Rules Tip of the Day: The first part of playing a spell is to put the card on the stack. Responding to a spell by playing a spell or ability that affects the cards in a player's hand will not affect the spell on the stack at all.

Q: What happens at the end of a turn where I have played Otherworldly Journey on a flipped Legend? Will it return to play flipped or back in its original state?

A: It will return to play with a +1/+1 counter as the unflipped version.

Q: I have Last Laugh and Night Dealings in play, and I attack with Ichorid. Regardless of what happens in combat, at the end of the turn Ichorid dies to its ability, which triggers the Last Laugh which deals one damage to everything on the table. If a variety of other small creatures are killed by the Last Laugh's ability, do I get to put a counter onto Night Dealings for each creature killed in this way?

A: Yes. You will put a counter on Night Dealings each time that Last Laugh deals damage to a player other than yourself.

Q: If I attack my opponent with a creature (so it taps), and the creature he blocks with has "If (creature) does combat damage to a creature, tap that creature, it don't untap during your opponent's next untap step." Does my creature untap since it says tap it then it don't untap?

A: Your attacking creature will still not untap in your next untap step. Just because you can not carry out the first instruction and tap this creature does not mean that you ignore the second part of this effect.

Q: Does Jushi Apprentice flip when you draw your ninth card from, say, your draw step (like if you have Spellbook in play)?

A: The Apprentice will only flip if during the resolution of the Apprentice's ability you have nine cards in your hand. It will not flip because you have nine cards in hand, unless the Apprentice's ability is resolving.

Q: And can you flip Nezumi Graverobber if your opponent's graveyard just happens to be empty?

A: No, this ability targets a card in your opponent's graveyard. If there is not a card there then you can't play the ability.

Q: If I have Rhox and my opponent has Horobi, Death's Wail. He targets my Rhox with something, which will trigger Horobi's ability and eventually destroy the Rhox. Rhox's ability says 'Regenerate Rhox,' does this target a specific creature, as it does not say targets?

A: You are correct, that ability does not use the word target so it does not target Rhox. You can use the ability to regenerate Rhox without triggering Horobi's ability.

Q: Does the Worldgorger Dragon trick work with Diabolic Servitude? Or does the Dragon get removed from the game when it "phases" everything out?

A: What you want does not work, at least as well as it does with Animate Dead or Necromancy. When Diabolic Servitude comes into play you can put the Dragon into play. When it does come into play all permanents you control will be removed form the game including Diabolic Servitude. This will trigger Diabolic Servitude's leaves play triggered ability. When this triggered ability resolves the Dragon will be removed from the game. This will cause Worldgorger Dragon's leaves play ability to trigger. When this ability resolves all permanents removed by the Dragons ability will be returned to play, including the Diabolic Servitude. However the Diabolic Servitude will not be able to 'animate' the Dragon as it has been removed from the game as opposed to going to the graveyard. You will have to being a different creature card from your graveyard to play if there is one there. In the end the game will pretty much be the same; except your permanents will be untapped and the Dragon card will be removed from the game.

Q: Can my opponent play an instant spell (such as Humble) on Worldgorger Dragon that was brought into play by Animate Dead? Isn't the Dragon removed form the game instantly?

A: Your opponent can play Humble after Worldgorger Dragon is brought into play by Animate Dead. The Dragon is not removed from the game instantly, it is removed from play when the Animate Dead's leaves play triggered ability resolves and destroys the Dragon. If your opponent Humbles the Dragon after it is brought into play, then it will not have a leaves play triggered ability. Then when the Animated Dead destroys the Dragon, the permanents removed from the game by the Dragon will not be returned to play.

Q: Is Sulfuric Vapor's "+1 damage" ability applied to every target or only once per spell? For instance, if I Rolling Thunder for 10, and deal one damage to 10 2/2s, does each 2/2 take two damage or do I only get to allocate 11 points of damage?

A: Sulfuric Vapors effect is not applied when playing a spell and dividing damage; it is applied when a red spell or ability would deal damage. Because of this, Sulfuric Vapors will increase the damage dealt by a red spell or ability to each creature or player. In the example given the Rolling Thunder will deal two damage to each of the targeted creatures.

Q: At the State Championship there was a call that I do not believe was right. The last round before top 8 a player was deck checked and after the Judgea talked for a minute they called the player over. The Judges found 15 cards flipped backwards from the rest of the deck. When they looked at the 15 cards they saw that they were all 15 of his counterspells. The penalty the judge gave the player was just a warning. Was that the right punishment?

A: Its really hard to second guess what the judges were thinking in this situation. I wasn't there, I didn't see the deck and didn't talk to this player. There are a few comments I can make based on what the guidelines are and what you have described. First of all you mention the penalty given (Warning) but not the infraction. From the description the penalty given was probably either for Marked Cards-Minor or Marked Cards-Major. States is REL 2, so the suggested penalty for Marked Cards-Minor is a caution and a game loss for Marked Cards-Major. So regardless of which penalty given, the penalty was either downgraded or upgraded. Other than that I can't really comment any more on the situation. I suggest that you talk to the judging staff at that event to see what their reasoning and logic was.