Multiplayer Magic Evaluation – The Cockroach
How to Determine Threats, and How to Exploit your Own
Oct 15, 2009
In single player Magic: the Gathering, you only have one opponent. Many tournament players judge cards as playable and unplayable based on its ability to defeat a single opponent. Many casual Magic players may copy winning decks from professional players only to find that in casual multiplayer, the deck isn’t as effective as what one would expect a ‘World Champion’ deck to be.
Multiplayer Magic is Magic: the Gathering played with three or more players. Multiplayer Magic requires a different method of evaluating cards: every card in your deck must work twice as hard as in a duel, at least. With this in mind, this article will give you the tools needed to look at cards and judge how their presence affects the state of the game.
A popular method of categorizing cards has been naming them after certain animals. The six categories will be defined in depth, but for now, their names are: Cockroach, Gorilla, Pigeon, Rattlesnake, Spider, and Plankton. This article discusses the first type: the Cockroach.
The Cockroach
A common belief is that after a nuclear bomb explodes, the only thing left standing will be Cockroaches. This is true. After watching two to five other players killed each other, an untouched Cockroach player can easily defeat the remaining ones.
A Cockroach is a card that recurs, repeats, or is otherwise constantly affecting the game. What makes a Cockroach a Cockroach is its perceived insignificance. A standard response to a Cockroach card entering play is, “It’s annoying, but it’s not worth wasting a card on it.” An opponent may be able to remove a cockroach card, but simply won’t, because it’s a bad choice, and it isn’t affecting them too badly. A Cockroach card discourages removal, because it’ll just come back, or that someone else will handle it. Amassing a critical number of Cockroach cards at once is a common strategy in multiplayer, as it has the effect of having the other players ignore you for bigger threats.
Without going into an exhaustive list, cards with Regenerate and Unearth are good examples of Cockroach cards, as are cards with Persist. Regenerate and persist will both deflect most removal cards, and cards with Unearth remain hidden and out of opponent’s reach until they can be used later. Green and black have a large number of Cockroaches at its disposal.
More specifically, Troll Ascetic is a highly efficient Cockroach. It can’t be targeted with most spells, and it has regenerate, forcing most players to wait until a Wrath of God destroys it. Silhana Ledgewalker also dodges spells, and has evasion. Abyssal Gate Keeper is a slightly more offensive Cockroach, it would be detrimental to the entire table to see it be destroyed. Stinkweed Imp is a Cockroach that discourages attacking and removing it, thanks in part to its combination of Deathtouch and Dredge.
Further Reading
Planechase, a Primer on another way to play Multiplayer Magic.
Elder Dragon Highlander, a primer on another popular Magic Variant.
The Official Site of Magic: the Gathering.
A forum specializing in casual and multiplayer Magic decks.
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