Rules Tip of the Day: Banding, Part 3: Damage Sharing—Normally, the controller of a creature gets to decide how to assign that creature's combat damage. But banding will allow the controller of a banding creature to make the decision of how to assign all combat damage from any creatures blocking or blocked by it. For example, let's say I attack with a Benalish Hero and a Grizzly Bears in a band, and you block with a 3/3 creature. As the controller of the banding creature, I can assign all of the blocking creature's combat damage. I could assign all three to the Benalish Hero, and then the Grizzly Bear would survive. Using this aspect of banding is different from forming a band to attack, in that you only need one creature with the banding to use this ability. For example let's say you attack with an 8/8 creature. I could block with eight 1/1 creatures. As long as one of these creatures had banding I could assign all combat damage from the 8/8 creature to just one of my 1/1 creatures.

Q: Does Suppression Field make me pay when I use Garruk Wildspeaker?

A: Yes. Planeswalker abilities are activated abilities. In order to use one, you will have to pay an additional two mana. Currently, there are no planeswalker abilities that are mana abilities, but in the event that one is eventually printed, then Suppression Field's ability will not affect that ability.

Q: I have a Changeling Titan in play, championing another Changeling Titan. I play a third Changeling Titan, removing the one in play from the game. This will cause another Titan to return to play. Can I chose to remove the third Titan for the champion ability, making another one come into play, and so on? Is it possible to create an endless loop with three champions?

A: No. Each time a champion ability resolves, you can choose not to remove a creature from the game and sacrifice the champion creature. You cannot cause the game to draw by creating a loop that has an option to break it.

Q: I have Frozen Aether in play and my opponent has a Judge of Currents. So his Merfolk come into play tapped. The question is, does he gain a life when his Merfolk come into play, since they are tapped as they come into play?

A: No; that they come into play tapped does not mean that they enter play and then become tapped. Abilities that trigger when a Merfolk becomes tapped will not trigger when these Merfolk come into play.

Q: If I have a Makeshift Mannequin-ed Shriekmaw in play and play Graceful Reprieve on it, Shreikmaw comes back, correct?

A: No, it will not. When you play Graceful Reprieve targeting this Shriekmaw, the ability given by Makeshift Mannequin will trigger. This triggered ability will go on the stack on top of the Graceful Reprieve. When this trigger resolves, you will sacrifice the Shreikmaw. Then Graceful Reprieve will attempt to resolve, but because its target is no longer legal, it will be countered on resolution. Because it does not resolve, it will not generate any effects and the Shreikmaw will remain in your graveyard.

Q: If I have a Heartwood Storyteller in play, will my opponent draw a card when I play the Nameless Inversion?

A: Yes. Nameless Inversion does have all creature types, but it is not a creature spell; it is a Tribal spell.

Q: Needle Drop's first line of text reads "deals 1 damage to target creature or player that was dealt damage this turn." and then "Draw a Card." If I play this card targeting a creature that has taken no damage this turn, does the whole card fizzle or just the damage-to-target-creature part?

A: Needle Drop can only be played targeting a creature or player that was dealt damage this turn. You cannot play Needle Drop unless you can choose a a legal target. So what you have described is not legal; you cannot do what you describe.

Q: I am a little confused on the difference between fading and vanishing? One deals in time counters and the other deals in fade counters, but don't both abilities effectively do the same thing? If the only difference is the title of counters, do you know why Wizards made a change?

A: They are very similar but with one minor difference. With fading you sacrifice the creature when the fading ability resolves and you cannot remove a fade counter. With vanishing you sacrifice the creature when the vanishing ability resolves and you remove the last time counter. As I understand it, this change was made for a few reasons. One reason is that vanishing uses time counters, so there are more interactions with other cards in Time Spiral block that affect time counters. Another reason is that it is easier to remember to sacrifice the creature when you remove the last counter, as opposed to when you are unable to perform a specific action.

Q: Would both of Serra's Boon's effects apply if the enchanted creature is both white and some other color?

A: No. A creature enchanted by Serra's Boon will either get +1/+2 or -2/-1, not both. If this creature is white, then it will get +1/+2. It does not matter if it is both white and some other color, it is still white, and it will not get -2/-1.