Rules Tip of the Day: You cannot pay life that you do not have. For example, you cannot cycle Street Wraith unless you have two or more life.
Q: I block a creature with Thornweald Archer. Can I save it by returning to my hand, and kill the attacker with Deathtouch?
A: No. The Deathtouch ability can only trigger if the creature with Deathtouch is in play when damage is dealt. If you return the Archer to your hand before combat damage is dealt, then the Deathtouch ability will not be around to trigger when this damage is dealt. If you wait for combat damage to resolve, then the Archer will receive damage as well, and will go to the graveyard if it receives lethal damage.
Q: If I have a Mishra, Artificer Prodigy in play, and I cast a Soultether Golem from my hand, how many time counters would each Golem get?
A: When you play Soultether Golem, Mishra's ability will trigger and go on the stack on top of the Soultether Golem spell. When this ability resolves, you can put a second Soultether Golem into play. It will come into play with just one time counter. Then the original Soultether Golem spell will resolve and it will also enter play with one time counter. When this one enters play, the ability of the other will trigger. When this trigger resolves the first Golem to enter play will gain an additional time counter. The second Golem will not gain any additional counters unless another creature enters play under your control.
Q: Tolaria West is in my graveyard and Crucible of Worlds says I can play lands from my graveyard. Can I play Tolaria West's Transmute ability over and over?
A: No. To play a land card means to put it into play as your land for the turn. Transmute is an activated ability that functions when the card with Transmute is in your hand. Crucible of Worlds does not allow you to use the activated abilities of land cards that are in your graveyard, only to play them.
Q: A friend of mine and I have been battling for about five days now about whether Adarkar Valkyrie can use her tap ability to bring back Calciderm. The wording on Adarkar Valkyrie is ambiguous and we are not sure if it targets before or after the card hits the graveyard. It says target, which means Calciderm is an illegal target, but it also says that when it hits the graveyard, and once it hits the graveyard it can be targeted.
A: Adarkar Valkyrie's ability targets a creature that is in play. When this ability resolves, a delayed triggered ability is created. When the targeted creature goes to the graveyard, this trigger will go on the stack. When this trigger resolves, the card that represented this creature will return to play. In order for this to work, you must be able to target the creature that is in play. As Calciderm cannot be targeted, you cannot use this ability to return it to play.
Q: If my opponent plays a face-down creature while I have Kaervek the Merciless in play, will Kaervek's ability only activate when the Morphed creature is turned face-up, or will I do the damage to a target creature or player when the creatures comes into play Morphed?
A: Kaervek's ability will not deal any damage in this situation. When this creature is played Kaervek's ability will trigger. This spell has a converted mana cost of zero, so Kaervek's ability will deal zero damage to the targeted creature or player. Turning a face-down creature face-up is not playing a spell, so Kaervek's ability will not trigger when this happens.
Q: You have a normal game board with several permanents in play, including a Barren Glory, and you play Dimensional Breach. In your next upkeep, you return the Glory, would it still be the beginning of your upkeep, because you choose what triggers first?
A: No, that does not work. Barren Glory's ability will only trigger if it is in play when your upkeep step begins. In this situation it will come into play during the upkeep step, but it was not in play when the upkeep step began.
Q: I have a Paradox Haze and a Psychic Vortex in play. In my upkeep, I choose to pay the Cumulative Upkeep of the PV and draw cards. Then, in my next upkeep, I choose not to pay the Cumulative Upkeep of the Psychic Vortex and sacrifice it. Then, because I no longer control Psychic Vortex, I will not need to discard my hand and sacrifice a land. Does this work?
A: Yes, that does work. In each of your upkeep steps, you are given the option of paying the Cumulative Upkeep of Psychic Vortex. Just because you choose to pay the cost by drawing cards in your first upkeep does not mean that you will have to do it again in your second upkeep.
Q: Does a spell copied with Izzet Guildmage's ability trigger Eye of the Storm?
A; No. Eye of the Storm triggers when you play an instant or sorcery. Izzet Guildmage's ability puts a copy of the targeted spell on the stack, it is not played. Because of this, the Eye's ability will not trigger.
Q: My question involves Stampeding Wildebeests and any green creature with haste, like Uktabi Drake. Since it would be my turn, I can arrange effects in whatever order I want, right? So I should be able to send the Drake to my hand without having to pay the Echo cost.
A: Yes, that works, but not because it is your turn. You are the controller of these two abilities that triggered at the same time, so you can determine the order that they go on the stack. The fact that it is your turn is not what allows you to choose the order that these abilities go on the stack.
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