Roses are Red, Corpses are Blue by EatemlikeDahmer

Format: Commander

Commander: Marchesa, the Black Rose

Bracket: 2

Deck overview

This is a Grixis aristocrats deck helmed by Marchesa, the Black Rose, built around her signature interaction: creatures with +1/+1 counters return to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step when they die. The deck leans heavily into sacrifice outlets, drain effects, and value creatures that accrue advantage every time they die. It wins primarily through attrition: Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Bastion of Remembrance, and Vindictive Vampire convert the constant churn of sacrificial fodder into table-wide life loss. Marchesa's dethrone ability hands out counters whenever she attacks, letting the engine turn itself on. Secondary payoffs include Syr Konrad, the Grim with heavy self-mill, Gray Merchant of Asphodel devotion swings, and Port Razer extra-combat beats with counter-keeping dethrone creatures. The deck is a midrange value grinder that aims to outlast opponents through recursive board presence and incremental drain.

Decklist (100 cards)

• 1 Act of Treason
• 1 Aether Channeler
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Bedevil
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Captivating Crew
• 1 Carrion Feeder
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Claim the Firstborn
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Dismal Backwater
• 1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 1 Fain, the Broker
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Fleshbag Marauder
• 1 Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1 Goblin Bombardment
• 1 Grave Pact
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Grim Haruspex
• 1 Impact Tremors
• 1 Imprisoned in the Moon
• 1 Iron Apprentice
• 6 Island
• 1 Judith, the Scourge Diva
• 1 Juri, Master of the Revue
• 1 Kari Zev's Expertise
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Living Death
• 1 Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire
• 1 Marchesa, the Black Rose
• 1 Mayhem Devil
• 1 Merciless Executioner
• 1 Midnight Reaper
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Most Decrepit Old Bird // Speak Secrets
• 8 Mountain
• 1 Negate
• 1 Nesting Grounds
• 1 Nine-Lives Familiar
• 1 Opal Palace
• 1 Ophiomancer
• 1 Outpost Siege
• 1 Path of Ancestry
• 1 Pawn of Ulamog
• 1 Pitiless Plunderer
• 1 Plaguecrafter
• 1 Plumb the Forbidden
• 1 Port Razer
• 1 Puppeteer Clique
• 1 Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1 Read the Bones
• 1 Reality Shift
• 1 Reassembling Skeleton
• 1 Sinkhole Surveyor
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Stitcher's Supplier
• 1 Stormcarved Coast
• 10 Swamp
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Terminate
• 1 Thundering Raiju
• 1 Unspeakable Symbol
• 1 Victimize
• 1 Village Rites
• 1 Viscera Seer
• 1 Voldaren Thrillseeker
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1 Woe Strider
• 1 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
• 1 Zealous Conscripts