Huh. It's like the hypothetical stalemate post, except totally legit.
You've never seen this in actual play? It's rare (I've probably come across it less than ten times ever), but I had it happen twice in one day once.
I haven't seen it happen yet either, it'd be interesting to see some (more) examples.
Edit: It would also be good to have an official or unofficial ruling on how a stalemate counts (a ruling more practical than Donald's "play forever", that is
). I would consider it a tie, but unfortunately Goko doesn't allow agreed ties.
That was a really strange situation. I came to a point where i have to trash all my money, cause Rene Kuroi were able to play 2 possessions every turn. and due to the apprentices he was able to draw my whole deck every time. So it ended up with 2 decks without money and the guy who builds up some money again first will lose the game. So both checked through their turns. How to deal with such an situation?
I don't really see the problem here. Firstly, you both want to trash your Apprentices, which only help your opponent after turn 18. You (HvB) could only play a Possession about every second turn by then (you had 12 cards - 10 without Apprentices - and just one card draw; you don't want to hurt yourself with Apprentice). So Rene Kuroi only had to trash his useless Apprentices (by gaining a Rats from you) and then buy 2 or 3 Coppers to buy the remaining cheap VP cards, gaining twice as many as you would gain by possessing him. By the time he could play less than 1 Possession per turn (if this even happens), he would have enough of a lead to three-pile for a win.
I'm not convinced. No matter what you do, your deck is better for your opponent than it is for you. Say you execute that strategy... my response will be to use the occasional 11-card hand I get with your deck (!) to buy better card draw, which will allow me to play more Possessions, which will cause you to lose.
No, neither deck is notably better for the opponent if both players trash their apprentices with Rats (as they should, for just the reason that it only helps the opponent). You don't get an 11-card hand without Apprentice. (Also, you can never buy card draw if the opponent doesn't get more than 2-3 Coppers at one time; Vault and Nobles cost $6.)
Your argument
might would apply if neither player had had a Rats at the time of the stalling, but hvb did have one.
Edit: hvb could have tried to force a stalemate by trashing his Rats before Rene could gain a Rats from it. But the game wasn't a stalemate at the time they stopped playing.