Q: I have Worship in play and a couple of creatures. I at at one life, and my opponent attacks with a Soltari Visionary, which I cannot block. Do I lose the game?

A: No. First, Worship doesn't prevent damage, it just modifies what damage does to your life total. This means that the Visionary will still deal two damage and trigger. Before that trigger is put on the stack, you check State-Based Effects; you're still at one life, so you don't lose. Then, the Visionary's trigger resolves, destroying the Worship.

Q: I have a Astral Slide and a Petravark in play. If I cycle and remove Petravark from game until the end of turn, does the land card come back?

A: The land comes back. The only time it would be removed forever is if you Slide out the Petravark while it's coming-into-play ability is on the stack (just like with the Faceless Butcher and friends).

Q: This question came up in a sealed match my friend and I were playing the other day.  He has a face-down Haunted Cadaver that is enchanted with Fatal Mutation.  At what phase (if any) is he able to flip the Cadaver and sacrifice it to force me to discard three cards?

A: Never. You put damage on the stack. Then you turn the Cadaver face up. The Mutation triggers. The Mutation resolves first, destroying the Cadaver. When the damage resolves, the Cadaver is no longer in play, so its ability won't trigger.

Q: What happens if I play a Contamination and I have a Riftstone Portal in my graveyard? What happens if I get a Riftstone Portal into my graveyard with a Contamination already in play?

A: Riftstone Portal has a continuous effect that grants all your lands in play the line "tap: add G or W to your mana pool." Contamination replaces the event of adding a mana of appropriate type and amount with "add B to your mana pool." The end result is that your lands will always have the line of text generated by Riftstone Portal, but when you try to use the mana ability you'll always get a B mana instead. The timestamp order of these abilities is irrelevant, because neither is dependent on the other.

Q: I have some concerns with the interaction between multiples of Storage Matrix.

The Oracle text reads,"As long as ~this~ is untapped, before each player untaps all permanents he or she controls during his or her untap step, that player chooses artifacts, creatures, or lands. Permanents not of the chosen type don't untap this untap step."

The way it sounds, the effect is cumulative, but works so that if you choose two permanent types, either no permanents would untap, or one of the Matrices would have to override the other. Would the Matrix that came into play last simply negate the effects of the other?

A: You name a type for the first Storage Matrix. Each of the other two types gets an "I don't untap" sticker. Then you name a type for the second; each of the other two get a sticker. If there's anything left to untap, you do it. Let's look at an example.

I name lands. Now, artifacts and creatures won't untap. Then I name artifacts. Lands and creatures won't untap. Ergo, nothing untaps. Obviously, you can untap one type by naming the same type twice.

Q: I want to thank you first of all because your past help has enabled me to make some pretty good decks. One such deck was made because of your answer to a question involving the combination of Goblin Warrens and Mana Echoes. I then found that if I add a Skirk Prospector, I can actually gain infinite mana by sacrificing two of the Goblin tokens to the Warrens and the third to the prospector. Anyway, my knowledge of the rules is a little rusty; just in case an opponent tries to interrupt the process by blasting one of the goblin tokens, can they still be sacrificed before they hit the graveyard to keep the process going? If the Skirk Prospector is destroyed, can the process continue before it leaves play or does it immediately go to the graveyard? Thanks, I greatly appreciate your help!

A: The opponent can't interrupt you while you're sacrificing Goblins to the Prospector, because it's a mana ability; he doesn't have priority. He can intevrupt the process by killing a Goblin (assuming there's one in play) in response to you activating the Warrens. Depending when in the process he targets the Prospector (like if you have Goblins and mana already), you can probably keep going before the Prospector is destroyed, because you can keep running your loop with his destruction spell/ability below yours on the stack. His spell won't resolve until after everything that you've added on top of it.

Q: There are two Bladewing the Risens in my graveyard. They are my only creatures. What happens when I Zombify one of them? Does an infinite loop occur?

Q: I was trying to figure out if you have two Bladewings - will that create an infinite loop? The question was asked and I wasn't sure. Some say it takes two Bladewings for this to happen; others say it'll take three. Which is correct? It sure would be good with Goblin Sharpshooter.

A: A loop can occur - but you are able to stop it at any time, since Bladewing the Risen's triggered ability is optional. When Bladewing #1 comes into play, its triggered ability will get the other out of the graveyard. When the Bladewing #2 comes into play, it's come into play ability will trigger, then state-based are checked and the"two legends with the same name" rule applies. Bladewing #2 has been in play the shortest time, so it's put in the graveyard. Now the triggered ability from Bladewing #2 goes on the stack, and targets for it are chosen. You have the unusual circumstance of choosing Bladewing #2 as the target of its own ability because he's put into the graveyard as a SBE before his trigger goes on the stack; when the ability does go on, he's a valid target. On resolution, you may bring him back out repeating the loop. Three Bladewings will also work because you can just narrow the loop to just two. Likewise, Patriarch's Bidding with two or more Bladewings can be used to start the loop as well.

As you said, add Goblin Sharpshooter for much mayhem.

Q: If a Soul Collector blocks a Zealous Inquisitor, then the Zealous Inquisitor redirects the Soul Collector's combat damage onto the Soul Collector itself, will the Soul Collector go to the graveyard and then return to play?

A: Yes. The Soul Collector's own ability triggers when it goes to the graveyard from damaging itself.

Q: I have a Words of War in play; it is my draw step, with the normal card draw for the turn on the stack. In response to the card draw, I activate Words of War, targeting my opponent's creature. In response to this, he gives his creature protection from red. I say the activated ability of Words of War is countered upon resolution due to having illegal targets. Since the activated ability was countered, the replacement effect is never set up since the setting up of the replacement effect is part of the resolution of the activated ability right? Which means I still draw the card for my turn as normal, since the replacement effect was never set up.

However, everyone accused me of cheating when I explained this to them and said that I should still skip my draw even though the activated ability that sets up the replacement effect was countered upon resolution due to illegal targets.

Also as an additional question: If the activated ability of Words of War does resolve and sets up the replacement effect, but before the card draw resolves they sacrifice the targeted creature to Nantuko Husk, what happens? Does the draw still get replaced by the effect of two damage even if the creature is not in play? So then if your opponent has Words of War, the best play is to let the activation resolve so that the replacement effect is set up, but make the target protected or sacrifice it to something after that activation resolves but before the card draw resolves, right? So your opponent would still have to skip his draw step because of the replacement effect, but your creature would not take the two damage? Is this how it works?

Q: My opponent has a Words of War in play; I have a Mogg Fanatic. My opponent puts his draw on the stack and activates his Words of War, targeting my Fanatic. In response, I sacrifice the Mogg to deal one damage. My opponent now says he gets to draw his card anyways because the Mogg isn't there; I say the effect fizzles and he draws no card. Who is correct?

A: If the target of the Words' ability isn't valid or legal, the replacement never gets set up; the ability is countered by rule 413.2a. If the ability resolves, the replacement effect doesn't re-check target legality. The draw gets replaced, and you try to follow the instructions to the best of your ability. The damage will be prevented in the case of protection, or simply nothing will happen in the case of the creature being gone. The best thing for your opponent to do, then, is to wait for the Words ability to resolve before protecting his dude.

Q: I have a Haunted Cadaver, morphed. If I attack and it goes unblocked. With damage on the stack, is there any point where my opponent can respond with shock to prevent the discard three effect?

A: Yes, before the damage resolves. If the Cadaver isn't in play at that time, its ability doesn't trigger. Keep in mind that while morph doesn't use the stack, both players still have to pass in succession after the morph to advance to the next step.

Q: Say I am playing an Opposition deck and I want to lock down a lot of their permanents - even more so than a traditional Opposition deck. So I put in Seedborns and Static Orbs. What exactly happens on my upkeep? Can I still untap everything - or is it only two things? I know the full effectiveness isn't lost because I can still untap during their untap phase and Static Orb doesn't conflict with that.

A: Seedborn Muse has no effect during your Untap Step, so you'll still only be able to untap two permanents (unless, of course, you've tapped it at the end of your opponent's turn). Static Orb only applies to a player during his own Untap Step, so Seedborn Muse will untap all your permanents during your opponent's Untap.

Q: I had an interesting situation come up in a recent type 1.5 tournament. My opponent had Anger, Akroma, Angel of Wrath, and Doomed Necromancer in his graveyard and he cast Animate Dead on his Doomed Necromancer with a black mana available to activate it. I had a Pernicious Deed in play with six mana available. I obviously wanted to stop Akroma from entering play. Is there any way for me to do so?

I'm unclear what happens under the new wording on Animate Dead. It looks like there's a triggered ability that puts the creature into play. If I pop the Deed for two in response to the Animate Dead coming into play, does the creature come back permanently? Does it come into play and then get put in the graveyard as a triggered ability from the Animate Dead even though the enchantment is no longer in play?

A: Animate Dead now has a triggered ability, but the ability only does something if the Animate Dead is still in play when the trigger resolves. If it comes into play and then you Deed for two in response to the trigger going on the stack, nothing will happen; no creatures will get put into play.

Q: I had a situation where I had Illusionary Mask on the table and a Volrath's Shapeshifter in hand. I played the Shifter face-down with the mask, then I noticed something interesting: The top card of my graveyard was Nantuko Vigilante. When I turn the Shifter face up, assuming the Vigilante is still the top card, will its triggered ability go off and allow me to destroy something??

A: No. It doesn't become a Vigilante until after it's turned face-up, so it can't see itself with the Morph-triggered ability until it's too late.

Q: I play Insurrection and gain control of all creatures. Then I still have mana to play Day of the Dragons, so I remove all creatures I control (every creature in the game is under my control, so I remove all the creatures) and put out that many 5/5 dragons...

At the end of my turn, the creatures are still removed by Day of the Dragons. In my opponent's turn, Day of the Dragons is destroyed, so I have to sacrifice every dragon I control, and put the removed creatures into play under my control. The question is, will I then gain control of all that creatures permanently?

A: Yes. Once the creatures you stole with Insurrection leave play, they don't remember that you're supposed to give them back. Day of the Dragons doesn't say they come back under their owner's control like Astral Slide does, so you get to keep them for good.

Q: My opponent casts Cabal Therapy on me. He names Nantuko Monastery. I reveal my hand, showing four Monasteries; I now realize that he has to name a non-land card.

What happens? Would it be different if I hadn't revealed my hand yet? Would it be different for different REL levels?

A: He'll get a Procedural Error-Major (Warning at all RELs). Since he's taken an illegal action (naming a land card), he'll have to go back and name a legal card.

Although you won't get warned, you're responsible for making sure that what your opponent has done is legal. If you reveal your hand when you're not supposed to, you'll have to deal with the consequences.

Q: I have Pestilence, Zealous Inquisitor, and Daunting Defender in play. I activate the Pestilence once. Can I use the Inquisitor's ability to redirect the damage to one of my opponent's creatures before the Defender prevents it?

A: Yes. If you set up the Inquisitor's redirection shield, then there will be two replacement effects trying to modify the same event (that one point of Pestilence damage), the controller of the affected permanent decides which applies (rule 419.8a). If you choose, you can redirect it before the Daunting Defender's ability can prevent the damage.

Thanks to Alex Charsky and Chris Wong for feedback and review.