I'm pulling out of the parking lot. We all know what that means. It's time to another drive to work.

Just drop my daughter off to college class. Okay, so today we're going to talk about a mechanic, Kicker.

So, Kicker is one of the mechanics that we've brought back a of times, and it's a pretty popular mechanic.

So I'm going to talk about the origins of it.

I'm going to talk about sort of where we used it,

and talk about my beef with it, because I have a beef with it.

So I will talk about that, talk about what I don't like about kicker.

So anyway, let's go back to the beginning.

So the story begins back in 1998, 1999, when we were designing Invasion, which came out in 2000.

So first, let me talk a little bit about, for those that heard my podcast on the Ages of Magic.

Invasion was beginning of the Third Age of Magic. So let me talk a little bit about that, because the ages of magic. Invasion was beginning of the third age of magic.

So let me talk a little bit about that because influences where Kicker came from.

So one of the things that happened in the early days of making magic was when we make a set

is just like, you know, what are your two mechanics?

Every set had two mechanics.

It's like it's flanking and phasing.

It is buyback and shadow.

It is cycling and echo.

You know, like, the early sets just kind of had this expectation that there'd be two named mechanics.

That was kind of how it worked.

And really, the mechanics didn't necessarily thematically connect or anything.

So one of the things that I thought was important that I really liked was this idea of having more of a thematic connection of the block.

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