Community

Unearth says Return the card to the battlefield. The creature gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step or if it would leave the battlefield. Unearth only as a sorcery.

If I were to exile the unearthed creature with, say, a Conjurer's Closet, would the "return them to the battlefield part of the closet kick in? How do I tell which exile effect (unearth/Closet) will take over? 

That's just the reminder text. The actual rules text for Unearth are (bolding mine):

702.82a Unearth is an activated ability that functions while the card with unearth is in a graveyard. “Unearth [cost]” means “[Cost]: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.”

Since you're not putting it somewhere else, the Closet exiled it, and will return it.

 

Jan 3, 2013 -- 8:30AM, RootBreaker wrote:

Since you're not putting it somewhere else, the Closet exiled it, and will return it.
 

...As a new object that will never be exiled by an unearth trigger, yes? Alright, Conjurer's Closet belongs in my Sedris Commander deck. Thanks for your help.

Yes, when it changes zones it becomes a new object. The unearth ability loses track of it.

It won't be exiled by the unearth trigger or the leaves-the-battlefield replacement effect anymore. 

Also note, both Conjuror's Closet and the unearth delayed trigger trigger at the same time so you choose the order to put them on the stack and they resolve in reverse order.

Optimally, you'll want to put the unearth trigger on first and then the Closet trigger on top of it so that Closet will flicker the creature and the unearth trigger will fail to do anything.

If you do it the other way, the unearth trigger will exile the creature and the Closet trigger will be countered.