Maybeboard


Cards that go in multiple categories are listed multiple times.

The primary goal of this deck to have the most powerful possible impact on board state without becoming oppressive. I want to create ridiculous and baffling situations that promote a stalemate until I can win out of nowhere, or else allow someone else to get out of control and win so that we can quickly play another game. The more I can encourage various janky shenanigans along the way, the better!

My secondary goal is to bias my deck towards helping creature decks beat control. Sometimes in a casual meta you'll get newbies that have no idea they're being dominated by powerful control decks, simply because they don't recognize creatureless boardstates as threatening. Seeing that game play out again and again gets boring. At the same time, it's not always appropriate to counter with my own big guns. So, I've settled on trying to empower the creature decks at the table to distract the (other) control players while I develop a boardstate stupid enough to win. So long as I avoid unnecessary oppression and the players doing my dirty work enjoy the ride, "P-Griff" should remain a fun and popular addition to a wide variety of pods.

"Awkward Hug" to me means the opposite of Stax - gaining tremendous advantage by breaking parity, except with effects based on aiding the table. Mainly this involves "milling" through powerful ramp, mana doubling, and "Table draws X" spells. These are supported by a constant stream of extra draws from the likes of Font of Mythos, etc. Opponents will see their entire deck, but ideally about half of it will disappear so quickly through rapid wheeling that nothing can be done.

Beyond that central gameplan, this build of Phelddagrif can win through lifegain (via Test of Endurance), Approach of the Second Sun, or creature theft. An evasive commander (potentially flying + trample) does put a commander damage victory on the table as a last resort, but I do not presently include any cards that support it. I prefer to avoid reliance on the combat step if possible, for multiple reasons.

Finally, any group hug deck that wants to win needs to be able to "turn the corner" at some point and transition from helping to winning. While ideally this happens suddenly, before any opponents realize or can respond, often you'll be forced to show your teeth a little too early in order to prevent a loss. At that point the protection of happy fee fee politics declines rapidly, and you need some real shields. Fortunately Bant offers repeatable fog effects in the form of Dawnstrider and Solitary Confinement. Beyond that you have myriad defensive options including Sphere of Safety, Propaganda, Ghostly Prison, and more.

Phelddagrif has performed extremely well in having consistent and powerful impacts on overall board state, and has been highly reviewed by a diverse variety of opponents. However, new players also consistently fail to take advantage of the opportunity window I give them to hate out control players, and the control players wind up dominating anyway as the draw and ramp swiftly accelerate them to endgame. As previously stated, this is more of a political or threat assessment problem than a card problem; sharks often avoid being called out on severely power mismatched "battleship" or "good stuff" control decks for precisely this reason. It can be a conundrum, but the solution again is socio-political and P-Griff absolutely facilitates friendly conversations about different ways to have fun with MTG.
Considering that leaning so heavily into the awkward hug draw/mill archetype causes me synergize so well with (other) control decks, I've begun warning inexperienced players about the nature of my deck before the game. I encourage them to think hard about who are the biggest short-term and long-term threats to their victory. Most importantly, when I explain that I'm playing my "nice" group hug deck and want everyone to have a good time, other veteran players will often conspire with me to accomplish that goal. I feel like the whole meta benefits.

From the perspective of making a fun deck that promotes political play, and enables new / budget players to enjoy the powerful and ludicrous board states that only Commander can provide, Phelddagrif has been a smashing success. I've even gotten a win or two! I'll continue to tinker around the edges of this build to make sure that each card is as impactful and entertaining as possible, yet balanced against allowing any one player too much advantage too quickly.

This is my first attempt at building anything like this, and advice is very welcome. If you do suggest cards to add, I would appreciate it if you'd also offer an opinion on what to cut and why. Thanks!

Suggestions

Updates Add

Cut some "cute" cards in order to experiment with more impactful plays.

Sheltering Ancient > Weird Harvest: Sheltering Ancient defines cute. It dips a toe in an alternative way to influence the game (+1/+1 counters) and has synergy mainly with one other card, Primal Vigor. Weird Harvest favors creature decks, allows me to benefit, and can completely swing the balance of play in the right circumstances. It's worth testing, especially if I'm already running a bomb like Awakening.

Bant Charm > Counterspell: My mana doublers cause lands to produce multiples of a single color. Bant Charm therefore tends to be wildly inefficient, eclipsing the utility of the different options. Counterspell is an obvious budget pick & keeps my "counter count" at a solid 5.

Akroan Horse > Hunted Wumpus: Akroan Horse is lame. Hunted Wumpus gives me a 6/6 and allows creature based decks to advance their board state as well. Obvious pick in retrospect.

Tempt with Reflections > Cultural Exchange: Tempt with Reflections only allows me to "tempt" with my own weak creatures, primarily Phelddagrif herself. For this reason, cute Crafty Cutpurse related shenanigans proved underwhelming. For 2 more CMC, Cultural Exchange can be more devastating than a board wipe under the right conditions; it dodges hexproof by targeting the player, synergizes with P-Griff's token granting powers, and can even provide powerful troops to me directly.

Crafty Cutpurse > Progenitor Mimic: With Tempt with Reflections out, underwhelming ol' Crafty had one less target in the deck and became an obvious cut. Mimic is the obvious and less janky replacement, being able to directly reproduce the powerful creatures I help my opponents to summon. However, I consider this a highly contested slot and may replace it with any of: Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer, Felidar Sovereign, or Sphere of Safety, etc.

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Revision 8 See all

(1 year ago)

-1 Aetherspouts maybe
+1 Aetherspouts maybe
+1 Flumph maybe
Date added 5 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

3 - 0 Mythic Rares

51 - 0 Rares

15 - 0 Uncommons

9 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.12
Tokens 1/1 G Creature Hippo, Beast 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Boar 2/2 G, Copy Clone, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Faerie 1/1 U, Spirit 1/1 C, Treefolk X/X G
Folders immediate make
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