Welcome back, one and all, to another week of Magic Rules Tips! Today we’ll be riding back to Tarkir, where the Mardu Horde battles against… well, just about everybody else. And how better to do it than to turn your enemies against each other? With Act of Treason, you can temporarily gain control of an opponent’s creature. Since it’s not leaving the battlefield — just changing sides for a while — that means that anything enhancing it, like +1/+1 counters, Auras, and Equipment, will stay on it, ready to be turned against your opponent!

However, note that you only gain control of the creature — not any attached cards. Heart-Piercer Bow, for instance, doesn’t give the attacking creature the ability to do damage, but is a triggered ability of the Bow itself. This means that when you attack with a treasonous creature equipped with your opponent’s Bow, your opponent will control the triggered ability, letting him choose a creature to deal damage to. Of course, the creature has to be one that defending player controls, so since you’re the attacking player, your opponent is going to have to choose one of his own creatures to take an arrow to the knee — probably still a net plus for you!

Today’s Rules Tip written by Jen Wong