Early and Late Cards

What do the mechanics cycling, kicker, morph, buyback, and suspend have in common? All of these cards let you pay 2 different costs. Most cards have only 1 cost, and that is all well and good, but it makes them less versatile. Take for example Barkhide Mauler, a 4/4 creature that costs 4G and also has cycling 2. Now most of the time I will pay 4G but occasionally I’ll be short on mana, so I’ll cycle him for 2, just to hopefully draw another land.

Morph on a big creature is great; you get a small creature early on and then a bigger creature latter on. Usually you have to just sit on your 7/7 fattie until late in the game, but if it had morph, it is like you are getting 2 creatures for 1 card, as long as you don’t lose it in combat. Buyback gives you card advantage if you have enough mana, and if you don’t, you can still play the card. Suspend gives you more options, by letting you pay G now or 4G latter. Suspend also gives you good cards that you can play on turns 1 and 2, turns that usually don’t have much influence in the game.