If you cast a spell with its escape permission, you can't choose to apply any other alternative costs or to cast it without paying its mana cost. You may pay any optional additional costs the spell has, such as kicker costs. If it has any mandatory additional costs, you must pay those.
Desdemona, Freedom's Edge
To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost you're paying (such as an escape cost), add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions. The mana value of the spell remains unchanged, no matter what the total cost to cast it was and no matter whether an alternative cost was paid.
Once you begin casting a spell with escape, it immediately moves to the stack. Players can't take any other actions until you're done casting the spell.
Magic: The Gathering · ™ & © Wizards of the Coast · Illus. Anton Solovianchyk
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