion always has more bodies to throw at the problem. See notes on each removal/addition and my thought process for doing so below:

Removed

General Kudro of Drannith: Kudro is a very interesting choice, but has 2 big downsides: He requires sacrificing of humans and is restricted to only dealing with creatures with power 4 or greater. This deck doesn't generate enough human tokens to justify using the second ability, especially since I'm limited to only targeting creatures with power 4 or greater. Often threats appear in the form of artifacts, enchantments or weenies that can deny my board and unfortunately, Kudro isn't equipped to handle these.

Lethal Scheme: Probably the worst card of the bunch. At best it's 0 mana to destroy 1 creature/planeswalker, at worst it's 4 mana to destroy 1 creature/planeswalker. Not great removal, and I have plenty of other removal spells

Fervent Charge: The ideal situation is to not have to rely on attack damage to kill my opponents, it's more about the attack triggers here. I think Mirror entity is just a much better/cheaper version of this card if I'm trying to win off of attack damage. It also provides no other value past +2/+2 to only attacking creatures

Commander's Sphere: I'm not starving for card draw, especially with the One Ring, and the extra mana rock is fine, but a nice to have more than anything.

Skullclamp: Similar to Command Sphere, the card draw is nice, but often my tokens end up being used for attacking or attack triggers and quickly build up past 1/1s, so Skullclamp becomes useless. Ashnod's Alter provides much more value than Skullclamp especially when combined with X-cost spells.

Queen Marchesa: She's pretty threatening just because she has Deathtouch and haste, Monarch is also a huge plus, but the last part of the card is way too slow. Generating 1 token with deathtouch per turn just isn't worth passing monarch back and forth between players, and once she's gone, all I am left with is Monarch, her having deathtouch incintivises me to use her to kill a big threat, but her 2rd ability incintivises me to keep her alive, which conflicts with Deathtouch/Haste.

Teysa Karlov: There's like no death triggers in this deck, only sacrifice triggers, and honestly I don't want to build into benefiting off of death triggers, so her first ability provides essentially nothing. Her second ability is a huge up side, but she never stuck around long enough to really use it, and other cards provide me vigilance.

Craig Boone, Novac Guard: Boone essentailly reads "Target player takes X damage where X is the number of Quest Counters on him", he's a cool card, but any good player would take face damage over having their important card be killed. The life gain and reach were big incintives to keeping him in the deck, but he's too slow and doesn't synergize enough with the rest of the deck.

Diabolic Tutor: Worse Demonic Tutor

The Nipton Lottery: I love this card. It's so chaotic and leans into my gambling addiction, but overall, Austere Command is the better boardwipe

Added

Rabble Rousing: Great enchantment to really pump out the tokens, pretty similar to Horn of Gondor and also is less punishing to my board when blocks happen. Ensures I will always be replacing any blocked tokens.

Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  ^Flip: Triple the tokens = triple the fun. Gives me more options than Annointed Processon

Goblin Bombardment: Need to push some extra damage/kill a target? We have tons of tokens to do so. Start killing the tokens generated and hit face. Darien + Goblin Bombardment + Bastion of Rememberance = win condition. In fact, Darien + Goblin Bombardment is a pretty nasty way to generate tokens if I start pinging myself for 1 damage and have a Annointed Processon/Ojer Taq on board. Super flexible card when attacking isn't an option

Impact Tremors: We're generating all these tokens, let's get another purphoros adjacent card in the deck to do some real damage more consistently

Ashnod's Altar: When combined with an X-cost spell like Grand Crescendo, or Secure the Wastes, you can double the amount of tokens you have out already

Darien, King of Kjeldor: Punishes hitting my face as well as just an overall good combo enabler.

Greymond, Avacyn's Stalwart: Probably the best human tribal card in Magic, while he doesn't enable alot of my tokens, he gives all my humans insane amounts of value. Since almost all of my creatures spells are human, I think he will be a huge boon.

Mirror Entity: This card is super versatile. I can use it to pump my tokens, avoid board wipes like Austere Command and Meathook Massacre, but it can also be used to turn my tokens into humans/soldiers for cards like Greymond, Horn of Gondor, Myrel, ect.... I have a feeling this card will be a great enabler.

Austere Command: Selective Boardwipe, what's more to say?

Demonic Tutor: Better Diabolic Tutor

BlueTorche on It's so sad that Steve Jobs died of Vren Poisoning

10 months ago

Good deck that seem fun to play !

You could think about Swarmyard Massacre, which is a good wrath in "swarm tribal" and your deck want this kind of removal as it will give -3/-3 to every creatures with only your commander on the battlefield. Lethal Scheme is also a good creature removal, as it will most of the time cost 0 and make you loot 4.

Last_Laugh on Marchesa the Black Rose - Sacrifices must be made!

11 months ago

Not a bad start, but I do have several suggestions for you. I'll keep things budget friendly and break it down by category.

Finisher: Gray Merchant of Asphodel will end games. With alternate sources of +1+1 counters the lifegain doesn't matter at all. Even with an expensive Marchesa build, this is my #1 go-to finisher.

Alternate +1+1 Counter Sources: Vigean Graftmage is really good here. It comes down before and immediately protects Marchesa and it's 2 free sacs on each player's turn (itself plus 1 other). Sage of Fables likewise immediately protects Marchesa and allows you to abuse any wizard etb/death triggers every turn. Unspeakable Symbol is one you use in response to removal targeting anything without a counter (don't proactively put counters on everyone).

Card Draw: Grim Haruspex is easily your 2nd best draw engine here behind Danny Pink. Liliana's Standard Bearer will draw cards for everything that died the turn Marchesa returns it. Plumb the Forbidden helps you dodge non-destroy wraths (instant speed and pseudo dodging counterspells makes this card). Lethal Scheme helps you surprise protect up to 4 creatures without counters without tapping lands and to remove a creature while drawing some cards.

Enchantment Removal: Cards like Solemnity and Rest in Peace are the bane of Marchesa. Don't get caught with your pants down... Chaos Warp, Feed the Swarm, and Canoptek Tomb Sentinel are your only 3 realistic options and ALL 3 deserve spots.

Feel free to check out my list for ideas, I've had her built for about 9 years straight now so if you have any question, shoot. Upvotes on any of my decks are appreciated (especially Marchesa since it'd be upvote #200 lol). Every Masochist Needs a Marchesa to Love Them

Last_Laugh on Marchesa, the Black Rose

11 months ago

This is a good start, but I have several suggestions for you. I'll keep things budget friendly, break it down by card function, and if you'd like I can help suggest some cuts too.

Enchantment Removal: So you don't get caught with your pants down against effects like Solemnity/Rest in Peace. Feed the Swarm, Chaos Warp, and Canoptek Tomb Sentinel all deserve spots.

Alternate +1+1 Counter Sources: Sage of Fables/Vigean Graftmage come down before and immediately protect Marchesa. Sage let's you abuse any other wizard etb/death triggers every turn and Vigean allows you to abuse any 1 etb/death trigger (itself plus 1 other). Spark Double either copies Marchesa so they protect your board better and give double Dethrone triggers or it copies your best etb/death trigger every turn. Thran Vigil only works on your turn but works wonders here. Anduril, Narsil Reforged/Metallic Mimic are also great options but aren't as budget friendly (just sac Mimic to rename a creature type to whatever is most abuseable the time).

Card Draw: Danny Pink is a little more expensive but is absolutely nuts here. Lethal Scheme is card draw and surprise protection for anything without counters. Plumb the Forbidden in response to most non-destroy wraths will win games.

Feel free to check out my list for ideas. I run the same etb/death trigger abuse strat and have had Marchesa built for about 9 years now so if you have any questions, shoot. Upvotes on any of my decks are appreciated (especially since it'd be upvote #200!). Every Masochist Needs a Marchesa to Love Them

Last_Laugh on Marchesa, the Black Rose

1 year ago

I have several suggestions for you. I'll keep things budget friendly and if you're picking up what I'm putting down, I can also help suggest some cuts.

First off is enchantment removal. There's hardly any options in th5ese colors but I recommend running all 3 so problematic enchantments like Solemnity or Rest in Peace don't wreck your day. Chaos Warp, Feed the Swarm, and Canoptek Tomb Sentinel are all budget friendly and worth their weight in gold here. Another good boardwipe here is Last One Standing.

I don't really do theft in my Marchesa list, but Gisa, Glorious Resurrector is the exception and holy crap does she put in some dirty work.

Next is card draw. Liliana's Standard Bearer, Lethal Scheme, Plumb the Forbidden, and Sage of Fables are all good budget options here. Sage will also come down before Marchesa and immediately give her or any other wizards you run a +1+1 counter. Plumb in response to boardwipes or right before your turn will refill your grip (instant speed and pseudo dodging counterspells makes this card). Also, Danny Pink's price has been sloooowly climbing but it's a very real possibility you'll find one in your LGS dollar binder and omg is this thing absolutely nuts!

On the subject of alternate sources of +1+1 counters... Thran Vigil only works on your turn but it'll get new counters on anything you stole and sac'ed on your turn. Vigean Graftmage let's you sac 2 creatures on everyone's turn (itself + whatever) to abuse etb/death triggers like Gray Merchant of Asphodel or even Grim Haruspex card draw. Spark Double I guess falls into this category and copies either Marchesa for double Dethrone or whatever your meanest etb/death trigger is at the time.

I'm also guessing Rakdos Locket was supposed to be Rakdos Signet.

Feel free to check out my list for ideas. It's far from budget friendly overall but I run everything I recommended. Upvotes on any of my decks are appreciated. Every Masochist Needs a Marchesa to Love Them

Last_Laugh on Black Rose Nazgul

1 year ago

I would recommend running Chaos Warp and/or Canoptek Tomb Sentinel. Relying on only Feed the Swarm to deal with enchantments can be rough.

Anduril, Narsil Reforged is an upgraded Drana. You don't need to hit a player and it puts a counter on everyone instead of just attackers.

Lethal Scheme can get counters on 4 creatures for free at instant speed. This card is amazing in response to boardwipes/removal when your creatures appear counterless and vulnerable.

Metallic Mimic can name human or wizard and immediately protect Marchesa or it can be a wraith, protect them immediately, and count towards their total (or both if you sac Mimic to rename the creature type).

Feel free to check out my list for ideas. It's not Nazgul, it's sacrifice, but there's enough overlap to hopefully still help. Upvotes on any of my decks are appreciated. Every Masochist Needs a Marchesa to Love Them

koylucumert on dredging your own connive?

1 year ago

lets say I have a Golgari Grave-Troll on the battlefield with 3 black creatures. I cast Lethal Scheme by convoking with my 4 creatures, and targetting the troll. when it dies, can I replace its own connive with it dredging itself?