Resources
What Does Ignoring or Reducing a Cost Actually Cover?
Read which part of the cost changes: ignoring the base cost can still leave additional costs to pay.
RiftPal explanation · Answer first
The short answer
“Ignoring its cost” sets a card's base 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 to 0. It does not automatically remove additional costs or later cost increases. If only the Energy cost is ignored, the Power cost still applies, and vice versa.
A discount reduces the part named by the effect. Work out what remains before treating a card as free.
RiftPal explanation
How it works
Card reference
Brazen Buccaneer
The base cost is the starting cost, normally printed in the card's upper-left corner. 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 are extra payments required or chosen as you play it. The total cost is what remains after all the relevant additions and changes.
Unit
Brazen Buccaneer
As you play me, you may discard 1 as an additional cost. If you do, reduce my cost by [Energy 2].
Apply base-cost changes first, then additional costs, increases, discounts and finally modifications to the total. The stronger wording “ignoring any and all costs” sets the total to 0, including non-resource costs. This differs from simply “ignoring its cost.”
A discount aimed at one component, such as an optional additional cost, applies to that component when it is added. Apply it before a discount to the total. Do not use a discount for one component to reduce an unrelated component.
Discounts can reduce additional costs to 0. If you chose an optional additional cost and it is reduced to 0, it still counts as paid. You do not lose its linked benefit just because no resources remain to pay for that component.
When combining discounts, a stated minimum belongs only to that discount. Another discount can reduce the cost further. You may order discounts within the same component, and may order discounts to the total after component 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 cannot fall below 0.
A payment inside a resolving effect is handled at that point, not automatically waived by ignoring the card's cost to play it. Also, an effect checking a card's cost uses its printed or copied cost, even if you paid a different amount. An ability's cost is checked using its base cost without alterations unless the checking effect says otherwise.
In practice
Example
Example 1 - Ignoring the base cost
You play a card with a base cost of 3 Energy and choose an optional additional cost of 1 Energy. An instruction lets you ignore its cost. The base 3 becomes 0, but the additional 1 Energy still needs to be paid.
Example 2 - Combining discounts
Order can matter when one discount has a minimum. A spell costs 3 Energy. Discount A reduces its Energy cost by 1, to a minimum of 1. Discount B reduces it by 2 with no stated minimum. Both apply to the total cost.
A then B: 3 Energy → 2 Energy → 0 Energy.
B then A: 3 Energy → 1 Energy → remains 1 Energy.
A cannot reduce the cost below its minimum of 1. That limit applies only when you use A; B can reduce the cost further if you apply it afterward.