Rules Tip of the Day: A new version of the comprehensive rules has recently been released. One addition of note is the following rule:

217.2f If a spell or ability causes a card to be drawn during the announcement of another spell or ability, the drawn card is kept face down until that spell or ability becomes played.

This will primarily effect when the card drawn due to the mana ability of Chromatic Sphere. Now if the Sphere is used during the announcement of a spell or ability, the drawn card will not be known until after the entire announcement is complete.

Q: If I Otherworldly Journey a creature and then play Sway of the Stars, would the creature be in play after Sway of the Stars resolves? My thought is the creature (while removed from the game) is untouchable and unaffected by Sway of the Stars.

A: You are correct, it is removed from the game and therefore it is not a permanent you control; it will not be shuffled back into your deck.

Q: What is considered the converted mana cost of a Shoal spell when it is played with its alternate casting cost? Is it simply the cost of the discarded card?

A: It will be the value X plus two. Even though you are playing the Shoal via the alternate cost, you still calculate the mana cost the way you normally would by taking the value of X chosen when the spell was played and adding the 2 colored mana in the cost to that.

Q: An opponent attacks with Ravenous Baloth, and after the damage is on the stack, I use Shining Shoal to reflect back damage. He sacrifices the Baloth and then said that the Shoal wouldn’t work because the source of damage isn't around anymore. Is this true?

A: No it is not. Even though the Baloth is not in play, its damage is still on the stack and you can choose the Baloth as the source of this damage that you want to redirect. This is because when you are instructed to pick a source of damage you can pick a spell on the stack, a permanent in play or an object referred to by a spell ability on the stack. The Baloth is still the source of the combat damage on the stack, so you can choose it.

Q: If my creature were to be under the control of my opponent due to Control Magic and then died under his control, will it enter his or my graveyard? When I later play Caller of the Claw will it count this card?

A: It will go to your graveyard. This is because whenever a card would go to a graveyard it goes to its owner's graveyard. If you play a Caller of the Claw later in the turn, it will count this card and give you a bear for it.

Q: What exactly does the text on Necratog mean? It says remove the top creature in your graveyard from the game, it gets +2/+2. Does this mean that the first creature card in the graveyard is removed or the top creature card on top of the whole graveyard?

A: It means the creature card that is the closest to the top of the graveyard. If there is one on the very top it will be this one, but it can also be several cards from the absolute top.

Q: I know that if you are forced to draw a card and you can't, you lose the game. But what if you get targeted by Millstone or another card that forces you to put cards from your library up to anything else than your hand? Will you still lose due to that effect?

A: Being forced to mill a card from an empty library or put card in your hand without drawing will not cause you to lose the game. Only if you attempt to draw from this library will you lose when state-based effects are checked.

Q: In play I have Goblin Welder and one Sundering Titan and one Titan in my graveyard. My opponent has Planar Void in play. When I exchange the Titan in play with the one in the graveyard, does it get removed from play or not? In my understanding it remains in the graveyard since it is an exchange and not a put into the graveyard.

A: It will be removed from the game. This exchange will put the targeted card in play into your graveyard just as other actions like discarding and destruction of a permanent in play will. Because of this the ability of Planar Void will trigger.

Q: After naming a card with Cranial Extraction, you are allowed within the rules to intentionally not find the named card in private places (i.e. library, hand) but you have to remove cards from public places (i.e. graveyard). What is a card on the top of your library considered if it is being shown to all players, via Future Sight? Can you still choose not to find it?

A: You can still choose to not find this card, even if it is in plain sight. This is because even though it is revealed it is still in a hidden zone.