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Teferi, Hero of Dominaria's emblem says:

You get an emblem with "Whenever you draw a card, exile target permanent an opponent controls."

Progenitus and True-Name Nemesis both have protection from "everything" opponent controls, which would presumably include planeswalker emblems. However emblems are unusual things - they're not permanents and survive a "Destroy all permanents" effect, have no colour even though the planeswalker creating them can have colors, etc, so I'm asking this question to make sure.

Glorfindel
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Allure
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3 Answers3

14

You cannot exile Progenitus or True-Name Nemesis.

"Protection from everything" has a specific meaning in the rules:

702.16j “Protection from everything” is a variant of the protection ability. A permanent with protection from everything has protection from each object regardless of that object’s characteristic values. Such a permanent can’t be targeted by spells or abilities, enchanted by Auras, equipped by Equipment, fortified by Fortifications, or blocked by creatures, and all damage that would be dealt to it is prevented.

So nothing at all can target Progenitus.

"Protection from [a player] also is specifically defined:

702.16k “Protection from [a player]” is a variant of the protection ability. A permanent with protection from a specific player has protection from each object the player controls and protection from each object the player owns not controlled by another player, regardless of that object’s characteristic values. Such a permanent can’t be targeted by spells or abilities the player controls, enchanted by Auras the player controls, equipped by Equipment the player controls, fortified by Fortifications the player controls, or blocked by creatures the player controls, and all damage that would be dealt to it by sources controlled by the player or owned by the player but not controlled by another player is prevented.

Whether created by an emblem or not; the controller of the emblem is the controller of the triggered ability; so it cannot target True-Name Nemesis if that player was chosen.

GendoIkari
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6

One of the rulings below the card says

“Protection from everything” means the following: Progenitus can’t be blocked, Progenitus can’t be enchanted or equipped, Progenitus can’t be the target of spells or abilities, and all damage that would be dealt to Progenitus is prevented.

Teferi's emblem is a (triggered) ability, so I see no reason why Progenitus wouldn't have protection from it.

114.1. Some effects put emblems into the command zone. An emblem is a marker used to represent an object that has one or more abilities, but no other characteristics.

114.2. An effect that creates an emblem is written “[Player] gets an emblem with [ability].” This means that [player] puts an emblem with [ability] into the command zone. The emblem is both owned and controlled by that player.

603.3a A triggered ability is controlled by the player who controlled its source at the time it triggered, unless it’s a delayed triggered ability. To determine the controller of a delayed triggered ability, see rules 603.7d–f.

Community
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Glorfindel
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    I think maybe to bring the rules stuff home you should also put 603.3a for the True-Name Nemesis since in combination with 114.2 that shows that the triggered ability from the emblem does have a controller – CALEB F Sep 23 '19 at 15:10
  • @CALEBF right, thanks. I overlooked that rule and assumed it wasn't mentioned in the result because it was 'obvious'. – Glorfindel Sep 23 '19 at 15:11
  • I agree it should probably be obvious, but I know to a lot of players that Emblems are just kind of ephemeral weird things that don't interact with the rules in a normal way, so I think being as explicit as possible is better. Sorry if it came off as nitpicking! – CALEB F Sep 23 '19 at 15:19
3

No

Quite simply, 'Protection from X' means (among other things) 'can't be targeted by X'. In the case of True-Name Nemesis, 'X' is the named opponent. The ability on the emblem says

"Whenever you draw a card, exile target permanent an opponent controls."

The player can't target True-Name Nemesis because of its protection from that player.

Progenitus is an even simpler case. As others pointed out, Protection from Everything means (among other things), 'This can't be targeted'. The emblem's ability needs to select a target, so that cannot be progenitus.

If this were a case of the more common Protection from [a Color], the details about the emblem would matter. For instance even though Teferi is blue and white, as you mentioned, the emblem is colorless so the ability could target (for example) a Mistcutter Hydra

Aetherfox
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  • I don't think your first half is quite accurate; because the player doesn't target things; it is the ability controlled by the player that targets things. – GendoIkari Sep 23 '19 at 15:35
  • Sure, although I suppose that's splitting hairs quite finely. Has anyone ever run into an issue between 'I target X with shock' and 'I cast shock. Shock targets X.' ? " :P – Aetherfox Sep 23 '19 at 15:49
  • In common speak you're right. But as an answer to the question being asked, I think it's important that the reason "you" can't target it is specifically because it is an ability you control, and that ability can't target it. – GendoIkari Sep 23 '19 at 16:23
  • When you say "the emblem is colorless", are you sure? That implies e.g. Giver of Runes can protect against its activation. – Allure Sep 23 '19 at 21:40
  • "114.3. An emblem has no characteristics other than the abilities defined by the effect that created it. In particular, an emblem has no name, no types, no mana cost, and no color." I suppose an ability that created an emblem could say "you get a green emblem ...", but none specify any color. – Aetherfox Sep 23 '19 at 22:16
  • @Allure From the rules glossary: "An object with no color is colorless. Colorless is not a color." So every object in MTG is either some color(s) or colorless by definition. – GendoIkari Sep 24 '19 at 19:27