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The Promised Hugs

Commander / EDH Artifact Control Eldrazi Group Hug

LapperMedic

Artifact (51)

Land (36)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Emrakul, the Promised End

Creature (7)

Planeswalker (3)

Instant (1)

Sorcery (1)

Maybeboard

Artifact (9)

Land (5)

Planeswalker (1)

Creature (4)

Enchantment (1)

Listen to this deck tech! https://anchor.fm/thesocialcontractedh/episodes/The-Social-Contract-Ep-13-The-Promised-Hugs-eomltd

This is a new kind of group hug deck with a new kind of group hug commander: Emrakul, the Promised End. She is, in fact, the only commander who is able to both mindslave and grant extra turns to other players, making her both a powerful political tool and a deadly weapon. Will your opponents receive the blessing of Emrakul's extra turns, or will they feel her wrath as you ruthlessly sunder their boardstate beyond repair?

Group hug Emrakul is a multifaceted challenge to build and pilot. While mana-fixing in colorless is obviously second to none, the other side of the coin is the severe restriction we have on what cards we can run. If colorless had an identity, it would surely be "you can do anything, but it'll cost you." This leads right in to the first challenge we'll address: Emrakul's absolutely massive 13 CMC.

A 13 CMC commander is expensive enough on its own, and this deck wants to cast her as many times as possible to continually mindslave our opponents. While ramp is abundant in this deck and hard-casting will be your blunt edge most of the time, we have a most loyal lieutenant: Geode Golem. Geode Golem not only allows us to cheat out Emrakul as early as turn 4 or 5, but combined with a sacrifice outlet like High Market, Miren, the Moaning Well, or Diamond Valley, we can be mindslaving people every single round. The icing on the cake of Geode Golem is that while he does necessitate we pay an ever-increasing commander tax, Emrakul can eat this tax along with the hopes our opponents have of winning by reducing her own cost. This works because cost increases like commander tax are applied before any cost reductions. With this trick, Geode Golem can potentially cast Emrakul 3 times for a couple mana at most. Since colorless is... slim on tutors, Geode Golem (or its brother, Metalworker) will have to be a happy surprise. The rest of the time, we're using mana rocks to ramp into Emrakul as fast as we possibly can. This deck really packs them in, so make sure your opening hand has ramp in it.

But what to do with our mindslavery? Before we can answer that, we have to first establish what we want to do, as we really have two options. We can effectively give free-reign to our friends, granting them nearly complete control over their own mindslaved turn (though of course not doing anything we don't like), or we can make our enemies' lives completely miserable. My favorite trick is to destroy/exile/tuck their commander and choose not to return it to the command zone. Yes, we are allowed to make this choice, and against many decks this is a devastating blow. More decks than you might think require their commander to do most of their dirty work, and getting rid of a commander for good can sometimes lock our opponents out of the game. Beyond that, the sky's the limit. Also try:

  • Casting tutors and "fail to find" (a legal decision if the tutor is more specific than "find a card")
  • Casting X spells for 0
  • Counterspelling their own spells
  • Blowing up their own permanents
  • Attacking with utility creatures into horrendous matchups (hey, didn't you just play a 13/13?)

Be forewarned! This deck can ramp extremely quickly and you may find you're able to cast Emrakul before anyone else has secured a boardstate. Think carefully about casting her at this early point in the game. If you mindslave with cruel intentions, it may not be worth your time. Mindslavery works best when an opponent has a juicy board and full hand to mess with, so it could be worth holding off. On the other hand, if you mindslave with benevolent intentions, choose your target carefully. Early in the game, it can be difficult to determine who would benefit from your help without popping off and becoming a threat themselves. Extra turns are powerful, and if you're not careful, you can create a monster that you'll end up having to mindslave again just to reign them in. Early game, play it safe by targeting the weakest or newest player, or someone with a deck that is unlikely to win, and let them (mostly) control their own turns.

So we established this delicious boardstate, we're absolutely dominating the table with back-to-back mindslavery and/or giving our friends so many extra turns that they don't know what to do with them. How do we win? Some of the best strategies are the simplest, and swinging into each opponent with a flying, trampling 13/13 body is a great way to win, so suit up with Assault Suit and go to town. Want to go wide? Try Myr Incubator and exile 20 or 30 artifacts out of your library to make that many 1/1 tokens. But what are we going to do about our opponent's boards? Wraths, of course. All is Dust and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon are two boardwipes that completely obliterate our opponents' side of the field while not touching a single permanent we control. Time to combo off? Mystic Forge + Sensei's Divining Top + Helm of Awakening = draw as many cards as we like.

Now we know how to get our commander out, how to mindslave, and how to go for the win. What are we doing the rest of the time? I'm so glad you asked, because the answer is of course group hug and value. Ramp up with powerful accelerants like Metalworker, Krark-Clan Ironworks, and Mana Vault. Refill your hand with draw effects like Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, Karn, Scion of Urza, Howling Mine, and Mind's Eye. Then sweeten the pot even more with even more group hug effects like Otherworld Atlas, Ghirapur Orrery, Helm of Awakening, and Blinkmoth Urn. Keeping the heat off and your threat flag flying low is important for a deck with Emrakul at the helm, and group hug fits her like a glove.

Hug, ramp, cheat, and mindslave your way to victory with this unique deck that you'll enjoy piloting every time someone scoops out of sheer frustration.

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94% Casual

Competitive

Date added 7 years
Last updated 2 months
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

14 - 0 Mythic Rares

58 - 0 Rares

22 - 0 Uncommons

3 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.70
Tokens Clue, Construct 0/0 C, Copy Clone, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Goat 0/1 W, Myr 1/1 C, Spirit 2/2 C, The Monarch, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders rad af, Decks To Work Towards, idk
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