Rules Tip of the Day : Gaining control of a permanent that is already in play and under the control of another player does not count as this permanent leaving play and then reentering play. This means that leaves-play or comes-into-play triggered abilities will not trigger.

Q: What happens if I control Tamanoa and I play Char? Do I gain two life for dealing damage to my opponent, or six, because Char also deals damage to me? Also assuming I have Tamanoa in play when I pay the two life to play a turn one Sacred Foundry, does her effect trigger, granting me a two life rebate?

A: Char will trigger Tamanoa's ability and you will gain 6 life when this ability resolves, as Char is dealing 6 points of damage. However, Tamanoa's ability will not trigger when life is paid, as when you put a Foundry into play untapped. Tamanoa's ability will trigger, though, when you use the mana ability of painlands, like Battlefield Forge. So it will effectively negate that damage.

Q: If I have a Haakon, Stromgald Scourge in play and I tap mana to play a Knight from my graveyard, can an opponent then play a spell like Mortify, targeting Haakon, and disable me from being able to play Knights from my graveyard, effectively forcing me into mana burn if I cannot play any other spells or abilities by the end of phase?

A: No player will gain priority during the announcement of a spell or abiltiy. By the time your opponent your opponent can play Mortify and target Hakkon, you will have played the Knight spell and it will be waiting on the stack to resolve.

Q: If a player removes a certain card from the game using Muse Vessel and then uses the Vessel's ability to be able to play it, but does not play that card on that current turn, can the player still be able to choose and play that certain card on a different turn?

A: Yes. When you resolve Muse Vessel's second activated ability you choose one of the cards that have been removed from the game. If you do not end up playing that card this turn, it will remain removed from the game. You can choose this same card again in the future when activating that same ability. In this way, Muse Vessel can act as a "mana sink."

Q: Can I Stifle Dark Confidant's ability?

A: Yes, you can; Dark Confidant's ability is a triggered ability. If you do, no part of the ability will occur, so the card will not be revealed or go to its owner's hand, and no life will be lost.

Q: I have a Vedalken Engineer and a Memnarch in play. I enchant the Engineer with a Pemmin's Aura, and then use Memnarch to make Pemmin's Aura an artifact. Can I then tap and untap Vedalken Engineer to get "infinite" mana to take control of all my opponent's things using Memnarch, or am I not allowed to make Pemmin's Aura an artifact?

A: Yes, that works. Pemmin's Aura is a permanent in play, and there is nothing to prevent you from turning it into an artifact in order to pull off this combo.

Q: I have a question concerning the enchantment Invasion Plans in conjunction with Raging River. With both these enchantments in play, do I get to decide what side of the river the creatures under my opponent's control defend on, when I declare an attack? Could I just put them all on one side then attack on the other side, as Invasion Plans lets the attacker declare blockers?

A: No, your opponent still gets to choose "East" or "West" for each creature he controls in beginning of the combat step. Invasion Plans does not grant you this choice.

Q: I have Rootbreaker Wurm, and my opponent has Goblin Archaelogist and Tide of War in play. I declare an attack with my Wurm, and he declares that he will block with his Goblin. Tide of War's ability triggers, and when it resolves, I win the flip, so he has to sacrifice his blocking creatures. Since the creature is no longer there, does the damage from the Wurm go to the player?

A: Yes, you will assign all six points of damage to the defending player when combat damage goes on the stack. This is only because Rootbreaker Wurm has trample, if it did not, it wouldn't deal any combat damage.

Q: The card False Summoning is a sorcery, but the card text says "in response to a player playing a creature spell." Does that mean it is considered an instant, but it is labeled wrong?

A: It is not printed incorrectly, but it's official Oracle text does list it an an instant now. It was originally printed in Portal, which was a Magic set for beginners. Those sets did not have instants, but they did contain few of the sorceries like False Summoning, which could be played like instants. So it wasn't an error, but it does have errata so it is now an instant.