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This article looks into the playing of spells and abilities.
"What's so tough about that?" you might ask. Well, most of the
time it isn't too difficult... You pay some mana and say your spell
is played. But there's more to it than that.
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The key to Magic timing is to understand that all spells and abilities
have two parts. They have a part that applies when you play it, and
the part that applies when you resolve it
(see Crystal Clear - 1B).
When you are playing a spell or ability, you need to do two things:
make choices and pay costs.
The only choices you make are the choices for targets, for mode (if it has
"Choose One -" text, you choose one), and any choice that affects the cost
to be paid (the value of 'X', whether to use Kicker, and so on). If
a choice isn't one of these, then you make the choice when resolving
the spell or ability.
As for costs, they can be anything. You'll most often see a mana cost or a
cost that involves tapping a permanent, but you can also encounter cards that
have you remove something from the game, reveal something, sacrifice something,
and so on.
How do you know something is a cost? For activated abilities, you'll see the
cost to the left of a colon. For spells, the mana cost printed on the card
applies as well as any "As an additional cost to play" text on the card.
Once you master this separation of actions taken when playing a spell or
ability from those that are taken when resolving it
(see Crystal Clear - 1B), you're ready to learn more about
the Stack (see Crystal Clear - 1C).
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When you dive deeper into the rules, you'll find that playing a spell or
ability is itself broken into a sequence of steps. The need to dig into this
usually comes up only in obscure situations, but the rules do define exactly
what happens.
The following steps take place in order and cannot be interrupted by any player.
1) First you identify the spell or ability you are playing. If you are playing
a card that is face down, you reveal it (unless it has an ability that says it
not revealed at this time, as with Morph).
This spell or ability is now on the Stack.
[409.1a]
2) Next, you make any non-targeting choices. These include, but are
not limited to:
[409.1b]
- Choosing the value of an X
on the card.
- Choosing the mode if it is modal.
A modal spell or ability uses the text "Choose One -" followed by a list of
options in the text.
- If it has optional costs (Buyback,
Kicker,
Convoke, or
"you may (do something) when playing this spell or ability" text),
choose whether or not and how much of these costs will be paid.
- If it has alternative ways of playing the card ("instead of paying the mana
cost"), choose whether or not to use the alternative cost.
- If it has Splice
ability, choosing whether or not to use it, and choosing which cards to splice in.
Note that you don't pay any costs yet. You are just choosing how the spell
will be played so the actual cost at the end of this step is fully known.
3) You make choices on targets. Targeting will be covered in
a separate article in more depth.
[409.1c]
4) If the spell or ability affects several targets in different
ways, you choose how it will affect each target. This can include the
division of damage, distribution of counters, or a choice of which
target gets which part of the effect.
[409.1e]
5) You figure out the total cost required. Costs can consist of mana,
sacrifices, tapping permanents, and many other actions.
[409.1f]
6) If the cost includes at least one mana, you get the chance to play
mana abilities at this time to add mana to your pool.
[409.1g]
7) Next, you pay all the costs in any order you want to.
[409.1h]
8) And finally, the spell or ability becomes played.
[409.1i]
The choosing of targets, paying of costs, and becoming-played status of a spell
can all cause Triggers to occur. These triggers don't do anything during the
playing of the spell, however. They wait until the next time someone gets
priority before being played themselves.
Ready for more? Learn about resolving spells and abilities
(see Crystal Clear - 1B) and about
the Stack (see Crystal Clear - 1C).
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While the text to the left discusses the rules, we'll work on specific
game situations over here.
Q: I start to play an ability with a sacrifice in the cost. My friend
tries to destroy that creature with a spell or ability in response. Can
they do that?
No. Once you start playing something, no one can interrupt it. You get to
do all the actions of playing it and put it on the stack. And even then you
still have priority until you pass. So they cannot stop you from sacrificing
as a cost.
Q: Can I use a spell like Twiddle
to tap my opponent's land and force him to get mana?
No. An ability of a permanent can only have its cost paid when its controller
actively takes the action to play that ability. Doing some action
that looks like the cost does not make the ability activate.
Q: Can I use a spell like Orim's Chant
after my opponent plays a spell to make him unable to play it? Or use a
spell to make her pay more?
No. Once a spell or ability is played, it is played. You can't go back and
undo that. And once the cost is paid, you cannot make someone go back and
pay it again differently. Once you start playing a spell, no one can
interrupt you to alter how that spell is played.
[409.1]
Q: What if I get part way through or all the way through playing a
spell or ability, then realize I messed up and did something wrong?
When this happens, you simply back up and undo all the actions that were
taken back to the start of trying to play the spell or ability.
[409.1]
[422]
You untap anything that was tapped, put anything that was sacrificed back
into play, and so on.
This rule does not apply to an "oops, I didn't want to do that" situation.
It is meant to cover those real situations where you don't have the right
mana, the target you meant to choose isn't actually legal, and so on.
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