What follows is the story of how I came to believe that I was the first player to ever think of playing group hug…

Before I tried Commander my favorite way to play Magic was Two Headed Giant! When building a Two Headed Giant deck cards that say each opponent are really strong because even though your opponents are sharing one giant body they are still two separate heads thus counting as two opponents! This doubles the effect of the '“each opponent” cards!

So when I went to build my first commander deck I did a gatherer search for “each player” in an attempt to find some sort of advantage at the table! What I found was a bunch of cards that helped everyone at the table. Which made me decide to play a bunch of them in an effort to see more cards played per game so I could learn the commander staple pool quickly. Plus I’ve always liked to play decks that confuse rather than impress. 

    When I arrived at the shop and explained what I was building people were like uhhhh you should google group hug! Oh and edhrec. And the rest, as they say, is history! I was a little embarrassed that I thought I had invented this new way to magic but no big deal.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago I wrote a blog post entitled Free Hugs and the Art of Giving Away Wins… and it happened again! I built the deck which I ended up calling The Giveoplasm (Architect link here) and showed up to the shop and explained what I had built...

…So it’s called Kingmaker and it’s totally already a thing! Farts! There is truly nothing new under the sun! 

Anywho the deck works like a dream and is super powerful too! It uses self mill and reanimation to create giant monsters and then gives them away. I usually wait until turn four or five and pass out three dice. The player in the lead gets a six sider the player in second gets a ten sider and the underdog gets a twelve sider. Whoever wins the roll gets my help! They choose my attacks as well as get creatures donated to them when possible! If they beat the other players at the table I scoop and they win! If they are taken out I pass out dice and the remaining players roll again. 

It’s really fun but it is also REALLY disruptive! If the deck functions correctly it warps the game around itself. 

So as it turns out giving away a win in Commander is already a thing! I didn’t invent that either! In one way I’m a bit embarrassed that once again I thought I had come up with something new but also I’m on my own journey here and the fact that I keep stumbling into these pre-existing deck archetypes makes me happy!