Rules Tip of the Day: Unless specified or if the ability can not work anywhere else, the activated abilities of cards that become permanents can only be played when the permanent is in play.

Q: If you Convokes something out for free and your opponent plays Induce Paranoia, will you mill any cards?

A: The converted mana cost of this Convoke spell will be the same, regardless of what was paid when the spell was played. For example, if a Siege Wurm is played for free, it will still have the converted mana cost of seven. If this Siege Wurm spell is countered by Induce Paranoia, then the controller of the spell will end up "milling" seven cards.

Q: I've been playing Flame Vault combo (Flame Fusillade plus Time Vault) for a couple months now in Legacy. My question is about the scope of Flame Fusillade. The wording says that "Until end of turn, permanents you control gain ...". Does this apply to permanents that you control that come into play after the Flame Fusillade? If I resolve Flame Fusillade, can I play Time Vault and combo out?

A: Flame Fusillade will only give the ability ("Tap: Deal one damage to target creature or player") to those permanents you control when Flame Fusillade resolves. So the combo does not work if the Time Vault is not in play when Flame Fusillade resolves.

Q: Is there a way to stack the ability of Cerulean Sphinx such that I could trade it off via Spawnbroker's CIP abiliy for, say, a Szadek, Lord of Secrets, and then have the Sphinx go back into my library?

A: No, that does not work, unless you can find a way to put the Spawnbroker into play after you use the Sphinx's ability and before it resolves. If the Spawnbroker comes into play first, and you target your Sphinx and your opponent's Szadek and, and then respond by returning the Sphinx to your hand, then Spawnbroker's ability will do nothing when it resolves. As pointed out above, you need the Sphinx's ability to be on the stack first and the Spawnbroker's ability to go on the stack on top of it.

Q: I have Horobi, Death's Whisper and Samite Healer in play. Can I target an opponent's creature with the Healer's ability, thus destroying it with Horobi's ability, even though there is no damage on the creature?

A: Yes, that is perfectly legal. You can use prevention abilities at any time, not just before damage is about to be dealt.

Q: I attacked into my opponent's Phytohydra with a 50/50 Trampling Saproling. One of my friends claims that Phytohydra only absorbs an amount of damage equal to the amount of toughness that it currently has, and that the rest is applied to the Phytohydra's controller as trample damage. My other friend argues that the Trample damage is never applied to him, as Phytohydra eats it all and becomes a 51/51. Who's right here?

A: What happens depends on how damage from this attacking creature is assigned. Contrary to common belief, combat damage from attacking creatures with Trample does not automatically carry over and get dealt to the defending player; It must be assigned.

When combat damage is assigned at the beginning of the combat damage step, the controller of this 50/50 creature must assign lethal damage to the blocking Phytohydra—"lethal damage" is a creature's toughness, minus any damage already dealt to it this turn.

Assuming Phytohydra has one toughness and no damage on it, the attacking player will have to assign one damage to it, and can assign up to 49 points to the defending player. When this damage is dealt, the Phytohydra will get a single counter, but odds are the game will end unless the defending player has a life total of 50 or more.

Q: It's my turn, and I control a 3/3 Trained Armodon and some land. My opponent controls a single Island and a freshly-played Mishra's Factory. I attack with my Armodon. My opponent activates her Factory, declares a block on the Armodon, and then before damage attempts to tap the Factory to give itself +1/+1. Would I be right in saying that the Factory cannot be tapped to give itself +1/+1 this turn due to 'Summoning Sickness'?

A: Yes. Your opponent has not controlled this Factory since the beginning of her most recent turn, so it can not tap to pay for its activated ability, as the ability has the tap symbol as part of its cost.

And once again I must put a call out for more questions. This column is short as I have received very few questions in the last week. If there is anything that you wonder about, feel free to send it in.