Rules Tip of the Day: When an effect instructs you to choose a type, you can only choose a single type. For example; when you need to choose a creature type you can choose Goblin, but not Goblin Wizard.

Q: Can I play the Spawnbroker and immediately shove it over to my opponent and gain control of his Birds of Paradise, for example. I am not sure whether I already control Spawnbroker when it comes into play, or if I have to use a creature that already is in play.

A: Yes. Spawnbroker's ability will trigger when it comes into play, and it will be in play when you need to choose targets for its ability. So, you can target the Spawnbroker itself as the creature you control with its own ability.

Q: If I used mana from Boseju, Who Shelters All to play the initial copy of an Epic spell, are all the copies uncounterable?

A: Only the original spell will be uncounterable, the Epic copies can still be countered. The effect from the mana generated by Boseiju only applies to the actual spell that was played using this mana; it does not carry over to any other spell or ability.

Q: If my opponent plays Master Warcraft and I play Twincast to copy the Master Warcraft, when the copy and the original spell resolve how do we go about dealing with assigning attackers and blockers?

A: The controller of the Master Warcraft that resolves last will make all of the decisions as to what creatures attack and how creatures block. This means that your opponent, in this example, will be the one making these decisions. This is because the copy of Master Warcraft created by your Twincast will resolve first, since when Twincast resolves it puts the copy it creates on top of the stack. This copy will then resolve before the original.

Q: Can you give a creature that has Double Strike an additional Double Strike—like with Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion's ability on Boros Swiftblade? I was thinking it was fine, because of Magic's Golden Rule of cards changing rules or adding to them.

A: Yes, you can give Double Strike to a creature that has already has Double Strike; however, this will not do anything. This creature will not deal any additional combat damage. This is because there are a maximum of two combat damage steps in a single combat phase: the first strike combat damage step and the normal combat damage step.

Q: I have a Sacred Ground up in play along with five lands and two creatures. My opponent plays Razia's Purification. If I choose to keep my two creatures and Sacred Ground, do my sacrificed lands remain in the graveyard or come back into play?

A: Those lands will be returned to play. It does not matter that the choice of what to save and therefore what to sacrifice is made by you. Your opponent is still the controller of the spell that is causing you to sacrifice these lands, so Sacred Ground's ability will trigger. Also, even if you chose to sacrifice the Sacred Ground, its ability would still trigger for each land that is sacrificed at the same time as it.

Q: I have a Sylvan Library in play with Life From The Loam and Darkblast in my graveyard. My draw step comes around. I draw my normal card, then use Sylvan Library's ability to draw two, replacing both with the Dredge effects of Life and Darkblast (to get those pesky useless lands off the top of my library) My question is, since I've drawn a card normally this turn, do I have to put one back? I'm thinking no, since the "If you do" on Sylvan Library never happens since I replaced both draw with Dredge.

A: While you did not actually draw two cards when Sylvan Library's ability resolved, you did choose to draw these cards. So when this triggered ability resolves, you will have to either pay 4 life or put back the card you drew for your normal draw that turn.

Q: I have a Spike Drone in play that is 1/1; if I play Giant Growth on it to give it +3+3 until end of turn, and then use its ability to move those pluses onto another creature, do they now become permanent because the spell effect specifies only that they stay on the creature that it affected until end of turn?

A: This is not possible. In order to use Spike Drone's ability you must be able to remove an actual counter from the Drone. Giant Growth gives a creature +3/+3, but this increase in power and toughness is not represented by tokens. You can move the single +1/+1 counter off of this Spike Drone, and it will remain in play until the end of turn, as the Drone will still be a 3/3. However, during the cleanup step of this turn, the +3/+3 effect will end and the Drone will go to the graveyard as it has a toughness of zero.

Q: In a Two-Headed Giant game I control a Circle of Protection: Red. If my teammate and I are attacked by a bunch of Red creatures, can I activate the COP once for each of these creatures to prevent the combat damage?

A: Most likely no. In a Two-Headed Giant game, combat damage is assigned to one of the two teammates or the other. So the controller of each of the attacking creatures will get to choose to assign the combat damage to you or your teammate. If they assign the damage to your teammate, then you cannot use the Circle of Protection to prevent the damage to him, and therefore your shared life total.