Vision, Synthezoid AvengerVision, Synthezoid Avenger | Art by Mark Spears

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Blinkmoth UrnBlinkmoth Urn is the only colorless card to give out multiple mana to each player, each turn?)

Marvel Super Heroes has started trickling out spoilers, and there's been a lot of hype for pretty much all of the new commander options. Except one.

And honestly, I don't get it. Is Vision, Synthezoid AvengerVision, Synthezoid Avenger pretty boring, in that all it does is get huge and protect itself? Yeah. But that second half, combined with his evasion, is what we call the perfect control finisher, and it's maybe the best at it of any card that's ever been printed.

Vision doesn't have hexproof, he has super hexproof. Spot removal? He's outta here. Board wipe? Gone. If you're going to remove him, you're going to have to put a permanent on the board that can remove him with an ability, and even then you have to hope that I don't have a spell I can cast in response. Combine all that with him being an effective reprint of one of the cards to get the biggest the easiest, Forgotten AncientForgotten Ancient, and what you have is a ticking time bomb of commander damage for the entire table. It's not going to take longer than three or four turn cycles for Vision to be in the 21/21 range, with no hope of removing him.

But what if we could speed that clock up... even more?

Group Hug is a much-maligned strategy that revolves around symmetrical effects. In other words? You give the entire table stuff, whether that be mana or cards. From there, it's normally a convoluted explanation of how you've built your deck to deal with the extra cards and mana, and also play an increased amount of interaction and pillow fort effects to secretly be a control deck which will eventually spring the trap of killing the table via card draw, mill, combo, or "you win the game" cards.

With Vision as a clock, though? You don't need any of that. "Hey, here's some cards. Please cast them so that I can beat you to death."

Normally, Group Hug as a strategy is color-intensive. Bant is the most common scenario, with 3,500 decks out there, followed up by blackless at 1,600, Azorius at 1,400, Selesnya at 1,200, and five-color at 1,100. White is the order of the day, with support colors to support the support color abounding.

So, what are the options out there with no colors at all?

Top 10 Colorless Group Hug Effects

Criteria: Nonland colorless cards that have multiple players either draw cards or ramp. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Zenith ChroniclerZenith Chronicler

(52.5k Inclusions, 0.60% of 8.80M Decks)

I have a love-hate relationship with Zenith ChroniclerZenith Chronicler. It's efficient, as a two-mana 3/1, and it feels like it should draw tons of cards, except it just... doesn't. You'll get a couple a game from folks' commanders, but mostly, this ends up being an early beater that draws three-quarters of the table a card before it ends up trading or chump blocking.

With that said, it's a cheap artifact creature that will trigger VisionVision and possibly draw the table cards that will get played, and therefore trigger Vision. I think if there is a scenario where this little guy shines, this is it.

9. Ghirapur OrreryGhirapur Orrery

(56.8k Inclusions, 0.65% of 8.80M Decks)

What's the use in giving out five cards a turn to our opponents if they can't cast them? Ghirapur OrreryGhirapur Orrery will handle that just fine, by allowing folks to play out an extra land each turn. That's usually the end of the relevant text on the card, but in testing Vision, I've actually found that the nature of a colorless deck being mostly ramp spells had me rather routinely playing out my whole hand despite all the additional card draw, meaning we have to talk about the fact that if you manage to do that, Ghirapur OrreryGhirapur Orrery also draws you three cards in your upkeep, giving you a four-card hand by the time you get to your main phase. It feels absolutely insane to pull off, I assure you.

8. Font of MythosFont of Mythos

(64.9k Inclusions, 0.74% of 8.80M Decks)

I don't think it's a huge spoiler to note that Howling MineHowling Mine will be further up this list, but what if we could have... two of them?

Font of MythosFont of Mythos is two Halflings in a trenchcoat pretending to be a Howling Mine. That metaphor doesn't work at all, but you get the idea. Instead of drawing two cards at your draw step, you'll move right along to three, all at double the cost. This can be a bit late in the game, and you do have the usual Howling Mine problem of your opponents getting the cards first, but in for a penny, in for a pound, right?

7. Horn of GreedHorn of Greed

(65.0k Inclusions, 0.74% of 8.80M Decks)

Usually, Horn of GreedHorn of Greed is one of the better Howling Mine effects out there for the Group Hug decks. Why? Because they usually play green and are drowning in "you can play an extra land this turn" effects. Noting that Horn of Greed only triggers on playing a land, however, not putting one into play, the amount of effects that will let us or anyone else play extra lands in colorless are few and far between.

We already covered Ghirapur Orrery, which just leaves the only other AzusaAzusa effects in colorless: Storm CauldronStorm Cauldron and Sword of Forge and FrontierSword of Forge and Frontier. I've forced Storm Cauldron enough times to know that it's more of a Stax effect than a Group Hug one. As for the various swords, they'd usually be a slam dunk in a Voltron strategy where you're just trying to attack with your commander, but Vision already makes himself huge, protects himself, and has evasion. Even worse, Equipment are kind of bad with him because he wants to be spending all his mana to be casting spells, not equipping them.

With all that said, Horn of Greed isn't going to be one of our best Howling Mine effects, but we'll have to be cutting pretty deep for it to not be one of them at least.

6. Temple BellTemple Bell

(72.7k Inclusions, 0.83% of 8.80M Decks)

Temple BellTemple Bell is yet another Howling Mine effect, only one that you control the timing of. That may not seem like much if you've never thought about Howling Mine dynamics before, but if you have, it's pretty huge. The problem with Howling Mine isn't so much that everyone draws. Yes, that puts you at a disadvantage, as you're giving opponents three cards, but that's really only true if all three opponents are using said cards against you, rather than spreading that love around. The problem is that your opponents always get those cards first, so spending an additional mana to have everyone get a card right before your turn so you can use your card first? Pretty huge, and well worth the additional mana.

5. Teferi's Puzzle BoxTeferi's Puzzle Box

(74.7k Inclusions, 0.85% of 8.80M Decks)

In a similar vein to Storm CauldronStorm Cauldron, Teferi's Puzzle BoxTeferi's Puzzle Box is a Stax card pretending to be a Group Hug card. It doesn't actually draw anyone more cards, it merely replaces everyone's hand every turn so no one can plan anything, and it triggers various draw triggers, most notably NekusarNekusar. No thanks, next.

4. Coveted JewelCoveted Jewel

(104k Inclusions, 1.18% of 8.80M Decks)

It's only arguable that Coveted JewelCoveted Jewel is a Group Hug card as well because a lot of the decks playing it have no intention of playing fair. Instead, they're going to land a Displacer KittenDisplacer Kitten, use it to ramp into the Jewel, and then see how much of their deck they can get through by drawing three cards and getting three mana of every color with each spell they cast. Spoiler alert: it's their entire deck.

With that said, I think for Vision specifically? This is kind of exactly what the doctor ordered. We can play this down, draw three, swing in with Vision, and then happily watch as the Jewel then gets passed around the table, secure in our knowledge that we'll be able to get it back with Vision's flying on our turn, even if it means using some of the removal we just drew off of our Jewel. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is the best Hug effect we've seen yet to achieve our goal of drowning folks in cards and mana to make our Vision huge.

3. Explore the VastlandsExplore the Vastlands

(111k Inclusions, 1.26% of 8.80M Decks)

"What is this card?", I hear everyone whose just looking at the picture saying. This, my friends, is the back side of Wandering ArchaicWandering Archaic, the least flipped dual-facing card ever designed. Well, we did it. We finally found a deck that will want to flip this over and cast the cheaper, worse version of this card on the regular. You probably won't do so more than just cast Archaic, mind you, but it can be considered as a means to put a counter on Vision and hand out cards to folks to play, not to mention to gain a few life as the table correctly targets us for being the Group Hug deck.

2. Howling MineHowling Mine

(168k Inclusions, 1.91% of 8.80M Decks)

While I'll always love the original, I do think I have gotten to the point in my Group Hug career that I would prioritize Temple BellTemple Bell over Howling MineHowling Mine. With that said, I've never had a deck play one that didn't play both, and this isn't going to be the one.

1. Scrawling CrawlerScrawling Crawler

(173k Inclusions, 2.26% of 7.65M Decks)

That's right, the new kid on the block has already usurped the throne. In less than two years, Scrawling CrawlerScrawling Crawler has racked up 5,000 more inclusions than Howling Mine, not to mention more than the arguably better Temple BellTemple Bell and Horn of GreedHorn of Greed. The reason? It gets around the Howling Mine issue of handing out cards to your opponents first, which we've already established is well worth the extra mana in Temple Bell. What really pushes it over the edge, however, is the second ability. Basically, what we have here is a three-mana Nekusar, the MindrazerNekusar, the Mindrazer that can be played in any color, except it's better because it doesn't have the Howling Mine problem that Nekusar does.

Put simply, Scrawling Crawler is a Group Hug and Stax effect in one that is good enough at both that it's broken through the threshold of being played in niche decks. Instead, it's getting picked up by random decks across the board that would either like to draw more cards, slow down combo and control decks, or just... get everyone's life total down to zero.

Ironically, we actually don't care much about the Nekusar ability on Scrawling Crawler. If we don't kill folks with Vision, we probably don't kill folks at all. But will we take another Howling mine attached to a blocker? Absolutely.

Honorable Mentions

All right, we don't have nearly enough of these Hug effects to pull this thing off. What else is there?

Top 25 Nonland Colorless Group Hug Effects

11. Tempting ContractTempting Contract
12. Bucknard's Everfull PurseBucknard's Everfull Purse
13. Pendant of ProsperityPendant of Prosperity
14. Anvil of BogardanAnvil of Bogardan
15. Blinkmoth UrnBlinkmoth Urn
16. Memory JarMemory Jar
17. Marching DuodroneMarching Duodrone
18. Otherworld AtlasOtherworld Atlas
19. Thran SpiderThran Spider
20. Gate to the AetherGate to the Aether
21. Storm CauldronStorm Cauldron
22. Clockwork FoxClockwork Fox
23. Runed ServitorRuned Servitor
24. Well of KnowledgeWell of Knowledge
25. Horn of PlentyHorn of Plenty

For those keeping score, out of our entire top ten, we only had one effect that actually gave the whole table mana, and even that only works if they have extra lands in their hand. With that in mind, seeing Tempting ContractTempting Contract and Bucknard's Everfull PurseBucknard's Everfull Purse here at 11 and 12 is a bit of a windmill slam. I'm less excited for Pendant of Prosperity, as in my experience it doesn't actually get used much, either because you chose a curmudgeon or because folks legitimately just can't find the mana and time. Which just leaves Blinkmoth UrnBlinkmoth Urn on the list for mana hugs, and... it's the best card in our deck. Yeah, it's "hugging" the table, and folks will see a few mana here or there, but for us? This will usually double the amount of mana we have on its first trigger, and then get into 10+ territory the turns after that as we continually dump our hand.

As for the rest of the list, there are some playables to fill out the rest of our 99, but nothing that is super exciting. There is an entire other section of things we left out that needs a brief visit, however:

It's tempting to think that lands are all free slots in a colorless deck, and that you can just go nuts on utility. That is true, at least in comparison to even mono-colored decks, but it has officially gotten to the point that even in colorless, slots feel hard to come by because you're just filled to the brim with what feel like necessities. With that said, our landbase for Vision is going to be leaning hard into ramp to try and land Vision early with the likes of Ancient TombAncient Tomb and City of TraitorsCity of Traitors, and then feed him routinely in the late game by assembling TronTron to keep on casting spells.

All that said, there will be room for a couple more draw effects to help us and everyone else out, and Mikokoro, Center of the SeaMikokoro, Center of the Sea is at the top of that list. There will be hands where we get all ramp and no draw, and those are the precise games where we'll be ecstatic to see Mikokoro, or even Geier Reach SanitariumGeier Reach Sanitarium to draw us into our various Howling Mines.

Which just leaves the decklist!

Bumping this up to a Bracket 3 seemed necessary, although it probably doesn't play enough removal to honestly keep up with the higher end of the bracket. That said, Vision can kill opponents early and often, the only question is if a table can come up with enough flying blockers, aggro to kill you before you kill them, or instant speed removal to phase out Vision before your attack step every turn. Personally? I like those odds.

Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

What Do You Think?

After designing this deck, I have to say that I was honestly surprised to not see more hype about Vision, Synthezoid AvengerVision, Synthezoid Avenger. Even his other version, The VisionThe Vision, seems to have gotten a lot more excitement. So I guess my question is: Why?

And finally, what is your favorite colorless Group Hug effect? Would it feed Vision?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the table with the shared dice pile in the middle.