Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is one of the newest planeswalkers in Theros. Ashiok lets you exile your opponent’s cards, and then lets you put any creatures exiled by it on the battlefield with the second ability. But all good things must come to an end some time, so what happens to the cards in exile if Ashiok leaves the battlefield?

The answer is nothing. They remain in exile. Nothing is telling you to do anything to the exiled cards when Ashiok leaves the battlefield, so they’ll remain in exile. Even if Ashiok returns to the battlefield, the new Ashiok is considered an entirely different permanent that has no link to the previous life that Ashiok had, so the new Ashiok will not have access to the cards that the old Ashiok exiled. Those cards are stuck in exile forever, doomed to live an isolated existence away from the rest of the cards for the rest of the game.

Today’s Rules Tip written by Nathan Long