Thank you, I was thinking about making a political deck after my deployment is over. This will make it easier.

slow clap

I'm in love with this list! I've played a couple decks that flirted with this idea and I just hadn't put my finger on what was so much fun playing this way. I'm definitely not a spike player, but this is exactly what I need to take the political idea and really open it up and make a deck that specializes in it.

Thanks for all the speculation and time you've put into this. Keep it up! I'm subscribed now :)

Diaochan, Artful Beauty is an awesome political tool and should definitely be on this list. She fits the most into #5, I think. Also, Pentagram of the Ages for #2 and Nova Pentacle for #3.

Diaochan, Artful Beauty is awesome for this list. As does Nova Pentacle. I am, however, unsure about Pentagram of the Ages. It indeed does deter people from attacking you but I'm not sure if its enough because it is pretty bad. And if I added it I would have to add things like Shield of the Ages as well.

Given someone owns a Zedruu the Greathearted in play many more cards become political in nature, such as Illusions of Grandeur and Steel Golem.

Makes sense. Happy to contribute!

@Alexyoung - Those cards are only useable with Zedruu. You can look on any Zedruu list to find them. Can you justify their inclusion on any of the qualities stated above?

Here's my list of EDH commanders that have political potential by color, if anyone is interested. Keep in mind that any deck can build political elements in them (I find them especially useful/fun in Voltron builds). These commanders are just useful if you want to go all-in. The numbers in parenthesis refers to the political cobditions they satisfy.

Assessment of EDH Generals by Poltical Viability:

Multicolor
1. Zedruu the Greathearted - (5)
2. Zur the Enchanter - Can fetch a great deal of political cards because many of them are enchantments.
3. Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts - (2)
4. Sen Triplets - (4)
5. Selvala, Explorer Returned - (5)
6. Saffi Eriksdotter - (5)
7. Roon of the Hidden Realm - (2)
8. Phelddagrif - King of (5)
9. Isperia, Supreme Judge - (2)
10. Hanna, Ship's Navigator - Same as Zur, presents less of a threat.
11. Gisela, Blade of Goldnight - (1),(2).
12. Gahiji, Honored One - (1)
13. Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Is resilient enough to deter attack (2) and can also devastate the defenses of an opponent by tapping all of his creatures (1). Can also, in a limited sense, invite opponents to reuse tap effects that favor you (5).
14. Daxos of Meletis - It's just flavorful to steal stuff in a politics deck, similar to Thada, Adel.
15. Captain Sisay - She has potential to find just the Legendary you need to craft a battlefield the way you want it.
16. Riku of Two Reflections - Take any of the above cards that are Instants, Sorceries, or Creatures and double them.

White
1. Yosei, the Morning Star - (3)
2. Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo - (2)
3. Masako the Humorless - (2)
4. Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker - (2)
5. Mangara of Corondor - (3)
6. Major Teroh - (3) Ironically allies you with any Black players more strongly than any other cards I've seen. Just say you won't activate unless he attacks you.
7. Lieutenant Kirtar - (3)
Mageta the Lion - (3)
8. Heliod, God of the Sun - (2)
9. Eight-and-a-Half-Tails - (2)
10. Commander Eesha - (2)
11. Avacyn, Guardian Angel - (2), (5).
12. Akroma, Angel of Wrath - (4)

Blue
1. Zhou Yu, Chief Commander - An odd choice, but limiting the amount of opponents you can attack is sometimes politically viable. It means you can focus one player. Then, when he's dead, you can Spreading Seas the next guy. Being able to opponents one one-by-one like this is the essence of political Voltron (4)
2. Thada Adel, Acquisitor - Same reason as Zhou Yu, general utility.
3. Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - Makes your opponents more vulnerable to attack. (1),(6)
4. Keiga, the Tide Star - If someone attacks you or kills it, they have to be ready to lose something of value.
5. Braids, Conjurer Adept - Can weigh the field down with fat threats which are the raw material for your manipulation. (5)
6. Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor - Can be used as a threat (3) or to make an opponent's blockers go away (1).

Red
1. Akroma, Angel of Fury - Same reason as Zhou Yu. Some players will hate it more than others (4)
2. Ashling the Pilgrim - Advertised threat (3)
3. Urabrask the Hidden - Makes opponents have fewer blockers (1)
4. Starke of Rath - Targeted hug (5)
5. Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs - Reduces your viability as target (2)
6. Jaya Ballard, Task Mage - Kills one type of player (4), can be used as threat (3)
7. Heartless Hidetsugu - Can look at this as a hug effect (5)
8. Fumiko the Lowblood - The definition of (4)
9. Diaochan, Artful Beauty - (5)

Green
1. Jolrael, Empress of Beasts - (5)
2. Dosan the Falling Leaf - Same reason as Teferi (1).
3. Thriss, Nantuko Primus - (5)
4. Thrun, the Last Troll - Can act as wall (2)

Black
1. Kokusho, the Evening Star - (3)
2. Kagemaro, First to Suffer - (3)
3. Balthor the Defiled - (5)
4. Horobi, Death's Wail - (5)

Oh I forgot: Karona, the False God - (5),(4).

I'm not sure whether or not I should add Akroan Horse. On the one hand, it's clearly an attempt by WOTC to make a political card. But at the same time, it's mostly just going to act as a chump blocker or get swept up in a boardwipe or sacrificed before it'll do anything substantive. Karmic Justice, on the other hand, I can accept with no reservations. I can see why you would suggest Privileged Position, but I'll have to disagree with its inclusion because it's not really presenting an opponent with a choice. It's denying him the opportunity. And people don't really like that and the spells it's likely to protect your enchantments from will then be used to get rid of it instead of on your opponents things, which is the optimal political scenario. Since it, in and of itself doesn't offer any bargaining power and has to be used in an Enchantment-heavy build to be effective I don't think I'll be adding it. Also, Meletis Charlatan is iffy for me under the justification of (5). His activation cost is just so high and it doesn't offer you any of the control that, say an Echo Mage would. It'd be amazing if they couldn't choose new targets for the copies, however.

I was thinking about doing a deckbuilder series for political decks. I was thinking of first making a "Deal-Making" deck where you run cards like the "Tempt" Cycle and Fact or Fiction or Sphinx of Uthuun, Diaochan, Artful Beauty, and things like that where you give opponents the opportunity to really help you out. Then you can "honor your arrangements" with them and slink back into your shadows until another opportunity to broker a deal comes into play.

"Hehe...say...I can wipe that board/prevent that damage/draw those cards for you. All you have to do is...give me cards/remove that threat/attack other player/do a funny dance."

Which commander sounds more fun to do this for? Nin, the Pain Artist or Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer?

Now this...this is impressive. Comprehensive, well-written, and persuasive enough to make one wish to build a political machine for EDH. Loving it.

I really like this a lot. +1

I noticed there are some things like Courtly Provocateur

In that case should Nettling Imp or Norritt also count?

Cards like that really reveal how this is a list of very soft distinctions. I should probably remove the "comprehensive" from the title. I won't put in Norritt because he's basically unusable. I put in the provacateur under a tenuous category (4) in my eyes which controls player resources and not actual players, nor does it help make them more predictable. Courtly Provocateur was an easy exception however because it comes with a Provoke effect that potentially makes opponents more willing to attack them.

Caes would appreciate this

Add a bunch of will of the council cards and maybe tribute cards. I also like to intimidate people into succumbing to my will. LOL. Today I had a ten ten doublestrike lifelink pro all colors their playing fabled hero. I told them whoever was less of a Suckup would die today. I felt really good about myself, and then I swung at the Kiss Ass. Don't lie kids.

I added the relevant tribute cards a long time ago. The other ones don't have effects that are really EDH worthy...now that I think about it, even though this list was clearly made with EDH in mind...it doesn't say that in the title haha. I'll have to amend that.

Most of the card here are either:1. manipulating "Attacking" incentives2. targeted group hug

I don't know your edh meta, but in my meta midrange (+ beatdown) decks only contribute slightly less than half of all decks played. Others are combo or control.

First of all it means nothing to control player the political cards you have. They don't attack and will get rid of your cards when they have to. Thus there is no point of discussing here. Combo players don't attack too, and keep defending and drawing into their wincon. What really mess up their plan is to reveal their hand, showing that they nearly finish the combo, then attract everyone on board to take him down. Telepathy is really good here, and perhaps Lantern of Insight, Field of Dreams and Wizened Snitches if you are not playing combo as wincon.

Secondly targeted group hug is not that useful here. Remember that everyone else in the game Are Your Opponent. If you help player A just because B attacks you, player A becomes more likely to win but not you. Targeted group hug will be meaningful only if one opponent is dominated while other player is going to die, and your help would be a lot more meaningful since otherwise you will lose. This situation only usually happen for one turn or two before you die or the field is reseted, which means those cards aren't that good for the rest of the time.

Thirdly is that it really depends on the player for the card to be political or not. A Wrath of God can be as political as Oblivion Stone is if you just tell everyone that you have it. It is even better since you can fake it. Aggro decks can be political too since they are not likely to fight each other since they are not going to win in a prolonged fight. They are likely to target the defenceless combo deck and the troublesome control deck instead, so that they may have a higher chance to win together. So it is not the card that is political but the player is.

I run a few political cards in all of my control decks, and only running the efficient one. Most of the card listed here would not be useful when you actually run it. The idea of listed them out is good though. Great work.

@Primeobjective. These are valid concerns. I will try to address them. In my meta, combo is not really appreciated. This is definitely suited for more 'battleship' magic playstyles and, if there is at least 1 non-combo player I'm sure you can warp your meta game by helping the bejesus out of him. The great thing about targeted group hug is that you have the power to decide who wins. In one example,iIf you use Edric, Spymaster of Trest consistently, your playgroup is going to start to become heavily incentivized to run more tokens and creatures. Similarly, if you consistently help the Mayael the Anima player because its in your self-interest to be allied with the noncombo player and everyone understands that, you'll start to warp your meta against that particular playstyle. A political deck is perfectly viable if your playgroup is, as you said, 50% noncombo or control. And, if you are playing against 100% control, you can start giving people creatures to attack with using things like Jolrael, Empress of Beasts and Karona, False God. I have a Karona deck like this whose win con is things like Insurrection and Rakdos Charm.

Targeted Group hug here is not a necessary element to ancontrol deck, but it can be used to "reward" other players in bargaining or to keep a player in the fight, wearing down your enemies. As long as your opponents are consistently fighting each other, you're winning by proxy. The idea is to have the fight last as long as possible then winning through some means such as Earthquake or Insurrection. Also, if the hug your giving is in the form of creatures then you can easily rely on them not coming at you with your incentivizing cards in play. Notice that raw card draw is not really on my list because that's a variable you can't control. If you know what you're giving to your opponent, you'll probably know what they'll use it for. If your opponent has a troublesome Darksteel Forge and your other opponent has a Revoke Existence in his graveyard, you'll know what will happen if you Pulsemage Advocate that card back into his hand.

Also, regarding the politicalness of sorcery speed mass removal. I think you're wrong for a multitude of reasons. The first being that oftentimes showing sorcery speed mass removal is not what you want to do with it. They're meant to generate as much card advantage for you as possible by having opponents overcommit to the board. The only spell I could consider political that mass removes is instant speed ones like Rout or Evacuation because they can be used in response to someone attacking. Wrath of God does nothing to deter the player who just played Hatred on his Voltron commander to swing at a player for lethal. Also, there's something just not right to me about showing the cards in my hand. If I rely on that to consistently threaten people, people will start to know that, if I'm not showing them my hand, then I won't have anything to address them with and they'll target me with impunity after awhile. The artifact and enchantment based removal is also good because their ability can't be countered once they're on the field.

As for your last point, these cards do not have to be used in an all-out Phelddagrif grouphug deck or anything, they can be blended into any normal EDH strategy. Almost none of these cards are win-cons in and of themselves, but this list allows you to pick and choose which win-cons you want to use around a political shell.

It's different for each person, but what do you like? I'm starting a series exploring some different ways you can use these cards. I haven't put a decent description of these card choices are supposed to do but here you go anyway.

EDH Politics - Gwafa Always Pays His Debts

That's just one example, what colors do you like to play amd do you have a commander in mind?

Academy Rector should be on here, I think.

Even though there are a number of political enchantments, Academy Rector isn't herself a political card. And, while you may be running enchantments that penalize players that killed her in the vein of Archon of Justice by getting, say, a Curse and putting it on your opponent, she doesn't herself penalize attacks. See what I'm saying. This list is not for good EDH facilitators. I don't really need a special list to tell you Privileged Position or Demonic Tutor is good. They're just good pretty much everywhere with politics or without.