Rules Tip of the Day: Many older cards were printed with abilities that required you to make a payment or perform an action 'during your upkeep.' Most of these have received errata so that they are triggered abilities that trigger at the beginning of your upkeep. Check the Oracle to be sure what the current official text is.

Q: Do Replicated spells count towards the required forth spell on a turn for Erayo, Soratami Ascendant's ability? If I play Gigadrowse and Replicate it three times, would Erayo, Soratami Ascendant trigger?

A: No. The Replicate ability puts spells on the stack without playing them and Erayo's ability counts the number of spells that have been played. In the example, there may be four copies of Gigadrowse on the stack, but only one spell has been played.

Q: I put Orzhov Pontiff into play and choose "creatures I don't control get -1/-1". Before my opponent's Drake Familiar goes to the graveyard, can I haunt it, causing his Dimir Guildmage to go poof as well?

A: Yes, that is possible if you find a way to put the Pontiff in your graveyard (i.e. sacrifice it) before the Pontiff's comes-into-play triggered ability resolves. If you do, then the Haunt ability will resolve first and the Drake will become haunted. Then, when the Pontiff's comes-into-play ability resolves, the Drake will go to the graveyard, and the Pontiff's ability will trigger again.

Q: I have Chalice of the Void in play with one counter on it. Would Replicated copies of Shattering Spree get through? A friend and I got into an argument over it. I think that if the Shattering Spree gets countered, you can't pay the Replicate cost. He says you can Replicate as much as you want, and it would all go through, similar to Storm.

A: Your friend is correct, Replicate is very similar to the Storm keyword ability. You pay the Replicate cost when you play the Replicate spell, before any other spell or ability can counter your spell. Even if the original spell is countered, the Replicate triggered ability will go on the stack, this ability will create the appropriate number of copies, and the copies will resolve as normal.

Q: I made all my lands into creatures with Ambush Commander. I have Vinelasher Kudzu on the field. If I play Ghostway, will the Vinelasher get a counter for each of my lands coming back into play? Or does it not work because the Vinelasher isn't in play when the lands come back?

A: The ability of the Kudzu will trigger once for each of the lands that comes into play at the same time that it does. So it wil get the +1/+1 counters.

Q: If I enchant my Hypnotic Specter with Hypervolt Grasp, will my opponent discard a card when I tap my Hypnotic Specter to damage my opponent?

A: Yes, he will. Hypervolt Grasp gives the activated ability to the enchanted creature. When this ability resolves, the Specter deals damage to the targeted player, so the Specter's ability will trigger.

Q: Can you use Dimir Doppleganger as a copy of Szadek, Lord of Secrets to get lots of counters on it, and then turn the Doppleganger into Dimir Infiltrator, and have a huge unblockable creature? Or would the counters vanish once I changed it into another creature?

A: Yes, that works. The +1/+1 counters put on the Doppleganger when it is a copy of Szadek will remain on it when it copies another creature.

Q: I was playing in a game recently and I had Zur's Weirding in play and my opponent had a creature with Dredge in the graveyard. My opponent claims he can reveal the top card of his library with my Weirding and then, after seeing what it is, decide to Dredge. Is this allowed or not?

A: Your opponent was incorrect. A player may either Dredge instead of drawing, or apply the replacement effect from Zur's Weirding instead of drawing. He cannot choose to apply the first portion of Zur's Weirding's replacement effect—where the card is revealed—and then choose to dredge.

Q: How does Takeno, Samurai General's ability which reads "all other Samurai get +1/+1 for each point of Bushido it has" affect Fumiko the Lowblood?

A: Whenever one or more creatures are attacking, Fumiko will get +X/+X from Takeno's ability. When no creatures are attacking Takeno, will not give Fumiko any bonus.

Q: I have Engineered Plague in play naming Goblins. My opponent has Coat of Arms in play when he casts Siege-Gang Commander. What happens to the tokens from the Siege-Gang?

A: They will remain in play. State-based effect will not be checked until the effects from both the Engineered Plague and the Coat of Arms are applied to these token creatures. At that point, they will be 3/3 creatures and remain in play.