fbpx

Do-Over Project: The Anti-Hug

Everyone knows Phelddagrif is the “hug” commander, but Sheldon’s version of hugging hurts. His new Hippo deck focuses on stopping the love, not spreading it.

By

At some point in Commander history, Phelddagrif became the standard-bearer for the “hug” deck — the deck that does good stuff for the other players, like giving them additional lands, cards, creatures, life, and even turns. It sprung from Phelddagrif’s abilities (which encompass the middle three), but it’s pretty easy to build a hug deck without using the purple hippo. Many hug decks aren’t really hug decks. They start out looking nice, but at some point will cast Windfall with Hive Mind in play or something equally as unfriendly. I’m not a fan of that style of disingenuousness of the faux hug deck, especially with players who keep telling you “no, I’m letting you draw cards.” Really, that joke stopped being funny when Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? was still on TV. I’m also not a fan of the raw hug deck — which often just accelerates the game into early absurdity or plays kingmaker (although I’ll concede that they can sometimes create wonderfully chaotic board states). What I’d really love to find is the slobbery Great Dane of a deck — the one that wants to be really nice to you but inadvertently mauls you instead. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to be inadvertent when I’m intentionally putting cards into the deck. Everything that I dreamed up ended up being just some variation on the lame joke. Thinking about it got me on the path of exchanging things, especially since fellow Commander Rules Committee (RC) member Toby Elliott has demonstrated the delightfulness of shenanigans with Puca’s Mischief and Conjured Currency. That didn’t quite work out either, although when Toby gets around to sending me that decklist, I’ll feature it. Eventually, I came up with the idea of the anti-hug.

The anti-hug is about limiting what players can do — without taking away the game from them entirely. I had no intention of building Phelddagrif STAX or any such nonsense, so Winter Orb and Static Orb are off the table, I just want to stop players from doing extra stuff. Think of the anti-hug as some kind of traditionalist that has outdated ideas on what’s “proper.” “Drawing one card a turn was good enough in my day,” Anti-Hug Phelddagrif would say, wagging a finger at you (or whatever those hippo toes are called). I swear to you, if there were card that said you could only cast creatures after combat, I’d jam it right into the deck. Anti-Hug Phelddagrif is about what you can’t do, not what you can.

Remember, that with the Do Over Project, I can’t use any of the cards in the original deck save for the Commander (obviously) and lands which only produce mana. When I started this project, I promised that I wouldn’t take cards out of original decks just so that I can put them in the Do Over deck; that promise was most sorely tested with this deck due to Ground Seal. In previous Do Overs, I’ve managed to keep from using most of the non-basic lands; we’ll see how difficult that might be with this build.

Making a deck that limits what players can do is about getting around those limitations yourself, or at least using it to your advantage. For example, Dueling Grounds says that only one creature can attack and only one creature can block each combat. Seems like having Exalted might be worthwhile, so that’s a direction I went — I definitely would like to get some Phelddagrif kills with the deck. Rafiq of the Many is sometimes oppressive as a commander; as one of the 99, it’s just fine. I considered very briefly Sovereigns of Lost Alara (mostly because I loved playing that Mythic Bant deck when it was Standard legal a zillion years ago), but I didn’t really want to put all my eggs in that basket. Here’s what I came up with:

Phelldagrif Anti-Hug
Sheldon Menery
Test deck on 11-30--0001
Commander
Magic Arena

Creatures (22)

Planeswalkers (2)

Lands (38)

Spells (37)

Magic Card Back


As we’ll see in the individual breakdown, there is a great deal of can’t and don’t written into the cards.

ARTIFACTS

Champion’s Helm: Adding together hexproof and a little buff for some potential commander damage kills. The low equip cost means not being too irritated if I have to bounce Phelddagrif. This was at one point General’s Kabuto, but the Helm seemed better.

Crawlspace: Protecting yourself from massive attacks is simply a survival strategy in this format. Attack someone else, please.

Damping Engine: I’m sure there are times when I’m not going to want to give someone a free sacrifice outlet, but with all the other stuff going on here, it’s still worth it.

Elixir of Immortality: Seemingly a nonbo with Wheel of Sun and Moon, it’s the emergency reset button for when I don’t have the Wheel and so my graveyard has filled up.

Godsend: Doubles the clock speed when equipped to Phelddagrif, taking what would have taken six hits and turning it into three. And blocking becomes painful.

Grafdigger’s Cage: One of the deck’s biggest and most important shut-down engines. I’m pretty sure it shuts down nothing in my deck.

Imi Statue: I came upon this one in my various searches, and I had to think a bit about how my local environment operates. In the end, it will pay many dividends.

Mindlock Orb: Another of the big shutdowns, it’s my card-based suggestion that people might enjoy themselves more going tutorless.

Omen Machine: You’re casting the spell, so Rule of Law and friends will apply.

Portcullis: This is actually another way to simply slow down creature rushes. Unfortunately, it’s a nonbo with Torpor Orb, so I’ll have to play very carefully around it.

Torpor Orb: I’ve wanted to play the combination of Grafdigger’s Cage and Torpor Orb in a deck for a long time. This one gives me the opportunity.

Ward of Bones: If you’ve been greedy, you have to slow down. That doesn’t seem like a bad thing.

Wayfarer’s Bauble: The original deck has most of the good ramp spells in it, so I needed to think creatively here. I don’t tend to play Wayfarer’s Bauble in green decks because there are creatures and spells that do what it does.

ARTIFACT CREATURES

Lodestone Golem: If you want to Wrath away the creatures, you’ll have to pay a little more. One of our locals has started playing Mind’s Desire, and while I didn’t put this in the deck specifically to combat that, it certainly won’t hurt.

Silent Arbiter: Dueling Grounds on a stick.

CREATURES

Angelic Arbiter: Strangely enough, this card is very popular at the shop. Even when someone else plays it, people are happy to see it. It makes the game strategically different, and I think good players appreciate the difference.

Aven Mindcensor: Not quite the gotcha of Shadow of Doubt, but good enough.

Battlegrace Angel: Makes itself better than Exalted Angel. Even better, it lets me gain life while killing people with the hippo.

Blinding Angel: Conditional, but still a can’t (as in “Hey, you! You can’t attack next turn!”)

Containment Priest: Start playing this card in your local environment, and players will get twitchy about reanimating things. Sure, their value for playing Tooth and Nail might still be pretty high, but the folks playing Karmic Guide (especially with Saffi Eriksdottir tricks) will pay attention.

Eidolon of Rhetoric: Keeps the extra spell-playing in check, also comes back from Replenish.

Ethersworn Canonist: Another part in keeping extra stuff from happening, especially early in the game.

Frost Titan: This was the last nonland card I added. I had pulled a number of “can’t untap” cards, and Frost Titan was the only one that had can’t on it twice (can’t target it unless you pay 2 more — obviously you can in the strictest sense, but work with me a little here). Also, it doesn’t get completely shut down by Torpor Orb, since it will still trigger on attacking.

Grand Abolisher: At least in my local environment, the other players are listening to my oft-repeated advice to play Fogs. I clearly mean for other people who will try to hurt you very badly, instead of me, who will only try to hurt you a little.

Hushwing Gryff: Remember that if you want to Hushwing Gryff that Avenger of Zendikar, you’ll need to do it so that they don’t get the Plant tokens. This won’t stop landfall triggers unless Living Plane is also on the battlefield.

Qasali Pridemage: Part of the exalted suite, and a little removal as well.

Samurai of the Pale Curtain: I got to this card from Wheel of Sun and Moon. This way, I can still put my cards on the bottom of the library. When two different replacement effects try to do something to an object, the owner of the object gets to decide which one applies.

Spirit of the Labyrinth: I’d happily pay one more mana to give this flash for the super-blowout. Otherwise, it’s just on-board tricks being on the board. It’s also why I’ve included other cards that don’t draw, but put cards into my hand.

Stoic Angel: I’m a little surprised this doesn’t get played a little more often with other vigilance creatures and stuff that taps down opponents’ creatures.

LEGENDARY CREATURES

Dragonlord Dromoka: More assurance that people won’t be doing stuff to me, although I suppose it also means that no one can do nice things for me either. I’ll take the risk.

Dragonlord Ojutai: Getting around the no card drawing restriction while also battling.

Llawan, Cephalid Empress: Local player Chris Kruse has shown us the strength of Llawan. My greatest fear about Llawan is getting it Cloned, since I’ve also seen Chris also get completely shut down since he plays it in a monoblue deck.

Rafiq of the Many: Sometimes when I think of and put together decks, I have certain dream scenarios with certain cards. It’s not a sophisticated strategy; it’s actually still kind of a beginner’s idea. Still, a brother can dream. I don’t expect them to happen frequently, I just want them to happen every now and again. In this deck, it’s attacking with Phelddagrif carried on the back of Rafiq and Finest Hour.

Rasputin Dreamweaver: Speaking of dreaming, this doesn’t strictly go with the deck’s theme, even though it turned up in the “can’t” search. It’s just cool. I think I’ll try to work it into my Lavinia Blinks deck as well. It’d be kind of awesome there.

Tomorrow, Azami’s Familiar: Without a great deal of card draw, getting to sift through which cards I get is a little more important. Additionally, it shuts down getting killed (at least from damage) with Nekusar, the Mindrazer, since it replaces the draw.

ENCHANTMENTS

Arcane Laboratory: The original one-spell-per-turn card. The Seventh Edition art is cooler than the Urza’s Saga, but since there are a bunch of older cards in the deck, I might just build this one in all non-foil. Man, even writing that makes me a little uncomfortable. I might have a foil problem.

Back to Basics: I like cards that hurt people for being too greedy. If you have a reasonable number of basic lands, this won’t hurt you at all.

Crackdown: I simply like this card. I made sure that the creatures I really care about untapping are white. I also considered Marble Titan and Meekstone, but since those would affect the creatures I’d like to battle with and I didn’t want to go through any gyrations to get them untapped, they went away.

Damping Field: How many times do you get to play Antiquities cards? It would be an interesting requirement to have to play with at least one in every deck, especially since there are probably fewer Mishra’s Workshops in print than there are Commander decks in the world.

Dense Foliage: I don’t have spells that can target creatures, so what do I care? I did wonder, however, if Asceticism — even at 1G more — is just better. It didn’t matter, because it’s in the original, so there wasn’t really a decision to make.

Dueling Grounds: This was the first card which I wrote on the decklist. I also wrote down Teferi’s Moat and Moat, although neither of those made the final cut.

Equipoise: Confusing cards with phasing from old sets? Sign me up! It’s a way for me to get that flying Phelddagrif through a creature logjam, and I’m sure it will do other stuff as well.

Finest Hour: It’s straightforward and has a narrow focus in the deck — it’s mostly for battling with the commander. I suppose it wouldn’t be terrible to get two attacks with either of the Dragonlords either — or really start shutting down combat steps for someone with Blinding Angel.

Mana Maze: This was the second card I wrote on the deck list (after I looked up the name — I only remembered what it does). It forces players to make careful choices when casting spells, which is exactly what I want the deck to do.

Primal Order: There is an implicit “can’t” to Primal Order: you can’t live long if you’re too greedy with your manabase.

Rest in Peace: Graveyard recursion is a strong strategy. Seems worth telling players they can’t do it. I have two of my own backup strategies here. One is the aforementioned Wheel of Sun and Moon. The other is activating Elixir of Immortality before playing Rest in Peace. Like many Terese Nielsen pieces, I love this art.

Rule of Law: I considered some crazy flickering or phasing idea with this and just abandoned it as way too convoluted.

Wheel of Sun and Moon: It doesn’t go in strictest terms along with the deck, but it’s a card I’ve wanted to use for a while and I saw a good opportunity here. For the most part, my intention is to enchant myself, but in an emergency, I’d consider using it on the graveyard shenanigans player.

INSTANTS

Fact or Fiction: Puts the cards in hand instead of drawing. Plus, I know that there’s one local player (not saying who just yet) who has said that he automatically 5-0’s every Fact or Fiction pile. We’ll see if he’s telling the truth.

Honor the Fallen: If my graveyard is safely in my library via Wheel of Sun and Moon, this is all upside. Even if it’s not, using it in response to someone’s Rise of the Dark Realms is winning.

Illusionist’s Gambit: Does double duty — not only does it point an attack in a different direction, it gets rid of a swarm of attacking tokens.

Telling Time: Again, putting cards in the hand.

PLANESWALKERS

Jace, Architect of Thought: Note that when you use the +1 ability, opponents’ creatures get -1/0 when they attack anyone, not just you. I doubt that I ever get to the -8 ability, but you never know.

Teferi, Temporal Archmage: This came in when I was thinking about Opposition and some other stuff, then I realized the +1 ability is something I just wanted to be able to do. I don’t know if I’d strive for the emblem or anyone would actually care if I had it.

SORCERIES

Kodma’s Reach: One of the ramp spells not in the original.

Natural Balance: Getting land-greedy? This will hurt you.

Ranger’s Path: The ramp might seem contrary to things like Natural Balance, but it’s a one or the other situation. I might do a little ramping and be willing to sacrifice to keep in check someone who has done too much.

Peace Talks: It’s a sorcery, so you can’t use it to stop two players from attacking. I imagine there are quite a few more useful cards, but it’s ancient and I’m reasonably sure that when I play it, no one will have ever heard of it — which is a good reason to put a card into the deck.

Replenish: With all the enchantments in the deck and a chance that I don’t have Wheel of Sun and Moon (or it’s been destroyed), Replenish is a safety valve.

Supreme Verdict: “Can’t be countered” was almost one of the mini-themes in the deck, but I went with the exalted stuff instead.

Wrath of God: Okay, can’t be regenerated is a loose call for the theme. How about “you can’t have creatures?”

LANDS

All the nonbasic lands are fetches, so that nothing will be shut down with Back to Basics (although theoretically, Myriad Landscape and Krosan Verge could be). I also don’t want to take Primal Order damage.

The deck does what I want it to do: it creates a puzzle for the other players to solve. It’s not a particularly difficult puzzle and it is unlikely to lock players out (which is why there is no Iona, Shield of Emeria), but it will force players to approach playing the game differently than they’re used to. Seeing the types of games which develop from it will be eminently interesting.

This week’s Deck Without Comment is the current Purple Hippos and Maro-Sorcerers:

Phelddagrif
Sheldon Menery
0th Place at Test deck on 12-30-2012
Commander
Magic Arena

Creatures (29)

Lands (38)

Spells (33)

Magic Card Back


Check out our awesome Deck List Database for the last versions of all my decks:

ADUN’S TOOLBOX; ANIMAR’S SWARM; AURELIA GOES TO WAR; CHILDREN of a LESSER GOD; DEMONS OF KAALIA; EREBOS and the HALLS OF THE DEAD; GLISSA, GLISSA; HELIOD, GOD OF ENCHANTMENTS; DREAMING OF INTET; FORGE OF PURPHOROS; KARN, BEATDOWN GOLEM; HALLOWEEN WITH KARADOR; KARRTHUS, WHO RAINS FIRE FROM THE SKY; KRESH INTO THE RED ZONE; LAVINIA BLINKS; LAZAV, SHAPESHIFTING MASTERMIND; ZOMBIES OF TRESSERHORN; MELEK’S MOLTEN MIND GRIND; MERIEKE’S ESPER CONTROL; THE MILL-MEOPLASM; MIMEOPLASM DO-OVER; NATH of the VALUE LEAF; NYLEA OF THE WOODLAND REALM; OBZEDAT, GHOST KILLER; PURPLE HIPPOS and MARO SORCERERS; ZEGANA and a DICE BAG; RITH’S TOKENS; YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELF; RURIC THAR AND HIS BEASTLY FIGHT CLUB; THASSA, GOD OF MERFOLK; THE ALTAR of THRAXIMUNDAR; TROSTANI and HER ANGELS; THE THREAT OF YASOVA; RUHAN DO-OVER; KARADOR DO-OVER; KARRTHUS DO-OVER

If you’d like to follow the adventures of my Monday Night RPG group (in a campaign that’s been alive since 1987 and is just now getting started with a new saga called “The Lost Cities of Nevinor”), ask for an invitation to the Facebook group “Sheldon Menery’s Monday Night Gamers.”