MTG Salvation

There's a problem I've noticed at my LGS when it comes to Commander night and people get put into random pods. The disparity between players is typically so huge that one of two things happen in the first few rounds: A very powerful deck combos out and wins, or a very weak deck gets killed and doesn't get to play for more than 15 minutes. I've wanted to build a deck that helps police imbalanced tables by trying to simultaneously hold down any clear frontrunners and help out the weakest player. DirkGently's Phelddagrif deck is by far the best example of a deck that employs this strategy. My issue with his list is...I just don't like Phelddagrif. The idea is sound, I think Bant is a great color combo for what I want to do, and I like the gameplan of hanging out in third place while keeping the weakest player alive until you're in an un-loseable 1v1 endgame. But I'd rather the political cards be in the 99 rather than in the commander. It doesn't help that everyone sees him and thinks "kill the group hug scum" before the game even begins.

So what I'm looking for is suggestions for cards that you can directly help another player with, while still having the option to exclude the entire table from the fun. The Offering cycle and friend/foe cycle from Battlebond are the most blatant examples of these, and there are also cards like the Vow cycle and/or the "each other player does the same" cycle which you can use to help other players while keeping heat off of yourself, but I'm sure I'm missing out on plenty of good options. I'm not married to the Bant color combo either, since this hypothetical deck has yet to take any form. Thanks for the help.

I dont know of many cards like that, but I think cards like windgrace's judgement would be something that would help you slow down faster opponents while not hurting the player in 4th.

Like Humble Defector? Or Blue Sun's Zenith?

Skullwinder

To be honest, the best cards for helping out other players in a situation like this are removal spells. Whether helping people indirectly by just killing the biggest threat immediately, or directly by killing something that's attacking the player you want to help.

Bloodgift Demon being one that could help opponent draw should you choose to. Death by Dragons is a red political card that allows people to gang up on the most powerful.

Certain cards like the now-banned trade secrets and evolutionary escalation create a Two Horse Race scenario, in which two players are so far ahead that the other X players don't really matter. This is technically less unfavorable than traditional group hug because quickly eliminating the other ahead player virtually guarantees victory over the other two left behind in a 4 player pod.

I have made such a list. Haven’t posted it yet, but I call this kind of deckbuilding ‘Fist Bump’ rather than ‘Group Hug’. I‘ll try to finalize and link later.

Quote from TheAmericanSpirit »

Certain cards like the now-banned trade secrets and evolutionary escalation create a Two Horse Race scenario, in which two players are so far ahead that the other X players don't really matter. This is technically less unfavorable than traditional group hug because quickly eliminating the other ahead player virtually guarantees victory over the other two left behind in a 4 player pod.

This is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for; a deck that beefs up the weakest player so they get a chance to slug it out with more expensive/tuned decks, and then tries to get into a 1v1 with either the weakened players with the good decks or the original weak player for the win.

Quote from RiverWolf13 »

I have made such a list. Haven’t posted it yet, but I call this kind of deckbuilding ‘Fist Bump’ rather than ‘Group Hug’. I‘ll try to finalize and link later.

This sounds great! Thanks for the help when you get around to it.

The Advocates from Judgement could be what you're looking for. They have effects that benefit you and an "opponent" of your choice

• Forcemage Advocate
  
• Nullmage Advocate
  
• Pulsemage Advocate
  
• Shieldmage Advocate
  
• Spurnmage Advocate

Additionally, ramp cards that allows you to ramp target player are useful for weaker players (since they tend to be mana screwed)

• Fertilid
  
• Yavimaya Dryad

And one last one, my favorite secret tech:

dubious challenge

You can probably put any green enchantment from pre-Onslaught on this list. Cards like Aluren, Awakening, City of Solitude, Concordant Crossroads, Dual Nature, Eladamri's Vinyard, Fecundity, Game Preserve, Kavu Lair, Ley Line, Living Plane, Oath of Druids, Titania's Song, Upwelling, Vernal Equinox, etc. all help your opponents. Green has gotten away from its enchantments helping everyone for the most part, but occasionally it still crops up in new cards like Primal Vigor, Seed the Land, etc. There are even several cards from that era that allow your opponents to activate the ability like Saproling Cluster, Ifh-Bíff Efreet, and Squallmonger (although to be fair, almost every color has some of these sprinkled in some of the earlier sets).

Of course, on top of that there are the more traditional Group Hug cards like Rites of Flourishing, Heartbeat of Spring, Weird Harvest, New Frontiers, etc. that probably help the good decks too much relative to the underpowered decks. I guess a lot of what you might want to include depends on what angle you want to attack or exploit to try and accomplish what you are looking for.

Quote from Forgotten One »

You can probably put any green enchantment from pre-Onslaught on this list. Cards like Aluren, Awakening, City of Solitude, Concordant Crossroads, Dual Nature, Eladamri's Vinyard, Fecundity, Game Preserve, Kavu Lair, Ley Line, Living Plane, Oath of Druids, Titania's Song, Upwelling, Vernal Equinox, etc. all help your opponents. Green has gotten away from its enchantments helping everyone for the most part, but occasionally it still crops up in new cards like Primal Vigor, Seed the Land, etc. There are even several cards from that era that allow your opponents to activate the ability like Saproling Cluster, Ifh-Bíff Efreet, and Squallmonger (although to be fair, almost every color has some of these sprinkled in some of the earlier sets).

Of course, on top of that there are the more traditional Group Hug cards like Rites of Flourishing, Heartbeat of Spring, Weird Harvest, New Frontiers, etc. that probably help the good decks too much relative to the underpowered decks. I guess a lot of what you might want to include depends on what angle you want to attack or exploit to try and accomplish what you are looking for.

These are all regular group hug cards and are exactly what I'm trying to avoid. If the whole table benefits then the good players just run away with games that much more easily.

Just realized that Guided Passage goes about this in an interesting way.

Instead of helping the player that his behind directly, you hand over the card to them and let them pick the cards in your deck that help them the most.

It's three color though so it gets limited to use in Temur, Four Color and Five Color decks.

Maybe this is what your looking for

https://youtu.be/ROj8xuQc7wQ

It’s basicly talking about tricks that are not necessary group hug

Curses hurt only one opponent, or help everyone but that opponent.

Quote from bobthefunny »

The hunted series, such as Hunted Troll or Hunted Horror could hit into what you're looking for.

The horror is the most risky, since you're likely running heavy black to get the BB on turn 2, but a 7/7 on t2 is pretty scary as is, and if you both pick on the same target, the pain ramps up fast.

They all get scarier with Curse of Predation and Curse of Stalked Prey. (Yes, really pimping the curses.)

Bazaar Trader can also help out one player. Or really hose one player.

I have completed my article. Take a look.
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/803276-fist-bump-making-allies-in-edh-a-deckbuilding

Quote from hyalapterouslemur »

[quote from="bobthefunny »" url="/forums/the-game/commander-edh/802547-has-anyone-ever-compiled-a-list-of-cards-that?comment=16"]

Bazaar Trader can also help out one player. Or really hose one player.

The Trader doesn't look like he could donate an enchantment though?

That is the downside the trader, red generally can't do any interactions with enchantments.

Two things I can think of that also can help any chosen opponent is untapping one of their stuff with cards like Vizier of Tumbling Sands or blink their etb creature with cards like Eldrazi Displacer

Fractured Identity is a fun card that can even out games, used that card on an opponents Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite once to wipe their own board

Oath of Lieges is on the border to group hug, can help with color fixing and get needed lands for any player that don't ramp. I mainly use that to easier assemble the plains needed for Emeria, the sky ruin