> Introduction

This is my pet deck. I love it. I went a little crazy in lockdown and started foiling it out. It's everything I like to do in Magic. I attack. I sacrifice my things for value. I attack again. Sometimes, I even kill my opponents.

> Commander Choice

I've talked at length about how Mardu lacks a truly great aristocrats commander, and how I think EDH is a lot more fun when you play what you like rather than what is "correct". Those two things combined lead me to land upon Queen Marchesa (long may she reign) when I decided to build Mardu Aristocrats.

Queen Marchesa (long may she reign) sits atop my Aristocrats deck for one reason and one reason only. She introduces the Monarch. The Monarch is excellent. It is an incredibly fun mechanic that makes multiplayer games an absolute blast.

Queen Marchesa (long may she reign) is by no means a bad choice. She offers two very powerful elements of a good aristocrats deck (card draw and sacrifice fodder), albeit a little inconsistently. Silvar, Devourer of the Free and Trynn, Champion of Freedom are great, but for my taste, they are a little too expensive and they force you to be a little too narrow. For example, this deck runs a humans sub-theme, but with Silver and Trynn at the helm, running things like Grave Titan doesn't make a lot of sense, and I love me a Grave Titan.

One of my favourite things about running Queen Marchesa (long may she reign) is how much my opponents over value her. Most EDH decks care about their commanders. It's only natural. For me, in this deck, Queen Marchesa (long may she reign) is there do introduce the monarch and then die. That's it. The amount of removal that gets wasted on her always makes me happy.

> Gameplan

This deck is just a straight up, no frills Aristocrats deck.

The game plan is simple.

1. Play creatures
2. Play aristcrats.
3. Play payoffs.
4. Attack.
5. ???
6. Profit

> Early Game

This deck runs fairly low to the ground. Our early game usually just consists of dropping some creatures and getting in for early damage. When we can, we like to get Queen Marchesa (long may she reign) out on turn 3 to introduce the monarch as quickly as possible. Being the monarch accounts for a significant amount of our draw power in the early game, so the sooner we can make that happen, the better.

> Mid Game

Our mid game consists of biding our time and messing with our opponents. This is usually where we will start firing off our removal as our opponents start to lay larger threats. We want to keep them somewhat oppressed and stop them gaining too much of a foothold in the game, while not wiping them out so much that we draw their hate. Lay low, let the table do its thing, but don't let anyone get too far ahead.

Meanwhile, we might look to drop a few of our hard to deal with permanents here. Yahenni and Falkenrath Aristocrat are hard to kill, attack well and keep pressure on players, so playing these here is usually the sweet spot. We will also be looking to build our board presence. Start getting fodder down in larger numbers. That kind of thing.

> Late Game

The late game is where we drop our pay offs. The ideal situation is that we are in the position to drop our pay off and attack, knowing that or opponents are in trouble whether they block or not.

> Card Discussion

> Everybody wants to be a 'crat

The Aristocrats are the most important cards in our deck. They do the two things that allow us to win. They punch people really hard in the face, then they sacrifice our creatures to feed in to our payoff cards. There is a decent selection of cards available that can sacrifice creatures for value, but we choose ours with care. In all but one instance, they can all sacrifice creatures for free and at instant speed. As we know, this is important.

• Falkenrath Aristocrat: One of the namesakes of the archetype, and for good reason. This card is ridiculous. Evasive, hard to kill, hastey, hits very hard out of the gates and only gets stronger.
• Cartel Aristocrat: The other namesake of the deck. Cartel isn't as good in commander, but still takes a slot for two reasons. The first is that it deserves it for its role in pioneering the archetype. The second is that it is REAL good at getting the Monarch back should we lose it. It doesn't grow like our others, but that doesn't mean it's not a roleplayer.
• Yahenni, Undying Partisan: Yahenni is gross. Yahenni was the commander of my mono black aristocrats deck for a long time, but honestly, it gets pretty oppressive pretty quickly when you build around it, so I converted to Mardu because the monarch is fun. Yahenni is still an absolute powerhouse here though. What it lacks in Falkenrath's evasion, it makes up for in its ability to get SWOLE.
• Butcher of the Horde: Butcher is a great utility creature. It has decent stats for its mana cost and inherently flies. The keywords it can pick up by sacrificing a creature are all relevant in different types/stages of games. Haste allows you to keep up pressure. Vigilance is good if your opponents have other fliers that need dealing with. Lifelink can save you from death. Great crat.
• Fallen Angel: This is a little bit of a pet card, but its here because it can put in work. I can say, without exaggeration, that Fallen Angel has broken more stalemates for me than any other card in my time playing MTG. It is naturally evasive, but the fact that it gets +2 power for each creature it sacrifices rather than a meagre +1 means it kills our opponents twice as fast. It can get incredibly large, very, very quickly.
• Silvar, Devourer of the Free: Not quite on the same level as Yahenni or Falkenrath, but with our human sub theme, its good enough to make the list. Evasive, protects itself, grows itself, powerful. The Partner with mechanic is only a plus here too. We can find it off Trynn and vice versa.
• Greven, Predator Captain: Greven might seem a slightly odd choice at first as it breaks my golden rule about "for free and at instant speed", but you need only play a few games with him to discover how powerful and fun he can be. This guy does DAMAGE. He can hit incredibly hard. He draws you cards (often a LOT of cards) for doing what you want to do anyway. His art is incredible. You can even get up to shenanigans by targeting yourself with your blood artist/falkenrath noble triggers. You end up net even on life, but Greven sees that you lost some so hits even harder. Mardu colours tend to use life as a resource fairly well anyway with things like card draw and pain lands / talismans, but negate a lot of that with aristocrat payoffs. All those little life loss instances really start to add up with Greven. He's a sleeper hit in this deck.

> In case we ever want to win a game

These are the payoffs. This section warrants less discussion. It's the classic package of drain and gain from creatures dying. Pay attention to what causes each item to trigger and you're golden. The only slightly out of place cards is:

• Sengir, the Dark Baron: Sengir is here for two reasons. First, he's cool as hell. Second, my meta has a fair few beefy dragons running around so I needed some substantial air support. The Baron provides this while playing very well into our strategy. It is obnoxious how large he can get, and how quickly he can do it.

> Ours but to do and die

This is our sacrifice fodder. Again, this is fairly standard stuff. We have a human sub theme running through. It's not too deep, but it is there. Things like Falkenrath Aristocrat, Silvar and Xathrid Necromancer all care enough about humans and have a decent enough payoff that it was worth going with.

• Bloodsoaked Champion: built in recursion, relevant creature type, can be dropped early for early aggression. No brainer of an include.
• Blot out the Sky: I'm currently trialing this card out. It's flexible, has a decent return for the mana cost, creates flying tokens which can be great both aggressively and defensively. Not sure how often I'll be paying more than 6 as Mardu uses artifacts for ramp, but it might come up.
• Captivating Crew: I LOVE this card. It provides an incredibly powerful mana sink in the late game. Steal one or two of your opponents creatures, attack with them, then sac them before they go back. Beautiful. Could only be better if the crew was a Human. What? It is? AMAZING.
• Court of Grace: Another card I'm trying out. This deck tends to have a decent success rate at retaining the monarchy, so getting a "free" 4/4 flier each turn is great, especially in my meta where flying is relevant. Worst case scenario is more fodder to stick a skullclamp on. Not bad either way, just a shame it makes soldiers instead of humans.
• Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder: Few things in MTG can churn out fodder like my buddy Endrek. Aristocrats decks tend to play a lot of creatures just for sacrificing, but they also use creatures for utility where possible too. Ravenous Chupacabra is a kill spell that can wear a skull clamp and die to make Yahenni indestructible while triggering a Blood Artist. The high density of creature spells these decks run makes Endrek Sahr formidable. The sweet spot is the keep hovering below seven thrulls by sacrificing some before more come along.
• Grave Titan: Isn't a human and doesn't make humans. Doesn't matter though. Grave Titan is a kill on sight. It make SO MANY BODIES if left unchecked. Particularly spicy when coupled with Chainer, Nightmare adept to give it haste.
• Juri, Master of the Revue: Another card I'm trying out, but so far it seems fun. It can build up a lot of value over the course of the game. It's kind of scary to kill, but if you're opponents to kill it, it's not a major issue. I particularly like it because of its low CMC. Cheap to play and recur, but drawing it in the late game turns it into a nuclear bomb. You drop this, sac your board, make it huge, then sac it and aim a huge amount of damage at whatever or whoever needs finishing off. And, it's a human. Not bad for a crappy little uncommon.
• Orzhov Enforcer: Is a human, blocks well, leaves behind a flier. Plus I opened a foil in a pack so I just kind of like it.
• Sengir Autocrat: Is a human, brings a lot of bodies for its CMC.
• Trynn, Champion of Freedom: Part of the Silvar/Trynn package. Is a human and makes humans for doing what we like to do anyway. Each half of this package might be good enough to include on their own, but when you get to have them both, it makes it much more worthwhile.
• Xathrid Necromancer: One of the main reasons for our Human subtheme. This card makes so many bodies. When you're in the realm of Bloodsoaked Champion loops, you have fodder for days.

> Baby, come back

These are our recursion pieces. I often fall in to the trap of having too much recursion. Recursion is good, especially in singleton formats. These sorts of decks don't need too much. Just enough to keep the wheels turning.

• Chainer, Nightmare Adept: Repeatable recursion that makes attacking and keeping up pressure a lot easier. Also a Human. Slam Dunk.
• Doomed Necromancer: A human that can kill itself to bring something else back. It comes back to what I was saying earlier. These sorts of decks like this kind of utility to be on a creature so we can get a load of triggers from it when it dies. Doomed Necromancer is a great example of this.
• Unburial Rites: It's a reanimation spell that I can cast twice. Or if I don't need it yet, I can pitch it safely knowing I can use it again later. It's Unburial Rites. C'mon. Everyone knows the card is good.
• Victimize: Two for the price of one on creatures is always good, but when paying the price triggers your payoffs and draws you cards, even better.

> Please sir, can I have some more (cards)

Drawing cards is good. You should want your deck to draw lots of cards.

We mix it up between draw engines and little bursts of draw to restock our hands. We also use the Monarch, but these help us keep going.

• Ancient Craving: Sometimes you just need to turn one card into three.
• Grim Haruspex: Note: only triggers from non-tokens. That's fine though, we have enough recursion to take full advantage.
• Humble Defector: This is a fun card. Can be used politically if required, but you can also activate it, then sacrifice it before its ability resolves so only you get the cards. Decent rate for 2 mana, plus it's a human.
• Painful Truths: Again, sometimes you just need to turn one card into three, and we almost always get three off this.
• Read the Bones: Scry two, draw two, lose two. What's not to like.
• Skullclamp: Yup.
• Smothering Abomination: Note: will also trigger off tokens. Note also: Decent body and flying. Note also, again: lets you sacrifice stuff too. Superb card here.
• Species Specialist: I played this card at least a dozen times before I realised the effect was symmetrical. This card is insane. It triggers off tokens, but also for any player. I usually pick humans, but one time my buddy was playing his Purphoros Goblins deck so I picked Goblins and drew a million cards. This card is nuts. The only thing I don't like about is that I didn't buy more copies while it was cheaper.
• Village Rites: Low key one of my favourite cards of the last few years. Turns our making Altar's reap cost 1 less does a lot for making it powerful.

> You know it must be, the killing time

This is a pretty standard removal package. We have some board wipes, we have some targeted removal, we have some utility creatures that kill stuff and can then die later. All good stuff. The only card that requires discussion is:

• Fiend Hunter: Fiend hunter is excellent because Fiend Hunter is old. Back in the day, creatures like this had this sort of templating where each part of what it does is a separate line of text. Compare this to Fairgrounds Warden and you'll see what I mean. This allows for hijinx. There is a play patter where you can play a Fiend Hunter, select your target and its ETB ability will go on the stack. Before this resolves, you can sacrifice Fiend Hunter to one of your many sacrifice outlets. This will put its LTB trigger on the stack on top of its ETB ability. The LTB ability resolves first, but nothing has left so nothing comes back. Then the ETB ability resolves, exiling the creature. With no Fiend Hunter around to die, it stays exiled...FOREVER!!!! It's a neat little interaction that a few cards enable (Faceless Butcher is another option, but in black), but this one is a human so is especially nice here.

> Ramp and Lands

I tend to play reasonably budget decks. This deck has decent lands and mana rocks that aren't too expensive.

• Signets - tick!
• Talisman - you bet!
• Sol Ring - you darn tootin'!
• Pain lands - Ouch!
• Check Lands - Check!
• Command Tower - Of course!
• Random, slightly more expensive things I happen to own anyway that are good in three colour decks like a shockland and a mana confluence - Heck yea!
• Basic Lands, that I bought specifically, in foil, because they're some of my favourite basic arts - YEAH!

> Other stuff

These are just cards that provide is with something outside of our usual strategies.

• Dictate of Erebos: These style effects make it incredibly difficult for your opponents to maintain a board presence. They also work wonders with Blood Artist and Yahenni etc. Anything that also cares about your opponents creatures dying. I used to run Grave Pact too, but the triple black was sometimes problematic.
• Dimir House Guard: A sac outlet that can be transmuted away to become something else if that is what you need. Which reminds me, I need to put Wrath of God back in this deck...
• General's Enforcer: A Human that protects my other Humans, hates on graveyards and makes more Humans.
• Judith, the Scourge Diva: Makes my attacks better, and machine guns people in the late game. You go girl!
• Priest of Forgotten Gods: I'm sure I don't need to explain why this is good. Just read the card. It does a lot.

> Notable Exclusions

You know what my favourite part about Aristocrats is? The Crats!

Sorry, just channeling my inner Morganator for a second there.

No, it's that each and every piece is interchangeable. You could make an aristocrats deck that has literally none of these cards in it, and it'd still likely be fine. It doesn't matter. Just make some dudes and kill them. Who cares which dudes or how you kill them. It doesn't matter, and it's wonderful!