Do you pay recycle/power costs when using Quickdraw and/or Weapon Master to attach gear?

Question

Accepted Answer

Quick-Draw: You still pay the gear’s play costs (Energy and Power) when you play it, but you do not pay that gear’s Equip cost (including any Recycle or Power included in the Equip cost) when it attaches via Quick-Draw. Weapon Master: insufficient card text provided. General rule — whether you pay Recycle/Equip Power depends on whether the effect is activating the Equip ability (pay its cost) or attaching the gear as part of another action (no Equip cost unless the effect says to pay it).

When you play a gear with Quick-Draw you must pay the gear’s play costs (Energy and Power) per [357.1]. Quick-Draw’s attach is a triggered/Reaction effect that says “When you play this, attach it to a Unit you control,” and does not instruct you to pay the gear’s Equip cost, so you do not pay the Equip cost (and therefore do not pay any Recycle or Power that is part of that Equip cost) when the gear attaches via Quick-Draw [819.1.d] [818.1.c.2] [416.3] [357.1]. For Weapon Master I don’t have the card text here; see assumptions and guidance below.

You choose to play the gear card. Pay its play costs (Energy and Power) as part of playing it [357.1]. When the gear is played, Quick-Draw’s triggered text (if present) becomes a Reaction that reads essentially “When you play this, attach it to a Unit you control.” That trigger attaches the gear and does not include the Equip cost, so you do not pay the Equip cost to resolve that attach [819.1.d] [818.1.c.2]. If instead you or a card effect activates the gear’s Equip ability (the printed “[Cost]: Attach this gear to a unit you control.”), you must pay that Equip cost — and if that Equip cost includes Recycle or Power, you must perform those actions/pay those resources to attach via Equip [818.1.c.2] [416.3]. If making the choices or paying costs for Equip (or playing the gear) causes other triggered abilities to trigger, those triggered abilities are placed on the chain appropriately per the Equip/trigger interaction rules [818.1.c.1].

A gear that has a printed Power cost (the cost to play the card) still requires that Power be paid when you play it, even if Quick-Draw immediately attaches it afterward. Quick-Draw does not remove the play-time Power requirement [357.1] [819.1.d]. A gear whose Equip cost includes a Recycle instruction: attaching via Quick-Draw does not pay that Recycle because you are not using the Equip ability. Only activating Equip would force you to Recycle as part of that cost [818.1.c.2] [416.3]. If a different card or ability (for example, an effect on the chain) instructs you to attach a gear and explicitly says to pay its Equip cost, then you must pay it. Whether you pay is determined by the exact wording of the effect that causes the attachment [818.1.c.2]. If an effect says “play a gear and attach it” you must still pay the play costs when playing it, but whether you must pay the Equip cost depends on whether the effect says to pay it or whether it uses Equip to perform the attach [357.1] [819.1.d] [818.1.c.2].

Quick-Draw is a triggered/Reaction ability that is functionally “When you play this, attach it to a Unit you control” [819.1.d]. Playing a gear is a separate game action that requires you to pay the card’s play costs (its Energy and any Power cost) as part of the play process [357.1]. Equip, by contrast, is an activated ability with its own cost that is functionally “[Cost]: Attach this gear to a unit you control” [818.1.c.2]. Because Quick-Draw’s attach is part of the play-trigger and does not read or imply “pay the Equip cost,” you do not pay the gear’s Equip cost when it attaches via Quick-Draw — therefore you do not perform any Recycle or pay any extra Power that would have been part of that Equip cost. If you instead activate the gear’s Equip ability to attach it, you must pay the Equip cost (and that cost may include non-resource costs such as Recycle or resource costs such as Power) [818.1.c.2] [416.3]. The same principle applies to other effects (like a hypothetical Weapon Master): whether you pay Recycle or Equip Power depends entirely on the exact wording of the effect. If the effect tells you to activate the gear’s Equip ability (or otherwise pay the Equip cost), you must pay those costs. If the effect merely attaches the gear (or the gear attaches via Quick-Draw) and does not instruct you to pay the Equip cost, you do not pay it. Because I don’t have the text for Weapon Master in the provided material, I can’t give a card-specific ruling for it — apply the rule above to the exact wording on Weapon Master to determine whether Equip costs (Recycle/Power) must be paid.