Why Group Hug?

There are 20,000 cards in the commander card pool! That is an incredible amount of options and it intimidated me away from learning to play Commander for a long time. Which is a shame because in my opinion Commander is the best way to play Magic the Gathering. So I’d like to share how I used group hug decks as a quick way to learn the format and along the way decided that it’s my favorite way to play my favorite format!

    The first reason is that you are turbo charging card draw and ramp for the other players at the table so you will get to see a lot of cards played. The variety and power level of the cards might shock and overwhelm you at first but it’s also very informative seeing what people play when they are given a ton of options. You will start to develop a feel for the staples in each color relatively quickly. 

    The second reason is that it keeps you out of the line of fire. If you are helping the table with card draw or ramp and not using removal to mess up their plans then they are a lot less likely to knock you out of the game. This gives you a chance to analyze what they are playing and how they are playing it. It should be stated at this point that if winning is your number one goal that group hug is probably not gonna be your jam.

    It is widely agreed that artist block and writers block originates from having too many options. So many writers and artists make rules to limit themselves so as to avoid blocks. So in the same way choosing group hug when deck building helps you to avoid creative blocks by narrowing down that 20,000 card pool. It gives you a place to start and a direction to build in.



Reasons why Group Hug makes learning to play Commander fast and easy

  • You get to see a lot of cards played

  • It keeps you from worrying about winning so you can take notice of what and how your opponents are playing

  • It narrows down the card pool so you have a place to start when brewing your first decks


    I hope this helps anyone looking to start playing in the Commander format! Check out the STAPLES section of this website for more details about what each color can do for you when building your group hug decks! 


-marksquare