"Whenever you play ..." in the Kamigawa Block
Asked by Liszt 4 years ago
I don't understand the card Hikari, Twilight Guardian . As I understand magic, "playing" a card basically means putting it into play from anywhere, even from exile. So this card would infinitely trigger itself. The MM2 version of Hikari, Twilight Guardian specifically says "casting" though. Was that a change to tackle this problem, perhaps because of a rule change regarding "playing"?
And what does this mean for all the other Kamigawa Spirits? Especially the ones that didn't get a reprint like Guardian of Solitude and so on...?
In Magic terms, to "play" something means to "play as a land or cast as a spell, whichever is appropriate."
When older cards, prior to more updated text, say to "play a spell," they do mean "cast a spell." You can always see updated text via the Oracle text on the Gatherer or Scryfall, even if the card hasn't seen a reprint.
"Playing" doesn't mean "putting it into play from anywhere." Hikari, Twilight Guardian would be "entering the battlefield" in this context. You may be thinking of older terminology where the battlefield used to be known as the "in-play zone," and thus cards could be printed with text using phrases like "into play." They've been given errata in the Oracle text as well.
December 30, 2019 9:08 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #3
Liszt: A correct answer to your question has been up for a while. I marked it as the "Accepted answer" so that this thread can move out of the list of unanswered questions. Please remember to take care of this yourself in the future.
Liszt says... #1
Never mind. I guess that "playing a spell" means "casting a spell" in this context. So Hikari returning to the battlefield would be something like "playing a card" and not "playing a spell".
December 30, 2019 5:57 p.m.