Kicker is a keyword ability first used all the way back in the Invasion set. Now, with the upcoming release of Dominaria United, the ability is making a return. Dominaria United isn’t just bringing Kicker cards back either. The new set is adding a twist to the popular mechanic.
To prepare you for the upcoming set, I’ll go over everything you need to know about the Kicker mechanic.
Kicker is a keyword ability that grants players the option to pay an extra cost in addition to the regular casting cost of a card. As a reward for paying the optional cost, additional effects are granted.
While the idea is pretty simple, this mechanic gets surprisingly complicated. But not to worry, in this article, I’ll cover it all! I’ll also give my picks for the best Kicker cards in the game today. Let’s get right into it.
What Kicker?
Kicker is a keyword ability that lets you pay an additional cost when casting a spell. If you pay the additional cost, you get extra effects from the card. The ability is commonly found on creatures, instants, sorceries, enchantments, and artifacts.
Here’s the official ruling:
Kicker is a keyword ability that represents an optional additional cost. A spell has been kicked if its controller declared the intention to pay any or all of its kicker costs. See rule 702.33, “Kicker.”
Glossary of the Comprehensive Rules
How Does It Work?
You decided whether or not to pay the kicker cost as you cast the spell. This means that you can’t wait until the spell resolves before you decide to pay the cost. It all has to be done at once.
If you choose not to pay the extra cost, then the spell just functions normally. If you do decide to pay the cost, however, then the spell gets to do extra stuff when/if it resolves.
The extra effects gained from kicking a spell vary from card to card. Let’s take a look at a few examples.
Scourge of the Skyclaves has one of the spiciest kicker effects in all of Magic. As you cast it, you can pay an extra five mana. If you do, when it enters the battlefield, each opponent loses half of their life total!
Into the Roil on the other hand, has a pretty basic ability. This card normally lets you return one non-land permanent to its owners hand. If you pay the extra cost, however, you get to return a non-land permanents and you get to draw a card!
FAQs
Does Kicker Change Mana Value?
No, the kicker ability does not affect a cards mana value. The spells mana value is always equal to the mana symbols printed in the top right corner of the card. Paying additional costs doesn’t change that.
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Can You Pay the Kicker Cost for a Free Spell?
Well, that depends on what exactly you mean by a “free spell”. You can pay a card’s additional cost any time you “cast” that card. So if an effect lets you cast a spell without paying it’s mana cost, you can absolutely pay the kicker cost for that card.
If, on the other hand, an effect lets you “put” a creature onto the battlefield (usually from your hand or the graveyard), then you won’t have a chance to pay any extra costs.
So just remember, if you’re “casting” a spell, you can always pay the kicker cost. If you’re not casting, you can’t.
Can I Pay a Kicker Cost More than Once?
No, when you cast a spell, you can only pay the extra cost once. If a spell has multikicker, however, then you can pay the cost as many times as you want. Likewise, if a card has multiple kicker costs, then you may pay each of those costs once.
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What Is MultiKicker ?
Multikicker is just like the regular ability. The only difference is, as the name implies, you can choose to pay a multikicker cost multiple times instead of just once.
Take Wolfbriar Elemental for example: When you cast it, you can pay the extra cost (one green mana) as many times as you want. Then, when it enters the battlefield, you get to put a 2/2 Wolf token into play for each time it was paid.
Best Kicker Cards
Vines of Vastwood
Vines of Vastwood costs just one green mana and protects target creature from spells and abilities your opponent controls until end of turn. If you pay the kicker cost, however, that’s when things start to get spicy. For an extra green mana your creature also gets +4/+4.
Vines of Vastwood has been a staple in infect decks for a long time. And that’s because it’s a versatile spell that can protect your most important creature from removal or pump it up and help you swing for lethal.
Maddening Cacophony
Maddening Cacophony is crazy good in mill decks, especially in the commander format. For two mana (one and a blue) it forces each opponent to mill eight cards. This is okay, but nothing special compared to other mill spells. Once you pay the kicker cost, however, the card becomes insane. For an extra four mana, each of your opponents has to mill half of their entire library!
This is crazy in commander, since you have three different opponents with 99 card libraries. It’s almost certain that you’ll end up milling at least 100 cards.
Tourach, Dread Cantor
Tourach, Dread Cantor is a brutal card! If you cast it for its normal cost, it’s nothing special. Once you kick it however, your opponent is in for a bad time.
For four mana you’ll be getting a 4/3 creature that has the potential to get even bigger, and you’ll be making your opponent discards two cards at random from their hand. Brutal.
Everflowing Chalice
Everflowing Chalice really embodies everything that the ability is all about: versatility. This mana-rock can be whatever you need it to be at the time. You can pay two mana and Everflowing Chalice will tap for one colorless mana. Or you can pay four and it’ll for two. You can pay six and it can tap for three, and so on and so forth.
You can also cast it for free if you want. You won’t be able to get any mana out of it, but having the option is always nice in artifact decks.
New Cycle from Dominaria United
The new “double kicker” cycle is a cycle of five creatures from Dominaria United which have two seperate alternative costs, each requiring a different color of mana. This means you’ll need access to three different colors of mana to be able to take full advantage of these “double kicker” creatures.
Conclusion
Being able to use kicker and get more value out of a spell is a big advantage in MTG. The ability has proven to be useful in pretty much every format, and it’s likely we’ll keep getting more and more cards as the game expands.
I hope this article has answered any and all questions you might have. If not, drop a comment below and I’ll be happy to respond. Until next time, I wish you the best of luck with all of your MTG endeavors.
