A “spell” in Magic: The Gathering is any nonland card while it’s on the stack after you cast it, until it resolves or is countered.

What officially counts as a spell?

By the rules, a spell is a card on the stack.

That means, when you cast it, all of these are spells:

  • Creature cards (while being cast).
  • Instant cards.
  • Sorcery cards.
  • Enchantment cards (including Auras).
  • Artifact cards.
  • Planeswalker cards.
  • Tribal cards (the old “tribal” type).
  • Copies of spells that are put on the stack (like when something says “copy target spell”).

Once those spells resolve and become permanents on the battlefield, they’re no longer spells.

What is not a spell?

Some things never count as spells at all:

  • Lands: playing a land is a special action, not casting a spell.
  • Tokens: they’re created directly onto the battlefield, not cast.
  • Conspiracies and similar “outside the game” objects (in formats that use them).

Also, many game actions and abilities use the stack but still aren’t spells:

  • Activated abilities (like “{T}: Draw a card”).
  • Triggered abilities (“Whenever… do X”).

These go on the stack, but you don’t “cast” them, so they’re not spells.

Common confusion: “spells” in casual talk

Players sometimes use “spells” loosely, and that can be confusing. Two common casual uses:

  1. “Spells” = “Instants and sorceries”
    • People might say “I run 10 spells” meaning “10 noncreature, nonland instants/sorceries.”
  1. “Spells” = “Noncreature, nonland cards”
    • Deckbuilding rules of thumb like “17 lands, 17 creatures, 6 spells” use “spells” for other noncreature, nonland cards.

Rules text on cards, however, always uses the official meaning: a spell is a card on the stack (and not a land).

Practical examples

  • Casting a creature:
    • In your hand: creature card , not a spell yet.
    • On the stack after you cast it: creature spell.
* On the battlefield: creature **permanent** , no longer a spell.
  • Playing a land:
    • You “play” it, it never goes on the stack, so it’s never a spell.
  • Activating an ability (like Bloodrush, cycling, channel):
    • You discard/pay costs, an ability goes on the stack.
    • That ability is not a spell, so it won’t trigger “whenever you cast a spell” effects.

Quick recap (table)

[1][7][3] [1][7][3] [1][7][3] [7][3] [1][5][3][7] [9] [3][7]
Thing Is it a spell? When?
Creature card Yes Only while it’s being cast and on the stack.
Instant / Sorcery Yes From cast until resolve/counter on the stack.
Artifact / Enchantment / Planeswalker Yes While being cast on the stack.
Copy of a spell Yes While that copy is on the stack.
Land No Playing a land never creates a spell.
Token No Created on the battlefield, not cast.
Activated / triggered ability No Uses the stack but is not cast as a spell.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.