This deck is literally my favorite. I love to pull a somewhat similar version of this deck (differences is a few expensive lands swapped, and a few enchantment choices). This deck has so much utility that I love how it never plays the same way twice.

I myself have studied the ways of O'Sensei Ueshiba, and Tohei Sensei (who was a student of O'Sensei Ueshiba), so I understand the philosophies of Aikido enough to help me make these proper plays. I will say, sometimes it's great to use your opponents and sometimes to buff them. I also love to get an early blow in with a combo of Master of Cruelties, Key to the City and Acidic Soil. I've taken out 3 opponents with that in one turn, leaving me in a 1v1 situation with the Monarch.

The only thing I need to try and fit in there is a Reliquary Tower as there are times I can't get rid of cards and am drawing in too much.

I'm curious about your inclusion of Dark Depths for Selfless Squire. Was there just no other real option?

I like to keep my deck up to date with some of your exclusions and inclusions. Well done!

What are your thoughts on Settle the Wreckage in Aikido? It's a boardwipe that punishes a player who is so confident that they have a win in the bag that they would attack with everything they have, or even just serve as a decent removal option to get rid of some pesky beaters. Of course I doubt you would be affected much by this due to the pillow fort you have up most of the time, but I see it as both a defensive card and political card considering you can protect another player from lethal with it if you so choose and even completely turn the tide of a game. Sunforger hits Settle the Wreckage too and I see a lot of potential with it.

DangoDaikazoku, I have considered it before. The reason I have never tried it is because the deck immediately worked better for me as soon as I dumped all the board wipes. That may sound strange, and it may not be true now that I have had more experience with it, but board wipes are a way to decrease the treat level on the battlefield. They make you feel safer, and prolong the game, which is really good when you are behind and feel like you may lose. The problem is that this deck is most powerful when the end of the game is close, and you look to be behind, but have plenty of tricks up your sleeve. You want opponents to have full power, and feel like if they just stretch, they could seal a victory. Board wipes stop those moments from developing. When you play things that keep the game from reaching the times when the deck plays most powerfully, you play counter to your best game. So I decided that I want to ensure I am always playing to the strengths of the deck. I put a board wipe in the Wishboard, but mostly that is to make me feel safe, and I honestly almost never play it. I would rather not make a board wipe easier to get. I want cards to ensure I never feel like I need a board wipe, or cards that will just win instead of the board wipe. I would understand those who play them, since I even need to keep one in the Wishboard to feel safe, but I try to go without them.

Thank you for the thoughtful response :)

Ishio, Dark Depths is just a big beater wincon that is fun and indestructible. It is synergistic with some of the other included cards. It is super fun to play with, and I have a very pretty foil version with a foil Merit Lage token. I have had more problems with board wipes in this new meta than my last, and an indestructible wincon that does not depend on them having an offense to get it to work will probably make the deck stronger. I could include one of the Gods, there are some that could work well, and there are other things that could be included, I just decided to return Dark Depths to the list. You could probably pick just about anything that fits and you would be fine.

precociousapprentice: Playing last Friday, I had included Dark Depths, and came to the same resolution you did. It was nice to have something I could keep on the BF. Also with counters up, I was able to protect the original Dark Depths as I allowed Vesuva, Thespian's Stage, or Mirage Mirror trigger the flip on themselves.

I did however notice that I need to work on my shuffling. There are many times where I can't close out a game as my opponents sit there and kill each other, but I just can't finish off that last one. Some sort of lifegain will be a nice inclusion.

If you play against discard at all, I would like to say having Nephalia Academy is a great card to have on the battlefield.

How well does this deck do against decks that dont run infinite combos?

Sterling0528, for most of the development of the deck, I was in a meta that did not have any infinites, because they were considered unfun. It did just as well. It doesn't need infinites at all, and in fact, it runs best when people have aggression, but it comes over several turns all my opponents chip each other down until they are in range for something like Price of Progress or Rakdos Charm. It can handle infinite combo, but it isn't really even optimized to face it well.

I wanted to build a deck like this for years, but never really thought it could work. I am in awe of this. Thank you precociousapprentice so much. My jund Grand Melee-esque Wasitora brew will love this new inspiration, although I am shamefully borrowing from your genious.

Borrow away freshdemon. This is meant to be an exploration of not just the commander, but each of the ideas in the subtitle. I love when others take this as inspiration and expand on the idea. Thanks for the upvote, and let me know how your brewing does after seeing this.

Gane updates. Pondeeing adding reanimate to mainboard due to my shops meta. Was able to animate dead a vorenclex on turn two last saturday and win shortly after all because the animator player went for a turn one discard into a turn two reanimate.

Hahahaha... That sounds worthwhile. Use what they give you, make their strengths your strength.

Red Elemental Blast?

Sunforger hits it and it looks like Rift really hurts this deck.

EldraziMimic, Red Elemental Blast is a great card. I have run it at various times. My last meta had little blue presence, to it came out. I may put it in again. To be honest, it could easily replace any of the other counterspells in the deck at any time. I have a Blast from Unlimited that is just plain classy, but any Pyroblast would work as well.

I found an amazing card that would benefit the akido aspect of this deck and add alot of power to it Harsh Justice a friend brought it up to me and thoight this was a perfect addition.

How're the changes working?

Hey Precocious,

Been fine tuning my Queen Marchesa, Politics & Pillow Forts list recently, really having a hard time nailing the final 3-5 or so cards. I'd love to get your opinion on a couple things / tunings. For knowledge sake, some cards won't work as well in my meta but i'll explain as such in the individual card discussions.

I recently moved into adding some more defense/draw with solitary confinement and necropotence. As far as I'm concerned my 5 most "removable" cards right now are Rakdos Charm, Mortify, Return to Dust, Orzhov Advokist and Underworld Connections. Although the 2 tutors aren't necessarily "the good ones" I'm not gonna be able to spring 30-40$ per single card at this time so i'm sticking with my high mana cost, low monetary cost tutors for now.

Rakdos Charm - One of our players just starting playing boros soldiers, but for the most part, decks tend to be "go tall" over go wide strategies. Only 1 player uses any kind of graveyard recursion (Dragon player with Outpost Siege and a couple other minor recursions, maybe 3-4 cards out of 99 total). So, the most common case is that this is a 2 mana destroy an artifact. Sometimes might be able to make use of damage mode for 5-10 damage on someone with a damage doubler out. Fringe cases where this might just be a huge bomb of damage to opponenets.

Return to Dust - Really i just had this for enchantments. Hammer of nazahn exists in my meta as well, but I feel like with anguished unmaking, (maybe mortify?), utter end, wear/tear i might be covered? 4 mana, destroy 2 scary enchant/artifacts kinda goes against the gameplan of "let them fight" but I gotta protect myself from things like Dragon Tempest

Mortify - big creatures exist in plenty and there's a good number of enchantments i'd love to not see in play if I needed to make them disappear for my own safety's sake.

Orzhov advokist - I love love LOVE this card, but I accept it's not necessarily amazing. It's like a political handshake of "i'll help you if you don't attack me next turn" by force (even if it leaves play, the condition still applies for the rest of the turn). It buffs creatures up around the board, keeps me "safe" (it either lets me know I won't be attacked or if they don't take the counters, it lets me know that something is up, advanced warning system sort of) and the buffed up creatures make for better aikido targets, splashing back even more damage than they would have without the counters :) Just seems like it touches every aspect of the deck in some way.

Underworld connections - it exists as a draw engine, but it's the weakest one in the list for sure (can't compare with necropotence, erebos, phyrexian arena, land tax etc) ... considered swapping this to immortal sun as i don't have any PW's... but this is also not a creature heavy deck, double the mana cost and there are some but not many PW's in my meta. (On average, maybe 1 per deck). Any other card draw engines that might be more effective in it's place?

A couple things I'm wondering about...

I currently have no damage based bomb finisher, I removed Price of Progress from the list because realistically in any given game, I will have the most or 2nd most non basic lands. (I play 16 basic, 1 other player plays 15 as a 5 color deck most others are 25+ basic). My table plays pretty low budget, 100-200$ so a lot of decks are dual colored or extremely basic land heavy. I'm currently considering Exsanguinate and Acidic soil as damage based finishers (outside the aikido package of course) to go alongside Insurrection... but I don't know what to drop for it or if i should drop anything for it. I have mastermind's acquisition which could pull one from outside the game if need be.

Should I try and slot in phyrexian unlife + solemnity for additional defensive layering? Solemnity will find some uses in my meta, but not that many. There's not a ton of counters going around.. there's the cheap Vivid lands, some minor counter stuff in the dragon's deck, and the recently made soldier deck uses Cathars' Crusade and Assemble the Legion. Individually these cards will not shine, but they still count as enchantments for Sphere of Safety and they still kinda do something at least... but then there's the obvious synergies. (Already playing Delaying Shield regardless of this pairs inclusion or not)

I've looked a lot at Vow of Lightning Vow of Malice Vow of Duty with some amount of admiration for fulfilling the deck goals of "make enemies kill enemies better while staying safe myself". However I'm not sure I want enchantments that get wiped out via enemy board clears. (And in the case of vow of lightning and duty, make enemy creatures better at blocking my advances)

Also open to any other suggestions not made here as well. Thanks for your time and considerations as always!

May the queen reign for eternity!

Whilst not quite in the same color group, you seem best to ask about advice on a list i have going. To be nice to the group i'd like to keep it budget, but I feel i could do better within that. If you would be so kind as to use some of your time, would you be willing to suggest cuts and additions to my deck Never attack in anger? As with all my decks it for some reason refuses to link, but it is of course on my page. Thanks again for your time.

Have you considered adding Thief of Blood to the wishboard as an akido wincon vs nonplayer counters (and yet another Dark Depths enabler) for when Solemnity gets removed? I understand if you're averse to its CMC and lack of haste/flash (Vedalken Orrery would help with the latter and enable synergy with Delaying Shield but I couldn't tell you what to swap it in for, nor know if it would be too threatening).'

(Could arguably also wish for Torgaar, Famine Incarnate as an answer to arbitrarily high life, particularly with Wound Reflection around.)

Hi. Is that alter done by Sandreline Mousse?

bradtheimpaler13 It is by Sandreline Mousse, yes.

Wow, I've apparently been slacking. Busy week.

Hexekk, Harsh Justice was in the very first draft of the deck. It was pretty good for a mid-game multi-creature attack. The problem I found was that it didn't prevent the damage, and it only outperformed Eye for an Eye if more than one creature attacked, and was useless against non-creature damage. I replaced it with Eye for an Eye, and then eventually took that out, too. It is a good card for sure, and can occasionally surprise someone for a win. Well worth considering for people trying vary things up with Aikido decks, and actually a pretty good mono-White Aikido card.

Bloodytrailz, I like your thought process. For finisher, I like Exsanguinate. It can just end a game. Acidic Soil is also a super solid card. I currently run it over Exsanguinate. I also have been thinking about Orzhov Advokist. It is a dangerous card to run, but it has a very interesting effect on the game. People are often happy to get a long term pump to their creature for redirecting an attack away from you. This also creates somewhat of an arms race amongst your opponents, as no one wants to be hit with a rapidly growing creature without defending themselves. Before you know it, your opponents are duking it out with ever growing creatures, leaving you to watch them beat each other. This is exactly the kind of situation that benefits an Aikido general. I also ran the Vow cycle early in the evolution of the deck. The problem was that just because they could't attack me doesn't mean that they can't block me. I found them to be a little problematic, and I think Orzhov Advokist is likely exactly the same.

Coward_Token, I think that Thief of Blood is to Solemnity for counters as Bojuka Bog is to Rest in Peace for graveyard hate, with the addition of having a game ending body, and having a much higher CMC, but basically doing nothing against Infect. I feel like the continuous effect is a much better option.

bradtheimpaler13, it was a custom alter that I commissioned by Sandreline Mousse. She is my favorite altered art artists. I plan to get my ABUR duals altered by her as well.

Nothing new to report for changes or considerations. I have't really dug through the Dominaria stuff, but haven't seen much of value for Queen Marchesa, and I haven't played much, and the last few games I have played were Archenemy: Bolas. That is a pretty fun diversion from EDH.

Thats awesome. Im also a huge fan of hers and plan on having her alter a Sheoldred, Whispering One

Managed to link that deck. Never attack in anger

Amazing deck, loving the concept, and looking forward to build something similar, following your philosophy.

As well, I would like to know if you have considered any of the new cards in Dominaria. Things that spring to mind are Baird, Steward of Argive (for additional pillow fort), Whisper, Blood Liturgist (sacrificing two tokens to bring back any of your creatures), and Jaya Ballard (yes, this one clashes with Solemnity, but her tool set could be interesting here, specially for replaying your used answers).