Rules Tip of the Day: When combat damage is dealt, a player that has used a ability to prevent damage to himself can choose which point(s) of damage to prevent. This way he/she can prevent the damage from a creature with an ability that triggers when combat damage is dealt.

Q: I have a question about Doubling Season and effects that put tokens into play, with an effect that tells you to do something with "that" token. For example: I have Doubling Season and Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang in play. If I would remove Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang from the game to put a 5/5 blue Dragon Spirit creature token with flying into play, I will get 2 tokens due to the Doubling Season. When the first token is put into a graveyard, will Tatsumasa will return to play? Do I have to choose which token causes Tatsumasa to come back? If not, what happens when the second token will go to the graveyard?

The same kind of question goes for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker: If I make a token with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker when Doubling Season is in play, do I have to sacrifice both tokens at end of turn?

A: Tatsumasa, the Dragon Fang will be returned to play if either of these token creatures goes to the graveyard. Tatsumasa's activated ability creates a delayed triggered ability that will trigger if "that" token creature goes to the graveyard. Under normal circumstances this ability only creates a single token creature, so it uses the singular pronoun of "that." However due to Doubling Season, this ability will produce two token creatures instead of the normal one. Because of this the word "that" actually refers to both of these token creatures, so this delayed triggered ability will trigger when either go to the graveyard. (Let's imagine that you had two copies of Doubling Season in play. In this case Tatsumasa's ability would create four Dragon tokens. In this case if any of these four were to go to the graveyard then Tatsumasa would be returned to play.)

Here's the tricky part, once this delayed triggered ability has triggered once for a "batch" of tokens, it won't trigger again, even if another token from this group goes to the graveyard. If you activate Tatsumasa's ability and create tokens A and B, and token A goes to the graveyard, Tatsumasa will be returned to play. If token B later goes to the graveyard, Tatsumasa will not be returned to play even if it has since been re-removed from the game. This is because once a delayed triggered ability without a specific duration has triggered once, it will not trigger again. This can be especially tricky if Tatsumasa has come and gone several times creating multiple sets of token creatures. You'll have to keep track of which tokens were created in which groups.

This also applies to Kiki-Jiki— you will have to sacrifice all of the token creatures created by Kiki-Jiki's ability when Kiki-Jiki's delayed triggered ability resolves.

Q: I have a question about a Boros Swiftblade equipped with Umezawa's Jitte. Do the counters go to the Jitte after the first strike damage is dealt? Can I remove 2 counters bfore this creature's regular combat damage goes on the stack? Will this enable the Swiftblade to kill a blocking 4/4 Horror and keep Swiftblade alive?

A: What you want to do works. The ability of Umezawa's Jitte will trigger when first strike combat damage is dealt and this triggered ability will resolve and put two counters on the Jitte before normal combat damage is assigned. You can remove the counters it just received from the Jitte to pump up the equipped double striking creature before normal combat damage is assigned. Then when normal combat damage is dealt, the Jitte's ability will trigger again.

Q: If an enchanted attacking creature deals damage and is sacrificed, can Breath of Fury be attached to a token thus put in play by Golgari Germination?

A: No. You can attach Breath of Fury to a token that is already in play, but you won't get a token from the Golgari Germination's triggered ability for the creature you just sacrificed in time to have it become enchanted. When this first enchanted creature deals combat damage, the ability of Breath of Fury will trigger. When Breath of Fury's triggered ability resolves, you will sacrifice this enchanted creature and move the Breath of Fury. Golgari Germination's ability will trigger at this point when you sacrifice this creature, but this triggered ability will not even be on the stack when you need to choose a creature to attach Breath of Fury to.

Q: I've got a question about Clone copying Homura, Human Ascendent. Since the legend rule kills them both, does the Clone come back as an essence, killing both cards again?

A: No, it does not work like that. When this Clone enters play it will enter as a copy of the Legendary Homura. State-based effects will be checked and both will go to the graveyard. Eventually when their leaves play triggered abilities resolve both will be returned to play. However when this Clone returns to play, it will be a flipped Clone. You will be able to choose a creature in play to copy and it will become a copy of that creature, it will not be the Legendary enchantment Homura's Essence. (The fact that Clone enters play flipped will not matter unless it copies a flip creature in play.)

Q: If I play an Essence Filter and choose the destroy non-white enchantments option, would that destroy a multicolored enchantment such as Armadillo Cloak?

A: No. While Armadillo Cloak my also be green, that does not mean it is a non-white enchantment.

Q: I have a question about Knight of the Mists. My friend points out rule 415.6 ("A spell or ability on the stack is an illegal target for itself") and he read somewhere else if there is no target for an effect it disappears. When he plays Knight of the Mists he is under the impression that he doesn't have to pay 1 blue because there is no target available and the effect disappears. I can't believe it would work like that. Do you have to pay one blue or the Knight of the Mists is sent to the graveyard because it destroys itself?

A: Knight of the Mists has a coming into play triggered ability. You do not choose a target for this ability until the Knight of the Mists spell resolves and the Knight enters play. At this point the Knight of the Mists is in play and a legal target of this ability. This is not an example of a spell targeting itself, it is one of a permanent targeting itself with its own ability. This is perfectly legal and what happens if the Knight of the Mists is the only Knight in play.