Isochron Scepter and diverse permission

[Maveric78f]

How does it interact with chalice ?
Counterbalance ?
Meddling mage ?
Trinisphere ?

[KrzyMoose]

Chalice? Counterbalance ?

Chalice will counter the spell if the imprinted card's CMC is equal to the number of counters on Chalice.

Counterbalance will still trigger, and counter the spell if the revealed card's CMC is equal to the imprinted card's CMC

[ChiiMagic]

Chalice definitely counters the copy if the imprinted spell has the cc of the number of counters on chalice.

Same thing with counterbalance.

Trinisphere makes spells that costed you less that 3 to play cost at least 3 to play. You have to play the spell without paying its mana cost, so Trinisphere makes you pay 3 colorless for it. So playing any spell off of an Isochron Scepter with a Trinisphere in play costs 5 colorless mana.

[ChiiMagic]

I played scepter chant for portions of the last 2 extended seasons and the ruling was always that a meddling mage cannot stop the copy of the spell because it only stops the card from being played. Im unsure if the ruling was changed since last year, but I dont see why it would be so.

[Van Phanel]

ChiiMagic has it right.

Meddling Mage's text says:

"The named card can't be played."


Isochron Scepter doesn't try to play a card but a copy of the imprinted card which is why Meddling Mage doesn't effect it. Cards do exactly what their text says, nothing else.

[KrzyMoose]

Ah, that's very interesting. Sorry for the misinformation.

Can someone explain why the rulings I quoted do not apply in this situation? I'm very curious.

*edit* The rulings were:

From the Gatherer: 12/1/2004 You can't play the copy if an effect prevents you from playing Instants or from playing that particular Instant.

From the Mirrodin FAQ: You can't play the copy if an effect would prevent it from being played from your hand. [Mirrodin FAQ 2003/10/01]

[cdr]

It is exactly what ChiiMagic and Van Phanel said - Mage stops cards. Copies are not cards.

"Rulings" on Gatherer are explanations/reminders of how the rules apply to particular cards - they are not rules.

Mage does not say "The named instant can't be played", and it isn't an effect that prevents a copy from being played.