Rules Tip of the Day: You can only pay Kicker costs when you play a Kicker spell. If an effect would put a permanent into play, you cannot pay any Kicker costs associated with that card.

Q: When you have a Celestial Dawn in play, does a land such as Calciform Pools keep it's storage counters for later use if Celestial Dawn happens to be destroyed?

A: Yes, any counters on this land will remain there. However, they won't be able to do anything, as the land they are on is now a Plains. This means that you won't be able to use the activated ability to add additional counters or to remove these counters to add mana to your pool.

Q: Will casting a Momentary Blink on a face-down Brine Elemental "turn it face up" and cause an opponent to skip their untap step?

A: No, not quite. While this creature will end up being face-up after Momentary Blink resolves, it does not turn face-up in play. When Momentary Blink resolves, your Morph creature is removed from the game. It is turned face up as it leaves play. When the creature is then returned to play, it is a face-up Brine Elemental. As it was never turned face up while in play, its triggered ability will not trigger.

Q: In my upkeep I remove the last suspend counter from an Errant Ephemeron and play the spell. As such, it has haste for this turn. In my main phase I play a Vesuvan Shapeshifter and choose to copy the Ephemeron. Does the copy have haste?

A: No. The "real" Errant Ephemeron has haste because of the effect from the Suspend ability. The Shapeshifter will copy the characteristics of the Ephemeron, but not any of the effects that are applied to it.

Q: I use the Suspend ability of a Deep-Sea Kraken. Can my opponent respond to this by playing a creature with Flash so I don't get to remove a time counter for this spell, or do I get to remove a counter from the Kraken right away?

A: Using a Suspend ability does not use the stack and cannot be responded to. This means that by the time that your opponent can play this Flash creature the Kraken is Suspended and its ability will trigger.

Q: I control a Duskrider Peregrine and my opponent targets me with Sudden Spoiling. Is the Peregrine affected, or does its protection from black ability "save" it?

A: Sudden Spoiling does not target the creatures that it effect is applied to; it targets a player. This effect will cause a creature with protection from black to become a 0/2 creature and lose all of its abilities, including the protection from black ability.

Q: With Mirari in play, I cast Conflagrate, with X = 4. I choose to target two of my opponent's creatures, distributing three damage to one of them and one to the other. When the triggered ability of Mirari resolves, I choose to make a copy. Does this copy have to have two targets? Do these targets have to be creatures? Do I have to split the damage 3-1 between the targets?

A: Yes, no, and yes. When you put a copy of a spell on the stack, it is an exact copy. This includes all choices made when the original was played. Many effects that make copies, like Mirari's, allow you to change the targets of the copy, but all other choices made when the original was played will apply with the copy.

Q: I have a creature enchanted with Flickerform. If my opponent puts a Confiscate on the creature, can I use Flickerform's ability? If so, will I regain control of this creature?

A: Yes and no. You still control the Flickerform on this creature and you can use its ability. But when Flickerform's ability returns this creature to play at the end of turn, it also returns the enchantments on it to play, attached to this creature. Your opponent will still own this Confiscate, so he will still have control of this creature. If you use Flickerform's ability when Confiscate is on the stack, Confiscate will be countered, and you will retain your creature.

Q: If I cast Animate Artifact on an Adarkar Sentinel, does it go from being a 3/3 to a 5/5 because of the casting cost?

A: It will become a 5/5 creature. The power and toughness setting effect of Animate Artifact will be applied after you start with the base P/T of this Sentinel.

Q: This is a question about standings in a tournament, say at the local FNM. Let's say both my friend and I each have 9 points at the end of the tournament. If I had beaten him in a match, would I automatically place higher than him?

A: No. Tiebreakers are based first on the combined record of your opponents and second on your own game win percentage. The individual results in a single match do not determine or reorder your placement in standings.