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Rules Q&A » Post: Does resolving Rally the Horde with no lands in library draw the game?

Does resolving Rally the Horde with no lands in library draw the game?

Oct. 2, 2017 11:34:00 AM

Jake Eakle
Judge (Uncertified)

USA - Northeast

Does resolving Rally the Horde with no lands in library draw the game?

Rally the Horde

It seems to me that if no cards are exiled, the predicate “the last exiled card is a land” is false, and therefore the process will be repeated indefinitely, resulting in a draw.

When I asked in #mtgrules, I heard the opinion that 101.3, which reads “Any part of an instruction that’s impossible to perform is ignored,” prevents this. I don't think this is right. Repeating the process is not impossible just because some of its components are impossible (and since repeating the process is one of the components, it is not the case that ALL of the components are impossible). Neither is evaluating the condition. Therefore it seems there is nothing to ignore.

I also heard the opinion that the card simply “should have said” “is a nonland card” rather than “isn't a land card.” I guess I agree with that, but it doesn't help me understand how the card actually works right now.

So, I'd like [O]fficial guidance: does resolving Rally the Horde with no lands in library result in a draw?

Edited Jake Eakle (Oct. 2, 2017 11:44:28 AM)

Oct. 12, 2017 03:12:55 PM

Nathan Long
Forum Moderator
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Foundry))

USA - Southwest

Does resolving Rally the Horde with no lands in library draw the game?

Hi,

Thanks for your question. If your library is empty when you resolve the Rally, then there's no last card exiled with it, so we skip passed that and just go on to resolving the rest of the spell. We don't keep trying to exile cards from the empty library. In this case, you'll resolve the Rally, not exile anything, not create any tokens, and then the Rally is finished resolving.

Nathan Long
Magic Rules NetRep
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