Rules Tip of the Day: Blocking creatures are declared at the very beginning of the Declare Blockers step. In order for a creature to be declared as a blocker, it must be in play when this step begins. This means that the last chance you have to either get a creature into play in order to block is in the Declare Attackers step. Keep in mind that if you do animate a permanent in play or play a creature as an instant, your opponent can still respond before the Declare Blockers step begins and destroy this creature so it cannot block.

Q: If you have a training counter on a creature thanks to Sensei Golden-Tail and then your opponent kills Sensei, will the creature with the counter on still be a Samurai and get all the bonuses?

A: The creature with the training counter will still be a Samurai and have Bushido even after Sensei Golden-Tail leaves play. One of the reasons that the ability also puts a training counter on the targeted creature is so you remember which creature(s) are affected by this ability even after Sensei Golden Tail leaves play.

Q: Can the mana ability from Boseiju Who Shelters All be countered by Stifle or Squelch?

A: No. No mana ability can be countered, as mana abilities do not use the stack.

Q: If I use Otherworldly Journey on a creature, then on the next turn use another Otherworldly Journey on the same creature, does the +1/+1 counter on the creature add up, thus my creature has 2 +1/+1 counters on it? Or does the first +1/+1 counter fall off when it was removed from the game, thus my creature has only a +1/+1 counter?

A: Each time a permanent leaves play and then reenters play it is treated as an entirely new permanent with no connection to effects when it was previously in play. When this creatures comes back into play the second time it will only have the single +1/+1 counter on it.

Q: Can Time Stop be countered?

A: Yes Time Stop can be countered. When played it is a spell like any other and waits on the stack to resolve. Once there it can be targeted and countered.

Q: If I have a non-samurai creature who Sensei, Golden-Tail has put two training counters on, and I have Takeno, Samurai General in play, does my creature get +1 to its power and toughness, or +2?

A: It will get +2/+2. It does not matter if a creature has Bushido 2 or Bushido 1 twice, Takeno's ability will give it +2/+2.

Q: I know this won't happen in a tournament, but if my opponent has Chaos Orb in his hand while I'm controlling his turn from a Mindslaver, who flips the card if I force him to play it and activate it?

A: Technically speaking the player who used Mindslaver's ability will only make all the decisions that the targeted player would normally make. This would include where to drop the Chaos Orb from, how high to hold it, which hand to use etc. This could take a really long time and get tedious, so I would probably have the Mindslaver player actually do the dropping of the Chaos Orb. If the owner of the Chaos Orb had a problem with this player handling his cards I would allow the use of a proxy to drop on the table.

Q: Say you have two Night Dealings in play and you have a counter on each, can you use both counters on one of the cards?

A: No, when using the individual ability of one of the Nights Dealings you can only remove the counters that are on that copy.

Q: I was wondering if I can discard more then one card to Putrid Imp per turn? I could discard Dragon Breath and a creature costing 6 or more and then Reanimate it so it has haste.

A: There is no restriction on Putrid Imp's ability as to the number of times you can play it in a turn. You can use it more than once a turn. Giving the Putrid Imp flying more than once does not do anything, but discarding these two specific cards can have a big impact on the game.

Q: My opponent plays Cabal Therapy targeting himself, it resolves, and he names Akroma, Angel of Wrath and he discards his Akroma. Does he have to reveal his hand to me?

A: Yes. Cabal Therapy has the targeted player reveal his hand to all players. It does not matter that this player targeted himself.

Q: My Magic group is in the middle of a rather large battle concerning Energy Chamber. One side insists that you may put charge counters on Magma Mine and the other side says nay. Their argument is that because Energy Chamber reads put a charge counter on target non-creature artifact, that the counters are charge counters not pressure counters.

A: You can use Energy Chamber's to put a charge counter on Magma Mine. However, these are charge counters and then are not counted when Magma Mine's ability counts the number of pressure counters on it.