Who's the Threat?

[sarahmichigan]

Apparently, the dynamic in which a regular MTG gaming group has a "Guy to Beat" who always gets ganged up on because his decks are so tough to beat is widespread enough that an article has been written about it:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/tf46&=RSS-MTGCOM

Comments

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

That's a great article.

The funny thing for me is, I only feel like The Threat when I bring out my reanimator deck. Which is why I don't bring it out very often.

[simianpower.livejournal.com]

About half the time I'm playing entirely experimental decks, and the other half I'm playing better-tuned decks, but I feel like I'm The Threat whichever I play because certain vocal folks always say "Kill him first" and then practice what they preach, whether I have any board position or not. And in team games that's not even an entirely valid play, since that leaves the other teammate time to build up to unstoppable. Sometimes I'm OK taking all the heat while my teammate builds up, but it does get old. I think the threat-assessment in our group is a little flawed. Or, at least, what's done about assessed threats. You made fun of my comment that I wanted to kill Jeff that time because he plays so randomly, but that very fact MAKES him a target whether he otherwise looks threatening or not. Which is kind of self-referential, in a way: incorrect or confusing threat-assessment makes one a threat/target... odd how that works.

I think we should play some more chaos-format, to be honest. There isn't any way to play favorites that way; if you beat up on someone just because they're there, the other three-to-five players will have an open door to your red zone. I think chaos format really hones threat assessment far better than team games, despite being long.

From my perspective, the threat varies depending on the deck I'm playing. If I'm playing an expensive green heavy deck, the threat is the blue-mage with the two-mana counterspells or the white mage with the two-to-four mana neuter spells or the black mage with the creature-kill, depending on what decks people have out. If I'm playing weenies, the red mage is the threat. If I have lots of artifacts, the red and green mages are the threats. And so on. ANYONE going for one of each type of land/color is a threat because cards that build on that are powerful. Someone dumping 10-mana creatures into the graveyard is obviously a threat. And so on. There is no "KILL JANANN!" or whatever, just see who the biggest threat to my chosen win condition is, and/or who may have a faster one, and attack them preferentially. That may not be the best way, but it's the only one that seems to work.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

I wasn't making fun of you- I thought it was funny, but I didn't disagree with you.

I think Janann is the threat at least some of the time, but not always the "obvious" threat because she can tend toward over-caution. I think you're both very good (though different) deck-builders and strategists.

[simianpower.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean you were mocking me or anything. No big.

And thanks.

I guess my point was that for me The Threat isn't a person, really; it's the deck that can either stop mine cold or outrace mine. And that often changes even during a game.

[chimalis.livejournal.com]

I agree that chaos format allows more accurate threat-assessment, but that may just be that I'm not experienced in and don't work on perfecting the kind of team play that we often do.

I also think that past experiences with a player affect someone's threat assessment regardless of board position. I will completely cop to defaulting to you as the "the threat" when board position is neutral or close to it, because you are the only player I almost always lose to.

[entaru.livejournal.com]

Chaos is a great format, it's what we usually play on our game nights. However it may do less to change the threat assessment of the players then you think. The psychology of it plays a big part and I feel that if the players in the game see you as someone who will stomp them then they will blindly ignore other, bigger, threats.

They base this idea based on previous games. As an example, the incident in my other post, Three player free for all game. I'm playing a decent- but not the greatest experimental deck I made up and I'm getting mostly lands, I was playing black/blue that day if I remember correctly. I have out nothing but lands, none of my cards are really coming up save some counters and enchant creature cards I can't use. Now, Charlie is playing an old deck he took out of storage with Seguir vampire in it. Logically he should be the threat in this game, no?

What does Seth do, he starts attacking me because he's afraid of what I will do if "Left Unchecked". What happens of course, Charlie helps Seth off me and takes the game shortly after. Seth's fear cost him any chance of winning that game because he was too afraid of how I beat him last time to pay attention to the board.

[simianpower.livejournal.com]

Well, three-player chaos really sucks. It's by far my least-favorite format, because it ALWAYS winds up being two-on-one. For chaos I want at least four, or better yet five-plus, players, because it's a lot harder for that many to agree on one particular threat than it is for two players.

[entaru.livejournal.com]

I see your point. We ran six player chaos one night, I loved it but I don't think I will get them to do it again as they all complained it took to long.

[entaru.livejournal.com]

It doesn't matter what I play on the board, or how the field looks, I tend to be a big target. It does get a little frustrating when I haven't placed much except maybe a wall and all of a sudden I'm the target.


This one boiled my blood "You haven't played anything yet and I don't know what's in your deck. Knowing how you play I had to kill you first." This was turn four and I wasn't getting anything but lands. He essentially rallied the whole table against me because I beat him the week before. With a different deck.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

That's just mean. :(