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Queen Marchesa, Who Rules Over All

Commander / EDH

Izulde

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Creature (30)

Planeswalker (5)

Land (40)

Enchantment (7)

Artifact (10)

Instant (4)

Sorcery (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: Queen Marchesa

This is a test deck/first crack at a flavorful, thematic Queen Marchesa. Control, lifegain, subtheme of Tribal Assassin (I know I'm missing a few that will swap out things like Throne Warden - I'm looking at you, Kiku, Night's Flower). Obviously meant to become the Monarch and hang on to it via pillowfort and deathtouch mechanics. Tutors are there mainly for Athreos at the moment. Wincons are either Voltron with Marchesa or whittle down to Exsang. or Zurgos beatdown.

This is by no means a competitive deck. First, it's a trial deck. Second, it's supposed to be a fun, enjoyable deck with a few different wincons (I would kill to have green as a color too so I could run Vraska for another wincon and more theme flavor).

I intend to build this eventually to a somewhat more competitive, but still flavor-fun deck. I play EDH mainly for fun, and reserve my competitive games for Draft/Prelease (Limited format, IOW).

My other main deck is Mayael, the Anima, which I haven't put up yet, so this one's amusing to me because I consider it in some ways the anti-Mayael deck, so it's a chance for me to try a new playstyle.

No interest in making this a Stax deck. Whenever I play against Stax, it's never fun for anyone but the Stax player, so I don't do it myself. But I'm open to suggestions/comments/whatever you guys like. :)

Oh, one last note: I'm 99% a budget player. The expensive cards on here were either lucky pack pulls or, in a couple cases, presents from people. So while I'll consider expensive cards if they come up, I'm a $20 absolute max for a card guy.

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Updates Add

Bye, Bye Assassin Tribal — Sept. 14, 2016
Edit

After playing a few games, I realized Assassin Tribal isn't working at all, so I scrubbed a few of the assassins and most of the related tech in favor of testing out some other things, which you'll see below.

Side note - Crackdown is a house in this deck against a lot of opponents. Obviously does little against combo decks and would be useless against the cutthroat meta where I live, but in casual/semi-competitive play I have most of my games, it's fantastic.

HIde//Seek gets a lot of love, too. Able to ruin a combo deck's day by taking out a critical engine piece for just BW is a thing. Bladed Pinions is sneaky good tech, too, with all my deathtouch creatures, and can give Zurgos evasion. Xathrid Skyblade's activated ability has caught people by surprise a few times already.

I've won some games already with the first version, and competed with on paper more powerful decks (thanks, Crackdown!). What I'm finding is that my pillowfort/rattlesnake elements are keeping me in the game until I'm ready to go for the finisher with Marchesa (including one game where I ulted Liliana and smacked my opponent for life win and commander damage win in the same go - so a stylish double victory.) I've also won with Exsanguiate after I whittled people down gradually earlier in the game.

Dropped

Coat of Arms - Not a factor

Cruel Sadist - Cool mechanic, but way too slow without an untap mechanism.

Culling Dais - Ended up a dead card even when I cast it. There's better draw engines.

Door of Destinies - See CoA

Goblin Assassin - Funny card, and cute to play, but he doesn't do anything after ETB, and about half the time he kills himself.

Nightshade Assassin - In monoblack, he works. Here, he just doesn't.

Added

Darksteel Plate - Protection for key players - usually Marchesa, but an always on Zurgos works, too. Might stay, might cut.

Hyena Umbra - First strike + deathtouch = win. See Xathrid Skyblade and Bladed Pinions. Single use protection for Marchesa, too.

Mentor of the Meek - Far superior draw engine to Culling Dais in this deck.

Nighthowler - Given all the deathtouch options we have, making Marchesa, Zurgos, or a Tajic + friends attack even bigger is great.

Ruthless Ripper - One drop deathtouch while still an assassin? Yes, please. Plus, shiny foil is shiny.

Tajic, Blade of the Legion - Indestructible with ability to turn into a fatty when attacking. TBH, I'm just testing him out here to see how he does. Could end up cut.

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