Unscrupulous Contractor

Plot is a keyword ability that functions while the card with plot is in a player’s hand. “Plot [cost]” means “Any time you have priority during your main phase while the stack is empty, you may exile this card from your hand and pay [cost]. It becomes a plotted card.”

Exiling a card using its plot ability is a special action, which doesn’t use the stack. See rule 116, “Special Actions.”

In addition to the plot special action, some spells and abilities cause a card in exile to become plotted.

A plotted card’s owner may cast it from exile without paying its mana cost during their main phase while the stack is empty during any turn after the turn in which it became plotted. Casting a spell this way follows the rules for paying alternative costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2f–h. A plotted card may be cast this way even if it doesn’t have the plot ability while in exile.

If an effect refers to plotting a card, it means performing the special action associated with a plot ability.

An effect may allow the plot ability of a card to function in a zone other than a player’s hand. In that case, the card is exiled from the zone it is in as the action is taken rather than from its owner’s hand.