Once again I bring you a guide to help you with some of the more commonly asked questions coming from the latest set, Betrayers of Kamigawa. In addition to this guide, I point you to my article on Champions, the Betrayers FAQ, and Gatherer. Although this article is designed for those with a not so great understanding of the rules, I think most everyone will learn a thing or two from reading this.

General Notes
"Burnless mana" Cards

The mana will only remain in your pool until the end of turn. It will not accumulate over numerous turns if you don't use it.

Flip Cards
All of the flip cards in Betrayers use ki counters to flip. You don't have to flip the creature at the end of turn if you don't want to, so you can let it accumulate counters before you flip it. And if it's flipped and it runs out of counters, it doesn't flip back to the other side.

Genjus
All the Genjus (except of the Realm) can only enchant a basic land of the stated type. If the land stops being that type, the Genju goes to the graveyard. If the enchanted land leaves play besides going to the graveyard, the Genju will remain in the graveyard and not return to your hand.

Ninjutsu
Returning the creature is part of the cost of activating the ability, so your opponent cannot respond by trying to kill the creature you want to return. This is an activated ability. You can use something like Stifle to counter it, and if you do, both the ninja and the original creature will remain in their hand. The earliest you can Ninjutsu a creature into play is during the declare blockers. The creature you bounce is not targeted by the ability, so you can bounce an untargetable creature for the ninja. If you ninjutsu a creature into play, your opponent is not allowed to try to back you up so they can declare blocker, since you've already passed that point. A trick with the ninjas is if you attack with a creature with first strike, put first strike damage on the stack (or let it resolve but before normal combat damage goes on the stack), then put the ninja into play. The original creature will deal damage and so will the ninja.

Offering
Sacrificing the creature is part of the cost of playing the spell, so your opponent cannot respond by trying to kill the creature you're offering. You can only sac one creature per offering (so you can't sacrifice two snakes to play a Patron of the Orochi). If the original spell costs 4WW to play and you sac something that costs 1WW to play, you'll end up having to pay 3.

Shoals
If you play one of them via their alternate casting costs, X is equal to converted mana cost of the removed spell. The Shoals are arcane spells, so you can splice on an arcane spell and also remove that spell to pay for the Shoal's alternate cost (so you can play a Blazing Shoal, splice on a Torrent of Stone, and remove the Stone to pay for the Shoal). If you remove a card with X in its cost, X will be treated as zero.

Card- Specific Notes
Aura Barbs
The enchantments are dealing the damage, not the Barbs.

Blinding Powder
It's possible to use this on multiple creatures during your turn. Just equip it, activate the ability, then move it to another creature and repeat.

Cunning Bandit/Azamuki, Treachery Incarnate
Azamuki does not untap the creature nor does it give it haste. So if you take control of a creature using the ability, if it was attacking, you won't be able to block with it, nor will it be able to attack unless you give it haste.

Disrupting Shoal
You can target any spell with the Shoal, but it won't do anything unless the spell's converted mana cost and X on the Shoal are equal.

Eradicate
Yes, the old "animate your opponent's land and then Eradicate it to get rid of all copies of that land in your opponent's hand, library, and graveyard" still works.

Final Judgment
It only removes creatures in play when it resolves. It does nothing to creatures in your hand, library, etc.

Fumiko the Lowblood
It only forces them to attack if they could attack. It won't force your opponent to pay mana to attack if you have a Ghostly Prison in play or the like.

Goblin Cohort
The Cohort can't attack unless you've played a creature spell that turn. The spell doesn't need to resolve, so even if the creature spell is countered, the Cohort can still attack.

Goryo's Vengeance
If the creature is not in play at the end of turn, then it will not be removed from the game.

Heed the Mists
If you put a land into the graveyard, you won't draw any cards.

In the Web of War
If you gain control of an opponent's creature (like via Threads of Disloyalty or Control Magic), the Web will not trigger since the creature is not coming into play, just changing controllers.

Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
You can return a creature that dies in the same combat that Ink-Eyes deals damage to the opponent. Since state based effects are checked before the trigger goes on the stack, any creature that dies will be in the graveyard and you'll be able to return it with the Oni.

Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch
The creature is not returned until the end of combat, so it will still deal combat damage before it's bounced.

Kentaro, the Smiling Cat
An example of how this ability works: let's say you have a Samurai that costs 2WW to play. Instead of paying 2WW, you can essentially pay 4 mana (so you could pay GGGG instead, or tap your two Cloudposts for mana to play it).

Kodama of the Center Tree
If you have 5 or more Spirits (including the Tree) when the Tree dies, it can return itself, since it uses the last known value before the Tree left play.

Ornate Kanzashi
The Kanzashi just lets you play the card until the end of the turn. It won't let you play it when you normally can't play it, so if you use it on your opponent's turn and a creature is removed, you won't be able to play it.

Quash
You can use this on a spell that can't be countered (like Urza's Rage or a spell that's using Boseiju mana). Quash won't counter the spell, but you'll be able to search for other copies of that spell and remove them from the game.

Shining Shoal
If you use this targeting your opponent and the damage would be enough to kill both players, the game will end in a draw (assuming it's 1 vs. 1).

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
The creature has to have a power of one or less when the creature leaves play for Shirei to return it to play at the end of the turn. And if the creature dies during the end of turn step, it will not return until the next end of turn step.

Sway of the Stars
Although tokens are technically shuffled into the library, it's not worth the effort. They'll cease to exist once the Sway is done resolving, and you can't draw a token from your library anyways (you can only draw cards from your library, and tokens are not cards).

That Which Was Taken
The permanents will only be indestructible as long as Taken is in play (unless the permanents are the Myojin from Champions)

Threads of Disloyalty
Token creatures (except those that are a copy of a creature) have a converted mana cost of 0.

Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar
This replaces the draw with looking at the top 3 cards and putting one into your hand. Since you are not drawing the card, anything that would trigger when you would draw a card will not trigger. This will also prevent you from losing due to trying to draw from an empty library since the draw is replaced even if you have no cards in your library.

Toshiro Umezawa
If you play a spell that kills a creature (like Terror), you'll be able to play it with Toshiro's ability, since the card will go to the graveyard before the ability goes on the stack. And you'll have to pay for the spell, it won't be free.

Umezawa's Jitte
The Jitte will not get the counters if you sac the creature when damage is on the stack (before it's dealt) since it is not equipped to the creature when the damage is dealt.

If you have any questions or comments, I encourage you to use the forum, as you'll get a reply a lot faster if you use the forum rather than e-mail me.

Nathan Long
n_long at hotmail dot com
DCI Level 1 Judge

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