This was pointed out on another list and I figured I'd point it out here too. That way it is more likely that UDE will see it sooner.

Based on the current wording, if a player steals init either with Power Cosmic or Silver Surfer, then BOTH players will have "had the initiative on the last turn", and thus both players would lose the game.

Obviously this is not what they intend, I'm not even trying to say that it is. I figure that UDE will correct it shortly after they realize it.

Spot's Knight

(edited for spelling)

Just seems that UDE wants to cut down on the number of matches that go an insane amount of time due to being tied endurance-wise. The average round time (including in between time) tends to be somewhere around 40-50 minutes. A move like this could possibly cut 5-10 minutes off those longer matches that continue past the additional turn at the end of the game.

It will definitely make things more interesting as the game evolves and more stasis style decks begin to make their way into the game (which I'm sure there will be a few in the future other than Gamma Doom and what not) as picking which initiative you want will become a bigger deal in those cases if you expect to go to time more and more often. Adds a bit of strategy to the game, even though to be honest it makes it very abusable in the very same instance as I mentioned above.

Actually, from what I have seen, I think it saves more than just 5-10 minutes. Especially when it is in the extended time rounds, players tend to try and take more time than other rounds just to make sure they do not make any mistakes. I have seen some matches that tied and went into the extra turn that took 10-15 minutes for that last turn (and one even longer than that but I gave a slow play for it).

Spot's Knight

I have no problems w/ this and makes perfect sense to me.

This is a perfectly reasonable time-saving device/ruling. As has been pointed out, if the game is tied on that last turn, the person who had the initative on that turn will, 99% of the time, lose the game anyhow. If it saves even 10 minutes overall in the entire tournament, it is still worth it.

This is a smart, and obviously well-thought out time-saving device. Good call, UDE.

The new end of match procedure came into play at least twice at the PC. I was witness to the second time which was the final round on day 2 with Matthew Tatar winning the round on time because John Tatta forgot to pay a resource point to Force Field Belt to give his 6 drop a +1/+1 counter on his initiative (admittedly after a very long day of playing, the mistake is completely understandable).

The other instance is one I was told of by the recipient of the loss, Alex Jebailey (I'm pretty sure. . . my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I think it was Alex). He was somewhat rueful with his place in Vs. history as the first player given a loss at a Pro Circuit based on this new rule.