For today’s tip, I want to talk about a cool interaction in Commander, the hugely-popular multiplayer format where each player chooses a legendary creature, called a “commander,” to lead his or her deck. In this format, each player’s commander is subject to a special replacement effect: when a player’s commander would be put into a graveyard or exiled, that player can choose to put their commander in the command zone instead.
This protects your precious commander from most shenanigans…but not from the fearsome Eldrazi!
The key point is that It That Betrays’s triggered ability lets it grab a sacrificed creature from the first zone that creature goes to. Normally, this is the graveyard. But suppose you’ve summoned It That Betrays to your side. If I sacrifice my commander and use its special replacement effect to put it in the command zone instead of the graveyard, my commander never hits the graveyard at all. As a result, the command zone is the first zone my sacrificed commander visits, and It That Betrays will fish my commander right back out of the command zone onto the battlefield — under your control! What a betrayal indeed.
Today’s Rules Tip written by Paul Baranay