Does Ezreal Prodigy's optional additional cost discount apply to Draven Vanquisher's activated ability that allows paying Fury for +2 power?

Question

Accepted Answer

No. Ezreal - Prodigy’s discount applies to optional additional costs that are part of a card’s play cost; Draven - Vanquisher’s “you may pay :rb_rune_fury:” is paid on resolution of its triggered ability and is not an additional cost to play anything, so Ezreal’s discount does not apply. See [FAQ:unleashed#4] and [356.4.c].

The Fury payment on Draven - Vanquisher’s triggered ability is not an optional additional cost that Ezreal’s discount can reduce. The payment is made on resolution of the trigger and is not part of a play-cost to which Ezreal - Prodigy’s discount attaches. Therefore, Ezreal - Prodigy does not reduce the Fury paid for Draven’s ability. See [FAQ:unleashed#4] and [356.4.c].

Identify what Ezreal - Prodigy’s discount applies to: it reduces 'optional additional costs you pay' when those additional costs are part of playing a card, applied as soon as the additional cost is added to the cost of the spell (see [356.4.c]). Identify what Draven - Vanquisher’s ability requires: its text is a triggered ability that reads 'When I attack or defend, you may pay :rb_rune_fury:. If you do, give me +2 :rb_might: this turn.' The payment there is performed on resolution of that triggered ability rather than being an additional cost to play a card. Apply the FAQ ruling that such resource payments in that template are not costs and are paid on resolution, not during the finalization/pay-costs step (see [FAQ:unleashed#4]). Conclusion: Because Draven - Vanquisher’s Fury payment is not an optional additional cost in the sense used by the discount, Ezreal - Prodigy’s discount does not apply.

If a different card's text made the Fury payment part of a cost 'as an additional cost to play X' (i.e., the payment appears where additional costs belong), then Ezreal - Prodigy’s discount could apply to that additional cost per [356.2.b.1] and [356.4.c]. If some effect changed the templating of Draven’s trigger so that the payment became a cost within the triggered ability placed on the chain (a 'cost within instruction' that becomes the base cost when the triggered ability is finalized), the interaction would need re-evaluation under [FAQ:unleashed#1] and [FAQ:unleashed#2]. Replacement effects that redirect or replace the payment action might change whether the payment counts as 'paid' for discounts; see [356.4.f.1] for how 'paid' is defined for optional additional costs when playing cards.

Short answer: No. Ezreal - Prodigy’s printed line about 'Optional additional costs you pay cost :rb_energy_1: or :rb_rune_rainbow: less' only reduces optional additional costs that are part of a card’s play cost; the canonical example in the rules shows that discount applying when an additional cost is added to a spell’s cost during the play process [356.4.c]. By contrast, Draven - Vanquisher’s 'When I attack or defend, you may pay :rb_rune_fury:. If you do, give me +2 :rb_might: this turn.' is a payment that is made on resolution of a triggered ability and is not an additional cost to play a card. The rules FAQ explicitly uses Draven - Vanquisher as an example and explains that 'those resources are not a cost and are paid on resolution of the ability and not finalization' [FAQ:unleashed#4]. Because the Fury payment is not an optional additional cost in the sense that Ezreal - Prodigy’s discount can reduce, the discount does not affect that payment. If the templating were different—e.g., if the Fury payment were worded as an 'as an additional cost to do X' that becomes part of a play/finality step—then the discount might apply; evaluate such a case under the triggered-ability templating guidance [FAQ:unleashed#1] and [FAQ:unleashed#2].