Rules Tip of the Day: You can identify many abilities that generate replacement effects by their use of the word 'instead.'

Q: I have a Bramblewood Paragon and no other creatures in play, and I play Wren's Run Packmaster. Will the Packmaster get a +1/+1 counter from the Paragon?

A: Yes. The Packmaster will enter play with a +1/+1 counter. It does not matter if you end up championing the Paragon; all that matters is that the Paragon was in play as the Packmaster entered play.

Q: Does Frogtosser Banneret reduce the suspend cost for Infiltrator il-Kor?

A: No. Suspend is a special action that you can take advantage of when the suspend card is in your hand. The Banneret ability only lowers the cost to play a spell; it does not lower the cost to suspend a card.

Q: I have Mirari and Rings of Brighthearth in play, and I play Time Stretch and copy it with Mirari. Can I then copy Mirari's activated ability with Rings of Brighthearth to end up with three copies of Time Stretch on the stack?

A: No. Mirari does not have an activated ability; it has a triggered ability. This ability triggers once each time you play a spell. When the ability resolves, you may pay three mana to make a copy of the spell that triggered the ability. Rings of Brighthearth's ability works similarly. You do pay mana, but that does not make it an activated ability.

Q: I plan a Cairn Wanderer. In my graveyard are a Frogtosser Banneret and a Prickly Boggart. My opponent has a Yixlid Jailer in play. Is my Wanderer hasty and fearful or not?

A: No. With Yixlid Jailer in play, cards in graveyards do not have any abilities. This means that Cairn Wanderer will not be able to gain any keyword abilities and will just be a 4/4 creature.

Q: I have a Boldwyr Intimidator in play, and my opponent has a Changeling Berserker. Can the Changeling Berserker block my Warriors, or do I need to turn it into a Coward with Boldwyr Intimidator?

A: The Berserker has the Changeling ability and therefore has all creature types, including Coward, so it cannot block any of your Warriors. You do not need to make it a Coward.

Q: Eyeblight's Ending says "Destroy target non-Elf creature." Will it kill a changeling creature, since it is both an Elf and a non-Elf?

A: No. A creature cannot be both Elf and non-Elf. If it is an Elf, then it is not a non-Elf.

Q: Do Basalt Monolith and Rings of Brighthearth work together to create an arbitrarily large amount of mana, as long as I have two free lands to start the cycle?

A: Yes. You start by activating the Monolith's non-mana ability and tapping itself to pay for this ability. This will trigger the Rings' ability. When this ability resolves, you can pay two mana to put a copy of the Monolith's ability on the stack. When the copy resolves, the Monolith will untap. Before the original activation resolves, you can tap it for three mana again. Finally, the original activation will untap the Monolith again. At this point, you have three mana in your mana pool and only need two to start the process again; this is a net of one mana. You can repeat the process over and over, adding one mana to your pool.

Q: If I have an Isochron Scepter (imprinted with Counterspell) and an Energy Field in play, would playing a Counterspell copy with the Scepter's ability cause me to sacrifice the Energy Field when the copy resolves?

A: No. Energy Field's ability triggers when an actual card, not a copy of a card, goes to your graveyard.

Q: Does Goblin Welder's artifact swtiching ability trigger Disciple of the Vault's ability?

A: Yes, as the targeted artifact in play is sacrificed and put into a graveyard.

Q: In a multi-player game, I have a creature enchanted by an opponent's False Demise. My other opponent attacked me with a creature using provoke on my enchanted creature. His creature was equipped with Scythe of the Wretched, and killed my creature. Who would gain control of the creature: the opponent with the enchantment, or the opponent with the equipment?

A: It depends on turn order. When multiple abilities trigger at the same time, they go on the stack in APNAP (Active Player, Non-Active Player) order. In an multi-player examples like this, abilities controlled by the active player will go on the stack, followed by those controlled by the player whose turn is next, then those by the next player, and so on. In the end, whichever ability resolves first will end up determining who controls this creature, as once one of those abilities resolves, the other will lose track of this object when it re-enters play. So the player whose turn is 'furthest away' will end up controlling this creature.