Prismatic Return2B
Sorcery (C)
Prism (X is the number of colors of mana spent to cast this spell.)
Return X target creature cards from your graveyard to your hand.
My ruling question is whether I can have this card target the creature cards, or whether I'll need to use a different wording (Return X creature cards of your choice from...)?
The spell can target if and only if you force the decision of how many colors to use to cast a spell with prism to be made before targets are chosen. This way, the player is bound to the decision they made, and if the number of colors of mana they use to pay for the spell's cost does not match the number they chose for prism before targets were chosen, the casting of the spell would be illegal.
For example, let's say I'm casting Prismatic Return as follows:
1) I put the spell on the stack.
2) It's time for me to decide whether I will kick the spell, splice anything, etc. Since the spell has prism, it would also be this point of the casting process where I decide how many colors of mana I use to cast the spell. Let's say I choose 1 (so that I will pay BBB eventually).
3) I choose my targets (in this case, one target) and determine the cost of casting the spell.
4) I pay the required mana. If I pay BBB, the casting is legal. If I pay something like WUB, the casting is illegal since I decided that I would only use one color of mana to cast the spell.
The decision of the number of colors used to cast the spell would still matter even if something caused you to cast the spell "without paying its mana cost"; this matters for things like Trinisphere.
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On the other hand, if you have no intention of changing the CR to accommodate prism being one of the decisions that a player is bound to while casting a spell, then the spell cannot target. The number of targets wouldn't be determined until after costs are paid, which cannot happen.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How to use card tags (please use them for everybody's sanity)
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format Minimum deck size: 60 Maximum number of identical cards: 4 Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
Since it is a keyword (as opposed to the Shadowmoor spells that check which colors were spent), you could put the rules necessary to make this work in the keyword and not have to muddle with other parts of the CR. (For several years, reducing a cost by colored mana was in the rules for offering but were nowhere else in the CR.) I am unsure how exactly this should be worded though. To make it work you would need set it up so you declare the value of X, then spend that many colors of mana. You would probably also want to decide how Twincast interacts with this. If the X is locked-in similar to X mana costs as you choose how you are going to cast it, then Twincast might very well copy the value of X.
A first draft for a CR entry for a locked-in X value:
702.XX. Prism
702.XXa Prism is a static ability that functions while the spell is on the stack. "Prism" means "As you cast this spell, choose a number between 0 and 5. X is equal to that number. You must spend exactly X mana of different colors to cast this spell."
702.XXb Prism applies only as you are casting the spell. If a permanent with prism enters the battlefield without being cast, X is 0. After being cast, the value chosen for X for prism is "locked in". If a spell with prism is copied, the copy uses the value of X chosen for the original spell. However, if an effect of the spell checks if any particular colors of mana were spent, the copy will never have had mana of the stated color paid for it, no matter what colors were spent on the original spell.
702.XXc Prism creates a restriction on the mana that you spend to cast the spell. This restriction cares about the number of colors of mana you spend, not about the total amount of mana or the amount of each color color of mana that is spent. Mana paid for additional or alternative costs applies. Effects that increase or decrease the cost to cast the spell will allow you to choose higher or lower values for X.
702.XXd You choose the value for X before choosing targets and before actually paying costs. If you try to spend a different amount of colored mana than the number you chose for the value of X, the casting of the spell is illegal; the game returns to the moment before that spell started to be cast (see rule 717, “Handling Illegal Actions”).
Sorcery (C)
Prism (X is the number of colors of mana spent to cast this spell.)
Return X target creature cards from your graveyard to your hand.
My ruling question is whether I can have this card target the creature cards, or whether I'll need to use a different wording (Return X creature cards of your choice from...)?
For example, let's say I'm casting Prismatic Return as follows:
1) I put the spell on the stack.
2) It's time for me to decide whether I will kick the spell, splice anything, etc. Since the spell has prism, it would also be this point of the casting process where I decide how many colors of mana I use to cast the spell. Let's say I choose 1 (so that I will pay BBB eventually).
3) I choose my targets (in this case, one target) and determine the cost of casting the spell.
4) I pay the required mana. If I pay BBB, the casting is legal. If I pay something like WUB, the casting is illegal since I decided that I would only use one color of mana to cast the spell.
The decision of the number of colors used to cast the spell would still matter even if something caused you to cast the spell "without paying its mana cost"; this matters for things like Trinisphere.
---
On the other hand, if you have no intention of changing the CR to accommodate prism being one of the decisions that a player is bound to while casting a spell, then the spell cannot target. The number of targets wouldn't be determined until after costs are paid, which cannot happen.
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format
Minimum deck size: 60
Maximum number of identical cards: 4
Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
A first draft for a CR entry for a locked-in X value:
702.XXa Prism is a static ability that functions while the spell is on the stack. "Prism" means "As you cast this spell, choose a number between 0 and 5. X is equal to that number. You must spend exactly X mana of different colors to cast this spell."
702.XXb Prism applies only as you are casting the spell. If a permanent with prism enters the battlefield without being cast, X is 0. After being cast, the value chosen for X for prism is "locked in". If a spell with prism is copied, the copy uses the value of X chosen for the original spell. However, if an effect of the spell checks if any particular colors of mana were spent, the copy will never have had mana of the stated color paid for it, no matter what colors were spent on the original spell.
702.XXc Prism creates a restriction on the mana that you spend to cast the spell. This restriction cares about the number of colors of mana you spend, not about the total amount of mana or the amount of each color color of mana that is spent. Mana paid for additional or alternative costs applies. Effects that increase or decrease the cost to cast the spell will allow you to choose higher or lower values for X.
702.XXd You choose the value for X before choosing targets and before actually paying costs. If you try to spend a different amount of colored mana than the number you chose for the value of X, the casting of the spell is illegal; the game returns to the moment before that spell started to be cast (see rule 717, “Handling Illegal Actions”).