Queen Marchesa's Draw Go Draw

Commander / EDH RBW (Mardu)

BrutalPandaa

Land (37)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 1x Foreboding Ruins
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Glacial Chasm
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 2x Plains
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Silent Clearing
• 1x Sunbaked Canyon
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Tainted Peak
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Temple of Triumph
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Thespian's Stage

Instant (17)

• 1x Backlash
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Comeuppance
• 1x Dawn Charm
• 1x Deflecting Palm
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x Master Warcraft
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Rebuff the Wicked
• 1x Reverberate
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Thrill of Possibility
• 1x Wear / Tear

Creature (14)

• 1x Azra Oddsmaker
• 1x Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
• 1x Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1x Dualcaster Mage
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Master of Cruelties
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Ranger-Captain of Eos
• 1x Selfless Squire
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Thorn of the Black Rose

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Disrupt Decorum
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Insurrection
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Reforge the Soul

Commander (1)

Artifact (14)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Key to the City
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Norn's Annex
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sunforger
• 1x Talisman of Conviction
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Duelist's Heritage
• 1x Eldrazi Conscription
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Koskun Falls
• 1x Marchesa's Decree
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Underworld Breach

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This is my Queen Marchesa deck, my favorite deck that I have ever had as a commander player, and like to call "Queen Marchesa Draw Go Draw."

You will like this deck if...

1. You are a control player, and like to play reactively 90% of the time.

2. You can stick through a longer game.

3. You love playing the politics game.

4. You play in a lot of games with random people, and want that one deck that can play with any table.

5. Your meta has a lot of Timmy or big army decks.

History of the deck and why I built it the way I did

So I originally built this deck modeling it heavily after precociousapprentice's http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/queen-marchesa-politics-aikido-and-control/, and starting with an incredibly budget build roughly around 100$. This current version of mine, however, I believe to be more than a budget version, rather a sharpened deck specifically honed with different ideologies in mind that depart from it's predecessor.

One of those ideologies would be the interpretation of "low threat level," and instead has almost every card in the deck have little synergy with eachother; instead opting for maximum self sufficiency. Naturally, gauging the individual threat level of a card is subjective, but if I had to define it in loose terms I would describe 90% of the deck as either reactive, low in mana cost, low in apparent synergy or value, or any combination of the previous. Friends of mine who've played against this deck many times would describe it as "a deck that does nothing, yet still wins anyway somehow." This idea eventually led to the name of the deck as "draw go draw," and cemented the identity of this deck for me.

I would mainly attribute the idea that my deck "does nothing, but still wins" to the fact that I have specifically built the deck to have incredibly low intended synergy, and instead focused on the individual power level of each card in my deck. One of the ways I achieved this is with a significantly low permanent count, and patient play-style; often holding onto cards until the perfect moment.

A big factor that led the construction of the deck to the way it is now has to do with who I was as a person. Specifically, I would very much agree with the characteristics of a "johnny" player, or, as I would define, someone who builds decks with uncommon purpose or goal in mind. Mix that with a dash of competitiveness, and you have the original purpose of my deck: to react to my meta and achieve wins the way I want to.

The meta I played in that partly shaped the tenants of the deck was one of many "Timmy Players," players who like to play explosively with large effects and equally large creatures. In fact, the version I initially made, and would also go on to shape the tenants of the deck, was made in response to a mono-green elf-ball deck that ramped early into an incredibly large board of buffed up elves. Incidentally the first win I had with this deck was made barely snatching a win against them with exact commander damage, and with my commander being the only creature on my battlefield - standing against an army of elves many times larger than her.

I was also an incredibly greedy player at the time, and I thought that the only way I was gonna win with my deck against incredibly synergistic elves was equally large explosive effects that would generate comparable value. As a result I played lots of higher mana cost enchantments and artifacts. However, naturally, my opponents began focusing down my greedy cards with their cheap green removal pieces. I knew that I couldn't beat the power of their creatures with my own, but when also confronted with the realization that I couldn't match them with artifacts or enchantments either, I was at a loss. All of these factors eventually led to the tenants of my deck that I restrict myself to in order to produce the exact type experience and victory I desired.

Tenants of the Deck

1. No boardwipes - It goes without saying that boardwipes are not fun, and definitely make games longer the more there are. However, another reason that I personally chose not to run any boardwipes was to create an "against all odds" feeling of victory, specifically winning with just the right combination of cards to defeat my opponent as all their creatures lay before them, and letting them believe they had the advantage right until the end. It also doesn't help with the fact that our deck seeks to draw the game out into a 1v1.

2. Low Threat Level - In general "low threat level cards" mean cards that avoid anything that can be called "explosive," or incurring a big advantange. This can be anything from playing a scary creature to drawing a lot of cards at once. This also includes cards of high apparent synergistic value, and leans towards cards that our generally good for any stand alone situation while focusing on small incremental value. Most every card in the deck is of low threat level, and cards that are high threat level have to be absolutely worth their cost, and strongly lead to me winning the game. Not to say that cards of low threat level don't help me win the game, on the contrary. Specific conditions have to be met in order for the higher threat level cards to actually be helpful, and these cards help put everything in motion. This helps create the feeling of laying the components of your victory right under the noses of everyone, and your opponents being none the wiser until it is too late.

3. No infinite combos, drawing the entire deck, or generally anything game breaking - This deck intends to win the most honest to goodness fair game of magic, and create close win scenarios, if not somewhat unconventionally. Specifically, the deck is tailored to use politics to sway army decks, our most favorable matchup, to eliminate other opponents for us, and then win the 1v1 with burn or unblockable commander damage. You heard that right, burn in commander, and commander damage with a 3/3 commander. Naturally, this deck is purely casual and not meant to play with competitive decks.

4. Little to none own-graveyard value - This could fall into low threat level, but specifically disuades cards that rely on a large graveyard. This is mainly to prevent ourselves from being setback from any mass graveyard hate, and take full advantage of using such cards. That said there are some cards that arguably break this rule, namely underworld breach, however I would argue that you only need 3 other cards in your graveyard to reuse any 1 card in your graveyard just once, which is just what we need in some situations. Additionally animate dead and reanimate can hit any graveyard, not just our own.

5. No hard stax pieces - Similarly to the no boardwipes rule, it goes without saying that stax is generally un-fun, and absolutely slows the game down. With this deck we actually want our opponents to develop a board for us to politic into helping us.

Individual Card Explanations

Master of Cruelties: Surprisingly, I've managed to kill many people with this card even after its sat on the battlefield for multiple turns. Sometimes they just don't have an answer to it especially if you deploy it at the right time. Other times it just disappears from people's minds if you don't show that you have any way of getting it to connect.

Reforge the Soul: This card can be a godsend when you need it, but otherwise is our only way to refill our hand without generating threat as everyone ends up with a hand of 7, however you can choose to play it when you have a small hand, or when most of the cards in your hand are not useful in the current situation.

Gisela, Blade of Goldknight: A high threat card with a high cmc? Even with the possibility of cheating out this card animate dead or reanimate, often times I have to hard cast it, so why include it? For the late game, unsurprisingly. This card has single-handedly won me games I normally would not be able to due to lack of raw damage. When my commander gets focused down and costs too much mana, this card can comfortable take her place, and if I have both I can handily take out two opponents myself while halving all damage dealt on the crack back. She isn't the answer everytime, but Ill argue swinging in for 60 damage with a single double-striking, eldrazi conscripted Gisela is absolutely worth her inclusion.

Underworld Breach: With no clear way to fill up the graveyard besides maybe reforge the soul or faithless looting, why include this card? Simply put, we don't need to fill up the graveyard with any mill effects, or overt mass discarding. Underworld breach is incredibly useful, and worth it just to cast the right spell in our graveyard just one more time - anything after that is just straight value.

Eldrazi Conscription: This is my favorite way to win, and easily the most consistent with our multiple enchantment tutors. It is quite vulnerable and requires a creature, however I think having the ability to turn any random creature we have on our battlefield into a trampling behemoth makes it worth its slot.

Insurrection: This card certainly is an easy win, however we take full advantage of the fact that we have no boardwipes almost solely with this card. Often times this is the craziest top deck to end a game.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.75
Tokens	Assassin 1/1 B w/ Haste, Dragon 5/5 R, Elephant 3/3 G, The Monarch, Treasure