Today we’re going to start with one of the mechanics from the Kamigawa block: Arcane. On its own, Arcane really doesn’t mean much of anything; it’s just a subtype of Instants and Sorceries, much like “Elf” is a subtype of Creature. However, much like Elves, there’s cards that specifically interact with Arcane spells, but not other spells. The primary thing is Splice onto Arcane (which we’ll just touch on, since it isn’t in Modern Masters). Splice onto Arcane allowed you to basically “combine” Arcane spells. You’d begin casting a regular Arcane spell like Kodama’s Reach, and as part of casting it you could reveal a spell such as Glacial Ray and pay the Splice cost to add Glacial Ray’s effects onto Kodama’s Reach. It let you re-use your Arcane spells over and over by splicing them onto OTHER Arcane spells. But, more to the point: there’s a few cards in Modern Masters that care about the subtype Arcane. Long-Forgotten Gohei makes your Arcane spells cheaper, while Waxmane Baku, Thief of Hope, and Hikari, Twilight Guardian all trigger off of Arcane (and Spirit!) spells. So any time you cast an Arcane spell, those guys will trigger. Pretty simple, but it’s something you might not think of during your drafting!
Today’s Rules Tip was written by Trevor Nunez