Rules Tip of the Day: Know your state-based effects—When state-based effects are checked, creatures with a toughness of zero or below go to the graveyard. This does not count as the creature being destroyed. This means that regeneration cannot keep the creature in play, and that indestructible creatures will go to the graveyard when this happens.

Q: When you cast Pull From Eternity on a Suspend creature like Detritivore or Aeon Chronicler, does the remove counter ability still trigger?

A: No. When a Suspended card with time counters on it leaves the removed from game zone due to the effect from Pull from Eternity, these counters just go away. This does not count as removing a counter from them, so their abilities will not trigger.

Q: Does using the ability of Simian Spirit Guide count as playing a spell, for a Storm count?

A: No. This is an activated ability that functions when the Simian Spirit Guide is in your hand. This is not a spell and does not raise the Storm count. Also FYI, because that ability is a mana ability, it does not use the stack.

Q: I'm attacking with an animated Phyrexian Totem and a face-down Vesuvan Shapeshifter. My opponent declares no blockers, and I flip up Shapeshifter, copying the animated Totem. What happens to the Shapeshifter, both during combat and after?

A: It will become an un-animated Phyrexian Totem. As it is not a creature, it will be removed from combat. If combat damage has already been assigned, then it will be dealt as assigned, with the exception that it cannot receive any damage (if it were blocked). You cannot make this Shapeshifter deal five points of combat damage in this example unless you turn it face up in your main phase, copy the animated Totem, animate the Shapeshifter / Totem, and then attack with it.

Q: My opponent, who is at ten life, blocks one of my attacking creatures with a 5/5 creature. I cast Shining Shoal, with X=5, targeting my opponent, and splicing Overblaze, targeting his blocking creature with the intention of redirecting all damage to the opponent. Will my opponent take ten damage and lose the game?

A: What happens in this situation is up to you. When combat damage tries to resolve in this situation your creature is the one that is about to be affected, as it is about to receive damage. When two or more replacement effects try to apply to an event, the controller of the affected permanent chooses the order to apply them. You can choose to apply the effect from the Shoal first and redirect the five damage that has been assigned to your attacking creature to the defending player. Then the effect from Overblaze will be applied and double this damage to ten. The other option that you have, but will probably not take, is to have the five damage doubled first and then redirect five of it to the defending player.

Q: After my Academy Rector goes to the graveyard and I use its ability, if I play Second Sunrise, will I get the Rector back?

A: No. Second Sunrise only returns appropriate cards to play that are went to your graveyard that turn and are still in your graveyard when it resolves. If you have taken advantage of the Rector's ability then it will be removed from the game. The effect from Second Sunrise cannot affect cards that are in any zone other than the graveyard.

Q: I have two No Rest for the Wicked and one Opalescence in play. I use the ability from the first No Rest for the Wicked and it goes to the graveyard. Then I use the second No Rest for the Wicked. It goes to the graveyard and returns the first No Rest for the Wicked to my hand. Is that correct? Or do I need only one No Rest for the Wicked, as it triggers on itself, because the sacrifice is a part of a cost, and the ability resolves after No Rest for the Wicked is in the graveyard?

A: This does not work at all in either situation. The effect from No Rest for the Wicked only returns creature cards that have gone to your graveyard this turn; it does not return other cards that may have been creatures when they left play. However, if No Rest for the Wicked returned all cards that left play as creatures, not just creature card, then you would only need one to get this result. This would be due to the fact that you sacrifice No Rest for the Wicked to pay the activation cost of its ability, and it would be in the graveyard when its ability resolved.

Q: The tokens that my opponents receive from my Genesis Chamber are my creatures, correct? Does this mean that when one of my opponents loses the game I would gain control of the tokens?

A: It is true that the tokens that are put into play by your Genesis Chamber are owned by you, even if these tokens enter play under the control under another player. However, when a player who controls one leaves the game, you will not gain control of those tokens. These tokens enter play directly under the control of the player who controlled the creature that entered play and triggered Genesis Chamber's ability. They do not enter play under your control and then go under the control of this player. When a player leaves play, all effects that grant that player control of an object end. However, there are no control effects being applied here, so there is no way that these tokens remain in play and then go under the control of someone else. They will cease to exist when this player leaves the game.

Q: I'm trying to understand the line between acceptable and unacceptable or unsportsmanlike misdirection and bluffing with regards to sideboarding. If I'm preparing for the second game of a match, and it's time to sideboard, is it legal or ethical for me to surreptitiously swap in (and out) a few cards while pretending to not sideboard at all, in order to give my opponent the impression that he is playing against an unsideboarded deck? For the sake of this example, the actual exchange of cards is legal and leaves a legally sideboarded deck for the second game. It's just the method which may be questionable.

A: There is absolutely nothing wrong or illegal with this. You do not need to tell or give your opponent any information about what or how you sideboard. I've heard of players that add all 15 cards of their sideboard to their deck in constructed matches and then remove 15 so their opponent has no information about what they have sideboarded. (I don't recommend this practice at limited events.) All that really matters is that you end up presenting a legal deck and that you do not take too much time getting to that point. Keep in mind that trying to do anything sneakily can look suspicious, even if what you are doing is legal. This can gain the attention of a judge or other players.