"Whenever a <color> spell is played" (MAGIC THE GATHERING)?

Question

Ex card: Nurturer Initiate say "Whenever a player plays a green spell, you may pay 1. If you do, target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.".

We know that everything is a spell when you are paying for it to come out and is no longer a spell once it is resolved.

Question: is a "green spell" ANY green creature / enchantment / instant / sorcery that I'm using mana to cast? Or is a "green spell" just a green Instant / Sorcery?

I ask because my friend was using a white deck and he had a bunch creatures/enchantments in play with abilities that say "whenever a white spell is played, every creature gets +1/+1" and he would play that ability for every creature he would pay for to come out (which were all white). Needless to say, he was overwhelming everybody early in the game and ended up winning in dominating fashion.

Seems pretty cheesy and broken. Is that how it works?

Nurturer Initiate: http://sales.starcitygames.com/cardsearch.php?singlesearch=Nurturer+Ini

Answer 1

Any card (enchantment, creature, instant, sorcery, artifact, planeswalker) that you put on the stack is considered a &#039;played&#039; spell. So as soon as the player announces the spell and pays the mana for it, it is put on the stack and is played. Then the player may pay any costs for any of the creatures and enchantments abilities to pump his creatures.

As a note, if you counter his spell, the spell has still already been played and the creature/enchantment ability will still trigger.

To determine color, you look at the mana cost to play the spell. If it has more then one color mana, it is considered all colors of the colored mana needed to cast. This means the hybrid spells are both colors of the hybrid mana needed to cast them, even if you only use one color or the other.

Answer 2

Any card other then land is a spell.  And anything with green in it&#039;s mana cost is a green spell, even if it&#039;s a hybrid or multicolored card.