The only thing that I don't like in this idea is the fact that is probably not going to be explored enough being in just one set. That said, I think people here are thinking a little bit too small: assume this is a new 'color', i.e. spells with <> in the cost can only be cast with this mana, exclusively. Does that mean that we have a new member in the color pie? If so, what are going to be its exclusive characteristics? Will it be able to do something that no color can do so far?
Before people start comparing this to snow-land: it is not the same thing. If it is a new color, it has to be unique in the color pie, snow colors were still associated with magic 5 colors and therefore did not need to be unique.
Well theres a problem to expanding the color pie- the color pie only exists because wizards diviied up their existing mechanics; they explored the mechanics first, then sorted them into colors. They try to come up with all the neat interesting new abilities they can, could they really add a whole new slice of pie with a new niche when they've already covered so much ground in 5 colors?
I imagine this eldrazi mana will have themes to it, but it won't be anywhere as fully developed as red/blue/black/green/white
Sure, it cannot compete with the other 5 colors, but I would be glad to see some new design space being explored (assuming there is even one to be explored). I hope they go for it, it would create an interesting dynamic in the game (not to mention the breath of fresh air that magic has been needing for a while).
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Worth noting that this probably makes the colorless lands of BFZ go up in draft value, since they're basically just Wastes with upside.
I can't see Mirrorpool explicitly tapping to add eldrazi mana instead of colorless if that was the case. Why restrict it? Theres so little reason to have it add "worse colorless" mana when colorless is already a sufficient drawback.Its much more likely that barrys land produces an exclusive 6th mana type, handled the same way snow mana was, than to assume that <> can only be paid in colorless and things that add <> can only be used to pay colorless. Thats needless rules complication and wouldn't require symbols in the first place. That makes it a "better colorless", like snow mana.
The net result is that the colorless lands of BFZ arent wastes with upsides, since they wouldn't produce eldrazi mana
There are a few differences though. Snow mana was a supertype imposed onto a special cycle of basic lands, while Eldrazi mana has its own specific land. People have been clamoring for "Barry's Land" forever, so tying a sixth color to something that flavorfully embodies colorlessness defeats the purpose. Also, snow mana had a whole set dedicated to it, while BFZ has been pushing "colorless matters" as the central Eldrazi mechanic. Can't just abandon that wholesale in the last set.
My assumption is that <> costs can only be paid for with colorless mana. That means Island, Tundra, etc can't produce <>, but Adarkar Wastes can. It's an odd dynamic since Tundra has been strictly better than Adarkar Wastes for forever, but there's no technical reason why they can't do this in the rules. As to why Mirrorpool explicitly produces <>, I would assume to promote it as a new mechanic and because it explicitly requires <> to activate anyway, so the design of the card comes off as more elegant.
It would have been so much easier if they had just released a card with reminder text!
Well either interpretation could be valid. Theres flaws to both
If the new mana symbol is treated like snow and is it a new flavor of mana (thats still colorless), than the problem is that any cards with this in their casting cost are pure parasitic design and cannot be used outside of this set, that is, they simply wouldn't work in any deck not exclusively running them in modern or legacy. Thats a huge problem with the lasting value of these cards and where they fit and get received, its like devoid or tribal or arcane on steroids. And the question becomes, would wizards greenlight such an inherently problematic premise for a set?
If the new mana symbol is treated as "This may not be paid with colored mana", then why would mirrorpool have it instead of 1? It wouldn't make sense because its not like attaching "This may not pay anything other than colorless mana" makes any sense when colorless mana by definition can't pay anything other than colorless mana. And further, it has the problem where instead of wastes being a *better* colorless basic land, putting it vaguely on par with other basics, under that definition it would be some kind of exclusively worse card. It could still be "This may not pay for colored spells", but now it gets a little more arbitrary and less elegant. So it could still be that, but its a contrived scenario compared to it just being neo-snow colorless mana
a few years ago, wizards cleared up a lot of ambiguity with their wordings. "play" became "cast" for spells, and "in play" became "on the battlefield" being the most important.
one that they didn't fix then, though, was {1}. adding {1} to your mana pool is much different than paying {1} as a cost. The first is adding colorless mana, the second is paying generic mana. I think this is wizards' attempt to fix that. {1} is now always going to mean generic mana, and {<>} will always mean colorless mana. While this is a flavorful plane to make this change, it is not Eldrazi dependant, and will persist into all Magic sets.
assuming, of course, that any of these pictures are even real in the first place.
Although never confirmed to my knowledge, it has long been rumored that "E" (originally intended for Mirrodin, for those that do not follow the above link) was intended to represent costs that could only be paid for with colorless mana.
Kozilek and Waste already seemed legit to me, but Mirrorpool kind of confirms everything. Very weird stuff, but seems plausible and looks interesting.
Yeah, that <> simbol is disturbing, but I don't think it means we're going to have a sixth color. MaRo said in his last article that adding another color is one of the things he's more scared to try. I think it'll just mean "colorless for colorless".
Kozilek seems very powerful to me, a great card for both control and ramp. However, it seems strange that now monogreen ramp decks get to counter things, but hey, who knows...
Mirrorpool looks great and versatile, but looking at the current standard manabases I don't know how many decks will want that.
Kozilek and Waste already seemed legit to me, but Mirrorpool kind of confirms everything. Very weird stuff, but seems plausible and looks interesting.
Yeah, that <> simbol is disturbing, but I don't think it means we're going to have a sixth color. MaRo said in his last article that adding another color is one of the things he's more scared to try. I think it'll just mean "colorless for colorless".
Kozilek seems very powerful to me, a great card for both control and ramp. However, it seems strange that now monogreen ramp decks get to counter things, but hey, who knows...
Mirrorpool looks great and versatile, but looking at the current standard manabases I don't know how many decks will want that.
So what would that do to colorless mana producing items now?
Assuming <> means "must pay with colorless mana" rather than "must pay with Eldrazi mana," the new Kozilek looks crazy powerful. Draw 1-7 cards, and then you can use that card advantage to prevent your opponent from making plays, using removal. I'd gladly discard an Ancient Stirrings to block a Path to Exile for 0 mana.
The ♦ has no color. Only ♦ can be used on the ♦ as shown on Kozilek (and the Mirrorpool's abilities). As such, these don't break color identity (you can put them into any Commander deck). Also, maximum Domain and Converge do not increase to 6 because there isn't a new color or basic land type.
♦ can be spent on the usual colorless mana costs as well. You cannot spend 1 on ♦ though. I suspect any nonbasic land that actually taps for ♦ will probably also enter the battlefield tapped.
I don't think Mirrorpool's real, for the following reasons:
a) If <> represents a new color of mana, which is the most likely interpretation of "{T}: Add {<>} to your mana pool," then we get into uncomfortable implications about a "colorless sixth color." I don't think Wizards would want all that bookkeeping to occur, particularly if they want to keep the game accessible to new players as per NWO.
b) This just doesn't feel like a mythic rare. The only two lands printed at mythic in a standard set were Eye of Ugin and Maze's End. Both of those lands set the bar pretty high for mythic lands: they're each the catalyst for their set's respective plot and had a pretty game-shattering effect. Just copying a spell doesn't seem to be mythic rarity.
c) The other interpretation - <> is a cost that can be paid for with only colorless mana - synergizes well with other stuff outside the block. It'd give a second reason to run painlands, for example.
The wastes will be very expensive foil. If this is real like it seems, it could be very interesting. I'm worried though, that because it is such a small set wotc won't be able to do as much with it
Its Bismuth
I hope its real. It looks super cool.
It would be kinda a flavor fail that land that the Eldrazi have drained can be tapped for mana, but I guess it needs to be that way so we can finally have a basic that taps for colorless mana.
I'm guessing the new symbol is like a colorless variation on snow, useful only as colorless mana or 'waste' mana, and essential to cast things that require 'waste' mana, but has a few special benefits, like having a new basic land as a potential source allowing it to be played in EDH effectively, being searchable with evolving wilds and such in limited, and likely appearing mostly on otherwise legally 'colorless' cards more than snow did, allowing some interesting combinations with stuff out of the set that cares about colorless. The drawback of course would be needing cards from this set to generate waste mana unless they reprint it elsewhere.
If they do wind up doing that, I hope we end up eventually with a Duel Deck, Waste vs. Snow!
Its Bismuth
I hope its real. It looks super cool.
It would be kinda a flavor fail that land that the Eldrazi have drained can be tapped for mana, but I guess it needs to be that way so we can finally have a basic that taps for colorless mana.
You're right! That's what it is. I knew I had seen it before because I have some of that bismuth stuff lying around the house somewhere. I thought it looked cool
It's als on skitterskins art
Okay, maybe the full art version of Barry's land could not have a reminder text for the Barry's mana color but Kozilek should have a rimnder text? (See Phyrexian mana symbols.)
I'm leaning far more toward "<> cannot be paid with colored mana." Going along with this, lands will no longer add 1 to your mana pool, but <> instead.
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Him: You can't do that.
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A new colorless variation would be interesting, I have mixed feelings on Kozilek, Barry's land would be cool (the common symbol and basic land symbol are very similar). No land type solves all the issues. Kozilek can fill hand as well as provide a counter magic when available, grave-to-hand becomes better. I think Menace has slipped through most peoples views, it takes at least two 6/6s that are forced to block it to kill it, still strong, also oddly same cost as Ulamog (likely because its so much less battlecruisery).
Okay, maybe the full art version of Barry's land could not have a reminder text for the Barry's mana color but Kozilek should have a rimnder text? (See Phyrexian mana symbols.)
Looking closer at this land arts, the details look incredibly similar with the ones at the bottom of Kozilek's Sentinel, that happens to be from the same artist.
It would make sense that Ulamog's brood leave that web stuff while Kozilek's brood leave that bismuth thing
Sure, it cannot compete with the other 5 colors, but I would be glad to see some new design space being explored (assuming there is even one to be explored). I hope they go for it, it would create an interesting dynamic in the game (not to mention the breath of fresh air that magic has been needing for a while).
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Well either interpretation could be valid. Theres flaws to both
If the new mana symbol is treated like snow and is it a new flavor of mana (thats still colorless), than the problem is that any cards with this in their casting cost are pure parasitic design and cannot be used outside of this set, that is, they simply wouldn't work in any deck not exclusively running them in modern or legacy. Thats a huge problem with the lasting value of these cards and where they fit and get received, its like devoid or tribal or arcane on steroids. And the question becomes, would wizards greenlight such an inherently problematic premise for a set?
If the new mana symbol is treated as "This may not be paid with colored mana", then why would mirrorpool have it instead of 1? It wouldn't make sense because its not like attaching "This may not pay anything other than colorless mana" makes any sense when colorless mana by definition can't pay anything other than colorless mana. And further, it has the problem where instead of wastes being a *better* colorless basic land, putting it vaguely on par with other basics, under that definition it would be some kind of exclusively worse card. It could still be "This may not pay for colored spells", but now it gets a little more arbitrary and less elegant. So it could still be that, but its a contrived scenario compared to it just being neo-snow colorless mana
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http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr289
Although never confirmed to my knowledge, it has long been rumored that "E" (originally intended for Mirrodin, for those that do not follow the above link) was intended to represent costs that could only be paid for with colorless mana.
http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/126480135723/since-you-were-in-charge-of-the-un-sets-and-each
Yeah, that <> simbol is disturbing, but I don't think it means we're going to have a sixth color. MaRo said in his last article that adding another color is one of the things he's more scared to try. I think it'll just mean "colorless for colorless".
Kozilek seems very powerful to me, a great card for both control and ramp. However, it seems strange that now monogreen ramp decks get to counter things, but hey, who knows...
Mirrorpool looks great and versatile, but looking at the current standard manabases I don't know how many decks will want that.
So what would that do to colorless mana producing items now?
The ♦ has no color. Only ♦ can be used on the ♦ as shown on Kozilek (and the Mirrorpool's abilities). As such, these don't break color identity (you can put them into any Commander deck). Also, maximum Domain and Converge do not increase to 6 because there isn't a new color or basic land type.
♦ can be spent on the usual colorless mana costs as well. You cannot spend 1 on ♦ though. I suspect any nonbasic land that actually taps for ♦ will probably also enter the battlefield tapped.
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a) If <> represents a new color of mana, which is the most likely interpretation of "{T}: Add {<>} to your mana pool," then we get into uncomfortable implications about a "colorless sixth color." I don't think Wizards would want all that bookkeeping to occur, particularly if they want to keep the game accessible to new players as per NWO.
b) This just doesn't feel like a mythic rare. The only two lands printed at mythic in a standard set were Eye of Ugin and Maze's End. Both of those lands set the bar pretty high for mythic lands: they're each the catalyst for their set's respective plot and had a pretty game-shattering effect. Just copying a spell doesn't seem to be mythic rarity.
c) The other interpretation - <> is a cost that can be paid for with only colorless mana - synergizes well with other stuff outside the block. It'd give a second reason to run painlands, for example.
I hope its real. It looks super cool.
It would be kinda a flavor fail that land that the Eldrazi have drained can be tapped for mana, but I guess it needs to be that way so we can finally have a basic that taps for colorless mana.
If they do wind up doing that, I hope we end up eventually with a Duel Deck, Waste vs. Snow!
You're right! That's what it is. I knew I had seen it before because I have some of that bismuth stuff lying around the house somewhere. I thought it looked cool
It's als on skitterskins art
Damn these three cards are already cooler than everything in BFZ except Kiora.
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Mythics don't have Reminder text.
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It would make sense that Ulamog's brood leave that web stuff while Kozilek's brood leave that bismuth thing
Edit: Link for bigger art only
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