The Colour of Mana

Happy Friday MTG peeps,

We can accurately prognosticate exactly what every Magic: the Gathering player will be talking about tonight while we are at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario, Canada-Land for Friday Night Magic - the groundbreaking game-warping spoilers allegedly from the next set, Oath of the Gatewatch.  Before we get on with today's article, we will want to again repeat to only refer to the official Wizards of the Coast Magic: the Gathering website for official card previews.

Kozilek, the Great Distortion, Mirrorpool, and what appears to be a 'colourless' basic land 'Wastes' took the entire MTG gaming community by surprise.  One rather odd thing about these three spoilers were that all three were related in that they each appear to support the validity of the others - which have caused some gamers to suspect that these were no spoilers but carefully leaked previews from Wizards of the Coast.

In every corner of the internet where MTG fans congregate is on fire with discussions on these new cards.  First and foremost in these discussions is the introduction to the game of a new basic 'colourless' land.  Fortunately, some of the discussions have been cleaned up regarding validity of these spoilers when a 'trusted source' in communication with MTG Salvation Forum Moderators had essentially confirmed the cards real.  Furthermore, today, the same source confirmed that some significant rules changes were being introduced with this new land.  For reference, here are excerpts of the Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules, effective as of November 13, 2015. 

105. Colors 105.1. There are five colors in the Magic game: white, blue, black, red, and green. 105.2. An object can be one or more of the five colors, or it can be no color at all. An object is the color or colors of the mana symbols in its mana cost, regardless of the color of its frame. An object’s color or colors may also be defined by a color indicator or a characteristic-defining ability. See rule 202.2. 

106. Mana 106.1. Mana is the primary resource in the game. Players spend mana to pay costs, usually when casting spells and activating abilities. 106.1a There are five colors of mana: white, blue, black, red, and green. 106.1b There are six types of mana: white, blue, black, red, green, and colorless. 

For years (and years) we have been able to pay any colour of mana, including colourless mana to pay for a spell which had a colourless mana cost.  Contrariwise, one is not able to pay a colourless mana (from a 'mana rock' for example) to pay for a spell which had one or more defined colours within the mana cost.  Inequality some will shout.

IF the new colourless 'diamond' mana thing is true, which we now personally beleive it is, our sympathies are presented to Mr. Matt Tabak, the Magic: the Gathering Rules Manager who had to amend the Comprehensive Rules, a herculean task for this.  We did roll through his tweets and other online submissions to glean when he had a nervous breakdown as a result of this major rules modification but it appears he either kept it together very well or has been replaced by an artificial doppelgänger.

Anywhoos, as for this new Oath of the Gatewatch 'mechanic', we can only speculate at the moment just how exactly the new colourless diamond may work.  A card with the 'diamond' mana symbol in its mana cost or activated ability may only be paid with that new basic land type.  After this, things get increasingly more intricate and complex.  
Does this affect 'devoid' spells? 
Can you use diamond mana to cast a colourless spell (like an artifact)?
How will this affect Commander rules (General Karn)?

We don't have any answers nor can we present any intelligent questions until we know more.  For now, we will simply say that from a storyline / vorthos point of view, this may be the most brilliant thing we've seen.  The Eldrazi Processors have ingested everything in their path essentially stripping the land and life from every last drop of mana energy, leaving a waste devoid of any colour.
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Alara Preview 3

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We have a bit of a Shards of Alara buffet for you today with some fresh spoiled card art, previewed cards and other speculations.

First off, I am rather happy to see that these artifact tri-coloured fetchlands are common so that Magic players would be able to host a deck set in their builds. On the other hand, the 3 mana cost for these do not make me happy at all. Furthermore, these artifacts are wide open to cheap destroy artifact spells like Naturalize or Esper Charm.

Obelisk of Bant, 3
Artifact Common Tap : Add {G},{W}, or {U} to your mana pool.

Obelisk of Esper, 3
Artifact Common Tap : Add {W},{U}, or {B} to your mana pool.

Obelisk of Grixis, 3
Artifact Common Tap : Add {U},{B}, or {R} to your mana pool.

Obelisk of Jund, 3
Artifact Common Tap : Add {B},{R}, or {G} to your mana pool.

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


I think that most players would rather prefer the 'Comes Into Play Tapped' tri-coloured fetchlands such as Arcane Sanctum or perhaps even the 'Panorama' lands (such as Naya Panorama).

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Today on Wizards, Kelly Digges previewed two more cards in his article, Where Ancients Tread, and Spearbreaker Behemoth.


Where Ancients Tread 4{R}
Enchantment, Rare Whenever a creature with power 5 of greater comes into play under your control, you may have Where Ancients Treat deal 5 damage to target creature or player.


Just as Kelly had stated within his article, Where Ancients Tread is priced strategically to be played at turn 5 just as most of the larger, nastier critters are about be rolled out. If you see this hit the table, you had better have and answer such as the instant 'Cancel' or a destroy enchantment card such at Esper Charm or Nauralize. As this is now the second time I have now mentioned these destroy target enchantment cards, I have now resolved to run a deck set of them.


Spearbreaker Behemoth 5{G}{G}
Spearbreaker Behemoth is indestructible. 1 : Target creature with power 5 or greater is indestrible this turn 5 /5


This is the jolly green fellow featured on the Naya Behemoths Intro Pack. It is by no accident that Kelly also previewed 'Spearbreaker Behemoth' at the same time he showed us 'Where Ancients Tread'. Spearbreaker is the perfect answer to keep your fatties alive. In fact, Spearbreaker may have the advantage in this case as your opponent would need to drop 'Where Ancients Tread' first and then wait until their next turn in order to roll out a power of 5 to activate the static ability. Anyway, it`s nice to finally see the creature that the Naya Elves are making such a fuss about.

Finally, we have two more spoiled card art images for Shards of Alara with flavours from Bant and Grixis.

Stay tuned for more . . .

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.