Rules Tip of the Day: Unless specified or unless the ability cannot work anywhere else, the activated abilities of cards that become permanents can only be played when the permanent is in play.

Q: I cycle Edge of Autumn, sacrificing a Flagstones of Trokair. Do I draw the card before or after searching for a Plains, or does it not matter, since I am the active player?

A: You will search for a Plains first. When you cycle Edge of Autumn, you sacrifice the land during the announcement of the cycling ability. If you sacrifice a Flagstones of Trokair, then the Flagstone's ability will trigger. This triggered ability will go on the stack on top of Edge of Autumn's cycling ability and it will resolve first. The fact that you are the active player does not matter; this situation only has one triggered ability, so you cannot choose the order that these objects go on the stack.

Q: Is there a way to move the Graft counter from Llanowar Reborn to Treetop Village?

A: You can only move the counter via the Graft ability if the Treetop Village comes into play as a creature. To do that you'd need something like Living Lands or Nature's Revolt. You cannot use the Treetop's own animation ability to cause it to come into play as a creature and get this counter.

Q: I have a Crovax, Ascendant Hero in play against my opponent's Troll Ascetic. If I play another Crovax, how will state-based effects handle the situation? Will everything die? Will the Troll survive?

A: All three of these permanents will go to the graveyard. After the second Crovax, Ascendent Hero enters play, state-based effects are checked. At this point the Troll Ascetic is a 1/0 creature, so it will go to the graveyard. And as Crovax, Ascendent Hero is Legendary, both copies of Crovax [Crovaxen? -Seamus] will go to the graveyard. There is no order that state-based effects are checked; they are all checked at the same time. Because of this, all three of these creatures will go to the graveyard at once.

Q: My opponent has Norin the Wary. I cast Shock to trigger Norin's ability, then cast Shock again in response. Will the second Shock kill Norin?

A: No. Norin's ability will just trigger again and go on the stack on top of this second Shock. When the second trigger resolves, Norin will be removed from the game until the next end of turn step. Then both Shocks will be countered on resolution.

Q: Will Quicksilver Fountain put a second flood counter on a land turned to an Island, then turned to a Plains to turn it back into an Island? In other words, can Celestial Dawn be used to stop Quicksilver Fountain's remove-counters ability from triggering?

A: Yes, any land that has a flood counter on it and is then changed into some other land type can have an additional flood counter added, and it will become an Island again. This means that the interaction between Celestial Dawn and Quicksilver Fountain does not work as you appear to want it to. The timestamp of each individual ability that turns a land into an Island is set when the corresponding Quicksilver Fountain trigger resolves. These will be after the timestamp of Celestial Dawn. So any lands you control that receive a Flood counter after Celestial Dawn has come into play will become Islands.

Q: I am planning on building a deck using the old Cockatrice / Lure combo and have a question regarding regeneration. If I have Lure and a Regeneration on my Cockatrice and I attack, do I have to pay the regenerate cost of the Cockatrice over and over again for each creature that blocks it that would deal lethal damage to it, or do I pay the cost only once, when the damage resolves?

A: Barring first strike combat damage, all combat damage is dealt just once, at the same time. You'd only have to regenerate your Cockatrice once, just before combat damage is dealt, regardless of the amount of combat damage dealt to it at this time or the number of creatures blocking it.

Q: Can a Confound be used to counter spells that target creatures in the graveyard—Animate Dead, Reanimate, or Zombify?

A: No. Creatures only exist in play. In any other zone they are creature cards. Confound can only target a spell that targets a creature in play.

Q: I want to know if Blessed Reversal prevents the damage from each creature. For example, if I attack with a 6/6 and my opponent plays Blessed Reversal, would he still take six damage?

A: Blessed Reversal does not prevent damage at all; it just causes the controller of the Reversal to gain life. Your opponent will gain three life but will also still receive six points of damage from this attacking creature. In the end, his life total will go down by three.

Q: Is it possible to play Promise of Power to draw five cards, then sacrifice Kagemaro, First to Suffer to destroy all creatures in play, and then, after it resolves, pay the Entwine cost of Promise of Power to make a Demon token?

A: You pay all Entwine costs when you play an Entwine spell, not later. You can play Promise of Power and choose to pay the Entwine cost. You can then respond to this by activating the ability of Kagemaro. Keep in mind that you will not have drawn the cards from Promise of Power yet, so those cards will not be counted when calculating the -X/-X that Kagemaro gives to each creature. So if you were counting on having these cards in hand, then this does not work.