Stranded with Allies

You made it! Kharmatic justice for giving immunity to penner :)

Another round of Stranded, another blindside...

What did you make of the events of tonight and how do you plan on acting on them moving forward?

I PROMISE I'm going to write a confessional tomorrow. I just need to find the idol tonight.

Waiting on that celebratory bitchy confessional like

This merge has been a crazy one. If a few days ago you had told me that Rich and Drew, in that order, would be the first two casualties on the new Kiribati tribe, I would have assumed you were on crack or something else equally as mind-altering, like whatever it is Trump surrogates take before they go on CNN (probably crack, tbh). I came into the merge with some people I knew were my allies and some people I knew were my enemies. On the ally side, I obviously had Tammy, but I also felt very comfortable with Rich and Penner. Just be before the merge, I formed a foursome with myself, Tammy, Val, and Ozzy. The goal of this alliance was to finally secure Val and Ozzy's loyalty after grasping for it so long. It was really initiated by Val, who I think has spent the whole game looking for a solid group of people to trust despite floating all over the place, so I went out of my way to make it happen. I have been laying on thick with those two, and for the most part, I think it has worked. They came into the merge without partners, so they were both in need of allies.

Because Dan, the knock-off Tony Soprano and his evil cabal of minions sent home Mookie instead of the knock-off Radio, Sugar, I was pretty confident that Ozzy would join with my Saipans and I to take over the game. And with Ozzy came Nate, who only even made it to the merge because he played two idols a few rounds back. Those two both knew they were clearly on the outs with Dan and company, whereas Nate has ties to Penner and Ozzy has ties to myself, Tammy, and Val. So here we were: Heidi, Tammy, Richard, Penner, Nate, and Ozzy vs. Dan, Sierra, Drew, Hayden, Sugar, and Rocky. Val was the swing vote at the first merge vote, and for whatever reason, she decided to vote with the makes-me-suicicidal squad in order to take out Rich. This was a blow to my heart. Rich was my closest ally besides Tammy, and Val still really hasn't given us a reason why she went after Rich instead of joining with us to vote out someone from the side going after Rich. I know she didn't trust him but the way she went about the whole thing was really weird - she scampered up to me like a dog that just shit on the rug to tell me she was voting him out. And because Dan had the public immunity idol, the six people voting Dan out didn't even have enough time to settle on a target. Rich went out, and I thought for sure that my game was soon going to follow.

All of the sudden, for some stupid reason, Val decided to flip back. The whole thing makes her decision to vote Rich out even less sensible. She planted her flag with the other side and then just up and flipped back? Way to lose EVERYONE's trust. And why would she flip back at a vote that was going to be 6-6? 12 people in the game is not the time to flip. Obviously I wasn't going to reject her joining back up with us, but it just sort of underlines Val's poor decision-making. Richard did not have Val on his immediate radar, I don't think, and Val clearly acted irrationally in taking him out. But she was back with us, so now it was a matter of deterring how a 6 person alliance could take control of a 12 person tribe.

The key was Ozzy's idol. In the leaked Skype chat conversations between Dale and Rich, there were accusations that Ozzy had an idol. I just sort of dismissed it because there was no reason to assume that Dale was telling the truth or even knew about Ozzy's idol, but then all of the sudden everyone within my alliance was speaking about him having it and he himself told me he had it. We had the votes to tie it up and the tool to make our votes the only ones that counted. So it was a matter of making sure that Dan and his slaves put all of their votes on me, which was easy since clearly Dan and Sierra want the immunity necklaces, Sugar hates me, and I barely bother to make conversation with Rocky, Hayden, and Drew.

We wanted to accomplish a few things with last night's vote, though, beyond just protecting our six. We wanted one of Dan's closest allies gone and we wanted Dan to waste his public immunity idol (on himself or someone else). Tammy and I successfully pushed the target from Sierra onto Drew, because we're protecting Sierra in order to use her after Dan is gone. She's truly one of the better people in this game in terms of literacy and conversation, so I am definitely interested in working with her. It's just supremely difficult with Dan around. But we'll get back to that. We go the six to target Drew, and apparently we made Dan paranoid enough to play the idol on himself. So all of our votes for Drew counted, and all of their votes for me didn't count, because Ozzy played the idol on me. The biggest holes in our plan, I thought, was the possibility that Val never really flipped back to us and was just going along with the plan in order to help the other side play around the idol, and that Ozzy wouldn't risk using the idol on me. Luckily, Val came through and flipped back to us, absolutely tanking her reputation among like half of what will be the jury, and Ozzy played the idol on me, a major sign of commitment and trust.

Drew left and it felt so good to get one over on Dan and his allies. They've been trying to fuck me over since my time on Pohnpei after the first swap and this is the very first time I've really just gotten to unleash my wrath on them. And Dan has been such a cocky fuck that it was just extremely gratifying to send his house slave to the jury. I felt bad for screwing over Sierra, but I could literally care less about Hayden, Sugar, or Rocky going forward. They are beyond useless, barely literate, and basically just barnacles hanging onto the hull of Dan's sinking ship. I've been waiting since the Nadiya vote for something to go well for me in this game, and this was just the boost I needed.

As it stands, I don't really see an incentive for any of the six people who voted out Drew last night to abandon the S.S. Victory which set sail and crushed our opponents last night. Val should feel safe in the foursome of her, myself, Tammy, and Ozzy. Ozzy should feel safe in that foursome, and I think he's sort of formed a trio with Penner and Nate, who should feel content as long as they feel like they have him. I just don't see what anyone from that six would gain to benefit from flipping while the numbers are so close. Tonight's vote is where we really consolidate our lead and make last night's victory worth it.

There will be more to come in another update before tonight's events, I promise

I got some information that has certainly made my decision about tonight's vote a lot easier, so I think it's appropriate for me to finish this confessional.

The largest cloud over the game right now, from my perspective, is the fact that only two pairs remain in the game - Tammy and myself, and Dan and Sierra. First of all, how fucking amazing is it that Tammy and I are one of the last two pairs in this game. We walked into a game where we knew nobody - we hadn't played with any of these people and we certainly hadn't chatted on Skype with them. There were twelve pairs, ten of them have gone, yet Tammy and I remain. I think that's pretty impressive. However, it complicates things. First of all, it's easy to look at unbreakable pair and see a threat in that. I totally understand this logic. Its further exacerbated in this game because as soon as we're the last pair in the game we get an immunity necklace that, as far as I understand, works like a hidden immunity idol, except everyone knows we have it. Now, personally I wouldn't see that as a threat because I think that 90% of the danger of idols is the "hidden" part of it - but people will take any little granular reason and make it into a plan to vote someone out.

There are one of two outcomes with this immunity necklace situation. Tammy and I will get them OR Dan and Sierra will get them. Luckily for me, I was on the right side of the votes last night, so I think that more people in this game would rather Tammy and I have them than Dan and Sierra. But it also makes sense that these people would want to minimize the utility of the immunity necklaces by giving them to us as soon as possible. So I think tonight's the night we're finally going to pull the plug on Dan's game, leaving Tammy and I with immunity necklaces and Sierra with individual immunity for the next tribal council.

It's not like it's difficult to talk about voting Dan out. He's played this game brazenly, which I don't fault him for, but if you're going to play with fire you're going to get burned at some point. And I just think Dan put a little too much gasoline on the fire once he got into a position of power on Pohnpei following the first swap - it kept building and building until last night, when Ozzy pulled out a massive fire extinguisher in order to protect me from the fire, and Val threw a little gasoline on Dan to make it spread his way. And like I said earlier, I don't think anyone wants Dan and Sierra to get those necklaces. I seriously would have considered sparing Dan tonight, because of my love of Sierra and my hatred of Sugar, but I just found out from Penner that Dan was accusing me, Tammy, and Val of conspiring against Penner.



What an idiot. I guess I overestimated Dan's ability to play this game, but me, Tammy, and Val targeting Penner is the most unbelievable bullshit ever. In what world would any of the three of us go to DAN to conspire against Penner, whom we've played this game with since the first day. If we were to conspire against any part of the six that voted out Drew last night, wouldn't it be Ozzy and Nate, who are relatively new and unfamiliar to us? It just makes no fucking sense. And why would Dan risk alienating a pair of two votes AND the one person who has proven herself to be a flipper. Maybe Tammy and I would have considered keeping Dan in as a shield? Our two votes switch and he's still around tomorrow. Maybe Val would continue to flip back and forth and he's still here tomorrow. Instead he threw under the bus the three people probably most likely to help him out. That stupid fucking idiot is going home tonight unless he wins immunity and I will take great pleasure in watching it happen.

The key after that is going to be pulling in Sierra and making sure that Tammy and I don't become two huge targets. Luckily, if Dan does go home tonight, Sierra will have immunity next round, and Tammy and I will both have the immunity necklaces to protect us. After that I would like to see Sugar go home. She's overstayed her welcome in this game as far as I'm concerned, and nobody should have to be subjected to talking to her anymore. And I want Dan to feel the feeling of almost beating Sugar in the game but not. I'm trying to handle the Dan situation as delicately as possible with Sierra because I really like her and want to work with her. She had a good relationship with Tammy from their time together before the merge, and she's proven to be likable, smart, and literate unlike a lot of other people on this tribe. Being upfront with her, I think, is the best strategy for dealing with the situation because Tammy and I are protecting her and we are looking for an ally going forward. I've just made it pretty clear to Sierra that I'm very uncomfortable working with Dan and that it would be difficult to swing the votes someone else anyway without jeopardizing my game.

After we can knock off Dan, I'd honestly like to see Sugar, Hayden, and Rocky leave in that order. I already described why I think each member of the six that voted Drew out last night has an incentive to stick with the six, so hopefully we can make that happen. There's a good chance that they might see Tammy or I as jury threats, but honestly I think Val is probably the only person less threatening than us in terms of jury votes. Maybe Nate is? I don't know, but it's going to be important to keep Sierra around as a buffer and really make sure Val and Ozzy are with Tammy and I so that Penner and Nate can't make a move on Tammy or I before we make a move on them.

The main stress about tonight is going to be making sure Dan doesn't win individual immunity, because it's going to be hard to convince Ozzy, Nate, Penner, and Val to send Sugar home instead of Sierra. In that case I might consider going to Sierra and Dan and trying to get them to vote Sugar out, but that would be risky and I haven't really run the numbers enough to know if it's feasible.

Until next time...

rip me after reading all of that <3

What's your ID again, girl? I think I know it but I'm too lazy to look it up. Also you and Glammy <3

It's Shalomo!

Thanks for the accolades~

That's what I thought! ^_^ So happy to get to see you play again! Controversial Courtney in Crashcourse was ROBBED!

Mia Galeotalanza wrote:That's what I thought! ^_^ So happy to get to see you play again! Controversial Courtney in Crashcourse was ROBBED!

You're telling me - trying to avoid my early jury curse here!

Hey Heidi, great confessional, two things stand out to me:

1) How much of a liability is someone like Val to your game considering her flip-floppy nature and poor decision making skills?

2) You've mentioned before that if you got it, you would use the partner immunity the first chance you can. Is that still the case? Or have you figured out a different way to use it?

Kelly Wigles wrote:Hey Heidi, great confessional, two things stand out to me:

1) How much of a liability is someone like Val to your game considering her flip-floppy nature and poor decision making skills?

2) You've mentioned before that if you got it, you would use the partner immunity the first chance you can. Is that still the case? Or have you figured out a different way to use it?

Great questions.

Val is a total problem. In my opinion, I don't think she always makes logical decisions. For example, I don't think it was a particularly good decision for her to vote Richard out. At the same time, I also don't think it was a particularly good decision to vote out Drew last night after flipping back. Tonight I think it would be a horrible decision to flip back and vote out someone who voted for Drew last night, but Val might take an illogical jump in order to avoid having to vote out someone she likes. We're particularly worried that she doesn't want to send Dan home tonight, despite the fact that 5/6 of the alliance seems to want to. So I've presented some very logical arguments to her about the immunity necklaces and Dan throwing her under the bus to Penner. Hopefully they stick and she doesn't make yet another bad decision.

If Tammy and I are lucky enough to get the necklaces, I think we'd maybe hold onto them for one round before using them. We'd probably threaten to use them at 10, in order to discourage what would already be a risky flip with an even amount of votes, and then actually use them at the final 9. It's tricky for me. They can be used as great tools to advance yourself in the game, but I just hate the thought of being voted out with it in my pocket, so I'd rather waste it before that happens.

If Dan were to win immunity, is there an equally easy sell with your alliance to take out Sierra?

It sounds like you don't have a lot of trust for Val? At what point does that become an undeniable liability for your game?

Also when was the last time you played in this series, girl?