Favorite group-hug cards

[Morganator 2.0]

You know, I'm surprised this hasn't been a topic already. What are some of your favorite cards for the group-hug strategy?

I personally like Tempt with Vengeance, as it makes it worse for the person that doesn't take the offer, so everyone ends up taking it. Selvala, Explorer Returned is great because she gives both mana ramp and card draw at a low cost. Minds Aglow and Collective Voyage are also really good, but can give everyone a huge early game advantage.

I also like Humble Defector, but it actually works best if  only you and one other player share the defector.

[WizardSpartan]

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.

[Bonethousand]

My favorites are always the big cmc splashy stuff that aren't exactly chaos cards, but add just enough wrench to the gears of any finely tuned deck. For example, Infernal Genesis can be a big boon to you, while binning random key cards your opponents need. Tempt with Reflections is also a blast if you target the right non-legendary creature. Endless Whispers is one of those cards that puts people off from wiping your board, especially if you're going tokens strats. And, lastly Emergency Powers has always been a game swinging card for me.

[Xaarvaxus]

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.

... 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.

I'll have to plead sort of guilty to this.  I have a Zedruu deck that is mostly a 'kingmaker' deck but I do have a Psychosis Crawler in there that could plausibly win me the game once the card draw is flowing.  However, I'm not there to pick one person to win at the expense of others, more to make sure that interesting things happen and no one had a game where they couldn't play.  To help with this, probably my two favorite cards in the deck are Victory Chimes and Spectral Searchlight so anyone struggling with mana can get enough of a boost to get going.  Dawnbreak Reclaimer has been useful to help others recover from a boardwipe so they're not just spinning their wheels in topdeck mode.  I like the +1 on Jace Beleren as well so people have cards to play.  I'm also playing the Jeskai 'Offering' cards in there as well.

And I enjoy playing this style of deck because there are times where I'm not feeling particularly competitive but want to play Magic.  It lets me play Magic more on cruise control and just relax some. 

[WizardSpartan]

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.

... 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.

I'll have to plead sort of guilty to this.  I have a Zedruu deck that is mostly a 'kingmaker' deck but I do have a Psychosis Crawler in there that could plausibly win me the game once the card draw is flowing.  However, I'm not there to pick one person to win at the expense of others, more to make sure that interesting things happen and no one had a game where they couldn't play.  To help with this, probably my two favorite cards in the deck are Victory Chimes and Spectral Searchlight so anyone struggling with mana can get enough of a boost to get going.  Dawnbreak Reclaimer has been useful to help others recover from a boardwipe so they're not just spinning their wheels in topdeck mode.  I like the +1 on Jace Beleren as well so people have cards to play.  I'm also playing the Jeskai 'Offering' cards in there as well.

And I enjoy playing this style of deck because there are times where I'm not feeling particularly competitive but want to play Magic.  It lets me play Magic more on cruise control and just relax some.

Don't worry, I'm not talking about a deck like yours. It has ways to win or at least impact the game significantly in your favor. I was mainly salty about a Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis I had to play against. Literally every spell they played was pure group hug, and I was against an Angel deck whose hand consisted of lands, 1 ramp spell, and a bunch of 5+ CMC angels. If it wasn't for the group hug player's help, the Angel player's deck would have crashed and burned, but my Liesa, Shroud of Dusk tax deck just wasn't equipped to handle the situation.

[terminalgeek]

My favorite is always Humble Defector and I use it outside of group hug situations because it can be political. Gotta watch out for those sac outlets though.

I've stayed away from straight group-hug but have a mono-black deck that focuses on being helpful but also mischievous. So in that deck it's Rankle, Master of Pranks (everyone draw a card) and Head Games. There's always that one player who is far behind and this can help them out or if someone is way ahead, set them back a bunch.

[Aetherium Slinky]

Good old Howling Mine. Quick, dirty, cheap and draws a ton of cards over the course of the game. I'm not disappointed to see it late game either.