What's crackalackin my fellow practitioners of the Magic arts?! So I need some assistance with a dilemma that my buddy and I ran into while having a match last night.
Here was the situation: my buddy runs a Muldrotha, the Gravetide deck and declared that he was going to cast Tribute Mage from his graveyard and tapped the mana for it accordingly. I countered the cast which then lead to an adderall and weed fueled debate on if he would be able to cast another creature from his graveyard because "it did not come into play". My stance is that since Muldrotha's ability allows him to play/cast 1 permanent of each type on his turns, the selection and casting of Tribute Mage would constitute as his 1 creature type for that turn regardless of it made it onto the battlefield or not. To my understanding, Muldrotha's text uses the word "play" because her ability incorporates lands but ONLY lands can be played and all other non-land spells are casted. My buddy's stance is that because Tribute Mage never entered the battlefield, it would not count as his creature type for that turn and he would be able to cast another creature card if he had the mana for it. Neither of us could find anything online that definitively explained who is correct so please help?? Thanks for the assistance!!
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-MadMage
Your opponent cast the card. That counts as having cast the card. Countering happens after that and does not erase the past. Muldrotha's use for that card type this turn is used up.
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Muldrotha, the Gravetide says you can play one creature per turn (as well as one enchantment, one artifact, etc). She doesn't care if the spell resolved or not, if the creature entered the battlefield or not.
"Coming into play" is outdated terminology. It is not a thing in the rules.
Playing a nonland card means casting it: putting it on the stack and paying its mana cost. Once your opponent has done that for a creature card, he has "used up" Muldrotha's permission to play a creature from the graveyard, even if you then counter that creature spell.
You're mostly right that the card uses "play" because it applies to both lands and other cards.
If a player casts a spell of a chosen permanent type from their graveyard due to Muldrotha's effect, that effect won't let that player cast another spell of that type from their graveyard, even if the first spell was countered. Notably, countering a spell doesn't "refund" the costs paid to cast it (C.R. 701.5b).
In general, to "play" a card means to play it as a land or cast it as a spell (C.R. 701.13b). Thus, in general, for the purposes of Muldrotha, a spell is "played" when all the steps in C.R. 601.2 are followed (such as putting the spell on the stack and paying its costs) (C.R. 701.13b; see also C.R. 701.4a), and a land is "played" when the land card is put onto the battlefield (C.R. 701.13a).
Here was the situation: my buddy runs a Muldrotha, the Gravetide deck and declared that he was going to cast Tribute Mage from his graveyard and tapped the mana for it accordingly. I countered the cast which then lead to an adderall and weed fueled debate on if he would be able to cast another creature from his graveyard because "it did not come into play". My stance is that since Muldrotha's ability allows him to play/cast 1 permanent of each type on his turns, the selection and casting of Tribute Mage would constitute as his 1 creature type for that turn regardless of it made it onto the battlefield or not. To my understanding, Muldrotha's text uses the word "play" because her ability incorporates lands but ONLY lands can be played and all other non-land spells are casted. My buddy's stance is that because Tribute Mage never entered the battlefield, it would not count as his creature type for that turn and he would be able to cast another creature card if he had the mana for it. Neither of us could find anything online that definitively explained who is correct so please help?? Thanks for the assistance!!
Using card tags is mandatory in the Magic Rulings forum. Please check your private messages to learn how to use them. I've added them for this post.
-MadMage
Awesome avatar provided by Krashbot @ [Epic Graphics].
"Coming into play" is outdated terminology. It is not a thing in the rules.
Playing a nonland card means casting it: putting it on the stack and paying its mana cost. Once your opponent has done that for a creature card, he has "used up" Muldrotha's permission to play a creature from the graveyard, even if you then counter that creature spell.
You're mostly right that the card uses "play" because it applies to both lands and other cards.
In general, to "play" a card means to play it as a land or cast it as a spell (C.R. 701.13b). Thus, in general, for the purposes of Muldrotha, a spell is "played" when all the steps in C.R. 601.2 are followed (such as putting the spell on the stack and paying its costs) (C.R. 701.13b; see also C.R. 701.4a), and a land is "played" when the land card is put onto the battlefield (C.R. 701.13a).