  Discordant states appear in a large number of quantum phenomena and seem to
be a good indicator of divergence from classicality. While there is evidence
that they are essential for a quantum algorithm to have an advantage over a
classical one, their precise role is unclear. We examine the role of discord in
quantum algorithms using the paradigmatic framework of `restricted distributed
quantum gates' and show that manipulating discordant states using local
operations has an associated cost in terms of entanglement and communication
resources. Changing discord reduces the total correlations and reversible
operations on discordant states usually require non-local resources. Discord
alone is, however, not enough to determine the need for entanglement. A more
general type of similar quantities, which we call K-discord, is introduced as a
further constraint on the kinds of operations that can be performed without
entanglement resources.
