The Firm (Where Everyone is a Partner) [EDH]

[Oversoul]

At long last, here it is. I have built what might possibly be my most stupid EDH deck thus far. The original inspiration for this project was WotC's Pride Month gimmick from 2022, where they'd temporarily make all commanders have the "Partner" ability. I quipped that I would build a deck that was actually legal in EDH without special corporate-sanctioned rulebreaking, but where all of my creatures would still be partners because they'd all have the "Partner with" ability. I even came up with the idea of running Cecily & Othelm in the command zone so that I could have two commanders for a five-color deck. The original plan was to use every single card with the "Partner with" ability in the entire game. But then I procrastinated.

There are now a whopping 52 cards that have "Partner with." And that's too many! After putting all 26 pairs into a deck with lands, there'd be no room left for any other cards and the deck would be essentially unplayable garbage. Now, I'm not above playing garbage, but I decided that a compromise would be more fun. All creatures and both planeswalkers in this deck have the "Partner with" ability. And I'm using *most* cards that have, to date, been printed with this ability. However, I elected not to include the Jurassic Park pair (it does kind of a Dinosaur Tribal thing anyway), the Doctor Who pairs (they are weird and don't interest me), or the Crimson Vow Commander pairs (they're just bad). And that frees up about 20 non-land slots for the rest of the deck.

This deck obviously isn't very focused, but it does have one rather blatant advantage: 42 of the cards in my maindeck can tutor up a partner on entry. That's a lot of (practically free) card advantage. Is it enough to rescure the deck from being bad? Not really. But we're past that point.

Commander:
1 Cecily, Haunted Mage
1 Othelm, Sigardian Outcast

1 Akroma's Will
1 Alisaie Leveilleur
1 Alphinaud Leveilleur
1 Arid Mesa
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Bebop, Skull & Crossbones
1 Blaring Captain
1 Blaring Recruiter
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Brainstorm
1 Brallin, Skyshark Rider
1 Cazur, Ruthless Stalker
1 Chakram Retriever
1 Chakram Slinger
1 Chaos Warp
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Command Tower
1 Doubling Season
1 Earthcraft
1 Evie Frye
1 Expropriate
1 Fierce Guardianship
1 Flooded Strand
2 Forest
1 Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Gorm the Great
1 Haldan, Avid Arcanist
1 Hit the Mother Lode
1 Impetuous Protege
2 Island
1 Jacob Frye
1 Karn's Bastion
1 Khorvath Brightflame
1 Krav, the Unredeemed
1 Ley Weaver
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Lore Weaver
1 Mana Drain
1 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
1 Merry, Warden of Isengard
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Mountain
1 Nikara, Lair Scavenger
1 Okaun, Eye of Chaos
1 Pako, Arcane Retriever
1 Patriar's Seal
1 Pippin, Warden of Isengard
1 Pir, Imaginative Rascal
2 Plains
1 Plateau
1 Polluted Delta
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Proud Mentor
1 Regna, the Redeemer
1 Regrowth
1 Rocksteady, Mutant Marauder
1 Rowan Kenrith
1 Ruinous Ultimatum
1 Sam, Loyal Attendant
1 Savannah
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Scrubland
1 Sea Gate Restoration
1 Seasons Past
1 Shabraz, the Skyshark
1 Silvar, Devourer of the Free
1 Soulblade Corrupter
1 Soulblade Renewer
1 Springleaf Drum
2 Swamp
1 Sylvia Brightspear
1 Taiga
1 Tarnation Vista
1 Toothy, Imaginary Friend
1 Tropical Island
1 Trynn, Champion of Freedom
1 Tundra
1 Ukkima, Stalking Shadow
1 Underground Sea
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Victimize
1 Virtus the Veiled
1 Volcanic Island
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Will Kenrith
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel
1 Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom

 

[Oversoul]

I was having a lot of fun coming up with names for this deck. Ultimately went with the one in the thread title, but here were my candidates...

The Firm (Where Everyone is a Partner)
Time Enough for Friendship
Partnership is Magic
Group Marriage
Star-Crossed Friends
Til Death Do Us Part(ner)
Shuffleboard Court(ship)
Pairs Wild
Mandatory Plus One
Cece's Search Party

 

[Oversoul]

I showed up to my LGS specifically hoping to play this deck. I ended up running it twice, for this first and third games of the night. These were three-player pods, as one player didn't show up until we were partway through my first game with this deck, then another one left after I won the game with Maelstrome Wanderer. My first game with this deck went about as expected. One of my opponents hit my flying blocker with an exile spell and flew some angels over the rest of my team to kill me.

I'm glad I ran this one back, because the final game was much better for me. After some initial skirmishes, I built up to trigger Cecily's free spell cast on Hit the Mother Lode. And from there the hits kept coming: hardcast Akroma's Will into Cecily's free-cast Ruinous Ultimatum (an opponent had Arachnogenesis to stop the Akroma's Will from potentially killing him and I had Mana Drain for it, but then I ended up showing him how he could use Deflecting Swat to save his Arachnogenesis from Mana Drain), Sea Gate Restoration, Seasons Past, Hit the Mother Lode again, and finally Akroma's Will again to finish the game. Shabraz was hilariously big by this point.