Rules Tip of the Day: You cannot tap a permanent or discard a card just because you want to. You can only do either of those two things to pay the cost of a spell or ability or to satisfy an effect (or by discarding cards if it is the cleanup step of your turn and you have more cards than your maximum hand size).

Q: If I have Grim Feast and Kuro in play, and I give their 5/5, -5/-5 by losing 5 life, do I gain the life back? Would it read the toughness on the card, or would it read the toughness at time of death?

A: The toughness of the creature when it left play was zero, so you will end up gaining zero life in this example.

Q: My opponent has Vedalken Shackles in play, and I play Tooth and Nail for Kiki-Jiki and Sundering Titan. He has 7 islands, so can he take control of my Titan before his destroy lands abilities effect happens?

A: Yes, he use the ability of his Shackles to try and take control of your Titan after it comes into play and its ability goes on the stack, but before it has resolved. If he does, then you should use Kiki-Jiki to make a copy of your Titan. Then the ability of this token Titan will trigger and destroy one of his Islands. Because the ability of Vedalken Shackles checks the number of Islands your opponent controls when the ability is played AND when it resolves, the Shackles ability will be countered on resolution as he only control six Islands when the Shackles ability resolves.

Q: Can I bring back my Orochi Hatchery from the graveyard with card effects such as Leonin Squire's?

A: Yes, when in any zone other than the stack the Orochi Hatchery always has a converted mana cost of zero. When on the stack it has a converted mana cost of twice of the chosen of value of 'X.'

Q: If I play Armageddon and then Terror my opponent's Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked, and then later he plays Second Sunrise, he can't sacrifice the lands that are coming into play to make Shimatu bigger, right?

A: Correct, these lands will come into play at the same time as Shimatsu, and he will not be able to sacrifice them as then will not be in play until Shimatsu is also in play. By that time it will be too lat as Shimatsu's ability must be dealt with as it comes into play as that is a replacement ability that modifies how Shimatsu enters play.

Q: I'm playing a Mono-blue control mirror match. Both my opponent and I have Vedalken Shackles and several islands. I play Meloku, and at the end of turn, my opponent gains control of it with the Shackles. Then, in his turn, I steal it back with my Shackles. When I get to untap, what happens if I untap my Shackles? Does my opponent regains control of my Meloku because his Shackles is tapped?

A: If his Shackles is still tapped then he will regain control of Meloku as the last control effect that is being applied was generated by his Shackles. However, if his Shackles Is untapped then you would keep control of this Meloku as the control effect from his Shackles would have ended.

Q: My opponent plays Duplicant and once it comes into play, my opponent targets one of my creatures. Can I change this target with Shunt, making for example the Duplicant target itself? Or can Shunt only change the target as the spell is being played (as not yet in play).

A: Creature spells do not target. What you are referring to is not a spell, but Duplicant's coming into play triggered ability. Shunt can change the target of spells, not abilities. So what you want to do does not work.

Q: If you play one Shifting Sky and say that it changes everything green, then play another one and say black, will the first Shifting Sky be changed to black or will all permanents be both colors?

A: The effect from the latest Shifting Sky to enter play will override the previous one and make all permanents in play the new chosen color, they will not become multi-colored.

Q: My friend attacks with a creature. I choose not to block. He then uses Timberwatch Elf's ability to pump the attacker up. Can I, in response, play Radiant's Judgment to destroy the attacker?

A: Yes, after blockers are declared or not declared both players get the chance to play spells and abilities before combat damage goes on the stack. Then after anything resolves both player will receive priority again. So if after the Timberwatch ability resolves this creature has power greater than four, you can destroy it with Radiant's Judgment before combat damage is assigned.