Try and think of a way to build a group hug deck that isn’t 75%. It’s not easy, is it? A great deal of the card advantage you generate is symmetrical, benefitting the entire table. The same goes for the preferred methods of mana generation, threat elimination and life gain. You draw cards by drawing everyone cards. When you build group hug, a Prosperity is just as good as a Stroke of Genius. Which tenet of 75% deck-building are we violating with a standard group hug build? I’m having a hard time coming up with anything. Remember our 8 simple rules?

If we’re building a Phelddagrif deck, for example, how do we, you know, win? The not-losing part should be fairly trivial — a combination of engendering goodwill from our podmates and protecting ourself with a delightful marshmallow coating of protective enchantments should be more than sufficient. However, not losing is not the same as winning, unless everyone else doesn’t not lose somehow, I guess. Since we can’t rely on everyone else dying mysteriously, we should look at some ways to make that happen.

A 75% way to win games of Magic: the Gathering is to use their win conditions against them. In fact, I decided we can narrow our card pool significantly and therefore force us to be creative (this is an important tenet of the 75% method that even I overlook) by not including any creatures of our own. This means no Felidar Sovereign, but it also means we can Wrath of God with abandon and we can also scale our deck’s ways to kill them to their power level. If they’re going to play a Consecrated Sphinx, it’s fitting that they should lose to one. Stealing their permanents is what we’re all about and while it’s somewhat silly to rely on our opponents to provide us with a win condition, it’s insane to act like none of them ever will. Oh, they’ll give us something to beat them with. And when they do, we’ll oblige them.

Let’s look at the deck and talk about what I did special to make this the best 75% Phelddagrif deck I could afterward, shall we?

Tell me about the rabbits, George ? Commander| Jason Alt

• Creatures (1)
• 1 Phelddagrif

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Jace Beleren

• Spells (59)
• 1 Comeuppance
• 1 Constant Mists
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Plasm Capture
• 1 Reins of Power
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Second Sunrise
• 1 Summary Dismissal
• 1 Wing Shards
• 1 Bribery
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Day of Judgment
• 1 Expropriate
• 1 Fumigate
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Minds Aglow
• 1 Prosperity
• 1 Show and Tell
• 1 Skyscribing
• 1 Supreme Verdict
• 1 Tempt with Discovery
• 1 Wrath of God
• 1 Knowledge Exploitation
• 1 Chamber of Manipulation
• 1 Confiscate
• 1 Control Magic
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Dictate of Karametra
• 1 Dictate of Kruphix
• 1 Energy Field
• 1 Forced Fruition
• 1 Ghostly Prison
• 1 Gossamer Chains
• 1 Heartbeat of Spring
• 1 Mystic Barrier
• 1 Propaganda
• 1 Rest in Peace
• 1 Rites of Flourishing
• 1 Unifying Theory
• 1 Upwelling
• 1 Volition Reins
• 1 Vow of Duty
• 1 Web of Inertia
• 1 Assault Suit
• 1 Avarice Totem
• 1 Coercive Portal
• 1 Crawlspace
• 1 Ebony Owl Netsuke
• 1 Font of Mythos
• 1 Ghirapur Orrery
• 1 Horn of Greed
• 1 Howling Mine
• 1 Norn's Annex
• 1 Reito Lantern
• 1 Spectral Searchlight
• 1 Sphere of Resistance
• 1 Temple Bell
• 1 Predator, Flagship

• Lands (40)
• 7 Forest
• 7 Island
• 7 Plains
• 1 Azorius Chancery
• 1 Bant Panorama
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Kor Haven
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1 Mystifying Maze
• 1 Selesnya Sanctuary
• 1 Simic Growth Chamber
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 1 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Throne of the High City

Buy This Deck

First of all, I included some graveyard hate in the form of Reito Lantern and Rest in Peace. These not only prevent oppressive graveyard-based strategies from pulling ahead but in the case of Rest in Peace it also makes cards like Web of Inertia and Energy Field much better (or playable, in the case of Energy Field). Lantern is still a good way to spend your mana, though and I think you’ll find it useful, especially if you don’t want to get milled out like everyone else.

Stealing their stuff is a great way to cope with the 0 creatures of our own in the deck. Expropriate, Bribery, Confiscate — the list is actually pretty lengthy because I want to make sure we have enough swipe cards that we can steal enough to mount an offensive. We should, and cards like Chamber of Manipulation can swipe multiple different creatures, letting us block very aggressively if they can manage to attack around Propaganda, Norn's Annex, Sphere of Resistance, and Crawlspace.

What do we think? Do we have enough win conditions? Is it folly to eschew our own creatures when we can cut back on Wrath effects a bit and run powerful creatures like Selvala, Explorer Returned Blue Braids and Magus of the Vineyard? Is this deck a pile? Leave it in the comments section. If we have to do a second draft of this deck in the coming weeks to end up with a list that’s capable of winning 1/x games, I’m willing to take a second look at this after some feedback. As always, it’s been a pleasure and we’ll see you back here next week.