Card Discounter (e.g. Shard / Line / Tshwane / Ankara Citadel) Questions

My google-fu was unable to scare up any rulings, so...

A couple of questions regarding discounting cards played:

1. Can the discount be applied to cards searched up from the library (e.g. Magic of the Smith/Vast Wealth/Muricia's Call)? Or in general, not played from hand?


2. Can the discount be applied to cards played from hand via an alternate effect (e.g. Concealed Weapon/Piper)?

The answer is yes to both cases.

In both cases the cards still use the words "equip" and "employ", which means costs are applied as normal, and discounts are applied to those costs as normal. Newer cards indeed have a reminder text saying so.

The only exception I can recall to this and many other cases is Summon History, since that just "puts a card in play", which allows it to circumvent many restrictions. (and is a little bit busted for that). But that means that possible discounts aren't applied to the card that SH gets, but rather the action itself.