Rules Tip of the Day: It used to be that players were not allowed to rewind mana abilities that were used to announce an illegal action, if the mana was generated before the announcement. However, how this is treated has changed, and players are often given the opportunity to untap the relevant lands and empty their mana pools of the mana generated by these lands if a spell or ability was illegally played.

Q: Can I cast Recoup on an Ancestral Visions in my graveyard, and if so, would the Flashback cost be nothing? Or, since Ancestral Visions has no mana cost, would it not be a valid target for Recoup?

A: You can play Recoup and target the Ancestral Visions in your graveyard. However, Recoup will give Ancestral Visions in your graveyard a non-existent Flashback cost, and you cannot pay non-existent costs, so you will not be able to play te Visions from your graveyard.

Q: If a Vesuvan Shapeshifter in play is turned face up and becomes a copy of Stuffy Doll, who receives damage when this Shapeshifter-Doll is dealt damage? The same person who receives damage when the original Stuffy Doll is dealt damage?

A: If a permanent that in play, like Vesuvan Shapeshifter, becomes a copy of Stuffy Doll, there is no chosen player to affect. So when this Stuffy Doll copy receives damage, no player will receive damage.

Q: I control Lim-Dul the Necromancer and an animated Weatherseed Totem controlled by my opponent goes to the graveyard. What happens here? Where does the Weatherseed Totem card end up? And if it comes into play under my control, is it a creature or just an artifact?

A: What happens in this situation depends on whose turn it is. When the animated Weatherseed Totem goes to the graveyard, the abilities of the Totem and Lim-Dul the Necromancer will both trigger. When multiple abilities trigger at the same time, they go on the stack in APNAP (Active Player, Non-Active Player) order. This means that those controlled by the active player go on the stack first, followed by those controlled by the non-active player. If you are the active player, then your opponent will have the Totem returned to his hand. If your opponent is the active player, and you choose to pay 1B, then the Totem will be returned to play under your control as an unanimated artifact.

Q: If I have I a Pandemonium and a Light of Sanction in play can my opponent's creatures deal damage to my creatures when they come into play?

A: Yes. When a creature comes into play, Pandemonium's ability will trigger. When this triggered ability resolves, Pandemonium may be the source of the ability, but the creature that caused the ability to trigger is the source of the damage. So yes, your opponent can deal damage to creatures you control when the appropriate Pandemonium triggers resolve.

Q: What happens if I play a Walk the Aeons and my opponent Reiterates it targeting herself? Do they just cancel each other out?

A: These two spells won't cancel each other out, as both of you will get extra turns, but the turn order will be slightly unusual. When multiple extra turns are created, the most recently created one is taken first. After this turn, you will take another turn, as your Walk the Aeons will resolve last. Assuming it's your turn (Walk the Aeons is a sorcery), you'll have two turns in a row. Then after your extra turn, your opponent will take her extra turn. After her extra turn, she will take her normal turn. After that you'll return to the normal turn order.

Q: I enchant my Magus of the Disk with Fool's Demise. If I activate the Magus, which will destroy the enchantment and the creature, will the Magus return to play under my control because of the enchantment?

A: Yes. In fact, the Fool's Demise will also return to your hand. When the Magus's ability resolves, both it and the Fool's Demise will be destroyed. They will both go to the graveyard at the same time as all other artifacts, creatures, and enchantments. When this happens, both of Fool's Demise's abilities will trigger; it does not matter that the Fool's Demise goes to the graveyard at the same time as the creature it enchanted.

Q: If an Arcbound Worker with its one Modular counter is killed by a Serrated Arrows, does Modular trigger at all?

A: The Modular ability will trigger in this example. However, as the Worker left play with zero +1/+1 counters on it, the creature targeted by the Modular ability will not receive any counters. (This is because of the new state-based effect that states that when a permanent has both a +1/+1 and a -1/-1 counter on it, then these two counters will cancel each other out and both will cease to exist.)

Q: If I play Parallel Thoughts more than once, does my stack of seven cards from the first increase to 14, 21, and then 28 cards? Or is it four different stacks of seven cards?

A: You'd have multiple different stacks of seven cards, not one large secondary library removed from the game. Any time you would draw you, can choose to take the top card from any one of these stacks.