I answer lots of rules questions online, and I’ve noticed a lot of questions being asked about Spell Queller. At a glance, it seems pretty simple: cast it to exile a spell, and when it dies, they get to cast it again. But it’s brought up a lot of questions since its release. I’ve gathered many of those questions here for players and judges to hopefully answer those questions for you, so you don’t have to go searching for answers.

Spell Queller in General

Spell Queller can be cast even if there are no spells on the stack. Creature spells never target, and if there are no legal targets for the trigger when the Queller enters, the trigger is simply removed from the stack and the Queller remains on the battlefield. If you want to use the Queller as a surprise blocker or just cast it at the end of your opponent’s turn, you’re free to do that, even if there are no spells on the stack.

Spell Queller’s trigger is not optional: you have to target a spell if able. That means if you cast the Queller and the only spell on the stack is controlled by you, you have to target it and exile it.

Spell Queller’s triggered ability does not counter the spell, it exiles it. Since it’s not countering the spell, it can be used on a spell that can’t be countered by spells or abilities, like Abrupt Decay. When the trigger resolves, the Decay is exiled and won’t resolve.

When the Queller’s leave the battlefield trigger resolves, its owner can cast the spell without paying its mana cost. This gets around the normal timing restriction of a spell, since you’ve been given permission to cast it at a weird time (while the Queller’s trigger is resolving), so you can cast a sorcery or creature card on an opponent’s turn. But you still have to obey other timing restrictions on the card. For instance, if the exiled card is Master Warcraft and the Queller dies during the combat damage step, they won’t be able to cast the Warcraft when the Queller’s trigger resolves, since we’re passed the point of declaring attackers.

You can only cast the spell if it’s still in exile when the trigger resolves. If the card left exile for any reason (for instance, it was shuffled into its owner’s library due to a Riftsweeper trigger), you won’t be able to cast it when the trigger resolves. Similarly, you can only cast the spell exiled by that copy of Spell Queller. If you have more than one, you need to keep track of which spell was exiled by each Queller.

If the exiled card has an X in the cost, since you’re casting it without paying its mana cost, the only value you can choose for X is 0. If the Queller exiles a copy of a spell, that copy ceases to exist since it’s no longer on the stack, and will not be recast if the Queller leaves the battlefield.

If the owner of the spell chooses not to cast it, then it will remain exiled for the rest of the game: they don’t get another chance to cast it. They either cast it when the trigger resolves or not at all.

When the Queller’s leave the battlefield trigger resolves, you cast the spell without paying its mana cost. You can’t use any alternate costs when casting the spell, since you can only use one alternate cost when casting a spell, so you couldn’t cast a spell for its Awaken cost with the Queller’s trigger. You can pay additional costs when casting the spell, such as Escalate costs. However, you’ll have to actually pay the additional costs – they won’t be free.

If you Spell Queller a face down spell, it’s turned face up when it goes to exile. When the Queller leaves the battlefield, instead of casting it face down again, its owner will cast it face up. They cannot choose to cast it face down; it must be cast face up. This is because morph is an alternate cost, and as already mentioned, you can’t apply alternate costs to the exiled spell.

Spell Queller and Converted Mana Cost

Spell Queller’s trigger can target a spell with a converted mana cost of four or less. The converted mana cost of a spell is derived from the mana cost in the upper right hand corner of the card, not what you paid to cast it. For instance, if Ruinous Path is cast via Awaken, its converted mana cost is still three, not seven, so it can still be targeted by Spell Queller’s trigger. Likewise, if an Elder Deep-Fiend is cast via Emerge and you only end up paying three mana to cast it, the Deep-Fiend is not a legal target for the Queller’s trigger, since its converted mana cost is still eight.

Keep in mind that if a spell has an X in the cost, that value will affect the card’s converted mana cost.
For instance, if the opponent cast a Secure the Wastes, as long as X is three or less, the converted mana cost of the Wastes on the stack is four or less, making it a legal target for the Queller’s trigger. However, if X is four or more, that means the Wastes converted mana cost on the stack is at least five, and not a legal target for the Queller’s trigger.

Spell Queller and Additional Costs

When the Queller’s leave the battlefield trigger resolves, the spell’s owner can cast the spell without paying its mana cost. But that only gets around the mana cost of the spell – it won’t get around any additional costs. For instance, if Lightning Axe was exiled by the Queller and the Queller dies, if the owner of the spell wants to cast it again, they’ll have to pay {5} or discard a card from their hand. Casting the spell gets around the one red mana in the mana cost, but not the additional cost of casting the Axe.

The same applies if a card like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is in play: if the exiled spell is a noncreature spell, you’ll have to pay {1} to cast it. If you can’t or won’t pay the additional cost, then you can’t cast the spell and it remains exiled.

Spell Queller and the Oblivion Ring Trick

People who have played Magic for a while are probably familiar with the Oblivion Ring trick: if you cast Oblivion Ring, and then remove it from the battlefield before its enter the battlefield trigger resolves, the leave the battlefield trigger would go on the stack above the enter the battlefield trigger, the leave the battlefield trigger would resolve first (doing nothing, since nothing has been exiled yet), then the enter the battlefield trigger would resolve and permanently exile the target permanent.

Spell Queller works the same way: if you manage to get the Queller off of the battlefield before its enter the battlefield trigger resolves, you’ll end up permanently exiling the spell and the spell’s controller won’t get a chance to recast it.
Just keep in mind that you have to get rid of the Queller before the enter the battlefield trigger resolves: if the trigger resolves, then you get rid of the Queller, the spell’s owner will be able to cast it.

Spell Queller and Eldrazi Displacer

While the Oblivion Ring trick works with Spell Queller, it won’t work as well if you use a spell or ability that exiles and returns Spell Queller while the spell is resolving, like Eldrazi Displacer’s ability. Spell Queller’s ability is not optional, so if there’s a spell on the stack you could target with the trigger, you must target it. If there are no other spells besides the initial spell on the stack after Eldrazi Displacer’s trigger has resolved, the returned Queller’s enter the battlefield trigger will have to target that spell. And no matter how you stack the triggers, the returned Queller’s trigger will always resolve before the original Queller’s enter the battlefield trigger, and the returned Queller will end up exiling the spell.

What if you have a Queller already on the battlefield and exiling a spell, then you use the Displacer’s ability on it? The short answer is that you’ll never be able to exile the same spell that your Queller is currently exiling. When Eldrazi Displacer’s ability is done resolving, you have the two triggers from the Queller waiting to go on the stack: the leave the battlefield trigger that lets you cast the spell, and the enter the battlefield trigger that targets a spell to be exiled. You have to choose a legal target for the trigger when it’s put on the stack, and the owner of the spell won’t be able to cast it until the trigger resolves, so you can’t choose to exile it again to the same Queller. That means if your opponent is sneaky, they could use their Displacer on your Queller when you cast a spell: when the Queller returns, you’ll have to target your own spell to be exiled, and they’ll be able to cast their spell that you originally exiled.

Spell Queller and Flashback

What happens if you Queller a spell that was cast for its flashback cost? Flashback only applies if the card would move anywhere except the exiled zone from the stack. If the card would be exiled, then that effect will exile it, not flashback. If you Queller a flashbacked spell and the Queller leaves the battlefield, the owner of that spell will be able to cast it again. And since the spell is not being cast via flashback, when it’s done resolving, the spell will end up in the graveyard again.

Thank you to Paul Baranay, Dan Collins and David de la Iglesia for their help proofreading and editing this article.

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