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Assassination for Dummies, a Black Rose Primer

Commander / EDH* Sacrifice UBR (Grixis)

Lipton

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Lands (35)

Sacrifice Outlets (7)

Win Conditions (3)

Card Advantage (10)

Ramp (9)

Counter Distributors (7)

Wraths (6)

Commander (1)

Commander: Marchesa, the Black Rose

Miscellaneous Disruption (8)

Removal & Counterspells (8)

Misc (3)

Tutor (3)

Maybeboard

Removal & Disruption (6)

Tutors (2)

Counters (1)

Card Advantage (5)

Theft (2)

Sacrifice Outlets (1)

Misc (4)

Cut (2)

Win Conditions (1)

"Those who seize power must have the means to hold it."

— Queen Marchesa d'Amati

This is my edh primer for Marchesa, the Black Rose. I have not yet seen any primers that cover this style of Marchesa deck, and so this is my attempt to collate my experience for others to learn from. This is a Grixis Aristocrats / Reanimation deck, tuned to perform against optimized, but not truly competitive opposition. Its aim is to set up a creature recursion engine early, leveraging creatures with ETB (enter the battlefield) and LTB (leaves the battlefield) triggers to generate value and control the board, grinding opponents into dust. This deck will not win games out of nowhere with a single explosive combat phase or well timed combo, rather it will attempt to totally outvalue opponents before pushing for the win.

Here's a brief list of some of the terminology I use when discussing my deck. Most of this will be familiar to seasoned MTG players, but I'll include it here for anyone who is not aware. If you do see a term used in the article that you don't understand, leave a comment and I will add it here.

  • ETB Trigger: any triggered ability on a permanent that triggers when it enters the battlefield (ETB's). For example, Solemn Simulacrum's first ability (searching a land into play) is an ETB trigger.
  • LTB Trigger: any triggered ability on a permanent that triggers when it leaves the battlefield (LTB's). To use the same example as the former, Solemn Simulacrum's second ability (drawing a card) is an LTB trigger.
  • "Turn" and "Round": when I say "turn" or "player turn" I refer to one players turn, and when referring to one turn for the entire table I say "round". This is to avoid confusion regarding Marchesa's ability, which gets creatures back every end step, regardless of whose turn it is.

Is Marchesa for you?

- You want to play a creature based strategy at a high power level.
- You want a deck that is highly resistant to disruption.
- You enjoy squeezing the most possible value out of your creatures.

- You want to combo, storm, or other wise "go off" on your turn.
- You want to run a more traditional combat based list, either going wide with tokens or tall with beatstick creatures.
- You prefer spellslinging to permanent based play.
- You're concerned about being blown out by grave hate (seriously, if Rest in Peace touches the battlefield it's GG).

This deck started off as my attempt to transition from combo based strategies running mostly instants and sorceries into more creature heavy playstyles. The initial iteration of the deck was highly combat based, relying on the combat step dethrone triggers to give my board resiliency, and board wide evasion to push through damage. Since then, the deck has evolved into one of my most favored. Each iteration has placed less emphasis on combat than the previous, leaning more heavily into looping ETB and LTB triggers. The decklist in front of you is the latest, and most potent iteration, although it will doubtless continue to evolve.

Commander Selection: Why Marchesa?

Marchesa, the Black Rose has a lot to offer. The card is a great build around with two highly synergistic abilities. She offers an extremely non-linear playstyle, with multiple potential win conditions. Before we go any further I would like to discuss Marchesa's abilities, and how they effect my design rationale.

Marchesa's card text is as follows:

"Dethrone (Whenever this creature attacks the player with the most life or tied for most life, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Other creatures you control have dethrone.
Whenever a creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it dies, return that card to the battlefield under your control at the beginning of the next end step."

Let's break that down, in order of importance:

"Whenever a creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it dies, return that card to the battlefield under your control at the beginning of the next end step."

This is the most important of Marchesa's abilities. If we ignored every other line of text on the card apart from this one, the deck would still be more or less playable, if not quite as strong. Our entire deck is built around this ability, and meeting its requirements (getting +1/+1 counters on our creatures) informs many of our design choices. A few things to note about the ability:

  • "Whenever a creature you control ... dies ..." This means that Marchesa can protect herself with her ability. Getting a counter onto Marchesa becomes our first priority after she enters the battlefield.
  • "... return that card to the battlefield under your control ..." Anything that we can make die with a counter on it will return belonging to us. This opens an entire strategy, that of theft, to us. This list does not lean heavily into the theft sub-theme, but there are a few cards present to take advantage of this wording.
  • "... at the beginning of the next end step." Not your next end step, the next end step. This means that we can recur our creatures during every players turn, provided that we can find ways to put counters on them. As a result of this, instant speed sacrifice outlets are much desired.

"Dethrone(Whenever this creature attacks the player with the most life or tied for most life, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Other creatures you control have dethrone."

This gives us a way to activate the other ability. We can only trigger dethrone on our own turn however, and given that we can (and should) recur our creatures every turn, we should not be relying on this as our primary means of distributing counters. A few things to note about dethrone:

  • Dethrone triggers on attack, that means we don't usually have to care about blockers (unless our attacking creature is something we really want to protect).
  • Dethrone only triggers when our life total is lower than our attack target. While this may seem obvious, this makes it very important to be able to manipulate our life total, both spending life and restoring it.
  • Dethrone does not trigger when attacking Planeswalkers. If we expect to see Superfriends decks we should be running cards to kill 'Walkers outside of the combat step.
  • Dethrone triggers before blockers are declared. This means that even if our creatures die during combat they will still return on the end step.

In general, when I design decks I aim for a simple - if unattainable - objective. I want to never end up in a zero win situation. This means that every card in the deck must either advance my own gameplan or disrupt my opponents. While I do have some tolerance for inefficiency in exchange for cool or splashy effects, cards that fail to do one of those two things get cut. For Marchesa that means that the cards I run tend to be mostly inclusive of the following effects:

  • Sacrifice Outlets. Outlets that can protect themselves are preferred, as they are a crucial part of the decks value engine.
  • Counter Distributors. These are the most important components of the deck, and also the most difficult to find. Marchesa is a +1/+1 counters general in colors that find it difficult to distribute +1/+1 counters. This is the effect I look for in new sets.
  • Card Advantage and Mana Acceleration. These are crucial in any commander deck, and marchesa is no exception. We do prefer these effects on creatures where possible, due to the potential for recursion.
  • Removal and Disruption. Once again a crucial part of commander decks, and once again preferred on creature cards so we can recur for additional value.

I'll discuss the rationale behind my individual card choices later down.

Strategy:

I intend to do a more thorough strategy writeup once I've made a few finishing touches to the decklist. Until then, a few things to note:

  • Look for opportunities to sac and recur your creatures each end step, and ensure that you avoid sacrificing Marchesa if you have anything else of value left on the table (Metallic Mimic etc.). In general the order in which you sacrifice creatures is very crucial, mistakes can give your opponents opportunities to kill creatures for good.
  • This list (and many similar lists) run plenty of ways to spend life. While this is useful to help keep dethrone online, and many of the cards that let us spend life are very powerful (looking at you Necropotence), it can lead to being very close to the wire later in the game. Don't neglect ways to push your life total back up - dethrone falls off later in the game anyways, and can easily be replaced by engine pieces.

Card Selection:

Here I will briefly explain my criteria for card selection within each category, and why some cards didn't make the cut. I'll talk about each individual card choice, and go over the cards in my MaybeBoard. Note that this is the list for my physical deck, which I have built over time. As such, the deck is built with no particular budget in mind. This also means that there are some cards that are intentionally suboptimal, whether because I like the effect or because I am currently testing it (I will mention this when discussing the card in either case).

I won't be talking about land and ramp choices in detail here, with some exceptions. There are plenty of resources to aid in manabase construction online, and I don't see any reason to repeat that advice.

As I said earlier, I don't intend to go over every card in this category. That said, a few important pieces of advice:

  • This deck is very color hungry. We really can't afford many colorless lands, and should think hard about how our manabase fixes.
  • Lands that can tap to sacrifice creatures are great if we can't put down any other sac outlets. These effects are often worth ignoring the previous statement to get. High Market and Phyrexian Tower are the best of these. Note that Phyrexian Tower taps for , the color our deck wants the most.
  • There are a few lands that put counters on creatures as they enter the battlefield. They are Forge of Heroes, Opal Palace and Guildmages' Forum. The latter is the best of the three, as it can tap for colored mana (unlike Forge of Heroes) and can put counters on creatures other than our commander (unlike Opal Palace - note that we usually don't care about the volume of counters much so long as we have one). In general, I've found that these cards are not worth the detrimental effect on our fixing ability (see the first bullet point), and as such I do not run any of them.
  • Many lands let us spend life in some capacity. This is not strictly a disadvantage, as reducing our life total helps to keep dethrone online. Plan ahead with your life total and consider spending life even when it's unnecessary in order to stay off the throne.

Once again, I wont go into great detail here. Fixing is, as with lands, highly important, and the only colorless rock I can justify is Sol Ring. A few things of note:

  • The talismans (Talisman of Dominance and Talisman of Indulgence) can be used to spend life. This can be beneficial if we need to lower our life total to get dethrone triggers. Plan ahead with your life total and consider tapping for colored mana even if you don't need it where necessary.
  • Solemn Simulacrum is not a great ramp card in a vacuum. We run it here to recur, not to use it only once. Burnished Hart is similar in nature, but the necessity to pay more mana to get the lands makes it inferior.

One of the core pillars of EDH deckbuilding. Cards in this category are selected mostly to be part of our value engine. This means they are mostly creatures with ETB or LTB triggers that gain us card advantage. The exceptions are cards that are so efficient we can't afford to ignore them (Rhystic Study being the best example).

Baleful Strix: A low CMC blocker that can help smooth out our earlygame, while having potential to be looped for huge card advantage in the late game. It's essentially a mini-Mulldrifter, but I feel the low CMC more than makes up for the lesser quantity of cards drawn.

Disciple of Bolas: This guy has the potential to draw us a lot of cards, turning buildups of +1/+1 counters into card advantage. He's also a wizard, and so has synergy with Sage of Fables and Metallic Mimic. Be careful to stack triggers correctly to put a counter on your sacrifice target before it dies when Disciple of Bolas returns on the end step. He also gains us life, which can be useful if we overspend.

Gonti, Lord of Luxury: This is one of those less efficient cards I mentioned, and I mostly keep him around because I love the effect. If you do run him, it is important to carefully select your target. Decks like Brago, King Eternal or Roon of the Hidden Realm are good options because of their plentiful ETB and LTB effects for us to abuse. Also consider your matchup, if you're facing decks running high numbers of enchantments then going for opponents running white or green could be a good idea, for example. While Gonti isn't optimal, he is by no means weak, as an Impulse that targets enemy libraries stapled to a creature with a deathtouch body. He's also a rogue, so he's got bonus synergy with Oona's Blackguard.

Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper: These go together because they are more or less the same card. They net us huge card advantage for sacrificing and recurring our creatures. They're basically auto-include in this deck. Note that Midnight Reaper also draws a card off of it's own death, while Grim Haruspex only draws when other creatures die. It's very difficult for opponents to deny us draw off of these since we can always sac in response to spot removal.

Mulldrifter: This is easily one of the better draw spells in the deck. At worst it's a Divination, but at best it's +2 card advantage every player turn. Be aware that the sacrifice clause of evoking the card is an ETB trigger, meaning we can respond to it or stack other triggers underneath it. This means we can evoke, then put a counter on the Mulldrifter before it dies using Unspeakable Symbol (or any of our other counter distributors for that matter).

Necropotence: This is one of the strongest "draw" spells ever printed. Not only does the card let us pay any amount of life, making it easy to trigger dethrone, but it also gives us nearly limitless card advantage (until we die). The only way opponents can destroy this card without allowing us to draw in response is Krosan Grip, so make sure to put a few activations on the stack before you pass priority after casting this (Note that RAW you need to specify that you hold priority - I've never been called out on this but it's good to be safe). is very hard to pay though, so we may not necessarily be able to drop this early. Be careful how much life you spend, we have plenty of effects that need life in the deck so it pays to be a little more frugal than you usually might.

Notion Thief: This card is totally bonkers. He's criminally underplayed and should really be in every U/B/X deck IMO. Not only can you flash him in to steal some card draw right away, but you also rob opponents of every extra draw until they manage to kill him for good. Flash him in in response to a Windfall and cackle maniacally as you draw 24 cards and your opponents are left with nothing. This is a card that doesn't benefit much off of Marchesa's abilities (apart from durability) but is powerful enough regardless. He's also a rogue, so he can benefit from Oona's Blackguard.

Rhystic Study: Oh boy. People really oughta pay the one. But if your playgroup is anything like mine they won't, and you'll drown in card advantage. Hell, even if they do it's an asymmetrical Sphere of Resistance, which is fantastic. There are good reasons this is considered a blue staple.

Skullclamp: This is another card which is more good than synergistic. For two mana we can cast and equip this to a creature we intend to sacrifice anyways to draw two cards. It doesn't have the high ceiling of other cards in the list, but its low to the ground cost means that it does have a high floor. An absolute staple in any deck that wants to send its cards to the graveyard.

These cards are crucially important to getting the decks engine online. We have access to the best sac outlets with both red and black available to us, so there are a lot of options available to us. I selected these based off of a few criteria, the most important being that they can sacrifice creatures at instant speed and for no additional cost (I want to sacrifice creatures every end step, so this is vital). For the most part, I don't care about the abilities themselves, so long as the start with "Sacrifice a creature:" - I just want ways to send creatures to graveyards, so I selected sac outlets that protect themselves over those with more utility.

Carrion Feeder: This card is fantastic. First up, it's only one CMC and can sacrifice itself, for when that matters. But more importantly, its sacrifice ability puts a +1/+1 counter on itself. This is vital, as it allows us to recur him with Marchesa. Without sac outlets, this deck stops working, so having that inbuilt protection at that low a CMC makes Carrion Feeder a must have.

Falkenrath Aristocrat: This is another sacrifice outlet whose primary advantage is its ability to protect itself. This card is our second most expensive sac outlet at 4 CMC, but it is also the most difficult to remove. First up, she has haste, making it trivial to get an early dethrone trigger. On top of that, her sacrifice ability not only makes her indestructible but also often leaves her with a +1/+1 counter. She can also sac herself, which can be relevant from time to time when facing exile or bounce effects.

Goblin Bombardment: This is the sac outlet with the strongest effect that we run (barring possibly Phyrexian Altar). One damage doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're sending three creatures to the graveyard each end step that really adds up. You can easily deal 10+ damage per round with this to put the enemy on a clock, or use it to remove small creatures and damage walkers. It's also an enchantment, meaning that nearly half of all color combinations are going to find it very difficult to deal with once it hits the field. Overall a very versatile card.

Grimgrin, Corpse-Born: I'll be honest, this guy is questionable. At five CMC he is a little pricey, but I consider the combination of removal and his ability to stack counters on himself to be worth it. Untapping to block is nice, but he unfortunately can't sacrifice himself.

Phyrexian Altar: This has an entirely well founded reputation as a combo enabler, although that isn't what we want it for. This is one of our most most fragile sac outlets, as an artifact with no inbuilt protection it dies to a plethora of single target kill spells. However, it really helps our fixing, something we often have issues with. It also lets us activate Glen Elendra Archmage or cast a counterspell without needing to hold .

Viscera Seer: Another very fragile sac outlet, but at one CMC we don't mind as much. He can swing into an empty board early to grab a counter if needed. The main draw to playing him (apart from his dirt cheap CMC) is the scry effect, a very powerful reward for sacrificing our creatures on such a low cost creature.

Yahenni, Undying Partisan: Yahenni is pretty similar to Falkenrath Aristocrat, coming with both haste to get a dethrone trigger and being able to gain indestructible by sacrificing creatures. He doesn't have flying, making him worse at pushing through damage, and his means of stacking counters is less reliable, but he comes with the significant upside of costing three mana, making him easy to fit in before Marchesa comes down.

The second crucial component to our engine. I couldn't really afford to be too picky when I selected these, because there aren't a lot of options for this kind of effect in grixis. I did avoid many high CMC options, most notably the more expensive blue graft creatures. I feel that it is important for engine pieces to come down for cheap, this both lets us set up faster in the early game and helps us rebuild quickly after our plans are disrupted - we'd also rather have the means to get counters onto Marchesa available before casting her than have an entire turn or longer of vulnerability.

Cytoplast Manipulator: This is probably the worst of our counter enablers. In terms of scale, we are paying 4 CMC to (with our commander out) recur one creature each player turn - by no means a bad payoff, but nowhere near as efficient as our other cards in this category. Cytoplast Manipulator also has the added bonus of being able to steal creatures, although this is unreliable as you typically want to sac it every turn to reset the number of counters. Keep in mind that if you want to protect a creature cast from hand, you can forgo saccing the creature you'd normally graft to that turn.

Metallic Mimic: Contrary to the previous entry, this is one of the best distributors of +1/+1 counters in the list. Typically you'll name wizard, as it's the most common creature (11 wizards including Marchesa) type in the deck, but really you can name whatever is most useful to your current situation. You could name zombie or dragon to use Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Kokusho, the Evening Star respectively to close out the game, or human to loop Plaguecrafter while searching up cards with Imperial Recruiter. Metallic Mimic is very versatile, and you can always switch to a different creature type by sacrificing in (assuming it has a counter) and naming something else when it comes back on the end step.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed: The effect of this card is fantastic - although it comes at the downside of 6 CMC. Unlike other counter distributors Mike lets us recur our creatures twice each turn in stead of just once. He also protects anything we haven't managed to get a counter on and makes Vigean Graftmage into an infinite source of counters (not that we need it with Mike around).

Olivia, Mobilized for War: I've heard a lot of criticism of this card in Marchesa, but it's actually pretty good. People see Olivia and get upset at the cost of discarding a card for the mere upside of a +1/+1 counter. However, it is important to better understand exactly what we are buying with this effect. When we discard a card to put a counter on a creature, what we are actually buying is not only the counter itself but the future use of that creatures ETB or LTB trigger. For instance, we could be discarding a card to edict our opponents (Plaguecrafter), disrupt our enemies hand (Vendilion Clique), or draw two cards (Mulldrifter). These are effects that are very strong, so strong in fact that they are played even when they cost mana as well. Go for the Throat costs two mana, and still requires the discard to kill a creature. Similarly Sign in Blood costs a card, mana and life to draw two. That being said, it is important to ensure that some form of repeating draw effect is available to continue to fuel Olivia whenever possible. It is also worth noting that she gives haste - a powerful effect in aggressive builds, but still useful here for the odd card (Cytoplast Manipulator or Oona's Blackguard)

Sage of Fables: It's a Metallic Mimic that can only name wizards. It also costs one CMC more. Despite the poor comparison, Metallic Mimic is still good enough given it at the very least protects the commander. Note again that the deck has a lot of wizards (11 including Marchesa), so Sage of Fables offers a lot of value. It also has an ability to turn counters on creatures into card draw, but given a) we don't like removing our counters and b) the ability is relatively expensive CMC wise, this generally is of no use unless we are desperate.

Unspeakable Symbol: This card is entirely ridiculous in any Marchesa deck. If we are to analyse this card in a similar manner to Olivia above, we see that we are paying a mere 3 life for effects that can be easily powerful enough to justify the expense of a lot more resources in other decks. That said, similarly to Olivia, while this effect is incredible the cost can quickly add up. Make sure you have some access to life gain if you find yourself leaning heavily on this card.

Vigean Graftmage: This card is unremarkable, yet effective. Like the Cytoplast Manipulator we discussed earlier, it is only able to functionally recur one creature per turn. However, it does cost one less, meaning it curves into Marchesa very nicely. The activated ability is rarely ever relevant, but that's not why we run this anyway.

When selecting these, I looked for the same things everybody does - cheap casting costs and versatility - although I did compromise in favor of removal attached to creatures.

Chaos Warp: A highly versatile removal spell. The ability to hit enchantments in particular makes this a must have for us given how easy it is for effects like Rest in Peace to shut us down. In a tight spot we can also use it to flip our top card - it's a long shot but it might help.

Fulminator Mage: This card is nasty business. A lot of players aren't totally okay with land destruction, but if your playgroup will tolerate it this card is very strong. Don't bother trying to completely strip enemies of mana, just hit colors they're short on. The built in sacrifice ability makes Fulminator Mage easy to really abuse earlygame, right when its ability is most effective.

Glen Elendra Archmage: It's a counterspell on a creature body. This is an obvious fit for the deck, and with persist it isn't unreasonable to be able to counter any number of spells per turn - provided we can generate enough . The noncreature clause isn't really an issue, we have plenty of ways to get rid of creatures. The real downside to Glen Elendra Archmage is that we need to spend a lot of mana setting up, but if we get it online it is well worth it.

Manic Vandal and Ravenous Chupacabra: I've lumped these together because they're pretty similar. Both are single target removal effects with the addition of a creature statline. The downside of this is that we pay a premium in mana along with losing additional utility - namely instant speed -, but the upside is we get to recur them. This is means we need not be particular with our targets, we can go after mana rocks and utility creatures rather than needing to save our kill spells for big threats. As of 22/03/19 I have cut Chupacabra from the deck. I found 4 CMC and sorcery speed made him very awkward to fit in, but I'll leave this entry here as it's still relevant for Manic Vandal.

Mausoleum Wanderer: Synergizes well with +1/+1 counters, and even without being to big it's a really nasty effect to play around. Anyone who's seen a Rhystic Study resolve knows that paying the one is surprisingly difficult. This card's still something I'm testing, so it may end up being cut.

Sedraxis Alchemist: A flexible creature based removal source. Currently testing to see how often I am actually able to use it to bounce a permanent. I'll decide to keep this or not based on those results.

Swan Song: It's a one mana counterspell. It won't counter creatures or artifacts, but what we're really gunning for is enchantments and exiling kill spells, and Swan Song performs admirably in that capacity.

Vandalblast: It's a one sided board wipe for artifacts, or a cheap kill spell. By no means essential, but certainly nice to have.

Cards we use to reset unfavorable board states. We don't particularly need these to be one sided given our decks resistance to board wipes.

Blasphemous Act: A very cheaply costed effect. Generally against any board state where you want to cast this it's gonna cost between 1 and 3 mana, and 13 damage kills nearly anything. This card does fall off against smaller boards, but generally we can rely on spot removal to police those.

Cyclonic Rift: A one sided tempo generating board wipe, or spot removal in a pinch. The instant speed is icing on the cake. Rift is incredibly versatile, we can use it to buy time, clear blockers or to do something nasty like cast it in response to a wheel. The card is a staple, period.

Engineered Explosives: I've thrown this into the wrath's category, but really it's more a spot removal piece. Engineered Explosives helps us to remove enchantments like Rest in Peace that can otherwise utterly destroy our gameplan. It's not efficient, but it's one of our few options for this kind of removal. Searchable with Trinket Mage.

Last One Standing: This is a very aggressively costed mass removal effect. While it can backfire amusingly, I'd call that an even trade for costing one mana less than Damnation. It does lack the anti regeneration clause of the former however, a relevant consideration if you expect to see decks like Ezuri, Renegade Leader.

Profaner of the Dead: It's a one sided mass bounce effect attached to a creature. While this is not uncommon in blue, it is an effect usually relegated to expensive sea monsters like Scourge of Fleets or Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep. While we need to jump through a few extra hoops to make Profaner of the Dead work, the far lower CMC makes it worthwhile. This card really shines against wide strategies, particularly tokens.

Toxic Deluge: At 3 CMC, this card gets around indestructible, regeneration and a host of other protective abilities. It does cost life, but that can serve to help us activate dethrone so it isn't a strict downside.

Disruptive effects that don't fall into the two categories above. This includes forced sacrifice, discard, and theft effects. Many of the cards in this section can be easily swapped out for other tech options.

Heap Doll: Repeatable, targeted grave hate. The strongest decks I play against (and indeed the strongest decks outside of cEDH) are graveyard decks, and it only takes a few loops of this to shut many of them down altogether. Only hitting one target is prohibitive in some regards, so in metas with more graveyard abuse this could be replaced with something like Rakdos Charm or removed entirely.

Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact: These cards both do a lot of work once our engine is online. With the amount of sacrificing we do playing creatures against us becomes an exercise in futility. They are difficult to cast though, coming in at relatively high CMC's with lots of in their costs.

Oona's Blackguard: A very powerful and aggressive effect, and very cheaply costed. With the way we spread counters it's not unreasonable to strip entire hands with this effect. Also has bonus synergy with the other two rogues in the deck, Gonti, Lord of Luxury and Notion Thief. As with Fulminator Mage, this effect can upset certain people quite a bit, so best to take that into consideration when you decide if you want to run this.

Plaguecrafter: This is a very strong card, but one that doesn't really achieve its potential here. This sort of effect becomes stronger the more of it you run, as you're able to more easily get to the creatures your opponents really want to keep, so if you do really like it I'd recommend running Fleshbag Marauder and Merciless Executioner. I myself am mostly running this as a tech against superfriends decks, and have not yet had much opportunity to test it.

Spellskite: Serves as an early form of our protection for our commander as well as a way to tamper with aura cards. We can also use it to sink our life into to activate dethrone. This card isn't fantastic, but when it does work it is both amusing and powerful.

Vendilion Clique: The effect here is quite powerful. This decklist is very resistant to most forms of removal, so being able to take the things that do concern us from our opponents hand can be very effective. It also gives us knowledge of what our opponents might do in future turns, allowing us to be ready for their plays. Once again, some people will get upset by the use and reuse of this effect, so use responsibly.

Zealous Conscripts: This card is fantastic with a sac outlet and a way to move counters to whatever we steal, but not so great without. It is by no means an optimal effect, but it is quite fun to steal things, and in the worst case scenario you can just sac them. Zealous Conscripts also goes infinite with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, a card that itself works well in this sort of deck (although I am not running it).

Only three cards here. I am generally not a big fan of tutors without conditions of additional costs, but the classic black tutor cards are definitely worthy of consideration.

Imperial Recruiter: Only 3 CMC to cast and he grabs cards from nearly all of our categories (including crucial engine pieces). Great for finding answers, and the creature body means we can freely recur it. A great card.

Sidisi, Undead Vizier: Much more expensive to cast than Imperial Recruiter, and requires a sacrifice (although this could be an upside), but in return we can grab anything we want. This is obviously pretty good, but it isn't quite as great to help us find necessary engine pieces during the earlygame due to the expensive CMC.

Trinket Mage: We've got five targets for this to search up, and they're all fairly decent. This might be cut if I don't feel it has enough utility.

This category is a little different from what you'd see in other decks. We need not ever cast any of these cards to win the game, we are more than capable of grinding down opponents without them. That said, these cards do step up the clock dramatically.

Flayer of the Hatebound: This card is easily the MVP of the deck. By himself (assuming a sac outlet and Marchesa are in play) he's putting out 9 (5 from his undying and 4 from his end step recursion via Marchesa) damage per player turn - over the course of one round that's 36 points of damage, nearly enough to kill a player. With more cards to recur he only get's more ridiculous. He also doubles as a creature removal effect in a pinch.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Kokusho, the Evening Star: While these aren't quite the same, I've grouped them together because they are very similar. Both drain the whole table when the ETB, a powerful effect when recurred 4 times every round. While neither will put out the same sort of damage output as Flayer of the Hatebound, they do provide crucial lifegain to survive the aggro that trying to kill everyone else will draw.

Etali, Primal Storm: Another one of those cards that aren't great but make the cut because I love the effect. Etali gives us fantastic value if he gets to swing. Make no mistake, the ability to protect him with a counter does help with that, but as a 6 CMC creature that has no immediate effect Etali is definitely suboptimal.

Reanimate: Fantastic tempo if good enough cards end up in our graveyard, whilst also helping us replace engine components that might be destroyed. The card is pretty good, but we don't have the reanimation support to really abuse it. Ultimately it's a good card, but hardly essential.

Judith, the Scourge Diva: Currently in testing. Goblin Bombardment is a card that I have always been impressed by, and Judith provides similar utility, allowing us to turn our creatures that die into either gradual damage to burn players out or removal for small creatures.


Here I'll go over the Maybeboard for this list to explain why these cards didn't make the cut for me and why they might for you.

River Kelpie:This card is pretty similar to Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper, but with persist (meaning it can trigger off of itself) making it much more difficult to put down - however, if it is killed for good before the end step then we won't get to draw. Because +1/+1 counters cancel -1/-1 counters, this goes infinite with a sac outlet and Olivia, Mobilized for War or Metallic Mimic to draw through your whole deck, although that's not the intended purpose of either card. Ultimately I cut River Kelpie for two reasons: it's CMC of five is often too slow, and it only really draws cards while the engine is online. I may reevaluate this choice in the future.

Dack's Duplicate: The card has promise, but I'd ultimately I'd rather recur an existing card via Marchesa than copy it's ETB trigger via Dack's Duplicate.

Pyreheart Wolf: Much harder to kill than Herald of Secret Streams but also gives worse evasion. It is 1 CMC cheaper and doesn't need our whole board to have counters, so I do intend to test it further at some point.

Rakdos Charm: Easily the best charm that we have access to, and quite possibly the best overall. Blows out token decks and certain combos, deletes a graveyard at instant speed or destroys an artifact - the former two abilities can be very punishing while the latter will always be of use. This is one of the cards I have my eye on to put into the deck in the future.

Triskelion: A powerful tech against walkers, and goes infinite with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. However, outside of those specific situations I don't feel a Shock makes the cut over our other options, especially at 6 CMC.

Captivating Crew: A repeatable steal effect, which we can make permanent with Marchesa. Comparing this to Zealous Conscripts, we need to spend mana to steal things but we can get them before the combat step to trigger dethrone. Definitely worthy of consideration.

Hostage Taker: The fact that we need to cast the card we steal limits this cards effectiveness in that regard, but it can also be used to flicker our other cards. Ultimately I chose not to run it for similar reasons to Dack's Duplicate above - I'd rather have another trigger than try to copy one already in play.

Butcher of Malakir: A Grave Pact on an evasive creature. Ultimately the high CMC made me cut this card, I don't feel the extra pressure on life totals is worth the vulnerability to removal and increase in casting cost.

Jokulhaups: This is a stand in for any kind of MLD. These are powerful effects in Marchesa, our board can survive them while our enemies can't. Ultimately the issue I have with these sort of cards is I often struggle to kill more than one player through combat before people start setting back up, and it generates a lot of bad will. Much more viable in a more aggressive build but not great here.

Siren Stormtamer: I like the low CMC and the evasive body for easy dethrone triggers. I don't like that it only gets spells with targets. The effects that most concern me are on global enchantments, so Glen Elendra Archmage is a far better pick here.

Lim-Dul's Vault: Great card, takes too long to resolve.

Lightning Coils: I have not tested this card, but it looks to be a potent win condition. Even with just two creatures looping (a grafter and something else, for example) that's 24 power on board each turn. I definitely intend to try this.

Rune-Scarred Demon: More expensive to cast than our other tutor options while being just as threatening. The effect is strong, but I don't think it is necessary at that high a CMC.

Corpse Augur: I don't feel the deck needs more draw spells, but if I did this would be one of my first considerations. Ultimately the fact that Corpse Augur has a death trigger rather than an ETB trigger is why I chose other cards over it.

Smothering Abomination: Costs more than Midnight Reaper or Grim Haruspex while only offering the addition of flying and a few extra stats. Combined with the forced sacrifice clause that extra makes this card inferior to other draw options.

Drana, Liberator of Malakir: Great in more aggressive builds, but for this deck the fact that she can only hand out counters on my turn just isn't good enough.

Chrome Mox: As the cheapest of the Moxen this is something I am considering to help with the early game fixing.

Ashnod's Altar: I'm happy with the number of sac outlets in the deck, but if I wasn't this would be one of the next ones in.

Herald of Secret Streams: An interesting way of pushing damage through to our opponents. Ultimately got cut from the list because it does nothing on its own and doesn't contribute to my engine in any way.

Shifting Shadow: This card got cut because it really suffers from the issues that define aura spells, and the payoff isn't that great. It does double as an amusing removal spell or a political tool.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker: The combo goblin in the flesh, Kiki lets us copy ETB triggers. He's pretty similar to something like Dack's Duplicate in this regard, but he can also respond at instant speed, a big upside on the usual need to wait until the end step. Another card to keep an eye on for future use.

Dark Prophecy: Essentially another copy of Grim Haruspex, but as an enchantment. Ultimately the only reason I don't run this card is because of the casting cost. While that's worth it on something like Necropotence, Dark Prophecy is on nowhere near the same power level.

Burglar Rat This is one of the cards I definitely need to test. Making each opponent discard several cards per turn cycle is nothing to sniff at. Burglar Rat may well be better at this than Oona's Blackguard due to hitting everyone and not needing a board to get immediate value.

Venser, Shaper Savant An incredibly versatile removal tool, able to hit any permanent (including lands) but at the cost of only bouncing them. He's also a wizard, and can be used to protect our own permanents in a pinch. Synergy with Vendilion Clique to ensure your target is gone for good.

Hex Parasite: A nice anti Walker tech card, and a life outlet to help activate dethrone. Very mana intensive but equally effective in the right meta. I don't feel the inclusion is necessary for the opposition I face, but could be worthwhile if superfriends are a common sight where you play.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Draw, Ramp and Lands — March 22, 2019
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For a while I've been dissatisfied with some of the draw and ramp options I'm running, so I've decided to make a couple of changes.

Draw:

My draw package is pretty good, but I do feel like some of the higher CMC options are inefficient. Cards like Mulldrifter and River Kelpie can draw me a huge amount of cards, but often by the time I'm able to cast them they are unnecessary - and if I do need them that's an indication things aren't going well. I'd like to add Baleful Strix to replace one of these. Being able to draw on turn 2 can help smooth out my early game, and in general I feel lower CMC options are preferable in synergistic decks like this one. If I am happy with the results of this change I am likely to also add Alchemist's Apprentice and / or Dusk Legion Zealot.

Ramp & Lands:

In conjunction with lowering the CMC of engine pieces in the deck, I also wanted to make changes to the manabase to further speed up my gameplan. A lot of my mana rocks cost , so having access to 2 mana on turn one is huge. To this end, I've picked up an Ancient Tomb, Gemstone Caverns and Chrome Mox. Not a lot to say about these, they're all great cards. I intend to cut Wayfarer's Bauble for the Mox and Opal Palace and Guildmages' Forum for the two lands - often the latter two just end up being colorless lands. I'm also cutting a basic island for Volrath's Stronghold. This doesn't make the deck any faster, but it does stop blowouts when we lose a sac outlet or graft creature that we can't replace from hand.

Other Additions:

There are a few other cards I wanted to add to the deck that don't fit into the above categories. Heap Doll is a low CMC alternative to Agent of Erebos or Puppeteer Clique, and has the exile clause available at instant speed while providing its own sac outlet. This lets us really punish single target reanimation by forcing opponents to commit resources before we exile their target. I'm also adding Engineered Explosives in place of Aura Thief as a solution for enchantments. It's not quite as effective for dealing with things like Phyrexian Arena but I'm more concerned by global effects like Rest in Peace which can shut down my deck entirely. Given I've added 3 artifacts that cost or less, I'd be remiss not to mention Trinket Mage. I feel I have enough targets for it to search for, and I can always add a couple artifact lands if I need more. Finally, I wanted to add in a few disruption pieces. The first is Mausoleum Wanderer, a card that I feel has real potential to mess with my opponents earlygames. 1 CMC makes it pretty easy to cast and it's a really nasty effect to have to play around (see Rhystic Study as an example of poor play around tax). The other is more experimental, I want to try swapping Ravenous Chupacabra for Sedraxis Alchemist. The four drop slot is pretty crammed, and Alchemist's flexibility regarding targets could make it better, but I need to test how often I actually have a blue permanent in play.

Summary of Changes:

EDIT: I forgot to mention in the writeup above that I am also cutting a basic swamp, as I feel the inclusion of more fast mana means I need basic lands. I might bump it back up to 36 if I end up unhappy with results.

Testing some new cards — Feb. 17, 2019
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