Mastering Multiplayer: Coping with Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

Synopsis
One of the most difficult obstacles that you'll be required must overcome in a multiplayer setting is irrational human behavior. While self-preservation is typically viewed as a ubiquitous, unwavering force that drives our actions, it's often lost in "imaginary settings" where life and death hold no real meaning. As such, people can sometimes adopt completely irrational behavior in said environments that they wouldn't conceivably pursue "in the real world." The most notorious example of this is mutually assured destruction behavior (or MAD behavior). People will, at times, completely ignore their own survival in order to ensure the destruction of an opposing force. This can obviously prove to be disastrous to anyone aspiring to win games on a regular basis and ultimately is something that most of us should be looking to avoid. In this entry I'll be looking to discuss the concept of MAD as a whole, who does it, why it happens, and how you can (hopefully) avoid its harmful effects.

Disclaimer
I've only played with one female player on a regular basis throughout my years of playing Magic and so I have no idea whether or not they behave in the same way as males do with respect to MAD behavior. As such, the emphasis of this entry will be on male-to-male interactions. It's not that I think men and women are inherently similar or different, it's just that I have so little data to work with that it wouldn't be fair to making sweeping generalizations about the multiplayer MTG population. Realistically I can only tell you about how males act, so that's all that I'm looking to do. To put things in perspective, in my 11 years of playing I've never a female player engage in MAD behavior. It's not that I'm trying to be exclusive, I simply have no evidence that they even engage in the behavior period.

What is MAD Behavior?
As I've previously explained, MAD behavior is the act of relinquishing one's own chances to win the game in order to ensure that someone else loses as well. While it's certainly conceivable that the aggressor could go on to win game, the reality is that they typically expend far too many resources in their onslaught and can rarely-if-ever recover afterwards. The best analogy that I can provide for you is a suicide bomber. While it's certainly a grim image, a kamikaze attack is easily the best way that I can describe it. Two people are going to get taken out an overwhelming % of the time. Irrational? Completely. Does it still happen on a regular basis? You bet.

Who are MAD Players?
Strong Player, Weak Mind
MAD players, believe it or not, are typically the stronger players at the table. While you may be inclined to believe that weak players are more likely to display irrational behavior than strong ones, that is far from the truth in my experience. MAD attacks tend to be ruthless and calculated; not random, desperate struggles. Stronger players know the relative strength of their cards and can typically guesstimate the type of defense that their "victim" can reasonably amount. As such, it's relatively easy for them to initiate their gambit. By contrast, weaker players are often unsure about their position and are typically afraid of what other players could be holding. As such, they are less likely to engage in outlandishly aggressive behavior.

Moreover, stronger players tend to have bigger egos than weaker players do. If you're playing golf with Tiger Woods, you're not exactly doing it because you think you can beat him. While you would certainly love to do so and you'll undoubtedly try your best, you have enough sense about you to know your place and to taper your expectations. That mindset applies to more than just golf obviously. Newer players tend to have realistic expectations about their performance and thus typically don't feel compelled to "perform." Strong players, on the other hand, usually do. Regardless of what they'll tell you, most guys are quite competitive insofar as they're doing an activity that they're good at. They want to win and they want to show people just how skilled they are. As such, when they're failing to deliver something that's up to par with their own personal expectations, they often engage in "face-saving techniques." That is, techniques that will allow them to justify their poor performance. After all, they were obviously going to lose the game if they were willing to kamikaze themselves to take someone else out... right? Who's going to argue otherwise? In short, MAD behavior is a great scapegoat to what could easily be a shotty performance.

Red vs Blue
Other than the strong players, you typically have to watch out for your rival. Not everyone will have one, but enough people do that it's worth discussing in my mind. A common trend within any competitive sphere is for males to engage in a rivalry with someone who they consider to be a worthy adversary. It won't always be against the most skilled person, but rather someone who is close to their own level. While a rival can help you push yourself to get better, it can also lead to some... interesting behaviors.

I realize that I'm not blowing anyone's mind here, but the person that you're willing to hunt down in Halo or tryhard at tennis is probably someone who you're willing to Disintegrate in MTG. Again, I want to emphasize that rivalries often exist long before MTG does, and so your actions "in game" often have very little to do with whether or not you'll develop an MTG rival. It's typically a "pre-existing condition." Rivals have an extremely high tendency of exhibiting MAD behavior towards each other in my experience, which often prevents either from winning games with any sort of consistency.

MAD Bros are MAD
MAD behavior tends to be fairly predictable once it's been established. Players who exhibit the behavior once are incredibly likely to exhibit it in future games (in my experience). Conversely, players who don't exhibit the behavior over the course of many play sessions are unlikely to suddenly display MAD tendencies. As such, you should realistically be able to discern who the "at risk" players are at the table before the game even starts. While this won't help you if you're new to a meta, it will help you once you've gotten a feel for it. This trend has held true for me throughout my 11 years of playing mutiplayer Magic, and I strongly encourage that you heed my warning about players who've previously "gone off their rockers" after getting set back. They are often just itching to find an excuse to go all-in on someone who annoys them.

Why Does MAD Happen?
Simply put, MAD behavior is triggered once a player no longer feels as though he can realistically win the game. It doesn't happen haphazardly in that sense. Once the situation is deemed to be hopeless, a virtual switch is turned on and "at risk players" typically and suddenly engage in a hopeless, last-ditch attack against someone who they deem "worthy of dying." While that may seem like a bit of an exaggeration, it's not much of one when you think about it. This person is willing to ensure his own defeat in order to ensure the defeat of someone else after all. That's a pretty extreme course of action to take. While this may seem trivial or obvious, it's actually quite an important consideration to make. I'll explain why shortly, but just take my word for it for now. I'm not throwing this out there randomly.

Avoiding MAD Behavior
Ok, let's get down to the meat of this entry. How do you avoid MAD behavior against yourself? I mean we know what it is, we know who does it, and we know why they do it. What can you do to protect yourself from this cruel fate? While the solutions that I'm about to provide will always vary in effectiveness from meta to meta, they should at least give you a decent idea of what you can do.

Don't Do What Donny Dont Does
Simply put, never engage in MAD behavior yourself. I know that this seems obvious, but it will often trigger the behavior in others, especially if they're already "at risk" of doing so. Suicidal aggression cannot be overlooked and you're never going to help your own cause if you engage in it yourself. Try and keep your wits about you and never lose hope if at all possible. I've seen people win games after coming back from huge deficits before and it will certainly happen again. Never give in to temptations of taking the easy way out.

Lay Low and Respect the Big Dogs
Try and avoid excessive confrontation if you're new to a metagame. Do your thing and play a solid game of Magic, but don't pick on someone too hard and try not to make any big moves if you can help it. Once you've established who the stronger players are (it should become apparent after a game), then you can focus more on the weaker ones if needed until you can get a better idea on how the stronger ones react to things. They are your biggest threats initially because they are more likely to go postal on you than someone who's just playing for fun but who isn't very good.

Avoid the Ex
If you have a rival, try not to bring the rivalry into the game. That can be easier said than done if they decide to initiate on you, but ultimately you're not doing any favors by being the aggressor yourself. Once you bring the rivalry to MTG, it's probably never going to go away. Take it from someone who's made that mistake himself; you'll come to regret it. Your rival is probably looking for an excuse to kamikaze against you and ultimately it's in your best interest not to enable him. I'm not saying that you should never attack and/or interact with him, don't get me wrong, just try not to have every game end with you two going at each other throats. Even if means that you have to be the bigger man and not retaliate, even though it will surely spell your defeat, try and stomach it for a couple of games in the hopes that maybe he'll lose interest and move on. If your rival is too stubborn then your hand will likely be forced, but you should at least give peace a chance for as long as you reasonably can. I realize that this advice is quite grim, but it's coming from someone who's made the mistake a few too many times in his lifetime.

Learn from History
Take serious threats seriously! If Billy went HAM (hard as a mother ****er) on Bob last game because Bob killed his Pack Rat, maybe you should let someone else handle it the next time too. Ok, sure, that plan sometimes backfires if no one else in your meta can handle the card, but ultimately you're probably not doing yourself any favors by agitating volatile players. People who've gone MAD once are incredibly likely to do it again in future games and you would do well to keep that in mind. I'm not saying that you should sit back and "let the terrorists win" or anything, but hopefully you can leave that duty to someone else. Again, it won't always be possible, but I always try and avoid the crazies whenever I can. The last thing that I need is for them to be charging at me with tooth, claw and tail.

Do not Wound; Kill
This is HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE. Do not leave "at risk" players alive. Beat them dead and burn the ashes twice. If you have it on good authority that your rival/some good player will aim for you once they feel hopeless, never let them live long enough to experience it. Kill them fast and hard and leave no trace of the body. The feeling of impending doom typically creeps in over time once a players falls behind on life total, board position, etc. If you see someone struggling to push forward, it's almost never a good idea to give them another poke. Either nail the coffin shut or do nothing at all. It's almost never in your best interest to pursue some other alternative.

With respect to rivals, try and catch them off-guard. A well-timed Profane Command when they're tapped out can kill them in one go, and so you should typically be looking to kill them A) early and B) suddenly to prevent them from ever suiciding on you. This should only be done if your "relationship" is hopeless however, since I do suggest avoiding him if possible otherwise. Either way the key is to never give him an opportunity to kamikaze against you. If he's unwilling to treat you fairly, never give him the opportunity to survive long enough to feel hopeless and outclassed.

Conclusion
I hope that your general understanding of MAD behavior will have improved after reading this entry. They say that knowledge is power, and I hope that a better understanding of it will help you combat it in the future. Once you know what is is, who does it, why they do and how you can prevent it, the prospects of beating it become much more promising. While everyone will probably experience the phenomenon in one way or another in their multiplayer Magic careers, with any luck you'll all be able to overcome its destructive implications in future games. As long as you're vigilant and learn from past, you should be well equipped to handle anything that comes your way.
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