Rules Tip of the Day: Permanents with protection from a quality cannot be targeted by spells with that quality, or by abilities whose source has that quality.

Q: If I cast Induce Paranoia targeting my opponent's Psychic Drain, Drightflame, Disembowel, of any other "X" spell, and I use Black mana, do they mill for the total amount that they paid, or just the original casting cost of the spell?

A: They value of X chosen when these spells are played is part of the converted mana cost of this spell when it is on the stack. So the converted mana cost of a Psychic Drain, where X is five, will be seven. If you counter this spell with Induce Paranoia and black mana was spent on Induce Paranoia, then your opponent will mill seven cards.

Q: When you Dredge, do you choose the order the cards go from the top of the library to the graveyard?

A: Yes. All of the cards that go to your graveyard when you apply the Dredge ability will go at the same time. As the owner of these cards you can choose the order that they are arranged when they are put in your graveyard. In most cases this will not matter, but graveyard order does matter to a few older cards.

Q: Does the Flame-Kin Zealot receive its own comes-into-play bonus?

A: Yes, as long as it is still in play and under your control when its comes-into-play triggered ability resolves, it will get +1/+1 and gain haste.

Q: If a Dimir Doppelganger is copying one of the creatures that flip into enchantments (Kuon, Ogre Ascendant, for instance), will it retain its copy ability?

A: Yes. When Dimir Doppelganger removes a creature card from the game it becomes a copy of that creature and gains the ability to remove other creature cards from graveyard. This effect will not end if the Doppelganger becomes flipped.

Q: If I have two Dark Confidants out do I do the ability twice?

A: Yes. If you have two Dark Confidants in play, the ability of each will trigger, and these two triggered abilities will resolve separately.

Q: Can Copy Enchantment copy a Honden without the legendary rule destroying both? If so, does the Copy Enchantment still work with and like the other Hondens?

A: Copy Enchantment will become an exact copy of the enchantment that it is copying. If you copy a Legendary Enchantment, then both the original and the Copy Enchantment will go to the graveyard when state based effects are checked. This copy Honden would be just like the a normal Honden, but there is no way to keep it in play due to the Legend rule.

Q: My opponent attacks with Ninja of the Deep Hours. When the damage resolves, he draws Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni. Then he uses Ink-Eyes's Ninjutsu ability, returning the Ninja of the Deep Hours to his hand. I guess that combat hasn't ended yet, so he can still do that. Is that right?

A: Yes, that is legal. Creatures are not removed from combat until the combat phase ends. After combat damage has resolved, the Ninja of the Deep Hours is still an unblocked attacking creature, so he can return it to his hand to pay the Ninjutsu cost.

Q: In a game, player A played an Explosive Growth, and paid the kicker cost. Player B then cast Liquify. Player A says that it wouldn't counter the spell because he paid the kicker cost, so the converted mana cost was 6, not 1. Does kicker cost change the converted mana cost at all?

A: No. Additional costs do not affect the converted mana cost of a spell at all. Explosive Growth's converted mana cost is always 1, regardless of whether or not the kicker cost was paid. It can be targeted by and countered by Liquify.

Q: How do Goblin Piledriver and Ensnaring Bridge interact with each other? This weekend player A had seven cards in hand with an Ensnaring Bridge in play. Player B wanted to attack with five Goblins (power either 1 or 2) and a Piledriver. No one was sure if the Piledriver could attack or not. We tried to reason it out as, Declare Attack, Select attackers. The Piledriver gets the boost when the attackers are selected. He now has a power of 11. According to Ensnaring Bridge he can't attack because power 12 is greater than 7 seven cards?

A: The Piledriver's ability that increases its power is a triggered ability that uses the stack. When it is declared as an attacking creature it is just a 1/2. Ensnaring Bridge's effect only prevents a creature from being declared as an attacker. It doesn't matter that an attacking creature will end up gaining an increased power due to its own ability; it will be able to attack, as its power is only 1 when attackers are declared.

Q: If I play Mana Short on my opponent, can he then tap his lands and float mana to cast Early Harvest after the Mana Short resolves?

A: No. Mana Short will tap all of this player's lands and empty his mana pool. So after Mana Short resolves he will not have any mana available to play Early Harvest.