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A grouphug deck with lots of hugs and politics. Extra draw, lands, and tokens will help curry favor among your opponents. They duke it out while you secure an impregnable board state while that can easily wipe out the last man standing.

You may be new to grouphug, or it might be your bread and butter. Either way, I'll briefly go over my views on it as it may be relevant as you pilot this deck. Grouphug works best as a control deck that uses politics and spells to ward off threats and make powerful alliances. Grouphug spells are frequently much more powerful than their non-hugging counterparts, as Magic R&D nearly always considers helping your opponents to be a massive downside. However, since we can take advantage of these effects, our grouphug spells are nothing but upside. This is where politics comes into play. As a wise player once said, "if you think you're not playing politics, you're still playing, you're just losing." Everyone at the table knows every other player is playing to win, but most are still willing to form alliances and cut deals under the assumption that they will come out on top in the end. Our goal is to convince those people that they are right: we're a janky deck that can't really compete, so we're not a real threat and can be dealt with later. "Later," however, is where this deck really shines, when our opponents will find they're struggling to keep up with our behemoth of a boardstate. tl;dr: Make friends early, take off heads late.

Let's begin with our grouphug spells, starting first and foremost with our good, good boyes Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis. As with many decks, our commander exemplifies our strategy: building incremental advantage while giving out free stuff. Notice that while our opponents may draw or landfall, we can do both, including drawing into a landfall if we're lucky. In this deck, K&T are catalysts, meaning we don't actually need them to win or even play, but they help us while they're on the board. With that out of the way, let's get an overview of the various grouphug cards we'll be playing.

The more of these effects we play, the better. For maximum effect, leverage your position each time you play one, especially if it targets a specific player. It could be as simple as banter: "Let's all draw some cards!" or "Here, have a token," or it could be "I see you're just a bit short for that big spell. I can give you enough mana to cast it if you point it at someone else." Remember, our goal is to make friends and lower our threat level until we go for the win, so think nothing of giving your opponents a small advantage as long as it advances these efforts.

So we'll be using politics and friendly spells to secure our position. But what's our main strategy? Tokens. We'll be making as many tokens as we can to both defend ourselves from attacks and create a deep well of mana to draw from. We have plenty of effects to make our tokens, from Rhys the Redeemed and Voice of Resurgence to The Locust God and Elspeth, Sun's Champion. But we also have spells to enable and take advantage of our tokens, like Doubling Season, Cryptolith Rite, Earthcraft, and Huatli, Radiant Champion. Keep an eye on how forward you're playing relative to the rest of the table, as the vast amount of tokens we can make can easily push our opponents into a board wipe.

You may be wondering why we're not playing back-breaking token classics such as Purphoros, God of the Forge, Aura Shards, Ashnod's Altar, Cathars' Crusade, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, etc. Powerful though these cards may be, and they are very powerful, they set off alarm bells and send our threat skyrocketing. We're playing tokens and group hug, two archetypes people are already wary of, so using these effects may put a target squarely on our back before we are ready to win. Play these cards at your own risk.

We've talked about the carrots, now let's go into our pillows. Since we have to play forward, our number one threat is usually board wipes. Eldrazi Monument, Heroic Intervention, and Teferi's Protection protect us here, and Chasm Skulker can also put us way out ahead if we have it ready when the wrath resolves. If a board wipe does come through, or if someone's attacking and we're not ready, we have Constant Mists, Thaumatic Compass  , and Maze of Ith to discourage that aggression. Privileged Position also provides good protection from spot removal for our whole board. Since our plan is to wait as long as necessary to make our move, we also need to halt our opponents' combos. Lastly, don't sleep on Glacial Chasm. It's easily the most underrated utility land out there, as many decks simply can't win unless they can deal damage.

Winning with this deck is simple. Wall yourself into a pillowfort and keep the table happy with free stuff until your board becomes a complete mess. As soon as you draw into Titanic Ultimatum, Triumph of the Hordes, March of the Multitudes, or Finale of Glory, or a wrath massively in your favor like Martial Coup or Hour of Reckoning, hit everyone at the table for lethal at once. Unless... whoops, is someone smart enough to run Spore Frog or Constant Mists? Don't worry, we can still win with Helix Pinnacle. Cryptolith Rite or Earthcraft, Doubling Season, and Awakening make short work of the lofty goal of 100 counters, or plop it down early and build it up over the course of the game.

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62% Casual

38% Competitive

Date added 6 years
Last updated 5 months
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

12 - 0 Mythic Rares

68 - 0 Rares

12 - 0 Uncommons

2 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.97
Tokens Angel 4/4 W, Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Beast 3/3 G, City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Elemental 1/1 R w/ Haste, Elemental */* GW, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Elf Warrior 1/1 GW, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Huatli, Radiant Champion, Insect 1/1 G, Insect 1/1 UR, Saproling 1/1 G, Snake 1/1 G, Soldier 1/1 W, Soldier 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, Soldier 2/2 W, Spirit 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 W, Squid 1/1 U, Treasure, Treefolk X/X G, Zombie 2/2 B
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