A rather odd question here which requires a bit of set up of a potential game state that may end up just being answered with it simply being up to the head judge's discretion so please bear with me. I remember this came up in conversation a bit ago with lantern in modern and was discussed a decent amount, but I can't seem to find the source of it to actually refresh myself on what the end result was.
In that reference the situation was that one player has 0 cards in deck with a gideon of the trials emblem and the lantern player was putting a random artifact on top of their deck, which also had zero cards left, to effectively force a draw in the game and/or match. Now it seems that a somewhat similar situation is starting to crop up in standard. Here's the general outline of two different scenarios that come up which leads to my question in regards to each of them.
Situation 1.
Player A has zero ways to kill their opponent and has zero cards left in their deck. They are preventing themselves from decking by casting a new teferi, hero of dominaria using the -3 ability to target the teferi that was just cast to put it back into their deck, and are able to do this indefinitely and must do so to not lose.
Player B is in the same situation as player A with no cards in deck, no ways to kill the opponent and is looping a single teferi to not lose from drawing from an empty library.
Situation 2.
Once again player A has no cards in deck and is looping a single teferi to stay alive. Player A also has made an emblem with teferi, hero of dominaria which will exile something controlled by their opponent each turn.
Player B however has zero lands in play and does not have any one mana cards in their deck what so ever. Player B also has 20 cards left in their library.
Ok, here are the questions relating to these possible situations. How would each game state play out besides the obvious implications? Would it be declared a draw? Would one player be forced to take a game action that is not in their interest, such as drawing from an empty library? If there is a difference to how each would play out in a judge's eyes, what is the important part and why does that apply to one case but not the other? Does it matter what the win/loss count is in for the current match? If in one situation the game is declared a draw and the full match is completed with 4 games played, how would that result be written on a match slip?
Private Mod Note
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
Situation 1 involves a "fragmented loop", a loop that results in "the same game state being reached multiple times. If that happens," Player A or Player B, whoever is the active player, must make a different choice "so the loop does not continue" (C.R. 728.3). This choice can be to choose not to cast Teferi or to choose not to activate one of Teferi's loyalty abilities. However, this is a loop that spans multiple turns, so that it matters when it "happens" that such a fragmented loop is resulting, since it's then that the active player must make a different choice.
EDIT (Sep. 20, 2023): One rule was renumbered in the meantime. For sanctioned tournaments, see M.T.R. 4.4 (C.R. 728.1c).
So in situation one somebody will be forced to make a game losing action, bleh that sucks. What this basically means is call a judge when you are not the active player and your opponent will have to intentionally lose instead of you since you are both locked in the same stalemate. What of the second situation? Is player A able to sit there and let his opponent mill out with their draw step since they are technically advancing a game plan or does that still count as a fragmented loop and they'll be forced to "choose" to lose the game?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
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In that reference the situation was that one player has 0 cards in deck with a gideon of the trials emblem and the lantern player was putting a random artifact on top of their deck, which also had zero cards left, to effectively force a draw in the game and/or match. Now it seems that a somewhat similar situation is starting to crop up in standard. Here's the general outline of two different scenarios that come up which leads to my question in regards to each of them.
Situation 1.
Player A has zero ways to kill their opponent and has zero cards left in their deck. They are preventing themselves from decking by casting a new teferi, hero of dominaria using the -3 ability to target the teferi that was just cast to put it back into their deck, and are able to do this indefinitely and must do so to not lose.
Player B is in the same situation as player A with no cards in deck, no ways to kill the opponent and is looping a single teferi to not lose from drawing from an empty library.
Situation 2.
Once again player A has no cards in deck and is looping a single teferi to stay alive. Player A also has made an emblem with teferi, hero of dominaria which will exile something controlled by their opponent each turn.
Player B however has zero lands in play and does not have any one mana cards in their deck what so ever. Player B also has 20 cards left in their library.
Ok, here are the questions relating to these possible situations. How would each game state play out besides the obvious implications? Would it be declared a draw? Would one player be forced to take a game action that is not in their interest, such as drawing from an empty library? If there is a difference to how each would play out in a judge's eyes, what is the important part and why does that apply to one case but not the other? Does it matter what the win/loss count is in for the current match? If in one situation the game is declared a draw and the full match is completed with 4 games played, how would that result be written on a match slip?
EDIT (Sep. 20, 2023): One rule was renumbered in the meantime. For sanctioned tournaments, see M.T.R. 4.4 (C.R. 728.1c).