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Rules Tip of the Day: Prior to the release of the 6th edition rules, you could not use a damage prevention or redirection ability unless an appropriate creature was about to receive damage. That is no longer the case, and you can use a prevention or redirection ability at any time.
Q: I have a Quillspike, three Odious Trow, and two Nip Gwyllion. I have a Soul Snuffers in hand. If I play Soul Snuffers, can I use my Quillspike to remove the -1/-1 counters that I have to put on the Odious Trow, Nip Gwyllion, and itself to keep them from dying?
A: No. When Soul Snuffer's ability resolves, all of these creatures will get -1/-1 counters. Immediately after this happens, state-based effects are checked. At this point, all of these creatures will go to the graveyard before anyone can play any spells or abilities.
Q: In play is a Tatterkite and several other creatures which have counters on them. I play Mirrorweave, targeting the Tatterkite, causing all other creatures in play to become copies of the Tatterkite. Do the counters on these new Tatterkites fall off immediately, or does the phrase "placed on Tatterkite" only prevent the application, and not the presence, of counters?
A: The counters on these other creatures will remain on them. Tatterkite's ability only prevents counters from being placed on the Tattekite; if an object has counters on it and then becomes a Tatterkite, those counters will remain.
Q: My opponent has a Story Circle set to red. I attack with a Hearthfire Hobgoblin and my opponent fails to block. Since the Hobgoblin has double strike, does my opponent need to activate Story Circle twice in order to prevent all of the damage?
A: Yes. Each time the Hearthfire Goblin would deal damage is a separate instance. In order to prevent all of its combat damage, your opponent will have to activate his Story Circle� nce to prevent its first strike combat damage, and once more for its normal combat damage.
Q: My opponent has Drudge Skeletons in play. I play Shock on them; he responds by attempting to regenerate the Skeletons. I respond by playing Snakeform on them. Does the regen effect still go off?
A: Yes; once activated, the ability will resolve. Removing the ability after it has been played will not negate the ability on the stack in any way. When the ability resolves, a regeneration shield will be generated.
Q: If I have Wild Pair and play a Phantom Nomad, would I get to search for another Phantom Nomad or not?
A: No. The combined power and toughness of the Phantom Nomad card in your library is zero. Unless the Nomad has had its power and toughness lowered to zero an left play, it will have a combined power and toughness of zero when Wild Pair's triggered ability resolves.
Q: If I attach Necromantic Thirst to an enemy creature and he damages me, do I control the ability to return a creature card to my hand or does the controller of the creature that I attached the Necromantic Thirst to get it?
A: You do. Necromantic Thirst has an ability that triggers when the enchanted creature deals damage to a player. This ability is not given to the enchanted creature. As you control the Necromantic Thirst, you control this triggered ability.
Q: I have Aluren in play, and my opponent plays Krosan Grip on it. Can I can still play creature spells in response?
A: No. With Aluren, you are still playing creature spells; Aluren just changes what you pay and the normal timing rules. However, because Krosan Grip has split second, you cannot play any spells or non-mana abilities, so you cannot play any creature spells.
Q: I have two Goblin Lackeys, a Mogg Fanatic, and a Goblin Piledriver, all tapped and attacking. My opponent has two copies of Maze of Ith in play, targets the Lackeys with them, and takes damage as if the Piledriver was a 3/2. I contend that it should be a 7/2. Who is right?
A: You are. Maze of Ith's ability does not remove a creature from combat; it untaps it and prevents all damage to and from it. The Goblins that were targeted by the Maze abilities are still attacking.
Q: In a three-player multiplayer game, player A plays and activates Mindslaver, targeting player C, and ends his turn. Then player B plays and activates Mindslaver, also targeting player C, and ends his turn. When player C's turn comes around, what happens?
A: B will control C's turn. The last effect created that grants one player control of another player's turn will end up 'winning.'
Wednesday, October 8th - With a Pro Tour Qualifier season underway, and following a year off from authentic high-level Sealed play, getting your build right is crucial if you want to reach the Top 8. Drawing on his experiences of... 
Wednesday, October 8th - While Dave may not have repeated his unbeaten streak at the Shards of Alara Launch Party this past weekend, he did find a little rare... 
Wednesday, October 8th - Ad Nauseam is the newest spell to impact the development of Legacy storm combo. Its ability to draw an undetermined number cards opens up the potential that storm combo finally has the card it needs to... 
Wednesday, October 8th - Following up last week's article, Ben takes a look at eight different Foreign Magic Misprints, Rarities and Oddities throughout Magic's... 
Thursday, October 9th - I meandered down to Richmond Comix Friday for FNM and got my Shards of Alara draft on... I thought the actual drafting went really well. First pack I cracked open, looked at the bottom card and saw it was... 
Thursday, October 9th - You know the saying. Last week, after the prerelease fiasco and so forth, I literally could not write anything worth saying. I could... 
Friday, October 3rd - In the final draft before the pre-Shards break, Nick Eisel takes on Rich Hoaen in an 8-4 Shadowmoor / Eventide draft on Magic Online. Read... 
Monday, October 6th - I’m back to writing about Limited for once, because I still do love it – and I did a little drafting and sealed play this weekend to... 
Monday, October 6th - The first PTQ of the Kyoto season was this past Saturday (at the time you are reading this, at least), and I’ve noticed a few things about the Shards Sealed format. Chief among them is that it really... 
Monday, October 6th - With seven sets leaving Extended, some of the most powerful decks in the format’s history have been neutered beyond repair. Or have they?... 
Monday, October 6th - White is Magic’s perennial whipping boy… and Vintage is the format that wields the biggest whip. In metagames past, Vintage players... 
Tuesday, October 7th - Today we look into the futures of some non-Zoo and non-Affinity aggro decks that could still potentially thrive in today’s quick... 
Tuesday, October 7th - The Shard deck construction rule for the Launch Party came and went without incident. I’m sure that a story will trickle in from some corner of the world where a careless player received a game loss for... 
