I've been writing about upgrading preconstructed Magic decks for some time. Heck, it's how I got my start putting out articles in the first place. As time has gone by, writing about these Commander precons has gotten a lot more challenging. Most of the time, this is largely due to the fact that the quality of the lists has gone up tremendously. I used to include my own lists, but I started finding that it was challenging to do so because in certain lists, they were already packed with some of the best offerings available in the Commander format.

The other part is when a Commander itself just feels like a bit of a head scratcher. There's been a handful of these over the years where the card seems to be an interesting puzzle, but one that feels like it's difficult to build around. Today's deck is one such example in the Peace Offering precon's face card: Ms. Bumbleflower.

If you take one look at Ms. Bumbleflower at face value, you might wonder what the appeal is. After all, her ability benefits your opponents almost as much as it does you and the bonuses you get are often rather minimal. What you may not realize is that this kind of strategy has a name: group hug. This is where rather than simply focusing on your own victory, you help the table out at the same time, benefiting everyone. The appeal to this is that it incentivizes others to not attack you, thereby allowing you more of an opportunity to achieve victory on your own means - if you'd like, of course.

If you're familiar with Commander on a wider scale, you may be familiar with such a concept in a few areas. The late Sheldon Menery famously had a Phelddagrif deck that utilized the big purple hippo that would give goodies to other players in order to buff itself. Group hug also saw a notable release when Commander 2016 came out, as the Stalwart Unity deck helmed by Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis also featured a focus on group hug. I even wrote about a group hug-esque list featuring Zedruu the Greathearted some time ago.

So, before we talk further on where you can take this kind of strategy, let's first take a look at the precon itself:

Peace Offering Precon | Commander

• Commander (1)
• 1 Ms. Bumbleflower

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Baird, Steward of Argive
• 1 Bloodroot Apothecary
• 1 Body of Knowledge
• 1 Chasm Skulker
• 1 Coiling Oracle
• 1 Faeburrow Elder
• 1 Forgotten Ancient
• 1 Jolly Gerbils
• 1 Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse
• 1 Kalonian Hydra
• 1 Kwain, Itinerant Meddler
• 1 Loran of the Third Path
• 1 Managorger Hydra
• 1 Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1 Mr. Foxglove
• 1 Octomancer
• 1 Psychosis Crawler
• 1 Realm-Cloaked Giant
• 1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1 Selvala, Explorer Returned
• 1 Sphinx of Enlightenment
• 1 Spore Frog
• 1 Steelburr Champion
• 1 Sunscorch Regent
• 1 Triskaidekaphile
• 1 Twenty-Toed Toad

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Tamiyo, Field Researcher

• Instants (11)
• 1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1 Broken Wings
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Illusionist's Gambit
• 1 Intellectual Offering
• 1 Long River's Pull
• 1 Peerless Recycling
• 1 Perch Protection
• 1 Perplexing Test
• 1 Riot Control
• 1 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Promise of Loyalty
• 1 Secret Rendezvous
• 1 Tempt with Bunnies
• 1 Tempt with Discovery
• 1 Wear Down

• Enchantments (8)
• 1 Communal Brewing
• 1 Fisher's Talent
• 1 Hoofprints of the Stag
• 1 Martial Impetus
• 1 Rites of Flourishing
• 1 Simic Ascendancy
• 1 Tenuous Truce
• 1 Wizard Class

• Artifacts (8)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Coveted Jewel
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Ghirapur Orrery
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Thought Vessel

• Lands (38)
• 4 Forest
• 4 Island
• 4 Plains
• 1 Adarkar Wastes
• 1 Brushland
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Flooded Grove
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Overflowing Basin
• 1 Prairie Stream
• 1 Razorverge Thicket
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Seachrome Coast
• 1 Seaside Citadel
• 1 Skycloud Expanse
• 1 Sungrass Prairie
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 1 Temple of Mystery
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Thriving Grove
• 1 Thriving Heath
• 1 Thriving Isle
• 1 Yavimaya Coast

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One thing I like about this list is that it's not so all in on the dishing out friendly gifts to everyone else. The last time Wizards put together a group hug list in the form of the Stalwart Unity precon, it was heavily criticized for not being able to meaningfully close out games. It had a healthy number of creatures, but most were far too weak to go the distance in a real game. Here, though, you have some very real haymakers such as Kalonian Hydra and Managorger Hydra that can get out of control if not dealt with as a game goes on.

What's really interesting is the fact that not only are there genuine power creatures in this deck, but there's also just outright win conditions as well. Yes you can also turn your opponents' card draw against them with the likes of Psychosis Crawler, but that's not quite what I mean. What I mean are the inclusions of both Triskaidekaphile and Twenty-Toed Toad. Both of these cards require a decent amount of setup, as you need to either draw a ridiculous amount of cards or get in a lot of attacks. It can be a lot of work needed to pull it off, but it's effective, though if you do want to go this route maybe looking for better "win the game" effects might be worth doing.

What the deck feels like it lacks in, actually, is a means to protect itself. After all, the whole point of a group hug deck is that you want to incentivize others to not engage with you. Oftentimes your abilities that help dish out benefits to other players - such as the commander itself - is a good enough of a way to do this. However, some people will be wary of this and want to take you out quickly over it, be it in order to stop you from building up or to prevent others with a more effective way to achieve their own victory.

To that end, you want to add in some defensive spells to the mix. The most obvious of these are your Propaganda and Ghostly Prison style of effects. One of these already exists in the deck, but it's only a lone copy of Baird, Steward of Argive. There's also Riot Control, but honestly this doesn't really do all that much aside from maybe buying you a turn before you're hit again. Putting in copies of the aforementioned Propaganda and Ghostly Prison, as well as Windborn Muse, Sphere of Safety, and/or Norn's Annex can prove far more effective at stonewalling your opponents. Crawlspace will also slow your opponents down to a much more manageable pace, allowing you to deal with creatures swinging in as opposed to getting overrun by an army.

Next, I'd recommend upping the group hug angle a little bit more as well. Make no mistake: there are some great cards in here that push this strategy. Ghirapur Orrery and Rites of Flourishing are fantastic permanents that just keep giving around the whole table and there's tons of good one-off spells as well. Tempt with Bunnies, Tempt with Discovery, Secret Rendezvous, Intellectual Offering, and more? All awesome cards to utilize, though their usefulness can be a bit mixed as it leads to you playing a game of politics rather than just dishing out the goods and letting everyone have a good time.

To that end, I'm rather partial to wide card draw effects. Rites of Flourishing is quite good at this, though I'd also highly recommend utilizing cards like Howling Mine and Jace Beleren as well. Heck, the night I'm writing this I just played a game where I had out a Howling Mine, a Font of Mythos, and a Phyrexian Metamorph copying the Font. Do the math and you have everyone drawing a whopping six cards a turn! You'd better believe people were leaving me be for a while thanks to that! You don't necessarily need to go that hard, but a light touch goes a long way.

Additionally, consider cards that benefit everyone in a way besides just card draw. Another personal favorite of mine is Gate to the Aether. This is one that almost always gives everyone at the table a little something at random and always creates a fun minigame of "what's on top of the deck?" It adds mystery, tension, and all-around fun to the experience. Braids, Conjurer Adept does something in a somewhat similar vein, enabling your opponents to get some good value as well as yourself, but it takes a bit of the surprise out of things that something like Gate to the Aether brings.

Last but not least, why not look into some additional ways to dish out some of the beatings as well? Sure you're a group hug deck, but someone has to win at the end of the day, so why not be the one to do it after you've handed out goodies to everyone and made them have a delightful experience? A great place to start is finding cards that keep making your creatures bigger. It's surprising to me that Gavony Township wasn't included in a precon like this, so that makes for an excellent start, as does slipping in a copy of Shalai, Voice of Plenty. Shalai is also great at helping protect your board, as she gives all of your stuff hexproof as well as buffing everything slowly over time.

You can also do cards that let you amass a rather large army as opposed to just going tall. Playing cards like Tendershoot Dryad, its older cousin Verdant Force, and Progenitor Mimic all will fill your board up fairly quickly. You can also use Elspeth, Sun's Champion to similar ends, though this may draw a bit more ire from opponents given the risks of a board wipe and a win condition all in one package. What if you could fend off opponents while having a large beatstick as well? You may not want to go as hard as Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, but Angelic Arbiter makes it really tough for your opponents to take meaningful action while also providing you with a huge creature to pound your foes into a bloody pulp.

As far as figuring out your upgrades go, though, this deck is a fairly open-ended one. The commander itself doesn't exactly give you a ton of specific direction by which to take your list. Given that, my best recommendation would be to just try cards you like a lot and see what works best for you. My suggestions here are merely a few personal favorites that might help get you to a better place, but ultimately this is one of those decks that's best made by upgrading it in your own way with the cards already in your collection. You've got the tools to make it so everyone has fun at your next Commander night, so make good use of them and have a blast!

Paige Smith

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