Prototype

Prototype is a keyword ability introduced in The Brothers' War which allows an alternate version of a card to be cast for less than its normal mana cost. It is unique to artifacts and artifact creatures. While technically colorless, prototype costs lean green and blue.
==Description==
Each prototype card has two sets of characteristics:
*Its default mana cost, power, and toughness printed in their normal positions on the card. The mana cost is entirely colorless and greater than 4.
*A secondary set of color, mana cost, power and toughness printed in the prototype ability.
When a card is cast for its prototype cost, its secondary mana cost, power and toughness replace its default mana cost, power and toughness on the stack and, when it resolves, on the battlefield.
Prototype is similar to split cards, modal double-faced cards (MDFCs), and Adventure cards in allowing a spell to be cast two different ways. As with those mechanics, casting the Prototype version of a spell is not considered to be an alternative cost - the Prototype cost is simply considered to be the spell's base mana cost, and it can still be used in cases where an alternative cost applies, such as "casting without paying its mana cost". Prototype is also superficially similar to Emerge, as expensive colorless spells with a discounted colored cost.
The prototype reminder text uniquely refers to the "size" of the prototyped creature as a shorthand for "power and toughness". (The official rules for prototype still explicitly state power and toughness.) This is made possible by the special card frame showing the alternate characteristics, whereas most times an ability changes power and toughness, the text provides numbers for both attributes anyway. Similar special card frames, such as those for Level up or MDFCs, simply didn't mention the size in any reminder text.
===History===
Prototype was reused in Alchemy: The Brothers' War and made a reappearance in Modern Horizons 3.
==Rules==
==Rulings==
*A prototype card is a colorless card in every zone except the stack or the battlefield, as well as while on the stack or the battlefield if not cast as a prototyped spell. Ignore its alternative characteristics in those cases. For example, while it's in your graveyard, <c>Blitz Automaton</c> is a colorless creature card with mana value 7. It can't be the target of <c>Recommission</c>, a spell that targets an artifact or creature card with mana value 3 or less in your graveyard.
*When cast as a prototyped spell, that spell has the mana cost, power, and toughness characteristics shown in its colored, secondary text box rather than the normal values of those characteristics. Its color and mana value are determined by that mana cost. The permanent that spell becomes as it resolves has the same characteristics. If the spell leaves the stack in any other way, or the permanent it becomes leaves the battlefield, it immediately resumes using its normal characteristics.
*Regardless of how it was cast, a prototype card always has the same name, abilities, types, and so on. Only the mana cost, mana value, color, power, and toughness change depending on whether the card was cast as a prototyped spell.
*The prototype ability functions in any zone that the spell could be cast from. For example, if an effect allows you to cast artifact spells from your graveyard, you could cast a prototyped Blitz Automaton from your graveyard.
*Casting a prototyped spell isn't the same as casting it for an alternative cost, and an alternative cost may be applied to a spell cast this way. For example, if an effect allows you to cast an artifact card without paying its mana cost, you could either cast Blitz Automaton normally, or as a prototyped spell.
*When casting a prototyped spell, use only its prototype characteristics to determine whether it's legal to cast it. For example, if Blitz Automaton is exiled with the last ability of <c>Chandra, Dressed to Kill</c>, you would be able to cast it for (because it's a red spell), even though you wouldn't be able to cast it as a colorless spell for its normal cost.
*If an effect copies a prototyped spell, that copy (as well as the token it becomes on the battlefield) will have the same characteristics as the prototyped spell. Similarly, if an effect creates a token that's a copy of a prototyped permanent or causes another permanent to become a copy of it, the copy would have the same characteristics as the prototyped permanent.
==Example==
==References==