u/lukappaa

While writing down the rules for my TCG, I listed a very harsh rule against draws, stating that if an effect causes a win condition to be satisfied by both players at the same time, the player that controls the card whose effect caused the draw loses the game on the spot.

(I won't go too much into detail about the rules as I don't think they're relevant for this discussion, but I don't expect many infinite games to occur and if they were to happen I can implement a second tiebreaker for these niche circumstances)

The idea behind it was making sure that, if I ever end up creating a card or combo whose effect can potentially force a draw in an unintended scenario, it can't be exploited for cheeky practices such as stealing a win on time in a tournament context, regardless of the circumstances.

Looking back at popular TCGs, though, I noticed how they seem to be completely fine with draws existing even if that isn't the direction they want to take. And I can't figure out why.

Take Self-Destruct Button from Yu-Gi-Oh. Sure, it has been banned for this exact reason as they eventually realized it, but at some point someone thought it was fine to print a card that reads "the game can now end in a draw". The same way some Magic combos can result in infinite damage to all players or gamestates where no one can play.

I don't see draws doing anything for the game except creating an awkward situation where neither player gains anything.

When a draw occurs in a tournament setting, the only result is delaying the entire event as there's an additional game to be played, at which point it's very likely to have to resort to the notoriously exploitable end-of-time rules (such as with the old Yu-Gi-Oh time rules, where people would side some Extra Deck monsters like Kaina and Lacrima to modify their life total on the fly so that they'd end up with more LP as the timer ran out). Sure, someone may be interested in trying to sneak a win this way, but that just goes to show how such a player has inherently lower skill than another that aims to a regular win (this doesn't consider the luck factor, as in a BO3 with Swiss rounds bricking that many times in a row is a major statistical anomaly unless your deck sucks).

But even in a casual context, no one should have any interest in actually ending the game in a draw, as the design of every card game I've ever played aims to encourage deckbuilding towards a win. Although draws are possible, they're basically never advertised and you usually have to go very out of your way to force them, so why even bother having them in the game? I've never seen any TCG trying to sell the new expansion by going "this upcoming booster pack features a new deck that can end the game in a draw!", that just doesn't work.

This led me to think that card games should move past the concept of a draw, and just always end the game with a win for one of the two players. Do you agree?