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xlostquotes · 10 years

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EDH: Marchesa Infect-Beatdown

So I'll kick off this blog with an EDH brew I just finished up. As soon as Conspiracy was spoiled, I was dying to get a deck together around this pretty Grixis lady here.

(Click the image for my decklist!)

Concept

The first thing I noticed when digging through my collection is that dethrone works really, really well with alternate win conditions. You can either play the game of juggling your life and your opponents so you can stay pile counters on your creatures, or you can use dethrone to push forward with some other kind of win con. I'm really not a fan of infinite combos, which are pretty easy to pull off with Marchesa. Mike + Trike is usually an auto include for decks like these, and that just feels dirty to me. I settled on infect because a) I don't have a single aggro deck at the moment and b) I don't have to worry about keeping the enemy's life total up too high while I'm pounding on them with dethroning infect dudes. I won't talk in depth about every card, but I'll give a detailed rundown.

Anyway, let's get to the deck breakdown.

Mana Base

So let's get the usual culprits out of the way. I've got Ravnica karoos, checklands, shocklands, scry lands and a command tower. They're pretty easy auto includes and I didn't spend too much time thinking about them. Now the next few were deliberate inclusions. City of Brass, Shivan Reef, Underground River and Sulfurous Springs are all excellent fixing and they let me tick my life total down when I need to get under my opponents. I've got Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge and Encroaching Wastes for targeted land destruction. Inkmoth fits into the whole infect theme, plus an evasive 1/1 flying infect guy is never a bad pick.

I don't have fetchlands because I don't feel like putting a down payment on a car.

Infect Creatures

This is really the heart of the deck. I wanted to stuff it chock full of the best Grixis infect guys I could find.

So that obviously means our best friend, One Shot the Robot, is in. Blightsteel Colossus is a horrifyingly scary threat that needs to be dealt with as soon as he hits the board. I don't have many ways to cheat him out, but if he sticks to the board, it's game over for at least one player.

As for the other creatures, Hand of the Praetors gives a good buff to all of my infect guys, Blighted Agent lets me sneak in a few extra poison counters, Viral Drake is proliferate on a stick, Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon is a good evasive powerhouse, and Phyrexian Crusader has some nice protection and the first strike/infect is an added bonus.

The rest of the infect crew I'm still not sure about, and they might end up getting cut. Ogre Menial has firebreathing, but the 0 power is really disconcerting. Septic Rats, Razor Swine and Reaper of Sheodreld are all just underwhelming in general, and I might end up cutting them for more utility stuff later.

As for things that fuel infect, Inexorable Tide, Tezzeret's Gambit, Fuel for the Cause, and Contagion Engine all let me proliferate my counters. Simple simple.

Utility Creatures

Exava is a star that really shines with Marchesa. She gives anyone with a 1+/1+ counter haste, which makes things like Undying exceptionally scary. That leads us to one of my favorite cards, Mikaeus the Unhallowed. Mikaeus is basically a back up for when Marchesa is off the board so I can continue to bring back my guys from the dead. In order to knock people out fast, Scourge of the Throne lets me smack face multiple times and he's another guy with Dethrone.

As for real utility dudes, I've got Glen Elendra Archmage as a repeatable 1 mana counterspell, so that should explain itself. Necroskitter lets me steal my opponents infected creatures, and using some handy stack manipulation, I can take control of them permanently with Marchesa. I can use Kulrath Knight to basically pacify any infected creatures, which lets me sneak in more damage. Finally, I've got things like Burnished Hart, Solemn Simalcrum, and Sage of Fables for general ramp/card advantage.

Spells for Advantage

There are a few obvious auto includes here, and I'd be extremely silly not to include them. Greed and Phyrexian Arena let me dig for cards in exchange for life, which works exceptionally well with Dethrone. Military Intelligence lets me get more cards through attacking, and I can't think of many situations it would be bad. Unspeakable Symbol has a steeper cost and the result isn't as useful, but more ways to control my life are always good. As for my tutor package, I've got Diabolic Revelation, Diabolic Tutor and Increasing Vengeance. One day I'll get my mitts on a Demonic Tutor but it's a little out of my budget at the moment.

I've always wanted to try out Grave Betrayal ever since I cracked it in RtR, and this is the kind of deck where it seems like it would shine. I'm all about playing with counters, and it lets me steal any creatures I manage to kill on my opponent's side. I'm a little iffy on In the Web of War, but giving all of my creatures haste and a temporary buff seems good on paper.

Removal

So I'd be a bit of a dummy if I left out EDH all stars like Cyclonic Rift, Capsize, Counterflux, Vandalblast Hinder and Spell Crumple. They let me get out of dangerous situations, and Hinder/Spell Crumple let me deal with obnoxious commanders by tucking them. Vandalblast is an artifact killing all star, and I try to stick it in every deck I can.

As for kill spells, I'm running Dreadbore, Mizzium Mortars, Red Sun's Zenith. I'm not sure if I want to make room for something like Hero's Downfall, just because I've got cards that do the same thing already.

Decree of Pain and Plague Wind are my big black board wipes. I'll get a Damnation in here eventually, but not while they're overpriced as hell.

Artifacts

This is going to be a pretty short section, because there's nothing super exciting here. I've got the standard mana rock package with Sol Ring, the guild signets, Darksteel Ingot and Obelisk of Grixis. Pretty standard stuff.

It gets a little more interesting when I get to the equipment, but there are still a lot of staples here. I've got Whispersilk Cloak, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, and Darksteel Plate. Evasion, Haste, Indestructibility, all of that fun stuff.

The only real standout in here is Grafted Exoskeleton. It lets my slap infect onto one of my other creatures. I'm looking forward to grafting it onto something like a Scourge of the Throne or a Carnival Hellsteed.

Walkers

The one, the only, Nicol Bolas. He lets me destroy anything and steal creatures. What's not to love?

So, that's that! Let me know what you think, or if you have any advice. I'd love to hear some from some other players.

#edh #magic the gathering #mtg #ubr #quotemakesdecks

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