When Kai'sa Evolutionary's Conquer ability plays a spell from trash and that spell is countered (e.g., by Defy), does the spell get recycled or does it go to trash?

Ruling: This interaction is not clearly defined by the current rules. Players should ask the head judge at their event for a ruling on this specific case.

Nuances:

• Countered spells normally go to trash
• Kai'sa's ability says to play the spell then recycle it, but the rules don't clearly handle recycling a spell that gets countered while on the chain
• From a game design perspective, it's usually safer if the recursed card ends up recycled (or banished) even if countered
• One interpretation is that Kai'sa cannot recycle the card from trash after it's been countered
• Another interpretation is that recycling the spell from trash is reasonable even if not explicitly supported by rules as written