The #MTGSOS prerelease has been gnawing at me due to a ruling someone said regarding Ark of Hunger and Wilt in the Heat.
If I mill Wilt in the Heat with Ark of Hunger, can I play Wilt for just RW, even if no other card has left my graveyard?
I was told you couldn’t as it had not left the graveyard.
But the first step of casting a spell is to put it on the stack, so wouldn’t that mean it has left the graveyard before you determine costs?
@TomChapple From the rules:
701.5a To cast a spell is to take it from the zone it’s in (usually the hand), put it on the stack, and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect. A player may cast a spell if they have priority.
https://mtg.wiki/page/Cast
The zone change happens before costs are calculated and paid, so Wilt in the Heat would benefit from its cost reduction ability!
Cast is a keyword action. It was introduced in Alpha but temporary replaced with Play in the Sixth Edition rules changes and then reinstated in Magic 2010.[1] When you cast a spell, you take it from where it is (usually the hand), put it on the stack, and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect.
The wiki is sometimes occasionally bad for these kinds of things as it's not reliably updated, use yawgatog instead!: https://yawgatog.com/resources/magic-rules/#R601
(not disputing anything, but oh no rules from the wiki)
@RethinkJeff @jerbear That’s fair. I personally tend to refer to the text file WotC provides (which I assume Yawgatog sources from), so simply hearing similar citations was useful for me understanding I was on the right track.
That said, it’s great to know there’s a resource for looking up rules in an easier format!
Tom Chapple
Jer-Bear, Fair and Square
RethinkJeff