Rules Tip of the Day: Contrary to a fairly common opinion, you can play multiple spells and abilities without passing priority. If you intend to do this, make sure that you clearly announce that you are playing one spell or ability and then without passing priority you are playing another. Do not pause too long after announcing the first spell or ask 'OK?', as this is considered to be passing priority.

Q: If I have Ghost Council of Orzhova, and I attack, and my opponent blocks with Paladin en-Vec, what happens if I remove the Ghost Council from the game with damage on the stack?

A: The combat damage from the Ghost Council will be prevented. It does not matter that the Ghost Council is no longer in play, the game will use the last known information regarding the Ghost Council when determining the source of this damage. When it left play it was a black and white creature, so the Paladin's protection ability will prevent this damage.

Q: If you target an Ink-Treader Nephilim with both points of an Electrolyze, you get copies of Electrolyze targeting each other creature. Is it possible to split the damage of the Electrolyze copies, as long as one point of each one still goes to the creature it was created to target?

A: No. You do not play these copies, so you cannot make the decisions that you could normally make when playing original spell. The copies created by Ink-Treader's ability are exact copies, so these copies will have a single target. The only difference between the copies and the original are what the single targets are.

Q: If I have Izzet Guildmage play and it is my opponents turn, can I Quicken a Lava Spike, splice Desperate Ritual, and begin the combo? Basically what I'm asking is: can I use Quicken to play a sorcery during an opponent's turn, and copy that sorcery over and over with the Guildmage?

A: Yes, that works. You can use the Guildmage's ability to copy a sorcery with converted mana cost 2 or less at any time, not just during your turn. If you have managed to play a sorcery during an opponent's turn with something like Quicken, you can copy this spell at that time.

Q: If I have Tombstone Stairwell and Doubling Season, does my opponent also receive double the number of Zombie tokens?

A: No. Doubling Season's effect is applied to effects that put tokens under your control or counters on permanents you control. And while Tombstone Stairwell may put tokens under each player's control at one time, Doubling Season's effect will only double the number put into play under your control.

Q: I was playing Myojin of Seeing Winds. I had twenty-one permanents in play, and I removed the Divinity counter. At the time I removed the counter, there were only twenty cards in my deck. My opponent was at twenty life. I also had Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind in play tapped. The way I understand it, each instance of the draw would go on the stack separately as "draw a card". So the first "draw a card" resolved, and I drew the card, and stacked Niv-Mizzet's triggered ability to deal one damage before I draw the next card. Does this work? Can I kill my oppontent without decking myself?

A: No. Your assumption on how drawing multiple cards works is not correct. In this example, there is only one ability on the stack, and it will cause you to draw twenty-one cards. It is true that when you draw multiple cards, you are really drawing one card at a time, and each draw is a separate event; that does not mean that each individual draw is represented by a separate object on the stack.

Q: If I am competing on an international level, is it considered "outside notes" to bring a list of phrases in a foreign language—for example, Japanese—to the table to help communication? Simple things like the numbers 1-25, "hello", "thank you", "in response", etc.

A: Technically speaking, it is outside notes, and not allowed. In theory, it could be looked over by the head judge and approved. However, that solution is not feasible as then the head judge would have to spend too much time looking over various sets of notes that players bring in. While I think that thought is quite admirable, implementing something like this it would take too much staff time in order to ensure that someone is not cheating. ['Sumimasen' is the most important Japanese work you can learn. -Seamus]