Rules Tip of the Day: The rules of Magic do not list things that you cannot do; they detail what you can do.

Q: My opponent is at two life and has five untapped lands, including a Vitu-Ghazi, City Tree. I have Last Gasp in my hand. I declare Kagemoro, First to Suffer as an attacker. My opponent creates a token and declares it as a blocker, simultaneously. Here's my question: In this situation, can I Last Gasp the token before it can be declared as a blocker, allowing my Kagemoro to go through?

A: Your opponent cannot make a token creature and then immediately declare it as a blocking creature. In order for this token creature to be in play and capable of blocking, your opponent would need to play and resolve the ability of the Tree of Vitu-Ghazi during the declaration of attackers step [Note that this is after the active player has declared which creatures are attacking -Seamus] . After this ability resolves, both player will receive priority before you advance to the declaration of blockers step. It is at this point that you can remove the token creature with Last Gasp. If you do, then the token will not be in play when blockers are declared. If your opponent has no other blocking creatures, then your Kagamaro will go unblocked and deal damage to your opponent.

Q: An opponent casts Glimpse the Unthinkable and I start turning over cards from my library and putting them into my graveyard. On the third card, I hit a Gaea's Blessing. Do I mill the other seven cards and then shuffle the entire graveyard into my library, or do I shuffle the three revealed cards back in and then mill the next seven?

A: Gaea's Blessing has a triggered ability that will trigger when it goes to the graveyard, but wait until a player receives priority to go on the stack. You will mill the other seven cards first, and then put the Blessing's ability on the stack. When this ability resolves, you will shuffle your graveyard into your library.

Q: If you play Pithing Needle, naming Drift of Phantasms, does it stop the Transmute ability of the card?

A: Yes, Transmute is an activated ability. If Drift of Phantasms is named when Pithing Needle has come into play, then the Drift cannot be Transmuted.

Q: Does Stifle stop Goryo's Vengance from removing the Legendary creature from the game? I know that Stifle works with Astral Slide, but when we tried with Goryo's Vengance on Magic Online it didn't work. Is this by the game rules, or a bug in MODO?

A: That sounds like a bug, Goryo's Vengeance creates a delayed triggered ability that will go on the stack at the beginning of the next end of turn step. This triggered ability can be targeted and countered by Stifle.

Q: Can I play Flaring Pain and then deal damage to an indestructible creature, so it goes to the graveyard?

A: No. Indestructibiltiy does not prevent damage from being dealt to a creature, it prevents what happens when lethal damage is dealt to a creature. Flaring Pain will not affect this situation at all, the indestructible creature will remain in play even if it has received lethal damage.

Q: I have a Mycosynth Lattice in play along with a Kill Switch, which I have activated (thereby tapping all permanents in play). At the end of my turn, my opponent destroys the Lattice. Will his permanents untap (the ones that were previously artifacts and therefore kept tapped by the Switch)? Or does the Switch keep them tapped?

A: His permanents will remain tapped down. The effect from Kill Switch will continue to be applied to all permanents it has tapped, even those that are no longer artifacts.

Q: Does Sands of Time trigger Mesmeric Orb's ability if the Sands of Time taps the Orb whilst simultaneously untapping everything else?

A: Yes, Mesmeric Orb's ability will trigger when Sands of time's ability resolves. Keep in mind that Mesmeric Orb's ability will still trigger even when it is tapped. It used to be that all artifacts lost their abilities when tapped. However that was changed with the introduction of the 6th Edition rules just over 6 years ago [Six years! -S]. Now there are only a few artifacts whose effects 'turn off' when they are tapped.

Q: My opponent has a Kird Ape and puts his first Forest in play. Could I react to it with a Shock on the Kird Ape, or is it too late then? Because lands don't use the stack, I think there won't be time to react, but I'm not sure.

A: You are correct; playing a land does not use the stack and cannot be responded to. By the time you receive priority to do anything, the Kird Ape wil be a 2/3 creature and out of Shock range.

Q: According to the rule 419.5a, if a source would deal zero damage, it does not deal damage at all. That means abilities that trigger on damage being dealt won't trigger. It also means that replacement effects that increase damage dealt have no event to replace, so they have no effect. Does that means an attacking Rukh Egg with Tok-Tok, Volcano Born in play would still deal no damage?

A: You are correct. If a Red source is not dealing any damage, then the replacement effect of Tok-Tok, Volcano Born has nothing to replace. In this example the attacking Rukh Egg will still deal zero damage.