My commander (Horde of Notions) is in my graveyard.

I cast Soulflayer and delve my commander, but send him to the command zone instead.

Question 1: Is the mana considered paid by moving my commander via delve to the command zone?
I'm about 99% sure the answer is yes based on the underlying principle in CR117.12

Question 2: Does Soulflayer gain vigilance, trample and haste?
I'm about 80-90% sure that it does because it seems the ability is asking about the cards in the graveyard that were moved by the delve exile instruction, not the game objects that they end up becoming in the new zone.

Question 3: If I'm right about Soulflayer caring about the cards as they existed in the graveyard immediately prior to moving, would Yixlid Jailer stop Soulflayer from gaining any abilities for the delved cards?

Soulflayer has a linked ability: it will look at the cards in exile to determine what abilities it gets, not how the cards looked in the graveyard. And if the card isn't in exile, then Soulflayer won't get any abilities from it.

1. Yes, you paid the cost of exiling the Horde. It didn't end up in exile, but that doesn't mean the cost wasn't paid. So you can exile the commander, then choose to put the commander into the command zone, and that will count for one towards delve.

2. Nope. The Horde is not in exile, so Soulflayer won't gain any abilities from the Horde.

3. Nope, since Soulflayer cares about what abilities the cards have in exile, not the graveyard.

Nathan Long
Wizards.Com Boards NetRep

Sorry, there is a correction to be issues here. Soulflayer does *not* have a linked ability: it only checks the cards that were exiled by delve while you were casting it. It doesn't matter what happens to those cards after they've been exiled, so removing cards that were exiled via delve will not affect what abilities Soulflayer has. It also means that if you delve away your commander (and put your commander into the command zone instead of exile), it will still be able to gain the abilities that it has (so Soulflayer would get vigilance, trample, and haste from the Horde).

Yixdor Jailer doesn't affect this situation, since we look at what abilities the cards have in exile (or the command zone, in the case of the commander being delved away), not what they looked like in the graveyard.

Nathan Long
Wizards.Com Boards NetRep