Survivor: The Spy Shack & 9 Other Wild Strategies, Ranked

One of the best things about Survivor is that every season has new castaways, or veteran fan favorites, that bring unique and quirky strengths and strategies to the game. Each tribal council is different, and every time players hit the beach, they have to outlast everyone else.

So, after 40 entertaining seasons, there have been many strategies that have certainly perplexed – and impressed – fans of the show. Tony’s iconic spy shack may have been successful, but some certainly fall short. It’s time to look back at some of the most wild strategies the show has seen, and whether or not they worked.

10 The Buddy System (Rob Mariano)

Boston Rob pretty famously had an alliance that made it all to the end of ‘Redemption Island’. One of the key components of this powerful alliance was the buddy system – and that meant no one was ever left alone.

Clearly, it worked, because he took home the title. Unfortunately though, he tried to redeploy this strategy with expert players on ‘Winners at War’, and it became pretty obvious that this ‘babysitting’ strategy was bizarre, and not always effective.

9 Voting Out Her Mom (Ciera Eastin)

There are tons of moments where castaways realized that they had no choice but to vote out their closest ally, and sometimes this strategy certainly backfires. Of course, nothing really beats Ciera Eastin voting out her mom on ‘Blood vs. Water’.

This strategy continues to flabbergast fans, and ultimately, goes down as one of the best (and boldest) moves to be made by a player. This iconic and villainous female player was a queen of strategy, and her mom was proud of it. Another wild strategy was when Ciera Eastin forced a rock draw!

8 The Fake Idol (Yau-Man Chan)

Yau-Man Chan is pretty highly regarded in this fandom as being one of the best players to have never won the game. On ‘Fiji’, he played idols successfully, but he also was the first to make a fake idol to trick another castaway.

Since then, fans have seen this wild strategy play out time and time again, with each being a bit more hilarious than the last. Now, it doesn’t always work, but this bizarre strategy is still pretty impressive.

7 Purposefully Going To Redemption Island (Ozzy Lusth)

There’s no question in any fan’s mind that Ozzy Lusth is one of the greatest male castaways to ever hit the beach. On ‘South Pacific’, Ozzy’s alliance was in a strange position. So, he gave away his idol and forced his tribe to send him to Redemption Island.

To everyone’s absolute shock, he actually did win challenge after challenge and earned himself a spot back in the game. This was one of the boldest, and wildest, strategies that any player has pulled off.

6 Anyone But Her (Sandra Diaz-Twine)

On ‘Pearl Islands’ and ‘Heroes vs. Villains’, Sandra Diaz-Twine proved that she’s the queen of the game. With two titles in her pocket, she can likely thank for her strange and easy-going strategy of ‘anyone but her’. Sandra would vote for anyone, as long as she wasn’t going home.

She might be one of the laziest winners to hit the island, but clearly, it’s worked out in her favor. This strategy has perplexed fans of the show, but they can’t argue that it didn’t work.

5 Lying About His Dead Grandmother (Johnny Fairplay)

If Ciera Eastin deserves a round of applause for voting out her mom, Johnny Fairplay deserves a standing ovation for ‘Pearl Islands’ where he convinced everyone on his tribe that his grandmother had passed away – which was nothing but a lie.

This strategy is probably still one of the most ridiculous and insane that this show has seen, and it will always be one of the most iconic moments from the island. He got some sympathy even though his grandmother was alive and well.

4 Volunteering For Fire (Chris Underwood)

One of the newest twists on the show is forcing castaways to compete in a fire competition to make it to the final three. This has both entertained and annoyed fans, and throws a whole new aspect of strategy into the mix.

Chris Underwood is probably the most famous example of volunteering to make fire when he was already guaranteed a spot in the final three. Viewers were screaming at their televisions, but this is another seemingly crazy strategy that paid off for Chris in the end.

3 Burning Things (Russell Hantz)

This is definitely one weird strategy, and lovers of this show might still not be totally sure what Russell Hantz hoped to gain from putting people’s belongings in the fire. He certainly did stir stuff up.

However, Russell also immediately became the villain, and burning things was one of the many reasons that the jury didn’t vote for him to be the Sole Survivor. Still, it certainly wasn’t for a lack of trying.

2 Throwing The Challenge (Ethan Zohn)

Throwing immunity challenges is one of the hardest things to watch as viewers, and is also likely very frustrating for a tribe. Ethan Zohn was the first player to successfully do this, on ‘Africa’, in order to save his alliance after a tribe swap.

What seemed like a totally crazy and ridiculous strategy actually turned out pretty well, and Ethan went on to be named the Sole Survivor of that season. No one has done this strategy as flawlessly since.

1 The Spy Shack (Tony Vlachos)

Tony Vlachos is one of two two-time winners, so it’s safe to say that he at least kind of knows what he’s doing. When fans first met Tony, they immediately knew he was a bit crazy and totally eccentric.

He proved that by creating his spy shack, which literally meant he could discretely spy on other players. Surprisingly, he actually did get some useful information to help him in the game. The bottom line, though, is that it’s one of the most hilarious and wild strategies the show has seen.

About The Author

Meah Peers
(631 Articles Published)

I just graduated university with Criminology & Psychology, but have a burning side passion for film! I am an avid reader, writer, and film-goer, and I love learning about movies, actors, directors, and sharing my passion and knowledge with others.
I am a List Writer for ScreenRant, and love being a part of a film community where we all share the same passions.

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