Do you accept that theyve probably won at that point or do you take the game to time and see if they draw out their deck before you? Is it a valid strategy or should it be banned from serious play? Respect or Hate?
If its game 1, you should probably concede to get to game 2. Unless of course you honestly suspect they dont have a viable win condition and you have more cards in your library.
If you are already ahead by a game, you should play it out and force them to actually win.
That said, I have a personal tendency to not concede even when I probably should.
First of all, what format are we talking about? Depending on the format, there are several ways you can deal with infinite combos, such as Magister Sphinx and Sorin Markov like what Darth Bunny said. Also, you can use creatures that deal poison counters to win the game that way, or you could chain your own infinite damage combo (there are a couple of those).
Poison counters, mill, control + forced card draw (get rid of their threats then make them draw a few extra cards so they draw out), Erebos and friends, Arbiter of Knowlridge, Sorin Markov and Magister Sphinx, and of course False Cure.
Of course, you could run your own infinite combo, such as splinter twin or any infinite damage combo, and wait until the life gain combo goes off and go all infinity +1 on them. Or run island sanctuary and mystic decree.
Infinite lifegain is one of the more "fair" infinite combos, as there are a lot of outs. Only infinite non-haste creatures is close to being as easy to counter once it goes off. I doesn't deserve hate.
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Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Library depletion. Specifically for me in one tournament, jothun grunt. Not spammin draw spells is also enough if youre on the play. The moment your opponent gain infinite lif3, count libraries. If you have more cards, put you poker face on and play the game.
Infinite life is not only a fair strategy, it also kinda sucks. Life.dec, for instance, iis fairly easy to play, but no one really bothers. Infinite life doesnt win the game.
Well, if they actually pull it off, they still have to beat you or it's a draw, so don't just concede!
*You can try and either mill them out, or just outlast their library.
*Depending upon your format, cards like Sorin Markov can change their life total.
*Again, depending on your deck and format, alternate win conditions can still get you there.
Infinite life in a near win in most cases. Stay alive and go for that draw at the very least. Nothing sadder than not being able to defeat your opponent despite the fact you are nigh invulnerable.
At FNM a fortnight ago I was playing against a confident opponent who was almost mechanical in his actions-he knew what he was doing and was taking it very seriously. He was playing Melira-Pod, I was playing U-Tron. After a fairly even match he proceeded to combo off gaining infinite life and assumed that he'd won as there was no way I could deal him that much damage. I asked him to name a figure, and he went with 10000. I Slaver-locked him next turn.
EDH, on the other hand, is more like a monster truck rally. It's more about the spectacle than the race, the games go long, and it's not usually clear who's in the lead until there's only one truck left.*
Single player EDH is like two guys smacking each other with pillows... until one of them pulls out a shotgun.
Since infinite life isn't allowed in magic, and you have to name a number, you can beat it with "infinite" damage.. Like melira pod vs Kiki pod.
Poison counters work (affinity), og as mentioned above, slaver lock, milling, or just draw less cards and answer theirs threats untill they are empty.
Or if you are creative, mill your own library and get Laboratory Maniac in play:D
I find that after running cards like Rain of Gore or Leyline of Punishment in EDH decks when I have open slots, people eventually realize that infinite life gain might not be the way to go. I don't find it at all unfair though, and I enjoy trying to come up with other ways to win if someone plays that strategy.
Infinite life is useless if you have an infinite damage combo: Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker+ Restoration Angel or Deceiver Exarch. Using Splinter Twin with Deceiver Exarch are common examples in Modern.
Infect doesn't care about life total, mill also ignores life total. Any prison style resource denial deck with usually make your opponent quit from frustration even with infinite life. (Mindslaver lock, Decks that abuse Smokestack and Tangle Wire).
At FNM a fortnight ago I was playing against a confident opponent who was almost mechanical in his actions-he knew what he was doing and was taking it very seriously. He was playing Melira-Pod, I was playing U-Tron. After a fairly even match he proceeded to combo off gaining infinite life and assumed that he'd won as there was no way I could deal him that much damage. I asked him to name a figure, and he went with 10000. I Slaver-locked him next turn.
It's easy enough to make them deck themselves that way. I've actually done something similar in R/g Tron where they gained infinite life and on their next turn were going to do infinite damage. Only on my turn I cast Emrakul and wiped their board and proceeded to simply attack every turn to make them sacrifice their board. They couldn't keep a land on the table long enough to cast anything even if they wanted to and even with infinite life they decked themselves. All I had to do was draw cards until my hand hit 7 and discard Ulamog.
Anyhow, the best I can come up with myself is a game in the top 8 of a PTQ back during Urza block in which we were starting game 3 with time already expired, so the tiebreaker rule was that whoever had more life after 3 turns would win. And I lost to... healing salve.
There's no such thing as "infinite" in MtG. You can't get infinite life, you can't get infinite tokens, you can't do infinite damage. You can only get or do a finite amount of such things. That's because you can't just use the infinity symbol as your total life or as the amount of tokens you have. There's no such a thing in this game. Actual infinite loops are possible in the game, but they result in a draw. You can't get anything out of them.
Yet people still keep using the word "infinite" over and over, and will keep using it forever. Should I just submit to that fact and stop being so nitpicky, and start using the wrong term myself?
The words "infinite life" perfectly encapsulates the message being conveyed -- "extremely large amount of life that anything other than another *cough*infinite*cough* damage combo will manage to reduce it to zero, usually also meaning it is a combo that can be repeated if necesssary."
tl;dr -- "infinite", as word, works, even if it isn't strictly accurate.
If you have a better term other than "infinite" for the idea being conveyed, I'd like to hear it. "Arbitrarily large" has been proposed, but even that is gong to be "just how large, exactly?"
You can stilll easily kill them if you have Sorin Markov and a couple other cards with the same effect, or you can kill them with commander damage. Infinite life is usually irrelevant for the most part.
There's no such thing as "infinite" in MtG. You can't get infinite life, you can't get infinite tokens, you can't do infinite damage. You can only get or do a finite amount of such things. That's because you can't just use the infinity symbol as your total life or as the amount of tokens you have. There's no such a thing in this game. Actual infinite loops are possible in the game, but they result in a draw. You can't get anything out of them.
Yet people still keep using the word "infinite" over and over, and will keep using it forever. Should I just submit to that fact and stop being so nitpicky, and start using the wrong term myself?
Think of the typical combos people describe as "infinite" - Melira Pod's Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Kitchen Finks + sac outlet for "infinite" life, for example. Now, it's true that you can't technically gain infinite life and that you do have to choose a real number to put your life total at. But even when you do finally decide on a point to stop gaining life, you can still gain some more if you wanted. You expend no resources but get something out of your combo. You have an unlimited amount of lifegain available to you (provided your combo remains undisturbed, of course). One might even call it an infinite supply of life. That's how I've always seen infinite combos - that there is no limit to the amount of life you can gain/damage you can deal/creatures you can make/turns you can take/etc., as opposed to more finite combos like Storm or Scapeshift - rather than get hung up on the minutia of there being no infinites in Magic.
At FNM a fortnight ago I was playing against a confident opponent who was almost mechanical in his actions-he knew what he was doing and was taking it very seriously. He was playing Melira-Pod, I was playing U-Tron. After a fairly even match he proceeded to combo off gaining infinite life and assumed that he'd won as there was no way I could deal him that much damage. I asked him to name a figure, and he went with 10000. I Slaver-locked him next turn.
Doesn't sound like a very experienced opponent to me for him to not know what blue tron does.
Which is exactly how it should be. (You can't just say "I take infinite life from this combo." You have to pick an exact number.)
When you're playing, sure.
But were on a forum, discussing.
When you're dicussing on the forums, do you go, "no, you had 1254158 life, not 1251456 life?" when they say they have infinite life? What does that exactness contribute to the discussion?
If my opponent does it I will make them still win the game.
If you are already ahead by a game, you should play it out and force them to actually win.
That said, I have a personal tendency to not concede even when I probably should.
Of course, you could run your own infinite combo, such as splinter twin or any infinite damage combo, and wait until the life gain combo goes off and go all infinity +1 on them. Or run island sanctuary and mystic decree.
Infinite lifegain is one of the more "fair" infinite combos, as there are a lot of outs. Only infinite non-haste creatures is close to being as easy to counter once it goes off. I doesn't deserve hate.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Infinite life is not only a fair strategy, it also kinda sucks. Life.dec, for instance, iis fairly easy to play, but no one really bothers. Infinite life doesnt win the game.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
*You can try and either mill them out, or just outlast their library.
*Depending upon your format, cards like Sorin Markov can change their life total.
*Again, depending on your deck and format, alternate win conditions can still get you there.
Infinite life in a near win in most cases. Stay alive and go for that draw at the very least. Nothing sadder than not being able to defeat your opponent despite the fact you are nigh invulnerable.
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Poison counters work (affinity), og as mentioned above, slaver lock, milling, or just draw less cards and answer theirs threats untill they are empty.
Or if you are creative, mill your own library and get Laboratory Maniac in play:D
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Infect doesn't care about life total, mill also ignores life total. Any prison style resource denial deck with usually make your opponent quit from frustration even with infinite life. (Mindslaver lock, Decks that abuse Smokestack and Tangle Wire).
Just some ideas for you.
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As funny as that is, how did you actually win?
normally thru mill, since every turn he is drawing mindslaver his deck never runs out.
It's easy enough to make them deck themselves that way. I've actually done something similar in R/g Tron where they gained infinite life and on their next turn were going to do infinite damage. Only on my turn I cast Emrakul and wiped their board and proceeded to simply attack every turn to make them sacrifice their board. They couldn't keep a land on the table long enough to cast anything even if they wanted to and even with infinite life they decked themselves. All I had to do was draw cards until my hand hit 7 and discard Ulamog.
The words "infinite life" perfectly encapsulates the message being conveyed -- "extremely large amount of life that anything other than another *cough*infinite*cough* damage combo will manage to reduce it to zero, usually also meaning it is a combo that can be repeated if necesssary."
tl;dr -- "infinite", as word, works, even if it isn't strictly accurate.
If you have a better term other than "infinite" for the idea being conveyed, I'd like to hear it. "Arbitrarily large" has been proposed, but even that is gong to be "just how large, exactly?"
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Think of the typical combos people describe as "infinite" - Melira Pod's Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Kitchen Finks + sac outlet for "infinite" life, for example. Now, it's true that you can't technically gain infinite life and that you do have to choose a real number to put your life total at. But even when you do finally decide on a point to stop gaining life, you can still gain some more if you wanted. You expend no resources but get something out of your combo. You have an unlimited amount of lifegain available to you (provided your combo remains undisturbed, of course). One might even call it an infinite supply of life. That's how I've always seen infinite combos - that there is no limit to the amount of life you can gain/damage you can deal/creatures you can make/turns you can take/etc., as opposed to more finite combos like Storm or Scapeshift - rather than get hung up on the minutia of there being no infinites in Magic.
Erebos B | Ghost Council WB | Grimgrin UB | Jhoira UR
Jor Kadeen RW | Melek UR | Mimeoplasm GUB | Rasputin WU
Savra BG | Sisay GW | Teneb BGW | Thada Adel U | Wort BR
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Doesn't sound like a very experienced opponent to me for him to not know what blue tron does.
When you're playing, sure.
But were on a forum, discussing.
When you're dicussing on the forums, do you go, "no, you had 1254158 life, not 1251456 life?" when they say they have infinite life? What does that exactness contribute to the discussion?
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn