In a Commander game, my commander is in my graveyard. I want to exile it to activate the 4 damage ability of my Molten-Tail Masticore or to pay the additional cost of a Corpse Lunge.

CR 903.12 allows me to put it into the command zone if it “would be put into the exile zone from anywhere”. As this is not limited to effects, I assume I can do so when removing it from the graveyard as a cost. Am I correct that the costs still count as being paid and Molten-Tail Masticore really deals 4 damage?

Now Corpse Lunge has a one-shot effect that refers to “the exiled card's power”, but the card never arrived in the exile zone. Do we use the power the card had when it still was in the graveyard (last known information)? Additional costs and one-shot effects don't fall into the linked abilities category.

Thank you for your help.

Mario Haßler

1) Yes, the cost is paid.

The important part is that you chose to pay the cost. The fact that the actions to pay the cost are replaced and do something else doesn't matter.

2) It would deal damage based on last-known information in the graveyard.

Because Corpse Lunge moves a card away from a public zone and then uses information about the card (but doesn't try to do anything to the card), it uses information about how the card looked before the move.

This is different from spells and abilities which move a card and then perform an action on the card, in those cases the card as it exists in the new zone is used.

Daniel Kitachewsky
L3, Paris, France,
Rules NetRep