trinisphere and "play without paying casting cost"

[TheRogue]

i'm kinda lost on what happens with cards being effected by spells and abilities that say you may play a card without paying its casting cost. if trinisphere is in play it seems to only effect the amount of mana you would pay for a spell but with abilities like supend its throwing me for a loop. if say supend ends do i still have to pay 3 for the spell to a trinisphere if one is in play?

[Godder]

Yes. If you don't have the mana, the suspended card remains in the RFG zone, and is gone forever (Wishes etc being the obvious exceptions). This is because when Suspend says that when the last time counter is removed, you play the suspended card without paying its mana cost. Trinisphere sees that someone is playing a spell and requires that a minimum of 3 mana was paid for it.

[Clariax]

Trinisphere doesn't care about the mana cost of a spell, or what sort of alternate cost is being paid to play the spell.  Trinisphere simply looks at how much mana is being paid to play the spell.  If the total amount of mana is less than 3, then Trinisphere ups it to 3.  For a spell like Force of Will, if you're playing it by its alternate cost, then the cost is removing a blue card and paying 1 life.  The total amount mana there is 0, so Trinisphere adds 3 mana to the cost.  With suspend, you're playing the spell without paying its mana cost.  Again, the total amount of mana is 0, so Trinisphere ups it to 3.

Trinisphere will also take into account any additional costs when figuring if the cost is 3.  For example, an Orim's Chant with kicker would cost WW to play.  So the total amount of mana is 2, Trinisphere adds 1 mana to make it 3.

[TheRogue]

ok thanks the wording was giving me a headache on that one

[RichardD]

Also, even though Suspend forces you to play the card, the game will never force you use resources to actually pay that mana unless you already have it available from playing mana abilities (for instance a Dark Ritual) before the Suspend trigger has resolved.

[Anusien]

Dark Ritual isn't a mana ability.

You are correct; Trinisphere will not force you to tap lands or similar to pay for it, but if you have sufficient mana in your mana pool, you have to pay the cost.

[RichardD]

Dark Ritual isn't a mana ability.

You are correct; Trinisphere will not force you to tap lands or similar to pay for it, but if you have sufficient mana in your mana pool, you have to pay the cost.

Indeed it isn't, I had written it differently and edited it before posting. Too bad I forgot to change the example I had given