Does exiling a manifest or morph creature trigger a flip?

Asked by blemay 10 years ago

If I blink a face down card (ex. Master of Pearls) would his ability still trigger?

TheRedMage says... #1

No. The card leaves the battlefield face down, enters the exile zone face up, then comes back face up. It's never "turned face up" as far as the rules are concerned.

March 2, 2015 11:27 a.m.

TheRedMage says... Accepted answer #2

To be a little bit more clear - when permanents refer to something being "turned face up" it doesn't necessarily refer to the physical act of taking the card and flipping it over.

Rather, most face-down cards (+) have one or more ways of being turned face-up (Paying the morph cost and/or paying the cost of a manifested creature (++)). "Turning Face up" means "perform whatever action is associated to the way that this permanent made its way to the battlefield face down that will result in it going from being face-down on the battlefield to face-up on the battlefield".

However, that's not the case here. your Master of Pearls does not get turned face up and then exiled. At one moment it exists as face-down on the battlefield; one moment later, it's face-up in exile.

So when the game checks if anything triggered, it doesn't see anything that has turned face-up (per the previous definition) and the ability does not trigger.

Notice that Ponyback Brigade- and Efreet Weaponmaster-style cards will instead trigger, as your Momentary Blink-type effect causes them to enter the battlefield, which is an alternate trigger condition for their ability.

(+) The exceptions being manifested cards that are not Zoetic Cavern, Lumithread Field or any creature; and permanents that don't have the morph ability and were turned face-down by Ixidron, as far as I know. Thank you for reading the first issue of Corner Case Land, a publication officially sponsored by the DCI judge program.

(++) Unless we want to throw Illusionary Mask in the fray. Thank you for reading the second issue of Corner Case Land.

March 2, 2015 12:26 p.m.

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