River Kelpie- "playing" spells

[Klazam]

Here's 2 situations:

River Kelpie with no counters- I flash back Cabal Therapy, sacrificing River Kelpie as the Flashback cost. Am i correct in thinking that i'll draw 2 cards off that?

River kelpie with 1 -1-1 counter- I flash back Cabal Therapy, sacrificing River Kelpie as the Flashback cost. I will draw a card, right?

Basically, I'm just questioning when does a spell become "played"- during announcing it or after paying costs?

Thanks.

[Dreg]

A spell is considered "Cast" when you manage to fulfill all thre requirements made for that spell to be put on the stack. This includes the choice of targets, the declaration of modal effects and additional costs (if available) and most important for our example, the payment of all costs.

This means that a Cabal Therapy flashbacked by sacrificing a River Kelpie wont' trigger the draw engine. When you cast cabal therapy, you have to pay its costs before it is assumed to be "cast". River Kelpie will be in the graveyard by this time, and it will not check the casting of the Therapy.

Analyzing the two examples: if RK has no counters on it, you will simply draw a card for the ETB from the graveyard trigger. This is due to the fact that the persist trigger is put on the stack after the casting of the Therapy, making it obviously too late for the Kelpie to "see" the therapy be played from the graveyard. In the second example (kelpie with a -1\-1 counter upon it) you won't draw a card for the reason already mentioned above.

Hope it helped.

[Michael Keller]

A spell is considered "Cast" when you manage to fulfill all thre requirements made for that spell to be put on the stack. This includes the choice of targets, the declaration of modal effects and additional costs (if available) and most important for our example, the payment of all costs.

This means that a Cabal Therapy flashbacked by sacrificing a River Kelpie wont' trigger the draw engine. When you cast cabal therapy, you have to pay its costs before it is assumed to be "cast". River Kelpie will be in the graveyard by this time, and it will not check the casting of the Therapy.

Analyzing the two examples: if RK has no counters on it, you will simply draw a card for the ETB from the graveyard trigger. This is due to the fact that the persist trigger is put on the stack after the casting of the Therapy, making it obviously too late for the Kelpie to "see" the therapy be played from the graveyard. In the second example (kelpie with a -1\-1 counter upon it) you won't draw a card for the reason already mentioned above.

Hope it helped.

+1.