Rules Tip of the Day: Loss of life is different from damage. Damage can be prevented, loss of life cannot. Effects that are applied or trigger when damage is dealt will not be applied when there is loss of life.

Q: Animate Dead is on a creature, then Flickerform is put on that creature. How do these cards interact when Fllickerform is activated?

A: When Flickerform's activated ability resolves, Animate Dead's leaves-play ability will trigger, but it won't do anything, as the creature is no longer in play.

When Flickerform's delayed triggered ability resolves, the enchanted creature will be returned to play. The Animate Dead and the Flickerform will also return to play attached to this creature. It does not matter that the Animate Dead is not an Aura at this point, Flickerform's delayed triggered ability may refer to returning Auras to play, but it means any of the cards that were removed from play that were Auras when they left play. After all of these permanents are returned to play, state-based effects are checked, and the Animate Dead will fall off of this creature and remain in play. Then Animate Dead's comes-into-play triggered ability will go on the stack. When this happens, you can choose a creature card in a graveyard to target. When the ability resolves, Animate Dead will become an Aura, the targeted creature in a graveyard will come into play, and Animate Dead will become attached to it.

Q: When you play a card that has been removed from the game by Muse Vessel, do you pay just the 1 colorless mana or do you pay the 1 colorless in addition to the normal costs of playing the removed spell you wish to cast?

A: The effect from Muse Vessel's second activated ability allows you to play one of the cards that have been removed from the game by its first ability, however it does not allow you to play this card for free. This means that you will have to pay all costs associated with playing this card.

Q: I have Simic Basilisk, Helium Squirter, and Experiment Kraj in play and I play Trophy Hunter. When the Hunter comes into play, I Graft her with a +1/+1 counter from one of the Graft creatures I control. Then I put a +1/+1 counter on one of my opponent's creatures with Experiment Kraj's ability. If I then give my opponent's creature flying with Helium Squirter, and give my Trophy Hunter the Basilisk's ability, could I shoot down my opponent's creature by activating Trophy Hunter's ability just once?

A; No, that four card combo does not work. The ability granted by Simic Basilisk only triggers when the creature with a +1/+1 counter on it deals combat damage. Damage from abilities like Trophy Hunter's is not combat damage, so the ability will not trigger.

Q: I play Copy Enchantment. While the spell is on the stack, my opponent uses Eight-and-a-Half Tails to turn my spell white and give several of his permanents protection from white. When my spell resolves, I choose to copy Confiscate. Is my copied-Confiscate still white, or is it now blue? Can I put my new Confiscate on one of the permanents that have protection from white?

A: This Copy Enchantment/Confiscate will be white. When Eight-and-a-Half Tails' ability makes a spell white, the permanent that enters play is also white. Copy Enchantment will enter play and copy the Confiscate, but the effect from Eight-and-a-Half Tails' ability will still be applied to it. And when calculating the characteristics of a permanent, you factor in copy effects before you apply other effects. This means that the effect from Eight-and-a-Half Tails will be applied after Copy Enchantment becomes a copy of Confiscate. So no, you can not attach this Aura to a permanent that had Protection from White.

Q: If I play Pemmin's Aura on a creature, activate the Aura's abilities, then move the Aura to another creature using the Simic Guildmage's ability, what happens to the effects of those activated abilities? Do they carry over to the next creature, stay on the last creature, or do they cease to exist entirely?

A: The effect from the activated abilities of Pemmin's Aura will affect the creature that is enchanted by the Aura when the abilities resolve, or if the Aura is no longer in play at that time, the creature that was enchanted by the Aura when it left play. So if you activate any of Pemmin's Aura's activated abilities, and then—before the ability resolves—move the Aura from creature A to creature B, these abilities will affect creature B.

Q: If I were to equip two Pariah's Shields onto a Phytohydra, would Phytohydra receive double the damage that I would receive and double the counters it would normally get?

A: No, Pariah's Shield creates a replacement effect that redirects where damage is dealt. It does not cause damage to be dealt, just where existing damage will be dealt. After you apply the effect from the first, the ability of the second will do nothing.

Q: I have Night of Souls' Betrayal in play. My buddy plays Kird Ape with a Forest in play. Does the Ape get -1/-1 first due to timestamp, or +1/+2 due to the active player, non-active player rule (APNAP)?

A: Technically speaking, it will get -1/-1 first, as Night of Souls' Betrayal was in play first, and its effect has an earlier timestamp. However, state-based effects are not checked until all effects have been applied, so this Kird Ape will survive as a 1/2 creature.

Q: Can Balthor the Defiled's effect be played while he is in the graveyard?

A: No, unless specified, or unless the ability could only work when the card is in a graveyard, activated abilities can only be used when the object with the ability is in play.