Can a copied Ethereal Forager return spells exiled with the original?
Asked by Folk_lore 3 years ago
Ethereal Forager has delve and when it attacks it allows you to return a card exiled with Ethereal Forager to your hand. If you play another Ethereal Forager or copy the original, can you return spells exiled with the first with the second? Does the same answer hold true if you flicker an Ethereal Forager, can you still return the spells you exiled when you cast it?
Polaris, side note, Ethereal Forager has linked abilities. Its triggered ability which returns cards from exile can only return cards that it exiled with its prior ability printed on the Forager that exiles cards. Exiling an instant or sorcery card with a creature's ability, then turning that creature into a copy of Ethereal Forager, (disappointingly) won't allow you to use the Forager's triggered ability to return that exiled instant or sorcery card to your hand.
February 17, 2021 10:10 a.m.
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Polaris says... Accepted answer #1
No. When a card uses its name, it means "this object." Flickering Ethereal Forager will make it a new permanent, unlinked with the cards exiled when it was originally cast. The same applies if you cast another Ethereal Forager; each will have its own stack of cards it can return from, and they aren't shared. A card or token that's a copy of Ethereal Forager won't have any exiled cards to draw from at all, unless it had some other ability that exiled something (for example, if you turned a Living Lore or Izzet Chemister into a copy of Ethereal Forager after exiling an instant or sorcery with it).
Cards that bypass this restriction, such as Karn, Scion of Urza or Haldan, Avid Arcanist , will use some other way to keep track of what cards they're allowed to use.
February 15, 2021 12:28 a.m.