Elspeth Conquers Death

To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost you're paying, add any cost increases (such as that of this Saga's second chapter), then apply any cost reductions. The mana value of the spell remains unchanged, no matter what the total cost to cast it was.

As a Saga enters the battlefield, its controller puts a lore counter on it. As your precombat main phase begins (immediately after your draw step), you put another lore counter on each Saga you control. Putting a lore counter on a Saga in either of these ways doesn't use the stack.

Removing lore counters won't cause a previous chapter ability to trigger. If lore counters are removed from a Saga, the appropriate chapter abilities will trigger again when the Saga receives lore counters.

If a creature on the battlefield has {X} in its mana cost, X is considered to be 0.

Once the number of lore counters on a Saga is greater than or equal to the greatest number among its chapter abilities, the Saga's controller sacrifices it as soon as its chapter ability has left the stack, most likely by resolving or being countered. This state-based action doesn't use the stack.

If multiple chapter abilities trigger at the same time, their controller puts them on the stack in any order. If any of them require targets, those targets are chosen as you put the abilities on the stack, before any of those abilities resolve.