Phelddagrif: The War on Hugs

[TheGildedGoose]

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

This thread is for archival purposes. The decklist is tinkered with every now and then, but most/all discussion related to it will be found in DirkGently's excellent Phelddagrif thread. I just want to be able to put this in my signature without disturbing the other thread with constant decklist updates.

The War on Hugs

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander:

1 Phelddagrif

Lands: 40

1 Command Tower

1 Spara's Headquarters

1 Temple Garden

1 Hallowed Fountain

1 Prairie Stream

1 Breeding Pool

1 Arid Mesa

1 Flooded Strand

1 Marsh Flats

1 Misty Rainforest

1 Polluted Delta

1 Scalding Tarn

1 Verdant Catacombs

1 Windswept Heath

1 Wooded Foothills

1 Prismatic Vista

1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

1 Boseiju, Who Endures

1 Otawara, Soaring City

1 Demolition Field

1 Kor Haven

1 Mystic Sanctuary

2 Forest

6 Plains

10 Island

Spot Removal: 12

1 Immovable Rod

1 Path to Exile

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Unexpectedly Absent

1 Echoing Truth

1 Blink of an Eye

1 Into the Roil

1 Council's Judgment

1 Song of the Dryads

1 Beast Within

1 Generous Gift

1 Endless Detour

Board Wipes: 6

1 Cyclonic Rift

1 Out of Time

1 Supreme Verdict

1 Evacuation

1 Farewell

1 Hour of Revelation

Counterspells: 10

1 An Offer You Can't Refuse

1 Stubborn Denial

1 Swan Song

1 Counterspell

1 Mana Drain

1 Negate

1 Dovin's Veto

1 Fierce Guardianship

1 Forbid

1 Force of Negation

Card Selection: 6

1 Sensei's Divining Top

1 Mystic Speculation

1 Brainstorm

1 Ponder

1 Preordain

1 Impulse

Card Draw: 4

1 Compulsion

1 Trade Routes

1 Fact or Fiction

1 Memory Deluge

Recursion: 7

1 Shigeki, Jukai Visionary

1 Regrowth

1 Bala Ged Recovery

1 Crucible of Worlds

1 Ramunap Excavator

1 Conduit of Worlds

1 Seasons Past

Tutor: 6

1 Enlightened Tutor

1 Mystical Tutor

1 Merchant Scroll

1 Muddle the Mixture

1 Intuition

1 Solve the Equation

Sustain: 8

1 Maze of Ith

1 Blessed Respite

1 Constant Mists

1 Moment's Peace

1 Tangle

1 Pulse of the Fields

1 Teferi's Protection

1 Comeuppance

Approximate Total Cost:

Why Phelddagrif?

Dirk goes over this in his primer, but tl;dr: The Purple One is nigh immortal, which means you have a constant board presence and when combined with its inherent evasion makes it an excellent finisher. Finally, it introduces a political element to the game, which you can leverage to your advantage.

Without further ado, let's get into some analysis.

Strategy



Lands

Nothing too fancy here. Since we're running a recursion package with Crucible of Worlds et al. we're keeping non-fetchable non-basics to a minimum since this deck really needs to hit our land drops every turn.

[DirkGently]

Curious how the triple (quadruple with out of time) neutralization package has worked for you. I'd be concerned that people would start to get a bit wary about having their commanders locked down so often.

[TheGildedGoose]

Curious how the triple (quadruple with out of time) neutralization package has worked for you. I'd be concerned that people would start to get a bit wary about having their commanders locked down so often.

Well, with Song of the Dryads/Imprisoned in the Moon I feel a little less pressure to hold onto them just for a problematic commander, and the versatility is especially nice. Immovable Rod is a nice rattlesnake in theory, but both know how rattlesnakes can also be a dinner bell for the right players. Out of Time is just bananas good. I don't feel as though I'm running too many, though if I cut one it would be Imprisoned in the Moon since it's the least versatile and I'm not running Force so the blue element is irrelevant.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Dude, you're way more devoted to the discussion of your version than I am with mine. I just keep editing that one post in Dirk's thread over and over again lol

[TheGildedGoose]

Dude, you're way more devoted to the discussion of your version than I am with mine. I just keep editing that one post in Dirk's thread over and over again lol

I may have stolen the blueprint, but it's still Dirk's house. Also, I am a noted egomaniac and demand my own space.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Dude, you're way more devoted to the discussion of your version than I am with mine. I just keep editing that one post in Dirk's thread over and over again lol

I may have stolen the blueprint, but it's still Dirk's house. Also, I am a noted egomaniac and demand my own space.

I guess that's why I never threw my own thread up; it's a party at Dirk's house. I ain't picking up any cans or cups in The Great Metaphorical Tomorrow Morning. But I did bring some really good %$#% and I'm happy to share!

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Why is there no loam here? You have literally everything required to make it awesome and somehow it is not here.

[TheGildedGoose]

Why is there no loam here? You have literally everything required to make it awesome and somehow it is not here.

It costs mana to recur lands with and is inconsistent and mediocre as a draw engine with so few cycling lands (plus, they come into play tapped). I found I always hit my land drops and could generally rely on other sources of card advantage. I also don't like how Loam reveals the tons of wipes, removal, and countermagic we run.

[TheGildedGoose]

I've updated the decklist to include a lands subpackage, a more modest card selection collection, more card draw spells (including the spicy Trade Routes and Compulsion), a reduction in board wipes and counter, and the introduction of a fog package. More than ever this version of the deck seeks less to police the table and more to survive until the 1v1 endgame where the deck truly shines.