Group hug commanders

Group hug decks are found around the fringes of Commander, taking a very unusual approach to playing the game. They're filled with cards that benefit the entire table, usually in the form of drawing everyone cards, group hug commanders, gaining everyone life or generating everyone extra mana. Winning isn't a priority for these decks - generally, they're here to accelerate games and get to the "good part", where everyone has 15 lands in play and 15 cards in hand - and that's when the real mayhem begins. Let's have a look group hug commanders some of the best group hug cards in the business!

While Magic: The Gathering is a game that is often played one-on-one, the largely popular Commander format is designed to be played with additional players, with many made-for-Commander cards being designed around four-player games. For this reason, Commander is home to a unique deck archetype that can't be found in any other format: Group Hug. Group Hug decks look to garner favor with other players by offering them helpful effects and bribes, incentivizing your opponents to attack each other. It's common for a Group Hug deck to include cards that can help reverse a board state such a Reins of Power, potentially allowing a game to be swung in your favor once one or more players have been eliminated from a game. Group Hug Commanders come in a variety of forms, offering a wide array of abilities that you can utilize.

Group hug commanders

In Magic the Gathering's Commander format, fun is meant to be put before winning. If everybody gets some time in the spotlight, with their deck popping off and being a threat, it's generally considered a good game regardless of who wins. They just want to help everybody have a good time, right? Well… no. Not exactly. Here is everything you need to know about Group Hug. A Group Hug deck is a deck that focuses on lifting the entire table up. With a good Group Hug deck, everybody gets to be scary in a game at least once, and Magic designers achieve that with goal in two key ways:. He can be tapped to let every player draw a card, and those who do also gain one life. There's no downside to this built into Kwain; no catch, gotcha, scam or ruse.

Hopefully your opponents will thank you for your generosity by not immediately turning those threats on you, but it's by no means a guarantee - as group hug commanders as it is to play with a group hug player, Commander players can be extremely punishing when they want to be! With a good Group Hug deck, everybody gets to be scary in a game at least once, and Magic designers achieve that with goal in two key ways:. Updated on June 2, by Chris Stomberg: Group Hug Commanders aren't printed all too often seeing as their effects interact specifically with more than one other opponent, group hug commanders.

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With cards that provide benefits to all players, not just yourself, group hug decks try to help all players in the match until they put themselves in a position to win the game. Some of the best group hug cards provide card advantage to your opponents while giving you a bigger boost. This incremental increase of value over your opponents helps everyone feel good, but you slowly take the lead in a game. Some of the best group hug cards are those with asymmetrical benefits for you and your opponents. Rootweaver Druid is one of those cards, letting players search for up to three extra basic lands when it comes into play, under the condition that one of them has to go to you. While you have to wait until your next turn to put those extra lands to good use, Rootweaver Druid is a fun way to help all players. Not every card in your group hug deck needs to provide huge game-changing effects, sometimes they can be a little more personal. Secret Rendezvous can help you negotiate with your opponents to see who wants to draw a few extra cards in exchange for political favors or other benefits over your other opponents.

Group hug commanders

A group hug deck is designed to help out every player at the table in some way and is often not even built with the idea of winning in mind. Instead, these decks are focused on fun, helping out other players, and sometimes on wacky hijinks. One thing to keep in mind when discussing a group hug deck is how you need to reframe cards in your mind. For example, a counterspell is usually seen as a mean card.

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This means that, each turn, each player will often be able to cheat the most impactful and mana-intensive cards directly into play. While this effect was designed at a time in which 'Mana Burn' was still a rule of Magic, causing unspent mana to deal damage to its owner, it's now quite helpful for those looking to access political bargaining chips in the midst of Commander games. At the beginning of your upkeep, you gain an amount of life and draw a number of cards equal to the number of permanents you own that are under your opponents' control. If lifegain is your strategy, Felidar Sovereign is terrifying, especially in Commander where you start at the 40 life needed to win the game. Every nonland card revealed this way provides you with one green mana and one life. While Kenrith, the Returned King is a widely popular five-color Commander option for a variety of deck archetypes, it also makes for a great Group Hug commander. A four-color Commander with every color in its color identity save for black, Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis is a great Commander that simultaneously offers card draw and mana acceleration. Presents for everyone! The original Jace isn't by any means the best, but he's certainly one of the most fun Jaces ever printed. Printed in Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate, Gluntch, the Bestower is a Jellyfish Group Hug commander capable of providing different benefits to various players each turn — allowing you to tactically provide yourself or other players whatever they may need. Printed in Betrayers of Kamigawa, Shizuko, Caller of Autumn is an efficient option for a mono-green Group Hug commander, notably providing each player with additional mana to spend during their turns. For this reason, Commander is home to a unique deck archetype that can't be found in any other format: Group Hug.

Group Hug is a Commander deck archetype known for providing resources to opposing players, sometimes in exchange for political favors, for the purpose of using those resources or favors to eventually win the game. Unlike other deck archetypes, Group Hug strategy is considered unique to the Commander format.

It's this kind of asymmetrical advantage that makes Group Hug such an disarming playstyle. These aren't designed to win, and they also leave the rest of the group with a bad taste in their mouth. Decks featuring large creatures and artifacts in particular will find Braids extremely helpful while decks stocked with smaller creatures will feel left out. You can't exactly Group Hug an opponent in a one-on-one game, after all. Let's just hope the other players at the table don't realize that too quickly. They're filled with cards that benefit the entire table, usually in the form of drawing everyone cards, gaining everyone life or generating everyone extra mana. How about a Smothering Tithe to offset it? Start bartering with them, offering not to attack them or not to touch their permanents if they do something good for you. Games very quickly fall apart after that, as you can imagine, and it ends up as glorious, wild and often very short-lived carnage. It can feel mean to impact a Group Hug player's board state, but sometimes it's imperative you do so. This Commander is comparable to that of the ever-popular Phyrexian Arena, allowing each player to access many more cards than they could otherwise in a game. When a creature with a bounty counter on it dies, each player save for that creature's controller draws a card and gains two life. Despite Group Hug effectively being the Anti-Stax where resource denial is the aim of the game of Magic, this kind of Group Hug deck often leans a little into it to give themselves an edge. Instead of letting people build their own resources, a lot of his decks are revolved around giving other people your stuff.