If you've ever played the original Champions of Kamigawa set, you may have seen the card Brothers Yamazaki. Or maybe it was this Brothers Yamazaki instead?
This card made for a fun little interaction letting two legendary cards of the same name be on the table at the same time, each powering the other up.
But what if Mama Yamazaki had more than just two sons?
Welcome to the Yamazaki Family BBQ, an almost-legal commander deck featuring Brothers Yamazaki and a ton of clone effects and legend rule skirting to get as many Yamazaki brothers in on the action as possible.
So first, the legality: The way I like to run this deck is to have two copies of Brothers Yamazaki as partner commanders. But the cards don't have the Partner ability (this was before MTG even cared about what EDH was) and furthermore, the format doesn't allow more than one of the same card. My playgroup is cool with me playing them as partners though, so I do. To make this strictly legal, I've swapped out one copy of Brothers Yamazaki for Heiko Yamazaki, the General and only have one commander (you could swap it out with any card, but it's another Yamazaki, so that's fun.)
With that out of the way, how does this deck work?
We're primarily relying on 2 cards: Mirror Box and Sundial of the Infinite. While Brothers Yamazaki works for two copies of the card, we're going to want more, so we need a card like Mirror Box (or the original Mirror Gallery) to let us get make clones of the brothers without losing them to the legend rule.
While we do have some cards that can make some copies that stick to the board (Helm of the Host, Lithoform Engine), most of what we can do in mono-red is make temporary clones using cards such as Splinter Twin or Heat Shimmer. These work just fine in combination with Mirror Box or Mirror Gallery, but with Sundial of the Infinite, we can respond to our end step triggering, ending the turn immediately and keeping our clones in play indefinitely.
To get these two very important artifact pieces, we have a couple of somewhat risky ways to tutor them. Gamble can grab either piece (or any other card), but it's always possible it could get tossed in the bin. Reckless Handling does something similar. Goblin Engineer can fetch either piece. And Goblin Welder or Buried Ruin can get them out of the graveyard if they get destroyed or milled.
Once the combo pieces are set up, each clone effect we play gives another +2/+2 to every other copy of Brothers Yamazaki creating a board that is both wide and tall. Now we just need to get in for some damage. Archetype of Aggression can give all my brothers trample. War Cadence can make it too expensive for opponents to block. Godo, Bandit Warlord can wear down everyone with extra combats. And Warstorm Surge skips combat altogether and just deals direct damage with every brother that joins the fray.
There are a few other creatures who don't mind getting cloned in case you need a backup plan. Dockside Extortionist or Solemn Simulacrum ramp you up with their ETB effects. Meteor Golem gives you a repeatable removal source. And having more than one Professional Face-Breaker on the battlefield doubles up the token generation and impulse draws.
Make no mistake though, the deck is jank. If someone removes the Sundial or your legend rule Mirrors, you're going to be severely hamstrung. And being in mono-red limits your access to efficient card draw, ramp and removal of enchantments. But when you're able to get 8 Brothers Yamazaki in play at once, each giving the others +14/+14, you'll know it was worth it.
