If I cast Flicker on an unearthed creature, does it remain exiled?

Question

The rules for the Unearth ability are as follows:

702.82a Unearth is an activated ability that functions while the card with unearth is in a graveyard. Unearth [cost] means [Cost]: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.

If I unearth a creature, and then cast Flicker to exile and return it, does the replacement effect cause Flicker to lose track of it, or is Flicker still able to see the exiled card and return it to the battlefield?

(Are there similar combinations of spells or abilities that would result in a different outcome?)

Answer 1

"If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else." means that if the creature would leave the battlefield for some zone other than exile (because exile doesn't fit the condition of "anywhere else"), it's exiled instead. Therefore unearth replacement effect doesn't apply here. Obviously flicker won't lose track of the creature and will return it to the battlefield just fine.

But even if the unearth replacement effect could apply, the creature would still return. Replacement effects modify other actions, they don't do anything by themselves. It's still flicker who is exiling the card even if we could apply unearth replacement effect, therefore it can track the card because of rule 400.7g. Rule 400.7g doesn't actually apply here, because it refers to cards that changed zones while the card/ability was being played/activated. Flicker finds the card because it doesn't need to know that it was the same card that was on the battlefield. It just knows that there is a card in exile that is going to be put on the battlefield.

Note: I'll edit this and quote the rule to support that replacement effects don't do anything by themselves when I get home, right now I can't access the rules (I couldn't find a rule talking specifically about this, but there is an official ruling here that talks about the same thing)

Answer 2

Yes, Flicker will allow the creature to return to the battlefield, and it won't be exiled at the beginning of the next end step.

Unearth sets up a replacement event: "If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else."

Big Edit

To me, there is some ambiguity in the english here. Does the "anywhere else" refer to "anywhere other than the battlefield" or "anywhere other than the exile zone"?

I've thought about it, and I've come around to the other point of view. If it meant "anywhere other than the battlefield" then "exile it instead" would have sufficed. The Shards of Alara FAQ and Wizards Community Wiki makes the point that exile effects still happen, even to a creature "unearthed".

Since my conclusion is the same, but the path taken, different, I shall revise this answer accordingly.

Oracle text for Flicker:

Exile target nontoken permanent, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control.

So "Exile" means the creature will leave the battlefield. Because of the above interpretation of the Unearth keyword's rules text, this event will go on unmodified, as the exile zone is where the creature was heading.

According to:

400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are seven exceptions to this rule:

400.7g A resolving spell or activated ability can perform actions on an object that moved from one zone to another while that spell was being cast or that ability was being activated, if that object moved to a public zone.

Since the Exile zone is public, the second part of the resolving Flicker spell still happens due to 400.7g. It hasn't "forgotten" that the creature in the exile zone is the same one that was on the battlefield. The creature returns to the battlefield under your control.

There is no exception to 400.7 for Unearth, it lost track of the creature when it was exiled. Therefore, it will not be exiled at the beginning of the next end step. Flicker has allowed it to live on.

Answer 3

It remains exiled

What happens is that Unearth replaces Flicker's exile effect with its own effect, which happens to be an exile effect as well. However, since the creature was exiled through an effect other than Flicker's, Flicker won't return the creature in this case, because the creature is now a different object, despite being in the same zone.

The rules reference should be this one:

607.1. An object may have two abilities printed on it such that one of them causes actions to be taken or objects to be affected and the other one directly refers to those actions or objects. If so, these two abilities are linked: the second refers only to actions that were taken or objects that were affected by the first, and not by any other ability.

So Flicker's ability is linked: (1) It exiles a non-token permanent, and then (2) returns exactly that object to the battlefield. However, since (1) never happened (it was replaced by Unearth), it also can't do (2).

I could also say the opposite:

400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are seven exceptions to this rule:

400.7g A resolving spell or activated ability can perform actions on an object that moved from one zone to another while that spell was being cast or that ability was being activated, if that object moved to a public zone.

I retract my answer since it's not an answer any more.

I'm just not sure. Does Flicker lose track of the creature because of the replacement effect, or not? The object is clearly in the correct zone, and it has been in public zones all the time, and it didn't change zones wildly, so it might be able to keep track via 400.7g. I'm excited to see a convincing rules reference!

Answer 4

Unearth's replacement effect doesn't apply. It is looking for the unearthed card being put someplace other than exile, and then replacing that event with placing the card in exile. Since Flicker is moving the card to exile, it isn't being put "anywhere else." (There is nothing for unearth to replace, since it is already going where unearth is trying to send the card).

The Unearthed creature would remain on the battlefield as a new object, it will not be exiled by the delayed trigger setup by the original "Unearth."

400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence.

Yes, different spells would have different outcomes. (you need to clarify what you mean here).

One such difference would be a card that phases a card out (example Tefari's Veil). The delayed trigger from Unearth will trigger at the beginning of the current turn's end of turn step, and it will fail to remove the creature (since it doesn't exist). But, because the creature has never left the battlefield, the next time the creature would leave the battlefield, it will be exiled instead.

702.24b If a permanent phases out, its status changes to “phased out.” Except for rules and effects that specifically mention phased-out permanents, a phased-out permanent is treated as though it does not exist. It can’t affect or be affected by anything else in the game.

603.7b A delayed triggered ability will trigger only once—the next time its trigger event occurs unless it has a stated duration, such as “this turn.”