Hugs, Grisly Guardian Deck Tech
A Different Kind of Hug
If there's one thing the Magic community could use right now, it's a nice, warm hug. Wait... is that a badger? Do badgers give hugs? Are they like bear hugs? Wait... it's crushing me... TOO... MUCH... HUGGING!
That's the kind of deck we're building today: the kind that hugs until it hurts our opponent. After all, who doesn't want to hug someone so close you can hear the Heartbeat of Spring?
Win Conditions
Hugs, Grisly Guardian loves mana. Even before he comes out, Hugs is a four-mana spell with X in the cost. Once out, Hugs lets us play additional lands. This is where the deck breaks parity. We're going to multiply everyone's mana exponentially, which will lead to some crazy game states. However, if we have more lands than everyone else, we can better take advantage of the resources we're sharing. The age-old question of Hug decks remains, though: how do we close out the game?
When it comes to big mana strategies, I'll admit that I have a bit of a weakness for big X spells. The allure of a variable with no ceiling is enough to exorcise the demons of Algebra classes past (incidentally: great name for a Duskmourn card). If I'm putting all of my eggs in one basket, I want that basket to win the game on the spot. Thankfully, Jaya's Immolating Inferno and Crackle with Power are perfect for KO-ing multiple players.
Banefire and Demonfire are amazing Fireball effects because they're able to protect themselves and ensure that the smackdown is laid. Comeuppance? More like come and get it! Counterspell? They've got a counter shell! And it gets even better if we have a Boseiju, Who Shelters All out!
Devil's Play is a beautiful Fireball effect that can be used to take out multiple players with its flashback ability. Being two Fireballs in one means that there's less pressure on our draw spells to find action. It also allows us to use our win conditions for removal, if need be, and then go to the face later. The flexibility is what allows a deck like this to play as many win cons as it does. It also allows cards like Burn from Within to shine, as there are plenty of indestructible threats to point and click. Looking right at you, Blightsteel Colossus.
Crater's Claws is tailor-made for this deck, as it's a Fireball that does more damage with a big creature out, and Hugs is a big boy. Fanning the Flames, like Devil's Play, is multiple Fireballs in one, as it has buyback to blast players on consecutive turns. This also gives it the potential to be used for removal and then as a win con later.
Core Synergy
Fireballs are wonderful, but it takes a long time to ramp to enough mana to take a player out. Damage-multipliers make this exponentially faster, and, when you have more than one such effect out, they stack. Furnace of Rath is one of my favorites, as it works for everyone, making it so that the tenderizing damage opponents deal to each other doubles. Any damage opponents deal to each other makes it that much easier to take them out!
Goblin Goliath is a little-known, little-used, but very helpful little guy. The tokens he makes aren't terribly important, as his activated ability is what we're after, and it works independent of them. No, that activated ability doubles damage in a given turn, which does stack if we have a way to untap him. Otherwise, he's a damage-doubler that sits on the field, just waiting for a damage source to multiply.
Mana Spells
This deck is STARVING for mana. Any and every pip of mana we can muster will find a home with an X spell. As a result, we want to use... math. Again. Just like how we multiply damage, we want to multiply mana, and, while other players may be able to use the mana from Heartbeat of Spring or Mana Flare, they're not packing nearly the firepower we are.
Overabundance is a particularly sneaky inclusion, as it plays interestingly with our damage-multipliers. It starts as a bit of chip damage, but it gets nastier and nastier as we multiply our damage since it's an effect that we control. Every bit of damage takes pressure off of our Fireballs, and this help is certainly welcome.
While sharing is caring and Hugs loves friends at the table, we need to break parity. Sol Ring and Orcish Lumberjack provide early bursts of mana to help power Hugs out and help us get ahead. We don't mind rushing our commander out because we should always have mana to re-cast him, and anything extra becomes card draw anyways.
Rampant Growth effects are prioritized over rituals and mana rocks because they increase our land count, which matters for our mana-multipliers. Cultivate and Kodama's Reach are particularly useful because Hugs grants extra land drops, so we can play both lands we search up.
Card Advantage
Since our Fireballs double as removal, we don't need a lot of removal. We could, however, use more draw, as our commander is the only source of card advantage we've put in so far. We don't want a lot of these effects, and we don't have a way to take advantage of cards in hand, so leaning into exile-based draw seems like a solid plan. Urabrask, Heretic Praetor is particularly nasty, as it impacts opponents' draw spells.
Monastery Raid is a solid card, one of the few ways that we can abuse Hugs's massive stats and trample. While attacking with Hugs isn't our main plan, triggering freerunning is a solid reason to send Hugs into the red zone. Worst case scenario, he goes down in combat, and we re-cast him, drawing more cards. Heck, I hear the third time, he gets a free sundae!
The general plan is to multiply mana and damage in order to blast opponents with fireballs. Impulse draw helps to connect the dots, including from our commander. The Fireballs can be used to keep alive until the pieces fit together, and any help opponents get from us multiplying their mana or damage is outshined by the limitless potential of our blasts.
Commander's Herald Hugs, Grisly Guardian Deck tech
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