Q: In a local tourney last night, I had out two Lashknife Barriers and my opponent had out a Masticore. Now Masticore has the"pay two mana to deal one damage to target creature" ability, can the Masticore kill my creatures off as long as I have that Lashknife out?

A: No, he can't kill your dudes. The Lashknife modifies each activation of the Masticore, replacing one with zero.

Q: This came up at a PTQ, where my friend was trying to figure out if he could topdeck a Mobilization and use his opponent's Death Match to kill billions of guys. Afterwards I asked three judges for a hypothetical ruling, and got two answers.

Here is the question as I worded it:"Does making a soldier with Mobilization trigger Death Match?" Mobilization 'puts a soldier token into play' and Death Match triggers 'whenever a creature comes into play.' I know Mobilization does not count as playing a creature, so basically it comes down to if there is a difference from putting a creature into play and playing a creature when pertaining to triggered abilities. I don't think that there is, but one judge seemed to think that there was. Is that possibly just due to the power of suggestion in how I asked my question? Would there have been a different way to word my question so not to influence the judge's discussion?

A: The best way to word the question would have been"Does a Soldier token created by Mobilization coming into play trigger Death Match?" only a slight variation on what you asked. Making the token doesn't trigger Death Match, but putting it into play (ostensibly the same thing) does.

The answer you should have gotten is"yes." While there's a difference between putting a creature into play and playing it from your hand, Death Match doesn't care; it just sees a creature come into play and triggers.

Q: I wonder how Balance of Power (which will be in 8th Edition) interacts with effects that replace draws (like Words of War). The way I see it, it could be interpreted in two ways:

1. Draw X cards, where X is opponent hand size - your hand size.
2. If you have less cards in hand than target opponent, draw a card. Repeat as necessary.

If I was a judge, I'd interpret it as option 2 (since the wording is"draw until"), but since I'm not I'm asking you to be sure.

A: It's #2. You keep drawing until you have the same number. If Words is replacing draws, you'll get some Words effects (however many you've activated) and then draw until you have an equal number.

If it was #1, the wording would be something like"If you have fewer cards than target opponent, draw the number of cards equal to the difference."

Of course, this is all speculative until we see the 8th edition wording of Balance of Power.

Q: Form of the Dragon says that the end of my turn, my life total becomes five. I then declare my end of turn. My opponent says at the end of my turn, he burns me with a Shock and my life total becomes three. Does it stay at three for his turn ?

A: Form of the Dragon triggers at the end of your turn. If he Shocks you in response to the trigger, the Shock will resolve first, taking you to whatever life you had been at the beginning of the turn, minus two - and then the Form will resolve, and you'll go to five. If he lets the Form resolve and then Shocks you, you'll go back to three.

Q: How does Cryptic Gateway work?

For example, you tap one beast and one elf, and you put one beast and one elf from your hand into play?
Or you tap two elves, and you put an elf into play from your hand?
Or you tap one beast and one elf, and you put from your hand, one beast or one elf?

Please tell me if it's number 1, 2, or 3.

A: Only two can be correct. The creature put into play must share a creature type with both. Number 3 could be correct if the creature that you put into play is an Elf Beast (but there are no Elf Beasts right now).

Q: I have a Fastbond, Urza's Armor, and a Storm Cauldron in play. I tap a land and it is returned to my hand. I then play it again because of Fastbond and repeat the process five times. How much damage would I take?

I say zero, because each of the four times that Fastbond deals damage to me, it is prevented by the Armor. My friend says three, because Fastbond is only one source, and Armor only prevents one damage from a single source. Basically, he says Fastbond deals four damage, once, and only one of that is prevented

A: Your friend is wrong. Fastbond will trigger once each time you put the land into play, and that one damage is prevented by the Armor, which prevents one each time a source will deal damage to you.

Q: Do spells played using their madness cost count as spells for the storm ability? For example, a player attacks with a Wild Mongrel and a Merfolk Looter. After the declare attackers step (but before blockers are declared), I attempt to Smother the mongrel. He responds by discarding a Circular Logic and paying its madness cost, which I choose not to pay. In response to him playing the Circular Logic, I play Sprouting Vines. How many lands can I search for? I say it's one for the Smother, one for the Circular Logic, and one for the Sprouting Vines for a total of three.

A Three is correct. Spells played via Madness are still played; they just use an alternate mana cost.

Q: If Zealous Inquisitor receives two combat damage from a single creature, can its ability be used to send all that damage to another creature, or can only 1 point of that damage be re-targeted?

A: You replace each point of damage with the Inquisitor's ability, so you can send each in a different direction if you want to.

Q: In an article I read, a Psychatog swung for twenty-five for the kill. if it is bounced back to your hand by Upheaval how is this possible? I have been reading articles and don't understand how the Psychatog/Upheaval thing works. Don't you have to discard at the end of your turn anyway, making it impossible to attack for twenty-five?

A: Remember that you can remove two cards in your graveyard to give the 'tog +1/+1. With 'tog in play after Upheaval, you'll discard down to seven; you'll probably have many cards in the 'yard. Next turn, you can swing with Dr. Teeth, and discard all eight of your cards (since you've drawn a card) to make him 9/10. Now, you need to give him +16/+16 more to get to twenty-five, so you'll have to remove thirty-two cards. You just put in eight, so you'll have to have had twenty-four already there (which is pretty easy in a 'tog deck). In the report you read, they were probably very deep into the game.

Q: My opponent has a Silver Knight and I have a Krosan Warchief. I activate Contested Cliffs on both of them, then respond by regenerating my Warchief. Does the first strike ability apply in this situation - and, if so, does my Warchief actually kill the Silver Knight after it regenerates from the first strike damage?

A: First Strike only applies to combat. Your Warchief will kill the Knight and be saved by its regeneration.

If the two faced off in combat, the regeneration will remove the Warchief from combat before the"normal" combat damage step; it won't be around to deal damage to the Knight (Glossary,"Regenerate").

Q: Can I deal infinite damage by continuously sacrificing Nether Shadow to Goblin Bombardment during my upkeep if I have multiples in play and in my graveyard?

A: No, because the Nether Shadow triggers at beginning of upkeep. This trigger only happens once.

Q: I have a Seal of Cleansing in play and my opponent has a Phyrexian Negator and a Nantuko Shade on the table. Is there any way I can cast Parallax Wave, remove counters from Parallax Wave to target and remove the Shade and Negator from the game, then sacrifice my Seal of Cleansing to destroy my Parallax Wave in response to targeting the Negator and Shade and permanently remove the Negator and Shade from the game?

If so, can I use Parallax Tide on my opponent's lands with Seal of Cleansing in play to permanently remove them from the game?

A: No. Parallax Wave specifically says that the ability only happens if it's still in play when the ability resolves. You can't get a Nightmare-like effect from them. If you try to Wave something out and then destroy the Wave, nothing will happen to the creature.

Q: My opponent has Forgotten Ancient with three counters in play and an elf. during his upkeep, he moves three counters to the 1/1 elf. My opponent says that I can't respond by Shocking the elf for two damage because the Forgotten Ancient does not say target creature.

A: You can't respond once he's started to move the counters; you have to respond when the Forgotten Ancient's triggered ability goes on the stack. Because you don't know where he's moving the counters (the ability doesn't target, so he doesn't have to announce where they're going), you have to guess.

Q: I can use Riptide Replicator to generate black 3/3 Abomination creature tokens and Mistform Ultimus is creature type Abomination... Among others. Do the Ultimus or the tokens get the abilities of Abomination???

A: No. Specific creature types do not grant any abilities.