This isn't a rules question per se as I know how the card works. However, I find the reminder text on Snapcaster Mage to be misleading. It reads "When Snapcaster Mage enters the battlefield, target instant or sorcery card in a graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may cast that card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)"
Now, if you know the mechanic flashback, there is no issue. However, wouldn't a literal reading w/o this prior knowledge indicate that a card targeted by Snapcaster Mage's ability would be exiled regardless of whether or not the targeted card is cast? So many magic cards contain the clause "if you do," but why doesn't Snapcaster? Am I missing something?
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Reminder text has no rules meaning, its just a reminder.
Indeed the reminder text for flashback doesn't accurately describe how flashback's exile clause works at all. Snapcaster Mage uses the same wording as all Innistrad cards with flashback.
It's hard to fit
You may cast ~~ from your graveyard by paying [cost] rather than paying its mana cost.
If ~~ was cast for its flashback cost, exile this card instead of putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack.
This isn't a rules question per se as I know how the card works. However, I find the reminder text on Snapcaster Mage to be misleading. It reads "When Snapcaster Mage enters the battlefield, target instant or sorcery card in a graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may cast that card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)"
Now, if you know the mechanic flashback, there is no issue. However, wouldn't a literal reading w/o this prior knowledge indicate that a card targeted by Snapcaster Mage's ability would be exiled regardless of whether or not the targeted card is cast? So many magic cards contain the clause "if you do," but why doesn't Snapcaster? Am I missing something?
It doesn't need to say 'If' because it's two separate clauses which are linked by 'Then'. Basically it's saying, Cast it for its flashback cost then exile it.
Technically "then" in the last sentence of the reminder text means "after you've had the ability to cast the targeted spell from your graveyard for its mana cost." Normally this isn't an issue since a typical card w/flashback has the structure of "Flashback [mana cost] (reminder text)." The exile clause is much more clearly a function of casting the spell since you always have the ability to pay the flashback cost, meaning there is never a viable time to exile the card "after you've had the ability to cast it for FB cost." With Snappy, there is another viable--and more literal--candidate for the time that "then" is referencing.
I realize that space constraints prevent truly technical wording and that the ultimate message is to just know the rules, but it seems to me that the reminder text should have either been altered slightly on Snapcaster in particular to say "if you do," instead of "then." There's room for that.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Did you come here for the sake of the Dharma? Or did you come here for the sake of a chair?
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Now, if you know the mechanic flashback, there is no issue. However, wouldn't a literal reading w/o this prior knowledge indicate that a card targeted by Snapcaster Mage's ability would be exiled regardless of whether or not the targeted card is cast? So many magic cards contain the clause "if you do," but why doesn't Snapcaster? Am I missing something?
Indeed the reminder text for flashback doesn't accurately describe how flashback's exile clause works at all. Snapcaster Mage uses the same wording as all Innistrad cards with flashback.
It's hard to fit
onto a card that actually has an effect.
It doesn't need to say 'If' because it's two separate clauses which are linked by 'Then'. Basically it's saying, Cast it for its flashback cost then exile it.
I realize that space constraints prevent truly technical wording and that the ultimate message is to just know the rules, but it seems to me that the reminder text should have either been altered slightly on Snapcaster in particular to say "if you do," instead of "then." There's room for that.