More explicitly: both Undead Alchemist and Pariah's Shield have replacement effects that try to replace damage dealt to your opponent. Since multiple replacement effects are trying to modify one thing, the affected player choose the order in which they are applied (in this case, since it's damage that would be dealt to your opponent, they are the affected player).

If your opponent is a reasonable person, they'll apply the replacement effect from Pariah's Shield first. Since the damage will no longer be dealt to your opponent, the replacement effect from your Alchemist no longer applies and does nothing. They won't mill anything and you won't get any zombies.

Ok. That makes sense. Thanks

If I cast Energy Tap on a Myr Enforcer and have two other artifacts in play, how much mana do I get from the Energy Tap?

You get mana. Just because you get the option to pay less when you cast it does not change it's converted mana cost. Anything that cares about a card's converted mana cost only cares about what's printed on the card's top right-hand corner, and never about how much or what was spent to cast it.

Well hot diggity dog! Thanks!

I have a question on the redirection ability for Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo (his tap ability). I guess, what sources can I choose to redirect the damage? Does it work in these scenarios:

I cast Searing Spear on a Goblin Arsonist.
Case 1 - Activate Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo's tap ability, choosing Goblin Arsonist while Searing Spear is on the stack
Case 2 - Activate Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo's tap ability, choosing Goblin Arsonist while Goblin Arsonist is in the graveyard and it's damage is on the stack


My opponent uses Flickerwisp to blink his Flametongue Kavu.
Case 3 - Activate Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo's tap ability during the next end step, choosing Flametongue Kavu in exile while Flametongue Kavu's return to the battlefield trigger is on the stack
Case 4 - Activate Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo's tap ability during the next end step, choosing Flametongue Kavu after it entered the battlefield while Flametongue Kavu's ETB damage trigger is on the stack


I guess I'm just confused about the "source of your choice" text. It would seem like it is more than permanents (like I could redirect damage from spells too). Does it extend to choosing things in a graveyard or exile zone? Then if the card undergoes a zone change, is the chosen source still remembered or is it like targeting a permanent and the ability is essentially countered because there isn't a legal target anymore (what I attempted to describe as Case 1 above)?

In the situation of Searing Spear and Arsonist:
If you target Searing Spear, Opal-Eye takes 3 and your Asonist lives.
If you choose the Arsonist trigger, Opal-Eye takes 1.
If you choose Arsonist HIMSELF while spear is on the stack, Arsonist dies and the target of the Arsonist trigger takes 1 damage.

case 3- You cannot choose flametounge in exile. However, once Flametounge re-enters play, you can choose his trigger to deal damage to redirect to Opal-Eye.

The source of the damage is the trigger, not the creature that creates the Trigger. If I remember right.
Opal-Eye can redirect damage from ANYTHING that would deal damage - a spell, an ability activated by say Prodigal Pyromancer or a trigger from Flametounge Kavu.

Actually, I think I am wrong on one part - you can choose Flametounge Kavu to prevent his damage once he is in play, since he is the one dealing the damage. The important thing to remember that if a card changes zones, it stops being the card it "was," and becomes a new creature again.

Can [Sharum, the Hedgemon and Phyrexian Metamorph interact in such a way as to create an arbitrarily large loop?

The idea is that Metamorph comes in as a copy of Sharum, and you sacrifice the original Sharum as part of state based actions. You then use the Metamorph's come into play effect to return the original Sharum to play, and then sacrifice the metamorph to state based effects, then return it with original Sharum's come into play effect. Then repeat the process.

But my gut tells me that the state based effects wouldn't check until after the target for the comes into play trigger is chosen, since they are only checked when players have priority, and the target for the trigger is chosen when it placed on the stack.

Fun fact: every time I have used the word "play" in this post, I misspelled it as "paly" and had to change it.

I asked a similar question because I wasn't sure
http://community.wizards.com/forum/rule ... ds/4075076

You can choose from any zone and zone changes don't effect the source you've chosen

I haven't checked this spot in a week or so. Sorry for not getting to it earlier!

Quick question: If I attack with a lifelink'd creature like Batterskull on a Germ token, and my opponent blocks with a creature then sacrifices it in response to my token being declared blocked, do I still get the life from my creature doing damage to thin air, or do I not get to do combat damage at all and thus gain no life?

You don't gain any life. Your creature is still blocked, but it has nothing to deal damage to.

Unorthodox rules question!

In my fanmade Solphos block, Aurify is an Aura that states "Enchanted permanent is a colorless Solid Gold artifact with no abilities." Auric Avarius is a planeswalker with an ability that states, "-6: Gain control of all Solid Gold artifacts. They become 5/5 artifact creatures."

The intention is that if I activate Auric's ability, a permanent enchanted with Aurify will turn into a 5/5 artifact creature permanently. However, I could also see Aurify's ability overwriting the effect, causing it to unintuitively remain a noncreature artifact. Which is correct? If the latter, what do I need to rework to ensure that it's the first effect that happens rather than the second?

I believe that's an issue of dependency. since Aurify's ability affects what Auric's can effect, Aurify's is applied first. then it becomes a 5/5 like you intend.

but Zammm will probably be by soon to explain why I'm wrong.

I am not Zammm, but I am pretty sure that the interaction works as intended.

The interaction works pretty much as intended--the two effects are applied in timestamp order. However, note that if Aurify leaves the battlefield after Auric's ability resolves, the permanent will be a 5/5 artifact creature that has all its previous abilities and is also still whatever permanent types it was originally.

Also note that Solid and Gold need to be two separate artifact types for that templating to work correctly. If you want Solid Gold to be the name, say "colorless artifact with no abilities named Solid Gold" and "artifacts named Solid Gold". Depending on what you're going for, just dropping 'Solid' and using Gold an artifact type might be better.

Solid and Gold are indeed two separate artifact types.

Thanks for the clarification!

Can someone define exactly what "mana abilities" are? because it seems the video game and paper magic are different.

I think a mana ability is something like Scavenging Ooze - you pay mana for the ability.

Something that wouldn't be a mana ability would be the tap ability of Sensei's Divining Top - since you don't pay mana i'm assuming you couldn't tap it in response to a Krosan Grip

The video game issue was it wasn't letting me pay the 1 green for Elvish Piper even though it should have.

You have it wrong; a mana ability is an ability that produces mana. (There are a few other requirements, but I'm pretty sure none of the cards that make them come up exist in Duels.) Llanowar Elves, Satyr Hedonist, and Heartbeat of Spring, for example, all have mana abilities. You cannot use Elvish Piper in response to Krosan Grip.

This mistake's a fairly common one.

oh wowwwwwwwwww yeah had that all wrong. they should reword it to "can't activate abilities except for mana producing abilities"

thanks!