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"Negate Hero special abilities of any opponent with more than three good brigades in play."

I'm not sure it would matter.  Protection is ongoing, so even if Abiathar was prevented, once AUTO is gone, you are back to 3 brigades and Abiathar's protection is now active. 

This question is tricky because a card like the Punisher LS ought to have the word "while" in its ability, since the number of good brigades a person controls can easily fluctuate during individual Phases. 

However:  if Punisher's negate doesn't turn off for the remainder of a phase once it has kicked in, then I would say Abiathar is prevented.  If the trigger for Punisher is 4 or more good brigades in play, then the trigger was hit when AUTO hit the table, even if he left battle before his ability completed. 

For example, if instead of exchanging for a judge, AUTO banded to a judge, I would say Punisher would prevent Abiathar, even though Abiathar enters battle before "all abilities complete".  Punisher's trigger is dynamic, like the X of Heavy Taxes/etc., and once it hits 4 or more, Punisher is working.

Agreed, the lack of "while" is important. And it does matter because when an ability, even an ongoing one, is prevented when it was played, it does not reactivate.

Completely agree with the last part.  If Punisher is active when Abiathar enters, he cannot reactivate if the negate goes away.

However, I believe this is the same situation as Banquet vs Iron Pan ruling.  Note that Iron Pan also has no "while" in the ability, but it has been ruled based on the decision about triggers and conditions that if Banquet discarded the last Babylonian in play (and therefore making it so that Iron Pan's condition was no longer met), the negate turns off during the ability and allows the protection to activate.  The lack of "while" does not matter in either case, as they are both indicative of conditions and are only active if those conditions are met.  When the condition is not being met, the ability is not active.

Based on that ruling and the parallels here, I would say that in the original situation, where AUtO is exchanged, Punisher would turn off once he left play, and Abiathar would not be negated.

AutO isn't leaving play. He's going to the territory, where Samuel was formally.

Ah, sorry, misunderstood the exchange.

In that case, the negate activates as soon as AUtO hits the table, in the same way that Iron Pan does if you were to block with a Babylonian from hand.  However, if you were to exchange to deck, it would update again to the 'off' position and no longer be negating heroes, in the same way Iron Pan does during the ability of Banquet.  Does that make sense?

That makes perfect sense. I was just confused because AutO is immediately in battle, and once he enters battle his ability will immediately activate, chain effecting into getting Abiathar in battle before Punisher would have a chance to activate. I just guess there's a brief state before AutO's ability activates that allows Punisher to activate before AutO.

The ruling last season on triggers and conditions that I linked to states that abilities like this can update during other abilities, which is how it would affect this case even while the ability chain is still ongoing.  Not so much a brief state before he activates, more that it is constantly updating even during other abilities (and thus would shut off if he were exchanged out of play, for instance).

Quote from: Minister Polarius on November 18, 2012, 07:57:36 PM

And it does matter because when an ability, even an ongoing one, is prevented when it was played, it does not reactivate.

Quote from: Redoubter on November 18, 2012, 08:33:34 PM

Completely agree with the last part.  If Punisher is active when Abiathar enters, he cannot reactivate if the negate goes away.

Ok, I swear I read a ruling earlier this year regarding a negated Miriam and being blocked by a Gold EC, and after the EC was in battle Miriam's ability somehow became unnegated, and Gabe ruled that Miriam would then be ignoring the EC since Ignore is an ongoing ability.  I couldn't find the thread though.

You are referring to this thread, where Gabe ruled that ongoing abilities reactivate when instant abilities do not.  Pol disagreed, and there seemed to be some question as to the actual outcome given the last post (by Prof U).  This is frankly something that would need to be addressed by the Elders, though the initial ruling you would get is that "ongoing abilities activate when the source of their negation/prevention is undone," even when applied to characters who only activate when they enter battle.