Murder, Politics and Pillows

Commander / EDH Attrition Control Monarch Pillow Fort RBW (Mardu)

TheSlowestBro

Land (35)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Axgard Armory
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Grand Coliseum
• 1x Kor Haven
• 1x Lavaclaw Reaches
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Mistveil Plains
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Needle Spires
• 1x Nomad Outpost
• 2x Plains
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Savai Triome
• 1x Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Spectator Seating
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Temple of Triumph
• 1x The Black Gate
• 1x Vault of Champions

Instant (20)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Bedevil
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Comeuppance
• 1x Crackling Doom
• 1x Despark
• 1x Eerie Interlude
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fire Covenant
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x Kaya's Guile
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Reverberate
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Tibalt's Trickery
• 1x Tithe
• 1x Wild Ricochet

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Damn
• 1x Disrupt Decorum
• 1x Farewell
• 1x Mythos of Snapdax
• 1x Ondu Inversion  ^Flip
• 1x Ruinous Ultimatum

Artifact (8)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Bloodthirsty Blade
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sunforger
• 1x Talisman of Conviction
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy

Commander (1)

Creature (13)

• 1x Athreos, Shroud-Veiled
• 1x Bothersome Quasit
• 1x Breena, the Demagogue
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Iroas, God of Victory
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant
• 1x Kardur, Doomscourge
• 1x Loran of the Third Path
• 1x Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1x Royal Assassin
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer
• 1x Windborn Muse

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Court of Ambition
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Marchesa's Decree
• 1x Noble Heritage
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Smothering Tithe

Planeswalker (7)

• 1x Elspeth Resplendent
• 1x Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
• 1x Liliana of the Veil
• 1x Sorin, Grim Nemesis
• 1x Teyo, Geometric Tactician
• 1x The Wandering Emperor
• 1x Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor  ^Flip

---

Maybeboard

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Black Market Connections
• 1x Court of Grace
• 1x Court of Ire
• 1x Duelist's Heritage
• 1x Virtue of Persistence

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Kaya, Ghost Assassin

Instant (3)

• 1x Fracture
• 1x Inkshield
• 1x Teferi's Protection

Artifact (1)

• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Creature (3)

• 1x Custodi Lich
• 1x Master of Ceremonies
• 1x Orzhov Advokist

---

Introduction

The main point of this deck is to throw a small wrench into our opponents plans just to keep things fair. I don't plan on becoming the main enemy at the table, I just wanna be the guy who is periodically blowing up the board, wiping the graveyards, goading unwilling creatures to attack, and possibly winning at the end.

Mardu is my opinion the most flavourful color combination for intrigue and control, and who better to be in command than the assassin Queen Marchesa herself. I chose her because I like the idea of being an instant-speed interactive strategy that isn't blue, and Marchesa provides card draw allowing more slots of the deck to play to Mardu's strengths instead.

During deck building I try to keep in mind the flavour of the deck, and I make card choices not only based on how good or synergistic they may be, but also how well the art, text and creature type fits with the rest of the deck. This time I've tried to go for a royal and authoritarian approach, and I've decided to go with several planeswalkers to represent the royal court.

Card Choices and Strategy:

The following section is subdivided sequentially into the various phases of a typical game.

1. Ramping and casting Marchesa

The optimal start would be casting Queen Marchesa on turn 3 thanks to a 2-mana rock. In order to do this the deck packs all of the Mardu-relevant signets and talismans. Getting the Monarchy with a mana rock also helps avoid potential hand-space issues.

To ensure a land drop almost every turn Weathered Wayfarer and Tithe are very useful, each of these cards also have synergy with the overall strategy of the deck. The latter two can search up Mistveil Plains which is relevant to the Sunforger engine.

2. Setting up the defenses and maintaining Monarchy

In order to maintain Monarchy throughout the game I've chosen a mix of reactive and pillowfort cards instead of going all in on either direction. Cards like Ghostly Prison and Windborn Muse are obviously great deterrents. I've also included cards that incentivize our opponents to go for each other instead, such as Breena, the Demagogue and Noble Heritage.

Then of course the planeswalkers, who are in here because a) they are cool, and b) they indirectly help me protect my monarchy and c) provide win-conditions. At instant speed Comeuppance can be a mega-bomb, and the deck is packing a solid amount of quick spot removal to deal with any creature that sneaks past the outer defenses.

Finally should I lose the monarchy there are ways to reclaim it, with Iroas, God of Victory, The Black Gate and Rogue's Passage during a stalemate, and Lavaclaw Reaches post boardwipe.

3. Interacting with the table and Politics

Interaction:

At least a third of the deck is dedicated to spot-removal, graveyard hate, board wipes and spell interaction. Plus a few hatebears to slow everyone down, though nothing too serious to make us the prime target.

Sunforger:

The most powerful engine is Sunforger. This equipment is insane and given enough mana can really change the game. This list is packing 19 fetchable instants, so almost any situation should have an answer. Furthermore Mistveil Plains has strong synergy with it and can be fetched via Tithe, allowing Marchesa to recycle her spells over and over.

Political Elements:

Adding Monarch to a game is already a political act. As far as "pure" politics cards go, we can make temporary friends with Loran of the Third Path and Teyo, Geometric Tactician, and as mentioned in the previous section cards like Breena, the Demagogue and Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant serve to pit out enemies against each other. Then there is a lot of potential politics in instant-speed reactive cards like Wild Ricochet and Reverberate, not to mention cards like Royal Assassin, selective boardclears, and Sunforger itself.

4. The End Game

Ah yes, winning the game. In a nutshell we're looking for our opponents to kill each other, and to attrition the final person standing. Alternative paths include attacking with an equipped Queen Marchesa, copying/reflecting a giant spell, and ulting a planeswalker that sits around long enough.

5. Upcoming Changes

I just did a major 20+ card overhaul to the deck, trying them out to see what seems good and what doesn't. No planned changes outside of potentially cards in the maybeboard at the moment.

TLDR:

Marchesa deck with elements of control, politics and some shenanigans. I am definitely open to comments and suggestions.

Top Ranked	Achieved #55 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #38 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Aikido 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Group Slug 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	6 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 57 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.25
Tokens	Angel 3/3 W, Assassin 1/1 B w/ Haste, Emblem Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor, Samurai 2/2 W, Spirit 1/1 WB, Monarch Emblem, Treasure, Vampire Knight 1/1 B, Wall 0/4 W
Folders	EDH Decks, decks, Decks