What does "...without paying its mana cost" mean for kickers, overloaded spells, "pay X" spells, etc.?
Asked by the5ervant 11 years ago
Can I choose the cost for those?
For instance, can I draw 15 if I cast Spell Contortion while Omniscience is on the board?
Or, when I cast Diluvian Primordial , can I have an opponent's fireball do whatever life they have left?
smash10101 says... #2
As Greatsword said, when you cast something for free, if it has X in it's mana cost, X must be zero. Optional additional costs, such as kicker or buyback, may be paid, and mandatory additional costs must be paid.
January 16, 2014 11:32 a.m.
Different answers to different elements.
"without paying its mana cost" is an alternate cost. You can only pay one kind of cost (normal or alternate)
You can, however pay additional costs (like kicker and buyback) but you actually have to pay those.
So in a case like Spell Contortion , the cost is 2U, with the additional cost of 1U for each time you want to kick it. When you play it "without paying its mana cost" you're only saving on the 2U.
Overload is an alternate cost, and can't be chosen when playing without paying the mana cost. Spells that let you pay X as part of their effect (like Toxic Deluge ) are additional costs that can be paid. Spells that actually have an X in the -casting- cost (like Fireball ) will always have X=0 if you play them without paying their mana costs.
January 16, 2014 11:32 a.m.
smash10101 says... #4
Devonin: Actually, you must pay any non-mana costs, such as the X life for Toxic Deluge , though X can be zero in this case. It you cast Fling with Omniscience or Diluvian Primordial , you would still have to sac a creature. When a card says, "cast without paying mana cost," you only get to ignore the part in the top right corner.
January 16, 2014 11:51 a.m.
@smash10101 I meant 'can' in the sense of 'are not forbidden by the rules governing playing without paying mana cost' and not in the sense of 'can or cannot, you have the choice'
January 16, 2014 11:52 a.m.
what about something like Ancestral Vision , and Omniscience will that work? since you cant cast Ancestral for 0 mana normaly and must suspend it, can i then use Omniscience to cast it for 0? or must i still suspend it to use it at all?
August 20, 2014 6:08 a.m.
Cards without mana costs can't be cast, so you can't cast them for free. Can't trumps Can.
GreatSword says... #1
No, it doesn't work the way you want it to. From Omniscience 's Gatherer entry:
January 16, 2014 11:28 a.m.