GrixisLegendary Creature — Human RogueMarchesa, Dealer of Death
Mana value3Rank#10,969
The Commander
Whenever you commit a crime, you may pay 
. If you do, look at the top two cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the other into your graveyard. (Targeting opponents, anything they control, and/or cards in their graveyards is a crime.)
Guide
Gameplan
Marchesa turns every targeted spell, ability, and attack at your opponents into card filtering: pay when you commit a crime to dig two deep and stock your graveyard. You play a Grixis spellslinger/control shell loaded with cheap interaction and pingers, generating absurd card advantage while grinding the table down, then close with reanimation payoffs or a value-fueled finisher.
Strengths
- Relentless card advantage—almost every removal spell, counter, or attack triggers a free dig
- Fills the graveyard naturally, enabling reanimation and flashback synergies
- Grixis gives access to the best removal, counterspells, and tutors in the format
- Cheap commander (MV 3) that immediately advances your game plan
- Rewards interaction you'd run anyway, so the engine costs little deckbuilding tax
Weaknesses
- No built-in win condition—needs the deck to provide closers
- Crimes must target opponents or their stuff, so blank board states leave the engine idle
- The tax per crime adds up and can clog mana on busy turns
- Marchesa herself is fragile and a removal magnet
- Card filtering, not raw card draw—you still pitch one card each trigger
Key Cards
- Deflecting Swat — Cheap, repeatable crime that protects Marchesa and triggers her dig for free.
- Brainstorm — While not a crime itself, pairs with the graveyard-filling to smooth draws alongside your dig engine.
- Frantic Search — Free card filtering that complements Marchesa's selective dig and fuels the yard.
- Dockside Extortionist — Ramp that fuels paying the crime tax repeatedly across a turn.
- Underworld Breach — Capitalizes on the stocked graveyard to chain spells and combo off.
- Snapcaster Mage — Reuses the cheap targeted interaction that triggers Marchesa, doubling crime value.
- Bonecrusher Giant — Stomp is a crime that triggers Marchesa and leaves a body, embodying the deck's plan.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana (Mana Crypt, Jeweled Lotus, Dockside Extortionist) to comfortably pay the crime tax multiple times per turn and deploy threats early. Lean into a compact combo finish—Underworld Breach with Brain Freeze or Lion's Eye Diamond, or a reanimation line—so your card advantage actually converts to wins. Tighten the interaction suite toward the cheapest crimes (Swords to Plowshares-style removal, free counters, Deflecting Swat) to maximize triggers per mana.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Reanimating large threats (e.g., a fattie put in the yard by Marchesa) to beat down
- ▸Underworld Breach combo or storm-style payoff fueled by the full graveyard
- ▸Grinding the table out with card advantage, then deploying a hard-to-answer finisher
- ▸Burn/pinger damage incidentally accumulated from repeated targeted spells
Archetypes
- Control — Counterspells and removal are crimes, so policing the table simultaneously advances your card engine.
- Spellslinger — Cheap targeted burn and bounce spells each commit crimes and trigger filtering.
- Reanimator — Marchesa naturally fills the graveyard, setting up powerful reanimation targets.
- Combo — Deep filtering and a stocked yard assemble combos like Underworld Breach lines.
Combos
- Marchesa, Dealer of Death + Mind Over Matter + Bone Miser + Phyrexian Altar
→ Near-infinite looting, Near-infinite self-discard triggers
- Marchesa, Dealer of Death + Mind Over Matter + Bone Miser + Ashnod's Altar
→ Near-infinite looting, Near-infinite self-discard triggers
- Marchesa, Dealer of Death + Mind Over Matter + Bone Miser + Thermopod
→ Near-infinite looting, Near-infinite self-discard triggers
Combos via Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BRU), by popularity.
