Q: I understand how and why a correctly-stacked Disenchant will kill an opponent with twenty or fewer life who casts Illusions of Grandeur... My question is whether bounce do the same trick, or does returning a permanent to a person's hand not trigger the"leaves play" ability?

A: Illusions of Grandeur triggers on leaving play, so bouncing it is just as effective as Disenchanting it (maybe even better, since you'll have it back in your hand).

Q: If I have a graveyard with five zombies in it (two of which are Noxious Ghouls), and I cast Patriarch's Bidding, how many -1/-1 counters would the ghouls create?

I know that (technically) they all enter play at the say time, but I also know that you can decide to have the Noxious Ghouls come into play"before" the other zombies in your graveyard do.

I'm guessing it's something like a total of -9/-9; how close am I?

A: You're not off by much - it's -10/-10. It doesn't matter what order they're timestamped, they all come into play at the same time - and when the triggers resolve, there are five Zombies in play. Noxious Ghoul counts the number on resolution.

Q: Does Sphere of Resistance kill the Aluren combo? My opponent has to pay one mana for each time he plays Cavern Harpy, right?

A: It sure does. Aluren pays the mana cost (what's in the upper right-hand corner of the card), but the player must still pay any additional costs, including ones added by Sphere of Resistance.

Q: Can the Willbender retarget a static ability like"First Strike" or"Protection from <color>"?

A: It can't. Static abilities aren't targeted.

Q: My opponent has no creatures in play. I have a Faceless Butcher (which removed my opponent's Arrogant Wurm from the game when it came into play), a Nantuko Husk, and a Grave Pact.

If I sacrifice the Butcher to Husk, how do the Grave Pact and"leaves play" ability of the Butcher go on the stack? Do I get to pick the order? Would my opponent have to sacrifice the Wurm, or would it survive?

A: The active player's triggers go on the stack first and then the non-active player's. If you control multiple triggers - which, in this case, you do - you stack them in whichever order you choose (although the active player's still stack first).

You sacrifice the Butcher to the Husk; both the Butcher's ability and the Grave Pact trigger. You can put the Grave Pact on the stack first and then the Butcher. The Butcher's ability resolves, putting the Wurm back into play. The Grave Pact resolves, and the opponent must sacrifice the Wurm. You could reverse the order if, for some odd reason, you want him to keep the Wurm.

Q: Let's say that you use a Memory Jar, removing your original hand face down from the game...and one of the seven new cards you have is one of the Wishes. Can you use a Wish to get a card from that hand?

A: The cards removed from the game with Memory Jar are legal to Wish for.

Q: When cards are removed via Mind's Desire, are they put on the stack in the order that they are removed so that you have to play them"last in, first out" - or, since Mind's Desire states that you play the removed cards as though they were in your hand, can you play them in any order from the storm?

A: You can play them in any order.

Q: These are more of ethics questions than card interaction rules questions...

First, let me state that this happened at Friday Night Magic, but seeing as how it is still sanctioned, I feel it is still important. Okay, here we go..

Consider this: I am playing a mirror match against Astral Slide, I have an Exalted Angel on the board. Now if my opponent attacks me with his Exalted Angel and Ravenous Baloth and hits me with his Lightning Rift, I'll die before resolution, losing the match. The judge running the tournament informs my opponent about this on the turn before he decides to attack, telling him"You do know if you do this, she will die..."

My opponent had not asked him anything, let alone asked what the judge told him in this key time in the match. Furthermore, the judge was standing behind me and could in all likely hood see my hand. When I complained, the judge just asked him,"You already knew that, right??" Of course the player is going to say yes!

My question: Isn't this cheating on the judge's part? If my opponent had not known this, he possibly could have Rifted my angel to kill it and given me a turn to draw a Wrath of God or Akroma's Vengeance. Not only that, but isn't that signaling to my opponent, even if unintentionally, that I had nothing in my hand to save me?

This is unethical in either possibility, As it was, it was a signal to my opponent to attack since I had nothing left to save myself with. As I had nothing to save me, it gives my opponent the go ahead to do exactly what he needed to win, being totally unfair to me in the match. And what if I had something to save me and turn the game around? That is not fair to bait my opponent into possibly losing because the judge tricked him. I want to earn my wins as well as earn my losses. I don't need to have to play against two opponents when I only have myself!

Also, can a judge just decide that if you forget to gain the life from an Exalted Angel for a few minutes, that when you remember, you don't get to gain the life instead of just going back and adding it to your total? I thought that any triggered effect or ability that doesn't say"you may" isn't optional and happens regardless of whether you remembered to do it. This judge was watching me and saw that I forgot the lifegain but said nothing, but when I was at one life and my upkeep came around with my having a Graveborn Muse in play, he was lightning quick to say"you lose."

I am just glad my opponent in that particular match, seeing as how he knew I would have won the match had the judge ruled fairly, agreed to a draw just to not be a total ass. As far as I know, a judge enforces the rules all of the time, not just when he feels like it. And I personally feel that"relax, Ink, it's only FNM for crying out loud!" is no excuse!

As far as I'm concerned, this guy is a disgrace to judging - but when he only does this to the people in the store who aren't the top players for his own amusement and would have ten or twenty kids to back him up and say he didn't do any of this, what can you do?

Is it even legal for a judge to play in a tournament he is judging, or a direct conflict of interest? He is the only judge in the store, who do you complain to in a tourney when the judge is cheating?

A: A Judge cannot offer strategy advice to a player in any fashion. If it happened the way you describe, the Judge was clearly wrong. As a matter of fact, the Judge should answer rules questions with rules answers. Although FNM is more about getting people to play and learning the game, it's still sanctioned.

Judges are not allowed to play in Sanctioned events in which they're playing, even FNM. If you want to give me the name/DCI number of this judge, I'll be happy to report him to the DCI for doing so (or you can do it yourself by emailing dci@wizards.com; John Grant will sort it out).

Q: I assume that playing Phage the Untouchable with either Future Sight or Mind's Desire will lose you the game? Also, if you play a"free" spell like Frantic Search or Rewind with Mind's Desire, do the lands still untap even though you didn't play them from your hand? If you play Frantic Search or Rewind with Future Sight, do you still get the untap effect?

A: 1. With Future Sight or Mind's Desire, Phage isn't actually in your hand, so you'll lose. 2. Frantic Search and Rewind will still untap lands wherever you play them from, because they're not worded like Palinchron, which after errata now says,"...if you played it from your hand..."