(Bitter ReunionBitter Reunion | Art by Jake Murray)

Becoming Your Pod’s Military Industrial Complex

Aggro, the first to deal damage. Midrange and its early game chaos. Control, with its faithful counters and removal. And... the furtive Group Hug, so easily forgotten. With the strength of the pod, they challenged notions of traditional play…

Except the Aggro player crashed out turn four. The Control player spent all their mana to keep the Midrange player stunlocked all game.

The only one to profit was the Group Hug player, who never had a win-con. So now you’re three hours into a “forty-minute game of Commander” where decking out is the largest threat you’ll face.

Let’s pour some gasoline on the dumpster fire that is an average game of Commander, shall we?

I first learned about Group Hugs with Gluntch and never recovered.

What is Group Hug?

A group hug is when you get more than two people, traditionally three through nine, and you have all of them hug at the same time.

Generally, this begins as a traditional hug with further individuals clinging to that central connection, effectively trapping them.

In Magic, though, it’s a bit more tongue-and-cheek given only one person can win Commander.

The core premise of a Group Hug deck is that your commander’s ability, and perhaps the rest of your deck, functions to assist the other players in their gameplans.

This can be through life gain, card draw, creature creation/buffing, or any other means of empowering your opponents.

The example I always think of is Gluntch, the BestowerGluntch, the Bestower, who chooses three different players to give benefits to every one of your turns.

Crucially, Gluntch cannot choose the same player for every benefit. Therefore, its controller is “forced” to help multiple players. And so the group hug widens to encompass the entire table.

Aggro players want to win quickly. Midrange tries to secure the early game and clean up later. Control wants to ruin everyone’s fun. But Group Hug?

Why Group Hug?

Group Hug is a flexible playstyle, capable of being played in any color combination to varying degrees of effectiveness. Multi-colored commanders such as those below:

Well, black shows up least often, but that was to be expected.

There are a few different types of people who would willingly choose to help their opponents in Commander.

You might know some of them. You might be one of them. But you must first understand your enemy to defeat your enemy.

Chaos Gremlins

The first type are the chaos gremlins.

These are individuals who, for whatever reason, didn’t come to win. They came to cause chaos and enable their friends to enact mutually assured destruction.

Zedruu the GreatheartedZedruu the Greathearted is an example, actively supplying your opponents creatures while sustaining yourself via card draw and life gain.

Pair it with something like Harmless OfferingHarmless Offering or Tahngarth, First MateTahngarth, First Mate and suddenly you’re a cardboard arms dealer.

The goal of these chaos gremlins isn’t to “win,” the goal is to cause problems. Oftentimes, they have no win condition built into their deck.

While technically enabling their opponents to take one another out helps get them closer to victory, these decks often can’t stand on their own.

Expect to see a lot of goading your opponents’ creatures to attack everyone but the chaos gremlin and then… Nothing.

Because the chaos gremlin won as soon as they sat down to play.

These might not "win games," but they sure make them memorable!

Speedrunners

Some folks wanna watch the world burn. And they don’t have all night! So they grease the wheels of the game, “helping” everyone insofar as it expedites the ending of the game.

Yurlok of Scorch ThrashYurlok of Scorch Thrash would fall under this. Sure, it reintroduces mana-burn into the game, where you lose life if you have unspent mana left.

But it also gives free mana to every player. Jund mana, but mana nonetheless. Black has removal. Red can damage. Green can buff. Even if circumstantial, this still is a benefit to the speedrunner’s opponents.

Nekusar, the MindrazerNekusar, the Mindrazer gives card draw at the cost of damage. Xyris, the Writhing StormXyris, the Writhing Storm rewards opponents for taking commander damage. Vazi, Keen NegotiatorVazi, Keen Negotiator gives free treasure tokens to opponents explicitly so you can profit from them.

The game will NOT last long with all this card draw.

Realpolitik

Then there are polysci majors. You think I’m joking, but I’m quite serious!

Commander is fundamentally a game of negotiation. As useful as mana is, as powerful as card draw is, nothing matters if the blue player can NegateNegate your most powerful spell and the red player keeps your board clear with Breaking PointBreaking Point.

You need to be able to communicate effectively with the other players to ensure the heat is off of you.

But to do that you need leverage.

Negative leverage—“not” doing something—is well and good. Promising to not swing your 16/16 Kalonian HydraKalonian Hydra at someone will have some weight to it!

But positive leverage—giving something—is so much more effective. Think of how much leverage Ms. BumbleflowerMs. Bumbleflower gives by offering card draw to a blue player.

Suddenly, Group Hug goes from being an instrument of chaos to a bargaining chip. These are the Group Hug players who are the most dangerous. Because unlike their chaos gremlin siblings, they almost always have a plan.

Positive or negative, leverage is always useful.

A Terrible Example

A Group Hug player might have a Gor Muldrak, AmphinologistGor Muldrak, Amphinologist deck. Because they have protection from all the 4/3 Salamanders their opponents now control, their opponents focus on fighting one another.

If opponents attack them with non-Salamanders, they use their Salamanders as blockers. Once the Salamanders die, the Group Hug player has the fewest creatures and gets more Salamanders. Likely at a higher rate than everyone else through means such as Parallel LivesParallel Lives.

The Group Hug player counters anything that would destroy their commander. They use their card draw from blue and mana from green to make their creatures stronger than anyone else's’.

Perhaps they have Ezuri's PredationEzuri's Predation or Kibo, Uktabi PrinceKibo, Uktabi Prince to ensure they have some degree of offensive capability.

In short, they have a “functional” deck or some degree of win condition independent of relying on their opponents bludgeoning each other to zero life.

The rates of success on this vary, though, particularly given that reputations tend to be easy to acquire and hard to leave behind. And once you reveal yourself to be a schemer, no one will ever trust you again.

Sometimes, your deck needs a lil extra kick to it.

Synergies

Synergy With Blue

Of course blue players would take “helping your friends” and make it evil. Though it is quite devious, so I give them some credit.

When looking at Group Hug commanders, a great deal of them have blue in some capacity. Kwain, Itinerant MeddlerKwain, Itinerant Meddler is a great example. On its face, Kwain is simply a helpful card that gives everyone more card-draw and life gain.

And then Heliod, the Radiant DawnHeliod, the Radiant Dawn turns this cute and funny little rabbit into number #2 on the IRS Most Wanted List for tax evasion.

Not to mention, it is never a good idea to allow blue players to draw cards. Minn, Wily IllusionistMinn, Wily Illusionist aside, the sheer nonsense a blue player can wreak when allowed more than a single card in-hand is simply unacceptable.

Blue players really know how to twist everything to their benefit, huh?

Synergy With Proliferate

Did you know Proliferate affects any player or permanent with tokens that you choose? This means that if you have a Atraxa, Praetors' VoiceAtraxa, Praetors' Voice deck, you control whether or not the green players get to have fun. All those +1/+1 counters could be doubled—quadrupled—if only they do what you say.

And why would they turn on you? You are keeping their creatures afloat. They’ll save you for last, always. Yet with Ezuri, Stalker of SpheresEzuri, Stalker of Spheres, you drew enough cards to be able to respond to them with an AetherizeAetherize.

Suddenly, they really need you to proliferate again… And then... you become indispensable.

This is the definition of malicious compliance.

Synergy With Goading

Goading creatures force pressure on your opponents while leaving you safe. However, commanders such as Kros, Defense ContractorKros, Defense Contractor leave the goaded creature with a shield token and a “go get ‘em, champ!” Rendmaw, Creaking NestRendmaw, Creaking Nest spams the board with flying tokens who attack anyone but you.

In effect, these sorts of commanders do the heavy lifting of forcing everyone to fight one another without relying on the agreement of your opponents.

And, because you’re playing Group Hug and actively assisting your opponents strategies, they’ll see no reason to stop you. Let them fight, and they will take your gifts. You and the survivor will deal with the one-on-one when it comes to it.

If you want to goad your opponent, simply give them more creatures to goad!

Word of Warning

No one who plays Group Hug legitimately wants you to succeed. If they claim to, they are lying. Take them out swiftly and resist their temptations as you would an evil spirit.

If possible, flee like your life is on the line. The rest of your pod will distract them long enough for you to escape. Their sacrifice shall not be in vain, for you shall live a happy, hugless life.

Wait, that sounds so sad.

Sikora

Sikora's a writer, game developer, and game master for TTRPGs with a love of storytelling. Generic as that might be for someone writing articles about Magic: the Gathering, they make sure to put their passion behind their words and can talk ad nauseum. Truly, letting them write articles was a mistake.