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Does Heartless Summoning make Tribal Changeling Instants cheaper to cast? Crib Swap's type line says:

Tribal Instant - Shapeshifter

In the reminder text it says:

Changeling (This card is every creature type at all times.)

So is Crib swap a creature or not, and if not, does Heartless Summoning affect it in any way because of the Changeling clause?

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The spell is not a creature spell, so it is not affected by Heartless Summoning. The Changeling ability says that the card has "all creature types", but "creature type" is just the name for the subtypes that Creature and Tribal share. So, Changeling doesn't make the card a creature, it just makes the card have all of the creature subtypes.

The relevant rule is 205.3m :

Creatures and tribals share their lists of subtypes; these subtypes are called creature types.

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  • What part of rule 205.3m is relevant? "Creatures and tribals share a subtype; therefore, tribals are not a creature spell." I don't follow.
    – Rainbolt
    Mar 2, 2015 at 21:36
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    Changling says that the card is "every creature type at all times." The rule says that subtypes of the tribal type are called "creature types". The point is that saying that a card has "every creature type" does not imply that it has the Creature type.
    – murgatroid99 ♦
    Mar 2, 2015 at 21:37
  • Creature and tribal type spells have a species subtype known as "creature type".
    – Cees Timmerman
    Mar 11, 2015 at 8:58
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Heartless Summoning has the following ability:

Creature spells you cast cost 2 less to cast.

Creature spell means a spell on the stack with the type Creature. However Crib Swap has types Tribal and Instant, neither of which is Creature. Thus Crib Swap is not affected by Heartless Summoning.

Lets contrast this with a card that cares about sub-types (of which both Tribal and Creature share creature types). Ballyrush Banneret would cause Crib Swap to cost 1 less as it is a Kithkin spell, a spell with the sub-type Kithkin.

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No.

"Goblin", "Elf" and "Druid" are creature types (aka creature subtypes). Changeling grants all creature types.

Crib Swap is a Shapeshifter (a creature type).
Crib Swap is a Goblin (a creature type).
Crib Swap is a Druid (a creature type).

"Creature" is a card type, not a creature type. Changeling doesn't grant any card types.

Crib Swap is a Tribal (a card type).
Crib Swap is an Instant (a card type).

But Crib Swap is not a Creature (a card type)

Crib Swap can have creature types without being a creature because creatures and tribals share their lists of subtypes[CR 205.3m].

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  • Changeling isn't a creature type, is it? It's a keyword that grants all creature types.
    – GendoIkari
    Mar 3, 2015 at 22:07
  • @GendoIkari, Oops, I meant Shapeshifter. Fixed.
    – ikegami
    Mar 3, 2015 at 22:18

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