Well bobtoll, "aiming for second place" itself can apply pressure to perform, so I don't really think of it that way. My only aim really is for everyone at the table to have a good time, with lots of laughs at the way many of these obscure cards do what they do. The only reason that second place would be nice is because the fun would just last longer.

The reason behind putting this deck together to start with was my observation that many of the players I've met are so consumed by winning that they forget that this is just a game after all, and games are meant to be played for fun, especially EDH.

If I can remove some of the salt, even if it's only for one game, I feel like I've done a service.

Love the theme, RamaLama. You are right, its important to remember that its just a game. I like how you've set this up to just play along and have a good time.

Hi, interesting deck idea!

What about Hunted Wumpus, Tempting Wurm and Spectral Searchlight?

Thanks for the comments, bushido_man96 and Bxbx.

I've looked at Hunted Wumpus and Tempting Wurm pretty hard in the past, Bxbx. The main problem I have with Hunted Wumpus is that it's a 6/6, and because of that it can be perceived as a threat. It's a good hug card, but that down side just scares me off.

Tempting Wurm has a bit of this problem too, but my main issue with the Wurm is that that I'm giving out so much card draw with this deck that if someone has a Reliquary Tower type effect on the field and the others don't, it's pretty much game over since they'll have a large hand full of cards to dump onto the battlefield.

I haven't really considered Spectral Searchlight before. I don't think it does quite enough to be worth a card slot. If it gave all opponents one mana of any color, it might be worth a closer look.

It's like Game of Thrones.

If this was my deck, I would have a Mindslaver and some ways to tutor it and return it from the graveyard. That way you can cut more deals. Given the nature of this deck, mindslaver will be even more fun than normal. And it would be very game of thrones.

No control elements for me, masterpeez. I don't want to win or try to control the game, just give out free stuff and that's all.

Throw in Approach of the Second Sun just for fun and surprise everyone when you pull it off.

Ramalama, is it tiring to have to constantly have to say "I don't want a win con" on this comment page?

I've had this deck long enough now, NimbusNobody, that I've pretty much gotten used to people not understanding the "no win con" aspect of the deck. It does require a complete rethinking of how to play an EDH game, so I do understand it when people scratch their head and wonder what the hell is going on here.

It might would help if I didn't archive the comments every so often, but people don't want to do too much reading when they come here, so I try not to give them pages and pages of comments unless they actually click on the comment archive.

Actually I'm just constantly amazed by how many people view, upvote and comment on this deck, and the thought of people playing this deck or some variation of it gives me great pleasure, especially because for those who do "get it", I know how much fun they will have playing it.

I think i may actually buy this deck for shits n giggles. I know a person or two in my play group that would get so annoyed. I love this!!

Thank you for spreading fun and, dare I say, hippo love in a format where folks get antangled in their egos surprinsingly often, oh RamaLama the great

Thanks for building this. I love it when people can set aside the urge to be a spike and realize that Magic is a game after all. This is super fun.

Thanks for all the hippo love guys. I would pass all this on to Pheldy, but he already has a big head. (See what I did there?) /;-)

I run a very similar deck myself. It's called "Stop fighting friends!" and has plenty similar issues to you with the no win con thing. It doesn't help to have a friend in the playgroup who just naturally focuses group hug decks simply because they help other people out. My personal end goal with the deck is too achieve what I call world peace, which is to force a draw. In many cases, I force a draw by literally forcing everyone to draw out their entire decks with minds aglow, while tripling everyone's mana and untapping it with awakening. lol (Of course they ahve to agree to it but that is the point after all, most players need to agree to be peaceful, to have true world peace.) It has actually achieved world peace multiple times now which is awesome. Anyways, sorry for the lengthy rant just wanted to give some moral support to a fellow no wincon user. p.s. your deck has given me some ideas for my own, so thanks.

It's weird to see a Phelddagrif deck that's the opposite of mine. I run an aura voltron deck that's the scourge of my play group with him as the commander. There's literally no reason for him to be the commander, but Phelddagrif was the card that got me into the game. My friends showed me this game had a winged hippo in it and I couldn't NOT play it after that.

I should probably keep this relevant by adding in some kind of suggestion... Mystic Barrier? Maybe you could keep people in line with the threat of curse cards like Curse of Exhaustion?

Sorry, seeing other people play Phelddagrif makes me sentimental...

Wow. I really need to try this deck. Whenever I play Magic with my friends it's all serious and all about who can get the best win cons and win the most. I need to try this deck for a change!

Thanks for the comments guys. It's good to see other people having fun with Pheldy.

This deck looks so cute to play, I'm not saying it to be rude cause it looks really cool, and I hope one day I can get the cards for this deck because I never played commander before. Awesome deck!

Group hug is great until one or more persons at the table is playing competitively :/ I've found that decks like these mostly enable the scummiest of combo players.

Also, this may sound strange but being overfed cards, mana, and free drops is actually not a great feeling. Instead of the deck playing like it was designed, it instead is like playing planechase, except everyone is stuck on a plane that says "the game is now yugioh".

Maybe have some sort of wincon so you can say "I'm doing all this for a reason, I swear!" Perhaps Reins of Power?

Why do combo players gotta be scummy? ;)

I dunno, I like group hug as a once-in-a-while thing. But it gets very old very fast. Games don't feel normal. Then again, it mostly depends on how you play it and how everyone at the table takes advantage of it. But most of the time, i don't prefer to play with it (I say "with" rather than "against")

This has a wincon, it's called minds aglow. lol It's card description reads, if a few players agree with you, everybody wins. lol

If you think about it, a main phase Dictate of Kruphix is a wincon, considering all your opponents are deeper then you in library size. Unless you have the scummy combo player (cough cough, me) then they just win with lab man.

Now,I love this kinda thing. I have a deck that runs like this. I also have a mono blue that i use to regulate chaos games. In chaos I'm essentially the wall that stops stupid crap from happening. I might just build this thing to be my new nice guy deck. Good work. +1