Ah yes, the widely-played and extremely relevant Emperor format.

If I'm playing as an emperor in the Emperor format, and one of my generals controls a Platinum Angel, is it possible for me (and thus, my team) to lose the game?

My first instinct says that it is possible, because “you” in Platinum Angel's ability only refers to its controller (the general) and nothing is precluding me from losing. This appears to me to be different from the rule in 2HG, which specifically states:

810.8. The Two-Headed Giant variant uses the normal rules for winning or losing the game (see rule 104), with the following additions and specifications.

810.8a. Players win and lose the game only as a team, not as individuals. If either player on a team loses the game, the team loses the game. If either player on a team wins the game, the entire team wins the game. If an effect would prevent a player from winning the game, that player's team can't win the game. If an effect would prevent a player from losing the game, that player's team can't lose the game.

However, there's still the catch of Platinum Angel's ability also preventing its controller's opponents from winning the game. But then there's also the whole range of influence issue as well.

As I mentioned in another thread, questions that will never arise in a tournament setting–like this one, because nobody runs Emperor tournaments**–are probably better suited to another venue, because everything posted here gets emailed directly to a very large number of judges, and questions about situations those judges will never encounter that can't teach them anything about situations they might encounter and need to rule on just clutter up their inboxes. In this case, I'd recommend the #mtgrules channel on IRC or any of the Rules Q&A boards on the bigger online Magic forums.

But since I'm posting this already and they're going to be getting an email anyway…

Yes, you can lose the game, which will cause your team to lose the game. Platinum Angel doesn't stop teammates from losing, so your general's Angel won't protect you, and you losing the game means your team loses the game, which the Angel also can't stop. If that happens, the opposing team will win.

**Except that one person who's about to email me saying that they run well-attended Vintage Emperor tournaments at their local store every week. They do. But nobody else.

Edited Callum Milne (Oct. 2, 2014 06:50:49 PM)