Queen Marchesa Aikido Control - Comments

[Comment Bot]

Queen Marchesa Aikido Control

[Twin Stags]

Fantastic deck, huge influence on my own iteration

Running Stuffy Doll, Brash Taunter, & tons of Tutors, what are your opinions on Pariah?

[ScenicStump]

Hi, thanks!!!

I think Pariah is a super fun card - if you agree, run it! It's got some cool potential for fun aikido plays (sure, you can attack me, but you'll kill your own creature!) and combos nicely with Doll and Taunter like you mentioned. It can even be grabbed with Academy Rector in a pinch!

The only reason that I'm not running it, honestly, is how tight my deck is for slots. If I could add it as a 101st card, I would, along with lots of other fun cards. Ultimately I've only got 99 cards that I can run, and it didn't make the cut :/
If you think it's more fun or better than anything in your deck, tho, it's got big support for me. Definitely give it a try.

I like where your head's at - have you considered Guilty Conscience as an infinite-damage wincon with those two creatures? I don't run it because my playgroup would get sick of it, but if yours is cool with that sort of thing, it's so good!

[Twin Stags]

I forgot Pariah enchants any creature. It isn't a dead draw if you don't have Doll, Taunter, or a Tutor. Great for indestructible or problemed targets.

I ran Guilty Conscience in an old Stuffy Doll deck. The wincon is neat... the first time. I agree, my playgroup would get sick of it. It's too many pieces of a delicate combo, anyway.

More stuff:

1. Hanweir Battlements - You don't run Master of Cruelties. Is their a reason you need haste?
2. Wishclaw Talisman - What politics do you use to decide who gets it?
3. Scroll Rack - How helpful is this on average?
4. Curse of Opulence - Very popular in Marchesa decks. Great target for the problem player. Thoughts?
5.  Underworld Breach - Thoughts?
6. Hide // Seak - Great for clearing combo's, problem artifacts/enchantments. Too narrow?
7. Serra Ascendant?
8. Weathered Wayfarer - Super important for grabbing utility lands/mana fix.
9. Insurrection - Does this ever land?

[ScenicStump]

Love talking about this stuff!

1. If we're being honest, this is a holdover from when I was still running Master of Cruelties. I should probably drop it in favor of a better utility land. If you look at the Revisions, you'll see that this deck has undergone drastic and constant changes over the last year lol!
2. Normally I'll give it to whoever's deck I know the most about and that I'm not afraid of. I play in a pretty consistent meta (read: with friends, not strangers) and will give it to somebody who doesn't typically run combos. Alternatively, giving it to somebody with the caveat that they have to use whatever they tutor against enemies instead of me is also fun. And, of course, there's always Opposition Agent, in which case, give it to whomever you think has the best deck
3. It just feels so good, especially running 10 fetch lands and Land Tax. This deck is super-dependent on having answers to stay alive and turn things against our opponents, so card selection is very important. Being able to throw dead cards on top of the deck and then crack a fetch to shuffle them in is amazing. Getting a virtual Ancestral Recall every turn with Land Tax is also amazing. Additionally, it lets us keep key cards when we want to Wheel of Fortune.
4. Another case of "I only have 99 cards " I ran it for a long time, and it put in lots of work. Ultimately was cut to make room for more efficient mana rocks to aid in a sped-up meta.
5. This is I was running until about a week ago - I absolutely love it. The Underworld Breach + Wheel of Fortune + Smothering Tithe combo was probably my most consistent wincon. It's lots of fun, flexible, and you want to be running all of the pieces anyway. However, like all good combos, my play group got sick of it after probably my 4th time winning with it. I've since taken it out for power level reasons, which has let my in-game play focus less on "combo hunting" and more on analyzing the baord state and thinking about interesting aikido opportunities.
6. Also ran this until about a week ago. Removed because it was the most narrow interaction I had, and I really wanted to try out Tibalt's Trickery, so I had to make room.
7. Also super powerful and used to run it. Cut it to make room for cards I consider more "fun" and have more interactions with the rest of the deck. It's a dead draw late game, and swingy and "unfun" early game.
8. Ran it for a long time as well, but it was eventually cut once I also cut the Dark Depths combo I used to run. It made room for more flexible tutors that we have access to in black.
9. Yes! But it's super meta dependent. I've won quite a few games where everybody taps out to fill their board and then I just take it all. Definitely depends on how creature-heavy / fast your meta is.

[Twin Stags]

Fer sure, it's always nice to find someone will to go deeper into the decisions.
I just noticed you post reasoning in your deck changes. Super helpful, thanks!
I really enjoy your attitude to deck-building and weeding out boring/over-used interactions.

3. I didn't realize how quickly that card could become stagnant without a good shuffler. I don't run Wheel of Fortune or fetches, so I might have to skip this one.

10. The 3 new courts?
11. Path to Exile?
12. Phyrexian Arena is super hated on for being too slow. Thoughts?
13. Goad cards like Disrupt Decorum or Kardur, Doom Sourge?

[ScenicStump]

10. I like the courts in general, but not necessarily in this deck. We usually want to be making small deals to trade the monarch around, ideally getting both the card draw and the 1/1 Assassin every single round. The assassins build a nice little rattlesnake wall to protect of from real threats, and the draw helps us find our answers. Throwing down a court means that people don't want you to have the monarch, making it harder to get your 1/1s in for a monarch trade.
11. Path is a great card. Only cut for space reasons - I felt that being able to hit more types of permanents was better for me in this case.
12. I probably agree that it's not super good. I slotted this in recently after tuning down the power level, in the place of Necropotence. Necropotence is basically objectively better, but it also leads to certain gameplay decisions I was trying to avoid - namely dumping huge amounts of life to set up an "I win or I die" scenario. Additionally, it's pretty well known for being in powerful decks, and might draw aggro. Phyrexian Arena avoids these issues and pads out your hand. Usually this deck wants to drag out the game to a point where we can win, so we benefit from the draw-over time, meaning this was a nice "in-the-middle" card for my build.
13. Disrupt Decorum is amazing - I'd say run it. It's only not in my deck because the ony copy I own right now is in my Conspiracy Cube I've never seen Kardur, but it seems great!

[Twin Stags]

Big change recently!

I wanted to bring down the gates and say you're wrong about Delaying Shield and the Solemnity package... but I think it's the right direction.
Setting up all of these combo pieces to keep Monarchy is pretty whatever when the commander is setup to steal it back each turn. Ghostly Prison cards work standalone.

Agitator Ant & Orzhov Advokist - We get the counters as well, the board gets larger, nobody is attacking us, works with Repercussion

Noticing more Tibalt's Trickery in Marchesa decks. What situations would you even use it for?

Really wanna hear your 2-cents on Sword of Animist. I feel like it is so slow!

[ScenicStump]

Yeah, I wanted to try smoothing out the deck a little bit, but I'm not sure if the changes will stick or not. I really love the solemnity package - I think all of the interactions are interesting and it's cool to be able to hold onto the monarch. Like you said, though, they kind of need each other to work to their full potential. I would find myself in the game with just one piece and regretting the dead card in hand. The biggest offender was Phyrexian Unlife, which really does nothing until you're close to death.

My problem with Agitator Ant and Orzhov Advokist is that they require "participation from the class," so to speak. Getting counters on our stuff is nice, but not worth the mana or the slots. In my meta, my opponents have become weary of this deck and will usually try to take the opportunity to whittle me down with attackers if at all possible - so nobody would ever take the triggers on Ant and Advokist. They're fun political cards, but your opponents have the choice to basically hose them just by saying "nah."

I love Tibalt's Trickery a lot! Having a blanket "counter target spell" is so good - especially when people don't expect it because we don't have blue! 1 generic, 1 red is super reasonable to hold up. I've used it to protect removal on my wound reflection, stop a counter targeting our acidic soil or rakdos charm, and I've also used it to stop somebody else from dropping a haymaker or a final piece to an engine. Our deck is generally pretty weak to countermagic, so this is a great answer. It's just very flexible to be able to answer anything on the stack, and 90% of the time the thing they get off it isn't relevant.

I just put in Sword of the Animist based on another primer I was looking at. Having land ramp is really strong, especially since we don't normally get it in Mardu. I've seen it pop off in games I've watched before, so I know there's potentially. I haven't actually drawn it in a game yet, though, so we'll see if it ends up sticking.

I'm happy having more lands and consistent early ramp, but I do feel like the deck might have lost something with the cards I took out in the most recent update. We'll see how I feel over the next few games and if I wanna slot anything back in.

[ekkemtg]

Wow. This  was a nice read and Im really interested in this deck.
I just started started with EDH and luckly my old cube as some of the higher end cards listed here.

Volrath's Stronghold & Yawgmoth's Will seems really nice but bit too pricey for my to "try".
I may have missed it but you dont seem to run any other "retrieve from GY" cards. Is this something the deck can live without and just replace with other "Ramp/Card Value".
Seems kinda worth having a GY fetch in a format with only singles?

[ScenicStump]

Hi, thank you so much! This really is my favorite deck of all time. Those cards are just on there because they provide good value, but you should be totally okay to play the deck without them. Volrath's Stronghold barely gets any use and is basically in there because it's basically free insurance, and Yawgmoth's will is probably better replaced by Underworld Breach (which I removed for power-level reasons) anyway. There's an active discord for decks like this that you might want to check out! We're super friendly and post a lot of variations on this archetype. https://discord.gg/nQPbzbgs . Let me know if you have any other questions, and good luck!