Pattern Recognition #10 - Alternate Casting Costs

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

11 December 2016

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Hey everyone! Today is a special day, as it's my tenth* article for Pattern Recognition, and I want to thank all of you for sticking with me and not laughing me out. Today, I will address my second request, and this time it's from one of our own TappedOut members!

*11th, actually. Card Draw became a two-parter.

Ithyn wrote in response to a previous article:
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(...) what is it about New Phyrexia that you dislike so much? It is something to do with Phyrexian Mana? This leads into another question; would you consider an article talking about alternate mana costs?
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No. I am not going to talk about that horrible, poorly designed, utterly un-fun set called "New Phyrexia". I have better things to do. Like anything. So, let's talk about alternate mana costs instead.

Go grab a card. Make sure you're not looking at the back. Then check to make sure it's not a land. In the upper right - with the exception of Future Shifted cards or Evermind - is the card's casting cost. It can have coloured mana, or not, it can have multiple colours, be they distinct or hybrid. It's one of the first things that players learn about the game. Everything has a cost.

So, as I asked in the outro to my article last week, when is a card's casting cost not its real cost?

I want to define a few things first before I can properly answer that question. There are actually two means of modifying a card's cost. The first is a additive or modified measure, where you pay something in addition to the established casting cost. The other is a replacitive cost, where you pay something instead of the printed cost.

Also, a Hardcast is a term used to describe when you pay all the costs for a card legitimately and play it from your hand. On the gripping hand, to Cheat a card into play is to somehow bypass its costs through the use of such things as Aether Vial. Please note that this choice of terms does not in any way represent an endorsement of actual cheating. Cheating is bad, and you will get caught and be punished for it.

Today's article would have focused on the first major cycle of cards that were deliberately designed to utilize an alternate casting cost, but I wasn't happy with the article, and my good reviewers suggested that I take a step back and look more at the mechanics involved, rather than the cards themselves.

Of course, I'm still going to talk about them, they're kinda important. And in one case, absolutely vital to Legacy and Vintage.

But let's talk mechanics first. It has been my observation that when a cost mechanic is keyworded, then it is a cost modifier. The first such mechanic is one that definitely deserves more love, has shown up in multiple blocks, and is on my shortlist for "Make Evergreen when I'm in Charge of Magic". Kicker originated in the Invasion block as a vital component of its multicoloured design, and made a comeback in Zendikar where it didn't. Kicker is also perhaps the simplest way to demonstrate how the idea of alternate casting costs work.

Let's look at Kavu Titan. Hey, this guy is great for many reasons! First, he's my favourite Tribe. Second, he's a bear! Third, he has an alternate, additional casting cost! Now, I love the fact he's a Bear. For just a cost of , he is a 2/2. Plain and simple! However, when you add in the additional Kicker of , he becomes a 5/5, Trample. Now, the thing about Kicker is that it is part and parcel of the casting cost. It's not two distinct things. And I would pay [symbol:G for that creature, wouldn't you? I mean, sure, it's not the most spectacular or splashy of Rares, but this guy could easy see reprinting at Uncommon nowadays.

Multi-Kicker was a Zendikar change to the mechanic that allowed you to pay the Kicker cost repeatedly for a cumulative effect. It was part of the same design scheme that led to the Level mechanic, and that was just a kludge of rules.

Kicker works as a mechanic because it is essentially a two-mode card. You can pay one cost for a small effect, or a larger cost for a larger end result. It keeps the card from being a bad draw in the mid to late game while maintaining cost effectiveness in the early game.

Convoke came to us as the Selesnya () mechanic from Ravnica. As part of their theme of 'More creatures!', this mechanic allowed you to pay part of the creature's casting cost by tapping other creatures. Now, this is a very interesting version of an alternate cost, as it doesn't replace or add on, but reduces the cost in process. And when you're swimming in creature tokens, why not? Of course, there were the occasional creature who was meant to be paid for using this mechanic - such as Shai-Hulud. However, Convoke also allows you to pay for additional costs, such as the Kicker on Kavu Primarch (Time Spiral Drink!), as the Kicker is part of the casting cost. The synergy was deliberate, I assure you.

Now the case could be made that it's a cost-reduction mechanic, like Affinity. But I disagree. You still need to do something while using Convoke, whereas Affinity was purely passive. It's not Evergreen, despite being in M15, but it's certainly something that is reliable and solid and can show up at any point in the future. I look forward to it.

The next mechanic is Suspend. I'm about to talk about a Time Spiral mechanic, so please don't drink yourselves into a stupor. It's unbecoming, and you'll pass out before you finish this week's article. Anyway, unlike Kicker, which is an additive mechanic, Suspend is a replacitive one. You don't hard cast the card, but rather pay a different one, and Exile the card for a certain amount of turns instead. Now, with Suspend, you don't actually cast the spell when you pay for the ability. Rather, the spell is cast when the card comes into play. And Jhoira of the Ghitu will earn you a lot of ire around the Commander table, that's for sure.

Funny story. You can skip this paragraph and the next if you don't like my stories. You monster. Anyway, Suspend card come into play during the Upkeep, when the last Time counter is removed. I was playing a Boros deck in Ravnica / Time Spiral Type 2, and my opponent was playing a Dragonstorm deck. He Suspended a Lotus Bloom and waited for it to trigger. Because it was effectively a free spell that produced mana, his Storm count would be 'One' on his first main phase, meaning he only needed two more spells cast to Dragonstorm me out. So, his artifact comes in on his upkeep. And I announce I'm doing something at the end of his upkeep. He shrugs, and passes priority. I Disenchant his Lotus. In response he pops the artifact for the mana. I tell him that he takes three damage at the end of his upkeep. He doesn't understand.

He didn't know about Mana Burn. I explained it to him. He called the Judge. The Judge agreed with me, and he was down 3 mana and 3 life instead of comboing out that turn. Moral of the story? Know the rules. Even when the rules in question are due to be removed from the game due to lack of use. I will remember them.

So, Suspend. Neat mechanic. I actually used it in one of my training decks when I worked at the local gaming store to teach people about why the Upkeep step exists in a non-negative manner. But it won't work in the New World Order. It's a complicated mechanic, especially when you get guys who have triggers while in Exile when they have a counter removed. But it also clearly defines what it means to 'replace' a card's casting cost. You simply ignore the listed cost and pay something different, using a different resource. In the case of Suspend, that additional resource is time. Can you wait for things to happen?

Lorwyn and Shadowmoor provides us with the Evoke mechanic. I've mentioned in a previous article how Red 'cheats' spells into play by attaching them to creatures. Well, 'Evoke' removes the cheating part. Let's look at Briarhorn. This minor mechanic allows you to cast a creature with an Enters the Battlefield (or Leaves the Battlefield!) effect, and have the creature sacrifice itself after it comes into play. This cost is usually - but not always - cheaper than the normal hardcasting cost as you are not getting the creature with the spell effect. As a note, these creatures were all Elementals - and now I am sad that my Haste/Trample deck is so focused on that as Spitebellows would have been a beautiful component to the deck.

There's really not much to say here. The creatures with Flash mimic instants, while the those without mimic sorceries. But so little was done with it that it's hard to grasp what it could have been capable of. I think there is plenty of room to explore here. It just needs a set to shine in, rather than be relegated to second string mechanic for a second string tribe.

Overload is another alternate casting cost. This time, we go back to Ravnica for the Izzet's second guild mechanic. These cards were instants or sorceries that could target a a single target exclusively for a temporary effect, but if you paid the larger cost instead, you could target all valid targets that you can. It's a neat way to keep cards viable through the game as when you play it early, you might not be able to afford the larger cost, or not be in a position where 'all' targets is a good choice. And later in the game, when you can afford to pay the full price, you were often in a position to take full advantage of it.

In a way, Overload is simply Kicker under a different name. Instead of paying the difference between the costs, you pay the final cost outright, and change a bit of text in the process. Yet another reason why Kicker should be Evergreen - they're making derivative mechanics for it! And I can tell you - Teleportal is a great way to end a game.

Finally, I come to Emerge. The latest mechanic regarding changing the casting cost. And it's an evolution of the Offering mechanic from Kamigawa of all places. Like on Patron of the Orochi, except without the added Flash.

This ability on the Eldrazi lets you sacrifice a creature to reduce the alternate casting cost. It's an interesting, and very flavorful way to do it as the Emerge cost is usually a better indicator of the power level of the card, though still not perfect as the sacrificed creature's cost is an unknown variable. It's a fairly new mechanic, and one locked to the Eldrazi so I can't really comment much about it except to say that it does fit in this pattern.

Which finally leads us to where I had initially intended we start. Sure, you can sacrifice a creature, but what else can you give up to reduce the cost of a card? Well, life, maybe? But no, Black has that covered exclusively, and that sort of cost is fixed and additional, it's not alternate.

What about the cards in hand? That sounds pretty simple, right? Well, it's been done. At long last, the cycle that started this whole article, the Pitch Cards of Alliances - Scars of the Veteran, Force of Will, Contagion, Pyrokinesis, and Bounty of the Hunt. These cards are joined together by a unified mechanic - exile a card from your hand, rather than pay the actual price of the card for an effect. This is how they got their name. You pitch a card from your hand.

Before we go further, I want to remind everyone that this was a different time. The Block structure hadn't been formalized yet, and the power levels of cards were still a case of a blind man throwing darts, where a bullseye was "Power Nine" and missing the board entirely was "Worse than a Basic Land".

Do you see a theme with these cards? Well, let me spell it out for you. These cards are bad when hard casted. They were meant to be played by using the alternate casting costs, despite the drawbacks, real or imaginary. What if I framed, say Pyrokinesis as casting two Shocks for free when you have to exile one copy, would you play that? Force of Will needs no explanation, as a mana counterspell is vital for Legacy and Vintage where you might not even reach your first turn. If you just look at the casting costs then yes, there are better options. Including their alternate costs. This cycle is best viewed as an emergency responses. They are cards held in hand until they are needed, and the opponent thinks that you can't do anything because you're tapped out.

It's been a long time since Alliances, and the notion of alternative casting costs has drifted in and out of Wizard's playbook since then. For the most part, they're not as extreme as the initial five, more often being allowing you to play cards cheaper if certain conditions are met. Such as Archive Trap and that cycle of cards, or Allosaurus Rider, a deliberate call back to these pitch cards. Or Fist of Suns and the Bringer cycle from Mirroden. Or the Borderpost cycle in Alara Reborn.

The exception to this is Dream Halls, which turns every card into a potential Pitch Card.

But Wizards, justifiably, shies away from doing anything serious with this. Paying mana for spells is vital and integral to the design of the game, and breaking that down can do bad things to the whole of the came. So let it be, and just pull it out on occasion when it's justifiable, and make sure the alternate costs are actually more than just a cost of convenience.

This will be my last update until 2017, I'm sorry to say. I work retail, and with the Christmas season, I'm sure you can understand why I would be more focused on work. Besides, I'm out of my backlog of articles. So I'll keep an ear out for more requests, and I'll see you in January!

(Poor Force of Will, printed in the same set as Storm Crow. How can you compete with perfection like that?)