How does reduction work with X, Magic the Gathering?

Question

If a creature has X in its mana cost, and you have a card in play that directly reduces its mana cost by Y, will whatever X does for the card be increased by Y?

ok, so that might be confusing for some people, so here is a simple example of what I mean.

Lets say I have a creature who reduces the cost of Blue spells that I play by 2 generic mana.  Then I play a card that costs XBBB and it returns X target creatures to my opponent's hand.  If I payed 3 for X, would it then return 5 creatures to my opponent's hand?

IamHuman · Accepted Answer

I'm pretty sure you can pay 3 and have X be 5. The only reason I'd think so is because otherwise, Logic Knot would suck.

Think about it like this. When you play this, you set the value of X as 5, which gives it a mana cost of 5UUU. Then, the cost-reducing effect applies, so you only have to pay 3UUU.

EDIT: Thanks, Dax, for reminding me that Blue mana symbols are written as U.

? · Answer

on cards that reduce the cost of spells it doest not effect X because the card says for each mana  you pay just because its reduced by 2 does not mean you get 2 extra mana you know what i mean? so if i were to have said card in play and i play air elemental (3UU) it would now cost me 1UU but because a card that is XU the X is optional so the cost is still only U not XU if that makes since

Ðαx² · Answer

Okay, so you're paying 5UUU (U is used for island, because Black uses B. idk why, but yeah xD) to return 5 (x) creatures. Since it's being reduced by 2 colorless, it will cost only 3UUU because 5-2=3.

How does reduction work with X, Magic the Gathering?

3 Answers