How does Kaya’s Ghostform interact with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn?
Asked by Balaam__ 4 years ago
If Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or another creature with similar text (like Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre) is sent to the graveyard while already enchanted by Kaya’s Ghostform, would the creature be shuffled into its owner’s library as per its rules text or would Kaya’s Ghostform supersede that and return the creature to play?
I am a fairly new player and only have a basic understanding of the rules, so things pertaining to ‘on the stack’ still puzzle me sometimes. Apologies if there is an obvious answer to my question.
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for that detailed explanation, I understand much better now. Also, thanks for the tip about the brackets, I’ll try to remember to utilize them if/when I post again.
June 2, 2020 11:17 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #3
One side note about this specific example: Emrakul's "protection from colored spells" ability is going to make it pretty difficult to get Kaya's Ghostform attached to it. Emrakul won't be a legal target for the Kaya's Ghostform spell when you cast it. You can cast the Ghostform on something else and then move it to Emrakul with another effect, but you'll need to use something that doesn't target Emrakul and/or isn't a spell, like Enchantment Alteration or Simic Guildmage's last ability.
June 3, 2020 9:20 a.m.
You’re absolutely right Rhadamanthus. Maybe Emrakul, the Aeons Torn was a bad example. I was really more focused on the specific sequence of events that would take place and in what priority, given that the enchantment’s text and the creature’s text each do different things based off the same event (going to the graveyard). You do raise a valid observation.
Tylord2894 says... Accepted answer #1
For future reference, you can surround a card name with double brackets, "[", to link the card. This works sitewide.
To your question, the importance here is that both Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Kaya's Ghostform will trigger when Emrakul dies. When a player has two or more triggers that are being added to the stack at the same time, that player gets to choose the order that they are put onto the stack.
Now, the stack is the pile of spell and abilities that are trying to resolve. The stack resolves in a first-in-last-out order. In other words, if you put everything that's trying to resolve in a tower with the newest stuff on top, you resolve the stack top to bottom. Think about something like Counterspell. If I cast Lightning Bolt and you try to counter it, obviously, my Bolt would be stopped. That's because you're Counterspell is newer than my Bolt, so Counterspell resolves first.
Back to your question, since you get to pick the order of your triggers, you get to choose whether you want to shuffle Emrukal away or reanimate Emrukal.
I want to point out one last thing. Not all effects like that of Emrakul work the same way. Consider Darksteel Colossus. Where Emrakul says "when" its put into a graveyard, Colossus says "if" its put. While these seem like they do the same thing, they are very different. This is a replacement effect, so Colossus never hits the graveyard. Meanwhile, Emrakul will, even if it's just briefly.
I know that's a lot of information, so all more questions are welcome. Hope this helps!!
June 2, 2020 10:58 p.m.