History Main / TroubleMagnetGambit

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurders Wild Harvest]]", local farmer Martin Strickland is found dead in his own woods; covered by truffle oil and mauled to death by a wild boar,

* Done twice by Count Pommodoro in ''Literature/TheGreatBalloonRace''. The first time he sprinkles birdseed atop the balloons of the Greek entry, causing birds to peak holes in the envelope. The second time he sabotages his rival Aristotle Pilaster by attaching a Turkish flag to the bottom of his gondola; causing him to be shot at as he flies over Cyprus.

* ''The Tales of Beedle The Bard'' pertaining to the legendary Deathly Hallows in ''Literature/HarryPotter''. Three wizarding siblings evade Death, but [[TheGrimReaper Death]] is cunning, and appears to congratulate them and offers a gift to each. These gifts later caused the demise of the eldest and middle by ArtifactOfAttraction and DrivenToSuicide respectively. The youngest avoids this fate because he does not trust Death, and asks for 'an item that allows him to leave without being followed by Death'.

* The ''[[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Tarma and Kethry]]'' short story "Friendly Fire" centers around a bad-luck token the pair receive by mistake, [[ClingyMacGuffin which can only be gotten rid of by giving to someone else]]. They run into bandits, and as the token is mixed in with their coins, the thieves take it off their hands.

* ''Literature/SherlockHolmesAndDoctorWasNot'': In "The Adventure of the Sacrifice Stone", Samuel splashes Miss Dalrymple's coat with a herbal potion designed to attract snakes, and the lets loss an 8 ft. red-belly black snake on he trail.

* In ''Literature/ChildrenOfDune'', the Atreides twins are sent elaborate robes by the rival Imperial House. The catch is two Laza tigers have been trained to attack and kill anyone wearing said robes.

* A petty revenge method against a family that annoys you that's starting to spread around: give their children gifts along the lines of kinetic sand, air horn, nerf guns, and such. Children being children, they would use it to play in their house.

* An issue of ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'' has Selina get hit in the face with one of the Joker's pies. The pie itself is harmless... but it does carry a radioactive tracer that draws two ballistic missiles right to it. Which means Catwoman has to race the missiles over the roofs of Gotham in hopes that the missiles don't catch up with her while she's in a residential area.

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* In ''The Great Balloon Race'', Count Pommodoro sabotages his rival Aristotle Pilaster by attaching a Turkish flag to the bottom of his gondola; causing him to be shot at as he flies over Cyprus.

* ''Literature/SherlockHolmesAndDoctorWasNot'': In "The Adventure of the Sacrifice Stone", Samuel splashes Miss Dalrymple's coat with a herbal potion designed to attract snakes.

* The BigBad's MO in ''Film/TheDeadlyBees''. The titular bees are attracted to a certain substance, which causes the bees to attack the substance relentlessly. This is emphasized when the jacket of the local inspector gets the substance on it; when the jacket is removed, the bees keep attacking ''it'' instead of the inspector.

* Professor Moriarty pulls this in ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheDUrbervilles''; a client comes to him begging for help escaping the curse of an ArtifactOfDoom, and, once it's done, stiffs him on the bill. So Moriarty discreetly slips the thing back into the guy's pocket.

* Professor Moriarty pulls this in ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheDUrbervilles''; a client comes to him begging for help escaping the curse of an ArtifactOfDoom, and, once it's done, stiffs him on the bill. So Moriarty discretely slips the thing back into the guy's pocket.

* Professor Moriarty pulls this in ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheDUrbervilles''; a client comes to him begging for help escaping the curse of an ArtifactOfDoom, and, once it's done, stiffs him on the bill. So Moriarty discretely slips the thing back into the guy's pocket.

* The BigBad's MO in ''Film/TheDeadlyBees''. The titular bees are attracted to a certain substance, which causes the bees to attack the substance relentlessly. This is emphasized when the jacket of the local inspector gets the substance on it; when the jacket is removed, the bees keep attacking ''it'' instead of the inspector.

* In ''Literature/{{Jhereg}}'', Keira uses her pickpocketing skills to replace Mellar's regular daggers with Morganti daggers (which destroy the victim's soul). Aliera then picked a fight with him and got stabbed, causing Mellar to panic and flee Morrolan's castle, allowing Vlad to kill him. Mellar didn't know that Aliera's soul was protected by her sword, allowing her to be resurrected.

* In one ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' book, the Manticoran Queen and Prime Minster are given Grayson "memory stones" that contain transponders which will attract the two missiles that will be released as soon as the two of them are in space.

* Professor Moriarty pulls this in ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheDUrbervilles''; a client comes to him begging for help escaping the curse of an ArtifactOfDoom, and, once it's done, stiffs him on the bill. So Moriarty discretely slips the thing back into the guy's pocket.

* In ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'', the Boomer has low HP and deals poor damage on its own, but it can vomit on survivors, attracting common infected to them.
* In ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'', [[ConfusionFu Arakune]]'s projectile attacks work by having him "curse" the target, causing them to be attacked by insects (when he commands it) until they manage to land another blow on him.
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'' with the Golden Claw. Dangerous in the pyramid (every step's a random encounter, and you can't use magic in the basement where you get it), but once you leave, as long as you don't return to the pyramid, it's the fighter's best weapon (it ''still'' increases the encounter rate outside the pyramid, just not nearly as drastically).

* Downplayed in ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst,'' wherein a rival steward gives Baileywick a pin that curses its possessor with clumsiness. He doesn't wish any harm on Baileywick, he simply wants Baileywick out of a job (either fired or via retirement, believing himself to be too old to be useful) so that he can take it instead. When Sofia and Clover figure out what's going on, Clover sticks the pin back onto the rival to buy Sofia time to explain the situation.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E3TheWebOfFear "The Web of Fear"]], the Great Intelligence's [[TheMole Mole]] slips model yeti into the pockets of several heroes in order to attract the dangerous yeti-robots to them.

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[[folder:Film]]

** In "The Keys of Marinus", Vasor, in order to ensure that Ian does not come back from rescuing Altos, slips him some raw meat to attract the wolves. Under the name "Vasor Gambit", this was the former TropeNamer.
** In "The Web of Fear", the Great Intelligence's [[TheMole Mole]] slips model yeti into the pockets of several heroes in order to attract the dangerous yeti-robots to them.
* In the 1970s ''Series/TheBionicWoman'' episode "Deadly Music", an enemy agent attaches a homing signal to Jamie Sommers so trained sharks will attack her. And yes, this was probably the inspiration for the ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain'' example above.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': A variation occurs on the episode where Picard is forced to take a vacation on the PleasurePlanet Risa. Riker raves about Risa at various points in the series and asks Picard to pick him up something called a "horga'hn" while there. Turns out the horga'hn is a fertility statue and displaying one in public (as Picard does, unaware of its meaning) is essentially broadcasting that one is looking for some action, specifically a sexual rite known as ''jamaharon''. When Picard finally got someone to explain why random women kept brazenly approaching/propositioning him as he tried to find a moment's quiet, he was ''not'' amused.

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[[folder: RealLife]]

* One ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode involved a girl giving her boyfriend a leather jacket that had markings from a particular gang on it, then asking him to meet her in the territory of a rival gang.