Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain (EDH / Commander)

This was inspired by Joseph Schultz's build of Jhoira on edhrec.com in his Jhoira vs Jhoira article.

Paradox Engine Ban Update

The rules committee recently banned Paradox Engine, which I can't say I'm thrilled about, nor do I think their reasoning works (eg engine vs dramatic scepter), but anyway, it prompted me to reexamine the deck and also update the deckstats listing.

Reasonably major changes based on over a year owning the deck and the ban:
-1 Alhammarret's Archive: Felt too win more, not useful by itself, often stuck in hand.
-1 Defense Grid: Didn't do enough useful.
-1 Feldon's Cane: The deck has much more redundancy than I realised when I wrote the list originally.
-1 Great Furnace: This seems fine for synergy until you experience destroy all artifacts snagging lands for free.
-1 Paradox Engine: Banned.
-1 Seat of the Synod: As Great Furnace.
-1 Thran Dynamo: Experimenting, it never felt bad but coloured mana is often at a premium, so it got replaced with the new Talisman of Creativity.
-1 Wayfarer's Bauble: Slow.
-1 Aether Spellbomb: Was useful, but I'm trying focusing a bit more on the win and I needed a slot.

Using these cuts I upped the land count, added a replacement line for Paradox Engine (Future Sight) and a backup hard wincon (Brain Freeze) for storming off.

Playing the deck

So after over a year playing this deck, it has a far more versatile set of plays than I first anticipated. Words of Wind is a stupid card, as it turns out.

The basic premise is to build up a collection of mana rocks and cost reducers, powering through your deck with Jhoira, until you find one of the possible routes to victory.

Lines:
Cost Reducer + Sensei's Divining Top + Future Sight/Magus of the Future = Draw deck, from there you assemble dramatic scepter for infinite storm and use Aetherflux or Brain Freeze.
Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith = Infinite mana, this can be used for Walking Ballista if you have it or can tutor it, or to fuel Sensei's Future if you have no cost reducers.
Words of Wind + two mana rocks that generate +2 mana (either naturally or through cost reducers being on board) + Jhoira: Draw your whole deck with and generate infinite mana, along with your opponents returning their entire board to hand.
Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + rocks generating 3 mana: Infinite mana, this is often called Dramatic Scepter.
Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + rocks generating 3 mana + Sensei's Divining Top: If you stack triggers correctly you get infinite mana and draw your deck with the Sensei's Divining Top.

Payoffs for infinite mana/storm are:
Aetherflux Reservoir
Brain Freeze (Might be unnecessary, added it for fun)
Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter + Sculpting Steel + Swan Song + Spell = Infinite 2/2 Birds
Walking Ballista

There are other, stranger lines I haven't covered here, but if you think you enjoy figuring out how to assemble an intricate victory machine, then I recommend playing Jhoira and finding other ways to win for yourself.

Retract + Paradoxical Outcome are a way to draw more cards and also protect your board.

Upgrading this list

Various strong cards I could include in this list are absent for meta power level and budget reasons, if you like the list here are some suggestions if your meta is at a higher power level or doesn't hate stax.

Obviously I am missing the moxen that are legal in EDH and the best fast mana, these are snap includes in this deck if your playgroup is fine with the level of acceleration they represent.
Fetchlands are another missing element from this list, purely for budget reasons, and if you're especially flush, Mishra's Workshop and Volcanic Island.
If your meta is accepting of stax, cards like Back to Basics, Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, Winter Orb and Lodestone Golem do relatively little to this deck, but can cripple others, and would make good inclusions to buy you time.
Time Spiral would also be a good card, and for the insanely rich/long time players, Timetwister.
Finally Laboratory Maniac or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries could easily be slotted into this deck.