There are many ways to pay for spells. You can play them for free through Omniscience, from the graveyard with Flashback, or from exile with Prophetic Flamespeaker. Back in the original Ravnica Block, the Selesnya Conclave had a very unique mechanic. Now, we are in for a blast from the past with the return of Convoke!

Convoke is quite the nifty ability. Basically, when you go to pay for a spell, Convoke allows you to tap a creature to pay for either a colorless mana or a mana of one of that creature’s colors.

Convoking a creature does not actually reduce the mana cost of the spell, but rather how much mana must be paid. This means you can not overtap for convoke (e.g., you can’t tap 3 green creatures that have Inspired abilities to pay for Gather Courage), and the converted mana cost of the spell always remains the same (e.g., if you cast Chord of Calling with X=3 and tap 4 creatures to help pay for it, the converted mana cost is still 6).

Also important is the fact that you must activate mana abilities before you start paying costs when casting a spell, so there’s no way to tap your Elvish Mystic for G and also tap it for Convoke.

Today’s Rules Tip written by James Arriola