It's become a running joke among Magic: The Gathering players that all new mechanics are Kicker. And there's some truth to that: Kicker is such a simple, elegant mechanic that it's open to almost infinite variations.

The original Kicker was a mechanic that allowed you to pay an additional cost to add an extra effect to a spell as you played it. It allowed your cards to be more flexible, since you could either pay the base mana cost, or pay extra to get a bigger creature or a bonus effect.

In today's Mechanics Overview, we're taking a look at how the Kicker mechanic works, along with a couple of variations. We'll talk about how Kicker can help make your decks more flexible, and talk about a few notable cards and rulings.

What Is Kicker?

Kicker is a keyword ability that appears on spells dating back to 2000's Invasion. Cards with a Kicker cost printed on them allowed you to pay an optional additional cost when you cast the spell, adding an additional effect to the spell.

Spells with Kicker follow a handful of very specific rules:

• The Kicker cost is paid at the same time as the mana cost. You can't cast a spell, then add the Kicker cost after your opponent has had a chance to respond.
• Kicker costs can only be paid once per cast. So while you can pay Galadriel's Dismissal's Kicker cost to phase out all of one opponent's creatures, you can't pay it twice to phase out two opponents' creatures.
• Kicking a spell does not change the spell's mana value or mana cost.
• If you pay the Kicker cost on a spell, that spell is considered kicked.
• If a Kicked spell is copied, the copy is also kicked.

How Does Kicker Actually Work?

Cards with Kicker have at least two distinct effects, the first of which is the Kicker cost. Kicker appears on each card with the text:

• Kicker [cost] (You may pay an additional [cost] as you cast this spell.)

Additionally, each card has an effect that checks for whether or not the spell was kicked. Most of these are additional effects, like how Verdeloth the Ancient creates 1/1 Saproling tokens when kicked, but otherwise it just has the passive buff effect.

Some cards have multiple Kicker costs, which allows you to pay one or both. Some, like Cetavolver, have different effects based on which Kicker costs you pay. Others, like Vodalian Mindslinger, count how many times it was kicked.

Additional costs like Kicker and cost increases are applied before cost reducers, so it's possible to kick a spell for free under the right conditions.

Variations of Kicker

That idea that all mechanics are Kicker has some truth to it: Buyback is basically Kicker that puts the kicked card back into your hand instead of the graveyard, while Offspring functions like Kicker that makes a copy of the creature as it comes into play.

But there are a few variations of Kicker that are explicitly different versions.

Multikicker

Kicker is a one-time ability. You can't keep paying it to make the effect bigger, aside from the cards with multiple Kicker costs, which you can only use as many times as it's listed on the card. But Multikicker allows you to pour as much mana as you want into the effect, which makes it both incredibly flexible and really appealing for decks that can generate a lot of mana.

One of the most versatile Multikicker cards is Everflowing Chalice, which costs zero mana to cast but has multikicker 2, which allows you to put any number of charge counters on it at a cost of two mana each. Then it can tap for one mana per charge counter. At worst, it makes as much mana as other Commander staple mana rocks, like Mind Stone, but if you draw it later in the game you can kick it three or four times to make it generate an enormous amount of mana.

Sticker Kicker

Sticker Kicker only appears on one card, Wicker Picker, from Unfinity, and it happens to be a legal card in Commander. When you cast a spell with Sticker Kicker and pay the Kicker cost, you get one ticket counter and can put a sticker on that card.

Assist Kicker

There are no official rules for Assist Kicker, since it only appears on the playtest card All-Star Kicker, but the Kicker rules apply with one change: You can split the cost of Assist Kicker with one other player, so that you and they each pay a share of the cost.

The Assist Kicker cost can be split any way between two players, so you can pay nothing while a friend or teammate pays the full cost, or you could pay it all yourself. Regardless of who pays it, as long as the full cost is paid the spell is kicked and you get the full effect.

The Future of Kicker

Kicker is a deciduous keyword, which means you can expect to see it again in the future, alongside other deciduous keywords like Landfall and Cycling. You won't see it in every set, because a lot of effects that work similarly do the job a little better or more flavorfully, but it will pop up once in a while.

Multikicker may be the version you're most likely to see frequently, since Everflowing Chalice and Marshal's Anthem are popular reprints in Commander precons. With good reason: Everflowing Chalice is an incredibly flexible mana rock, while Marshal's Anthem can turn a game around by surprise.

Stickers weren't a popular mechanic, especially when ______ Goblin turned out to be such a powerhouse that it resulted in all cards that could bring stickers into play being banned outside of Commander. So stickers are probably never going to be brought back, and Sticker Kicker is effectively a retired mechanic.