Karn, Liberated in Commander...?
Asked by Sizzlewump 11 years ago
Let's say Player 1 is my opponent and plays Karn Liberated . Then he activates the first ability to exile a card from my hand. This happens a few times over the next couple of turns. Then I find a way to punch through and send Karn to the grave. Player 1 uses Eternal Witness to retrieve Karn and casts it again. Then he activates the first ability a couple of times. Later in the game I use Zealous Conscripts to steal Karn. I use the first ability a couple of times. Here's my question: If at any time either of us decided to activate Karn's ultimate, which cards will be returned to the battlefield at the start of the new game?
Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #2
When something changes zones, it becomes a new object with no relation to what it was before (minus a few exceptions that don't apply here). The Karn on the battlefield now is totally different from the Karn that was on the battlefield earlier. This means that only the set of cards exiled by the Karn currently going ultimate will be set out at the beginning of the restarted game. The rest will be shuffled up with everything else.
January 14, 2014 2:44 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #3
There's only one exile zone, shared among all players. Because of this it's helpful to keep exiled cards in separate piles when there's something special going on with them.
January 14, 2014 2:46 p.m.
Only the ones from the second time karn was out will be on the battlefield at the start of the game. The reasoning is each karn is a new object and the cards exiled with karn are linked to the object, not the card name.. Also, the cards exiled with karn's first ability from the earlier object are left in exile.
January 14, 2014 2:47 p.m.
Sizzlewump says... #5
Okay, just so I understand.. if the same Karn changes control but doesn't change zones, he knows all cards he's exiled regardless of who activated him?
January 14, 2014 2:48 p.m.
Tradeylouish says... #8
Common practice is to keep cards exiled with the current Karn Liberated underneath him. The same goes for similar cards like Nightveil Specter .
Other exiled cards are typically turned sideways and placed next to their owner's graveyard, including those exiled by previous instances of Karn Liberated .
January 14, 2014 2:53 p.m.
Sizzlewump says... #9
Okay, thanks a lot guys. I understand that better now. I'm thinking the real headache will be if there's ever a game with multiple Karn's out in my playgroup...sigh..
Sizzlewump says... #1
I'm thinking each time karn leaves the battlefield (except maybe if he phased out) he forgets the cards he exiled and they remain exiled. It's a little tricky for me to conceptualize multiple exile zones. Is it necessary to keep cards in different exile zones for that reason?
January 14, 2014 2:43 p.m.