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
When a spell has an alternative cost, a permanent could be put into play by a means other than casting it, or a card has an ability that can be activated from a zone other than the battlefield, sometimes these non-casting uses eclipse the standard casting of the card as a spell. When a player chooses to play these sorts of cards by paying its mana cost, the player will sometimes state that they are hardcasting it, drawing attention to the fact that the casting is unusual.
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.
Strategy
The inability of some decks to hardcast a portion of their spells (Reanimator, Tooth and Nail, Hypergenesis, or decks based on Sneak Attack) can be an exploitable weakness. The creatures they want to put into play, or other spells they want to cast using some sort of free casting effect, are often dead cards without the enabling spells that accomplish this.