The goal of Magic is to win. After all, you play to win the game.

Of course, you could also play because you like the strategy, sitting a table with friends, and having a good time. Any of these are completely valid and acceptable reasons to play Magic.

However, the final goal at the end of the game is to be the last one standing. Or sitting.

In order to do that, you have to know how you achieve this goal. In tournament matches, you've got one other person to beat. Luckily, you know his goal as well: to beat you.

You know that if you've got a removal spell, you're aiming it at one of his guys. He's playing a Wrath? You counter it. The game between the two of you is easy to process. He's not going to make any moves to benefit you; all of his spells and creatures are meant to help him achieve his goal: winning.

But what happens if you add a third person into the mix? Now you have two opponents you have to beat. You know that both of them have the same goal: to beat you and the other person. But here lie some major problems that you didn't have in the one-on-one matchup. Who do you attack? What do you point that Vindicate at? If Opponent #1 is playing something that will hurt Opponent #2 but help you, should you counter it? If you attack Opponent #2, will #1 swing at you? How do you know if #1 is really playing a deck to beat you, or is playing only to make the game harder for you to win?

How do you play Commander?

What kind of silly question is that? Obviously, with my deck and a Commander.

But how do you play Commander?

There are some people who love to play Commander one-on-one (there's no problem with that), and at other times, it's unavoidable—like when there's only one other player around. I enjoy partaking in this while waiting for constructed tournaments to start or between rounds.

Obviously, Commander was created as a multiplayer format. To get the true feeling of Commander, you need to sling cards with more than one other person (for the rest of this article, when I say Commander, I mean multiplayer Commander). And when you deal with more than one person, you can't guess what everyone is thinking. Everyone has a different agenda, different ways of playing the game.

This is multiplayer politics.

Whether you believe in politics or not at your table, here's what I believe: They're there. Politics happen at your table for one simple reason: For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. Yes, I'm using Isaac Newton to mesh with your Magic politics. Don't believe me? Consider this situation:

You and two opponents each have one Runeclaw Bear on the table. At the end of your turn, Opponent #1 Shocks your Bear. Why? Did he think your Bear was the bigger threat? Does he think he needs to attack and kill you off first since he can handle your mutual opponent? Now change that around; what happened if he Shocked the other opponent's Bear? The same questions arise.

While this is a very simple situation, it only gets more complicated from here when you add in almost all of the cards in Magic's history. Add the fact that everyone has his or her own agenda in how to get to the end game—to win—and there are almost endless ways to play Commander. There are even players who just want to have fun and not win the game; they just want to watch the world burn as they sling spells all over the place. And you have to be ready for them all.

The next time you play Commander, watch what everyone else is doing and just pay attention to the politics involved. Of course, players' strategies are going to be dictated by what's in their hands and what's on the battlefield, but each of your opponents will react differently to every situation depending on how they play the game. Maybe you notice that the new player to your group is trying to kill every single possible threat that he sees. It could be that that older guy just sits back playing some cards here and there, but mostly keeps to himself. There's a third guy who won't shut up about why everyone should kill that one thing because it's going to "kill us all."

It could be you're one of those guys already and didn't know it. Whatever the case, you have to pay attention to what's going on. That guy who's trying to kill everything? Maybe he's just generally worried and doesn't understand how his opponent's deck works. The quiet guy who's minding himself? Maybe he doesn't want you to notice that combo he's building. As for the yelling guy? He could just be doing it to wreck everyone's day because he likes seeing random things. As you play more and more multiplayer, you'll start to see patterns emerge. Players who you thought played one way actually are different in that multiplayer group.

But it's not just killing cards or who you attack; politics are all about mind games. Take Sheldon Menery (the "Godfather of EDH") and one of his EDH match recaps:

At EOT, I activate Spinerock Knoll to cast [Demonic] Tutor. I think about getting Lurking Predators, but decide to play defense and get Obliterate instead. I consider “accidentally” dropping it on the table as I search, but decide to be a grownup instead.

Why would he do that? You can play with your hand revealed; there's no rule saying you can't, just like you don't have to reveal cards you search for (unless the card says so). But why would he do this? How would this affect your play if you knew that your opponent had just searched up an Obliterate? You'd play differently, right? Maybe not overcommit as much as you normally would. In the meantime, he's playing whatever he wants. By using this mind game, he's made you change your tactics.

He's bending the will of the players so he can achieve his final goal: to win the game.

Like with everything else with this format, you could be playing something that not everyone does. Some people refuse to play in the politics game, only doing what is necessary to survive and win. I've even heard some people ban talking at the table so that there's no politics. Personally, I think that's Oscar Mayer bologna. You're playing a game for fun; you shouldn't be silent. That's why I don't like multiplayer games like Bridge and Sequence because you're supposed to be silent (Bridge is a card game my grandmother keeps telling me I should play it because Bill Gates plays it). If you want to be silent and play nonpolitical games, be my guest, but don't make it mandatory.

Politics is either there, or it isn't. You don't just perk up one day and say, "Hey, do you guys mind if we start trying to trick each other into doing (or not doing) things?" If you haven't tried getting into the politics game before, I would suggest you try it this week. While I wouldn't suggest you try to tell everyone what to do (because people are going to get tired of it and attack you to get you out of the game and stop your chattering), just dip your toe into the water to see how you like it.

Be prepared to start playing a game within a game (BBHHRRAAAMMM).

Remember this basic statement: Everything you do will have an equal and opposite reaction. A single strike might bring back an onslaught.