Commander Deck Tech: Casey & Raph, Hotheads

When the matter is Commander, I'm a simple man. I enjoy Monored lists and turning them into unusual strategies. So, when I found a red commander that can fit a "group hug" strategy (which in EDH is nearly always tied to blue, white, or green), I was hooked. My goal changed slightly with time, but this essence is still in the list I built, which we'll see soon. Nonetheless, it's a very unusual version of this strategy.

In today's article, we'll get these two hotheads and try to answer the question every group hug player always has to face: how do I put resources on the board, and, at the same time, not die first because I went too fast? Only this time, we'll be exploring a red list.

Casey & Raph, Hotheads may seem like it only has a strong ETB, but, in practice, it is a way to negotiate with the other players and make friends, like all group hug strategies do. This is a very honest 4/4 commander, but it costs 5 mana, which is not cheap enough that we can play it several times stress-free. Like so, we'll have to add to this list creative ways to trigger its ETB multiple times.

When Casey & Raph, Hotheads enters play, you may create two Treasure tokens or "impulse draw", that is, exile the top card in your deck, and then you may play it until the end of the turn for free. This is a modal effect, so you may pick one of these two abilities or use both, as long as you target a different player for each of them. At first, this will seem quite helpful if you have an ally because you can benefit them and yourself with these effects. Nonetheless, we'll push this ability to the absolute limit for this group hug strategy.

The secret is that two Treasures are the most straightforward gifts. You can give them to an opponent relatively easily. You'll know exactly how much extra mana you're giving them, and you can deal with this in several ways. As for its other effect, it may give you or an opponent a removal, an expensive card, mana-wise, or even the last piece needed for a combo. It is a bit more complicated to manage, but we'll try to do that either way.

The list we'll see today is built to afford this five-mana commander and its expensive tastes, as its main game plan is to spend resources on card-draw artifacts and political cards. That is critical in group hug strategies, considering you'll spend your turns doing very little, setting up your engines early, and, at the same time, saving mana so that you can interact when things get difficult.

Let's see it:

Ramp

Red cards are all we can play: we can't play any green ramp. So our foundation will be rocks like Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Mind Stone, Thought Vessel, Fellwar Stone, Liquimetal Torque, and Worn Powerstone.

This deck needs these cards not only to play but so that we can signal to our opponents that we'll stick to our group hug strategy. If we're putting Howling Mine or Font of Mythos in play, we'll need to keep up with our own speed and have enough mana for our answers.

Nonetheless, the idea is to be as kind and generous as possible, so we can't be stingy. This deck plays ramp that gives other players mana, for instance. Curse of Opulence is a classic example of a card that centers around board politics. You'll attach this curse to a player, and the board will take matters into their own hands to attack them and create Gold. You'll be ramping and also pushing the board into a strategy that benefits you above all else.

Two ramp pieces that deserve a shoutout because they fit this commander really well and give us mana are Victory Chimes and Bucknard's Everfull Purse. The first one is a way to share mana in other players' turns, and, as a result, get in their good graces. As for Purse, it will go from hand to hand, create Treasures in small doses, and also force the board to cooperate. With it in play, the other players will be easier to manipulate and exploit, particularly if you already put card draw engines in play and if everyone is willing to negotiate resources instead of keeping their interactions to themselves.

Drawing Cards Together

Because we're only playing red, we can't play the most popular group hug cards in the game. But we'll use what we can to benefit everyone, like Howling Mine, Font of Mythos, Temple Bell, Otherworld Atlas, Anvil of Bogardan, Horn of Greed, and Ghirapur Orrery.

This group of cards will help everyone see more cards and play more lands, but it will still be great for our main strategy. If the board draws more cards, the match tends to move forward, and it seems more fun. It flows a bit better.

Still, giving resources to three opponents at the same time comes with a cost. So, the cards we added are more political than symmetrical. Humble Defector is an excellent example of that. You'll draw two cards and give Defector to someone else, and then the cycle starts. Other players will want to keep you alive to keep this little game going. Coveted Jewel is a side quest and gives cards and mana for those who control it. It also encourages players to attack each other, which goes really well with a few other cards we play that either do that as well or have goad.

Reforge the Soul and Share the Spoils play different roles. The first one resets hands and punishes players who hoard combo pieces. As for Share the Spoils, it floods the board with resources. It's a chaotic option, but, in casual pods, it often does exactly what it is supposed to: disrupt players that were dominating the match.

Reusing ETBs Without Blue or White

As this commander has an ETB effect, this list plays around 10 cards that let us reuse this effect or make it more impactful. Panharmonicon is the most straightforward one: it triggers one ETB effect twice. Strionic Resonator copies an ETB trigger and lets us change targets, which is relevant because we want all players to benefit from our effects.

Afterward, we got our blinks. Conjurer's Closet reintroduces the commander to the board at the end of the turn and consistently triggers its effect once per round. Golden Argosy is a bit trickier, but, in long matches, it plays a similar role and blinks cards several times. Erratic Portal and Cloudstone Curio are more simple, as they let us move our commander to our hand and recast it.

We also added a few engines: Twinflame, Heat Shimmer, and similar effects will trigger ETBs an extra time, even though the rule for legendary cards forces us to sacrifice something right afterward. Flameshadow Conjuring and Molten Echoes do something similar, but constantly. And one of my favorite cards, Helm of the Host, does that every turn and truly ignores the rule for legendary cards.

Running from Combat

Sometimes group hug strategies perish first because they give their opponents too many weapons. Other times, group hug strategies get to the late game and become a giant threat. They're left mostly alone as the game goes on. Obviously, we want the second outcome.

So, this deck plays a huge group of cards that encourage other players to fight each other or goad them. It includes cards like Disrupt Decorum, Shiny Impetus, Bloodthirsty Blade, Curse of the Nightly Hunt, Agitator Ant, Geode Rager, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, and Vengeful Ancestor.

Please note that, if you're giving cards and mana to the board, eventually someone will use these resources to develop their game plan. If they can attack you, you will lose. So, the main idea behind this deck is to turn extra resources into a way to force the opponents to attack each other.

Disrupt Decorum is a clear example of that, as it can make your opponents change all their plans. Shiny Impetus and Bloodthirsty Blade are more subtle because they do this as the turns go on. You'll use them to pick a creature and turn it into a problem for other players.

Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor is in this list because it makes attacking and stealing/swapping control of permanents relatively easy. We can say the same for Starke of Rath, a great removal for group hug strategies. Akroan Horse and Rite of the Raging Storm create tokens that will naturally move to other players' boards, so their boards will be full and you won't have the most problematic board around. Crown of Doom is great in this list because it puts a mobile target in play, and you'll benefit from the asymmetric chaos this creates.

Win Conditions

This type of list usually wins in one of two ways. The first one is easy: the other opponents kill each other. The second involves recognizing when you can finish the game, and doing it.

This is when Insurrection and Crackle with Power come in. The first one fits the goad/forced combat strategy you'll use throughout the entire game as players prepare their creatures. The second is an emergency button, particularly for when other players have a lot of life points, but you have enough mana to play it because of your Treasures, rocks, and acceleration. Even Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle can be an alternative way to deal damage throughout the game as you drop extra lands in play in boards full of card draw pieces.

If you liked this commander but prefer another approach, a more straightforward one, check out the list below. It's a "big mana" version with Casey & Raph, Hotheads, and was built by a player called "n1colbolas".

Casey & Raph, Hotheads works as a group hug commander precisely because it's not a classic Bant group hug commander. Being creative is the foundation of EDH, as it was created by judges that wanted to play the most unusual strategies in MTG at the time. So, a Monored group hug strategy definitely fits this format.

Discovering techs, different ways to use cards that already see play in other strategies, and unusual ways to use certain commanders is quite healthy for the game. It makes us better deckbuilders, and also makes this format more unique, just how we like it.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!