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• 701.11a To play a land means to put it onto the battlefield from the zone it’s in (usually the hand). A player may play a land if he or she has priority, it’s the main phase of his or her turn, the stack is empty, and he or she hasn’t yet played a land this turn. Playing a land is a special action (see rule 115), so it doesn’t use the stack; it simply happens. Putting a land onto the battlefield as the result of a spell or ability isn’t the same as playing a land. See rule 305, "Lands."
• 701.11b To play a card means to play that card as a land or to cast that card as a spell, whichever is appropriate.
• 701.11c Some effects instruct a player to "play" with a certain aspect of the game changed, such as "Play with the top card of your library revealed." "Play" in this sense means to play the Magic game.

Obviously the third use is separate, because it's not about "playing" a card, but the game itself.

It seems like the first two are needlessly overlapping/confusing.

The Reality: Again, some players are confused by the subtle difference between "play" and "put into play." The term "cast" was retired from game rules at the time of Classic Sixth Edition for reasons I no longer believe are relevant—to streamline the rules and condense the number of terms down at the cost of flavor. Most players today who played pre-Sixth (and some who didn't!) still use the term "cast." It makes sense for spells to be "cast" as opposed to "played."

The Fix: "Cast" is being reinstated as the verb used when referring to the act of playing spells or types of spells. "Play" is being kept as the verb associated with lands (and with cards of unspecified types). Activated abilities are also no longer "played" but rather "activated."

If that's the case, why still use "play" in some cases to imply casting a spell? Cast has replaced "play" for spells, and "activate" has replaced "play" for abilities, while play remains for lands. And yet, "play" still means cast in some cases. For example, Mind's Desire:

"Shuffle your library. Then exile the top card of your library. Until end of turn, you may play that card without paying its mana cost. (If it has X in its mana cost, X is 0.)"

I suggest replacing "play" with "cast or play" or a new term.

Maybe I'm just being silly though XD

Jul 2, 2012 -- 12:26PM, razorborne wrote:

I'm in favor of "cast or play" simply on the grounds that if we ask them to come up with a new word for playing a land it'll probably be like "discover" or something and no one wants that.

 

lay a land has a nice ring.

Jul 2, 2012 -- 1:29PM, Bowshewicz wrote:

As razorborne suggested (warned against?), we can pretty easily come up with a term to use when playing a land.

I'm not opposed to the idea, I just have very little faith that the word they choose won't be awful.

 

Jul 3, 2012 -- 12:32AM, Nyktos wrote:

That way when you cast one Explore , you get two explores.

So that was his secret, eh?

~ Tim