Can Glorious Protector help Merieke Ri Berit save a stolen collection of creatures...?
Asked by CamraMaan 3 years ago
I read recently that Merieke Ri Berit can stack stealing creatures with a series of untaps in the mix on the stack (say with Pemmin's Aura ), all before she officially untaps (on the stack) to destroy those creatures. Assuming this is true, can I also use Glorious Protector in this mix to exile all the stolen creatures before Merieke officially untaps, allowing me to permanently bring them all back under my control when Glorious Protector leave the battlefield...? I assume I can, but what would be the proper order of actions to successfully keep the creatures?
Also, all of this relies on the concept that I can untap Merieke before her tap ability resolves, then tap her to take another creature, untap her, tap to take another, etc. But my own logic thinks this has flaws in the process. If I tap her to take a creature, but untap her before it resolves, then I haven't taken possession of the creature yet, right? It must resolve in order for me to actually take possession of their creature, no? If untapping Merieke prevents her tap ability from resolving, and therefore her 'untap-to-destroy' from resolving, then it should also prevent her from taking possession of the creature until it resolves, right? It seems that if she gains control of the creature, and I take possession, then it naturally comes over with her untap trigger stuck to it. And then by untapping her to take another creature, that her untap trigger will then be on the stack, no?
I really want this to all work, but I know I can't explain it all correctly to my playgroup at the moment. Thanks in advance! :)
I guess that's the part I was unclear about... Glorious Protector doesn't say if the creatures come back under their owners control or mine, and usually a card states one or the other...
April 18, 2021 4:58 p.m.
Named_Tawyny says... #3
MTG Comprehensive Rules 610 (Specifically 610.3b)
"An object returned to the battlefield this way returns under its owner’s control unless otherwise specified."
Does that help clear things up?
April 18, 2021 5:18 p.m.
For the second part, I think you're slightly misunderstanding how Merieke's untapping shenanigans work.
The knack is to tap her to steal a creature, and then before you actually gain control of that creature, you untap her and tap her again to steal a second creature.
Once she's tapped as a result of gaining control of a creature, and you do still control that creature, then untapping her for any reason will destroy the stolen creature, yeah, even if you tap her again before that ability resolves.
The triggered ability she has to destroy the creature is a delayed trigger set up by the resolution of the tap ability. It's not its own ability, so untapping her before any of her tap abilities resolve won't innately put anything on the stack.
April 19, 2021 2:56 p.m.
That does help to clear up some of my confusion and misunderstandings... but I'm still not 100% on it all yet. I think I just need to re-read all that a few times and digest it more.
So if I'm understanding it correctly, I can tap Merieke Ri Berit to gain control of a creature, untap her with something before it resolves, tap her to gain control of another creature, then let her tapping resolve to take possession of the two creatures, but before her untap-to-destroy effect resolves I could then tap Whisper, Blood Liturgist and sacrifice the two creatures to reanimate one of my creatures...?
April 21, 2021 6:35 p.m.
That's still not quite right, sorry. As long as she hasn't yet stolen a creature (as in her tap ability has already resolved and you control the creature), then she doesn't have an ability that triggers on untapping. If you follow your example in your last post, then there is no need to sacrifice any of those creatures because there's nothing on the stack that's going to destroy them.
If you later on wanted to untap her for some reason (like stealing something else), you could sacrifice some or all of the creatures she's stolen either before she untaps, or after she untaps but before her untap ability resolves. She does have an untap ability in this case, because the untap ability is a delayed triggered ability that's set up by her initial tapping ability having already resolved previously.
April 22, 2021 1:13 p.m.
Man she gets confusing... I seriously appreciate the help though! :)
April 24, 2021 3:47 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #8
CamraMaan: Since it's clear you got a satisfactory answer to your question, and there don't seem to be any further follow-ups or corrections to be made, I marked one of the responses as the "Accepted answer" so this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future you can take care of this yourself using the "Mark as Answer" button on the response that you feel best answers your question.
Named_Tawyny says... #1
Unfortunately, no.
While Glorious Protector will save all of these creatures from destruction, when the Protector leaves the battlefield, they will return under their owner's control, not your control.
Merieke will lose track of them when the Protector exiles them.
April 18, 2021 4:54 p.m.