Waifu Warz (EDH / Commander)

WHAT'S THIS DECK ALL ABOUT?

From a discussion at a convention about the viability of Jace as Best Waifu, the Waifu Warz decklist was born! Card selection was made under the following criteria:

1. All creatures must be legendary. All creatures or planeswalkers must be viable in an anime-style "harem".
2. The criterion for inclusion is fairly straightforward. The card must either stand alone as a strong include in a standard EDH deck, play a major role in Magic storytelling, fulfill an anime stereotype, or have art with sufficient fan-service as to be indispensable. And, of course, all characters must be female.
3. Three exceptions are allowed to the "female" provision. Gideon Jura is allowed under the "husbando" option. Jace Beleren is allowed because of his soft, feminine features. Nicol Bolas is allowed because he felt left out and mind-controlled me to include him.
4. Non-land, non-creature/planeswalkers must feature only females or characters in the deck.

CARD CHOICES

The non-waifus were difficult to find. Searching for cards by artwork is time-consuming. I went for basic categories.
I used to be running basically Haymakers Only. Zendikar Resurgent, Mana Reflection, Opportunity (yes, I know it's not a haymaker, but it draws a lot of cards), Nissa's Renewal (again, not a haymaker, but a lot of mana), etc. The problem is, when the deck stumbles on mana, you reeeeeeally stumble. The curve goes up quickly for a reason; creatures that are good in the long game in Commander are often expensive. So on the advice of my deckbuilding team, aka people on Discord, I've trimmed some of the fat. The non-waifu support cards are now much lower on the mana curve, while still being effective. Councel of the Soratami draws less cards than Opportunity, but it's a lot easier to hit 3 mana, and drawing 2 cards will usually get the fourth land. There's also more low-cost mana ramp, the kind that let me put duals into play.

The commander has also been replaced, and not without careful consideration. Sliver Queen is still in the deck, as she's extremely bonkers as a late game mana sink when the board is empty, and also I own one, I'm not going to take her out. But Esika does two things we want. First, and less importantly, she's an early drop that ramps. This, however, is not super necessary, and not as flavorful. Her main use is as the Prismatic Bridge, aka how all of these ladies are able to come together. She's the limo that picks them up, the battle bus that drops them on the battlefield. With the way my curve is, I only need one trigger off the bridge to get my mana back. Two triggers, and I'm probably far ahead.

Lands have also been revamped. The printing of Triomes is something I should have jumped on sooner, but better late than never. I'm also adding in all the fetchlands, not just the Zendikar fetches, so my mana will be very fixed. World Tree is a land that does Chromatic Lantern for me. Minamo joins Reliquary Tower as the only "utility" lands, for good reason.

The straight-up good cards don't really need explaining, I hope.

The harem staples are fairly eclectic.
Chandra Nalaar and Jace Beleren are specifically chosen for the Japanese Jace vs. Chandra duel deck with alternate anime-style artwork.
Diaochan, Artful Beauty is a traditional court dancer. Standard include.
Kiku, Night's Flower wears an excellent harem outfit.
Kiora, the Crashing Wave narrowly beat out Emrakul, the Promised End (who is female) for the token "tentacle fan" position.
Nin, the Pain Artist fills the position of "fan of spankings".
Queen Marchesa is a queen. Sen Triplets are triplets. Enough said.

Fan service is the only degenerate part of this list, and used to be bigger. It's down to 2 cards, both of which are completely playable by themselves, but they just happen to be, uh, presenting their assets.

For the story-centric choices, four fit into the same story. Avacyn, Bruna, Gisela, and Sigarda are the major angels from Innistrad. The original Bruna is worse for this deck, so Eldrazi-fied Bruna is used. The other three are better in their original forms. Akroma, Jaya Ballard, and Phage are all mainstays of Magic's history. None of these cards are slouches either.