Once a step, phase, or turn has started, it can no longer be skipped-any skip effects will wait until the next occurrence.
Anything scheduled for a skipped step, phase, or turn won’t happen. Anything scheduled for the “next” occurrence of something waits for the first occurrence that isn’t skipped. If two effects each cause a player to skip his or her next occurrence, that player must skip the next two; one effect will be satisfied in skipping the first occurrence, while the other will remain until another occurrence can be skipped. See rule 419.6f.
Snow is a supertype. When a card refers to a “snow permanent,” it means a permanent with the snow supertype. When a card refers to a “snow Forest,” it means a Forest with the snow supertype, and so on. Some older cards were printed with the term “snow-covered” in their rules text. Except for card names, all instances of “snow-covered” are now “snow.” See rule 205.4e.
Snow landwalk is a special form of landwalk. A creature with snow landwalk is unblockable as long as the defending player controls at least one snow land of the specified subtype. See rule 502.6, “Landwalk,” and rule 205.4e.
The snow mana symbol {S} represents a cost that can be paid with one mana produced by a snow permanent. This is a generic mana cost that can be paid with any color or, or colorless, mana. Effects that reduce the amount of generic mana you pay don’t affect {S} costs.
Some older cards were printed with the term “snow-covered” in their rules text. Except for card names, all instances of “snow-covered” are now “snow.”
Sorcery is a type. The active player may play sorceries during his or her main phase when the stack is empty. A sorcery spell is put into its owner’s graveyard as part of its resolution. See rule 212.7, “Sorceries.”
Sorcery subtypes are always a single word and are listed after a long dash: “Sorcery – Arcane.” Sorcery subtypes are also called sorcery types. A sorcery subtype that’s also an instant subtype is also called a spell type.
The list of sorcery types, updated through the Time Spiral set, is as follows: Arcane.
Soulshift is a triggered ability. “Soulshift N” means “When this permanent is put into a graveyard from play, you may return target Spirit card with converted mana cost N or less from your graveyard to your hand.”
The source of an ability is the object that generated it. See rule 402, “Abilities,” and rule 200.7.
The source of damage is the object that dealt it. If an effect requires a player to choose a source of damage, he or she may choose a permanent, a spell on the stack (including one that creates a permanent), or any object referred to by an object on the stack (including a creature that assigned combat damage on the stack, even if the creature is no longer in play or is no longer a creature). A source doesn’t need to be capable of dealing damage to be a legal choice. See rule 419.8, “Sources of Damage.”
Special actions don’t use the stack. The special actions are playing a land, turning a face-down creature face up, ending continuous effects or stopping delayed triggered abilities, ignoring continuous effects, and removing a card with suspend in your hand from the game. See rule 408.1i and rule 408.2, “Actions That Don’t Use the Stack.”
A nonland card becomes a spell when it’s put on the stack and remains a spell until it’s countered, it resolves, or it otherwise leaves the stack. A copy of a spell is also a spell, even if it has no card associated with it. See rule 213, “Spells,” and rule 401, “Spells on the Stack.”
Splice is a static ability that functions while a card is in your hand. “Splice onto [type or subtype] [cost]” means “You may reveal this card from your hand as you play a [type or subtype] spell. If you do, copy this card’s text box onto that spell and pay [cost] as an additional cost to play that spell.” Paying a card’s splice cost follows the rules for paying additional costs in rules 409.1b and 409.1f-h.
You can’t choose to use a splice ability if you can’t make the required choices (targets, etc.) for that card’s instructions. You can’t splice any one card onto the same spell more than once. If you’re splicing more than one card onto a spell, reveal them all at once and choose the order in which their instructions will be followed. The instructions on the main spell have to be followed first.
The spell has the characteristics of the main spell, plus the text boxes of each of the spliced cards. The spell doesn’t gain any other characteristics (name, mana cost, color, supertypes, types, subtypes, etc.) of the spliced cards. Text copied onto the spell that refers to a card by name refers to the spell on the stack, not the card from which the text was copied.
Choose targets for the added text normally (see rule 409.1c). Note that a spell with one or more targets will be countered if all of its targets are illegal on resolution.
The spell loses any splice changes once it leaves the stack (for example, when it’s countered, it’s removed from the game, or it resolves).
Split cards have two card faces on a single card. The back of a split card is the normal, full-size Magic card back. Split cards have two sets of characteristics: two names, two mana costs, and so on. They always have both sets, except when they’re spells on the stack. When you play a split card, you announce which side you’re playing. While it’s on the stack, the other side is ignored completely. See rule 505, “Split Cards.”
Split cards have two mana costs with different colors of mana in them. That means they are multicolored cards while they’re not on the stack. A split card is a multicolored card on the stack only if the half that’s been played is multicolored.
If an effect tells you to name a card, you must name all of a split card’s names.
An effect that asks for a split card’s characteristic while it’s in a zone other than the stack gets both answers.
An effect that performs a positive comparison or a relative comparison involving characteristics of one or more split cards in any zone other than the stack gets only one answer. This answer is “yes” if either side of those split cards would return a “yes” answer if compared individually.
An effect that performs a negative comparison involving characteristics of one or more split cards in any zone other than the stack also gets only one answer. This answer is “yes” if performing the comparable positive comparison would return a “no” answer.