When exactly is a spell done being "played"?
Asked by Redriver18 3 years ago
I am running a deck with Ivory Cup and Eight-and-a-Half-Tails. My question is, if I use Eight-and-a-Half-Tails to turn a non-white spell on the stack white, does it trigger Ivory Cup? I am confused about when a spell is considered to have been played as opposed to cast.
Rhadamanthus says... #2
Unfortunately no, this won't work. By the time you're able to activate Eight-and-a-Half-Tails' ability, you're already past the point where Ivory Cup would trigger.
For spells, "play" and "cast" mean the same thing (you can see in the current official Oracle text on Ivory Cup's Gatherer entry that it's been updated to use the word "cast"). A spell is officially "cast" after the player has finished making all the decisions for it and paying all the costs. Players get a chance to make responses after the casting process is completed but before the spell starts resolving. In your example that means you've already finished casting the spell when you get the opportunity to use Eight-and-a-Half-Tails to turn it white. The time that Ivory Cup would have triggered is already passed.
July 31, 2020 2:26 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #3
Redriver18: Answers to your question have been up for a while. Since there don't seem to be any follow-ups or corrections to be made, I marked one as the "Accepted answer" so that this topic can move out of the list of unanswered questions. In the future, you can take care of this yourself by using the green "Mark as Answer" button on the response that best answered your question.
Tylord2894 says... Accepted answer #1
You can not use Eight-and-a-Half-Tails's second ability to trigger Ivory Cup.
It's important to remember that Magic is almost 30 years old, so the wording that is printed on cards is very much subject to change. The update Oracle text of Ivory Cup uses "cast" instead of "played". I don't know what this change occurred, but a spell is not considered "played" anymore. It is always considered to be "cast" (there's an "exception" to this that I'll talk about later).
When casting a spell, there's a series of steps that the caster goes through, selecting modes/divisions/targets, determining costs, paying for costs, etc. The very last step in the process is declaring a spell to be "cast". That is when Ivory Cup will trigger. Since there is not an opportunity for you to resolve before that point, you can not use Eight-and-a-Half-Tails to change that spell to be white.
Now, this "exception" to the rule that "spells are only ever cast." Some cards will allow you to "play cards" from somewhere. For example, most "Impluse" effects (like the eponymous Act on Impulse) say that you can "play cards exiled this way". What this is trying to say in only a few words is that "you may cast spells or play lands exiled with Act on Impulse".
Hope this helps!!
July 31, 2020 2:19 p.m.