Voltron: focus or spread?

[Morganator 2.0]

I don't play a lot of voltron decks, but the way I see it there are two simplified ways of playing. You can either focus on attacking one person, take them out of the game, and then focus the next person, or you can evenly spread out your attacks among all three opponents.

I want to know what you choose to do; focus or spread? First off, which tactic do you think is better if you're trying to win? Second, which tactic do you tend to use when playing?

[Judaspriester]

I usually try to focus and switch target only when the boardstate makes it necessary. Spreading usually doesn't make much sense.
The only exception here is other burn/aggro decks on the table, that highly increase the propabilty of killing someone with less than 21 commander damage.

[WizardSpartan]

If you are playing a true voltron deck (i.e. Zurgo Helmsmasher), you need to focus and kill one person. Voltron already is a pretty weak strategy, and the less opponents you have, the worse of a time your opponents will have trying to remove your Zurgo. I don't really see any situation where you would want to spread your damage unless your opponents are being really political and it's the only way to avoid the ire of the table. Still, by spreading damage, you are giving your opponents even more time to both develop a boardstate to block your alpha striking monster and find ways to remove your alpha striking monster.

I don't personally play a lot of voltron, but I've started playing Feather, the Redeemed more recently and the gameplan is usually just pick a player that's most threatening to the table (so the other 2 not getting attacked don't get mad at you) and remove them from the game. If people are pretty even in threat level, then I pick whoever can do the best job of disrupting my gameplan (i.e. a Ruric Thar, the Unbowed will usually have a harder time to remove Feather than a Merieke Ri Berit will, so Merieke gets the target) and get rid of them first.

[robort]

Trying to win I have to focus on 1 player. It gives me feel bads because it feels like I am targeting that specific one player but what needs to be done is done. When playing though I do spread out my damage around the board. I remember one game I was playing. It was 3 person game and my 2 opponents both had 20 commander damage. My opponents kept my commander into the command zone after that. I was paying an absurd amount of mana after a good while just to cast my commander and lost to an overrun effect

[ApothecaryGeist]

You definitely need to focus the commander at one player.  I do this even when not playing voltron.  If my commander is swinging, I'm going to swing it in the same direction in order to get to 21.


A lot of my voltron decks have alternate voltrons - something other than the commander that can suit up and swing.  On the occassion that I might get two voltrons going, the commander will go one way and the alternate will go a different way.

[WizardSpartan]

You definitely need to focus the commander at one player.  I do this even when not playing voltron.  If my commander is swinging, I'm going to swing it in the same direction in order to get to 21.

This so much. Most commanders are 3+ power so picking an opponent without a lot of creatures and just attacking them can be really good. I've killed several players just by picking a player to attack with my Meren of Clan Nel Toth suited up with Lightning Greaves or Gift of Doom. There's basically no reason not to, honestly. Obviously, your commander could defend, but it's likely that any creatures that you could profitably block with a medium-sized commander have keywords & evasion to compensate for their small p/t, and obviously any bigger creatures that you would actively want to block would be better blocked by a creature other than your commander.

Remember, commander damage is a big counter to lifegain decks. If you see an Oloro, Ageless Ascetic sitting in the command zone across the table from you, it's probably good to get attacking with your commander as soon as you can.

[Aetherium Slinky]

If people are pretty even in threat level, then I pick whoever can do the best job of disrupting my gameplan (i.e. a Ruric Thar, the Unbowed will usually have a harder time to remove Feather than a Merieke Ri Berit will, so Merieke gets the target) and get rid of them first.

EDIT: smaller image

[WizardSpartan]

If people are pretty even in threat level, then I pick whoever can do the best job of disrupting my gameplan (i.e. a Ruric Thar, the Unbowed will usually have a harder time to remove Feather than a Merieke Ri Berit will, so Merieke gets the target) and get rid of them first.

[stuffnsuch]

I always try to get one person out, usually as a surprise out of nowhere when possible.  Once you've taken someone out, you're absolutely more of a target, though, so you have to be ready for retaliation.  Sometimes, I get someone where I could take them out (but they don't know it) and then I start working on getting the rest of the table in similar range.  Then, when i start taking people out, everyone's already close, and if someone threatens to win or ruin my plans, I can end them.  It depends on how well you can protect your commander, how easily you can recover from removal or a board wipe, if there are opponents that can win out of nowhere, how effective your evasion is, and more.  Play each game in the strategy that's right for that game.  If you don't appear a threat or an easy target, let your opponents whittle away at each other while you set up a surprise win.  If you have to win fast before you're facing an impenetrable wall of blockers, take out the biggest threat as quickly as possible.  Be aggressive, that's what Voltron's all about, but don't just attack for attacks sake.  Think through each turn and several turns ahead.  Be smart, read the board, and don't be too impulsive, even if that's your commanders "thing".

[Dav984]

I've built and tested a few Voltron decks (Rafiq, Bruna, Kalemne, kind of Ukkima / Cazur Voltron and will be trying Wyleth and Sigarda shortly). There are two possibilities, usually the Commander grows slowly and you need 2/3 attacks to kill someone, so you have to focus on 1 player and pray, because the more players there are on the table the more likely your commander is killed and you have to restart. But if instead you see that you have the cards in your hand to suddenly power up the Commander to kill in one attack (for example, you use Rafiq and you have like a Rancor and a Blackblade Reforged in your hand), you can also do a "decoy" attack on a player and the next turn to boost the commander suddenly and kill one of the other players.