This post was edited to replace a few cards (pristine angel, guardian of the guildpact) that didn't work with the en-kor and to add some new cards (condemn, consuming vapors) to take advantage of one of the replacement creatures (Cho-Manno, Revolutionary, Task Force, Fog of Gnats).
Queen Marchesa should ideally be played as a control deck. As a general, her giving you the Monarch when she enters play, which lets you draw a card at the end of your turn (until someone takes it away by dealing combat damage to you) can provide you continuous card advantage over the long game if you can often keep opponents from successfully attacking you. But you have to be able to disrupt combo or enemy control as well, not just defend against creatures.
A Queen Marchesa deck also needs to find ways to recover from the occasional board wipe and find a way to win the game without having to wait too long or give opponents too much of a chance one it makes an attempt at victory. Like an assassin, this deck may only get a few openings to really hurt an opponent.
Protecting against creatures is done in two ways
removing them, and
making their attacks impossible or ineffective
Here’s the removal this deck uses. You could use any mass removal. This deck gets a slight increased advantage though from destruction-based removal. Because it has a way to give its creatures indestructible in Boros Charm. Lower mana cost board-wipes are also easier to combo on your own turn with Boros Charm, Parallax Wave, and Eerie Interlude which can let your creatures stick around after the wipe. Activating Nevinyrral’s Disk and making all your stuff indestructible with Boros Charm is even better. You even get to keep the disk.
Neutralizing creatures can mean:
making them unable to attack you as Disrupt Decorum and Blazing Archon do,
making the damage they deal to you not matter, as Platinum Angel does.
Neutralization can also mean the opponent’s attacks are unable to deal damage to the player or kill anything meaningful because the blocker has nigh-infinite toughness, creature damage prevention or regeneration.
The Queen's favorite advisor, Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts costs a lot more mana than the enchantment No Mercy that mimics the key part of her ability, and and as a creature she’s more fragile. But she can also push through unblockable damage in the late game (especially with equipment) and blocks like a champ. Although sadly the en-kor can't target her to redirect damage to her.
So we have the queen’s territory well-defended against creatures so The Monarch is fairly safe. Now how do we stop combo? Aura of Silence makes the key parts of most combos cost more and then destroys an artifact or enchantment. Forsake the Worldly and Dispeller’s Capsule deal with artifacts and enchantments as well and Nihil Spellbomb plus Leyline of the Void deal with Graveyard shenanigans. Plunge into Darkness is surprise life gain and a way to dig for disruption or kill-now cards. Platinum Angel is a temporary answer to everything.
Similarly, how does the deck resist another control deck that makes it very hard to keep a creature on the board? There’s relief in Parallax Wave used on your own creatures, Eerie Interlude, and Boros Charm used to make your creatures indestructible. But you may well wind up actually winning by non-creature means. Indeed, since you can’t counter their card draw sorceries and instants and you have no discard to remove the large hand they build up, you may want to try and target the other control players since you are least able to hamper their strategy and are better off with them out of the game.
The recovery section that follows means we can prioritize casting the same silver bullets more than once if needed.
So what do you do if it’s mid to late game and if you just had all your permanents except land sent to the graveyard one way or another? How do you start to rebuild? Get back the useful cards that you lost and start effectively drawing more cards per turn than opponents. These cards will do this for you. Land Tax gets a special nod for being oh so on-flavor and keeping the deck dropping land almost every turn unless you’re ahead on land already.
The Leyline of the Void that protected against graveyard combo and value strategies now enables a nine mana combo that exiles a target player’s library. And can do it again on your next turn. This works because the Helm says it mills target opponent until they mill a creature card or X cards are put into that graveyard this way, whichever comes first. But with Leyline of the Void in play cards that would go to the grave are exiled instead, so neither “comes first” condition ever happens. With one activation the Helm just keeps milling cards from the opponent’s library to the exile zone until there’s no library left. Because it was never able to put X cards or a creature in the graveyard. By the way, when you have Helm and Void out together, X should always be 1. And that plus the 4 casting cost of the two halves of the combo is why this deck can eliminate almost any opponent on their draw step starting with nothing on on the board once it gets to 9 mana. If it has those two cards and can get them on the table at the same time. Trading Post can get back the Helm if it’s destroyed and Magus of the Will can get both Helm and Leyline back. If you want to emphasize this combo a cheap tutor for 4cc things is Dimir House Guard. Who also incidentally also finds Crackdown Construct and Flesh-Eater Imp. The first tutor in the deck should probably be one that, like the more common black tutors, can get any card.
The second plan is an arbitrarily large Crackdown Construct pumped up by unlimited untaps of Basalt Monolith (which is not a mana ability), moving Lightning Greaves around, or redirecting a large number of future damage points on en-Kor (note that there doesn’t have to be an immediate source of damage threatening the en-Kor to use the ability).
Hopefully your point removal or one-sided mass removal including Parallax Wave and Crackling Doom can make an opening for the Construct. Note that the Lightning Greaves also gives the Construct the ability to attack the turn you play him if you equip the Greaves to him last. The reason this combo isn’t terrible even though it’s broken by creature removal and blockers is that it has exactly one “combo” card, the Construct. The other cards are all OK to excellent defense or acceleration, depending on circumstances. Note that if you can get a Loxodon Warhammer on a huge Construct and complete an attack the trample will usually make blockers irrelevant and you will now have an arbitrarily high life total.
Speaking of having an arbitrarily high life total, it's also possible to get that and remove most worries about enemy attacks by targeting your Task Force with a Condemn or Consuming Vapors after giving it arbitrarily large toughness with an en-kor or Lightning Greaves. Condemn can also be used on your [card]Crackdown Consrtuct[card] if it's about to be removed while very large.
Plan C is an equipped and double-striking Godo, Bandit Warlord or Flesh-Eater Imp either of which can knock out even a healthy opponent in one swing (or two in Godo’s case since he attacks twice in a turn).
Don’t forget that Queen Marchesa will give you a token at the start of your turn if you lose the Monarch. And that Trading Post makes a token per turn or can sac the creature Silverblade Paladin is paired with so it can now soulbond with the Imp or Godo you’re about to cast. Those token creatures can help deal 10 point hits with Flesh-eater Imp for surprise kills.
It’s probably worth it to squeeze the colorless-producing Rogue’s Passage into the deck just to help get all the very important creatures through.
Finally there’s Ribbons and attacking with the unblockable Teysa (maybe equipped, hopefully with Lightning Greaves to help her stick around) for the last few points of damage needed to win. Not pretty, but it might work.
Conclusion
So that’s it. Protect your territory against enemies who would try to invade it. Be ready to keep mana open to use tricks to stop attempts to break up your defenses through removal. Plan to one-sided wrath or just wrath to stop a known hostile army stronger than your army can deal with. The long game favors you as long as you make sure you get rid of the combo and control enemies first and you pay close attention to how you and others can slow down the combo player.
Use your recovery tools and the card draw from the Monarch to keep the cards coming and return or recast key cards from the grave. Try and assemble your key combos with as much subtlety as you can manage to avoid sorcery speed removal. Then when you get the opening, make your move, play carefully, avoid mistakes, and take the crown.
I expect I'm going to try and wedge the combo into an Esper control deck I have. It seems like with some early clues from investigator and/or expose evil it should be able to use some and still have a clue when I'm ready to try for Shape Anew. I only own a few copies of Sundering Titan and Inkwell Leviathan and a lone Bosh, Iron Golem as targets though. Titan does slow the opponent down after you tap out. Kind of like Natural Order for Terastadon in Legacy and hitting two of the opponent's lands.
I've been working on this recently and this is what I came up with. I think Brave is key for nullifying sweepers / bolts as well as attacking through blockers and that pushes the deck towards a white creature base even though legion loyalist is a good card. I also took out Akroan Crusader for similar reasons and to take away some of the need for early red mana (didn't have red/white shock lands).
I was interested in in TWoo's deck but agreed with others that Wargate was bad compared to Fabricate. I thought that one could do a lot to reduce the nasty variance of his deck simply by playing Fauna Shaman to trade cards that are bad after turn 1-2 (Chancellor, Simian) for cards that are good (Archdruid, silver bullet creatures like Ethersworn Canonist). Here's what I came up with.
The SB leans towards creatures and artifacts because of Fabricate and Fauna Shaman. Engineered Explosives is there to try and be more interactive vs aggro and splinter twin decks. There could be better choices like Chalice of the Void, Phyrexian Revoker, or Pithing Needle or simply three more Spellskites. I could have no SB cards against decks this deck is weak against. Let me know if you think that's so.
EDIT: After reading the primer I upped the main deck spellskite's to 4 (taking out some 1 ofs) to try and help the Twin matchup some more. I think it's interesting that it not only steals Twin's/Bogle's creature auras and Affinity's +1 counters it can redirect artifact removal directed at a Belcher towards itself. It could even protect elves from bolts to support ramping better through removal. Also, I still think explosives at 1 for aggro/delver and 2 for affinity and 3 for twin has some use. Same numbers against same decks would be good with Chalice of the Void.
On a creature, it's pretty annoying, since it more or less amounts to a repeated Pacifism.
I think it's unlike pacifism because it wont stop a single creature or a creature that's worth more in combat than all the other creatures that player controls.
Note the controller can block with the skunked creature and attack with all their others, or vice-versa.
In low-removal high-creature limited-type environments it would be more like Pacifism though.
How much should this (presumably green, maybe white) ability be worth?
Obviously it depends on the durability of the creature with the ability.
If another creature blocks or is blocked by this creature, put a skunk counter on that creature. Creatures with skunk counters on them can only attack or block if they do so alone.
I can see this being used to break up a defending or attacking group of creatures, limiting their collective combat potential without actually killing them. Note combo potential with lure effects.
Putting this ability on a regenerating or persist creature could be fairly strong against aggro. But the ability would be useless against evasive big fast creatures or control or exalted strategies.
Variation: creatures with skunk counters could attack or block only with other creatures with skunk counters. This weakens the ability but makes it less scary on a durable creature.
How much do you think the following ability should add to cost if on a (presumably black) creature? How much if by itself on an enchantment?
Pay x life: put x 1/1 black token creatures into play. Each of these tokens has "During your upkeep pay 1 life or sacrifice this creature"
I don't see the mechanic as helping aggro decks unless they play Bad Moon or the tokens are zombies and get bonuses based on creature type.
The ability probably helps control decks by providing a bunch of zero mana early blockers that you don't have to pay the upkeep on if they'll die in combat anyway. And if you land a big Drain Life or Corrupt maybe you'll pay two life per creature for a final attack.
Variations: This defensive aspect could be enhanced if the token creatures had Wither. Infect would be stronger and make paying the upkeep and going for the poison win a possibility. Limiting the ability to make tokens to the combat phase would weaken it, especially for aggro which could not then use it on the end of the opponent's turn for pseudo-haste.
There's probably also combo potential here too with things that sac creatures for damage or size bonuses at no mana cost (activated abilities, Devour). Or which cost the tap of creatures.
An opponent casts some mass removal you can't counter and you have out both Butcher and some critter with an ETB trigger, I'll use Archaeomancer as an example.
In response to mass removal, flicker both your creatures. The following stuff happens.
Opponent's creature(s) exiled by and eligible to be returned because of Butcher's leaving play come back.
Controller of Butcher picks new target creature to exile (choose Archaeomancer, doesn't resolve yet)
Archaeomancer trigger has trigger go off for returning from flicker.
Butcher exiles Archaeomancer.
Butcher and opposing creature formerly exiled by him go to graveyard from mass removal.
Archaeomancer returns to play, triggering ETB effect a second time.
---
Ghostly Flicker could be also be used and re-used to protect Archaeomancer/Chronomancer/Scrivener from targeted removal until you run out of mana or (more likely) someone responds to the Flicker with removal since it fizzles targeting spells.
You should have both FB and IC/Arc return to play and be able stack the getting back the Ghostly Flicker from the grave before the Butcher's targeted exile effect resolves. So you should be able to repeat this for as much mana as you can afford, ending up with either (and this part seems unclear)
1) all exiled creatures under Butcher ready to come back next time he leaves play
or
2) the last targeted exiled creature under Butcher ready to come back and all the other targeted ones exiled permanently.
I played this deck in my league a while back and won a lot of games with it against competitive 1v1 decks.
It has disruption and removal and has combos for
infinite direct damage,
infinite poision via flying creature,
infinite card mill of opponents,
infinitely large creatures,
destruction of all opponents' permanents,
and infinite life.
Almost all of which I pulled off at one time or another over the course of the season. It was a lot of fun to play.
These days I'd probably remove Heartmender and put a low-cc sacrificing vampire in place of fallen angel. I also used some less efficient search cards because of salary cap reasons in my league and those should be upgraded.
If anyone likes the deck, but has issues with people getting mad about Child of Alara recursion, it seems to me like one could swap Reaper King in for Child and swap in Pili-Pala, and Scuttlemutt and Moonglove Changeling for some color fixers to trigger King's removal ability.
I originally had Skeletal Changeling here, but Moonglove is just a better card and has a bonus combo with Viridian Longbow.
Longbow would work well with Pili-Pala too as you accumulated a lot of mana, producing one direct damage per mana you have per turn, and not be useless by itself. Longbow also goes nicely with Freed From the Real.
No guarantees about opponents not being just as mad about scarecrow recursion though.
The first episode is a Progenitus legendary tribal deck.
Comments and likes there and here are welcome.
TappedOut decklist
Deck:
1 Arid Mesa (MM3) 229
1 Azorius Signet (C18) 196
1 Bad River (MIR) 290
1 Battlefield Forge (ORI) 244
1 Bloodstained Mire (KTK) 230
1 Boros Signet (GK1) 97
1 Breeding Pool (RNA) 246
1 Bring to Light (BFZ) 209
1 Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder (C16) 30
1 Brushland (10E) 44
1 Canopy Vista (BFZ) 234
1 Canyon Slough (AKH) 239
1 Cathedral of War (M13) 51
1 Cinder Glade (C19) 236
1 Coalition Relic (DDE) 223
1 Command Tower (ELD) 333
1 Commander's Sphere (C19) 212
1 Crumbling Necropolis (MYS1) 45
1 Darkslick Shores (SOM)
1 Demonlord Belzenlok (DAR) 86
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest (C16) 195
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite (MYS1) 18
1 Ertai, the Corrupted (PLS)
1 Exotic Orchard (C19) 242
1 Finest Hour (C18) 180
1 Fist of Suns (C17) 211
4 Forest (IKO) 272
1 Genju of the Realm (BOK)
1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight (C15) 219
1 Glissa Sunseeker (MRD)
1 Glissa, the Traitor (MBS) 5
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord (C16) 125
1 Golgari Signet (GK1) 73
1 Grand Warlord Radha (DAR) 195
1 Grasslands (C17) 252
1 Gruul Signet (MYS1) 103
1 Hammer of Nazahn (C17) 51
1 Helm of the Host (DAR) 217
1 Heroes' Podium (BNG) 159
1 Island (IKO) 263
1 Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain (DAR) 197
1 Jodah, Archmage Eternal (DAR) 198
1 Kamahl's Druidic Vow (DAR) 166
1 Krosan Verge (MYS1) 285
1 Llanowar Wastes (C19) 258
1 Mageta the Lion (PCY)
1 Marchesa, the Black Rose (C17) 177
1 Medomai the Ageless (THS) 196
1 Mina and Denn, Wildborn (OGW) 156
1 Mirari's Wake (C17) 181
1 Mountain (IKO) 269
1 Murmuring Bosk (C16) 308
1 Najeela, the Blade-Blossom (BBD) 62
1 Nath of the Gilt-Leaf (C16) 213
1 Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith (C17) 44
1 Odric, Lunarch Marshal (SOI) 31
1 Orzhov Signet (C18) 213
2 Plains (IKO) 260
1 Primevals' Glorious Rebirth (DAR) 201
1 Progenitus (MMA) 9
1 Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage (MYS1) 202
1 Rafiq of the Many (ALA) 10
1 Razorverge Thicket (SOM) 228
1 Reki, the History of Kamigawa (SOK)
1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade (AER) 122
1 Rocky Tar Pit (C18) 274
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed (DGM) 99
1 Sacred Foundry (GRN) 254
1 Samut, Voice of Dissent (AKH) 205
1 Saskia the Unyielding (C16) 41
1 Seaside Citadel (C18) 277
1 Selesnya Signet (GK1) 123
1 Selvala, Explorer Returned (C16) 220
1 Simic Signet (MM3) 227
1 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon (SOM)
1 Spire Garden (BBD) 85
1 Stomping Ground (RNA) 259
1 Sulfur Falls (DAR) 247
1 Sulfurous Springs (10E) 40
1 Sunken Hollow (C19) 278
3 Swamp (IKO) 266
1 Sword of the Animist (MYS1) 227
1 Talisman of Indulgence (E01) 91
1 Talisman of Unity (MRD)
1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid (MYS1) 206
1 Temple Garden (GRN) 258
1 Time of Need (CHK)
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre (MM2) 6
1 Underground River (C16) 335
1 Urabrask the Hidden (IMA) 152
1 Urza's Ruinous Blast (DAR) 39
1 Wooded Foothills (KTK) 249
1 Yavimaya Coast (C19) 287
Queen Marchesa should ideally be played as a control deck. As a general, her giving you the Monarch when she enters play, which lets you draw a card at the end of your turn (until someone takes it away by dealing combat damage to you) can provide you continuous card advantage over the long game if you can often keep opponents from successfully attacking you. But you have to be able to disrupt combo or enemy control as well, not just defend against creatures.
A Queen Marchesa deck also needs to find ways to recover from the occasional board wipe and find a way to win the game without having to wait too long or give opponents too much of a chance one it makes an attempt at victory. Like an assassin, this deck may only get a few openings to really hurt an opponent.
Protecting against creatures is done in two ways
Here’s the removal this deck uses. You could use any mass removal. This deck gets a slight increased advantage though from destruction-based removal. Because it has a way to give its creatures indestructible in Boros Charm. Lower mana cost board-wipes are also easier to combo on your own turn with Boros Charm, Parallax Wave, and Eerie Interlude which can let your creatures stick around after the wipe. Activating Nevinyrral’s Disk and making all your stuff indestructible with Boros Charm is even better. You even get to keep the disk.
Mass Removal:
Crackling Doom
Wrath of God
Day of Judgement
Nevinyrral’s Disk
Point-removal:
Swords to Plowshares
Condemn
Consuming Vapors
Executioner's Capsule
Cut // Ribbons
Note that Trading Post can return the capsules.
Neutralization/Blockers:
Disrupt Decorum
Blazing Archon
Platinum Angel
Bastion Protector
Cho-Manno, Revolutionary
Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
Task Force
Spirit en-kor
Outrider En-Kor
Fog of Gnats
Trading Post
Neutralizing creatures can mean:
making them unable to attack you as Disrupt Decorum and Blazing Archon do,
making the damage they deal to you not matter, as Platinum Angel does.
Neutralization can also mean the opponent’s attacks are unable to deal damage to the player or kill anything meaningful because the blocker has nigh-infinite toughness, creature damage prevention or regeneration.
The Queen's favorite advisor, Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts costs a lot more mana than the enchantment No Mercy that mimics the key part of her ability, and and as a creature she’s more fragile. But she can also push through unblockable damage in the late game (especially with equipment) and blocks like a champ. Although sadly the en-kor can't target her to redirect damage to her.
Disruption:
Aura of Silence
Dispeller’s Capsule
Eerie Interlude
Boros Charm
Parallax Wave
Nihil Spellbomb
Leyline of the Void
Plunge Into Darkness
Syphon Mind
Forsake The Worldly
So we have the queen’s territory well-defended against creatures so The Monarch is fairly safe. Now how do we stop combo? Aura of Silence makes the key parts of most combos cost more and then destroys an artifact or enchantment. Forsake the Worldly and Dispeller’s Capsule deal with artifacts and enchantments as well and Nihil Spellbomb plus Leyline of the Void deal with Graveyard shenanigans. Plunge into Darkness is surprise life gain and a way to dig for disruption or kill-now cards. Platinum Angel is a temporary answer to everything.
Similarly, how does the deck resist another control deck that makes it very hard to keep a creature on the board? There’s relief in Parallax Wave used on your own creatures, Eerie Interlude, and Boros Charm used to make your creatures indestructible. But you may well wind up actually winning by non-creature means. Indeed, since you can’t counter their card draw sorceries and instants and you have no discard to remove the large hand they build up, you may want to try and target the other control players since you are least able to hamper their strategy and are better off with them out of the game.
The recovery section that follows means we can prioritize casting the same silver bullets more than once if needed.
Recovery
-
Yawgmoth’s Agenda
Phyrexian Arena
Outpost Siege
Trading Post
Magus of the Will
Land Tax
So what do you do if it’s mid to late game and if you just had all your permanents except land sent to the graveyard one way or another? How do you start to rebuild? Get back the useful cards that you lost and start effectively drawing more cards per turn than opponents. These cards will do this for you. Land Tax gets a special nod for being oh so on-flavor and keeping the deck dropping land almost every turn unless you’re ahead on land already.
Offense
-
Helm of Obedience
Leyline of the Void
The Leyline of the Void that protected against graveyard combo and value strategies now enables a nine mana combo that exiles a target player’s library. And can do it again on your next turn. This works because the Helm says it mills target opponent until they mill a creature card or X cards are put into that graveyard this way, whichever comes first. But with Leyline of the Void in play cards that would go to the grave are exiled instead, so neither “comes first” condition ever happens. With one activation the Helm just keeps milling cards from the opponent’s library to the exile zone until there’s no library left. Because it was never able to put X cards or a creature in the graveyard. By the way, when you have Helm and Void out together, X should always be 1. And that plus the 4 casting cost of the two halves of the combo is why this deck can eliminate almost any opponent on their draw step starting with nothing on on the board once it gets to 9 mana. If it has those two cards and can get them on the table at the same time. Trading Post can get back the Helm if it’s destroyed and Magus of the Will can get both Helm and Leyline back. If you want to emphasize this combo a cheap tutor for 4cc things is Dimir House Guard. Who also incidentally also finds Crackdown Construct and Flesh-Eater Imp. The first tutor in the deck should probably be one that, like the more common black tutors, can get any card.
Crackdown Construct
Basalt Monolith
Lightning Greaves
Outrider en-Kor
Spirit en-Kor
Loxodon Warhammer
The second plan is an arbitrarily large Crackdown Construct pumped up by unlimited untaps of Basalt Monolith (which is not a mana ability), moving Lightning Greaves around, or redirecting a large number of future damage points on en-Kor (note that there doesn’t have to be an immediate source of damage threatening the en-Kor to use the ability).
Hopefully your point removal or one-sided mass removal including Parallax Wave and Crackling Doom can make an opening for the Construct. Note that the Lightning Greaves also gives the Construct the ability to attack the turn you play him if you equip the Greaves to him last. The reason this combo isn’t terrible even though it’s broken by creature removal and blockers is that it has exactly one “combo” card, the Construct. The other cards are all OK to excellent defense or acceleration, depending on circumstances. Note that if you can get a Loxodon Warhammer on a huge Construct and complete an attack the trample will usually make blockers irrelevant and you will now have an arbitrarily high life total.
Speaking of having an arbitrarily high life total, it's also possible to get that and remove most worries about enemy attacks by targeting your Task Force with a Condemn or Consuming Vapors after giving it arbitrarily large toughness with an en-kor or Lightning Greaves. Condemn can also be used on your [card]Crackdown Consrtuct[card] if it's about to be removed while very large.
Godo, Bandit Warlord
Flesh-Eater Imp
Silverblade Paladin
Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
Boros Charm
Hedron Matrix
Loxodon Warhammer
Plan C is an equipped and double-striking Godo, Bandit Warlord or Flesh-Eater Imp either of which can knock out even a healthy opponent in one swing (or two in Godo’s case since he attacks twice in a turn).
Don’t forget that Queen Marchesa will give you a token at the start of your turn if you lose the Monarch. And that Trading Post makes a token per turn or can sac the creature Silverblade Paladin is paired with so it can now soulbond with the Imp or Godo you’re about to cast. Those token creatures can help deal 10 point hits with Flesh-eater Imp for surprise kills.
It’s probably worth it to squeeze the colorless-producing Rogue’s Passage into the deck just to help get all the very important creatures through.
Cut // Ribbons
Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
Finally there’s Ribbons and attacking with the unblockable Teysa (maybe equipped, hopefully with Lightning Greaves to help her stick around) for the last few points of damage needed to win. Not pretty, but it might work.
Conclusion
So that’s it. Protect your territory against enemies who would try to invade it. Be ready to keep mana open to use tricks to stop attempts to break up your defenses through removal. Plan to one-sided wrath or just wrath to stop a known hostile army stronger than your army can deal with. The long game favors you as long as you make sure you get rid of the combo and control enemies first and you pay close attention to how you and others can slow down the combo player.
Use your recovery tools and the card draw from the Monarch to keep the cards coming and return or recast key cards from the grave. Try and assemble your key combos with as much subtlety as you can manage to avoid sorcery speed removal. Then when you get the opening, make your move, play carefully, avoid mistakes, and take the crown.
4 Brave the Elements
4 Launch the Fleet
4 Dynacharge
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Boros Elite
4 Favored Hoplite
4 Dryad Militant
4 Mutavault
4 Mana Confluence
7 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Wear/Tear
The SB leans towards creatures and artifacts because of Fabricate and Fauna Shaman. Engineered Explosives is there to try and be more interactive vs aggro and splinter twin decks. There could be better choices like Chalice of the Void, Phyrexian Revoker, or Pithing Needle or simply three more Spellskites. I could have no SB cards against decks this deck is weak against. Let me know if you think that's so.
EDIT: After reading the primer I upped the main deck spellskite's to 4 (taking out some 1 ofs) to try and help the Twin matchup some more. I think it's interesting that it not only steals Twin's/Bogle's creature auras and Affinity's +1 counters it can redirect artifact removal directed at a Belcher towards itself. It could even protect elves from bolts to support ramping better through removal. Also, I still think explosives at 1 for aggro/delver and 2 for affinity and 3 for twin has some use. Same numbers against same decks would be good with Chalice of the Void.
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
1 Plains
Creatures
4 Chancellor of the Tangle
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Fauna Shaman
1 Viridian Zealot
4 Sylvan Ranger
4 Wood Elves
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Spellskite
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 AEther Vial
4 Safewright Quest
3 Path to Exile
4 Goblin Charbelcher
3 Fabricate
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Civic Wayfinder
3 Blood Moon
1 Defense Grid
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Kodama's Reach
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
I think it's unlike pacifism because it wont stop a single creature or a creature that's worth more in combat than all the other creatures that player controls.
Note the controller can block with the skunked creature and attack with all their others, or vice-versa.
In low-removal high-creature limited-type environments it would be more like Pacifism though.
Obviously it depends on the durability of the creature with the ability.
I can see this being used to break up a defending or attacking group of creatures, limiting their collective combat potential without actually killing them. Note combo potential with lure effects.
Putting this ability on a regenerating or persist creature could be fairly strong against aggro. But the ability would be useless against evasive big fast creatures or control or exalted strategies.
Variation: creatures with skunk counters could attack or block only with other creatures with skunk counters. This weakens the ability but makes it less scary on a durable creature.
I don't see the mechanic as helping aggro decks unless they play Bad Moon or the tokens are zombies and get bonuses based on creature type.
The ability probably helps control decks by providing a bunch of zero mana early blockers that you don't have to pay the upkeep on if they'll die in combat anyway. And if you land a big Drain Life or Corrupt maybe you'll pay two life per creature for a final attack.
Variations: This defensive aspect could be enhanced if the token creatures had Wither. Infect would be stronger and make paying the upkeep and going for the poison win a possibility. Limiting the ability to make tokens to the combat phase would weaken it, especially for aggro which could not then use it on the end of the opponent's turn for pseudo-haste.
There's probably also combo potential here too with things that sac creatures for damage or size bonuses at no mana cost (activated abilities, Devour). Or which cost the tap of creatures.
An opponent casts some mass removal you can't counter and you have out both Butcher and some critter with an ETB trigger, I'll use Archaeomancer as an example.
In response to mass removal, flicker both your creatures. The following stuff happens.
Opponent's creature(s) exiled by and eligible to be returned because of Butcher's leaving play come back.
Controller of Butcher picks new target creature to exile (choose Archaeomancer, doesn't resolve yet)
Archaeomancer trigger has trigger go off for returning from flicker.
Butcher exiles Archaeomancer.
Butcher and opposing creature formerly exiled by him go to graveyard from mass removal.
Archaeomancer returns to play, triggering ETB effect a second time.
---
Ghostly Flicker could be also be used and re-used to protect Archaeomancer/Chronomancer/Scrivener from targeted removal until you run out of mana or (more likely) someone responds to the Flicker with removal since it fizzles targeting spells.
You should have both FB and IC/Arc return to play and be able stack the getting back the Ghostly Flicker from the grave before the Butcher's targeted exile effect resolves. So you should be able to repeat this for as much mana as you can afford, ending up with either (and this part seems unclear)
1) all exiled creatures under Butcher ready to come back next time he leaves play
or
2) the last targeted exiled creature under Butcher ready to come back and all the other targeted ones exiled permanently.
Both of which are pretty good.
It has disruption and removal and has combos for
infinite direct damage,
infinite poision via flying creature,
infinite card mill of opponents,
infinitely large creatures,
destruction of all opponents' permanents,
and infinite life.
Almost all of which I pulled off at one time or another over the course of the season. It was a lot of fun to play.
These days I'd probably remove Heartmender and put a low-cc sacrificing vampire in place of fallen angel. I also used some less efficient search cards because of salary cap reasons in my league and those should be upgraded.
1 aerie ouphies
1 altar of dementia
1 bayou
1 beseech the queen
1 birds of paradise
1 blasting station
1 bloodstained mire
1 bloodthrone vampire
1 brainspoil
1 carrion feeder
1 chainer's edict
1 chord of calling
1 coalition relic
1 coffin queen
1 cultivate
1 diabolic edict
1 diabolic intent
1 dimir house guard
1 distress
1 duress
1 elvish harbinger
1 fallen angel
1 fallen ideal
1 fauna shaman
1 flesh-eater imp
5 forest
1 goblin bombardment
1 grazing kelpie
1 green suns's zenith
1 heartmender
1 hymn to tourach
1 innocent blood
1 kodama's reach
1 juniper order ranger
1 kitchen finks
1 lightning greaves
1 llanowar wastes
1 marsh flats
1 melira, sylvok outcast
1 mesmeric fiend
1 mind shatter
1 misty rainforest
1 murderous redcap
1 nantuko husk
1 nature's lore
1 overgrown tomb
1 pattern of rebirth
1 perish the thought
1 pernicious deed
1 phyrexian ghoul
1 puppeteer clique
1 putrefy
1 rendclaw trow
1 sadistic hypnotist
1 safehold elite
1 savannah
1 shizo death's storehouse
1 shred memory
5 snow-covered forest
5 snow-covered swamp
1 stupor
1 sudden death
1 summoner's pact
1 survival of the fittest
6 swamp
1 sylvan library
1 sylvan safekeeper
1 sylvan tutor
1 taiga
1 tainted pact
1 twilight mire
1 vampire aristocrat
1 verdant catacombs
1 vine trellis
1 viridian zealot
1 viscera seer
1 wall of roots
1 windswept heath
1 wingrattle scarecrow
1 wirewood herald
1 wooded foothills
1 worldly tutor
I originally had Skeletal Changeling here, but Moonglove is just a better card and has a bonus combo with Viridian Longbow.
Longbow would work well with Pili-Pala too as you accumulated a lot of mana, producing one direct damage per mana you have per turn, and not be useless by itself. Longbow also goes nicely with Freed From the Real.
No guarantees about opponents not being just as mad about scarecrow recursion though.
"Hail to the king, baby"
Army of Darkness