Rules Tip of the Day: Unless otherwise specified, an effect that removes a card from the game will remove it face up.

Q: With Quirion Dryad, I was wondering if a Suspended card would count as a spell? To give you a specific situation, if the Dryad is in play and a Reality Strobe resolves, does the Dryad trigger?

A: Yes, each time a Suspended card unsuspends, it is played. If the card is white, blue, black, or red, Quirion Dryad's ability will trigger. Reality Strobe—and most of the other Suspend cards from Future Sight—will trigger the Dryad's ability each time it unsuspends and is played.

Q: What happens if Honorable Passage is played, and then the chosen red creature is enchanted with Temporal Isolation in response, and then combat damage goes on the stack?

A: Regardless of the order that these spells and abilities resolve, the answer is the same; when combat damage goes to resolve, there are two effects which are both trying to prevent the damage from this red creature. The controller of the creature that would receive damage or the player that would receive damage can choose whether to have the replacement effect created by Temporal Isolation's static ability prevent the damage, or to have the replacement effect created by Honorable Passage's ability prevent the damage. If the effect created by Honorable Passage prevents the damage, then the controller of this creature will receive damage equal to amount of damage prevented.

Q: If I equip Flaring Flame-Kin with Sword of Fire and Ice, would it get +2/+2, trample, and firebreathing?

A: No. Flaring Flame-Kin's ability only works when it is enchanted, not when an equipment is attached to it. A creature with a piece of equipment attached to it is not enchanted.

Q: Does Leyline of the Void stop Saffi Eriksdotter's ability from working?

A: Yes. Leyline of the Void will cause cards that would go your opponent's graveyard to be removed from the game. As these cards never go to your opponent's graveyard, the delayed triggered ability created by Saffi's activated ability cannot trigger.

Q: I am trying to figure if abilities that trigger with blocking trigger when blocks are announced or if it is the state of being blocked or blocking. Hypothetically, I am being attacked by 10 1/1s. I have a Volrath's Shapeshifter in play that is not copying anything. I discard Avatar of Hope and block all ten attackers. Afterwards, could I then discard a Cockatrice to kill all ten creatures with the Cockatrice's ability? Or does the Cockatrice's ability only work when blocks are declared?

A: Cockatrice's ability, and other similar abilities, triggers when blockers are declared. In order for that ability to trigger in this example, the Volrath's Shapeshifter must be a copy of the Cockatrice when blockers are declared. Obviously, if that were the case, you would not be able to block all of these attacking creatures.

Q: I'm at twenty life and my opponent controls three creatures. I have Defense of the Heart and Angelic Chorus in play. During my upkeep, I sacrifice Defense of the Heart and fetch two Serra Avatars and put them into play. What will my life total end up at?

A: You will end up gaining sixty life. When Defense of the Heart's upkeep triggered ability resolves, you will put each of these Serra Avatars into play at the same time. When this happens, the ability of your Angelic Chorus will trigger twice. When the first of these abilities resolves, you will gain twenty life, as the toughness of that Serra Avatar is twenty. Then, when the second of these abilities resolves, the toughness of the Serra Avatar is forty, so you will gain forty life when this trigger resolves. In the end, you will have a life total of eighty and two 80/80 Avatars in play.

Q: I have seven artifacts in play, including Mycosynth Lattice. In my hand I have an Assert Authority in reserve as a counterspell. Can I play Assert Authority for free, after applying the Affinity discount?

A: What you want to do does not work. The Lattice's ability allows you to spend mana as though it were any color, but it does not make the blue mana in Assert Authority's mana cost colorless. When you play Assert Authority, you will first calculate the cost. As you have seven artifacts in play, the Affinity ability will lower the colorless cost of the spell. However, you will still have to pay mana for the two blue mana in the mana cost of Assert Authority. You can spend mana of any type, but that does not make this portion of the cost colorless.

Q: Will Coldsnap rotate out with Ravnica when Lorwyn is released?

A: No, Coldsnap will remain in Standard and Extended until Time Spiral block rotates out.