Queen’s Gambit by vipercheekz

Format: Commander

Creator: vipercheekz

Commander: Queen Marchesa

Bracket: 3

DeckCheck Threat Index: 36

Deck overview

This deck is a classic Mardu Aikido control build commanded by Queen Marchesa. Rather than racing to establish proactive combos, it uses political incentives, defensive rattlesnakes, and forced combat to redirect table aggression. Marchesa introduces the monarch to fuel card advantage while generating 1/1 deathtouch Assassin tokens to deter incoming attacks. Pillowfort pieces like Ghostly Prison, Blind Obedience, and Solitary Confinement secure your life total, while cards like Kardur, Doomscourge and Disrupt Decorum compel opponents to butcher one another. When opponents attempt a decisive attack, reactive spells like Inkshield, Comeuppance, and Deflecting Palm—tutored and cast via Sunforger—punish their aggression and convert opposing damage into a lethal army of flying tokens. To close stagnant games, the deck features Duelist's Heritage for high-damage combat and an incidental two-card infinite combo in Dualcaster Mage and Twinflame.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Anguished Unmaking
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Archivist of Oghma
  • 1 Arid Mesa
  • 1 Authority of the Consuls
  • 1 Battlefield Forge
  • 1 Black Market Connections
  • 1 Blasphemous Act
  • 1 Blind Obedience
  • 1 Blood Crypt
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 1 Boros Charm
  • 1 Boros Signet
  • 1 Brash Taunter
  • 1 Breena, the Demagogue
  • 1 Caves of Koilos
  • 1 Clifftop Retreat
  • 1 Comeuppance
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Dauthi Voidwalker
  • 1 Dawn Charm
  • 1 Deadly Dispute
  • 1 Deflecting Palm
  • 1 Deflecting Swat
  • 1 Disrupt Decorum
  • 1 Dragonskull Summit
  • 1 Dualcaster Mage
  • 1 Duelist's Heritage
  • 1 Esper Sentinel
  • 1 Exotic Orchard
  • 1 Farewell
  • 1 Fellwar Stone
  • 1 Fighter Class
  • 1 Flawless Maneuver
  • 1 Ghostly Prison
  • 1 Godless Shrine
  • 1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
  • 1 Haunted Ridge
  • 1 Imperial Recruiter
  • 1 Inkshield
  • 1 Isolated Chapel
  • 1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
  • 1 Kardur, Doomscourge
  • 1 Loran of the Third Path
  • 1 Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff
  • 1 Luxury Suite
  • 1 Marsh Flats
  • 1 Mistveil Plains
  • 3 Mountain
  • 1 Night's Whisper
  • 1 No Mercy
  • 1 Ophiomancer
  • 1 Orzhov Signet
  • 1 Painful Truths
  • 1 Path to Exile
  • 1 Phyrexian Reclamation
  • 6 Plains
  • 1 Plateau
  • 1 Queen Marchesa
  • 1 Rakdos Charm
  • 1 Rakdos Signet
  • 1 Read the Bones
  • 1 Reprieve
  • 1 Righteous Aura
  • 1 Sacred Foundry
  • 1 Savai Triome
  • 1 Sevinne's Reclamation
  • 1 Shattered Sanctum
  • 1 Skullclamp
  • 1 Smothering Tithe
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Solitary Confinement
  • 1 Spectator Seating
  • 1 Stoneforge Mystic
  • 1 Stroke of Midnight
  • 1 Sulfurous Springs
  • 1 Sundown Pass
  • 1 Sunforger
  • 3 Swamp
  • 1 Swords to Plowshares
  • 1 Talisman of Conviction
  • 1 Talisman of Hierarchy
  • 1 Talisman of Indulgence
  • 1 Tibalt's Trickery
  • 1 Tocasia's Welcome
  • 1 Toxic Deluge
  • 1 Trouble in Pairs
  • 1 Twinflame
  • 1 Vault of Champions
  • 1 War Room
  • 1 Wear // Tear