Originally posted by Aaron Henner:

I think the likeliest scenario is “All my cards are good, I don't want to loot, but if I draw a land or other dead card then I'll just bin it real quick”

That's Cheating, and while it influences our policy crafting, it doesn't invalidate the policy we've crafted for HONEST mistakes.

Much like Cavern of Souls, we become so accustomed to “typical” behavior that we can safely say “You have to tell us if you're NOT going to do the typical thing”; for the Cavern, that meant that they always used the 2nd mana ability unless (a) it was irrelevant or (b) they specified otherwise.

For the Ascendancy's trigger, players will loot - except in the odd cases where they won't. If they don't tell us they're going to deviate from normal, expected behavior, then what other conclusions can we draw? Or, put simpler: if you draw without saying “no loot” or similar, then you're looting.

d:^D