I am relatively new to the commander format so I’m constantly learning about new cards. I saw Yavimaya Dryad for the first time the other day and I said, “Oh hey, that’s a group hug card!” There were a lot of confused looks around the table. Of course the idea behind the wording on this card is to make the Dryad unblockable but once they read the card again they had to admit it could in fact be used to help another player too! This is one of the main reasons I use Scryfall and Gatherer so much when deck building. A search for key words can yield some excellent and unexpected results! 

Take a look at these and see if you can think of ways to use them to help people out!

Playing Emrakul, the Promised End is like asking the table to do a group hug trust fall. Playing any Eldrazi in fact will often put a target on your back! But you can take control of someone’s turn and do exactly what they want you to do and then they get another turn after that. So it’s basically an extra turn spell but you get a huge blocker or a possible finisher out of it, if you roll that way! I find this card goes a long way toward getting people to start thinking about the multiple uses of many commonly used Magic cards!

Notice the wording on Time Warp, it says target player! It can be a fabulous group hug card and can really help a player who has fallen behind. When looking at Noxious Revival, again target player is the key. This allows you to politic your way to an answer if someone is plaguing the board with something oppressive. If anyone at the table has an answer in their graveyard you can help them get that answer back to their hand. This allows you to play removal without playing removal!

These are just a few of the cards that have stood out to me this week and have created memorable experiences at the table! I wish you good luck and creative lines of play at the table this week! Reach out to me on Twitter to let me know about the dual use cards that you like!

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