Some of the deadliest cards in MTG Commander end up giving benefits to the entire table. Helping your opponents may not seem like a winning strategy, but more often than not, you’re getting more out of the deal than they are. Thanks to the free benefits your opponents get, they’re less likely to remove your cards, either. This creates a winning strategy, allowing game-ending cards to fly under the radar for far longer than they should.
While Ms. Bumbleflower has been making a name for herself by doing this recently, she’s hardly the only MTG card in the group hug archetype. Phelddagrif, a 29-year old card from Alliances, is perhaps the first example of this idea from Magic’s history.
MTG Phelddagrif
For four mana, Phelddagrif isn’t a very powerful creature on its own. Giving the Hippo Flying and Trample is interesting, but between giving away life and creatures, your opponents tend to come out ahead. On the plus side, Phelddagrif’s odd suite of effects does give it a lot of survivability. Paying one blue mana to dodge removal makes this creature very difficult to properly kill. That said, Phelddagrif gives so many gifts, your opponents might not have much of a reason to target it until it’s too late, anyway.
That allows Phelddagrif to generate significant long-term value in decks that synergize with it. The blue ability is the most flexible one here, allowing the Hippo to repetitively trigger effects that occur whenever Phelddagrif is either cast or enters play. This is quite attractive in Jodah, the Unifier decks, consistently triggering Cascades for smaller Legendary creatures. Similarly, when partnered with The Great Henge, Guardian Project, or the Commander Chulaine, Teller of Tales, Phelddagrif will turn into a never-ending card advantage machine.
You can also stack multiple instances of Phelddagrif’s abilities to give your opponents lots of benefits, enabling different payoffs. Allowing an opponent to draw two cards, for example, opens up an opportunity for cards like Unagi at Kyoshi Island, The Council of Four, Wedding Ring, and Consecrated Sphinx to refill your hand in return. Similarly, in black Commander decks, partnering Phelddagrif’s white ability with Tainted Remedy or Plague Drone can outright kill opponents since the life gain isn’t optional.
The green ability, however, is where things get tricky. Granting your opponents tokens may seem like a bad deal, but it actually turns on some incredibly nasty cards. Defense of the Heart and Oath of Druids can both cheat massive creatures into play for free, and Phelddagrif’s tokens make them easier to trigger. Kros, Defense Contractor can also use Phelddagrif’s tokens to ensure that it will always have a target for its effects. Phelddagrif’s best use of its green ability, however, is just winning the game with it.
Going Infinite by Giving Opponents Creatures
With Phelddagrif as your Commander, you can go significantly further with its green ability. The card is infamously efficient with Intruder Alarm, a card that untaps all creatures whenever another enters. Notably, this affects all players equally, regardless of where the creature enters play, allowing Phelddagrif’s gifted token to untap your creatures.
This allows Phelddagrif to go infinite with any mana dork that makes green mana. Even a Llanowar Elves is fair game here, creating infinite tokens for your opponents. Of course, if you have multiple mana dorks or something like Bloom Tender, you’ll have infinite mana. Even with just one mana dork, some specific cards like Sutre Priest can win the game by pinging your opponent each time a token enters play. Because of this, most Phelddagrif Commander decks focus on Intruder Alarm as a core card, but there are some other shenanigans you can pull off.
If you’re willing to put Phelddagriff into the graveyard, you can pull off some ridiculous shenanigans with Agatha’s Soul Cauldron. Putting the Hippo under the Cauldron and gifting its abilities to Cloud of Faeries can easily lead to infinite mana. So long as you have something that puts +1/+1 counters on creatures that enter, like Renata, Called to the Hunt, and a land that taps for more than one mana, Cloud of Faeries can repeatedly bounce itself back into your hand and re-enter, untapping your lands over and over.
Duplicate Creature
While a little unorthodox, Phelddagrif can pull off some powerful shenanigans in a wide range of different decks. With some careful politicking and mana conservation, getting rid of this Hippo should be nigh impossible as well. Perhaps one of the best things about Phelddagrif, however, is that there’s another almost identical card you can run alongside it.
Questing Phelddagriff essentially does all the same things as its Hippo brethren, but is a little less optimal in the protection department. Instead of returning to your hand, this Hippo gains protection from Black and Red, making it easier to remove overall. Still, if your deck relies on granting your opponent Hippo tokens, this card is a surprising added boost of consistency.
Despite all this potential, Phelddagrif really doesn’t see that much play. Its color identity is certainly part of the reason for this, but even then, the card only appears in 1,220 decks according to EDHREC. Sadly, despite its lack of play, Phelddagrif still demands a $9.50 price tag, thanks in part to its unique infinite combo potential. Winning the game by filling your friends’ board with Hippos, after all, is too sweet a thing to ignore.
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