Rowan and Additional Costs

[pzbw7z]

I've heard that Rowan, Scion of War's ability can pay for Buyback for spells such as Reiterate, Is this true and can it also pay for Kicker costs and Multikicker costs such as that of Comet Storm?

[void_nothing]

Yes - "X less to cast" effects include additional mana spent to cast spells beyond their mana costs. Kicker, multikicker, and buyback are all examples of additional costs that can include mana, so if you've lost 4 life in a turn, you can activate Rowan to make Reiterate with buyback cost RR and Scourge of the Skyclaves with kicker cost 1BB, for example.

In the case of Comet Storm, you would choose how much to pay for X and how many times to pay the multikicker cost however you like, but those costs don't get reduced individually - If you had still lost 4 life, activate Rowan, and you had RRRR to spend, you effectively have six mana to allocate between the X and the multikicker.

[pzbw7z]

Yes - "X less to cast" effects include additional mana spent to cast spells beyond their mana costs. Kicker, multikicker, and buyback are all examples of additional costs that can include mana, so if you've lost 4 life in a turn, you can activate Rowan to make Reiterate with buyback cost RR and Scourge of the Skyclaves with kicker cost 1BB, for example.

In the case of Comet Storm, you would choose how much to pay for X and how many times to pay the multikicker cost however you like, but those costs don't get reduced individually - If you had still lost 4 life, activate Rowan, and you had RRRR to spend, you effectively have six mana to allocate between the X and the multikicker.

Thanks very much. I thought that was how it worked; additional costs but not alternate costs. I just didn't put 2 and 2 together I guess.

[void_nothing]

Actually, alternate costs are still covered by Rowan's ability as long as they include generic mana - any mechanic that allows you to cast a spell for a different cost than normal works with cost reduction effects in general. (After all, you're still casting and usually still paying mana.) So staying with the example of losing 4 life and then activating Rowan, you could pay 3B rather than pay Increasing Ambition's flashback cost or R rather than pay Vandalblast's overload cost.