Colours of Alara

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Many in the Magic the Gathering community had been expressing their concern after studying the latest Shards of Alara previews . . . the mana cost. Specifically, the "funky" tri-coloured costs. It is one thing to see a legendary creature or perhaps a Planeswalker have multi-coloured mana costs but the set seen so far is shaping up to near unplayable. This of course would be completely devoid of wisdom or good sense (yes - ludicrous in fact). - SEE BELOW FOR THE RUMOURS ! -

This is the reason why I fully expect to see a number of cards for this release which 'fix mana' to ensure players have access to each of the particular shards colour. That is to say, spells such as Dawn's Reflection of Divergent Growth or perhaps cards such as Mycosynth Lattice which remove the need for mana fixing have to be rolled out. Otherwise, it may take forever to play cards such as Hellkite Overlord, Stoic Angel, or today's previewed card, Sphinx Sovereign.













Speaking of which, lets have a look at today's card as previewed by Kelly Digges, in his article 'The Riddle of the Sphinx'


Sphinx Sovereign, 4{W}{U}{U}{B}
Artifact Creature - Sphinx, Mythic Rare
Flying. At the end of your turn, you gain 3 life if Sphinx Sovereign is untapped. Otherwise, each opponent loses 3 life.
6 / 6

As Kelly Digges had mentioned in his article, the mana cost for this critter is unique in Magic's 15-year history not due to the tri-colour cost but the imbalance of the colour. As we know from the flavour spoilers, each shard has three colors of mana: one "center" color along with its two allies and Sphinx Sovereign fits perfectly into Esper with this.

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What we have for rumours on Land Cycles / Non-Basic Lands to help us pay for these new cards are the following . . .
Obelisk of Jund - Artifact
3 / Common
t: Add {B}, {R} or {G} to your mana pool.

Obelisk of Naya - Artifact
3 / Common
Tap: Add {R}, {G}, or {W} to your mana pool.

Naya Panorama - Land / Common
Tap : Add 1 to your mana pool.
1, Tap : Sacrifice Naya Panorama: Search your library for a basic Mountain, Forest or Plains card and put it into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.

Crumbling Necropolis - Land / Uncommon
Crumbling Necropolis comes into play tapped.
Tap : Add {U}, {B} or {R} to your mana pool.