Rules Tip of the Day: The value of X in the mana cost of a spell or ability is treated as zero in any zone except when the spell or ability in on the stack. When on the stack, the X is treated as being equal to whatever was chosen and paid.
Q: I have Doubling Season in play and play Flash Foliage. Do both tokens block the targeted attacking creature? Can I use Flash Foliage to block and kill a 2/2 creature?
A: Yes. Doubling Season's effect replaces what happens when Flash Foliage resolves; instead of a single 1/1 token creature blocking the targeted attacking creature, you will have two.
Q: I control a Graft creature in play with three counters on it. My opponent has a Viashino Fangtail in play. I play a 1/1 creature. When does a counter go on this new creature and can my opponent respond to this?
A: When this creature comes into play, the Graft ability will trigger. When this ability resolves, you can choose to put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. Your opponent can respond to this ability by "pinging" this creature before it gets the counter. If he does, then when the ability resolves you won't be able to move a counter, so nothing will happen. If your opponent does allow the Graft ability to resolve and you do choose to move a counter, it is too late for him to respond. By the time he can respond, the new creature will be a 2/2 and one point of damage will not be lethal.
Q: When you regenerate Skeletal Vampire, does its comes-into-play ability trigger, giving you two 1/1 black Bat creature tokens with flying?
A: No, when a creature regenerates, it does not leave play and reenter play. It does not change zones at all, and remains in play.
Q: Can you detach Sunforger to search for Orim's Thunder and pay the Kicker cost? Is the Kicker cost already included in the detach ability of the Sunforger?
A: Yes, you can do that, but you will have to pay the Kicker cost. Sunforger's ability allows you to play the searched-for spell without paying the mana cost, but you will have to play any additional or optional costs associated with the spell.
Q: If I have Ghostly Prison and Suppression Field in play, does my opponent have to pay four to attack, or is Ghostly Prison triggered, rather than activated?
A: Ghostly Prison's ability is neither triggered nor activated. It has a static ability that creates a restriction on creature combat. Because of this, Suppression Field will not have any effect on Ghostly Prison.
Q: Will Mind Rot work if my opponent only has one card in his hand?
A: Yes, when Mind Rot resolves, the targeted player will do as much as possible and discard the lone card in his/her hand.
Q: When using the spell Skullscorch, if your opponent has no cards in their hand, does it automatically deal them four damage?
A: No. When Skullscorch resolves, the targeted player can choose to have Skullscorch deal 4 points of damage to them. If they do not choose to do so, then they discard two cards at random. It does not matter that they do not have sufficient card in hand, they do not have to choose to have Skullscorch deal damage to them.
Q: I have Tetravus, Intruder Alarm and a wizard that taps to do one damage in play. Can I do infinite damage with the wizard during my upkeep by moving the Tetravus counters on and off infinite times?!
A: No, that does not work. Tetravus's ability has errata to that makes it a triggered ability. This ability only triggers once per turn, at the beginning of your upkeep. When this ability resolves, you can remove Tetravites from the game to put +1/+1 counters on the Tetravus. Then you can remove any number of +1/+1 counters from Tetravus to put 1/1 Tetravites into play. This process does not repeat, so you will only be able to use this wizard's ability as many times as the number of Tetravites that you end up creating.
Q: In a Two-Headed Giant game, I enchant one my opponents with Psychic Possession. How does this work? Will my teammate draw as normal, but I draw when the enchanted player draws? Or will we both draw when the enchanted player draws?
A: Here's a bit of strategy advice: Psychic Possession is not good in Two-Headed Giant. Here's why—because you and your teammate share a turn and all parts of it, an effect that tells you to skip your draw step is actually causing both your and your teammate to not draw during your turn. Also, Psychic Possession only instructs you—its controller—to draw when the enchanted opponent draws a card. So you will draw at that time, but your teammate will not. So with Psychic Possession, your team will end up drawing a single card each set of turns, as opposed to each of you drawing a card.
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