Do Planeswalker emblems remain in play even after that Planeswalker has left play?
Asked by boneknitter 7 years ago
Several walkers in my Planeswalker deck have abilities that create emblems, and I've read the official gatherer pages for those specific walkers and my question remained unanswered. The information I was able to find from another site reads as follows:
"An emblem is not a permanent, and absolutely nothing can touch it or get rid of it as long as the player who gained it remains in the game, simply because no cards say that they can".
So just to clarify, does the emblem remain in play even after the walker whose ability created it leaves play since it doesn't count as a permanent?
Emblems exist in the command zone, which is a zone outside the battlefield originally created for EDH/Commander that has been co-opted by Wizards to include lots of things that effect gameplay without being on the battlefield.
Other objects that exist in the command zone include:
- Player's commanders at the start of the game in the EDH / Commander variant.
- Conspiracy draft cards.
- Planes and Phenomena from the Planechase variant.
- Schemes from the Archenemy variant.
- Vanguard cards, from the Vanguard variant.
Here's the comp rules section on emblems:
- 113. Emblems
- 113.1. Some effects put emblems into the command zone. An emblem is a marker used to represent an object that has one or more abilities, but no other characteristics.
- 113.2. An effect that creates an emblem is written [Player] gets an emblem with [ability]. This means that [player] puts an emblem with [ability] into the command zone. The emblem is both owned and controlled by that player.
- 113.3. An emblem has no characteristics other than the abilities defined by the effect that created it. In particular, an emblem has no name, no types, no mana cost, and no color.
- 113.4. Abilities of emblems function in the command zone.
- 113.5. An emblem is neither a card nor a permanent. Emblem isnt a card type.
And the section on the command zone:
- 408. Command
- 408.1. The command zone is a game area reserved for certain specialized objects that have anoverarching effect on the game, yet are not permanents and cannot be destroyed.
- 408.2. Emblems may be created in the command zone. See rule 113, Emblems.
- 408.3. In the Planechase, Vanguard, Commander, Archenemy, and Conspiracy Draft casual variants, nontraditional Magic cards and/or specially designated cards start the game in the command zone. Each variant has its own rules regarding such cards. See section 9, Casual Variants.
Like Neotrup said, so far the only known way to get rid of an emblem is to restart the game, and the only card so far that can restart the game is Karn Liberated.
Keep in mind that the reason emblems are untouchable is not really because of any special rules, but simply because Wizards wants emblems to be untouchable. If Wizards printed a card that said "Exile target emblem," it would be perfectly valid since emblems are objects that can be targeted, and there are no rules against targeting an object in the command zone. However, Wizards is never going to print a card like that, because they want emblems to feel like things that can't go away.
April 10, 2017 4:41 a.m.
Panzerforge says... #3
Even worse, the Emblem is created by the player that has the Emblem (as pointed out in 113.2, above), that player owns that Emblem...
So in a multi-player game, if you've received an emblem from Garruk, Apex Predator, that emblem doesn't go away even if the player that controlled Garruk loses the game.
Neotrup says... #1
Essentially, though "in play" normally refers to being on the battlefield, and emblems exist in the command zone, which is why "destroy target permanent" can't remove them. Restarting the game does work to get rid of them though.
April 10, 2017 2:41 a.m.