Does Soulflayer care whether delved creatures remain in exile?
Asked by Obake 10 years ago
Cards for reference: Soulflayer, Torrent Elemental
If I delve a Torrent Elemental with Soulflayer, the Soulflayer gets flying. That part's easy. But if I then put the Elemental into play with its ability, does the Soulflayer lose flying?
I ask because Judge Joe Bono said it would on LR 269 that it would. I then Googled it because that makes no sense intuitively and found interpretations both ways, all referencing Matt Tabak and some judge forum that I can't find and may or may not be able to access. There's nothing relevant on the Gatherer entries either, so I'm confused about what actually happens.
Since there is mention of "as long as this card is in exile", there is nothing on Soulflayer that needs to track the card as it moves through zones. It is a binary check - was something with flying exiled via this card's delve? If yes, it gains flying. If no, it doesn't. The Cairn Wanderer on which this is based is probably where the confusion stems from.
February 11, 2015 8:41 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #3
As written, Soulflayer's ability only cares about what you did with the Delve while casting it. Anything that happens to the exiled cards after that point doesn't matter.
Aefinn says... #1
My first though would be that it shouldn't matter because Soulflayer doesn't state that the creature must stay in exile.
I'm no expert by any means on the subject though.
February 11, 2015 8:18 a.m.