Q: I had a Hunter Sliver out with two Bestial Furies on it. I then provoked my friend's creature and he countered the provoke ability. Can he do this?

A: Not with a Counterspell he can't. Provoke is a triggered ability. There are currently no cards that counter triggered abilities, although there are some like Bind that counter activated abilities.

Q: My opponent plays a Mine Layer and the turn after, he puts a mine counter on my forest. When I tap the forest for mana, will the land be instantly destroyed due to the effect of the mine counter, or would I get the mana and then the land would be destroyed?

A: You'd get the mana and the land would be destroyed.

Q: If I use Karn, Silver Golem to turn Lifeline into a creature and then Lifeline dies, does it return itself since there was a creature in play?

A: Yes, it returns. The game sees a creature leave play and Lifeline triggers; that permanent gets a stamp that says it's going to return to play at end of turn.

Q: What happens when a Seedborn Muse is"phased out" by an opponent's Tawnos's Coffin and the opponent untaps his coffin during his/her untap phase? Does the owner of Seedborn Muse get to untap her permanents, or does it have to be in play for the beginning of that player's untap phase for the Muse's ability to activate?

A: Nothing will happen. The Seedborn Muse's ability applies during the opponent's Untap Step. If the player untaps the Coffin, the Muse won't phase back in until the beginning of upkeep. The Phasing in is a triggered ability on the Coffin becoming untapped. That triggered ability won't go on the stack until a player gets priority - and players don't get priority during the Untap Stap.

Q: My opponent has a Mishra's Workshop in play, and I play Drain Power. The errata says that I add mana equal to the type and amount that is drawn from my opponent's land. I feel that type means color in this sense, and amount is simply the numeric value of how much mana I add. Mishra's Workshop produces three colorless mana, with the restriction that it can only be used to play artifacts.

So my question is, when the mana is in my pool does it still have the"for artifact casting cost only" restriction? As a related question, when you answer this question, where do you draw your answer? As far as I can tell, the official wording of the Drain Power would imply that the mana can be used for any spell when in my mana pool... but there are no notes on Crystal Keep specifically stating this one way or another.

A: You can only use that particular mana to play artifact spells. The"type" of mana includes both its color (if any) and any restrictions placed upon it, such as mana that can be used only to play artifact spells (Glossary,"Mana").

Q: If I attack with two Blinding Angels, and both deal combat damage to the defending player, does the defending player skip one or two combat phases?

A: Two. Both Angels trigger.

Q: If I attack with two Scalpelexis and both do combat damage to the defending player, do I remove eight cards? And how will the double-card repeat process work?

A: Each Scalpelexis will trigger separately, so you'll resolve them separately. Finish completely resolving one (looking for matching pairs) before resolving the other.

Q: If I have threshold and a Hunting Grounds in play, can I put a creature into play as a morph when my opponent cast a spell?

A: No. You're using the ability of the Hunting Grounds, not the alternate cost (Morph) of playing the creature. You don't get a choice; it comes in face up.

Q: I know that the Magma Sliver and Crypt Sliver cannot use their tap abilities if a Crystalline Sliver is in play - but what about the Clot Sliver?

The Clot Sliver does not say"target," but I would argue devil's advocate and say that if the sliver is not targeting itself in order to use the ability it possesses, then it would have to be specifying the creature the ability would affect in a manner very close to targeting.

A: The official rules are that an ability is only targeted if it uses the word"target." Some abilities intentionally refrain from using the word. The Clot Silver doesn't target itself with its own ability; it simply has it. Feel free to regenerate your Slivers.

Q: My opponent attacks with a Phyrexian Infiltrator and a Nantuko Shade. I block the Shade with my Withered Wretch; prior to damage on the stack, he switches control of my Wretch and his Infiltrator. He does not pump the Shade, saying that my Wretch was removed from combat and neither deals or receives combat damage. Although he gained control of my creature, is the block still legal and will they deal normal combat damage?

A: You didn't assign damage, so no damage will be dealt. Once a creature has been blocked, it won't deal damage to the defending player, even if the creature blocking it is no longer around. Your opponent was correct that a creature changing controllers leaves combat (rule 306.2).

Q: If I were to play Clone and copy Shivan Phoenix, what happens to the Cloned phoenix when it is put into my graveyard?

A: It goes back to your hand."Leaves play" triggers look at the card in the state it was just before it left play. The Clone was most definitely a Shivan Phoenix at that time.

Q: If I play Book Burning, do my opponents have to take the top six cards off of the deck and take six damage, or just take the cards off, or is it my choice?

A: When Book Burning resolves, each player in turn gets to choose whether or not they'd like to take the six damage. If no one says yes and takes six damage, then the targeted player gets milled for six.

Q: The store I play at has a few issues with Artificial Evolution. basically the issue is, is a dual creature type such as"Zombie Cleric" an eligible Evolution target? The argument is that since"zombie cleric" has been printed as a creature type on Withered Wretch, for example, Artificial Evolution should be able to change the text on Lord of the Undead to"zombie cleric" by adding a cleric to its normal zombie state.

A: Yes, a creature with multiple types is a valid target. Artificial Evolution isn't like Standardize; it doesn't completely overwrite all a creature's types, it only changes instances of text from one to another.

You can still only name a single creature type that already exists in Magic (rule 214.7a and Onslaught FAQ), meaning that you could change the Lord of the Undead to a zombie, or a cleric, but not both at once.

(Incidentally, note that despite its abilities, the Lord of the Undead is not a zombie; it says quite specifically on the card that it's creature type"Lord.")

If you have a creature that has two creature types like Rotlung Reanimator (a zombie cleric), and change all instances of Cleric to Goblin, the Rotlung will be a Zombie Goblin that triggers on a Goblin going to the graveyard. If you change all instances of Cleric to Zombie, it'll be a Zombie that triggers when a Zombie goes to the graveyard.