How does infinite damage affect infinite life?
Asked by flyguy 11 years ago
Let's say I gained infinite life, and you had an infinite damage combo. What would happen?
Also, what if I gained infinite life in increments of 2 and you dealt damage to me in increments of 1? What about vice-versa?
What if I gain infinite life more than once?
What I am trying to say is, how does infinite damage/ life stack. I know that in some forms of math, one type of infinite is more than another, and infinites can stack. Does this apply to MTG? How so?
GoblinsInc says... #3
And if you try to repeat the loop endlessly (but it isn't all mandatory actions), the active player has to take an action to end the loop.
December 20, 2013 8:56 p.m.
greyfox92404 says... #4
It depends on the triggers to how these infinite effects happen. This is usually accomplished through triggered abilities (abilities that use When, whenever, or at) that will trigger other triggered abilities in a loop.
Any infinite loop that cannot be stopped results in a draw. It is very unusual to have more than one loop because once a loop starts, only instants, triggered, static abilities, state changes and activated abilities can work at that speed.
An example is Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood . If you control both of these enchantments, and you gain any amount of life, or an opponent loses any amount of life, this combo will triggered an infinite loop of triggered abilities.
Let's say that we have both Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood on the battlefield under your control, and then you cast Shadow Slice . The first thing to happen is that your opponent loses 3 life. But, at the end of that spell, there is a check to see if any of this action will trigger any triggered abilities, and it does. It triggers Exquisite Blood , so then Exquisite Blood 's triggered ability goes on the stack and resolves, you now gain 3 life. But again, at the end of this step we check to see if this action will trigger any triggered abilities. It triggers Sanguine Bond .
The Sanguine Bond will trigger Exquisite Blood , and Exquisite Blood will then trigger Sanguine Bond . This will continue until something breaks this loop. Your opponent lose all of his life, in which case his state will change and he loses the game immediately. Any player could also cast an instant to destroy the enchantment like Naturalize . Naturalize would go on the stack whenever the player casted it and resolve before another Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood loop and break the chain.
If nothing stops these infinite loops, the game cannot proceed, and the game will be declared a draw.
I hope this helps.
December 20, 2013 9:12 p.m.
greyfox92404 says... #5
Epochalyptik correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe you can just pick a number for these loop effects to use. I believe you can only pick a number if the loop has an option through the ability. If there aren't any options for each player, the loop will continue until a state change, for example, an opponent losing all his life, or Felidar Sovereign causing you to win the game,
If the loop can't cause a state change, like your opponent using Angel's Grace , and each player cannot stop the loop, the match becomes a draw.
December 20, 2013 9:25 p.m.
greyfox92404 says... #6
And this isn't to say that you could choose to allow the loop to go through 7 or 8 cycles and then stop it with an instant or an ability of some kind.
December 20, 2013 9:26 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #7
@greyfox92404: You are correct. However, the scenario posed in the question seems to imply that the loops are finite and can be ended after some arbitrary number of iterations. At least, that's how I interpreted it.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
Nothing in Magic is actually infinite. When you say "infinite," you're really saying "some arbitrarily large number," usually because it doesn't matter. But you do have to pick a number of times to repeat a loop or take an action, which means you need to pick how much life you gain or how much damage you deal.
If the amount of life chosen to be gained (plus the amount of existing life) is less than the amount of damage chosen to be dealt, the player dies. If not, he or she lives.
December 20, 2013 8:54 p.m.