Rules Tip of the Day: The Comprehensive Rules have recently received one of their regular updates. This new version contains all of the changes required by the release of Future Sight, as well as quite a few other minor changes. You can download a current copy here. Last Friday, Seamus Campbell wrote about some of the major changes in the CR. And you can also find a list of all of the changes, large and small, in the new version of the CR, compared to the previous version, on the website of famed magic personality Yawgatog, here.

Q: Can I tutor for a land card with Tolaria West?

A: Yes, that works. You can use the Transmute ability to search for any card with the same converted mana cost as the Transmuted card. Lands do not have a mana cost, so their converted mana cost is zero.

Q: Is the discard ability on Quagnoth a triggered ability? If so, can Quagnoth be Extirpated before it returns to your hand?

A: Yes and yes. The ability you listed is a triggered ability. You can tell by the use of the word 'when.' When a spell or ability an opponent controls causes you to discards Quagnoth, this ability will go on the stack. Any player can then respond to the ability and play Extirpate to remove Quagnoth (and any other in your hand and library) from the game before this triggered ability resolves and returns it to your hand.

Q: If I have Braids, Conjurer Adept in play, and my opponent plays Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, does that mean I will no longer be able to use the effect of my Braids?

A: No. Braid's ability allows you to you put an artifact, creature, or land card into play. This does not count as playing a spell, so it is completely unaffected by Teferi's ability.

Q: Can I destroy a creature that has protection from black, by playing Nekrataal and using Cloudchaser Kestrel to make it white?

A: No that does not work. When Nekrataal comes into play, its ability will go on the stack and you will choose a non-black creature to target at this time. You must choose a legal target. The first opportunity you have to use Cloudchaser Kestrel's ability and target Nekrataal is after that happens and a target is chosen.

Q: Can a player sacrifice multiple permanents to the upkeep trigger of a Suspended Curse of the Cabal? Or is a player limited to one permanent per upkeep?

A: Just one. Curse of the Cabal's ability will trigger at the beginning of each player's upkeep. When this trigger resolves, the active player is given the option of sacrificing just one permanent. If they do, two time counters will be added to the suspended Curse.

Q: I have a question about Quicksilver Fountain and That Which was Taken. I checked your rulings on each card and you stated that lands that receive flood counters from Quicksilver remain Islands, even after Quicksilver leaves play but permanents that receive divinity counters from That Which Was Taken are no longer indestructible if That Which Was Taken is no longer in play. What gives? Are these rules made on a card-by-card basis? Have the rules changed, making one of these rulings outdated or wrong?

A: The rulings in the database for both of those cards are correct. The reason that they are different is that those two cards are actually very different. They both add counters to permanents, but that is where the similarity ends.

The effect from Quicksilver Fountain's first triggered ability puts a counter on the targeted non-Island land and makes it an Island. The ability has two effects a one-shot effect and a continuous effect. These effects are created when Quicksilver Fountain's triggered ability resolves. The continuous effect that makes the land an Island is applied as long as the flood counter remains on the land. It will continue for as long as the targeted land remains in play, or some other effect changes the land's type, or the flood counter is removed. This is all part of one ability; the land sub-type changing effect is not separate from the one-shot effect that puts a counter on a land.

That Which was Taken has two abilities: the first puts divinity counters on permanents, and the second makes all permanents with divinity counters on them indestructible. That Which was Taken's first ability is an activated ability that generates a one-shot effect which puts a divinity counter on the targeted permanent. This ability does not have any other effect beyond putting a counter on the targeted permanent. That Which was Taken's second static ability creates a continuous effect. This continuous effect is applied to all permanents with divinity counters on it for as long That Which was Taken remains in play.

Q: What does the Unglued card Bureaucracy do?

A: At the beginning of each player's upkeep Bereaucracy's ability will trigger. When it resolves for the first time, the active player chooses an action and then performs it. This action could be anything that can be done safely while sitting down for a game of Magic: patting your head, reciting a poem, etc. When this ability triggers in the upkeep of the next turn, the active player will perform the same action that the first player did, and then perform some other action. Each time this ability resolves the active player will perform each of the previous actions in order, and then add something to this list. When a player goofs this up, by forgeting something, or doing it in the wrong order then that player will discard his hand and Bureaucracy's controller will sacrifice it.