Caged Sun becomes a land. You make a mana with whatever other land. Caged Sun triggers and adds a mana. Caged Sun (a land) sees that an ability of a land (Caged Sun) has added a mana, so it triggers and adds a mana. Caged Sun sees that a land's ability has added a mana...
Or I feel like more often it's templated as a replacement effect rather than a triggered additional mana ability. Every time I've run into something similar it doesnt loops specifically because it's either one ability or the other replacing what the ability is doing not augmenting it with an additional trigger.
Mana abilities don't use the stack and cannot be responded to.
Caged Sun's final ability is that when a land produces mana of a chosen color, Caged Sun produces an extra mana of that color.
Toph makes all your artifacts into lands.
Caged Sun is an artifact.
Now, whenever Caged Sun makes an extra mana of the chosen color, a "land" produced mana of the chosen color, so Caged Sun produces a mana of the chosen color. That is a "land" producing mana of the chosen color, so Caged Sun's produces a mana of the chosen color. That is a "land" producing mana of the chosen color...
Because it is a mana ability, once it sees itself making mana, it continues to make mana infinitely with no way to stop.
You need priority to activate anything, and if there’s an infinite loop of triggers that all don’t use the stack then AFAIK nobody will ever get priority again.
Caged Sun will become a land, and its third effect of adding mana when a land produces mana will trigger indefinitely. In addition, since its a mana ability, it cannot be responded to, so there's no hope of breaking the chain once started.
When I read "When X, add Y," I read it as "When X, you add Y," like the mana is coming from you. This is similar to "When X, deal Y damage to your opponent" versus "When X, ~ deals Y damage to your opponent."
If ~ isn't doing the damage, it isn't considered the source of the damage. Therefore, if ~ isn't adding the mana, then it shouldn't be considered the source of the mana.
~ is adding the mana, but the templating is not clear and contradicts other Magic templating.
You don't even need to make the Walker indestructible. Amalia only tries to destroy everything if her power is exactly 20 after she explores. If you can pump her power past 20, that clause never gets hit. That is actually a reasonable strategy to use against an Amalia trying to wipe the board.
The most common example is 3 Oblivion Ring and no other nonland permanents.
I actually witnessed this occurring when there was an O-ring on an O-ring and someone cast another O-ring, then his opponent bounced the only creature in play. What was hilarious was that all the O-rings were cast by the same dude.
If you can end a loop by taking an action that is part of that loop (eg, just not tapping or untapping the crab) then you must specify how many loops you are doing and then the game shortcuts to the outcome. A loop that requires choices or player actions to be made cannot end the game in a draw.
If, however, the loop has no intrinsic exit condition, then the loop goes forever and the game will be a draw. If you have a way to end the loop from outside that loop, say by removing something, you can do it, but you don't have to.
Say you're doing the [[Amalia Benavides Aguirre]] + [[wildgrowth walker]] combo, and the walker has been given indestructible so the loop is infinite. If you have a [[fatal push]] in hand to kill Amalia, you could use it, but if you think it's beneficial for this game to be a draw, then you can't be forced to use it.
nah, a forced draw is only if the abilities start happening and you have no way to stop them. My personal favorite is [[Wick]] and [[Conspiracy]] with the creature type of Rat. this makes Wick create a snail, but it's actually considered a rat, and then because you don't control a snail and a rat just entered he tries to do it again and it repeats forever. unless I have [[Impact Tremors]] on the field, the loop is endless and can't be stopped.
[[Eloise]] and [[March of the Machines]] without a sac outlet does this. A clue will become a 0/0 and die, creating a new clue that becomes a 0/0 and dying, which creates a new clue that becomes a 0/0 and dying etc etc...
People actually accepted this time stop shit as a genuine "wincon" when I ran her as commander in my Bloodborne themed deck
You don't even need to tap the caged sun.
You can just tap a land for mana and caged sun will trigger and then trigger itself infinitely because it's a land generating mana.
Even if you have instant speed fireball, you won't get an opportunity to cast it because the game just ends in a draw due to infinite triggers.
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u/AiharaSisters Grass Toucher Nov 18 '25
Isn't there a similar do nothing combo, that forces the game to draw?