Rules Tip of the Day: You discard down to your maximum hand size (usually seven) only during the cleanup step of your turn. At any other time you can have more than that many cards in your hand.

Q: What happens if you have Dosan, the Fallen Leaf and Vedalken Orrery in play?

A: You will not be able to play spells during your opponents' turn. While Orrery may allow you to play any spell whenever you could play an instant, you can't play anything during a turn that is not yours.

Q: A friend and I have been discussing Cunning Bandit, and his ability after he flips. Can I use this ability during the end step of my opponent so I have control of the creature during my upkeep, and therefore can attack with the creature during my attack phase? To us this looked a lot like the Waylay trick, or some of the tricks you can play with Astral Slide and Sneak Attack.

A: No. Effects that last "until end of turn" cannot carry over into another turn. The 'trick' with Astral Slide and other similar cards revolves around creating a delayed triggered ability that triggers at the beginning of the end of turn step AFTER an end of turn step has begun. When that happens this delayed trigger waits until the next end of turn step. Azamuki, Treachery Incarnate's ability does not create a delayed triggered ability, it creates a continuous effect with a duration.

Q: If I have Kiki-Jiki in play and Duplicant that has already imprinted a creature, can I activate Kiki-Jiki's ability targeting Duplicant to remove another creature from the game, or since Duplicant has already imprinted a creature would it just put out a regular creature with power and toughness equal to the imprinted card?

A: The copy Duplicant will be a new creature with no card imprinted on it. When it comes into play its ability will trigger and you can target another nontoken creature and remove that card from play if you want. The token Duplicant will then have the power and toughness of the imprinted card. If you do not remove a creature card, the token Duplicant will have a P/T of 2/4.

Q: With seven lands in play, I play Joyous Respite, and copying it with Uyo, Silent Prophet; in doing so I return two lands to my hand. How much life do I gain, 14 or 12?

A: Neither; you will gain 10 life. When you play Uyo's ability you return two lands to your hand. Then when each Joyous Respite resolves you will control five lands so you will gain five life each time, for a total of 10.

Q: If a 2/1 creature has Spirit Shackle on it and attacks, does it do damage before he dies or does the counter kill him before damage is dealt?

A: The Spirit Shackles ability will trigger when the 2/1 creature is tapped. This ability will resolve, put a -0/-2 counter on the enchanted creature and cause it go to the graveyard before combat damage is put on the stack, so it will not deal any combat damage.

Q: Is it possible to stack Furnace Dragon and Genesis Chamber such that you keep a 1/1 token? My thinking is that you put the Genesis Chamber on the stack, then the Furnace Dragon, resolve the dragon (removing all artifacts), then the Genesis Chamber. What confuses me is when Genesis Chamber checks if it is untapped. If it has to be untapped when the token would be put in to play, this doesn't work, because a card not in play is not untapped (or tapped).

A: Yes, you can arrange those two triggered abilities so the token Myr comes into play after the Furnace Dragon's coming into play ability resolves. And you will still get a token creature even if the Genesis Chamber is not in play, as long as the Genesis Chamber was untapped when it left play. This is because when the Genesis Chamber ability resolves it uses the last known information regarding if it is not in play.

Q: My opponent controls Crucible of Worlds and I control Withered Wretch. Can I activate the Wretch's ability in response to my opponent playing a land from his graveyard and remove the land before he plays it?

A: No, that does not work. Playing a land does not use the stack and cannot be responded to. It does not matter if he plays it from his hand or graveyard.

Q: I'm confused about some particulars of prize splits within tournament contexts. I am particularly thinking of the new prize structure to be used at PT Philadelphia.

- Is a prize split ALWAYS illegal, and considered bribery or collusion?

- Is it illegal for players to talk about who would have a better chance of winning if the tournament continues? What if the players decide this affects the prize split? What if the players explicitly use this to decide who concedes?

A: It really depends on two factors.

1) Are prize splits allowed? Some tournament organizers and head judges do not like prize splits, UNLESS they are agreed to before the event starts. I expect that the specifics of how this will in be Philadelphia will be explicitly described before the event starts.

2) If prize splits are allowed after the event starts then the important factor is that this agreement is not done to alter the match result. i.e. is this split being offered in order to determine a concession. It is ILLEGAL to discuss who has a better chance in the event and determine a split to decide who should concede.

If splits are allowed in an event, I think it is best if they are agreed to before the match starts. Any agreement after the match starts gets 'sticky,' and should not be allowed. I also think that any split should be agreed to in the presence of a judge, if not the head judge.