Effects (2)
Costs
Both summoning costs and effect activation costs must be paid at the time of declaration. There are a few typical categories of costs:
- Mana Cost: worded as
consume X mana, paid by spending mana counters from this card - Any Mana Cost: worded as
consume any X mana, paid by spending mana counters from any combination of your cards - Sacrificial Cost: paid by sacrificing (destroying) cards you control
- Discard Cost: paid by discarding cards from your hand
Hidden Sacrifice
A special mechanic to pay for Any Mana Costs; you can sacrifice face-down card(s) with Will to contribute that value towards the mana cost (the sacrificed card is never summoned and goes directly to the graveyard without triggering effects).
Spell Speed
Effects and game actions can be categorized as Slow (sorcery) or Fast (instant) Speed. Effects go to an MTG-style Stack. Effect can refer to the "current chain" as the current instance of the Stack. The Stack can be modified during resolution.
- Slow Speed effects can only be performed on your turn and when the stack is empty. This includes all Action effects (that can only be performed during the Event Phase) and playing cards onto the battlefield (only during the Deployment Phase).
- Fast Speed effects can be performed at any time, even during your opponent's turn and in response to other effects. This includes all other effects, as well as flipping artifacts or creatures with Ambush.