MTG Rules Question

[Blueiji]

I was playing a game of EDH with two of my friends when a very odd situation arose. For the purposes of the post, I'm going to refer to the three players as follows: Michael (playing a U/R deck), Adam (playing W/U deck), and Blueiji (playing a B/G deck).

Michael had used "Keiga, the Tide Star" to take control of Adam's general, "Grand Arbiter, Augustine IV".

Adam then played "Reins of Power" (Adam had no creatures so Michael ended up with nothing).

Adam used Michael's creatures to swing at Michael (this included the Arbiter), this attack knocked Michael out of the game.

Michael's creatures (currently under Adam's control) got removed from the game (because Michael had lost), but we weren't sure about the Arbiter.

The Arbiter is owned by Adam, and was under his control, but only through a non-permanent creature steal, it would have gone back to Michael at the end of the turn.

We came up with two situations we figured might work, but couldn't decide which one was correct (in the official rules).

- The Arbiter stays under Adam's control until the end of the turn, then gets returned to Michael, which causes it to go to the graveyard (because Michael has lost the game).

or

- The Arbiter is sent to Adam's graveyard as soon as Michael loses.

Would one of these two things happen, or something else entirely?

Thanks for the help. :smallsmile:

[Eldonauran]

As far as I am aware, you maintain control of the creature until you no longer maintain control of the creature. Some cards are only theft for a brief period of time in a game turn, until end of turn or until the end of the game.

If its until end of turn, its until end of turn, regardless if its 'owner' has been defeated.

'Owner' = Person who literally owns the card outside of gameplay. This never changes during gameplay.

'Controller' = Person controlling the creature during gameplay. This can and often does, change.

[Androgeus]

I think this is the applicable rule

800.4a When a player leaves the game, all objects (see rule 109) owned by that player leave the
game, any effects which give that player control of any objects or players end, and all spells and
abilities controlled by that player on the stack cease to exist. Then, if there are any objects still
controlled by that player, those objects are exiled. This is not a state-based action. It happens as
soon as the player leaves the game. If the player who left the game had priority at the time he or
she left, priority passes to the next player in turn order who’s still in the game.

So Keiga's control effect ends as soon as Michael loses, and as Adam is the Arbiter's default controller and the only control changing effect affecting it is Adam's Reins of Power, the Arbiter will stay in play and under Adam's control after the end of turn.

[Blueiji]

So Keiga's control effect ends as soon as Michael loses, and as Adam is the Arbiter's default controller and the only control changing effect affecting it is Adam's Reins of Power, the Arbiter will stay in play and under Adam's control after the end of turn.

This is really helpful, thanks for pointing that out.