copying a spell with an additional cast cost

Asked by rog0325 2 years ago

if I copy a spell like Goblin Grenade and copy it with Teach by Example , will I have to pay the sacrifice one goblin again or not because I have already cast it?

Polaris says... Accepted answer #1

You only have to sacrifice one creature. A copy is not cast (unless the effect specifically tells you to cast the copy), so none of the costs need to be paid. You'll just get a second 5 damage to any target without needing to pay mana or sacrifice another creature.

Note that this is not always the case; Goblin Grenade includes the sacrifice as an additional cost, but other cards might not. For example, you only need to sacrifice one land when casting and copying Harrow , but you would need to sacrifice X lands to both the original and the copy of Nahiri's Lithoforming because the sacrifice is part of the effect, not a cost.

Note also that some other quirks can also happen with copies of spells that care about how they were cast. For example, if you flash back Increasing Vengeance and copy it, the second one will not make two copies because it was not cast from the graveyard, even though it's a copy of a spell that was.

July 5, 2021 6:06 p.m.