Split card

Split card: Odds and Ends

Split cards are Magic cards with two card faces on the front side. A split card is literally "split" into two separate cards each with its own card name, art, mana cost, text, etc. Split cards can only be instants and sorceries, not permanents.

Description

In any zone except the stack, a split card has the combination of both characteristics; while it's on the stack, it only has the characteristics of the half being played. This provides many interesting interactions with cards that create effects based on converted mana cost. For example, if Dark Confidant reveals a split card, you would lose life equal to the total converted mana cost of both sides.

Split cards are considered to be deciduous.

History

The Fuse mechanic allows to cast both halves at the same time.

Split cards were introduced in the Invasion block, where each half was from a different color. There was one cycle in allied colors in Invasion and a cycle in enemy colors in Apocalypse.

In Dissension each half was a multicolored card from a different guild. There were two cycles of split cards, one of allied colors and one of enemy colors, for two spells per guild in total. This led to a legacy of printing split cards during each return to Ravnica. Dragon's Maze introduced split cards with Fuse, an ability that lets you cast both halves as one spell. There was one split card for each guild with a monocolored spell on each side, plus a cycle of double-gold split cards featuring one guild from Return to Ravnica paired with a guild from Gatecrash. Split cards from Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance focus on a single guild, with a smallish hybrid mana effect as one half and a bigger, multicolor mana effect as the other. There is a set of uncommons and a set of rares, with the art of the rares focuses on the two major characters (the Mythic guildmaster and the Rare guild "champion") in that guild, one personality per side.

Planar Chaos introduced split cards where both halves were the same color (all split cards in Planar Chaos are in a vertical cycle in red). After the introduction of split cards, Unhinged featured Who/What/When/Where/Why which resembled a split card with five different effects, one for each color.

Amonkhet block added split cards with Aftermath, an ability that lets you cast the 'bottom' part only from the graveyard. Split cards with aftermath have a new frame treatment — the half you can cast from your hand is oriented the same as other cards you'd cast from your hand, while the half you can cast from your graveyard is a traditional split card half. This frame treatment is for your convenience and has no rules significance. There is a cycle of monocolored Aftermath split cards, with two enemy and allied color cycles, going in both directions around the color wheel.

Modal double-faced cards fit in the same design space as split cards. Because split cards can only be instants and sorceries, MDFCs tend to have at least one side be a permanent. Technically, there could be a MDFC with two instants and/or sorceries with text that couldn’t fit on a split card.

Naming convention

Regular split cards are named with a ”__________ and __________“ convention while Aftermath cards use a ”__________ to __________“ convention. In Guilds of Ravnica, the card halves have alliterative names, starting with the same three letters.

Rules

The bottom half of Amonkhet split cards is turned sideways for easy use out of the graveyard

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Split Cards

Cards with two card faces on a single card. See rule 709, “Split Cards.”

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 709. Split Cards
  • 709.1. Split cards have two card faces on a single card. The back of a split card is the normal Magic card back.
  • 709.2. Although split cards have two castable halves, each split card is only one card. For example, a player who has drawn or discarded a split card has drawn or discarded one card, not two.
  • 709.3. A player chooses which half of a split card they are casting before putting it onto the stack.
    • 709.3a Only the chosen half is evaluated to see if it can be cast. Only that half is considered to be put onto the stack.
    • 709.3b While on the stack, only the characteristics of the half being cast exist. The other half’s characteristics are treated as though they didn’t exist.
    • 709.3c An effect may create a copy of a split card and allow a player to cast the copy. That copy retains the characteristics of the two halves separated into the same two halves as the original card. (See rule 707.12.)
  • 709.4. In every zone except the stack, the characteristics of a split card are those of its two halves combined. This is a change from previous rules.
    • 709.4a Each split card has two names. If an effect instructs a player to choose a card name and the player wants to choose a split card’s name, the player must choose one of those names and not both. An object has the chosen name if one of its names is the chosen name.
    • 709.4b The mana cost of a split card is the combined mana costs of its two halves. A split card’s colors and mana value are determined from its combined mana cost. An effect that refers specifically to the symbols in a split card’s mana cost sees the separate symbols rather than the whole mana cost.

      Example: Assault//Battery’s mana cost is {3}{R}{G}. It’s a red and green card with a mana value of 5. If you cast Assault, the resulting spell is a red spell with a mana value of 1.

      Example: Fire//Ice’s mana cost is {2}{U}{R}. It has the same mana cost as Steam Augury, but an effect such as that of Jegantha, the Wellspring sees that it contains the mana symbol {1} twice.

    • 709.4c A split card has each card type specified on either of its halves and each ability in the text box of each half.
    • 709.4d The characteristics of a fused split spell on the stack are also those of its two halves combined (see rule 702.102, “Fuse”).

Rulings

• With Amonkhet, the converted mana cost (CMC) of split cards were simplified. The CMC of a split card is always the combination of both halves except on the stack. On the stack, only the half which is actually cast is considered for color and CMC. Formerly, a split card would have two separate costs and a total converted mana cost of the sum of those two separate costs. This would allow for interactions such as Isochron Scepter and Fire // Ice for repeatable direct damage or card draw.

Notable split cards

• Fire // Ice - Legacy threshold decks
• Wear // Tear - Common sideboard card
• Research // Development - Vintage decks

See also

• Fuse
• Aftermath