Wizard Den: Trinisphere

Trinisphere is worth dedicating the entirety of this week's Judge's Den to. Last week I covered the importance of maintaining the order of your graveyard in preparation for Wizardden.com 's Vintage League. Had I thought it through a little more, I would have realized that I should have also discussed the oddest card ever when it comes to casting spells, Trinisphere.

First off in order to understand this card you must first understand how to cast a spell. Sounds easy sure, but truth is most magic players do not know how to properly cast a spell.

Announce- Reveal it and announce the spell

Choose Modes- Choose a mode or modes (Crux of Fate, Dromoka's Command)

Target- Choose any necessary targets

How to Distribute-Determine how to distribute if necessary. (Arc Lightning) Once this choice has been made you can not change your mind on the distribution at a later point.

Total Cost-First determine the cost, then apply any cost increases, next apply any cost decreases, finally apply any cost setting effects (Trinisphere).

Mana Abilities- Activate any mana abilities

Pay All Costs- Pay any remaining costs of the spell or ability

We are going to focus on the total cost step. Notice the Trinisphere is the last step, this means that it catches any and all spells as long as they are being cast. Force of Will, Windbrisk Heights, and Omniscience all get caught by the all powerful Trinisphere. For more clarification here are the rulings on Trinisphere.

• 12/1/2004-Trinisphere's ability affects the total cost of the spell. It is applied *after* any other cost increases or cost reducers are applied: First apply any cost increases. Next apply any cost reducers. Finally look at the amount of mana you have to pay. If it's less than three mana, you'll pay three mana.
• 12/1/2004-Even with a cost reducer on the battlefield, spells can't cost less than three mana to cast.
• 12/1/2004-If a spell costs at least three mana due to additional costs, such as kicker costs, that's fine.
• 12/1/2004-You still need to pay any additional nonmana costs the spell has, such as sacrificing a creature or discarding cards.
• 12/1/2004-Casting a creature with morph face down already costs three mana, even though the converted mana cost of the face-down spell is zero, so Trinisphere normally doesn't modify the total cost of a face-down creature spell. However, if Dream Chisel is reducing that cost while Trinisphere is on the battlefield, you'll still have to pay three mana for the spell.

Moral of the story is everything must cost at least three mana to cast. This does not change the converted mana cost of the spell, it simply makes you pay additional mana. I will also add that delve and convoke will not get trapped by the sphere. Phyrexian mana on the other hand is currently subject to the sphere. Trinisphere asks you to pay three mana even if you paid life to meet the cost of the symbol. I say currently because convoke used to also be restricted by the sphere, but in 2015 the changed the wording on the ability, a similar change for phyrexian mana would make sense. Each of those are alternate ways to pay for the spell, but don't reduce to cost. Since they do not reduce the cost Trinisphere will not make them cost more. This has been Ariel with Wizardden.com, thank you for reading and look forward to next week's edition of Judge's Den.