709. Split Cards

709.1. Split cards have two card faces on a single card. The back of a split card is the normal Magic card back.

709.2. Although split cards have two castable halves, each split card is only one card. For example, a player who has drawn or discarded a split card has drawn or discarded one card, not two.

709.3. A player chooses which half of a split card they are casting before putting it onto the stack.

• 709.3a Only the chosen half is evaluated to see if it can be cast. Only that half is considered to be put onto the stack.
• 709.3b While on the stack, only the characteristics of the half being cast exist. The other half’s characteristics are treated as though they didn’t exist.
• 709.3c An effect may create a copy of a split card and allow a player to cast the copy. That copy retains the characteristics of the two halves separated into the same two halves as the original card. (See rule 707.12.)

709.4. In every zone except the stack, the characteristics of a split card are those of its two halves combined. This is a change from previous rules.

• 709.4a Each split card has two names. If an effect instructs a player to choose a card name and the player wants to choose a split card’s name, the player must choose one of those names and not both. An object has the chosen name if one of its names is the chosen name.

• 709.4b The mana cost of a split card is the combined mana costs of its two halves. A split card’s colors and mana value are determined from its combined mana cost. An effect that refers specifically to the symbols in a split card’s mana cost sees the separate symbols rather than the whole mana cost.

  Example: Assault//Battery’s mana cost is {3}{R}{G}. It’s a red and green card with a mana value of 5. If you cast Assault, the resulting spell is a red spell with a mana value of 1.
  
  Example: Fire//Ice’s mana cost is {2}{U}{R}. It has the same mana cost as Steam Augury, but an effect such as that of Jegantha, the Wellspring sees that it contains the mana symbol {1} twice.
  

• 709.4c A split card has each card type specified on either of its halves and each ability in the text box of each half.

• 709.4d The characteristics of a fused split spell on the stack are also those of its two halves combined (see rule 702.102, “Fuse”).