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.

[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.