Hardcast
Hardcast (or Paying Retail) is Magic: The Gathering jargon used to describe the playing of a spell by paying its mana cost instead of using an alternative cost or other ability.
Description
There are relatively large number of cards whose main function is not being cast with the mana cost as written. Examples are of alternative-cost spells, permanents that could be put into play through alternative means, or a card that has an ability that can be activated from a zone other than the battlefield. However, a player may choose to play the card by paying its mana cost, to which the player will sometimes state that they are hardcasting it. This is generally done in order to make the play clear to their opponent, though sometimes it is an implicit acknowledgement that the game has developed in a strange fashion.
Examples
- Playing Force of Will by paying
instead of paying 1 life and exiling (pitching) a blue card. - Casting a creature instead of using Aether Vial to put the creature into play.
- Casting Simian Spirit Guide instead of exiling it to add
to your mana pool. - Casting a Decree of Justice or Street Wraith instead of using its cycling ability.
- Casting a large creature (e.g. Serra's Emissary) instead of reanimating it with Persist or polymorphing it with Indominable Creativity.
Notes
The inability of some decks to hardcast a portion of their spells (Reanimator, Tooth and Nail, Hypergenesis, or decks based on Sneak Attack) may be an exploitable weakness, as the creatures they want to put into play are dead cards without the respective enablers.