Hello everyone, for this month’s Delving Deeper, we will be delving into graveyards.
Wait! What? Relax we’re talking about one of the main zones of the game, “the Graveyard zone” and to guide us more about it, we have Chuanjie Seow L2 from Singapore.

You know in Magic we got loads of fun cards saying certain other cards lose abilities or becoming something else. Today we visit a once again rising superstar this time in Modern.

Blanking the minds of L3s since Future Sight

Oracle Text of Yixlid Jailer is well “Cards in graveyards lose all abilities.”
Simple 6 words but tonnes of headache. Why don’t we check the wall ‘o’ text this card has in its Gatherer reminder text?
Yixlid Jailer rulings:
2007-05-01: This removes all abilities on all cards in all graveyards — both the ones that matter in a graveyard (dredge, Chronosavant’s ability, etc.) and those that don’t.
2007-05-01: If an ability triggers when the object that has it is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, that ability triggers from the battlefield (such as Deadwood Treefolk or Epochrasite, for example), they won’t be affected by Yixlid Jailer.
2007-05-01: If an ability triggers when the object that has it is put into a graveyard from anywhere other than the battlefield, that ability triggers from the graveyard, (such as Krosan Tusker, Narcomoeba, or Quagnoth, for example). Yixlid Jailer will prevent those abilities from triggering at all.
2007-05-01: If an ability triggers when the object that has it is put into a hidden zone from a graveyard, that ability triggers from the graveyard, (such as Golgari Brownscale), Yixlid Jailer will prevent that ability from triggering.
2007-05-01: Some replacement effects cause a card to be put somewhere else instead of being put into a graveyard (such as Legacy Weapon). These effects mean the card is never actually put into the graveyard, so Yixlid Jailer can’t affect it.
2007-05-01: Some cards have abilities that modify how they’re put onto the battlefield. For example, Scarwood Treefolk says “Scarwood Treefolk is put onto the battlefield tapped” and Triskelion says “Triskelion enters the battlefield with three +1/+1 counters on it.” Although these cards won’t have these abilities in the graveyard, they will be applied if the cards are put onto the battlefield from the graveyard (due to Zombify, perhaps). What matters is that these cards will have these abilities on the battlefield.
2007-05-01: If Mistform Ultimus is in the graveyard, the Ultimus will lose its ability that says “Mistform Ultimus is every creature type,” but it will still *be* all creature types. The way continuous effects work, Mistform Ultimus’s type-changing ability is applied before Yixlid Jailer’s ability removes it.
BOOM! Text: 1, Us: 0
So let’s try to beat this card by looking at its common judge questions in Modern and other Eternal formats.

The Undying Messenger from the Grave

Messenger has arrived!

So what happens when Geralf’s Messenger without a +1/+1 counter dies when Yixlid Jailer is in play?
So we refer to the 2nd reminder rulings where “If an ability triggers when the object that has it is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, that ability triggers from the battlefield (such as Deadwood Treefolk or Epochrasite, for example), they won’t be affected by Yixlid Jailer.”
The messenger will still have the undying trigger triggering.
Then in part 2, Undying trigger tries to bring back the messenger! What happens now?
Then we recall CR 614.12 “To determine which replacement effects apply and how they apply, check the characteristics of the permanent as it would exist on the battlefield”
So the messenger will be reanimated and still ETB tapped and make an opponent lose 2 life. As Yixlid Jailer will not affect how a permanent arriving from the graveyard enters the battlefield; any abilities it has that might affect how it enters the battlefield are taken into account, even though in the graveyard those abilities did not exist.
Why? This rule exists mainly because permanents can enter the battlefield from private zones such as hands or libraries (think Finale of Devastation or Elvish Piper) and the game cannot look in those zones to determine what will be happening.

Flashing Back

Jailed pew
So with Yixlid Jailer in play, cards with Flashback like Lava Dart in the graveyard loses their ability to Flashback the spell as the Jailer removes the Flashback ability.
And no you cannot try to Flashback Lava Dart to shoot the Jailer as once Yixlid Jailer enters the battlefield, Lava Dart loses its ability to Flashback.
So what happens when I cast Snapcaster Mage and target the Lava Dart in my graveyard with its ETB ability?

Mr Chan always legit

So we have to recall CR 613.2. As Yixlid Jailer losing abilities and Snapcaster Mage’s ETB lets Lava Dart to gain ability, we will have to apply the effect in timestamp order.
If Yixlid Jailer is in play then Snapcaster Mage grants Lava Dart Flashback, Lava Dart can be Flashback’ed via R.
If Snapcaster Mage grants Lava Dart Flashback then Yixlid Jailer enters play, Lava Dart loses both its Flashback ability via R or mountain sacrifice.

Jellyfish Illusion Shenanigans

So how about Yixlid Jailer’s use of Jailing the damned such as Narcomoeba.
What happens when Narcomoeba gets milled from your library with Yixlid Jailer in play?

We recall the 3rd reminder rulings “<If an ability triggers when the object that has it is put into a graveyard from anywhere other than the battlefield, that ability triggers from the graveyard,(Narcomoeba). Yixlid Jailer will prevent those abilities from triggering at all.”

This is because Narcomoeba loses its ability when it enters the graveyard and no ETGrave ability triggered.
So the Jailer of the Damned will not let them enter play to haunt your plans to enter top 8.

Hogaak and Friends

Jailed

Yixlid Jailer exercises his right to remove all of Hogaak’s abilities when the skeletal monstrosity is in the graveyard. No trample, no convoke, no delve, no way to cast from graveyard and only an 8/8.

If the effect another card allows you to cast Hogaak from the graveyard, for example, with an Underworld Breach that has a later timestamp than Yixlid Jailer, you will move it on the stack as  the first step of casting it. Since it’s not in the graveyard anymore, you can delve and/or convoke when you pay the costs to cast it, but you still cannot spend mana.

No Dredge no GTT No matter what

So our little imp will be jailed right
where it belongs in the graveyard and
be disallowed to keep bouncing back to
its owner’s hand by milling 5 cards
instead of letting his owner draw a
card.
Stinky also cannot fly in the graveyard
and is not that stinky anymore to make
your creature die to its smell. I guess
Yixlid Jailer likes its
prisoners clean and smelling fresh.

Jailing the Titans of Magic

Emmy just wants to rest

With Yixlid Jailer in
play, when Mademoiselle Emmy hits the graveyard, her owner does not shuffle their graveyard. Note the “When Emrakul is put into a graveyard…” tells us it’s a triggered ability. ‘From anywhere‘ is what tells us it is a trigger that triggers from the graveyard, just nice for Yixlid Jailer to remove that ability before it even triggers.

Cannot be stopped nor
jailed

However in the case of
Blightsteel Colossus
(Darksteel Colossus &
Progenitus), their oracle text reads “If Blightsteel Colossus would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal it and shuffle it into its owner’s library instead.” signifying that this is a replacement effect. So the replacement effect replaces the event when Blightsteel Colossus being placed in graveyard. Hence Blightsteel Colossus never hits the graveyard, it gets shuffled back to its owner’s library.

Other Grave Shenanigans
Since we are in the topic of graveyard shenanigans, why don’t we look into other situations where opponents of dredge masters might get really confused.

Bridges of Dredge

Bridging you to your doom

Note that Bridge from Below has the intervening if clause in both its abilities.
Hence the Bridge’s ability will trigger and when the trigger will check again to see if the Bridge from Below is still in the graveyard when the ability resolves.

Now to examples!

From Vampire to Zombie

So what if you have Bridge from Below in your hand and you discard it to Insolent Neonate’s activated ability?
It really depends how you pay for the activated ability’s cost. If you choose to discard the Bridge from Below then sacrifice Insolent Neonate, you will get a zombie token. This is because Bridge is already in the graveyard and then Insolent Neonate gets sacrificed, triggering Bridge from Below’s triggered ability.
If you paid the cost the other way round, you will not get the zombie as Insolent Neonate hit the graveyard before Bridge from Below.

No crossing of bridges for brains today sir

What if there is Yixlid Jailer in play and Bridge from Below in the graveyard?
Well that is simple, Yixlid Jailer blanks the text on Bridge from Below as if Bridge from Below is on the battlefield. With no abilities.

Post Verified by: L3 Smith Lo
Thanks to Klaus Lassacher for pointing out the mistake in the Hogaak section, and to Steven Zwanger and Charlotte Sable for verifying it!