Rules Tip of the Day: Some cards allow you to play cards in zones other than your hand, like the graveyard or top of your library, as though they were in your hand. Examples of cards like this are Future Sight, Crucible of Worlds and Spelljack. These effects allow you to play these cards; they are not in your hand, and you cannot discard them, or do anything else that you could with an actual card in your hand other than play them.

Q: I have Grand Arbiter Augustin IV on the table and I play Plaxmanta; since the Arbiter reduces the Manta's total casting cost, will I take mana burn if I pay the Manta's anti-sacrifice cost?

A: In this situation, you cannot pay anything other than U when playing Plaxmanta. Because of this, you cannot pay green mana when playing this spell, and the Plaxmanta will end up being sacrificed. If you put excess mana in your pool, then you would take mana burn, but you are not given the option of paying additional mana to play Plaxmanta.

Q: If I have Halcyon Glaze in play, and my opponent has Grave Pact and Sakura-Tribe Elder. I play Stinkweed Imp. My opponent claims that he can sacrifice the Elder using Grave Pact to kill the Glaze before the Imp comes into play. Can he do this, or does my Imp come into play first, allowing me to sacrifice it instead of the Glaze?

A: Your opponent is correct. The Glaze's ability triggers when you play a creature spell, not when a creature comes into play. After you play a creature spell and the Glaze's ability resolves, he can sacrifice his Elder in order to trigger the ability of his Grave Pact. If he does, Grave Pact's ability will resolve before the Imp comes into play, and you will have to sacrifice the Glaze.

Q: My opponent has nine lands and an Izzet Guildmage in play, and plays Train of Thought, paying six mana and Replicating the spell twice. He then uses his Izzet Guildmage to copy the Train of Thought. He claims he gets to draw six cards. I think he should draw four cards. Could you say how many cards should be drawn?

A: You are correct, he should draw four cards. Replicate is a triggered ability that triggers when you play a spell and pay the Replicate cost. When this triggered ability resolves, copies of this spell equal to the number of times the Replicate cost was paid will go on the stack. If this original spell is copied, only a single copy will go on the stack. This is because the Replicate ability only triggers when a spell is played, not when one is put on the stack.

Q: My opponent controls Lowland Basilisk with Arcane Teachings attached to it. I have Air Elemental in play. Before the combat phase, my opponent taps the Lowland Basilisk to deal my Air Elemental one point of damage from the Arcane Teachings. My question is, does this kill my Air Elemental, since it is not the combat phase?

A: Your Air Elemental will be destroyed at the next end-of-combat step. It doesn't matter that the ability granted by the Arcane Teachings was not used in the combat phase; the Basilisk's ability will trigger when the Basilisk deals damage, and it will create a delayed triggered ability. This delayed triggered ability will go on the stack at the beginning of the next end-of-combat step and destroy the Air Elemental.

Q: Let's say I play Rolling Thunder for 10RR. To play Radiate on this spell, I must target only one target creature or player (Radiate requirement), and not use the Rolling Thunder's damage distribution ability. Radiate creates as many new copies of the Rolling Thunder spell as there are available targets, each of which targets one of those available targets. My question is: Can I distribute the damage from the copies according to the Rolling Thunder ability, even though they start by targeting all the available targets?

A: No, each of these copies will be put on the stack with just one target. You cannot add targets to any of these Rolling Thunder copies or divide up how they deal damage.

Q: I have Tainted Aether and Aether Flash in play. I use my Forbidden Orchard for a mana and my opponent gets a 1/1 token from me. What happens to that token? It receives two damage from Aether Flash, but can my opponent still sacrifice the token to Tainted Aether?

A: It's up to you. As the controller of the triggered abilities of the Tainted Aether and the Aether Flash, you can choose the order they go on the stack and resolve. It would be beneficial to you to have the ability of the Tainted Aether go on the stack first followed by the ability of the Aether Flash. This way, the token creature generated by Forbidden Orchard will receive lethal damage and go to the graveyard before your opponent is instructed to sacrifice a creature or land.

Q: Can Inflame be played before damage is dealt to creatures, or does it only affect creatures already damaged? The card does not say 'so far this turn', implying that the effect lasts until end of turn.

A: Inflame only deals damage when it resolves. It is a one-shot effect, and it does not create a delayed triggered ability that hangs around for any length of time. This means that creatures that are dealt damage later in the turn will not have an additional two damage dealt to them.

Q: If I play Sacrifice on a Su-Chi, would I receive four black mana from the spell, then four generic from Su-Chi going to the graveyard?

A: You will end up getting 4BBBB in your mana pool. This is because Su-Chi has a triggered ability that triggers whenever Su-Chi goes to the graveyard. It does not matter that you sacrificed it to pay the cost of a spell that also generated mana, this ability will still trigger and resolve.