Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, yet another time!
As most of us will already be aware of, there is a big political factor in every multiplayer game. For example, sometimes you can let an opposing creature live just because it is not attacking you but one of your opponents. And that's only the top of the iceberg. Maybe you even have an on-board way of dealing with it, so the controller of said creature even gets to know that you're letting it live. Those type of cards are called "rattlesnake"-cards because - just like a real rattlesnake - the card will say openly: "Here I am, but as long as you don't attack me, I won't either!" How about some examples:
In most formats, cards like these never see much play since there's (almost) always a card that does the same but is an instant. And so - with the exception of Pernicious Deed that get's played in Legacy to some degree - they don't see any play for a good reason since information is valuable and being able to maybe see it coming allows you to plan ahead as an opponent. But why are those cards good in multiplayer-EDH now?
The real question you should ask is:What is different? Well, first of all and most importantly you don't have only one but multiple opponents. That allows each player to choose who to attack, a choice you don't get in 1v1 because there it's either attack or not.
And second, as we all might know, sometimes "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". In a perfect scenario you'll never have to commit your own creatures to the battlefield because some amount of rattlesnake-cards will ensure that your opponents kill eachother while you stay untouched.
While pretty useful for any deck in general, you can even build decks that try to use cards like these as their main gameplan along with other categories of political cards which I will show you later down the line. I call them Politics-/Punisher-Decks depending on how they are structured. So let's look at how you could build such a deck.
The Politics-Deck
This is the more controly version of the two that tries to make everyone fight each other over ressources while always getting the most value out of the deal without anyone noticing. This will involve "semi-kingmaker"-cards as I would call them...
...since they benefit you and an opponent of your choice. But what keeps your chosen opponent from attacking you with the newly given ressources? Nothing. The thing is that the rest of the table will most likely start to kill his creatures, attack his lifetotal etc. because he became the most dangerous player. And as always, whenever you draw 2 cards, you will loose 3 creatures, whenever you gain 5 life you will loose 10, etc... So when all is set and done you'll not only have distracted the focus of the table from you but directed it towards one poor soul while you still got value (destroyed an enchantment, hit someone for 4, drew some cards, etc.).
Talking about controlling, the focus of the table. Besides lifting someone up so the fall will be worse, you can simply "offer" rewards for not attacking you. Let's call them "bounty"-cards (as in setting a bounty on everyone elses heads) for now. What they do is not prevent your opponents attacks but make attacking someone else more appealing.
One thing to be aware of when putting cards like these into your deck, is that once you offer too much value bad things could happen. Especially this gentleman on the left can be a big trap, since more often than not the first player that gets to untap with a bunch of creatures in play will do something along the lines of:
1) He attacks one of your opponents
2) Draws a boatload of cards
3) Plays removal on Edric so noone else gets to draw cards
4) Profit!
Depending on the competitiveness of your playgroup Edric can transform into a semi-kingmaker that way and make said player public enemy #1 but in more competitive environments the player that drew those cards will just be strong enough to fight through it or even got to draw his combo and wins on the spot (which was of course not the plan!). So always be careful and try to keep a balance between offering enough benefits for players to actually do what you want them to, but not so much that they will be able to win with it.
Up to this point we've found cards to make players stronger in order for them to become focused, and we've discussed cards that will offer a reward for attacking certain players. So lastly we have "fortress"-cards, the main reason some decks are called "Pillowfort". Those will not say "Attacking XY is more benefitial" but simply "Attacking ME is less benefitial, so better go somewhere else", basically setting an inverted bounty on your head. Let's look at some of them:
Sure, loosing one life or paying 2/3 mana isn't a lot, but why bother when you could attack someone else for free? The only reason one could have to attack you is if you board is that much better than anyone elses but since all our cards seem not very threatening that will hardly be the case.
If you now combine those 4 card-types (Rattlesnake, Semi-Kingmaker, Bounty and Fortress) into one deck - built to utilize them to their maximum efficiency - you should get a deck that will NEVER be the strongest on the table at any situation but will still win a fair amount of matches by avoiding attacks, diverting them somewhere else, indirectly killing people because you "helped" them and then casting a gameending card or simply finishing off the remaining people with your general:
I'm not saying Mind Grind or Debt to the Deathless will always end the game, but they definitely have the potential of being a "one-card-combo" that wins you the game on the spot.
THE PUNISHER-DECK
Now if you're not about that "relying-on-others" kind of life, but still want to use some of the dynamics of political play this might be up your alley a little more: The Punisher-Deck. While the Politics-Deck tries to control the flow of the game via bounties, "helping" people and offering benefits for not attacking it, the Punisher-Deck is going for a more aggressive approach, relying on your own cards to kill people. Basically a Punisher-Deck tries to still make people rather attack someone else, but at the same time try killing people on its own by using their own unfair cards against them...
Opponent drew a bunch of cards (preferrably with Necropotence)? Kiki-Jiki + Restoration Angel threatening the table? Opponent threatening to kill you with a fattie? All of these scenarios will hurt a lot,... but not you. And at the point where people start doing those really broken things they often don't even have enough life to survive these spells.
But since for your deck to function you'll need your opponents to be at a lifetotal where you can burn them dead if they try something fishy. Let's look at what we can come up with:
Now while Sulfuric Vortex and other cards that simply damage every player are an option, they also make you a target because they do hurt after a while and everyone will know where it is coming from. Inferno on the other hand is "just a massremoval" and happens to have this "veeeery unfortunate" side-effect of damaging every player.
Combined with the above mentioned cards that encourage attacking and even help with dealing more damage you should be able to decrease the lifetotals of your opponents to a point where they feel like doing something broken is the only way to still win this game...... while the exact opposite might be the better thing to do.
Now what to choose for a commander for both of these decktypes? For Politics.dec the commander isn't that important for the decks as he/she/it is for my decks normally. Making sure you have all the tools you need for your meta-game and having your general provide the colors is far more important than actually synergizing. Coloridentity and a (big) body to close out the game are the things you'll want to look at first.
While a big body is still nice to have, the Punisher-Deck will be grateful for some synergy if you manage to have all the colors you want.
As mentioned before, these types of decks work best in a well known environment. If you know that noone plays infinite-creature-combos and there are very little Avengers of Zendikar to be expected you might not need to play black for Rakdos Charm and Stronghold Discipline. If your meta is very card-draw heavy, Darigaaz can bring a lot of pain since his colors offer 4 copies of Storm Seeker type cards in addition to his effect. So if you're in a playgroup that plays together regularly and you want to build a deck like this, think about the broken things that come up most, look for cards that can punish them and choose the color combination accordingly.
That's it for now! If you want to know more about one of these deck-types leave a comment or send me a message. And as always I'd love some feedback on the post and on my whole blog.
See y'all 'round!
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