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Rules Q&A » Post: Power of a creature card that moved from the graveyard to exile

Power of a creature card that moved from the graveyard to exile

June 24, 2013 11:24:12 AM

Mario Haßler
Judge (Uncertified)

German-speaking countries

Power of a creature card that moved from the graveyard to exile

I am sorry I have to come back to a topic that already has been answered, see “Varolz and */* creatures” and, related to that, “Possibility Storm and playing a card face down”. To both questions, Daniel Kitachewsky answered “when an ability moves an object and then refers to the object, it uses the object that existed in the previous zone unless it doesn't make sense” and “Moving an object, then doing something based on that object is a frequent interaction. In these cases, the rule is that you're looking at the object as it was in the previous zone, unless it doesn't make sense.”

My question is simple: Which rule tells us to do so?

I only found a prove for the opposite:
608.2g If an effect requires information from the game (such as the number of creatures on the battlefield), the answer is determined only once, when the effect is applied. If the effect requires information from a specific object, (…) the effect uses the current information of that object if it's in the public zone it was expected to be in; if it's no longer in that zone, or if the effect has moved it from a public zone to a hidden zone, the effect uses the object's last known information. See rule 112.7a. (…)
When we use Scavenge provided by Varolz, the Scar-Striped to move the Boneyard Wurm from the graveyard to exile, it goes to a public zone, so we can derive the information from there. Only if the Wurm left exile before resolving the ability, we have to refer to last-known information – of the object in exile, not the graveyard though.

The other rule is:
112.7a Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source. (…) Note that some abilities cause a source to do something (for example, “Prodigal Pyromancer deals 1 damage to target creature or player”) rather than the ability doing anything directly. In these cases, any activated or triggered ability that references information about the source because the effect needs to be divided checks that information when the ability is put onto the stack. Otherwise, it will check that information when it resolves. In both instances, if the source is no longer in the zone it's expected to be in at that time, its last known information is used. The source can still perform the action even though it no longer exists.
Here again, Scavenge doesn't fall into the “source” case, it's the ability that puts the counters on the creature. So “it will check that information when it resolves” should be true.

Just telling me the §§§ of the Comprehensive Rules would help. Thanks a lot.

Mario Haßler
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