"Choose a different action, or this game will end in a draw" message in a non-loop situation
My opponent appeared playing a "lifegain" deck. When their graveyard became somewhat large, my opponent cast Raise the Past and returned 11 creature cards: 2 Lifecreed Duo, 3 Hinterland Sanctifier, 4 Essence Channeler, and two more. As 5 creatures had "Whenever another creature you control enters, you gain 1 life." trigger, total of 50 such abilities were put on the stack. Ouch!
Then, MTG Arena started to resolve those 50 triggers one-by-one. Resolving one lifegain ability involves 4 abilities of Essence Channeler to be triggered and resolved one-by-one, so it takes some long time. The situation is not a loop, so the stack would become empty once total of 250 abilities were resolved.
However, after a while, MTG Arena showed a message "Choose a different action, or this game will end in a draw." I just chose to do nothing, and perhaps my opponent, too. After seeing the same message three or four (?) times, the game actually ended in a draw.
Considering this is not a loop, the game should have continued (with my opponet having 50 some life total and 4 of Essence Channler that are now 52/51.)
I consider this is a bug of MTG Arena.
Steps to reproduce the bug
- You play a game against an opponet with a deck containing one or more Raise the Past, two or more Lifecreed Duo, three or more Hinterland Sanctifier, four Essence Channeler, and at least two more creatures (with no lifegain-related abilities )
- Let your opponent somehow send the particular 11 creature cards to their graveyard (and no more creature cards).
- Let your opponent cast Raise the Past.
- You and your opponent choose to perform any other action when asked.
Platform and app version
PC (Windows 11 Pro 25H2 build 26200.7462)
2025.54.0.10689.1214342
Actual results
The game ends in a draw.
Expected results
The game continues.
Relevant screenshots/videos
None available.
Workaround
Either of the players concedes.