While 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering is a game that is often played one-on-one, the largely popular 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Commander format is meant to be played with up to four people. For this reason, Commander is home to a unique deck archetype that can't be found in any other format: 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Group Hug.

Group Hug decks look to garner favor with other players by offerin𒐪g them helpful effects and bribes, incentivizing your opponents to ♏attack each other instead of you. While some see them as a way of speeding up games and 'kingmaking', group hug can be a particularly sneaky archetype that keeps you out of the spotlight until it's your time to finally win.

Updated on October 16, 2024 by Joe Parlock: Bloomburrow gave us a renewed interest in Group Hug, thanks to both Ms. Bumbleflower and the gift mechanic finding ways to treat your opponent. Group Hug is better than ever, so perhaps pick one of these for your next Commander deck?

19 Angus Mackenzie ജ𒉰

I'll Save You, You Save Me

Thanks to being on the reserved list, An🔥gus Mackenzie may cost a pretty penny, but its ability is definitely a fun one.

For the cost of 💧a green, a white, and a blue, you can tap Angus to prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn. This is a repeatable effect that can lock an opponent out of dealing combat damage for the entirety of the game. While not immediately obvious as a group hug commander, being able to tactically save your opponents from combat damage could set ♛you up for some highly political plays.

18 Shizuko, Caller♉ Of Autumnﷺ

GIve Everyone A Bit More Mana

Printed in Betrayers of Kamigawa, Shizuko, Caller of Autumn is an efficient option for a mono-green Group Hug commander, notably providing each player with additional mana to spend during their turns, by a🌳dding three green at the 🍌beginning of each player's upkeep.

This mana doesn't empty from youꦜr pool between the phases of your turn.

While this effect was designed at a time in which mana burn 🍰was still a rule of Magic, causing unspent mana to deal damage to its owner, ไbut now it's quite helpful for those looking to access political bargaining chips in the midst of Commander games. As this mana is green, a Shizuko deck may include spells that allow you to benefit from it more than opponents, such as Helix Pinnacle.

17 Ci⭕rdan, The Shipwright

Diplomacy In Action

Voting is an incredibly underrated mechanic in Commander. While we've had some commanders like Davros and Tivit make use of it, Cirdan from the Lord of the Rings Elf Commander deck 🏅uses diplomacy to give your opponents lots of treaꦿts.

Everyone who gets voted for draws a card, which is neat. But everyone who doesn't gets to put 🌃a permanent into play for free, which is even better. By rigging the vote you can make sure you keep ahead in true politica꧒l fashion.

16 ꦆ Xyris, The Writhing Storm 𒉰

I've Had It All These Mother-Loving Snakes In This Mother-Loving Pod

Being hit by a commander is never fun, but at🀅 least Xyris turns its combat damage into both yourself and the opponent you hit. Landing hits is even easier th♈anks to having flying too, so you can force an opponent to collude with you whether they'd like to block it or not. This trigger is great for political negotiations as you're capable of filling any opponent's hand with three new cards.

Additionally, Xyris provides you with 1/1 Snake tokens every time an opponent draws a card outside of their draw step. This combos nicely with Xyris' combat trigger. More importantly though, it punishes your opponents for greedily drawing cards. Commander games are often home to a lot of card draw outside of your regular draw step, so you'll quickly🃏 be drowning in Snakes.

15 🍃 Gor Muldrak, Amphinologist

Suddenly, Salamanders

Group Hug might be about sharing the love, but it's also all about encouraging opponents to attack each other, and Gor Muldrak, Amphinologist is perfect for it. He uniquely provides both you and permanents you control with protection from Salamanders. While this may seem rather niche due to Salamanders being an 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:incredibly rare creature type, at the beginning ofౠ your end step, each play🤪er who controls the least number of creatures creates a 4/3 Salamander token.

Not only does this assist players who are falling behind in the game to garner political favour, Gor Muldrak provides you and your permanents with protection from these tokens, so opponents have little to no incentive to attack you with them. In otherಌ words, y♕ou're giving your opponents big sticks to hit each other with while you wear a suit of armour.

14 Ian Malcolm, Ch💃aotician 🍃

Chaos, Er, Finds A Way

Chaos is a controversial deck archetype in Commander, as people generally don't like having their cards jumbled up and handed to other players. If you don't care about that, though, Ian Malcolm, Chaotician is a hilarious way to get people to play e♔ach others' cards for them.

If someone tries to draw too many cards, they have to exile a card off the 🃏top of their ꧒library. This then forms a big pot that any player can dip into, provided they only cast exiled cards they don't own. Pinching someone's Cyclonic Rift or Omniscience for your own needs is the definition of chaos.

13 Seizan, Perverter𓆏 Of Truth ꦆ

Drawing The Game To A Close

While mono-black decks are typically not associated with the Group Hug archetype, Seizan, Perverter of Truth is a Demon Spirit capable of benefiting every player by letting them draw two ext🍌ra cards in their upkeep. The downside is that they also lose two life for the pleasure.

💎While this effect does deal damage to everyone, the card advantage benefit Seizan provides outweighs its life costs. Even moreso, you can throw down a Sheoldred, The Apocalypse to turn the two cards they draw into even more damage. Does it still count as group hug? Probably not, but it's effective.

12 Mathas, Fiend Seeker ꦯ

Let Them Fight Among Themselves

Mathas is a Vampire that allows for fun and unique negotiations in a game, urging players to work together so that they might all benefit from a reward by throwing bounty counters onto creatures. When that creature dies, every player but its controller draws t🦋wo cards🌸 and gains two life.

Mathasꦑ forces your opponents to work together if they want that tasty card draw, by picking off the creatures you put targets on. And seeing as you can't put the counters on anything you control, you'll always be📖 benefitting too, which is the main thing.

11 🍎 🍷 Karona, False God

We'd Still Worship This Love

While most group hug decks like to give your opponents easier ways to access their own resources, Karona goes a step further by giving them your commander as well. If anyone is play🧸ing a kindred deck, they're going to absolutely love you.

Karona is an Avatar, so if you want to swing out with an 8/8, name 🌺Avatar as the type.

On attack🔯, the controller of Karona can pick a creature type to give every one of those creatures +3/+3 until the end of the turn. You'll need to stock up on ways to protect yourself, but in WUB꧂RG you've got everything from Ghostly Prison to Angus MacKenzie to work with.

10 Gluntch, The Bestower 🌳 ♉

It's Time For Gluntch

Aside from just being fun to say (Gluntch), Gluntch forces you to spread love across the table by picking three diওfferent players and giving them two +1/+1 counters, a card, and two Treasure tokens respectively. Of course, one of those players could be you, giving you an erasy way to both get yourself ahead and curry the favour of everyone else at the table.

Gluntch is a tricky commander to build around, because there's no outright downside to anything you give your opponents like in a lot of others. Nils, Discipline Enforcer can stop anything you've buffed with counters from attacking you, but mostly your goal will be trying to outpace the table with carefully chosen bene💞fits𒈔 for yourself.