GENERAL QUESTIONS

Multicolored Cards

• A card's color is determined by its mana cost. That means cards with more than one color of mana in their mana costs are multicolored cards.
  
• Multicolored cards have gold backgrounds. The exception is split cards, which are multicolored unless they're on the stack (see "Split Cards" below).
  
• A multicolored card is affected by anything that affects either or both of its colors. For example, a red and green multicolored card is affected by spells and abilities that affect red cards, green cards, or red and green cards. It's also affected by spells and abilities that affect "red or green" cards; just because it's both doesn't mean these effects don't
  apply.
• When you change the color of a spell or permanent, all previous colors are overwritten (unless the effect specifies that the new color is "in addition" to its existing colors). That means changing the color of a multicolored spell or permanent will usually make it not multicolored.
  
• When a multicolored card deals damage, the damage is of a multicolored source. Usually that doesn't matter. For example, Circle of Protection: Red has no trouble preventing damage dealt by a red and black creature. Neither does Circle of Protection: Black. In general, if an effect looks for a particular color, it will find multicolored cards with that color.
  
• Some effects will seem to count a multicolored card twice. For example, a spell might say, "Gain 1 life for each color among permanents you control." If you control a single black and blue creature when you play this spell, you'd gain 2 life. See the "CARD-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS" section for more detailed information.
  
• Split cards are multicolored, because their two mana costs have different colors of mana. They're not multicolored while they're on the stack, because during that time, half the card is invisible. See "Split Cards" below for more details.
  
• Kicker costs aren't part of a spell's mana cost, so kicker cards aren't multicolored based on a difference in color between the two. Kangee, Aerie Keeper is a multicolored kicker card because it has two different colors of mana in its mana cost.
  
• Activated ability costs aren't part of a spell's mana cost, so permanents aren't multicolored based on a difference in color between the two.
  

Kicker Cards

Some spells have a kicker cost. If you pay it when you play the spell, the spell has some extra or better effect.

• Kicker costs are always optional.
  
• You pay the kicker cost when you play the spell. You declare whether you're going to pay it at the same time you'd choose a spell's mode, and then you actually pay it at the same time you pay the spell's mana cost.
  
• If a permanent with a kicker cost is put directly into play, you don't get the chance to pay the kicker.
  
• You can pay a kicker cost only once. You can't pay it multiple times to "pump up" the effect.
  
• The effect you get when you pay a kicker cost sometimes has targets. Here's a special rule for kicker: You don't choose the targets for the part of the effect tied to paying the kicker cost unless you've declared that you're going to pay it. Every time the word "target" appears after the phrase "if you paid the kicker cost," that means you choose that target only if you've declared that you're going to pay the kicker cost.
  
• Kicker costs don't count toward a spell's mana cost or converted mana cost, whether they're paid or not. That means they're not increased by the effect of Leeches, and they're not figured into effects like Spell Blast's.
  
• Some kicker cards are worded this way: "Do A. If you paid the kicker cost, do B instead." For example, Prohibit reads, "Counter target spell if its converted mana cost is 2 or less. If you paid the kicker cost, counter that spell if its converted mana cost is 4 or less instead." For cards like this, you do B if you pay the kicker cost and A if you don't. You never get to do both. (Remember that the word "instead" means you replace one thing with another.)
  

Split Cards

Split cards have two card faces on a single card.

• When you play a split card, you announce which side of the card you're playing. While it's on the stack, the other side of the card is ignored completely.
  
• Split cards have two sets of characteristics: two names, two mana costs, and so on. They always have both sets, except when they're on the stack. For example, Wax/Wane is a green instant that costs G and gives a creature
  +2/+2 on one side, and a white instant that costs W and destroys an enchantment on the other side. But while it's on the stack, one half is totally invisible.
  
• When a split card is anywhere other than on the stack, it has both sets of characteristics. Anything that affects half the card affects the whole card. For example, let's say Wax/Wane is in your hand. Your opponent plays Persecute on you. If he or she chooses white, you'll have to discard Wax/Wane. If he or she chooses green, you'll have to discard it.
  
• Split cards have two mana costs with different colors of mana in them. That means they are multicolored cards, except while they're on the stack. Remember that while a split card is on the stack, the half not being played is invisible, so it's only one color.
  
• Remember that a split card has two names. If an effect tells you to name a card, you must name all of its names. For example, let's say you play Null Chamber. You can name Wax/Wane, but you can't name only Wax or only
  Wane (because they're not separate cards). That means Null Chamber prevents both halves of Wax/Wane from being played, not just one half or the other.
  
• Sometimes an effect will key off the value of a split card's characteristic, such as color or converted mana cost. Usually this is simple. For example, if an effect deals damage to a target for each red card in your hand, split cards with a red half are counted with no problems. If an effect makes you discard all cards with a particular converted mana cost, a split card whose half has that converted mana cost will be discarded. But what if an effect asks for a single value of a split card's characteristic? For example, let's say you control Infernal Genesis from the _Prophecy™_ set. It reads, "At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard. He or she then puts X 1/1 black Minion creature tokens into play, where X is that card's converted mana cost." What if you turn over a split card? What's its converted mana cost? The split card can't give a single answer, so it gives two. For example, if you put Wax/Wane into your graveyard because of Infernal Genesis's effect, you'd get two 1/1 token creatures. Why? Because when Infernal Genesis asks Wax/Wane what its
  converted mana cost is, it answers, "1, and 1." Basically, Infernal Genesis doesn't know which answer to use, so it uses both. That doesn't mean that a split card's characteristics get added, though. For example, if your opponent plays Void on you and names 1, you'll have to discard Wax/Wane. But if he or she names 2, you won't discard it, because neither half of the split card has a converted mana cost of 2. You don't add up the two characteristics for some kind of combined value. Here's the short version of this rule: "Effects that ask for a split card's characteristic get both answers. Effects that ask if a split card's characteristic matches a given value get only one answer."
  

Domain Cards

These are cards whose effect depends on how many basic land types you have in play. In general, the more different types of basic lands you control, the better the effect from "domain" cards.

• The maximum number of basic land types you can have among lands you control is five: plains, island, swamp, mountain, and forest. Even if you control 20 basic lands, there can be only five basic land types among them.
  
• The _Revised Edition™_ dual lands each have two basic land types. That means if you control only a Bayou and a Tundra, for example, there are 4 basic land types among lands you control. These are the only nonbasic lands for which this is true. Coastal Tower, for example, doesn't have a basic land type.
  
• If a land becomes a basic land of some kind, it automatically gains that land's basic land type. For example, if you enchant Coastal Tower with Tainted Well, Coastal Tower becomes a swamp and becomes a basic land with
  the type "swamp."
• Remember that it doesn't matter how many basic land types you have in play when you *play* a domain card. They're not counted up until the spell resolves.
  

Djinns

The Invasion set has five Djinns -- one of each color. They're big creatures that stay big as long as their color *isn't* the most common in play. If their color *is* the most common, they get smaller.

• Here's the easiest way to figure out whether a Djinn gets -2/-2: For each of the five colors, count the number of permanents in play. If the number of permanents of the Djinn's color is the biggest, or is tied for biggest, the Djinn gets the -2/-2 penalty. Remember that a multicolored card counts as a permanent of each of its colors.
  
  

Leeches

The Invasion set has five Leeches -- one of each color. Each is cheaper to play than it would normally be, but each has an ability that makes other spells of its color more expensive to play. For example, Jade Leech is a 5/5 creature for only 2GG. But once it's in play, all other green spells you play cost G more.
The effects of Leeches don't change a card's mana cost or converted mana cost. They just affect how much its controller has to pay to play it.

"Divvy" cards

There are six cards in the Invasion set that instruct a player to divvy up some cards into two piles. Then one effect happens to one pile, and a different effect happens to the other one.

• When cards are separated into piles, they don't leave the zone they're in (unless the effect says to move them to a different zone). For example, if a divvy card affects creatures in play, they don't leave play. No leaves-play or comes-into-play triggered abilities will trigger.
  
• The affected cards stay separated into piles only for the duration of the effect. Once the spell is done resolving, the cards' controller can mix them together again.
  

Dragon Legends

The Invasion set has five Dragon Legends -- one for each group of three allied colors. Each one has an ability that triggers on it dealing combat damage, then does something based on a color you choose.

• If all the Dragon's combat damage is prevented, the ability doesn't trigger. At least 1 combat damage must be actually dealt for the ability to go on the stack.
  You don't choose the color for the ability until it resolves. That means by the time you choose, it'll be too late for your opponent to respond with instants or activated abilities.