(Tejahn) Is remove from the game possible?

[Tejahn]

I've been thinking about how tokens are removed from the game and I now wonder if it's possible to remove non-tokens from the game the same way.

(1). The approach I'm hoping for is a way to remove a card, regardless of its type, from the game in the same way tokens are removed. That is, they aren't retrievable again in the same way that destroyed or exiled tokens can't be brought back.

(2). The cards become tokens with a trigger protecting them from be affected while they become such and are removed from the game that way because the are tokens.

If possible, can someone code the following:

For each player, you choose from among the permanents that player controls an artifact, a creature, an enchantment, and a land. Then each player removes all other nonland permanents he or she controls from the game.

It's similar to Cataclysm and Tragic Arrogance.

[Xander9009]

Probably not possible. How would you make it a token? The only I know of to even make the token badge appear is to copy other cards with it, but that immediately ends (and can't really be prevented from ending as far as I know) as soon as it leaves the battlefield.

As the kind of question I hate getting when asking questions like this: why not just exile them? They are, generally speaking, not retrievable from exile unless the card that exiled them brings them back. The only exception to this that is currently coded is the one I made (I can't remember the name), but it would be relatively simple to make the manager for that card ignore all cards being exiled for a single resolution. Once done, the manager goes back to working like it was, but without pointers to those cards, and thus ignores their existence.

[Tejahn]

Great explanation. And I was just curios. Cards like Final Judgment were updated to reflect that 'Remove all creatures from the game' mean 'Exile all creatures'. Thanks for helping me understand the limitations of the engine.

[RiiakShiNal]

You can't remove non-token cards from the game like tokens (the engine won't allow it). The closest you will be able to get is moving them to the ZONE_CEASED_TO_EXIST (using QueueZoneChange), though they will technically still be in that zone whereas tokens actually get deleted when they leave play.

Though it should be noted that the older "remove from game" text on cards was errata'd to mean exile in later versions of MtG. So there should be no problem with just exiling the cards.

[Tejahn]

Understood. But out of curiosity and because I want to test ZONE_CEASED_TO_EXIST, can you provide a working code?

[Xander9009]

Understood. But out of curiosity and because I want to test ZONE_CEASED_TO_EXIST, can you provide a working code?

Neo's phasing cards use it.

[Tejahn]

Thanks! I'll get a look.