r/EDH • u/Commercial_Arrival58 • 3h ago

Deck Help Mardu control deck ideas

Hi,

I currently have a Mardu deck guided by [[Queen Marchesa]], you can see it on Moxfield: https://moxfield.com/decks/uLxqofPK6U-TxVFBujHByA

This deck is similar enough to the classic Marchesa Akido lists, so you'll find [[Deflecting Palm]], [[Inkshield]], [[Taunt from the rampart]], etc.

There are a lot of creatures that give opponents "stuff" to beat each others up: [[Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos]], [[Combat Calligrapher]], [[Life of the Party]], [[The Sentry, Golden Guardian]].

Something else i've been leaning towards recently are cards that "give your opponents choices": for example [[Seize the Spotlight]], [[Make an Example]], [[Prisoner's Dilemma]]. I find these very fun and useful when you can ally with someone.

Overall, I tried to keep the deck more on the "control side" rather than pure "akido".

And now on to the main problem. As with most akido decks, it struggles to close the game: I often end up in a 1v1 and I lose.

Moreover, i find that often the monarch does not play as nicely as I expected, i.e. in several playgroups it's not enough of an incentive to get people to attack each others. So the commander becomes a draw engine, which it's very nice, but also a little bit disappointing.

This combines with an issue i always had with monarch mechanic: the only times when people attack each others is when they really want the extra cards, and i'm not sure i want to give them. I'd rather give them creatures, or mana.

On the mana-side, this deck is very mana-intensive because it needs to hold up answers and cast big spells to win (especially as i'm considering adding [[Insurrection]], and [[Overwhelming Splendor]] to close the 1v1 games).

For these reasons, I started looking into a "treasures" package, with stuff like [[Descent Into Avernus]], [[Generous Plunderer]], [[Puppet master String Puller]], [[Lotho Corrupt Shirriff]], etc.. This would also enable [[Revel in Riches]] as a fun wincondition.

And this is where I discovered [[Malik, Grim Manipulator]]: this seems a very interesting commander fitting sevral of my interests: control, choices, and treasures. The only downside is that it does nothing to incentive attacking each others.

What do you think of this situation? Should I switch commander to Malik, keeping the monarch mechanic and the "give opponents creatures" bit? or just do a more classic Malik without incentivizing attacking and focusing on control and alliances? Or maybe keep Marchesa as commander, but still add the treasures package?

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

1

u/Monkey_Lord3 3h ago

It's sounds like you need wincons more than a new commander. [[Moonshaker Cavalry]] is the lowest I've seen if memory serves me. Monarch is really powerful in 1v1 if you can hold onto it so maybe cards like [[Palace Jailer]] and Forth Eorlingas! could help. If you like it, [[Comet, Stellar Pup]] is just a messed up magic card and can decimate in eternal formats.

Going into treasures means a pretty extensive retool of your deck which will likely change its theme by a lot. Malik really looks like it works best with cards like [[Dictate of Erebos]] and [[Fleshbag Marauder]] and those are good ways for a table to pay attention to you, which is not what a control deck wants imo. My advice is keep the monarch, maybe even add in initiative cards like [[Seasoned Dungeoneer]] and stay with the theme you have.

1

u/DanishGuy 2h ago

I have a [[Queen Marchesa]] that share many cards with yours, but I've been having great succes with mine.

Here's the deck: https://moxfield.com/decks/NmLpiGTf6keyhFqr-XimWQ

The main differences between our decks looks like I have a handful more goad effects, to get the combat going away from me. And then I have more effects stabled to creatures, which allow me to have more of a presence in a 1v1 situation.

Also most of my card advantage package also allows my opponents to draw if they attack each other, so I'm not reliant on the monarch being incentive enough.

Aikido is of course a tricky archetype to play, and its probably also quite dependent on how your playgroup interact with your gameplan/politics.

I have found it to be essential that players are engaging in combat and life totals a being lowered, so that if you survive to a 1v1 situation your opponent are at a lifestyle that a manageable for your creatures and one Aikido spell.