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This situation happened in one of Andrea Mengucci's recent videos.

Mengucci had Omniscience and Dress Down in play. He then decided to cast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn in case opponent made him shuffle his hand into his deck, but was surprised when Emrakul triggered and he got an extra turn.

Why did Emrakul trigger? With Dress Down in play, it ought to have no abilities, including the cast trigger. Relevant text of cards:

Dress Down:

Creatures lose all abilities.

Emrakul:

When you cast this spell, take an extra turn after this one.

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    The timewalk effect trigger and resolves before the emrakul gets a chance to etb where it's abilities can be removed from a humility type effect
    – Neil Meyer
    Jul 6, 2021 at 19:29

1 Answer 1

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Dress Down only removes abilities from creature permanents on the battlefield. Emrakul has its triggered ability as a spell, not as a permanent, so it is not affected.

Rule 109.2 says

If a spell or ability uses a description of an object that includes a card type or subtype, but doesn’t include the word “card,” “spell,” “source,” or “scheme,” it means a permanent of that card type or subtype on the battlefield.

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  • In general, how can you tell when a triggered ability is as a spell as opposed to as a permanent? Is "when you cast this spell" a key phrase? Jul 6, 2021 at 22:54
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    When your cast a spell and its ability triggers, that's an ability on a spell because the object is a spell at that time. It's not an ability on a permanent because the object isn't a permanent.
    – murgatroid99
    Jul 6, 2021 at 23:01
  • Does this mean Dress Down stops ETB triggers but not replacement effects?
    – Allure
    Jul 7, 2021 at 0:23
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    No, it also affects replacement effects because of rule 614.12, specifically the part that says "check the characteristics of the permanent as it would exist on the battlefield, taking into account...continuous effects that already exist and would apply to the permanent".
    – murgatroid99
    Jul 7, 2021 at 0:50
  • IIRC if Dress Down had said "creature card" rather than "creature" it would have effected Emrakul, right?
    – nick012000
    Jul 21, 2021 at 0:02

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