Marchesa, Political Queen of Pillows

Commander / EDH MegaMatt13

SCORE: 235 | 152 COMMENTS | 38256 VIEWS | IN 135 FOLDERS


Small Changes —Nov. 11, 2020

This deck hasn't changed a ton since I've been away from the site. Here are the few changes I've made:

Added Mythos of Snapdax and Ruinous Ultimatum for boardwipes. I like the political nature of Mythos, allowing us to negotiate what opponents can keep. Ruinous Ultimatum isn't political at all, but a way to get far ahead in the late game. Not sure I'll keep this one, but trying it out.

Mob Rule and Hate Mirage replace Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs and Erebos, God of the Dead. Mob Rule and Hate Mirage fit the aikido theme and the deck needed a backup Insurrection. Hate Mirage is great value at 4 mana. Playtesting it to see how often there are 2 worthwhile targets to copy and swing in with. I cut Kazuul because the deck had more than enough pillowfort effects that deterred attack and Kazuul seemed the weakest. Generally people didn't really care about giving 3/3 tokens. Choking their mana when attacking with Ghostly Prison or threatening death with No Mercy was more effective.

Deflecting Swat replaces Reverberate as an aikido spell that is often free.

Necropotence replaces Underworld Connection for card draw. Underworld Connection always felt a little clunky and Necropotence ensures our hand is always full to protect ourselves. It works well with the Monarch as it means the missed draw step doesn't hurt as badly.

Aura of Silence replaces Rest in Peace. With both Rakdos Charm and Scavenger Grounds I wasn't sure the deck needed a third graveyard hate card. Aura of Silence has proven to be a very effective rattlesnake card. May try to find room for RIP again though.

Mirage Mirror replaces Backlash as I realized the deck doesn't need both Backlash and Delirium which fills the same role. Mirage Mirror was always a card I wanted to playtest.

Mandate of Peace replaces Dawn Charm. Trying Mandate out as I like that it acts as both a fog effect and silence effect, similar to Orim's Chant which has been great in the deck.

Davihelio says... #1

Im going to copy this coment in both precociousapprentice and MegaMatt13 since both their primers for Queen Marchesa were the inspiration to make my own list and I want as much people as I can who is discussing the archetype to discuss this idea. Also excuse my poor grammar please, Im not really good at english.

First of all, thanks you both for making those primers. This is easily my favourite EDH deck and I always have a lot of fun playing it, and most people enjoy playing against it too. The only thing that bothers me about this deck (the strategy in general, not this specific list) is that I sometimes have a lot of trouble closing out games where I am in a clear leading position, or that my aikido cards, even if they do a ton of damage, sometimes fall short of winning the game and its difficult to trick the same opponent into making the same mistake twice.

But I have seen a few cards in WAR that may be really powerfull in this strategy, and I think they have some synergy with common stuff we are already running.

The first card that sparked my interest is The Wanderer . I firmly believe that this card have some serious potential in Mardu colors because it adds consistency to effects that prevent/halves non-combat damage (or damage in general) like Delaying Shield or Gisela, Blade of Goldnight . But clearly, we are not short on pillowfort effects right? So whats the big deal? I'll be there in a moment.

I think that the card that gave me more wins was good ol Insurrection . And I think that Command the Dreadhorde has the potential to be a virtual second, cheaper and slighly worse copy. Be aware that this can resurrect creatures and planeswalkers from ANY graveyard. The most important drawback is that it can do a lot of damage to you, but with Gisela, Delaying Shield, The Wanderer and similar effects we can negate or minimizate most of the damage.

This also opens to run cards like Personal Sanctuary and being able to use mass burn cards like Price of Progress or Molten Disaster or Rolling Earthquake , this last two also double as board wipes.

And it may also open up for fun sheanigans with cards like Arcbond or Repercussion without risking killing ourselves.

I think I will try to adapt my deck to this burn subtheme while trying to keep the political/aikido main theme, but I would love to hear what everyone thinks on this. Thank you for reading!

May 17, 2019 8:21 a.m.

islandwalks says... #2

Have you thought about running Helm of Obedience It pairs quite well with Rest in Peace

June 11, 2019 5:18 p.m.

Gloks says... #3

Love the deck MegaMatt! Any updates and or changes with Modern Horizons?

June 17, 2019 5:33 a.m.

Gloks says... #4

Also, are there any cards that you specifically don't include in your list due to price or specific meta bans? Sol ring would come to mind as I don't see it in your list.

June 17, 2019 5:36 a.m.

MegaMatt13 says... #5

Gloks, thanks for your comment. Yes, Sol Ring is banned in my regular playgroup. You won't find it in any of my decks. There aren't any cards from Modern Horizons I'm considering for this deck though other decks are definitely benefiting from the set.

islandwalks, thanks for the suggestion. I tend to avoid infinite combos in my decks. I find I get bored of my decks when they turn into combo...just not my personal style.

June 17, 2019 3:43 p.m.

JMarostica says... #6

Dear, I look forward to hearing from you about some of the new Commander 2019 cards. There are cards with good potential: Bloodthirsty Blade Mandate of Peace Pendant of Prosperity

August 23, 2019 9:50 p.m.

xstaticx says... #7

Thanks a lot for inspiring me to make my own Queen Marchesa deck! It has brought me lots of fun and it's fair, which is important for me.

I wanted to mention a card I pulled from a booster a few weeks ago: Scheming Symmetry . It's basically a one-drop Vampiric Tutor at sorcery speed and without life loss. The thing that stands out is that it stays on theme in that you can play politics with who you choose to benefit from the draw. I chose to run Aven Mindcensor so I can also mitigate the cost that way if I need.

October 18, 2019 12:10 a.m.

shifthappen1 says... #8

Has there been any notable new cards ever since war of the spark? I just found out this gem of a commender deck (and read precociousapprentice's primer as well), gosh, I'll never look at commander in quite the same way. I did want to make some political-ish sort of deck with sphinxes and riddles and pillowforts / redirection stuff, felt like a nice theme, sphinxes and riddles (aka, politics and decision making), but its nowhere near as good as an archetype as what I'm seeing in yours and the other one's deck, I'm sold.

What do you think about

1-Crown of Doom how is it as a card to make enemies waste time / mana and to help redirect attackers elsewhere? too unreliable? it seems very fun and in the theme, so I assume the issue is reliability?

2-Coercive Portal too expenssive for draw even if it works over many turns? / unreliable when the board state seems too good for opponenets? or since it kills creatures, it doesnt redirect them to enemies?

3-Azor's Gateway  Flip filtering into potential mana ramp for x cost spells?

4-Lithoform Engine it seem like it does a lot of nice things for reasonable cost. anything it could potentially replace?

5-Act of Authority as an enchantment and artifact removal? doesn't look like your list has things that would be high priority target, so, is it because of the speed and / or that it destroy stuff and might target you as well, as unlikely as it is?

6-Isolated Watchtower and Detection Tower/Arcane Lighthouse as utility lands?

November 2, 2020 6:49 a.m.