Hello,
it would be great if you could confirm or correct the following ruling:
Antonio and Nelly are playing a game of Commander. Antonio casts his commader from the command zone. Nelly has
Guile on the battlefield. Nelly casts
Counterspell targeting the commander spell on the stack.
Counterspell resolves. Counterspell reads “counter target spell” which is replaced by Guile into “exile that spell and you may play that card without paying its mana cost”.
Antonio decides to apply the commander rule 903.12 and the exile part of Guile's replacement is replaced, having the final effect sound like this: “Owner of that commander puts it into the command zone and you may play that card without paying its mana cost”.
Antonio puts his commander from the stack into the command zone and Nelly decides whether to cast it. She is allowed to cast it because:
- The modified effect of Counterspell can find the commander card in the command zone and allow it to be cast. The effect does not mention “the exiled card”. The command zone is a public zone.
- Guile's ability overrides commander rule 903.10, which normally allows casting a commander only to his/her owner.
Nelly does not pay an additional cost of {2} because she is casting that commander for the first time in that game.
If Nelly does that trick again in that game she would have to pay {2}/{4}/{6}… to cast Antonio's commander.
903.10. A player may cast a commander he or she owns from the command zone. A commander cast from the command zone costs an additional {2} for each previous time the player casting it has cast it from the command zone that game.
903.12. If a commander would be put into the exile zone from anywhere, its owner may put it into the command zone instead.
Thank you!