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Say I have a creature with Adventure in my graveyard, for example Murderous Rider, and something allowing me to cast creatures from my graveyard (for example Liliana, Untouched by Death ). Am I allowed to cast the adventure part of the card from my graveyard?

What if I'm allowed to cast instant and sorceries instead of creatures?

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2 Answers 2

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So this is what the Throne of Eldraine Release Notes have to say about this:

If you cast an adventurer card as an Adventure, use only its alternative characteristics to determine whether it's legal to cast that spell. For example, if Giant Killer is exiled with the last ability of Vivien, Champion of the Wilds, you can't cast it as Chop Down.

This settles your first question. If you are allowed to cast creature cards (or Zombie cards in case of Liliana) you are not allowed to cast them as adventures.

Moreover, in contrast to any other answer you have received, it seems you can cast your adventure card from the graveyard, if you are allowed to cast instants and sorceries from your graveyard, for example by the emblem of Jaya Ballard. I was pretty sure this is not how Wizards intends this to play out as well though, and I thought they will make use of this bit of text in the rules about casting a spell:

601.3. A player can't begin to cast a spell unless a rule or effect allows that player to cast it. If that player is no longer allowed to cast that spell after completing its proposal, the casting of the spell is illegal and the game returns to the moment before the casting of that spell was proposed (see rule 721, "Handling Illegal Actions").


Edit after rules update:

The rules update clarified this rules interaction by adding rule 601.3e to the rule book:

601.3e. If a rule or effect states that only an alternative set of characteristics or a subset of characteristics are considered to determine if a card or copy of a card is legal to cast, those alternative characteristics replace the object's characteristics prior to determining whether the player may begin to cast it.

Example: Garruk's Horde says, in part, "You may cast the top card of your library if it's a creature card." If you control Garruk's Horde and the top card of your library is a noncreature card with morph, you may cast it using its morph ability.

Example: Melek, Izzet Paragon says, in part, "You may cast the top card of your library if it's an instant or sorcery card." If you control Melek, Izzet Paragon and the top card of your library is Giant Killer, an adventurer creature card whose Adventure is an instant named Chop Down, you may cast Chop Down but not Giant Killer. If instead you control Garruk's Horde and the top card of your library is Giant Killer, you may cast Giant Killer but not Chop Down.

So, as it stands, it is legal to cast Chop Down with Jaya's Emblem from your graveyard. Note that in this case, the adventure card, if it is not countered, is exiled by its own ability, which means you could still cast the Giant Killer afterwards...

Note though, that what the other answers said about finding instant cards is still valid. You won't be able to cast Chop Down (or Giant Killer) with the ability of Torrential Gearhulk or any other card that specifically targets a non-creature card in your graveyard, because in your graveyard, it is not an instant and it would thus be an illegal target. As murgatroid already mentioned, if a card that targets creature cards allows you to cast that card, this is not restricted to casting it as a creature spell, so in this case you could also cast the adventure, if it is an adventurer card.

I think a lot of the confusion comes from the fact, that cards that allow you to cast instants from your graveyard specifically mention instant CARDS, which is the term usually used for instants in the graveyard (or anywhere except the stack). Instants on the stack are usually referred to as instant SPELLS (Technically there is a difference here since copies of instants are spells but not cards). In this case, the card is the object itself as it CHANGES ZONES. The rules clearly state now, that only the characteristics of the part of the card you actually want to cast matter at that point, which is counterintuitive, because it behaves like it's on the stack already, whereas usually, the oracle text would not refer to a spell as a card (even if it obviously also is a card on the stack).

tldr: No for the first, Yes for the second question.

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  • Backdraft Hellkite would not work, correct? Oct 2, 2019 at 18:16
  • @ArcanistLupus Yes, you are correct. Backdraft Hellkite reads: "[...] each instant and sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback [...]". Since adventurer cards are creature cards in the graveyard, they don't gain flashback.
    – F.U.A.S.
    Oct 4, 2019 at 9:30
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You can cast the Adventure spell if a card allows you to cast instants or sorceries from the graveyard, but not if a card allows you to cast creatures from your graveyard. You can also cast the Adventure spell using an effect that allows you to cast a targeted creature card in a graveyard.

Some subrules of section 601 "Casting Spells" describe how to determine whether this kind of spell can be legally cast:

  • 601.3 A player can begin to cast a spell only if a rule or effect allows that player to cast it and no rule or effect prohibits that player from casting it.

    • 601.3e If a rule or effect states that only an alternative set of characteristics or a subset of characteristics are considered to determine if a card or copy of a card is legal to cast, those alternative characteristics replace the object’s characteristics prior to determining whether the player may begin to cast it.

The following subrules of section 715 "Adventurer Cards" explain how this applies to those cards:

  • 715.2. The text that appears in the inset frame on the left defines alternative characteristics that the object may have while it’s a spell. The card’s normal characteristics appear as usual, although with a smaller text box on the right.

  • 715.3. As a player casts an adventurer card, the player chooses whether they cast the card normally or as an Adventure.

    • 715.3a When casting an adventurer card as an Adventure, only the alternative characteristics are evaluated to see if it can be cast.

Rule 601.3e also has a specific example that covers casting adventures using these kinds of effects:

Melek, Izzet Paragon says, in part, “You may cast the top card of your library if it’s an instant or sorcery card.” If you control Melek, Izzet Paragon and the top card of your library is Giant Killer, an adventurer creature card whose Adventure is an instant named Chop Down, you may cast Chop Down but not Giant Killer. If instead you control Garruk’s Horde and the top card of your library is Giant Killer, you may cast Giant Killer but not Chop Down.

So, if the effect of Liliana, Untouched by Death's third ability is active, then you can cast the creature part of the card, but not the Adventure part. If instead you control Kess, Dissident Mage, you can cast the Adventure part, but not the creature part.


The card Havengul Lich has the ability:

You may cast target creature card in a graveyard this turn. When you cast that card this turn, Havengul Lich gains all activated abilities of that card until end of turn.

If you activate that ability targeting a creature card that has an Adventure in the graveyard, you can cast either the creature or the Adventure from the graveyard. This is because "creature card" is just the target condition; once the ability resolves, you have an effect that allows you to cast that card from the graveyard this turn, plus the delayed triggered ability.

On the other hand, you can't target the card at all with an effect like on Snapcaster Mage, because rule 715.4 says

In every zone except the stack, and while on the stack not as an Adventure, an adventurer card has only its normal characteristics.

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  • I'm still not understanding this.... if the card in your graveyard only has the characteristics of the creature part, how can an effect that lets you cast an instant or sorcery "find" that card?
    – GendoIkari
    Oct 1, 2019 at 13:34
  • I think I understand.... is it because of the way casting a spell works, and 601.2e? Can you effectively just always cast any card from your graveyard, and then when the rules get to 601.2e it will normally see that the casting was illegal because it wasn't coming from your hand?
    – GendoIkari
    Oct 1, 2019 at 13:41
  • The example given is especially confusing though... "You may cast the top card of your library if it’s an instant or sorcery card".. but at no point is the top card of your library an instant or sorcery card. It is only an instant or sorcery card while it is on the stack.
    – GendoIkari
    Oct 1, 2019 at 13:53
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    Yes, I'm still confused too. And local judges I asked are too.
    – Autar
    Oct 1, 2019 at 14:36
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    Right, you have to check legality again after making all of the choices for the spell, to verify that none of those choices make the casting illegal. For example, a choice of value for X can make a spell illegal to cast with Void Winnower on the battlefield.
    – murgatroid99
    Oct 1, 2019 at 18:23

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