Splice

Splice onto [subtype]
Keyword Ability
Type	Static
Introduced	Champions of Kamigawa
Last used	Saviors of Kamigawa
Reminder Text	Splice onto [subtype] [cost] (As you cast an [subtype] spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.)
Storm Scale	8
Statistics	27 cards 32% 26% 14% 14% 14%
Scryfall Search
keyword:"Splice onto"

Splice onto [subtype] is a keyword ability on certain arcane instants from the Kamigawa block that functions while the card is in your hand. It allows a player to essentially add the rules text of the card to another arcane spell he or she is playing. Since the card with splice remains in the player’s hand, it can later be cast normally or spliced again onto another spell.

History

Splice onto Arcane

In the Kamigawa block, the splice mechanic was restricted to Arcane spells, a subtype of instants and sorceries ("splice onto Arcane"), but the rules leave the option for other variants of splice. Splice onto Arcane ended up being too parasitic (only allowing you to play with other cards from the same set) and never quite captured the feel R&D had been hoping for. "Splice onto Arcane" is now considered to be the classic example of a parasitic mechanic, though that is mostly caused by the "Arcane" part.

In design, splice onto Arcane originally worked from the graveyard. Mark Rosewater designed it as "Piggyback": a flashback-like cost that let you graft a kicker effect onto another card. In essence, it would be a portable kicker that lived in the graveyard. Once you cast it once, you could then add it onto other spells. The mechanic wasn't designed for a specific set, but was first considered for Fifth Dawn. Late in design for Champions of Kamigawa, Rosewater realized that it should have been "splice onto instant" but it was too late for development to be able to properly playtest it.

Splice onto instant and/or sorcery

For years, R&D talked about bringing back splice but on instants and/or sorceries. They talked about it for Return to Ravnica, but chose to only have new guild keywords, so it was off the table. That restriction no longer applied for Guilds of Ravnica, so they decided to give splice onto instants and sorceries another try for the Izzet League. In the end, it didn't live up to the hype they had been building up over the years, so they moved on to other options.

Note that instant and sorcery are a types, not subtypes. To work, the rules would have to be changed accordingly.

Rulings

• You must reveal all of the cards you intend to splice at the same time. Each individual card can only be spliced once onto a spell.
• If you have more than one card with the same name in your hand, you may splice both of them onto the spell.
• A card with a splice ability can't be spliced onto itself because the spell is on the stack (and not in your hand) when you reveal the cards you want to splice onto it.
• The target for a card that's spliced onto a spell may be the same as the target chosen for the original spell or for another spliced-on card. (A recent change to the targeting rules allows this, but most other cards are unaffected by the change.)
• If you splice a targeted card onto an untargeted spell, the entire spell will be countered if the target isn't legal when the spell resolves.
• If you splice an untargeted card onto a targeted spell, the entire spell will be countered if the target isn't legal when the spell resolves.
• A spell is countered on resolution only if *all* of its targets are illegal (or the spell is countered by an effect).