Test build by Kioshi

Format: Commander

Creator: Kioshi

Commander: Marchesa, the Black Rose

Bracket: 4

DeckCheck Threat Index: 29

Deck overview

This deck is a resilient Grixis aristocrats strategy helmed by Marchesa, the Black Rose. It leverages Marchesa's dethrone ability and delayed end-step recursion to convert death triggers into repeatable, compounding card advantage. The deck aims to deploy cheap sacrifice outlets and enter combat with the player holding the highest life total, ensuring creatures receive +1/+1 counters and return repeatedly whenever sacrificed. Aristocrat staples such as Blood Artist, Marionette Apprentice, and Bastion of Remembrance drain the table, while Grave Pact systematically strips opposing boards. The deck supports this game plan with a high-caliber interaction suite including free counterspells like Fierce Guardianship, Force of Will, and Flare of Denial, allowing it to protect its engine without slowing down deployment. Because the list omits fast mana and universal tutors, its execution operates fairly on curve, assembling its core on turn 5, creating critical pressure on turn 6, and closing the table on turn 8.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Altar of Dementia
  • 1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Ashnod's Altar
  • 1 Baleful Strix
  • 1 Bastion of Remembrance
  • 1 Bitterblossom
  • 1 Blasphemous Act
  • 1 Blasphemous Edict
  • 1 Blood Artist
  • 1 Blood Crypt
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 1 Buried Alive
  • 1 Carrion Feeder
  • 1 Chaos Warp
  • 1 City of Brass
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Counterspell
  • 1 Cyclonic Rift
  • 1 Dack's Duplicate
  • 1 Dimir Signet
  • 1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
  • 1 Exsanguinate
  • 1 Feed the Swarm
  • 1 Fierce Guardianship
  • 1 Flare of Denial
  • 1 Flayer of the Hatebound
  • 1 Force of Will
  • 1 Glen Elendra Archmage
  • 1 Grave Pact
  • 1 Grave Titan
  • 1 Gravecrawler
  • 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
  • 1 Herald of Secret Streams
  • 1 Iron Apprentice
  • 10 Island
  • 1 Juri, Master of the Revue
  • 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
  • 1 Liliana, Heretical Healer // Liliana, Defiant Necromancer
  • 1 Mahadi, Emporium Master
  • 1 Mana Confluence
  • 1 Marchesa, the Black Rose
  • 1 Marionette Apprentice
  • 9 Mountain
  • 1 Olivia, Crimson Bride
  • 1 Otawara, Soaring City
  • 1 Phyrexian Altar
  • 1 Pitiless Plunderer
  • 1 Puppeteer Clique
  • 1 Rhystic Study
  • 1 Rogue's Passage
  • 1 Scourge of the Throne
  • 1 Skullclamp
  • 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Steam Vents
  • 7 Swamp
  • 1 Swan Song
  • 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
  • 1 Talisman of Creativity
  • 1 The Ozolith
  • 1 The Theorist, Jace Beleren
  • 1 Thran Vigil
  • 1 Torment of Hailfire
  • 1 Toxic Deluge
  • 1 Uncivil Unrest
  • 1 Unspeakable Symbol
  • 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  • 1 Vandalblast
  • 1 Victimize
  • 1 Viscera Seer
  • 1 Warren Soultrader
  • 1 Watery Grave
  • 1 Withering Torment
  • 1 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
  • 1 Zul Ashur, Lich Lord
  • 1 Zulaport Cutthroat