The SECRET to beating Amalia Combo in Pioneer | MTG Rules - How to handle Infinity

Lost Caverns of Ixalan continues to warp the Pioneer meta game. Today we're taking a look into the Amalia Combo in Pioneer and going over the rules around Infinite Combos and what you need to know to handle them and beat them!
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[@Auron3991]

So, what you're saying is the answer is to run a way to give the Wildgrowth Walker indestructible and a way to force the opponent to draw a card at instant speed?

[@attackoncardboard]

That's certainly one way 😂

[@Thatguy223-vc4wb]

Ancestral recall wincon???

[@itallianstallion1989]

I love how informative your video's are, keep up the good work!

[@attackoncardboard]

Appreciate it :) I thought this was going to be a quick 3 min video, but then there was just more and more relevant stuff I found myself being able to talk about 😅

[@LordDrieg]

So while I see the Amalia loop CAN be made to end, what if you have cards like Gaea's Blessing in your library? Putting Gaea's Blessing in the graveyard from exploring would trigger its "shuffle your graveyard into your library" effect, creating a similarly unbreakable loop as the Spark Double Garruk, right?

[@attackoncardboard]

You're still choosing to put the card into the graveyard though right?

[@ScorpioneOrzion]

Tho in a very specific situation, an infinite loop can be just from just 1 event. (And due to replacement effects create the loop, but even this has to be stopped at some point, if able.)

[@gustavosiqueira1135]

If a player has a Gaea's blessing on this deck, and decides to mill, it would shuffle his graveyard into his library... 🤔

[@attackoncardboard]

Correct :D

[@thepotatou8371]

Could you not choose to mill your library and then attack after

[@wesley147208]

Amalia would still explore after you mill your library

[@xNecroNvRDiesx]

You’d never get the chance to attack unless you have a way of ending the loop somehow, since both abilities involved are not “may” abilities, the loop is forced to continue indefinitely (assuming neither player can somehow forcibly end the loop with another card or ability)

[@byronsmothers8064]

Until they update the ruling: revealing a card from an empty library counts as revealing a non-land, so even decking out doesn't stop the loop.

[@attackoncardboard]

As others have stated, if you would Explore while having an empty library, you reveal the top card of your library, nothing, and seeing as you can't put nothing in the graveyard, your creature gets a +1/+1 counter. So in the case of the loop, you'll keep exploring.

[@dittmar104]

Nothing a little cat oven can’t fix

[@sittingox6994]

I know I'm late to the party but this question came to me while watching the video: The Amalia is going super infinite, and the opponent has a way to interrupt the loop. The controller of Amalia goes through the combo, putting all lands in hand and putting the rest in the graveyard. At this moment, the opponent reveals a removal spell (and has the mana to cast it). However, the player with the removal spell is exactly at 3 life points. Would the "rules" require the player to pay the 3 life points (due to Amalia'a ward) to interrupt the combo, making them lose the game? Or would they be allowed to NOT pay the life, making the game end in a draw? I feel pretty confident that the second choice is the correct one, but I just want to be sure.

[@attackoncardboard]

Never too late to ask a question, I read all the comments :) To clarify, no player is forced to break an infinite loop (*with no choices involved*) even if they have a card in hand or a permanent in play (outside of the loop) that could disrupt it. In this case, if the opponent was on 3 life and they decided to cast Go For The Throat on Amalia, the ward would trigger, opponent would pay 3 life and go to 0, before Go For The Throat resolves, state based checked would see a player on 0 life and they would lose the game. State based checks happen any time priority is passed. The Amalia player would only lose if they draw a card from an empty deck. Hope that clears things up :)

[@sittingox6994]

@@attackoncardboard Thank you! We have a small group of players, and one of them play Amalia. Videos like this a great resource!

[@robertotenreiro]

So... are you telling me that if I am playing an irl game, and I am losing said game, I can just use the garruk clone interaction and if my opponent does not have an answer we draw and go for the next game?

[@attackoncardboard]

Yup 😅

[@vornamenachname4756]

01:15 Does Micheal from Vsauce now you took that sound? 😅

[@attackoncardboard]

😬

[@manachamber]

Fun video! Thanks for the clarification.

[@attackoncardboard]

Glad you enjoyed it! 😀

[@TheBigDumbDog]

You could have a fatal push and interrupt the combo when you wanted to.

[@attackoncardboard]

That's the point of the video. If you can interrupt the loop, you can. But if you choose not too, and if you do, you will be force to milled out.

[@cuttlefish6839]

I don't even think the first one should have been banned it was very silly to overreact before people could adapt

[@johnmorton4750]

You could easily interact with it. It was so boring to play against though. It maybe didn’t NEED to be banned but I’m happy it is, people need to get more creative.

[@attackoncardboard]

You _could_ interact with it yes. But dying because you didnt draw a piece of removal in game one just sucks.