You know, I'm surprised this hasn't been a topic already. What are some of your favorite cards for the group-hug strategy?
For me, it's because of how tiring it gets to play against group hug. I've found that they king make at the beginning of the game and just make it impossible for the 2 unfortunate players. It's a kinda boring experience for both the player who had been the target of kingmaking and the players having to deal with the essential 1v2, not to mention, the group hug player basically never wins games. On occasion, I've seen a
Phelddagrif deck get in everybody's good graces until they suddenly just get infinite mana & a
Suture Priest and bada bing bada boom win the game, but most of my experiences are with Zedruu &
Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis decks that readily admit they have no win condition. How they enjoy the game, I'll never know.
~~Kingmaking rant over~~
I think cards that generate you more advantage than your opponents but still curry favor are cool. The Offering cycle (
Sylvan Offering,
Benevolent Offering,
Infernal Offering,
Intellectual Offering, and
Volcanic Offering) is probably the best example of what I'm talking about.
Benevolent Offering &
Sylvan Offering are probably the best of these cards, as it is likely you can take advantage of the tokens better than your opponents, and giving the tokens to, say, a Kess player for some free blockers might make them less likely to remove your stuff, even if they can't abuse the tokens as well as you can. Not to mention,
Benevolent Offering feeds itself, so you can give one opponent a few tokens, give another opponent a little bit of life, while grabbing the tokens and giving yourself an extra 6 life over that second opponent b/c of the tokens you just got.