the meat shield strategy has always been a common strategy for survivor players going all the way
back to season three africa where ethan hid behind the big time threats and personalities such as tom
and lex to have a pretty easy ride to the end but the term wasn't actually a common phrase
for survivor players until jeremy collins revolutionized this strategy in season 31
so while many people have used the concept of hiding behind threats as shields in the past
it wasn't actually a legit survivor term until recently and because now even the non-super fans
of survivor know of this prevalent strategy it's come to a point where you can use a strategy in a
different way to benefit your game which brings me to today's topic and what i think could be a
massively underrated strategy for future survivor players and that is the reverse shield strategy
this strategy is exactly what it sounds like instead of trying to hide behind shields you
try to beat everyone else's shiela because if you're everyone else's shield nobody is
going to want to get rid of you because then suddenly they become the next target now again
this is my own concept i've never seen this on any survivor forums or obviously never seen this on tv
and maybe if i'm so lucky enough i can pull off a jeremy collins and revolutionize this strategy
or a future survivor player who is watching this vid can give me a shout out if they use
this strategy but given credit where credits do i specifically thought of this concept when watching
dean kowalski's game and island of the idols going into ioi the preseason was a very interesting one
as this was notably a very different looking cast a large part of this was due to longtime
casting director lynn spillman leaving and a whole new casting team taking over now while
lynn had done a better job of not casting a season full of model type recruits there was still some
really bad casted seasons where you would think big brother casting took over looking for a bunch
of young pretty people so when the casper island of the idols came out it was a different look but
in the best of ways and was agreed upon by the fandom that this was the most normal looking
everyday people cast in survivor history sure you had your bikini babes like chelsea molly
and pro athletes like tom and elizabeth but the point is the cast was made up of people who you
wouldn't think of as a reality tv star which is what made so many of these cast members so likable
and relatable but then that brings us to dean kowalski dean was absolutely what you expect from
a survivor casting choice they attract a man with an amazing build and with a background in sales
however this was dean's biggest problem going into the season he was such an anomaly from the
rest of the cast and you could not deny just how threatening he looked compared to everyone else
i and pretty much all fans had dean as an early to mid-merge boot sure his challenge prowess
might be useful for the pre-emerge but there's no way especially these days when players look for a
common enemy at the merge that dean wouldn't be a massive target come to merge yet despite dean
not appearing to have much of a chance to make it far into the game he made it all the way to
day 39 ultimately finishing as the runner-up and i believe the reason why he made it so far was
due to the reverse shield strategy dean started the game in iowa like many people expected he
was in the minority alliance with the other alpha males on lyra and ronnie and iran but was never a
true target up until episode 4 when his showmance with chelsea put a target on both their backs now
the two didn't actually have a showmance as this was just the narrative put on by the show
to cater to the casual audience as chelsea's elimination was so chaotic and head-scratching
that it would have been hard to tell a story in such a short amount of time but basically
missy had the ever so classic case of big move itis and she blindsided chelsea for reasons we
still don't understand to this day okay misty did have her reasons but they were ridiculous
the girls alliance shown on tv wasn't as close as they appeared and missy and chelsea weren't
all that close at all and missy knowing the swap was coming blindsided a big threat in chelsea so
she could have more control over karishma if they were to swap into the same tribe yeah i don't get
it either this was obviously a horrendous move on missy's part which not only cost her the game at
the final 10 but is often considered one of the worst cases of big new vitas in survivor history
but it actually wasn't going to be chelsea until literally 10 minutes before tribal as missy was
even less close to dean and wanted to break up the alliance of dean and chelsea but at the very last
second the target switched to chelsea instead as the tribe knew that dean would be a massive target
come the tribe swap and the lyre was most likely new there was a big chance to be swapped into the
minority given the numbers so it would be best to keep a guy like dean around over chelsea as he was
a much bigger target and the vote guys would most likely target dean first over all the other lyros
so even at dean's first opportunity to be blindsided he was still so threatening especially
compared to the less threatening but strategic threat in chelsea that he was spared over her
despite chelsea having a closer relationship to messi and the entire lyra tribe then at the tribe
swap we saw two instances of dean's threatening nature make him a perfect fit to keep till the
merge at the first vote when it was between him and tom it was an easy choice for vokai to vote
out tom over dean as time would most likely just simply be a number for lyra then at the final 14
when dean was literally the only option to go home since karishma had unsurprisingly flipped
the vocai he was saved by kelly's idol now you could argue that he got very fortunate that he
just so happened to know kelly from relationships outside the game and that this was the last time
kelly could use her idol but i do truly think had this been any other player maybe outside of aaron
kelly wouldn't have played her idol but being that she was proving herself to be such a big
time player in the game and the merge was coming soon it made perfect sense to go out of her way
to keep a massive target in dean around and hopefully have him as an ally down the road
then at the merge despite being such a big target deed's name was almost never thrown around the
reason being was that intentionally or not dean used the reverse shield strategy to his advantage
we learned that dean made multiple final two deals with mostly other big targets in the game
rather than people like janet and jamal and those same people that dean wasn't really aligned with
ended up being the minority alliance throughout the post merge i mean dean even said himself how
he was scared of a goat army taking out the big time players this season in a twist that sent two
random tribes to tribal at the final eleven we saw aaron suffer the same fate that many people
thought would happen to dean and be in an early merged food due to simply being such a threat
this shows just how dean played up to his threat level instead of being like aaron who was paranoid
of his threat level and how much he stood out from the rest of the cast he relied solely on winning
immunities and hoping he wouldn't be targeted instead of realizing that he couldn't hide
his threat level and his best option would have been to play like dean and create alliances with
virtually everyone and that's why dean was able to navigate his way to the end because when you say
someone like a tommy why would you ever want to get rid of dean you know you can beat him and if
you were to get rid of him you instantly become the next biggest threat the same logic was used
by kelly keeping dean around to hide her as the biggest strategic threat and aaron and elizabeth
wanting to keep dean around as another physical threat the great thing about the reverse shield
strategy is that there's no reason to hide who you are which is what makes it so different from
the meat show strategy with the meat show strategy it's the exact opposite as you hide your strengths
behind others for the attributes they produce we saw jeremy specifically outline this in cambodia
by aligning with the brainiac alpha male leader and the strongest female and male competitors we
even see people hide behind weak players or strong personalities knowing that these type of players
are always targeted first but if they're not then suddenly they can be valuable to your end game
kind of like todd having courtney as a shield to be targeted over him in the pre-merge of china
only to have her as a number moving forward the reverse shield strategy is the opposite
you're not trying to hide behind anyone you're just trying to be so out there as a target
that nobody wants to take you out because suddenly that massive target is out of the game and a new
target will emerge and everyone is afraid they might become that target now to be fair i don't
think the reverse shield strategy is something all people can do the great thing about the michio
strategy is that there's a bunch of different type of meat shields that can be used for weak
and strong players alike whereas for the reverse shield strategy i think this requires you to
maybe not necessarily be a strong alpha male but definitely the common standout in survivor cast
like say the manifesto type player and it might also be one of those circumstance type things like
dean stood out so much in ioi but on a cast like say fiji he could have possibly been just another
survivor bro and i also think you can't really look back at any other seasons before cambodia
that the reverse shield strategy played dividend in a season since again with the mitchell strategy
not even being a survivor term yet the thought of keeping around big time threats was extremely rare
in old school survivor especially when the game was simpler back then and usually you took out the
biggest target why you had a chance but in this new era with all the twists and turns sometimes
it's better to keep around the common threat for as long as possible and i do think while
the reverse shield strategy is effective it might be a hard way to actually win the game as we saw
at the final tribal council dean was thought to be dragged to the end by tommy and his shadiness of
making deals with so many people got exposed but still the fact that a guy who looked to be a lot
did not make it anywhere near the finale made it past three tribals in the pre-merge where his name
was on the chopping block and never had his name run down in the entire post merge despite being
such an on paper target leading to a second place finish is really impressive the very next season
we saw kind of the similar thing happen ironically with jeremy collins he was such a massive physical
threat especially compared to all the other winners who were older and no longer in the best
of shape and because of that he was spared over players like natalie and sandra in the pre-merge
and tony stated him two tribal councils in a row despite him having a potential advantage
because tony who was starting to become known as a challenge beast and of course just simply
being tony needed to keep around a bigger target ironically the creator of the meat shield strategy
suddenly became a reverse shield for many rounds and winners at war due to his massive presence
so to wrap everything up i think my personal definition for the reverse shield is a person who
is a common shield for everyone in the game or at least most players not just the big time players
or players who directly benefit from a certain type of shield thus it's important to keep around
this player for as long as possible with season 42 coming up it will be very interesting to see
how a guy like jonathan does this season as again most people assume there's no way he can make it
past the final 10 or so due to him being such a freaking monster but i truly think if he plays
his cards right he could use the reverse shield strategy to not only navigate his way towards
the end but this time wind survivor so what do you guys think of the reverse shield strategy
do you think i'm just making stuff up for the sake of it or do you think i've possibly stumbled upon
a new strategy that could revolutionize the game as usual let me know what you guys think in the
comments or other questions that you might have about this concept don't forget to smash that
like and subscribe button and share this video with all your friends as again you never know
which future survivor player might need to see this video with all that said thank you guys so
much for watching and i'll see you next time i got all the toys i got all the bling i got
all the power janet has an idol she thinks she's sitting pretty and lauren given i have the idol
nullifier is feeling good right now but either way you look at it yet someone's gonna be shocked