Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (
More info?)
On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 22:01:56 +0200, David de Kloet <dskloet@cs.vu.nl> wrote:
>Suppose I have a Wall of Blossoms in play and a Worldgorger Dragon in
>my graveyard, my opponents graveyard is empty. Now I play an Animate
>Dead and enter the 'unstoppable' loop of WD and AD.
Well, it's stoppable - but only by some activated or triggered ability, or
Instant spell, that interferes with it.
>Each time all permanents return to play I can choose the order in
>which AD and WoB trigger. So I can choose to first draw a card, or to
>first do the rest of the loop in which case this "draw a card" will
>probably never resolve.
(Unless the loop stops, in which case the accumulated "draw a card"s on the
stack will all finally get to resolve one after another.)
>Now my only way of stopping this loop is by drawing cards until I
>lose the game. So it isn't really an unstoppable loop.
>My question: Am I forced to stop the loop since I can? (by rule 421)
Lemme look.
....You control all the actions, so 421.3 & 421.5 don't apply. Each of the
triggered abilities is mandatory ... but you also have the option of ordering
them on the stack, plus which as you note you can't indefinitely repeat "draw
a card". So this can't draw the game; 421.4 doesn't apply. And you can only
indefinitely repeat the "inner loop" if each time around you choose to put the
Dragon ability on the stack on top of the WoB loop. That, plus "can't draw
cards indefinitely", point you to 421.2 - which would say "choose a number
for how many times to repeat this loop, repeat it that many times, _then take
a different action from the one required to continue the loop_". In other
words, you end up having to put the Wall ability on top once, and drawing a
card (and then after that the Dragon ability resolves, starting the loop
again).
In short, I'm afraid you're going to have to draw out to end this loop, yes,
and lose the game in the process. (421.* _is_ still subject to interpretation,
in parts... and I'm here interpreting "choose an order for triggered abilities
on the stack" under 'optional action' - you get an _option_.) So each time you
break the "Dragon on top / Wall on bottom / repeat" loop, you draw another
card... and end up drawing out, and losing with (potentially) lots and lots of
draw-a-card abilities still on the stack waiting.
Hopefully one of the cards you draw allows you to kill, remove from the game,
bounce, or do something else Horrible to the Wall of Blossoms (or to the
Dragon); that will stop the loop in another way, though you'll still as noted
above have to deal with the rest of the waiting card draws...
Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting from dbd@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
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