Can you kill yourself in Commander?
Asked by Argy 9 years ago
I play in a group which has started to say lately, "Nope, you can't do that. You'd kill yourself," to each other.
Is that a rule in Commander? Are you not allowed to kill yourself?
It was to the point that I had Ob Nixilis, Unshackled out the other day and one of the Players was on 30 life and was going to draw three cards.
Now, obviously, you would remind him that he will die if he does so. That's not what they did, though. They all said, "Nope, you can't draw three cards. You'll kill yourself."
What am I missing?
Raging_Squiggle says... #2
Perhaps he had an active Archmage Ascension out?
But no, there's no rule that says a player cannot "commit suicide" either by purposely drawing himself out, or putting himself to 0 life, or just conceding the match.
May 17, 2016 4:34 p.m.
There is no rule in magic that prevents you from doing something that would cause you to lose. This is not chess.
This goes for things that would cause you to lose inadvertently: Casting Wrath of God while you have a Platinum Angel in play and 0 life; things that would cause you to lose as a result of the resolution of a spell or ability: Pinging yourself with Prodigal Pyromancer while at 1 life, activating Temple Bell with an empty library; or things where you would lose as part of the payment to cast or activate something: Casting Toxic Deluge and choosing to pay all of your life.
In my playgroup people kill themselves all the time, usually when they're in a losing situation and they want to deny another player the satisfaction of killing them without just conceding. We call it "Honorable Seppuku."
Keep in mind that pointing out to another player that doing something would cause them to lose and letting them perform a different action is different than saying they're not allowed to perform that action.
Also, this probably should have been posted in the Q&A section, since it's technically a rules question. There's a link at the top of the page if you don't know where that is.
May 17, 2016 4:37 p.m.
It's late here so I wrote the wrong word.
He was going to SEARCH his library three times.
May 17, 2016 4:38 p.m.
iBleedPunk says... #5
Coming from the guy who sits in the corner with Heartless Hidetsugu and a pure suicide build to back him, you can and may kill yourself lol
May 17, 2016 4:47 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #6
There's no such rule, and personally I think it'd be extremely difficult to even have a rule that says such a thing in a way that's actually enforceable.
Maybe your friends are getting confused by the rule that says you can't pay N life if you only have N-1 or less life remaining. But that rule doesn't mean "you can't do something that would make you lose". It means "you can't pay a cost with resources you don't have".
May 17, 2016 5:05 p.m.
To quote Rhadamanthus from August 14, 2014,:
This rule covers the cost-paying part of the situation:
117.3. A player can't pay a cost unless he or she has the necessary resources to pay it fully. For example, a player with only 1 life cant pay a cost of 2 life, and a permanent thats already tapped can't be tapped to pay a cost. See rule 202, "Mana Cost and Color," and rule 602, "Activating Activated Abilities."
There's no rule saying you can't take an action that would drop you to 0 life (in most situations, this is generally regarded as a "Bad Idea").
May 17, 2016 5:24 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #8
Well I'm glad one of us is paying attention to the various things I say =P
May 17, 2016 5:26 p.m.
Haha I simply googled something I wasn't 100% sure on related to this and that came up.
Titilanious says... #1
If he draws 3 nothing would happen, you only lose 10 if you search. But other then that, no there is no rules that say you cant. It may be a playgroup thing.
May 17, 2016 3:52 p.m.