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Deck Reviews / [EDH / Commander] Kynaios and Tiro - Group Hug

« on: January 13, 2017, 04:13:35 am »

Look what we fought for. Look what we built together.

Deck: Big Ol' Gay Group Hugs

Multiplayer EDH is a format of fun. I find that people have the most fun when they aren't a) mana screwed, b) mana flooded with no spells to cast, or c) staring down an endlessly stalled board state after 3 hours of playing and nobody's died yet.

Hug it out

Symmetric effects ensure that everyone gets to play their deck.

//Symmetric Ramp
Mana Flare
Dictate of Karametra
Zhur-Taa Ancient
Rites of Flourishing
Borderland Explorer
Helm of Awakening (not ramp per se, but makes everything cheaper)

//Symmetric Card Draw
Dictate of Kruphix
Howling Mine
Temple Bell
Dakra Mystic
Well of Ideas (... it's *kinda* symmetric. if you tilt your head. and lie.)

And then there's this guy. He's like a group hug swiss army knife. Player needs a specific color of mana? Have one of my two dozen lands I don't need. Need to make an excellent pun about giving someone a clue? I will *give* them that clue.

Zedruu the Greathearted


Win the game (or just end it)

Our win cons tend to say, more or less explicitly, "hey I'm going to win the game in N turns." This is the opposite of a competitive play style; for that we'd want a way to cast these at instant speed right before their upkeep trigger (or we'd want to, you know, not play group hug). The most fun win cons will pressure our opponents, but won't be completely unreasonable to deal with.

//You have N turns to deal with this
Helix Pinnacle
Felidar Sovereign
Azor's Elocutors
Now I Know My ABC's (if the group is cool with silver-border cards -- I checked, and this list can 100% support all 26 letters!)

If that doesn't work and we want to just straight up Stop Playing Now, we can always grab the best win con on the board and go for it:

Progenitor Mimic
Rite of Replication
Insurrection

Finally, we can try to thin the herd by milling someone (or everyone) out toward the end of the game:

Minds Aglow
Skyscribing


Build yourself a fort

This deck spends a lot of time doing a whole lot of nothing, so it's good to have some safeguards against being the Easy Target^TM.

//Pillowfort
Sphere of Safety
Collective Restraint
Ghostly Prison
Propaganda

//Fog effects
Angel's Grace
Ethereal Haze
Selfless Squire


It'd be a shame if...

Part of maintaining a fun game is making sure no one player gets too far out of hand. No board wipes, as they tend to cause bad blood (okay it's actually because all the ones I have are in use by Karador), but I threw in a Fracturing Gust to deal with problematic artifacts / enchantments.

//Spot Removal
Oblivion Ring
Arrest
Vow of Duty
Oust
Swords to Plowshares

//Special answers
Fracturing Gust
Coalition Honor Guard
Relic of Progenitus (for graveyard shenanigans)
Naturalize

//Counter magic (best if not used selfishly -- save for a big, game-changing spell that would inconvenience most of the table)
Mystic Confluence
Dismiss
Counterspell


Chaos

It's not a real game of Commander until someone has said the words, "What happens if I...", "This probably won't work, but...", or, "Huh, that was not what I expected to happen."

Hive Mind
Possibility Storm
Pyxis of Pandemonium


Utilities, necessities, and odds & ends

Helix Pinnacle is our primary win con, so generating lots of mana is our primary objective. Oh, and also, this is a 4-color deck, so...

//Ramp & Filter
Courser of Kruphix
Harrow
Burgeoning
Prismatic Geoscope
Commander's Sphere
Prismatic Lens
Prophetic Prism
Sol Ring

These two give us a place to build up our mana until we're ready to cast Helix Pinnacle. Note that Thief of Blood can steal tower counters, but it can't empty your mana pool.

//Batteries
Kruphix, God of Horizons
Omnath, Locus of Mana

About 1/5th of our deck is enchantments, so we may as well make use of them as they ETB.

//Enchantresses
Sigil of the Empty Throne
Eidolon of Blossoms
Mesa Enchantress
Enchantress's Presence

//Miscellany
Creeping Renaissance
Venser's Journal (life gain is our secondary win con, via Felidar Sovereign, plus it's a backup Reliquary Tower)
Tireless Tracker
Merfolk Looter
Lightning Greaves
Ponder
Brainstorm

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What are your thoughts?