Threat assessment is the Commander skill

Multiplayer Magic is a resource race with extra politics. The mistake is treating every large creature as the same problem.

Ask who is going to win the game if nobody does anything for two turns. That person is the threat. Spend the exile spell there. Do not spend it on the table’s pet dragon because it is annoying and the owner is your friend. Annoying is not lethal.

Table talk is information, not a plan. “I’m not the threat” is what the threat says. Look at the board: commanders that have attacked, extra turns, engines that draw two extra cards a cycle, infinite-adjacent piles. If you cannot point to the winning line, you are guessing.

Removal in Commander is often a public good. If you always pay the public good, you will be out of cards when you need a private one. Let someone else kill the first problem if they are ahead of you on mana and have the cheaper answer. Take the second problem yourself. That is not being “the politics guy.” That is sequencing.

The other leak is kingmaking out of spite. If you are dead on the next turn either way, the correct play is still the one that follows from the board, not the one that punishes whoever looked at you last. You will play these people again. The game is the thing you are practicing, not the vendetta.