SEATTLE, WA — Magic Arena isn’t the first foray into the world of digital MTG for Wizards of the Coast, but it has certainly become the most accessible. Given its popularity it’s both surprising, and not surprising to see MTG’s comprehensive rules apply to the aspects of the client itself, rather than the game.
With Thursdays update came a milestone in rules implementation. For the first time in MTG’s history, a rule will apply to emotes. The rule itself isn’t something players will come across often, as it requires both players to be at 69 life exactly. Since you may be confused, here’s the official ruling:
104.4b If a game that’s not using the limited range of influence option (including a two-player game) somehow enters a “loop” of mandatory actions, repeating a sequence of events with no way to stop, the game is a draw.
Due to the ruling, games will now auto-result in a draw when both players reach 69 life as it places both players in an endless, repeating sequence of “nice” emotes back and forth. As no other game action is able to stop “loop of mandatory actions” the game is officially considered a draw.
However, a few fans have successfully petitioned WotC to implement an auto-screenshot function to grab what will inevitably reach the top of r/magicarena’s front page with a cascade of ‘nice’ replies reaching to infinity. Whether or not reddit’s servers will be able to handle it is still up in the air.