Whenever I'm running "symmetrical" hug effects, it's usually because I can benefit more off of it, and/or because it's in a political deck and I want peeps to be incentivized to keep me around while I prepare a devastating turn. You wouldn't swing at the person giving you free card draw, would you? :P
My friend used to have a group hug selvala deck where he ramped everyone super hard but had tons of X spells and big creatures to make sure the ramp helped him more
Kenrith is such a great politics commander. If you’re politically savvy you can have the other players begging for those resources. Nothing like holding the strongest board prescience on a leash
I'm currently building a Jon Irenicus politics deck. The EDHREC page for Jon Irenicus is basically all decks that hand out creatures with cripplingly unfun drawbacks. But there is so much untapped potential for a fun politics goad deck there. The commander lets you hand out gift creatures that are perma goaded. So you get to give people big gifts that can't be used to attack you. With those Hunted cards you mentioned, think of what you can get out of someone by saying "I'll give you a 9/9 with trample and two 3/3s" for two mana. And you can keep some creatures with drawbacks so that people know not to double cross you.
I love Bloodthirsty Blade cause someone will eventually play a giant threat like say a voltron commander and it’s still attacking but no longer *my* problem
I agree now! My 2 color group hug is now 5 color politics. Huge change, but so far the results have been great. Also my groups like it a lot more which is the most important thing to me. I'm not just warping the game for no reason. I love the change.
To me, all decks should have politics elements but a group hug deck isn't similar to politics. Group hug decks are more like chaos decks because so many things are able to happen. Group hug adds way more resources to the game so a group hug deck wins by capitalising on that. They should have a higher curve then you can play more big and impactful spells than any of your opponents. I have a group hug deck with a high win rate based on this philosophy. My play group knows it can win so I play pillow fort cards to buy time when setting everybody up for explosive turns.
One time I played against someone claiming to be running a "group hug" deck. It wasn't that, or even a politics deck, it was just a straight up mill deck. Off subject, but was thinking about this recently, and kinda goes with discussing MtG things. Staples - I really don't care for them. I don't mean in the sense of "these are good cards", but the "you must put this in every deck". I've heard that about Sol Ring, Reliquary Tower, Mana Crypt. Then if you're playing black, Demonic/Vampiric Tutor, Orcish Bowmasters, etc. I feel like it not only makes decks too samey, but it also removes the creativity and turns "the 99" into "the 80" (or less).
I’ve been trying to make a parnesse the subtle brushdeck for a while now and even though she’s a bad commander on paper I think she could be really cool if you have spells that already have trade offs and can win based off of the greed the other players have
Actually, there are good group hug decks. They make everyone on the table get resources, but the pilot of the deck is the one that gets benefits from them. For example, every one will draw cards, but my Nekusar will totally murder you. And there are a ton of examples. And sometimes it's not even that straightforward. Group hug deck may draw itself more, then it gives to the other players to find combo pieces and win cons, maybe some symmetrical effects are stronger on my side, than on yours, like, exhume, but it's I who gets Rakdos, the showstopper with a krark's thumb on the field. Or maybe group hug will simply just give to an opponent so much resources, they simply die. Hey, draw 101 cards, i dare you
@@thetrinketmage For definition, group hug gives resourses to each player. No matter the cost, it's still group hug, but painful, if you are nekusar. If you are playing card swith wheel effects more, than just "everyone draws 7 cards" - it's more a wheel theme, than group hug
@@commonfolk4864 I would call that forced draw archetype. Group hug is a hug. It’s in the name it’s friendly if you are dealing damage that’s not a hug that’s a stab
In common terminology this strategy is called Group Slug - you create situations where game actions are filled with barbs and everyone is suffering. This is mostly achieved by breaking symmetry on your own slugging :) Sometimes the addition of soft stax is what makes it a bit more insufferable, but that's life.
Best Deck in the Format for that is - in my humble opinion - Queen Marchesa Aikido, it is my favorite Deck. And i just finished building Gluntch, i never really played straight Group Hug / Pillofort and want to try it with that a bit, but Gluntch itself is obviously more of a politics Commander. I also have the typical "Everybody draws more and get's more mana"-Stuff in it, because sometimes i just want to make a game go absolutely crazy. And it has wincons! Just need to see, how liable they are!
@@thetrinketmage Hm, maybe. I've played him since pretty successful (2nd place, one swing away from the win) and the game was pretty fun. I've removed all unconditional Group Hug, so i can use almost everything in a political way!
Whenever I'm running "symmetrical" hug effects, it's usually because I can benefit more off of it, and/or because it's in a political deck and I want peeps to be incentivized to keep me around while I prepare a devastating turn. You wouldn't swing at the person giving you free card draw, would you? :P
Oh I would swing at you! I’ve seen enough players get left alone too long to just not attack the player drawing cards!
you've never played with my friends. They specifically target the group hug person until they're at 5 life *then* target others
My friend used to have a group hug selvala deck where he ramped everyone super hard but had tons of X spells and big creatures to make sure the ramp helped him more
Kenrith is such a great politics commander. If you’re politically savvy you can have the other players begging for those resources. Nothing like holding the strongest board prescience on a leash
I'm currently building a Jon Irenicus politics deck. The EDHREC page for Jon Irenicus is basically all decks that hand out creatures with cripplingly unfun drawbacks. But there is so much untapped potential for a fun politics goad deck there. The commander lets you hand out gift creatures that are perma goaded. So you get to give people big gifts that can't be used to attack you.
With those Hunted cards you mentioned, think of what you can get out of someone by saying "I'll give you a 9/9 with trample and two 3/3s" for two mana. And you can keep some creatures with drawbacks so that people know not to double cross you.
I love Bloodthirsty Blade cause someone will eventually play a giant threat like say a voltron commander and it’s still attacking but no longer *my* problem
I agree now! My 2 color group hug is now 5 color politics. Huge change, but so far the results have been great. Also my groups like it a lot more which is the most important thing to me. I'm not just warping the game for no reason. I love the change.
Lynde is my favorite politics commander. I get to make deals with people in exchange for not giving them all my curses >:)
that's not politics, that's blackmail! ....which is also a lot of fun >:)
@@hoodiegal close enough haha
lmao the profil picture checks out
Clearly, the best politics are shotgun politics of forcing everyone to attack everyone while I sit behind 7 Ghostly Prisons and inevitably place 2nd.
Good video for this excellent and pretty new archetype
To me, all decks should have politics elements but a group hug deck isn't similar to politics. Group hug decks are more like chaos decks because so many things are able to happen.
Group hug adds way more resources to the game so a group hug deck wins by capitalising on that. They should have a higher curve then you can play more big and impactful spells than any of your opponents. I have a group hug deck with a high win rate based on this philosophy. My play group knows it can win so I play pillow fort cards to buy time when setting everybody up for explosive turns.
One time I played against someone claiming to be running a "group hug" deck. It wasn't that, or even a politics deck, it was just a straight up mill deck.
Off subject, but was thinking about this recently, and kinda goes with discussing MtG things. Staples - I really don't care for them. I don't mean in the sense of "these are good cards", but the "you must put this in every deck". I've heard that about Sol Ring, Reliquary Tower, Mana Crypt. Then if you're playing black, Demonic/Vampiric Tutor, Orcish Bowmasters, etc. I feel like it not only makes decks too samey, but it also removes the creativity and turns "the 99" into "the 80" (or less).
I’ve thought about making a video about staples and I think with the one ring becoming a colorless staple maybe it’s time to talk about it!
I’ve been trying to make a parnesse the subtle brushdeck for a while now and even though she’s a bad commander on paper I think she could be really cool if you have spells that already have trade offs and can win based off of the greed the other players have
Actually, there are good group hug decks. They make everyone on the table get resources, but the pilot of the deck is the one that gets benefits from them. For example, every one will draw cards, but my Nekusar will totally murder you.
And there are a ton of examples. And sometimes it's not even that straightforward. Group hug deck may draw itself more, then it gives to the other players to find combo pieces and win cons, maybe some symmetrical effects are stronger on my side, than on yours, like, exhume, but it's I who gets Rakdos, the showstopper with a krark's thumb on the field.
Or maybe group hug will simply just give to an opponent so much resources, they simply die. Hey, draw 101 cards, i dare you
If you are playing nekusar and you make people draw cards I don’t know if I count that as group hug that’s just a nekusar deck right?
@@thetrinketmage For definition, group hug gives resourses to each player. No matter the cost, it's still group hug, but painful, if you are nekusar.
If you are playing card swith wheel effects more, than just "everyone draws 7 cards" - it's more a wheel theme, than group hug
@@commonfolk4864 I would call that forced draw archetype. Group hug is a hug. It’s in the name it’s friendly if you are dealing damage that’s not a hug that’s a stab
@@thetrinketmage If giant hugs human, human dies usually
In common terminology this strategy is called Group Slug - you create situations where game actions are filled with barbs and everyone is suffering. This is mostly achieved by breaking symmetry on your own slugging :)
Sometimes the addition of soft stax is what makes it a bit more insufferable, but that's life.
Best Deck in the Format for that is - in my humble opinion - Queen Marchesa Aikido, it is my favorite Deck.
And i just finished building Gluntch, i never really played straight Group Hug / Pillofort and want to try it with that a bit, but Gluntch itself is obviously more of a politics Commander. I also have the typical "Everybody draws more and get's more mana"-Stuff in it, because sometimes i just want to make a game go absolutely crazy. And it has wincons! Just need to see, how liable they are!
Gluntch is for sure a good politics commander. Honestly though I think he is better as stax though!
@@thetrinketmage Hm, maybe. I've played him since pretty successful (2nd place, one swing away from the win) and the game was pretty fun. I've removed all unconditional Group Hug, so i can use almost everything in a political way!
Great video!
Does this video contain specifically 100 cards, by chance? Like, is there a decklist that contains these cards?
No, I’m talking about the archetype in general