Expend

Expend
Mechanic
Introduced	Bloomburrow
Last used	Bloomburrow
Reminder Text	(You expend N as you spend your Nth total mana to cast spells during a turn.)
Statistics	12 cards 41.7% 33.3% 25%
Scryfall Search
fulloracle:"Expend"

Expend is a rules term introduced in Bloomburrow that refers to a specific amount of mana a player has spent on casting spells in a turn.

Description

Cards with expend track how much mana you've spent to cast spells over the course of the turn. In addition to the mana for spells' mana costs, additional costs such as offspring, alternative costs, and taxes from cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben are also tracked. Mana spent to activate abilities or pay for non-spell costs are not counted.

For example, Junkblade Bruiser's triggered ability triggers once you've spent your fourth total mana to cast spells during that turn. Since expend abilities look for the Nth total mana spent specifically, they can only trigger once each turn. Junkblade Bruiser's ability triggers when you spend your fourth mana, not every fourth mana. The permanent with expend also needs to be on the battlefield to see you spend the mana. Notably, if you spend five mana to cast Junkblade Bruiser itself, its expend ability won't see that, since you spent the mana before Junkblade Bruiser was on the battlefield. By the time it's on the battlefield, you're spending — at best — your sixth mana to cast spells that turn, so the ability will have to wait until next turn to trigger.

Because expend only tracks mana spent to cast spells, it doesn't matter what happens to those spells after they are cast. They could have resolved, fizzled, been countered, or they could even still be on the stack. Because of this, an expend ability will always resolve before the spell that triggered it does.

Rules

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (November 8, 2024—Magic: The Gathering Foundations)

Expend

A word found on some abilities that care how much mana a player has spent to cast spells this turn. See rule 700.14.

From the Comprehensive Rules (November 8, 2024—Magic: The Gathering Foundations)

• 700.14. Some abilities trigger “Whenever you expend N.” A player expends N if they pay a cost to cast a spell and the amount of mana that player spent this turn to cast spells prior to paying that cost was less than N and became at least N after paying that cost.

  Example: A player casts Bark-Knuckle Boxer, which costs {1}{G} and reads “Whenever you expend 4, Bark-Knuckle Boxer gains indestructible until end of turn.” After it resolves, that play casts Divination, a spell that costs {2}{U}. Prior to paying the cost to cast Divination, that player has spent two mana to cast spells this turn. After paying the cost, they have spent five mana to cast spells this turn. Since they have now spent at least four mana to cast spells this turn, Bark-Knuckle Boxer’s ability triggers.

Rulings

• Abilities that trigger whenever you "expend N" only trigger when you reach that specific amount of mana spent on casting spells that turn. This can only happen once per turn. For example, if you've spent three mana on spells so far this turn and you control a permanent with an ability that triggers "whenever you expend 4," that ability will trigger the next time you spend at least one mana to cast a spell this turn. It won't trigger again if you spend another four mana to cast spells later in the turn.
• If the cost to cast a spell is increased, decreased, or changed because of additional or alternative costs, expend counts only the mana you actually spent.
• A permanent with an ability that triggers whenever you "expend N" will see mana you spent to cast spells the turn it enters, including mana you spent before it entered. For example, if you cast Junkblade Bruiser (a creature with a mana value of 5 and an ability that triggers whenever you expend 4) by paying its full cost of five mana, you'll already have spent four mana on spells before Junkblade Bruiser enters, and therefore its ability that triggers whenever you expend 4 won't be able to trigger at all that turn.

Example

Example

Junkblade Bruiser
Creature — Raccoon Berserker
4/5
Trample
Whenever you expend 4, Junkblade Bruiser gets +2/+1 until end of turn. (You expend 4 as you spend your fourth total mana to cast spells during a turn.)