So about a month and a half ago I jumped headlong into this wonderful game and haven't looked back. I made this post after observing a shocking amount of draws at big tournaments. https://www.reddit.com/r/pkmntcg/comments/193k89h/coming_from_playing_magic_professionally_and/

There was a lot of good discourse around the topic and it seems like most people are in agreement that 50 min rounds are not enough for BO3. There also doesn't seem to be any real universal agreement as to how to fix this issue. Initially I suggested 60 min BO3 and while that would help, I thought of a new idea that, while it has some logistical issues, is actually feasible in PTCG and would eliminate draws entirely - chess clocks.

So chess clocks were discussed and quickly discounted in Magic for a simple reason. For those who don't play Magic, the game works quite differently in the sense that you have many passes of what is called "priority" on any given turn. Priority is basically who can take actions. Because of this, it is possible to take a lot of time to do something on your opponent's turn and whoever is currently "taking the time" on the timer changes, technically, after every single pass of priority which happens after every single action taken. This makes chess clocks unfeasible given how often you would have to hit them to maintain proper game state.

However, in PTCG there is no such analogous design mechanic. Your turn is your turn, your opponent's turn is their time to take actions. As a result, the chess clock idea would work just as well as it does in actual chess - hit it when your turn is over.

I don't know how much time for each player on a chess clock would be reasonable so I'll just pull one out of my ass for the sake of the point. Say you gave each player 25 mins on a chess clock for a BO3, you essentially have the same 50 minute rounds but it does two things: Discourages slow play/stalling, and completely eliminates unintentional draws/awkward 3 turn tiebreaks. Your clock runs out, you lose, just like on the online client. Simple.

The main issue with this I see is one of feasibility. Big tournaments have over 1,000 players in Masters alone and that would be a big investment for TOs to have to buy like 2,000 chess clocks for their events. Local stores would all have to make sure they have enough chess clocks for their sanctioned events, and that can be awkward. I get that. But as a player I would be willing to pay $10-15 more for registration if it helped cover these expenses and the purchasing of chess clocks would be, largely, a one-time expense for TOs that would go such a long way toward eliminating really the major problem with tournaments right now.

It would also require this to be the standardized, sanctioned approach for all events and I'm not sure if the makers of PTCG are able to dictate something like that. Would very much appreciate more knowledge on how that works from people more educated on the topic.

A smaller issue would be that players would obviously need to become comfortable with hitting the clock after they pass, but that is just an issue of familiarity and practice.

Thoughts? Comments? Had some great discussions last time and I haven't seen this possible solution discussed yet.