I suspect I know the answer to this, but figured I'd ask anyways:

What happens when you're paying for a card and you have multiple reductions to its cost but they have different minimums?

e.g., let's say I play a Soldier of Dol Amroth during the Planning Phase, which reduces the cost of the next Tactics card I play by 1, no minimum. Then I quest successfully with Hirgon in the questing phase, who allows me to trigger his response to play a Tactics ally from my hand reducing its cost by 1, to a minimum of 1.

Can I play a 2 Cost Tactics ally for free? That is, could I reduce it's cost from 2 --> 1 with Hirgon's response first, then apply the Soldier of Dol Amroth's reduction from 1 --> 0 ?

Or, does using Hirgon's ability preclude stacking with other deductions? Or, does Hirgon's ability stack, but once triggered, means I can never reduce a card's cost below 1?

Thanks.

I believe there is a ruling that states you can choose the order in which you trigger these cost reduction effects. So in your example above, you could play the ally for free.

1 hour ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:

Can I play a 2 Cost Tactics ally for free? That is, could I reduce it's cost from 2 --> 1 with Hirgon's response first, then apply the Soldier of Dol Amroth's reduction from 1 --> 0 ?

The spirit of what you are asking is correct, except Soldier of Dol Amroth lowers the cost of the next tactics card you play "this phase", in your case, the planning phase. Therefore, it can't stack with Hirgon's ability, which occurs during the quest phase.

Oops

19 minutes ago, Bobbymcbobface said:

The spirit of what you are asking is correct, except Soldier of Dol Amroth lowers the cost of the next tactics card you play "this phase", in your case, the planning phase. Therefore, it can't stack with Hirgon's ability, which occurs during the quest phase.

D'oh, excellent point! I'm sure the general question ( can reductions stack and what happens when they have different minimums ?) may still have some other actual applications, but the only example that comes to mind is either using Lothiriel's ability or Sneak Attack to play a Soldier of Dol Amroth during questing, then later in the Questing Phase after questing successfully using Hirgon to play a 2-Cost tactics ally from hand for 0 resources. Pretty niche outside of theory, of course, since without a Visionary Leadership using Soldier of Dol Amroth as a temporary ally during questing is pretty underwhelming (especially if you're paying 1 to Sneak him in order to save 1 resource with Hirgon, unless you're really desperate for some resource smoothing or something).

Hirgon and Theoden is a simple combo that works for this, and it works how you would want it to. Hirgon can bring the ally cost down to one, then Theoden can reduce it further to zero.

For the text of relevant rulings: