Sergeant John BentonSergeant John Benton | Art by Wei Guan

Hello there! Welcome back to Archetypes of Imagination, the weekly series where I build decks based on popular Commander archetypes using Scryfall's tagging system and EDHREC's Tag pages. This week, we'll be building a deck focused on being nice to our opponents, also known as Group Hug.

Partially inspired by Spice8Rack's recent video on group hug decks, and partially just because I'm such a nice person, we'll be focusing on helping out the other players at the table this week. There's a ton of great group hug commander options, including the recently released Ms. BumbleflowerMs. Bumbleflower that Spice talked about. But, I'm looking for a more direct way to win the game - a way to leverage my kindness into victory with ease. So, this train of thought brought me to… Sergeant John BentonSergeant John Benton!

It's one of the simpler Commander designs in recent memory, but it's certainly a powerful card. For , we get a 2/4 with trample and haste. And, when this creature hits one of our opponents, both us and the opposing player will draw an amount of cards equal to the damage it dealt. While Benton only has two base power, he's got some extremely relevant abilities (trample and haste) that make him a prime target for pump spells. But, we'll also need some ways to protect our commander, because our hybrid voltron-group hug game plan will make Benton a prime target for opposing removal spells.

It looks like we've got a solid road map for this deck. Let's get brewing

Pump Spells for Sergeant John Benton

To find pump spells, I searched Scryfall for cards tagged with “enlarge,” “combat trick,” “boost power,” and “giant growth.” There were a ton of options, so I'll stick to talking about the best ones for this deck.

Some of my favorite spells are those that provide some benefit beyond just bumping up Benton's power. For example, Kaya's OnslaughtKaya's Onslaught also gives him double strike to make sure our opponents feel really, really, really loved by our commander as he smacks them twice. There's also Go ForthGo Forth, a newer card that can act as a pump spell or fetch a land in a pinch. Although that'll rarely come up with the amount of cards we'll be drawing, I like having that flexibility.

Then, one of my favorite combat tricks of all time is here too: Gift of the ViperGift of the Viper. Because Benton has trample, we can ensure that all but one of his power gets dealt to our opponents as combat damage. The interaction between trample and deathtouch is super powerful, so it's great that this spell gives our commander a deathtouch counter to ensure it can keep crashing through for damage turn after turn.

There's also more classic pump spells here, like the ever-useful InvigorateInvigorate (free spells are always good), the math-intensive Exponential GrowthExponential Growth (to ensure we're spreading the love), and the hard-to-get-rid-of Gryff's BoonGryff's Boon (repeatable evasion and a small power boost work well together).

In case our opponents don't take kindly to our kindness, I've also included a whole host of protection spells. These can be found with the “protects creature” tag on Scryfall, but I chose to focus on cards that could also pump up our commander (and thus only primarily used ones from our previous Scryfall search).

There's a ton of these, but my favorites include Vines of VastwoodVines of Vastwood, Take Up the ShieldTake Up the Shield, and Tyvar's StandTyvar's Stand Vines is a classic, protecting a creature for and giving it +4/+4 if we can pay another . This card is great with or without the kicker, so it's got a slot in this deck. Take Up the ShieldTake Up the Shield won me many a Outlaws of Thunder Junction Draft last year, so it's possible I'm biased towards this card. But protecting a creature and giving it lifelink for a turn, while also providing it with a permanent (albeit, small) power and toughness boost is a lot for just one card.

Lastly, Tyvar's StandTyvar's Stand is a great mana sink should we have some extra on hand, or an on-rate protection spell should that suit the game state better. There's not much more I can ask for from a card.

Making Use of a Full Hand

Because we're being so nice to our opponents, our hand will usually be full of cards. Aside from effects like Reliquary TowerReliquary Tower, it'll be hard to use all of those cards before we have to discard them. There's a few effects in this deck that make good use of a full hand, though, like Nostalgic DreamsNostalgic Dreams. This can let us rebuy our best discarded cards, and any other cards that have happened to make their way to the graveyard over the course of the game (like our pump spells). So, in the late game, if we've got a handful of lands, we can exchange those for our favorite power and toughness boosting effects!

Should we be more interested in killing our opponents with those cards, we can use Inner Calm, Outer StrengthInner Calm, Outer Strength and Empyrial PlateEmpyrial Plate to do just that.

Before I show you the full decklist, I wanted to shout out a pair of cards from Lost Caverns of Ixalan that make a big splash in this deck. Kutzil, Malamet ExemplarKutzil, Malamet Exemplar and Sovereign Okinec AhauSovereign Okinec Ahau pair extremely well together: they provide extra power to our already-buffed creatures, protection from our opponents' interactive spells, and even extra card advantage. 

I find it so cool that two cards from the same set work so well in this deck! Those Magic designers really know what they're doing, huh.

Sergeant John Benton Group Hug Deck List

Anyways, as promised, here's the full decklist:

Hit the Road, Jack

Thanks for reading the latest edition of Archetypes of Imagination! Before you go, I wanted to talk about a few cards that I think really make this deck spectacular. We all know that every deck needs board wipes, but the specific ones you choose can make a big difference. Because this deck cares so much about its commander, it would really love to keep it around even when the rest of the board becomes too threatening. That's why I included Single CombatSingle Combat and Promise of LoyaltyPromise of Loyalty as this deck's sweepers. It's not too big of an adjustment from the typical Wrath of GodWrath of God I'd slam in a -based deck, but little adjustments like this are my favorite part about EDH deck building!

Thanks once again for reading! I'll see you all next week, for another edition of Archetypes of Imagination: a group slug deck!