My friend has Sen Triplets as their commander. Apparently I missed a rules update that you can now generate mana of any color (I saw it on the EDH website.) In the examples section of color identity, they still say you can't play lands outside of your commander's identity. Does this apply to basic lands? For example Sen Triplets could not have a basic mountain in their deck correct?
Now with the rules change, it seems Sen Triplets owner could play a land from someone else's hand like Sacred Foundry and it would still be able to produce or . This would enable them to play those red spells from the opponent's hand, correct?
I just need someone to back me up on this last part: Sen Triplets can't play a spell from someone's hand if they don't have the correct color of mana to cast it. They can't just play a Lightning Bolt from an opponent's hand without having a red mana. A card that says "You may spend mana as though it were any color to cast this spell" like Gonti, Lord of Luxurywould be able to cast a Lightning Bolt without having access to red mana, however a card needs to specify that.
It seems my friend needs to put in some cards like Mana Confluence and Darksteel Ingot, which don't have a color symbol outside of my friends B/U/W color identity, but can still generate other mana colors. (Gruul Signet still can't go into the deck because of the different mana symbols right?)
Many thanks for input on this detailed inquiry! (I've been searching the official commander website and not finding very clear answers to my questions.)
Nothing in the rules for the Commander variant (as given in C.R. 903) restricts what cards a player can play. Thus, if a player could otherwise do so if it weren't a Commander game—
that player can play a land with a basic land type even if it could produce mana of a color outside his or her commander's color identity (which means a player whose commander is Sen Triplets can play a Sacred Foundry card from another player's hand with Sen Triplets's ability) (compare with C.R. 903.5d, which imposes only a deck-building restriction on certain land cards), and
that player can play a card even if its color identity includes a color outside his or her commander's color identity (compare with C.R. 903.5c, which imposes only a deck-building restriction on certain cards).
The rules for the Commander variant, rather, restrict the contents of a player's deck (C.R. 903.5; under C.R. 903.6 [and C.R. 103.1], each player's deck becomes a library, so no longer counts as a deck; see also the glossary, which defines "deck" as "the collection of cards a player starts the game with"). For example, just as before the January 2016 rule change, a Gruul Signet can't be included in a deck with Sen Triplets as the commander, since Gruul Signet includes RG, whose colors are not included in Sen Triplets's color identity, in its rules text (C.R. 903.5c, 903.4).
In general, a player can't cast a spell with R in its total cost if he or she doesn't have R to spend (C.R. 118.3, 601.2, 601.2h). That doesn't change in the Commander variant.
EDIT (Apr. 22): Edited to more precisely refer to rule change.
EDIT (Jul. 18, 2018): Correctness edit.
EDIT (Nov. 18, 2018): Correctness edit.
EDIT (Apr. 14, 2019): Edited, including because one rule was renumbered with Core Set 2020.
EDIT (Jul. 27, 2020): Correctness edit.
So my friend can't have a mountain or Gruul Signet in their deck, but can play them from an opponent's hand that they choose with the ability.
Just to confirm, they need access to the colors of mana to cast the spell from an opponent's hand, correct? (They need to be able to produce to cast Lightning Bolt )
So my friend can't have a mountain or Gruul Signet in their deck, but can play them from an opponent's hand that they choose with the ability.
For the traditional Commander variant, this is correct for this scenario (C.R. 903.5; but see C.R. 903.12e, which applies to Brawl); this applies here because Sen Triplets, the deck's commander, includes neither red nor green in its color identity.
Just to confirm, they need access to the colors of mana to cast the spell from an opponent's hand, correct? (They need to be able to produce to cast Lightning Bolt )
Correct. A player generally needs R in order to cast a spell with R in its total cost (C.R. 118.3, 601.2, 601.2h); likewise for the other four colors. (Lightning Bolt will have R in its total cost in normal cases [C.R. 601.2f].) However, in this scenario, since the January 2016 rule change, the player can now add R, just as they could if it weren't a Commander game.
EDIT (Apr. 22): Correctness and other edits.
EDIT (Jun. 7, 2018): Edited to conform to rule changes with Dominaria; correctness edit.
EDIT (Jun. 26, 2019): Edited to conform to rule changes with Ravnica Allegiance.
EDIT (Apr. 14, 2019): Edited, including because one rule was renumbered with Core Set 2020.
EDIT (May 26, 2020): One rule was renumbered with Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.
Yes, "Add one mana of any color" means exactly that.
At one time, there was a rule that said you'd get colorless mana rather than a color outside your commander's color identity. As peteroupc pointed out, that rule went away in January 2016.
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Now with the rules change, it seems Sen Triplets owner could play a land from someone else's hand like Sacred Foundry and it would still be able to produce or . This would enable them to play those red spells from the opponent's hand, correct?
I just need someone to back me up on this last part: Sen Triplets can't play a spell from someone's hand if they don't have the correct color of mana to cast it. They can't just play a Lightning Bolt from an opponent's hand without having a red mana. A card that says "You may spend mana as though it were any color to cast this spell" like Gonti, Lord of Luxury would be able to cast a Lightning Bolt without having access to red mana, however a card needs to specify that.
It seems my friend needs to put in some cards like Mana Confluence and Darksteel Ingot, which don't have a color symbol outside of my friends B/U/W color identity, but can still generate other mana colors. (Gruul Signet still can't go into the deck because of the different mana symbols right?)
Many thanks for input on this detailed inquiry! (I've been searching the official commander website and not finding very clear answers to my questions.)
In general, a player can't cast a spell with R in its total cost if he or she doesn't have R to spend (C.R. 118.3, 601.2, 601.2h). That doesn't change in the Commander variant.
EDIT (Apr. 22): Edited to more precisely refer to rule change.
EDIT (Jul. 18, 2018): Correctness edit.
EDIT (Nov. 18, 2018): Correctness edit.
EDIT (Apr. 14, 2019): Edited, including because one rule was renumbered with Core Set 2020.
EDIT (Jul. 27, 2020): Correctness edit.
Just to confirm, they need access to the colors of mana to cast the spell from an opponent's hand, correct? (They need to be able to produce to cast Lightning Bolt )
EDIT (Apr. 22): Correctness and other edits.
EDIT (Jun. 7, 2018): Edited to conform to rule changes with Dominaria; correctness edit.
EDIT (Jun. 26, 2019): Edited to conform to rule changes with Ravnica Allegiance.
EDIT (Apr. 14, 2019): Edited, including because one rule was renumbered with Core Set 2020.
EDIT (May 26, 2020): One rule was renumbered with Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.
Yes, "Add one mana of any color" means exactly that.
At one time, there was a rule that said you'd get colorless mana rather than a color outside your commander's color identity. As peteroupc pointed out, that rule went away in January 2016.