One of the trademark elements to a game is that it’s played the same regardless of where you are or who are you playing with. That stability is essential for a game to be culturally shared with one another over time, providing a solid bridge artifact between two different groups. When you sit down there’s a helpfulness and familiarity in knowing that you don’t have to re-learn something you supposedly already do simply because you’re in a different place, permitting the players to focus on the people at the table and / or the activity itself. Moreover, having the rules be maintained across locations ensures neither side is gaining a distinct or unfair home advantage in some way due to unknown regionalism or house rules. Playing Risk wouldn’t be all that enjoyable as a kid, for instance, if it meant playing at your friend’s house meant they always got to start with all of South America or you always had to play green because you lived in Missouri. The more uniform the game’s rules are, the more accessible it is across both physical and invisible boundaries. There is an advantage knowing that Bridge is Bridge, Go is Go, and Catan is Catan, relinquishing players from expending extra energy by not having to learn new ground rules. This has been a key element for the spread of board and card games for as long as board and card games have existed.

There are, naturally, exceptions to all this.

For one, the longer a game exists and the more people who are exposed to it, the odds of the game evolving also increase substantially. Nearly any traditional card game either has changed substantially since when it was first created, has spawned numerous variants, or has created wholly spun off games with slightly modified rules. In the case of the former, it’s usually the result of the popularity of the game leading to a consensus from its players on what is the most effective, fair, or enjoyable way to play. In the case of the latter, it’s often due to rules of the game either being mis-taught, rules being misunderstood, or rules intentionally changed to better suit the new audience it was attempting to win over.

Sometimes though, people also just like to be innovative and tinker to see if they can make something even more enjoyable.

In the end, the simple reality is that the longer a game is around, the more likely you are to see adaptations, rules changes, and entirely new formats. Particularly if a game’s rules were passed on orally. Chess as we know it know it today has many of the same elements as its origins as Chaturanga, but there have evolved key differences in several of the pieces which brought with them entirely new and different strategies. Just as a game changes, so too must its strategies and tactics.

Modern board games, with written rulesets and access to globally accessible websites, have significantly reduced accidental game variance. What it has not necessarily done, though, is curtail homebrew tinkering and mild iteration. If enough people partake in those efforts, not only can it still yield new versions of a game, but the process can now be accomplished at an even greater pace.

Case in point: Commander was once a variant for Magic: the Gathering known primarily among local play groups in Alaska and among a small circle of Pro Tour judges. It has now become the dominant form of constructed casual gameplay – no small feat given the size of Magic’s seemingly ever growing player base and its bevy of available formats. Commander may have once been a fan-made format, but now it dictates the vast majority of casual play in all of Magic. Game evolution is derived from human ingenuity, which is implacable.

That said, just as Commander is but one way to play Magic, so too are there further divisions of style even within the format. Recently, I spoke about the ultra competitive end of the spectrum, often referred to as cEDH. At the other end of the spectrum you would likely find EDH players whose focus is primarily about fulfilling a theme or narrative. Perhaps it’s a deck all about Urza during the Brothers War, or a deck focused around crustaceans, or a deck that’s somehow Christmas themed. These decks may not necessarily be top tier decks comparatively, but they’re just as – if not more – creatively conceived and every much still just as valid Commander choices as the latest netdeck.

One such subtype of Commander decks are generally referred to as “group hug” decks. These decks primarily focus on cards that benefit multiple players at once with the same or similar effects. While some such decks are more sly than others, using group hug cards to fuel the deck’s engine and unveil a game-winning masterstroke by leveraging all those gifts given as a trojan horse, many times people like to make such decks and include such cards because they’re serving some kind of thematic or amusing purpose and whose primary purpose is to upend the normal flow of Commander games more than directly trying to win. Whether you or or your play group enjoy group hug cards may vary. Some people find them amusing and charming in how they alter the status quo. Others dislike how they can allow players on the ropes to get back in the game or bring everyone at the table closer to equal footing – thereby taking power away from the person with the most board control.

Group hug cards, while comparatively uncommon, are a viable design option that have even influenced several Commander-specific card designs in recent years. Whether you choose to use them or not is entirely up to you and the style of deck you wish to make. But if you’re open to the idea of potentially giving everyone a little boost from time to time in the name of having fun, then consider this week’s card.

Today we have: Clear the Land

Name: Clear the Land

Edition: Mercadian Masques

Rarity: Rare

Focus: Land Fetch / Group Hug

Highlights: For all the talk at the time of Mercadian Masques being intended as a very aggressive-purposed set, it and the couple sets around it contain some of the largest concentration of group hug cards in the game’s creation. The reasons behind this can get a little muddied and would almost warrant an entire article of its own on the subject. Regardless, the Mercadian era, complete with its litany of Wumpuses, Mongers, and other group-friendly tricks, has ample cards and ideas for group hug style antics. Including the oft-overlooked Clear the Land.

Overall, Clear the Land is a very straightforward card that bears little explanation. For three mana, this Green sorcery has every player reveal the top 5 cards of their library and put all land cards revealed onto the battlefield tapped. Then all remaining cards are exiled. It’s that basic. And the reasons behind its usefulness is twofold.

First, particularly in the early stages of the game, Clear the Land can be a great way to seed the battlefield, letting each player (on average) drop out 1-2 revealed lands fairly quickly. Since statistically this will benefit everyone, the end results is just moving the game up by a round or two and cutting down on those early rounds of everyone just building up their mana base. By using Clear the Land, it figuratively can clear away some of the early game brush. Yes, there is the chance this can potentially also disproportionally help someone who hits a mana pocket, or conversely, help someone rid themselves of being mana screwed for quite a few rounds, but that distinctly plays into the group hug mentality of getting everyone into the game.

Second, as any of the nonland cards revealed are exiled, there’s little concern about unduly giving your opponents other advantages by having the cards end up in players’ hands, graveyards, or back on the bottom of the library for future use. Although it also affects you, by exiling them it removes not only the potential for known information gain later, it has the potential to actually exile some of your opponent’s powerhouse cards early on – in Green no less. In lucky corners cases where an opponent had just intentionally put something on top of their deck, or simply in later stages of the game when you feel an opponent is digging for a specific card, doubly so. This too is still group hug, even if it’s a bit more backhanded in the outcome.

In either case, Clear the Land has the means of helping players out in one setting or hurting them in another, all while potentially moving the game along, and it does so without intentionally tipping the scales either way. As with most group hug style cards there’s a bit of randomness and whimsy to it, but contrary to the thoughts of some, that’s still perfectly within the rules of a casual format.

Keep an eye out for us to be regularly featuring other more accessible-but-worth-it Commander cards going forward. In the meantime, we’ll keep the light on for you.

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