Rules Tip of the Day: Magic Acronym - LIFO: It stands for Last In, First Out and is used to described how objects on the stack resolve. The top item, or the last one placed on the stack, will resolve first.

Q: If an opponent plays Pulse of the Fields and I respond by playing False Cure, does the"return to hand" portion of Pulse of the Fields trigger before or after the triggered effect of False Cure?

For instance, I have 12 life and my opponent has 10, they play Pulse of the Fields to take themselves to 14 life. Does the effect of False Cure, which reduces them to 6 life, occur before or after they check to see if they return Pulse of the Fields to their hand?

A: False Cure creates a triggered ability that lasts until the end of a turn. When a player gains life this ability will trigger and go on the stack. When a Pulse of the Fields resolves its controller will gain life and the check will be made to see if the Pulse returns to their hand. This is not a triggered ability and does not use the stack, it is just part of the resolution of the Pulse. Then the False Cure ability will go on the stack. When this False Cure triggered ability resolves then the person who played the Pulse will then lose 8 life. In the specific example the Pulse player's life total will go from 10 to 14, the Pulse will go to his graveyard and then later his life total will go to 6.

Q: If my opponent has Æther Flash in play, I have Crusade in play, and then I play White Knight, what happens? I thought that since the Crusade and Æther Flash are both global, they both apply to the White Knight as soon as it comes into play, making it a 3/3 that takes 2 damage. My opponent insists that the 2 damage from the Æther Flash happens first and the Knight dies. What is the correct way for this to resolve?

A: The Knight will not die in this example. Crusade has a static ability that is applied to the Knight as it enters play. Æther Flash has a triggered ability that uses the stack. By the time the Æther Flash ability resolve the Knight will be a 3/3 creature.

Q: If my opponent just put 10 tokens into play with Beacon of Creation and I play Screams from Within, will it 'cycle' through all of the tokens in one turn? Or does is only destroy one per turn?

A: When Screams from Within leaves play triggered ability resolves you put the Screams back into play enchanting another creature. You do this in the same step of phase that it left play; you do not wait until the next turn. So yes, you can cause all of these tokens to go to the graveyard by lowering their toughness to zero all in a single turn.

Q: My Myr Quadropod is equipped with Bonesplitter, making it a 3/4 creature. Before attacking, I pay 3 mana to switch its power and toughness, making it a 4/3.

However, when I attack, my opponent plays Unforge on the Bonesplitter, doing 2 damage to the Quadropod. Does the Quadropod live or die? What is the effect of removing the Bonesplitter from it?

A: The Quadropod will receive lethal damage and go to the graveyard. When figuring out the characteristics of this Quadropod you start with the printed values of 1/4. You then add +2/+0 from the Bonesplitter to make it 3/4. Finally you switch these two characteristics to make it a 4/3.

When the Bonesplitter is destroyed by Unforge you don't subtract -2/-0 so much as you remove it from the calculations above. You'd start with a 1/4, skip the bonus from the Bonesplitter and then reverse its P/T to make is a 4/1. Because Unforge also dealt 2 points of damage to the Quadropod it now has lethal damage and it will go to the graveyard.

Q: If Equal Treatment is played at any point before combat damage is assigned and a creature with 2 toughness blocks a creature with 3+ power and trample, would damage be dealt to the player through trample?

A: Yes. Equal Treatment does not affect the assignment of combat damage, just what happens when it resolves. You can still assign up to 1 point of combat damage to the defending player. If you do, when combat damage resolves Equal Treatment will replace this 1 point of combat damage to the defending player with 2 points instead.

Q: I have 3 Myr Servitors in my graveyard, 1 in play, and Grinding Station in play. At the beginning of the upkeep as my Servitors come back into play, can I sacrifice each of them to the same Grinding Station to mill for nine cards? I have asked several people and have gotten mixed responses.

A: Yes, here's how you do it: Resolve the Myr Servitor coming into play ability and put the 3 Servitors in your graveyard into play. This will trigger the Grinding Stations ability three times, once for each Myr that came into play. In response to these triggered abilities activate Grinding Station's ability and sacrifice one of your Myr. Then after each individual copy of the Station's untap triggered ability resolves activate the Grinding Station again.

Q: What would happen if I had Witch Engine in play with Confiscate/Abduction/any other enchant card with"you control enchanted _" enchanted on it and I used it's mana producing ability? Would I get the Witch Engine back as soon as it switched controllers or would the Witch Engine's ability take precedence over the enchantment?

A: The effect from Witch Engine's ability would create the latest control effect. This means that your opponent would control the Witch Engine.

Q: My opponent was controlling my turn via Mindslaver. He forced me to play my Volrath's Motion Sensor targeting myself. The card says 'When Volrath's Motion Sensor comes into play, choose target hand controlled by an opponent. Enchanted player balances Volrath's Motion Sensor on the back of that hand. My opponent says that since he is my opponent and he is controlling my turn (and thus my hands, since I have to use my hands to play the cards the way he tells me to), he can force me to enchant my own hand. Is this correct?

A: You are not a legal target for your own Volrath's Motion Sensor as it specifically states that it targets a hand controlled by an opponent. It does not matter that your opponent makes the choice and chooses the target; he must still choose a legal target for this spell he is making you play.

Q: My opponent has Crystalline Sliver in play, along with a bunch of other little Slivers and no other creatures. I have Preacher and want to use his ability to take control of one of my opponents Slivers. My opponent says that I can't because the Slivers can't be targeted due to the Crystalline Sliver. I say that I can because the Preacher's ability doesn't directly target them. Which one of us is right?

A: He is. The Preacher's ability DOES target an individual creature. Your opponent may choose this target creature, but that doesn't mean that he can choose an illegal target. If your opponent does not control any legal targets for this ability due to Crystal Sliver's ability, then the Preacher's ability will have been illegally played and you will untap it as if it wasn't even played.

Just to help clarity here is the current Oracle text for Preacher:

Preacher 1WW Creature - Preacher 1/1 You may choose not to untap Preacher during your untap step. T: Gain control of target creature of an opponent's choice that he or she controls as long as Preacher remains tapped.

Q: Both my opponent and I have Disciple of the Vault in play and I am at less life (for argument's sake, let's say he is at 20 and I'm at 10). I put a Krark-Clan Ironworks into play and sacrifice six other artifacts to play and activate my Myr Incubator, putting something like 20 Myr tokens on the board. My question is this: if I then sacrifice those tokens to the Ironworks, will my opponent die first as a result of my Disciple, or can he respond to each individual Myr sacrifice with an activation of his own Disciple's ability, killing me first?

A: The ability of Disciple of the Vault is not an activated ability, it is a triggered ability. Triggered abilities will automatically trigger when their trigger condition occurs. They will then wait until a player receives priority to go on the stack. Your opponent can't choose when this ability goes on the stack, he can only choose a target opponent when the ability goes on the stack and whether or not this opponent loses life when the ability resolves.

The problem in this situation is that both of you control a Disciple and when an artifact goes to the graveyard the ability of both Disciples will trigger at the same time. When multiple abilities trigger at the same time they go on the stack in APNAP (Active Player, Non-Active Player) order. This means that those controlled by the active player go on the stack in whatever order he wants, followed by those controlled by the non-active player in whatever order he wants.

In order to make your opponent lose life before you do, you must sacrifice these artifacts during his turn. Just sacrifice one to activate the Ironworks ability. When you do two triggered abilities will try to go on the stack at the same time, his will go on first with yours on top. Simply allow the top triggered ability to resolve and cause your opponent to lose one life. Then before the triggered ability of his Disciple resolves sacrifice another Myr to the Ironworks. This will once again cause two triggered abilities to try and go on the stack at the same time, his on the bottom and yours on the top. Now there are three triggered abilities on the stack, his two on the bottom and yours on the top. Once again allow the top triggered ability to resolve and cause your opponent to lose one life and then respond by sacrificing another Myr. Do this eighteen more times and on the stack there will be 20 triggered abilities of your opponent's Disciple that will each cause you to lose 1 life. However these abilities will never resolve, as he will have lost the game.