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Let's say, I only have Ersatz Gnomes (1/1 Artifact Creature) with Pledge of Loyalty on it. Since the Pledge is my only colored permanent, it will grant the Gnomes protection from white. If I now use the Gnomes' ability to make the Pledge colorless, I won't have any colored permanents on the battlefield and the Gnomes won't have protection any more.

I can now cast a second Pledge of Loyalty on the Gnomes, giving it protection from white again. Now, what happens at the end of the turn, when the Gnomes' effect ends? Are one or both Pledges moved to the graveyard, since they enchant a creature with protection from white? Or do they both remain on the battlefield, since their effect does not remove Pledge of Loyalty? (The last one seems unlikely because a name on a card refers only to the card itself and not to another card with the same name.)

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3 Answers 3

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Once the second Pledge enters the battlefield, the first one again starts granting protection from white to the Gnomes, which causes the second aura to fall off. This happens as a state-based action just after the second Pledge resolves.

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Let's walk through this. Our starting state is:

Gnome is enchanted by Colorless Pledge.

The following events occur:

  • You cast a second Pledge, targeting Gnome
  • Pledge resolves and attaches to Gnome

The state of the board is now:

Gnome is enchanted by Colorless Pledge and White Pledge. Gnome has Protection from White (except Colorless Pledge) and Protection from White (except White Pledge).

Now, the active player would receive priority, and so state based actions are checked.

  • All White auras except for Colorless Pledge are moved to the graveyard. White Pledge is moved to the graveyard.
  • All White auras except for White Pledge are moved to the graveyard. Colorless Pledge is unaffected.

Your final board state is:

Gnome is enchanted by a Colorless Pledge

At the end of the turn, the Colorless Pledge becomes White again, but remains attaches because an exception was specifically made for it.

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See Kevin's answer: the second Pledge causes the first to also grant protection from white.

If somehow both Pledges are colorless, and then both stop being colorless at end of turn, then my original answer applies:

Both Pledges will go to the graveyard, for exactly the reason you state. As soon as the Gnome's effect ends, state-based effects are checked and both auras are enchanting an illegal permanent. The Gnomes have two "instances" of protection from white, each of which doesn't remove one copy of Pledge of Loyalty, but not the other. Since all state-based effects are checked at once, both Pledges go to the graveyard simultaneously.

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  • But doesn't the gnome have double protection from white as soon as the second aura enters the battlefield? So the first aura should remove the second long before the end of turn.
    – Kevin
    Sep 25, 2014 at 12:27
  • That's true! Why didn't you post it as an answer?
    – M.Herzkamp
    Sep 25, 2014 at 12:30
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    Ok, I guess I will. FWIW, I agree with this answer's conclusion if you tweak the scenario so that both auras are colorless until end of turn. For example, play one Pledge on each of two gnomes, make them both colorless, then Aura Graft one so the two auras are on one gnome.
    – Kevin
    Sep 25, 2014 at 13:03
  • Upvoted this answer, because it answers the question in the title. @Kevin's answer is right w.r.t. the whole question, though.
    – M.Herzkamp
    Sep 25, 2014 at 15:02

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