but Solemnity is super mean and it will ruin some decks

Thanks for the suggestion, Dannymannen.

As one of my limits for building this deck, I made sure I didn't do negative things to any other player unless that player was attacking me. That's why you see cards like Aurification or Wall of Frost in the deck, cards that tell people that there's nothing to see here, why not move along, and not cards like Solemnity which actually hose certain strategies (and counters strategies are huge at the moment) as yahelhotam pointed out.

There are a lot of 'control' type group hug decks out there and they're fine, I have nothing against them, but I made a conscious effort to not include any control aspects in this deck. I just let everyone do their thing, and only make them pay any kind of price at all (minor though the prices paid are) if they come after me. Mostly, once it's determined that I'm not any kind of threat, people pretty much leave me alone.

I agree with you, now when you mentioned it. I also came across a different (maybe more appealing) card recently, Soldevi Sentry. And it's only for 1 mana. Sick!

I discovered early on, Dannymannen, that there are some cards that do good things for other players 'when they die'. Unfortunately, that gives other players an incentive to attack me, something I definitely don't want to encourage.

When I first put this deck together, I included Noble Benefactor. It didn't take long for me to realize that mistake, and I removed it from the deck post-haste.

While Soldevi Sentry actually works better for this deck (due to the fact that I wouldn't give the free card to the one who attacked me), I still would rather stay away from cards that have to die to do good things for other players.

RamaLamaYou don't need the creature to die to use regenerate, you can do it whenever you want, the way regenerate works these days is that it creates a replacement effect that triggers the next time the creature would die this turn whenever that is. It's usually done in response to the situation that would kill it but that's just because it's usually the relevant time to activate it, but you can actually activate it whenever you like.

So Soldevi Sentry can be used as just pay 1 mana at any time to let target opponent draw a card, and you can do it as many times as you like too.

Thank you very much for that explanation, Sjorpha, and thank you very much for the suggestion, Dannymannen.

Soldevi Sentry sounds like just the card I need to add to the deck. Unfortunately I don't currently have one, but one is in the mail to me as I type this.

The fact that I can activate its "Regenerate" multiple times in a turn, allowing everyone to draw a card, plus I can canvas the playgroup beforehand to see who actually wants to draw another card, since it's a "may" ability and I'm already giving out so much card draw anyway, something which could allow me to conserve mana, plus he's pretty much an indestructible chump-blocker. I like it a lot.

I don't feel too bad about not keeping up with Regeneration though. As Aaron Forsythe has said, "...the mechanic is so complicated and wonky that we would never greenlight it today...", and changes have been made to the mechanic right up to "Kaladesh", where it disappears for good, replaced by "Indestructible until end of turn".

Anyway, thanks again Dannymannen for suggesting Soldevi Sentry, and Sjorpha for helping me understand why it will be so good in this deck.

SQUISHY!!!! Sorry, I had a friend who played something similar and we always loved seeing the flying hippo drop on the field, we lovingly called him squishy, because he was our squishy and our friend, and no one ever touched him until he was the only person left to kill. Although one time he did win just thanks to the Sidisi player decking themselves.

Thanks for the comment, omen1121.

Yeah, I do have to be careful about accidentally milling someone out, and actually had Mnemonic Nexus and Day's Undoing in the deck for a minute in order to prevent that from happening, but in the end decided that I could use those card slots for cooler effects.

A fun combo I run in my version of this deck is Hive Mind and Hypergenesis. It makes the game silly

More people need to learn to play and make decks like this, cause there's too much salt in the mtg community. Thank you for sharing sir.

I love the huggy hippo! It's fun sometimes to just not care about winning and see hiw much you can help others break the game and their decks. Your deck seems to be great at that and so gets an affectionate +1!

I think I'd like to have you in my playgroup.

Thanks for the comments, guys.

I considered running Hypergenesis in the deck, NyanNijet, but with all the card draw I'm giving out, especially if one player had a Reliquary Tower or similar and the others didn't, it would push the game forward too fast. I never considered putting Hive Mind in. /;-)

Thanks for the comment, Toxic_Starfish. Yeah, a lot of people have forgotten (if they ever knew) that this is a game after all, and is meant to be fun, especially EDH. This deck is just a gentle reminder.

Thanks for the affectionate +1, fragarach97.

I don't know if you'd actually like to have me in your playgroup, Yesterday. I can't play this deck that often. Every day can't be Christmas or Christmas loses its magic. I get requested to play this deck more often that I am willing to play it, but pulling the hippo out once in a while is a lot of fun.

I'm looking forward to adding Fractured Identity from the Commander 2017 set when it's available. Oh the possibilities!!

I have a group hug deck but it still tries to win, I like the idea but stealing a victory late in the game because you are not tainted because no one would dare hurt group hug

Show and Tell? Concordant Crossroads? Eureka? Since this deck is a fun deck I proxy it and just have all the fun.

Tempting Wurm is a wonderful enabler, also Hunted Wumpus

Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys.

I like the Show and Tell and Concordant Crossroads ideas DrkNinja, although giving all creatures haste is a little worrying I must say. I'll have to test it out. Luckily (due to its price) I feel the same way about Eureka as I do Hypergenesis or the Tempting Wurm that NyanNijet suggested . They all push the game forward too fast, even for this deck and, considering all the card draw I'm giving out, if one player has an Reliquary Tower effect and the others don't, things could get ugly.

I've thought about including Hunted Wumpus in the deck, NyanNijet, but when you get up into the 6/6 creature range, people start taking notice. I even considered not putting the 5/5 Sheltering Ancient in the deck for this reason, but the cumulative upkeep is just so sweet on that card I had to include it.

run lifegain things and throw Felidar Sovereign in there or Aetherflux Reservoir as a win con that no one sees coming

Thanks for the suggestion, Pygmyrhino990.

I realize that having no win conditions at all is a tough concept to embrace. I've had this discussion many times.

Once players know that there 'are' win conditions in your deck, it changes the whole dynamic of how you're treated. All of a sudden you're just another threat at the table, although a somewhat kind one. I make it clear before the game even starts that I have no win conditions, I cannot take any player out, and cannot win. That usually does the trick, and many times I come in second place.

but why do you want to come in second when you can come in first?

Pygmyrhino990 Because as a competitor for First place, you become a larger target, as a group hug deck you can already have issues with people working on taking you out to specifically slow the game down, when another player is taking better advantage of the help.

Not to mention if you have a winning end game, you probably want to add more pillow-fort into your deck, as a grouphug deck is really a mid-long game deck your slow to get rolling, and wasting cards on pillow-fort are more cards you can't use for hugging the group!

As an aside with the draw cards in his deck as it is, he can win the game by decking if he wanted to, but as he says he wants people in his playgroup to play with him, and by saying he has no win-cons he's creating a social contract that he will not attempt to win, which lets him have some more political clout in that he can be trusted to not end the game.

Respect. Looks like good clean fun!

Now this is truly the huggiest. Props for Wall of Vapor...ah legends. What a strange and ridiculous expansion. Suppose you could run some of the hunted cards like Hunted Phantasm if you wanted to add some more attack power while still giving graciously.

Ahhh I love group hug decks. I also appreciate your sentiment of having no win conditions and playing for the sake of playing one crazy fun game.

Also mad props for Soldevi Sentry, he was an all-star in my own group hug deck a while back.

Cool deck,+1!

Yay I'm upvote #300!! Congrats!

Long live the Hippo!