Resources
How Do You Work Out and Pay a Card's Cost?
Make the card's choices, calculate the full cost, then pay both resources and any required actions.
RiftPal explanation · Answer first
The short answer
Start with the card's base cost, include any Additional CostA payment added to a card or ability's base cost. Mandatory additional costs must be paid; optional ones become part of the payment when you choose them. A chosen optional additional cost reduced to 0 still counts as paid.View in Glossary and cost changes, then pay the resulting total. Paying only the printed EnergyA resource used to pay numeric Energy costs. Energy has no domain and is spent from your Rune Pool.View in Glossary and PowerA resource used to pay Power costs. Power normally has a domain that must suit the requirement; Universal Power can pay for any domain.View in Glossary is not enough if the card also requires another payment, such as discarding a card.
Choose optional additional costs before working out the total. Once chosen, they are part of what you must pay to complete playing the card.
RiftPal explanation
How it works
First choose the card's targets, modes and any optional Additional CostA payment added to a card or ability's base cost. Mandatory additional costs must be paid; optional ones become part of the payment when you choose them. A chosen optional additional cost reduced to 0 still counts as paid.View in Glossary . Those choices can change what you owe.
Card reference
Brazen Buccaneer
Work out the total in this order: change the base cost → add Additional CostA payment added to a card or ability's base cost. Mandatory additional costs must be paid; optional ones become part of the payment when you choose them. A chosen optional additional cost reduced to 0 still counts as paid.View in Glossary → apply increases → apply discounts → apply changes to the total cost. A discount for only one component applies when that component is added, before general discounts. EnergyA resource used to pay numeric Energy costs. Energy has no domain and is spent from your Rune Pool.View in Glossary and PowerA resource used to pay Power costs. Power normally has a domain that must suit the requirement; Universal Power can pay for any domain.View in Glossary costs cannot go below 0.
Unit
Brazen Buccaneer
As you play me, you may discard 1 as an additional cost. If you do, reduce my cost by [Energy 2].
Card reference
Charm
Pay the combined EnergyA resource used to pay numeric Energy costs. Energy has no domain and is spent from your Rune Pool.View in Glossary and PowerA resource used to pay Power costs. Power normally has a domain that must suit the requirement; Universal Power can pay for any domain.View in Glossary requirements from your Rune PoolThe temporary supply of generated Energy and Power waiting to be spent, not the physical Runes in your Base. Every player's pool empties at the start of each Main Phase and at the end of each turn; this removes unused resources, not Rune cards.View in Glossary . Match any required domain of Power; Universal PowerPower that can pay a Power requirement of any domain. It is still Power, not Energy.View in Glossary can cover any domain. You may use activated AddPut the stated Energy or Power into your Rune Pool. Activated and triggered Add abilities resolve as soon as finalized; spells that Add resources use the Chain normally.View in Glossary abilities with Reaction while paying. With basic runes, exhausting a ready rune generates 1 Energy and recycling one generates 1 Power of its domain.
Spell
Charm
Move an enemy unit.
Also pay any non-resource costs, such as killing a friendly unit or discarding a card, in any order. You cannot skip a required payment. Paying does not bypass legal targets or timing; if the play is illegal or costs remain unpaid, the playing process is undone.
Do not choose a payment that is certain to make the play illegal if another choice is available. For example, do not kill your chosen target as a cost when you can pay with another unit.
Some payments happen later: a spell's instruction to do one thing “to” get another is paid when that spell resolves, not when you initially play it.
In practice
Example
A card has a base cost of 3 Energy and 1 Power, plus a mandatory additional cost to discard a card. An effect reduces its Energy cost by 1. You pay 2 Energy and the required 1 Power, and discard a card. The Energy discount does not remove the Power requirement or the discard.