Cards in hand I stare out at the table before me.  I see two wizards staring right back at me.  It has been an exhausting battle but it is not over yet.  To the left of me sits Dan with 4 life, resources depleted but holding what must be a nasty burn spell.  I am at 2 life.  Keeping that in mind I look over to my right, towards my old foe Jacob who tapped out sitting on a Serra Angel and 1 life point.  Where am I going to aim my Deus of Calamity?  Sweat beads on my face, my skin starts to tingle.  I have no chance.  I realize this.  I've been put in the infinitely unenviable position of kingmaker. . .  Damn!

Before I charge head long into some ill-conceived ranting, lets get some background on this beast they call kingmaker.  In a multiplayer game, the kingmaker is usually one of the final three, a player that has no chance of winning.  None at all.  But due to a station purely circumstantial, they are forced to 'choose' a winner.  As in my situation above there is no real choice.  It is an ugly fate we would not wish on our worst enemy.

We may assume that the role of kingmaker is only hard on the person making the decision.  That is far from the truth.  Helplessly waiting for some one else to decide your fate is a pointy pill for any wizard to swallow.  You lose and its arbitrary.  Win and the joy has been wholly removed.  You did not really win, you simply did not lose.  Nobody wins a true kingmaker.  Not even the king.

[caption id="attachment_529" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="live or die man? live or die?"][/caption]

However, some of the more sadistic Johnnys enjoy the kingmaker role.  Watching their fellow wizards squirm, contemplating who lives and dies.  I know this because I play with one.  (Ed. note: He knows who he is.)

So how are we to prevent such tragedies?  Magic the Gathering is a game of decisions.  Many many decisions.  Chief among those will always be, 'if it hits the fan, what are our options?'  Unfortunately multiplayer MTG is fraught with peril, and we cannot always save our lifeline for so long.  In these cases, it is best to focus our aggression on the most pressing threat.  Try to eliminate them first, and hope to get one full turn with our final opponent.  Barring this, we can always sit back and wait.  It won't win us any medals for valor, but it might top-deck us the break we need.  The obvious (read: cowardly) way to avoid kingmaker responsibility is to ignore it.  Too bad that rarely works.

[caption id="attachment_527" align="alignright" width="300" caption="oh it hurts alright"][/caption]

Personally, I've been kingmaker more times than I can remember.  I tell myself it is because of my supreme prowess as a Magic player, but it probably has to do more with my panache for playing burn in multi.  However I have benefited from this as well.  Last week after one of my opponents hit 7 life, I showed them the 8 damage I had in hand.   It scared him enough to tap out killing our third player.   After a brief whisper of thanks I tapped my mana and walked away a winner.  In my circle we call that a Lunge Hammer.  One player lunges at another player, while the third watches and then hammers the first.  Write that one down.

Now what about you?  What are your experiences with the Kingmaker, and do you have any lunge-hammer stories of your own?