The only card that sticks out to me is Concentrate. It’s neither a creature nor a classic instant-speed draw spell, nor is it a harder-to remove permanent like Rhystic Study.
I like Concentrate still as it's one of the best draw card spells that that cmc. I have been thinking about Phyrexian Arena in it's place. However, there are times when I want to get more cards in my hand asap in order to draw more lands et. After removing basically all of the non-creature based card draw, having a little bit in there is still fine. I'm aiming for overall maximum efficiency. I could see Rain of notions replacing it as it's a bit less color intensive, cheaper, and can fill the graveyard. What do you think?
Any other thoughts on the deck? I'm really liking this "deny opponent's their resources" theme as it folds in nicely with my longer term gameplan. I can gain crazy amounts of card advantage over my opponents with all of the 2-4+ for 1 cards I have going on. It slows them down to the point that I can find my combo, or just out value them while draining life and attacking.
I've already pulled some pretty wacky shenanigans with the discard stuff late game. Play out a plaguecrafter, sac. a rotting rats to it. Unearth rotting rats, play Liliana's specter and get my last 3 opponents down to 1 card between them. It hurts more than it looks early game too. I want as many cards that will hit all of my opponents for a card's worth of value.
Yarok's Fenlurker really made me want to beef up the discard package again. We won't mind the exile clause as it's a completely one-sided effect, and the deck has MANY other ways to get into the graveyard. Additionally, Awaken the erstwhile could very well be my new, most used wincon for the deck. Adding in additional discard, especially the one sided kind, means that my opponents may end up creating fewer 2/2s than me. Either way, discarding the hand is WAY more likely to screw with their game plan than mine once I have the Scarab god plus zombies out.
It is a nasty form of play to be sure. The gloves have come off in my meta though. If people are going to screw with my lands, I'll screw with their hand before they get a chance.
So I've finally done some overhaul on the deck. The combo is decent, and can win some games. That is still the focus of the deck, but I want the deck to not rely on the combo solely to win.
With the overhaul, I've added many more cheap creatures. Hands with some 2-3 drop creatures seem to be preferable, and it makes sense with the long term game plan. We want creatures out early so we can sac., block or otherwise have them die before the Scarab God hits the field. I've taken out many sorcery card draw spells and replaced them with cheaper creatures that can draw us cards: Shadowmage InfiltratorTomebound Lich while considering Loyal Drake as well. Having many draw spells that can net you 3 or more cards seemed unnecessary in this deck, with how much card advantage the Scarab God provides with its ability. It seems much more useful to play out cheap early creatures, then counting on resurrecting them back later on.
I've also taken out a couple of pieces of ramp. I'd rather play out another creature than spend my turn 3-4 ramping in most scenarios. With plenty of cheap creatures, there is much to do early game. There isn't really a need to ramp into the God early, more a need to put creatures in the yard before he hits. With all creature cards becoming basically 2 cards with the god out, card draw/filtering is handled quite nicely by out creatures. Added Deranged Assistant and Palladium Myr to pad out our creature ramp. Soldevi Adnate, Midnight Reaper and Grim Haruspex all become much better with a plethora of creatures. I find Soldevi Adnate being surprisingly helpful early game as I can often just sac. some early etb effect creature and gain further ramp than possible with Coldsteel Heart for instance.
The non-combo theme of the deck is resource denial. I want many of my creatures to slam down as a 2-4 for 1 as in the case of Plaguecrafter or Burglar Rat. While these effects are merely annoying early game, when the deck keeps dishing them out, over and over again, opponents will wither away under our card advantage/boardpresence/Scarab draining.
I think I like Champion of Wits better than Bazaar Trademage though. Wits does a better version of mage's ability the first go around. When resurrected with the god, you draw 4 and discard 2. I don't think the 3/4 flying body justifies the loss of 2 cards over the course of his entering vs. netting 2 cards with champion. The list might want both? Not sure.
***Further Edit*** Looks like you still need to replace sky diamond with coldsteel heart it's an all around better card. Pretty cheap to buy last time I looked.
Those all look great! I haven't been focusing on this list for updates lately. I got the God pretty much where I wanted it and am currently updating other decks. However, there have been many juicy things that go with the god released in the last few sets. Let me know how those go and if you find anything else!
I was not expecting a this deck to be a 10 on the powerscale. My decks fall in the 5-8 category by my estimates. That's where I like to play. I can't afford to fully upgrade EDH decks. Also extremely linear edh decks aren't fun to me. I really love Marchesa, she's just needed to get dusted off, buffed and coated for my new play group.
Uh, a 6? 7? It's probably my most tuned, most piloted deck as it started as a pet project that's evolved into something new. I did a brief foray into cEDH but I found it boring. The majority of my interest in EDH is being creative. It is easy to make a good deck, I am more interested in taking an unusual theme and making that good. cEDH is just a race to the most efficient which leaves little for creativity; they're the most boring decks for me to make and while playing them is rewarding it is difficult to get a good cEDH pod. The majority of players aren't building cEDH to play cEDH, they build a facsimile of cEDH just to pubstomp players who don't know any better. This behaviour is poisonous as it turns away particular players and others adapt the mentality of spending more money is the only way out, which then locks another batch of players out. Because sadly, frequently, the only way to improve a cEDH deck is to spend more money; while something that is less powerful lets you be creative with different themes or trying something new out.
I think Benthic Biomancer is a better Looter than Looter il-Kor. It's a Wizard so it benefits from Metallic Mimic and Sage of Fables, allowing you to repeatedly Sacrifice it for value. It would also ETB with a +1/+1, so that instantly draws you a card. If you don't have that, you can just swing each turn to get more Loots. It also protects itself in a pinch by Adapting in response to removal.
Magmasaur is too costly for my build to consider. My cards that cost 5+ are there to win me the game, not do cute things. That's one of the things that sucks about this particular build is that I don't have time to do silly things, I need to be efficient with my win. Since you're going more midrange, you can afford to do some more card advantage tricks. One of the best cards I saw for a Midrange Marchesa was Pilgrim's Eye; it flew in for damage and colour fixed his budget mana base but also ensured he would have a land drop each turn for his expensive Creatures.
Benthic Biomancer is definitely good. I'm planning on running both that and looter il-kor. Kor can just be a sneaky little sniper, and can help adjust players life totals by basically having unblockable on it. It can help set things up so that the person you want to attack next turn is at the highest life total.
I do like your 5+ drops, thanks for mentioning them. That Sadistic Hypnotist does look like a bad boy. Especially when lined up with all of the very low cost creatures in the deck. Also, I want the evening star as well. That is brutal with a sac. outlet.
Magmasaur may not fit your build, but it's far from a cute effect. It is protected from destroy and sac. effects with marchesa out. Consider, when playing against 3 opponents it nets 15 damage to them for 5 mana, and it was at least a blocker before then. I have also dethroned with it, or otherwise moved counters onto magmasaur to deal even more than 5 damage to non-flyers and players. You can literally lock people out from keeping their commanders on board. If their commander has less than 5 toughness, you can just keep sacrificing magmasaur each time they play their commander (on your turn.) I've done this before to good effect. It also just straight up stops people from playing ground creatures with less than 5 toughness if they think magmasaur will stick around. If they don't play creatures, then Marchesa attacks with less impediment, so it works out either way for us.
As to Yeti's comment on boardwipes being a thing for Marchesa, yes they can be a good theme for the deck. My first deck iteration was built around this theme and it's not going away. The idea is play out early creatures and Marchesa, acquire counters and deal a bunch of damage, then boardwipe once we've hit a roadblock in our attacks. Or you have a blood artist out. Or our opponents have spent most of their hands on creatures. The deck really doesn't mind having 2 boardwipes in hand mid-late game. Playing one a turn after the other with creatures on board that survive is end game usually. I've found Chain Reaction since then and also acquired a damnation which would work well. Also, I was only recently introduced to Jokulhaups which can be a wincon as early as turn 6-7 with the right conditions.
Glad to see there's a thriving Marchesa crowd around!
I see. Thanks for the response. I'm starting to realize that Marchesa does provide this sneaky kind of card advantage in that what ever creature we play usually gets at least 2 lives with Marchesa out.
I'm gaining a higher appreciation for Smuggler's Copter after playing it out finally in my sydri artifact deck the other night. It survives boardwipes, and gives creatures a kind of psuedo-haste in that they can provide attacking power the turn the come out. I made a slot for it in my deck.
I scrapped the whole "Oops all combos" idea. After ghost testing through tappedout.net, I realized it wouldn't be that much fun to play, or play against.
I'm still revamping my Marchesa list. Now I'm making her more midrange focused, with an emphasis on boardwipes. I loved having plenty of wipes in my previous build as we can often set it up to use them with near impunity. The amount of board advantage we can gain over our opponents is pretty great when we can bring all of our creatures back. My opponents have even cautioned each other against using their own boardwipes when Marchesa's team is on board with counters, realizing how much advantage I would gain.
After looking at your deck list, I lowered my creature curve a bit. With some self-play testing, I'm beginning to realize the power of consistently having out a creature or 2 before Marchesa hits the board. To maximize her potential, we either want to give her haste or have creatures already on board that can attack the turn she drops down.
One of my pet cards in this build is Magmasaur. It takes a turn to really use his ability, but we want to push through damage to all opponents at once when we can. He comes down with counters, so he's always protected with Marchesa out. I've won more than one game with this guy. If you can do a legit boardwipe with him, and keep marchesa out, the damage just keeps churning through after that. A bit expensive cmc for your build perhaps, but this guy is better than he looks I believe. I put it in thinking it'd be a funny card, it ended up being funny and powerful.
I can get down with some looting too! My favorite looter for this deck is looter il-kor. I put him back in my list.
How would you rate your Marchesa deck on a 1-10 powerscale with 10 being an ultra-tuned competitive EDH deck?
Xenagos has been doing well for me. I put in Gamble and have drawn it a couple of times. I'm not too high on it. Seems to only be good when you have a lot of cards, and this deck doesn't always lend itself to having a lot of cards. The floor on this card is too low, essentially pay a red mana to discard a card at random when you discard the card you wanted. Thinking about finding some other kind of card draw to put in its place. Actually, I'll put in Neheb, that card selection on a trample body sounds good.
***Edit*** What power level would you rate your Xenagos deck on a scale of 1-10, 10 being a highly tuned competitive EDH deck?
Hello Tev. I noticed you are playing a good amount of the combo pieces I'm using in my combo-centric Marchesa build.
I'm wondering if you've considered added Murderous Redcap into the mix. He combos with Spark Double and a sac. outlet for infinite damage. You just have double copy redcap, sac. it, it persists, but it gets a counter, but then you give it persist again.
Then you can also go redcap plus Metallic Mimic plus sac. outlet for infinite damage. Why do you currently have mimic in the build? Is it just to help Marchesa get a counter primarily?
I'm also wondering if you have thought about Exsanguinate for this list. It can help protect you against dying on the crackback while also draining all opponents. Anyway, I love the list! I may pick up some tasty goodies from it if I end up not liking the combo. route I'm taking with my deck.
Are you running Skullclamp? I've always loved that in a Marchesa build.
One more question, it seems like the deck is low on card draw. Are you finding that to be a problem? Do you tend to run out of cards before the game is over? It seems like cutting a couple of creatures for cards like Concentrate or Ambition's Cost might help. It's just my guess, but I have never played an EDH deck as low to the ground or aggro as yours before either.
Alright, I just threw in the much better black tutors. Dropped Kiki-jiki because I don't have the money for him, and triple red looks a little tough. Generally, I needed to weed out even more of the "lesser" combo pieces that were not versatile enough/cost too much. I put in another land bringing it up to 39. Added another cheap card draw spell too.
Right now I'm using a solo-simulator on tappedout.net to see how smoothly it runs in the first few turns. I'll be piloting it this wednesday most likely. Should be the first of many! Note I'm just substituting basic lands for the actual pile I have set aside for now. I just have yet to type them all into the deck list.
***Edit*** the cmc is too high. Card draw is a bit overwhelming in cmc cost, if not number. Overall deck cmc is a bit high. I need more tutors. Still, the guts of the deck seem solid.
I think Kalastria Highborn is a decent turn 3 play, we can hopefully trade a creature and be able to drain them. If you have Sorin out, play kalastria turn 4 then use sorin's sac. ability and pay a black for kalastria, you drain them for 5 and you gain 5. You will need to play Viscera Seer alongside her I'm sure to really make things work well.
New combo I just realized: Sage of Fables + Ashnod's Altar + Flayer of the Hatebound Just remove the counter when flayer undies, then sac. it to add 2, remove the counter when it re-enters, sac. it add 2...
I have a decklist flushed out, minus the lands actually entered into it. It took a lot of time on the cutting board, but to great results I believe.
Let me introduce you to Spark Double plus Murderous Redcap plus Sac. outlet. Spark Double will retain persist if it copies redcap, then dies. It comes back with both a +1/+1 counter and a -1/-1 counter, which cancel each other. Double still has persist, so sac it again, it deals damage, et. That's infinite damage with 3 cards and one of them pretty interchangeable.
There are more infinite combos in this deck than I can count. Though I should mention Grave Titan + Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle as well. This leads to infinite zombies, and infinite times to equip nim deathmantle back on titan should there be a boardwipe. If you add in blood artist or Judith, the Scourge Diva you get infinite damage alongside your infinite mana and zombies.
Here's a more refined list. The deck will have 38 lands in it.
There are many hidden synergies in the deck that are quite brutal even without infinite combos going off. Flayer of the Hatebound and Grave Titan for instance. Also many of the pieces support Marchesa in unexpected ways. My goal was to have every combo piece function add some synergy to Marchesa's abilities as well. I think the deck needs another boardwipe, but other than that she should be ready to pilot.
I've reformed the list after some testing. We want Zealot over Dark Confidant I believe. The synergies are just too good. Vampire Lacerator may be justified as a 4 of with all of the life gain in the deck. Also, we can sacrifice it if we can't afford the life at some point.
I really like lightning bolt so we can get our opponents down to 10 or less asap to give bloodghast haste and stop our lacerator life drain. That combined with Sorin's ability, and kalastria highborn means we can have a very mean aggressive early game, then turn useless creatures into direct damage later on.
I think the mana curve is a bit wonky. I want more 1 drops, but also want some aggressive. Any suggestions?
With all of this direct damage, I'm think blood artist should be considered perhaps. Him plus Viscera seer out can do a lot of damage late game if we still have a bunch of creatures out. Also, we can target him with sornin's ability and basically guarantee a damage getting through one way or another.
It's been quite a while since I even looked at this deck, or even played Modern. I may be a little rusty, but Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord looks like it can do some real work.
Between new Sorin and Kalastria Highborn, we can REALLY start trucking through direct damage while gaining life mid/late game. This deck has a bunch of different "10 life or less cards" in it. Given that, I tried to really focus on a direct damage theme. I think Searing Blaze can help us out quite a bit especially with a Cordial Vampire on the battlefield already.
I'm talking about turn 1 vampire lacerator, turn 2 Cordial Vampire, Turn 3 another 1 drop, plus searing blaze hopefully killing their only blocker, put 3 +1/+1 counters out total, swing in for 5, plus the 3 damage done directly to their face off blaze. By that point they are hopefully at less than 10 life and all of our bloodghasts will have haste.
Dark Confidant to keep us drawing into kalastria highborn, lightning bolt, and sorin, imperious bloodlord in order to finish them off. We can gain a respectable amount of life in this deck hopefully each game. If not, we have 2 possible sac. outlets in Viscera Seer
Okay, Vampire Lacerator and Dusk Legion Zealot paired up with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is great. Still have gifted Aetherborn to fall back on with life gain. I believe the deathtouch from sorin will help us push through midrange/aggro creature decks. Not too mention the +1/+1 counter. Add to that an additional way in which to push through straight damage to the life total. Omg! Plus it comes in with 4 loyalty counters at 3 mana, going up to 5? I had to double check right there!
I like Concentrate still as it's one of the best draw card spells that that cmc. I have been thinking about Phyrexian Arena in it's place. However, there are times when I want to get more cards in my hand asap in order to draw more lands et. After removing basically all of the non-creature based card draw, having a little bit in there is still fine. I'm aiming for overall maximum efficiency. I could see Rain of notions replacing it as it's a bit less color intensive, cheaper, and can fill the graveyard. What do you think?
Any other thoughts on the deck? I'm really liking this "deny opponent's their resources" theme as it folds in nicely with my longer term gameplan. I can gain crazy amounts of card advantage over my opponents with all of the 2-4+ for 1 cards I have going on. It slows them down to the point that I can find my combo, or just out value them while draining life and attacking.
I've already pulled some pretty wacky shenanigans with the discard stuff late game. Play out a plaguecrafter, sac. a rotting rats to it. Unearth rotting rats, play Liliana's specter and get my last 3 opponents down to 1 card between them. It hurts more than it looks early game too. I want as many cards that will hit all of my opponents for a card's worth of value.
Yarok's Fenlurker really made me want to beef up the discard package again. We won't mind the exile clause as it's a completely one-sided effect, and the deck has MANY other ways to get into the graveyard. Additionally, Awaken the erstwhile could very well be my new, most used wincon for the deck. Adding in additional discard, especially the one sided kind, means that my opponents may end up creating fewer 2/2s than me. Either way, discarding the hand is WAY more likely to screw with their game plan than mine once I have the Scarab god plus zombies out.
It is a nasty form of play to be sure. The gloves have come off in my meta though. If people are going to screw with my lands, I'll screw with their hand before they get a chance.
With the overhaul, I've added many more cheap creatures. Hands with some 2-3 drop creatures seem to be preferable, and it makes sense with the long term game plan. We want creatures out early so we can sac., block or otherwise have them die before the Scarab God hits the field. I've taken out many sorcery card draw spells and replaced them with cheaper creatures that can draw us cards: Shadowmage Infiltrator Tomebound Lich while considering Loyal Drake as well. Having many draw spells that can net you 3 or more cards seemed unnecessary in this deck, with how much card advantage the Scarab God provides with its ability. It seems much more useful to play out cheap early creatures, then counting on resurrecting them back later on.
I've also taken out a couple of pieces of ramp. I'd rather play out another creature than spend my turn 3-4 ramping in most scenarios. With plenty of cheap creatures, there is much to do early game. There isn't really a need to ramp into the God early, more a need to put creatures in the yard before he hits. With all creature cards becoming basically 2 cards with the god out, card draw/filtering is handled quite nicely by out creatures. Added Deranged Assistant and Palladium Myr to pad out our creature ramp. Soldevi Adnate, Midnight Reaper and Grim Haruspex all become much better with a plethora of creatures. I find Soldevi Adnate being surprisingly helpful early game as I can often just sac. some early etb effect creature and gain further ramp than possible with Coldsteel Heart for instance.
The non-combo theme of the deck is resource denial. I want many of my creatures to slam down as a 2-4 for 1 as in the case of Plaguecrafter or Burglar Rat. While these effects are merely annoying early game, when the deck keeps dishing them out, over and over again, opponents will wither away under our card advantage/boardpresence/Scarab draining.
I almost forgot, Awaken the erstwhile looks like a wincon to me.
This is where my list is at now, with some additions from the M20 in place.
1 phantasmal image
1 Rotting Rats
1 Yarok's fenlurker
1 Burglar Rat
1 Spellskite
1 Dusk Legion Zealot
1 Baleful Strix
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Soldevi Adnate
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Tomebound Lich
1 Plaguecrafter
1 Shadowmage Infiltrator
1 Palladium Myr
1 Fatespinner
1 Liliana's Specter
1 Champion of Wits
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Spellseeker
1 Trinket Mage
1 Hostage Taker
1 Vindictive Lich
1 Ravenous Chupacabra
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Mulldrifter
1 Corpse Connoisseur
1 Bloodgift demon
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Mirror Mad Phantasm
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Grave Titan
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Rune-scarred Demon
1 sensei's Divining top
1 Rhystic Study
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Concentrate
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Buried Alive
1 Final Parting
1 Sol Ring
1 Coldsteel heart
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Dimir Signet
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Thran Dynamo
1 cyclonic rift
1 Damnation
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 Life's Finale
1 All is Dust
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Awaken the Erstwhile
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Flooded Strand
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Sunken Hollow
1 command tower
1 watery grave
1 Underground River
1 choked estuary
1 drowned catacomb
1 Darkwater Catacombs
1 Reflecting Pool
1 temple of deceit
1 Dimir Guildgate
1 jwar isle Refuge
1 fetid pools
1 dismal backwater
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Memorial to Genius
10 swamp
7 island
Also Yarok's Fenlurker looks great.
***Further Edit*** Looks like you still need to replace sky diamond with coldsteel heart it's an all around better card. Pretty cheap to buy last time I looked.
Benthic Biomancer is definitely good. I'm planning on running both that and looter il-kor. Kor can just be a sneaky little sniper, and can help adjust players life totals by basically having unblockable on it. It can help set things up so that the person you want to attack next turn is at the highest life total.
I do like your 5+ drops, thanks for mentioning them. That Sadistic Hypnotist does look like a bad boy. Especially when lined up with all of the very low cost creatures in the deck. Also, I want the evening star as well. That is brutal with a sac. outlet.
Magmasaur may not fit your build, but it's far from a cute effect. It is protected from destroy and sac. effects with marchesa out. Consider, when playing against 3 opponents it nets 15 damage to them for 5 mana, and it was at least a blocker before then. I have also dethroned with it, or otherwise moved counters onto magmasaur to deal even more than 5 damage to non-flyers and players. You can literally lock people out from keeping their commanders on board. If their commander has less than 5 toughness, you can just keep sacrificing magmasaur each time they play their commander (on your turn.) I've done this before to good effect. It also just straight up stops people from playing ground creatures with less than 5 toughness if they think magmasaur will stick around. If they don't play creatures, then Marchesa attacks with less impediment, so it works out either way for us.
As to Yeti's comment on boardwipes being a thing for Marchesa, yes they can be a good theme for the deck. My first deck iteration was built around this theme and it's not going away. The idea is play out early creatures and Marchesa, acquire counters and deal a bunch of damage, then boardwipe once we've hit a roadblock in our attacks. Or you have a blood artist out. Or our opponents have spent most of their hands on creatures. The deck really doesn't mind having 2 boardwipes in hand mid-late game. Playing one a turn after the other with creatures on board that survive is end game usually. I've found Chain Reaction since then and also acquired a damnation which would work well. Also, I was only recently introduced to Jokulhaups which can be a wincon as early as turn 6-7 with the right conditions.
Glad to see there's a thriving Marchesa crowd around!
I'm gaining a higher appreciation for Smuggler's Copter after playing it out finally in my sydri artifact deck the other night. It survives boardwipes, and gives creatures a kind of psuedo-haste in that they can provide attacking power the turn the come out. I made a slot for it in my deck.
I scrapped the whole "Oops all combos" idea. After ghost testing through tappedout.net, I realized it wouldn't be that much fun to play, or play against.
I'm still revamping my Marchesa list. Now I'm making her more midrange focused, with an emphasis on boardwipes. I loved having plenty of wipes in my previous build as we can often set it up to use them with near impunity. The amount of board advantage we can gain over our opponents is pretty great when we can bring all of our creatures back. My opponents have even cautioned each other against using their own boardwipes when Marchesa's team is on board with counters, realizing how much advantage I would gain.
After looking at your deck list, I lowered my creature curve a bit. With some self-play testing, I'm beginning to realize the power of consistently having out a creature or 2 before Marchesa hits the board. To maximize her potential, we either want to give her haste or have creatures already on board that can attack the turn she drops down.
I like Sygg, River Cutthroat. I'm going to get myself one.
One of my pet cards in this build is Magmasaur. It takes a turn to really use his ability, but we want to push through damage to all opponents at once when we can. He comes down with counters, so he's always protected with Marchesa out. I've won more than one game with this guy. If you can do a legit boardwipe with him, and keep marchesa out, the damage just keeps churning through after that. A bit expensive cmc for your build perhaps, but this guy is better than he looks I believe. I put it in thinking it'd be a funny card, it ended up being funny and powerful.
I can get down with some looting too! My favorite looter for this deck is looter il-kor. I put him back in my list.
How would you rate your Marchesa deck on a 1-10 powerscale with 10 being an ultra-tuned competitive EDH deck?
***Edit*** What power level would you rate your Xenagos deck on a scale of 1-10, 10 being a highly tuned competitive EDH deck?
I'm wondering if you've considered added Murderous Redcap into the mix. He combos with Spark Double and a sac. outlet for infinite damage. You just have double copy redcap, sac. it, it persists, but it gets a counter, but then you give it persist again.
Then you can also go redcap plus Metallic Mimic plus sac. outlet for infinite damage. Why do you currently have mimic in the build? Is it just to help Marchesa get a counter primarily?
I'm also wondering if you have thought about Exsanguinate for this list. It can help protect you against dying on the crackback while also draining all opponents. Anyway, I love the list! I may pick up some tasty goodies from it if I end up not liking the combo. route I'm taking with my deck.
Are you running Skullclamp? I've always loved that in a Marchesa build.
One more question, it seems like the deck is low on card draw. Are you finding that to be a problem? Do you tend to run out of cards before the game is over? It seems like cutting a couple of creatures for cards like Concentrate or Ambition's Cost might help. It's just my guess, but I have never played an EDH deck as low to the ground or aggro as yours before either.
Please take a look at my Marchesa combo deck if you're at all interested. Though it's quite different, you never know where you can find a good synergistic piece. It's still in it's development with it's first pilot test coming soon.
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/811419-oops-all-combos-marchesa-the-black-rose-help-me#c3
Right now I'm using a solo-simulator on tappedout.net to see how smoothly it runs in the first few turns. I'll be piloting it this wednesday most likely. Should be the first of many! Note I'm just substituting basic lands for the actual pile I have set aside for now. I just have yet to type them all into the deck list.
***Edit*** the cmc is too high. Card draw is a bit overwhelming in cmc cost, if not number. Overall deck cmc is a bit high. I need more tutors. Still, the guts of the deck seem solid.
1 Walking Ballista
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Metallic Mimic
1 Mikaeus the unhallowed
1 Grave Titan
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
1 Spark Double
1 viscera seer
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Blasting Station
1 Grimgrin, corpse-born
1 Sage of Fables
1 Blood Artist
1 Judith, the Scourge Diva
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Pestermite
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Splinter Twin
Tutors
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Trophy Mage
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Rune Scarred Demon
1 Ravenous Chupacabra
1 Hostage Taker
1 Bloodtracker
Ramp
1 Sol Ring
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Dimir Signet
1 Izzet Signet
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Solemn Simulacrum
Card draw
1 Skullclamp
1 Baleful Strix
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Read the Bones
1 Compulsive Research
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Notion Rain
1 Concentrate
1 Ambition's Cost
1 Ancient Craving
1 Mulldrifter
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Unspeakable symbol
Boardwipes
1 Chain Reaction
1 Magmasaur
1 Deadly Tempest
1 Jokulhaups
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Blasphemous Act
13x Island
13x Mountain
13x Swamp
NICE!
Let me introduce you to Spark Double plus Murderous Redcap plus Sac. outlet. Spark Double will retain persist if it copies redcap, then dies. It comes back with both a +1/+1 counter and a -1/-1 counter, which cancel each other. Double still has persist, so sac it again, it deals damage, et. That's infinite damage with 3 cards and one of them pretty interchangeable.
There are more infinite combos in this deck than I can count. Though I should mention Grave Titan + Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle as well. This leads to infinite zombies, and infinite times to equip nim deathmantle back on titan should there be a boardwipe. If you add in blood artist or Judith, the Scourge Diva you get infinite damage alongside your infinite mana and zombies.
Here's a more refined list. The deck will have 38 lands in it.
1 Walking Ballista
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Triskelion
1 Metallic Mimic
1 Mikaeus the unhallowed
1 Grave Titan
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
1 Spark Double
1 Blade of the Bloodchief
1 viscera seer
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Blasting Station
1 Grimgrin, corpse-born
1 Sage of Fables
1 Blood Artist
1 Judith, the Scourge Diva
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Pestermite
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Splinter Twin
Tutors
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Trophy Mage
1 Scrapyard recombiner
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Rune Scarred Demon
Creatures
1 Ravenous Chupacabra
1 Hostage Taker
1 Bloodtracker
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Ramp
1 Sol Ring
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Dimir Signet
1 Izzet Signet
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Hedron Archive
1 Baleful Strix
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Read the Bones
1 Compulsive Research
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Concentrate
1 Ambition's Cost
1 Ancient Craving
1 Mulldrifter
Protection
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Unspeakable symbol
Boardwipes
1 Chain Reaction
1 Magmasaur
1 Deadly Tempest
1 Jokulhaups
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Blasphemous Act
There are many hidden synergies in the deck that are quite brutal even without infinite combos going off. Flayer of the Hatebound and Grave Titan for instance. Also many of the pieces support Marchesa in unexpected ways. My goal was to have every combo piece function add some synergy to Marchesa's abilities as well. I think the deck needs another boardwipe, but other than that she should be ready to pilot.
I've reformed the list after some testing. We want Zealot over Dark Confidant I believe. The synergies are just too good. Vampire Lacerator may be justified as a 4 of with all of the life gain in the deck. Also, we can sacrifice it if we can't afford the life at some point.
I really like lightning bolt so we can get our opponents down to 10 or less asap to give bloodghast haste and stop our lacerator life drain. That combined with Sorin's ability, and kalastria highborn means we can have a very mean aggressive early game, then turn useless creatures into direct damage later on.
1 Indulgent Aristocrat
4 Viscera Seer
4 Bloodghast
4 Dusk Legion Zealot
4 Kalastria Highborn
4 Cordial Vampire
3 Stromkirk Captain
2 Skewer the Critics
4 Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord
3 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
4 Blackcleave cliffs
1 Dragonskull Summit
4 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
I think the mana curve is a bit wonky. I want more 1 drops, but also want some aggressive. Any suggestions?
With all of this direct damage, I'm think blood artist should be considered perhaps. Him plus Viscera seer out can do a lot of damage late game if we still have a bunch of creatures out. Also, we can target him with sornin's ability and basically guarantee a damage getting through one way or another.
It's been quite a while since I even looked at this deck, or even played Modern. I may be a little rusty, but Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord looks like it can do some real work.
2 Viscera Seer
2 Guul draz Vampire
4 Bloodghast
4 Kalastria Highborn
3 Dark Confidant
4 Cordial Vampire
4 Stromkirk Captain
3 Searing Blaze
4 Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord
3 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
4 Blackcleave cliffs
1 Dragonskull Summit
4 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Between new Sorin and Kalastria Highborn, we can REALLY start trucking through direct damage while gaining life mid/late game. This deck has a bunch of different "10 life or less cards" in it. Given that, I tried to really focus on a direct damage theme. I think Searing Blaze can help us out quite a bit especially with a Cordial Vampire on the battlefield already.
I'm talking about turn 1 vampire lacerator, turn 2 Cordial Vampire, Turn 3 another 1 drop, plus searing blaze hopefully killing their only blocker, put 3 +1/+1 counters out total, swing in for 5, plus the 3 damage done directly to their face off blaze. By that point they are hopefully at less than 10 life and all of our bloodghasts will have haste.
Dark Confidant to keep us drawing into kalastria highborn, lightning bolt, and sorin, imperious bloodlord in order to finish them off. We can gain a respectable amount of life in this deck hopefully each game. If not, we have 2 possible sac. outlets in Viscera Seer
This sorin could be vampire's savior for modern.