Costs

Cost is a class to streamline costs throughout all cards. It requires that each part is separated by a space. They can generally be found on every ability, although certain keyworded abilities do use costs too.

The base syntax for more complex parts looks like this:
{Part}[<{Integer}[/{Type}[/{TypeDescription}]]>]

Type is often a Valid property or CARDNAME / NICKNAME for costs that do something to themselves (e.g. Sacrifice Self).

The last parameter in the cost is to allow for complex type definitions to have a better readable text.
For the more common cost variants the Forge engine should then be able to provide a reasonable ingame display of the printed cost text.
If that's still not good enough just hardcode the whole cost text with CostDesc$ {String}. Add PrecostDesc$ {String} if the card has additional flavor text that should be included.

If a cost contains an X that's free to announce the script needs this definition:
SVar:X:Count$xPaid

This can be refined further with

• XMin/XMax$ {Count} - for the few cards with rules text limiting X
• AIXMax$ {Count} - useful for abilities where higher X doesn't result in a greater effect. Can reference X for a relative value, e.g. on Green Sun's Zenith AI will not default to spending all available mana:
  Count$ValidLibrary Creature.YouOwn+Green+cmcLEX$GreatestCardManaCost

The more interesting cost parts are detailed below.

Discard

Discard<Num/Type/Description>

• The first is how many cards are being discarded
• The second is what card types can be discarded
  • "Hand" for the whole hand
  • "Random" for chosen randomly

Examples:

• Discard<0/Hand> (The number is ignored here)
• Discard<1/Creature.Black/black Creature>

Draw

Exile

Exile<Num/Type/Description>

There are also a few sister abilities that all fit under the Exile umbrella:

• Exile (for cards on the Battlefield)
• ExileFromGraveyard
• ExileFromHand
• ExileFromTop

Examples:

• Exile<1/CARDNAME>
• ExileFromGrave<1/Treefolk>
• ExileFromTop<10/Card>

FlipCoin

Only used by Karplusan Minotaur.

Mana

For normal mana costs you can just write the shards directly like printed.

Examples:

• C - 1 colorless mana
• B R - 1 black and 1 red mana
• WG - Hybrid White/Green mana
• S - Snow mana
• Mana<2\Creature> - 2 generic mana produced by a source with type 'Creature'. Note the backslash, it was chosen because hybrid costs can already use slash

Mill

PayEnergy

PayLife

PayLife<Num>

Return

Return<Num/Type/Description>

Reveal

Sacrifice

Sub(tract) Counter

SubCounter<Num/CounterName>

• SubCounter<1/CHARGE>

Remember the countertype should appear all in caps.

Tap / Untap

Cost$ T

Cost$ Q

TapXType

Unattach