Blue in Magic the Gathering… Where to begin? It is a very polarizing color and usually people love it or hate it! It should be stated up front that blue is my favorite flavor in the color pie, I love it! I’ve always played blue in standard for card draw reasons and it comes through in that area for group hug too!

Dictate of Kruphix is a flash speed, enchantment version of Howling Mine! I love repeat effects in Commander! They make my decks perform more consistently.

Speaking of which, Well of Ideas, while more expensive to cast, adds a lot of extra value by allowing you to draw two cards when you cast it and then giving you an extra card draw above what your opponents are getting every turn!

Folio of Fancies can be a win condition in the right deck but players are always happy to not have a hand size restriction when you are giving them extra card draw. I find that this speeds up the game immensely as well since you don’t have to wait at the end of every players turn while they discard down to hand size.

Kami of the Crescent Moon is a Howling Mine on a creature and can also make for a great group hug overdraw commander alongside Forced Fruition type effects!

Prosperity is a very powerful card for overdraw decks but it is also just a really good way to help the whole table on turn 3 or 4.

Soaring Show-Off is really good alongside flicker effects but it also gives you a flying blocker for the late game!

Noble Benefactor is a table tutor and can really end a game if you are playing with combo players. Just be careful when you make the deal to block or attack with this creature unless you are trying to end the game!

Jace Beleren, aka party Jace, is always welcomed by everyone at the table!

The great thing about blue is the versatility for card draw. Do you want all your effects tied to a creature? Kami (the Howling Mine on a creature) or Soaring Show-Off are great options. What about something artifact centric? Folio of Fancies! Enchantments? Dictate of Kruphix is arguably the best version of the Howling Mine effect since you can play it at flash speed giving yourself the advantage before your opponents. Or, you can prove you are pure of heart by playing it on your turn! 

But blue does more than draw cards in group hug! Let’s take a look at some more effects!

What? For free? I love giving people free things in Magic. The board state gets nutty in a hurry!

This makes Braids, Conjuror Adept one of my favorite group hug commanders! Giving the table a free permanent (unless it’s an enchantment) on each of their upkeeps makes a big impact on the board!

Show and Tell is another super fun card than can easily come down early and jump start a game!

Dream Halls is super fun and never fails to create interesting board states! I wrote a weekly blog about it! If you want to check it out click here!

Donate, Wrong Turn and Puca’s Mischief are all very fun ways to give away permanents! A few notes on these. Wrong Turn doesn’t have to target one of your creatures! Puca’s Mischief is a nonland permanent so it can trade itself thereby starting a weird trade war around the table. It should also be noted that many of the group hug cards are symmetrical so if things get rough trading them away with Puca’s Mischief is always an option. Trading a Dictate of Kruphix for a Hullbreacher is a blow out!

Next lets take a look at some of the extra turn spells you can share with the table!

I’m pretty sure Time Warp has rarely been played to benefit others but I find it to be a great tool for group hug! I run very little removal but giving an ally an extra turn to help take care of some of the looming threats on the table is just as good! Walk the Aeons and Karn’s Temporal Sundering have the same wording so they can give you the same effect! Just make sure to add some caveats to the deal before you give someone extra turns!

Eon Frolicker is the same effect on a creature except it specifies that you have to give an opponent an extra turn so it is less flexible but it can have a big impact in a flicker deck!

Of course the bulk of counter Magic lives in blue as well and I run it in certain decks that need to keep certain permanents in play to function properly, for instance if I’m running mana dorks as ramp, or a deck that relies on keeping my commander in play. White just so happens to be the best color to dodge removal with but blue has some fun options too! If you wanna check out my Group Hug Staples for white click here!

There are a lot of blue options for defensive play. I’ve written a blog post about playing The Rules of Improv Magic in group hug! Check it out here! Vanishing, Neurok Stealthsuit and Spellskite are all great! They allow you to react to removal and save your precious permanent for just a few blue, or in the case of Spellskite, a few life points!

Teferi’s Time Twist and Siren’s Ruse also work great! The ability to make a spell fizzle without countering it is very group hug in my opinion! They still got to play it but they targeted the political player so it didn’t turn out like they thought! And that is why blue is the color of surprise in Magic!

- marksquare