Welcome to my D&D Group Hug game!

I, the DM, am here to guide this fresh, extremely rowdy crew along our dangerous adventure. I know you 3 (or more, looking into the future is a skill I am still learning) just met and have reservations about the others, but lets not fight among ourselves ALL the time. Sure, I know his very large tentacle companion looks quite threatening, but I am not here to keep you in line. I am here to make sure you 3 are well steeled and bloodied along this road of adventure!

This deck will throw monsters at you in every which way, but don't you worry! This is a "fair" deck. I'm not looking to win (at least on purpose), I am a DM after all! My die will determine my actions. You will also be well rewarded for your efforts against the creatures you come up against. Best my monsters and precious loot will be yours!


So, from my over the top adventure guide introduction above, this is my take on a Group Hug deck: D&D STYLE! It involves summoning big monsters that are not there to win or target specific people, but there specifically for players to destroy. Why? Because killing creatures in D&D sometime rewards you loot. Well, in this deck, killing my creatures will win you rewards as well! As a reward granting deck, Zedruu would have been the commander of choice so it is always accessible, but green is a BIIIIIIG source of ramp and scary big monsters for sweet encounters, so I went with the 4 color group hug guys, Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis! This give me access to the 4 colors I want.

Piloting this deck comes with a few special self-imposed rules.

Attacking - With the exception of a few key pieces, you monsters MUST attack each turn they are able. We don't care if they stick around as we want the force interaction like its a D&D game. The exceptions are your Group Hug enablers: Zedruu the Greathearted , Bazaar Trader , Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis and Stoneforge Mystic . These cards are exempt from the attacking rule as the are there to assist you in distributing the rewards to other players. As far as who is attacked, its is determined by 2 things...

One: Random die roll

Two: Aggro. If a player has aggro'd or provoked my board, by either targeting with a spell or attacking into my board, they are the aggro'd target of my creatures.

Defending - My creatures, with the same exemptions as above, will ALWAYS defend. This is to simulate the players attacking the creature instead of attacking the controller of the deck. Damage is "calculated" differently for this deck. Even though my creatures "heal" damage after combat, its scars are still prevalent. All damage dealt to a creature is tracked (simply keep track of it on the side) and the one who dealt the most damage when it is exiled or destroyed wins the loot from that monster.

Tutoring - First tutors are always for reward enablers, such as Zedruu. After you have reward enablers online, tutors are taken to the DM rolls. This can be done however you see fit. My personal preference is preparing a preset DM list with numerical values for the Creatures and Rewards with my die roll determining what reward of monster is brought out.

This deck runs the few cards that allow me to reward a player by gifting them Equipment from my side of the field.

Zedruu the Greathearted

Bazaar Trader

These two are priority number one. Keeping them out is a must. 1-2 Indestructible equipment are included JUST for them, betting on no one targeting them with exile effects, but protects them from board wipes. They are your golden geese and what make this deck what it is.

The play before a boss, mobs. Luckily, goblins are a VERY common mob type in fantasy gaming so goblin tokens are our greatest source. Repeatable sources will be the Krenko variants, but including a few one-offs help if some quick interaction is needed, such as cards like Goblin Offensive and Goblin Rally .
Of course there are bosses. Every D&D campaign has those imposing creatures at the end of the dungeon/cave that requires all the skills and abilities of the party.

For the Bosses list, its is dealers choice. Chose about 10 big creatures you want to play with. They can be Eldrazi, Hydras, Giants, etc. Build this list for yourself and your playgroup (if they don't like infect, probably best you don't have them face down infect. Same with Annihilator and other oppressive abilities.)

Have a sideboard of monsters, too! Having about 10 with a random selection does keep the encounters fresh for a few game, depending on how long the deck survives, but eventually those monsters become repetitive. Having a few on the waiting to slot in for more random monster shenanigans is a huge plus for the deck!

Just like with the boss monsters, its dealers choice. Whatever rewards you feel the table would be excited about the most (as they will see the item before killing the monster most of the time), so just make sure you don't put duds in there. Make it a mix of equipment and other artifacts/enchantments/creatures as not all decks run creatures. Control players wont be super inclined to "cast their magic spell on you" if the reward is a Quietus Spike. Morph the list to your playgroup to keep them interested.

One interesting gameplay twist of note, if you want even better encounters, try equipping the reward to the boss monster to create a harder encounter and a "True" loot drop xD

Being a deck that has quite a few high level spells and lots of equipment, some QoL is a good thing. Here, I currently use Omniscience and Quicksilver Amulet as they both let me put out my boss creatures on a moments notice.

Other QoL improvemnt can be sources of card draw, like Tower of Fortunes and Mind's Eye .

Of course you can! This deck is all about big creature combat! You can easily win by accident attacking into the players! But again, playing this deck is conceding victory to others as your goal is to have fun and interact.

Personal Notes: The balance between tutors, rewards and creatures is still something I do not have down pat.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Group card draw, like Mikokoro, Center of the Sea

Token Creation for the board, like Forbidden Orchard (thanks u/suesseidl)

+1/+1 counters to signify "leveling up"

So far, the lands that grant a reward to others as a "down side" will be the easiest to incorporate, but as far as other reward cards outside of the lands....will still need to playtest to figure out a good balance between tutors/creatures/rewards.

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Revision 1 See all

(4 years ago)

+1 Altar of Bone main
+1 Argentum Armor main
+1 Bazaar Trader main
+1 Bloodstained Mire main
+1 Breeding Pool main
+1 Carnage Tyrant main
+1 Champion's Helm main
+1 Clifftop Retreat main
+1 Counterspell main
+1 Cultivate main
+1 Darksteel Forge main
+1 Darksteel Plate main
+1 Dragon Broodmother main
+1 Eladamri's Call main
+1 Eternal Witness main
+1 Flooded Strand main
+9 Forest main
+1 Glacial Fortress main
+1 Goblin Offensive main
+1 Goblin Rally main
and 86 other change(s)
Date added 4 years
Last updated 4 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

21 - 0 Mythic Rares

41 - 0 Rares

15 - 0 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.03
Tokens Copy Clone, Dragon 1/1 RG, Goblin 1/1 R, Goblin Soldier 1/1 RW, Morph 2/2 C, Treasure, Wurm 5/5 G w/ Trample
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