Intro to Magic: Instants and Sorceries (How to Play Magic the Gathering pt.)
28Sorceries can only be played during your own main phases. All non-instant spells are sorceries.
Instants can be played in any phase and in response to an opponents action. Lots of instants should be kept either for mid-combat tricks or to use at the end of an opponents turn to keep them on their toes. Because of this you generally want to enter combat before casting creature spells (Without haste) or non-creature spells that do not effect the board such as Gift of Paradise or Strategic Planning.
Flash gives any spelltype the ability to be cast at instant speed. Also abilities of creatures such as Thrashing Brontodon can also be activated at instant speed unless they say otherwise. Do note that if a creature needs to tap to use an ability you will have to wait for its summoning sickness to end at the beginning of your next turn after you cast it.
Example 1: I enter combat with a pair of 2/2's. The opponent has a 1/2 and a 2/3. They block with both and I cast Titanic Growth on the attacker blocked by the 2/3. The attacker becomes a 6/6 and easily crushes the 2/3 and I lose no attackers while they lose both.
Example 2: I enter combat on turn 3 with 2 forests, a 1/1 Llanowar Elves and a 5/4 Steel Leaf Champion. I could cast a 2nd Steel Leaf Champion before combat but I choose not to. The opponent then casts Seal Away on my Steel Leaf Champion. In response I cast Blossoming Defense on it to give it hexproof, making it an illegal target and causing Seal Away to do nothing. Had I cast my other Steel Leaf Champion first I would have been unable to save the original and failed to deal 5 (Now 7 thanks to blossoming defense) damage to the opponent.
Example 3: I have Opt in hand and two blue mana open. The opposing player should be wary of me casting a counterspell such as negate or essence scatter (Which I could have in hand as well). As such they play cautiously and I don't need to counter. At the end of their turn I cast Opt, then begin my turn and untap the mana just used to cast it.
Example 3.5: Same scenario only the opponent attempts to cast Fumigate and destroy all my creatures. This time I do cast Negate to counter their Fumigate and can simply opt to use Opt the next turn.
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