Regionals Tip of the Day: Make sure you come prepared. Apart from your deck, make sure you bring a pen, some method to track your life total (preferably paper), your DCI number and any tokens or counters you may need. Please do not just rip off pieces of paper and use them as tokens and counters. At large events those little bits add up and can make a large mess.

Not to ignore non-North American and non-South Pacific players, but this coming weekend is Regionals in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. There will be almost 60 Regionals events for these four countries. Most of them will get several hundred players and some will have attendance well over the 411 needed to run 10 rounds. While each may not be as big as most Europeon and Japanese Grand Prixs, combined they will have attendance that can rival an entire season of Grand Prixs Because of this I’m going to devote the ‘Tip of the Day’’ this week to these Regionals events. However these tips can be applied to any large premier events.

Q: If my opponent tries to return Molting Skin to his hand to regenerate a creature, can I respond with Wear Away and be able to destroy the Molting Skin, or can Molting Skin never be destroyed if there is a creature in play?

A: The controller of Molting Skin returns it to his hand when he uses its ability. This is the cost of this ability. This means that after the ability is played you can not target it with Wear Away, as it is not in play any longer. You are correct that it is very difficult to destroy Molting Skin if there is a creature in play.

Q: If I have Junkyo Bell and Genju of the Realm in play, can I stack the activation of the Genju and the pump ability of the Bell so that my Genju-fied lend gets the +X/+X?

A: No. When Junkyo Bell's ability goes on the stack at the beginning of your upkeep you must choose a target creature that you control. You don't have the opportunity to animate this land enchanted by Genju of the Realm before this, so you will not be able to target it with Junkyo Bell's ability.

Q: If my opponent plays Horobi Whisper and Splices on Damphen Thought and Glacial Ray and I counter this spell with Minamo's Meddling what happens? Will my opponent discard all Dampen Thoughts and Glacial Rays in his hand? How about any additional copies of Horobi’s Whisper in his hand?

A: The controller of this targeted spell will only discard call cards with the same name as those that have been spliced onto this spell. It does not matter that Horobi's Whisper has splice, it was the "base" spell in this situation and it was not spliced on to anything. He will discard all copies of Dampen Thought and Glacial Ray and not have to discard any additional copies of Horobi’s Whisper that he has in his hand.

Q: My opponent has Kentaro, the Smiling Cat and Urza's Incubator out (with Samurai as the chosen creature type). Does this allow him to play Samurai of converted mana cost two or less for free?

A: Yes. When your opponent plays a Samurai spell he can choose to take advantage of Kentaro's alternate play cost. This cost will then be reduced by 2 colorless mana due to Urza's Incubator. If the converted mana cost of this Samurai spell is two or less, it can now be played for free.

Q: I play Kodama's Reach and my opponent Sideswipes the Reach. Does my opponent get to search his library for the lands?

A: Kodama's Reach does not target anything. While it is a legal target for Sideswipe, when the Sideswipe resolves nothing will happen. Sideswipe does not change who controls the Kodama's Reach or change who makes the decisions when Kodama's Reach resolves.

Q: I play Volrath's Curse on an opponent’s creature, and tap Rootwater Matriarch to gain control of that creature, since it now has an enchantment on it. Do I lose control of the creature when the enchantment comes off of it, or does it only check for enchantments when I tap it to take control of the creature?

A: You will lose control of this creature when the Volrath's Curse is removed from it. The effect from the Matriarch's ability ends once the targeted creature is no longer enchanted.

Q: If I have Spreading Plague in play, can I change the color of a creature I am play as it is coming into play with Tidal Visionary to prevent it from killing my creatures and perhaps killing my opponents?

A: First of all, Tidal Visionary changes the color of a creature in play, it does not change the color of a spell. Anyway, yes that does work. The color(s) of the creature the triggered Spreading Plague's ability is checked when Spreading Plague's ability resolves.

Q: I have Lone Wolf equipped with Fireshrieker so it has Double Strike. If it is blocked and the creature blocking it is destroyed in the first strike combat damage step, can I have the Lone Wolf deal its normal combat damage to the defending player.

A: No. It does not matter that Lone Wolf has the ability where it can assign its combat damage to the defending player instead of the creatures blocking it, if there are not blocking creatures still in play when combat damage would be assigned then the attacking creature will not deal any combat damage.