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Rules Tip of the Day: You cannot allow your opponent to perform an illegal action. Doing so is cheating.
Q: If I have two Burning-Tree Shaman, will their abilities start damaging me?
A: No, Burning-Tree Shaman has a triggered ability and not an activated ability.
Q: I have Djinn Illuminatus and Nightscape Familiar in play. How much is the Replicate cost of Peel from Reality: U or 1U?
A: The Replicate cost is unaffected by the Familiar's ability, so it'll be 1U. The Familiar's ability does not lower the mana cost of the spell—just what you pay when playing it.
Q: With Djinn Illuminatus in play, I cast Brain Freeze. This is the first spell cast this turn. I then choose to Replicate the Brain Freeze three times. How many Brain Freezes will resolve, counting Storm copies?
A: You will have a total of four Brain Freezes, so you will mill a total of twelve cards. The Storm ability on the copies will not trigger, since you did not play them. Additionally, the original Brain Freeze was the first spell played this turn, so its Storm ability will not create any other copies.
Q: My opponent plays Warp World. I reveal Zo-Zu the Punisher and 5 lands. My opponent reveals 5 lands and some other permanents. Does Zo-Zu trigger for the land? What if I had revealed two Zo-Zus instead, since he's Legendary?
A: Zo-Zu's ability will trigger once for each of the lands that come into play at the same time as it does. In the first situation, each player will end up taking ten points of damage. Keep in mind that as you are the controller of Zo-Zu, you can choose the order that these triggered abilities go on the stack. So, if this damage would end up cause both players to lose the game, you can choose to cause his life total to go below zero first, winning the game, by putting those triggered abilities on the stack last.
In the second example, with two Zo-Zu's being put into play, their abilities will trigger. All of these triggered abilities will then go on the stack after the Warp World finishes resolving and state-based effects are checked, putting these two Zo-Zus in the graveyard.
Q: I saw a friend with two copies of In the Eye of Chaos in play, and there was some dispute about whether or not one blew up. Is the Enchant World rule still around? I haven't heard anything about it for quite some time.
A: Yes, the "World rule" is still in effect. There may not have been any cards printed with the World subtype in a long time, but the rules still support and deal with those cards. For those unaware, the World rule states that only one permanent with the subtype World can be in play at any given time. If there are ever more than one in play, the one that has been in play for the shortest amount of time will remain in play and the others will go to their respective graveyards. If there is a tie, then all are put into the graveyard.
Q: If I have Night of Souls' Betrayal in play, and my opponent has a creature equipped with Umezawa's Jitte or Vulshok Morningstar, and I play Graven Dominator, will all other creatures die? Will they have time to respond by pumping their creature with the Jitte? Will the Vulshok Morningstar save that creature?
A: Yes, players can respond to the coming into play ability of the Graven Dominator. However, depending on what they do, their efforts may have no real effect. For example, responding with the activated ability of an equipped Umezawa's Jitte will not save the equipped creature, as the Graven Dominator's effect will have a later timestamp, since it resolves later. When you determine the power and toughness of the equipped creature, you start with it's written power and toughness, add the increase due to the Jitte's abilities, reset this creature's P/T to 1/1 and then finally apply the effect form the Night of Souls' Betrayal. (You apply the effect from the Night of Souls' Betrayal last in this example, as it is a continuous effect from a static ability that does not set power and toughness.) In the end this will be a 0/0 creature and go to the graveyard.
The situation involving Vulshock Morningstar is different; it has a static ability that creates a continuous effect that does not set P/T, just like that of Night of Soul's Betrayal. This means that the effect it generates will be applied after the effect from the Graven Dominator. Any creature equipped with the Morningstar will end up as a 2/2 creature in this situation.
For more information on how continuous effects interact, look at section 418.5 of the Comprehensive Rules. You can also find two very informative articles on this issue by our own Lee Sharpe, here:
