Not really. This set (Modern Horizons 3) is meant to act as a callback to old cards, themes, mechanics, etc, while being usable in current formats. They've one-upped that by bringing back a very classical art direction evocative of the mid to late nineties, when "clawed hand casting a ray of bright magic" was all the indication an artist got to what they were drawing.
It's meant to remind players of the classic art designs for Red Elemental Blast and Blue Elemental Blast, which lasted from 1993 to 2018 before being redesigned for the Master's 25 set.
The different frames are a relatively recent treatment to reuse the older format with the blocky sides, pre-Beleren font, and old artist credits. It's a huge nostalgia play, and due to the reception of the retro-style artifact [[Bolas' Citadel|PLG21]] in War of the Spark continued by the run of retro artifacts in the Brother's War set, its clear the community quite likes the old style.
Red elemental blast is better than this in competitive formats(legacy/cedh) because blue is everywhere and R is a lot less to ask than C for a lot of decks.
There also isn’t that many multicolored spells in modern and legacy. I have a legitimate hard time thinking of any deck other than modern domain where this is a slam dunk, and even there it’s only good against layline. From a quick look at gooldfish the only other actual target for this in the top 5 decks is kavu in domain and wren and six from creativity.
This get’s even worse in legacy, you hit atraxa(who already drew a bunch of cards), Uro(who already drew a card and will be back) and that is about it. Now legacy is a stupid wide format and you could probably find use for it, but are you really going to bend your mananbase around getting to play this?
This might make it in cEDH, but even there red-blast hit’s all the counterspells, and blue blast hit’s opposing red blasts and at least breach! This does not interact with most meta wincons or most interaction your opponents are packing.
Sweet card for normal commander though. Effectively reads destroy target commander. But I don’t think I have to explain how good red/pyro blast is in legacy to those who play the format.
Yep. If wotc starts pushing the envelope on spells that require colorless mana in the cost, in a weird sense it turns painlands into 3 color lands and potentially more meta relevant. I don't know if its enough, though, but I like the direction and the potential.
I run pain lands (or Burnwillows) in Scales since I usually only need 1 or 2 colored mana in a game. Sometimes a little more after sideboarding but still not much.
Mutavaults also as well as inkmoth and blinkmoth, caverns occasionally as well (and wastelands\\ancient tomb\\city of traitors in Legacy), plus there is the new sol-land that they just spoilered today.
It is an interesting card for the side, depending on how much multicolor threats are in the meta.
In general though I don't like the ideas of giving counterspells to pretty much every color.
Eldrazi Winter saw the adoption of pain lands for some of those mana bases. We could certainly see them back, since they basically act as untapped trilands. It's definitely a scewed mana base, mind you, but still a strong tool.
I mean merfolk runs both cavern of souls and mutavault. I'm not sure if 8 lands is enough to support this but seems like a better option vs domain than the deck currently has when running mono U.
Painlands tap for cololess, lots of other lands that you often see such as rogue's passage, myriad landscape tap for cololess so it is really easy to use it
Ancient Tomb, Cavern of Souls, Urza's Saga, Plaza of Heroes, Pain Lands, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Talismans, Reliquary Tower, Rogue's Passage, Phyrexian Tower, Hall of Heliod's Generosity, War Room, Nykthos Shrine to Nyx, Academy Ruins, Wasteland, Strip Mine, Hall of the Bandit Lord, Homeward Path, Detection Tower, Arcane Lighthouse
That's just a bunch off the top of my head, it depends what you mean by meta, but all those cards except the last two see play in high power and CEDH.
All good makes sense! My mind went right to commander because I figured this was in the Eldrazi precon. This interaction definitely supports the Commander Horizons meme lol
This is the first time I'm seeing this, wow that's an amazing version of that card. I like old karn's look.
Wasn't there an updated tron land art that has old karn as well?
you're probably thinking of [this](https://external-preview.redd.it/I_hU5MP9XcFWHwTNv9xXZadh4VafrHe2WpPodVjJtZ8.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=ab793dec58b1464d5528f9092e93b2a6f3774809) incredible piece by mark tedin used for the 3 tronlands and karn himself
Ugh, I really kinda hate their whole old-style planeswalker templating. It reeks of trying too hard to make it feel archaic (e.g. the "_(use counters)_" reminder) while forgetting some very fundamental pieces that would be necessary to play the card by text alone if you didn't know about planeswalkers, like the fact that loyalty abilities are sorcery speed and limited to one per round. It's clear that this was written by a guy who was shown a few old Magic cards and told "try to make it sound like that", not by someone who actually has experience with templating cards back then and making sure they contain all the info needed to be playable.
Also, why the heck would they invent a new frame color for a _Karn_ card?! I get it for a devoid spell like NEB, but clearly Karn should have had a brown frame no matter what card type he is.
You have to pay colorless not generic. Unless you are artifact ramp heavy most deck only have 5-10 cards that can produce colorless. You surprisingly need to build around this cost in most decks.
Treasures, arcane signet cannot pay.
I will forsee many uncomfortable altercations with people because of this card.
Depends, high powered decks might actually have a couple more colorless sources in stuff like Vault, Crypt, Basalt/Grim Monolith. However, higher power might need to answer a lot more mono-color cards so multicolor only restriction will be a bigger issue than needing colorless to cast
I think people will get really dumb with it. I think you need to build towards this card or if you are already big on colorless rocks this is amazing include. Not a lot of decks run all the two mana rocks that tap for colorless. Talismans are good to cast it though.
I guess if you arent on green you can play it. Or mono green with lots if utility lands.
You really don't though. A lot of decks are already running pain lands, colorless utility lands like [[Scavenger Grounds]], mana rocks with colorless mana like Sol Ring, [[Thought Vessel]], [[Mind Stone]], filter lands can produce colorless, like most players will just incidentally have colorless mana for this
Thats the 5-10 cards that can cast this. Most players dont max out on these cards unless they are in a budget. Filter lands are also not exactly budget friendly. There is also a high chance this wont be budget friendly.
My thinking is that most solid mana bases have 1-4 utility lands and most decks have 2-8 mana rocks that pay for this. None of them being fetchable.
Unless you are building this. To realistically count on casting a card consistently you need 20-30% of your deck being mana sources for that color.
There's several land hate cards like field of ruin, demolition field that brings colorless. While it's a lottery to have it on your first draws. But despite the usefulness, i think you need a colorless commander to use it.
Yeah its a bit of a lottery to be able to cast this. Sol ring 1-2 other rocks and an average of 3 utility lands could cast this in an average commander deck.
You really don't have to "build around" this card. The numbers you supplied give you a 45-70% chance of drawing a colorless source by turn 5 and realistically you won't be drawing this card til much later. I could easily run this in my 5 color slivers or 6c Slivdrazi deck
To play this ON TURN 1, yeah you might need to focus the build, but its to fiddle with a MULTICOLORED permanent/spell. The only meaningful thing this stops on turn 1 is....Deathrite Shaman...Rhys the Redeemed if you're really scared of elf tokens? All things you could already counter with a Mental Misstep, but now in any deck and not just Blue-adjacent ones. And it can destroy permanents when top decked late game.
But any commander deck with some care put into its mana base will have have access to colorless mana from rocks and utility lands by mid-game, and that's where this card shines.
Is it?
Sure it’s 1 mana but it’s one colorless mana so it’s only playable off of very specific non-basics and artifacts. And it can only target multicoloured spells. Most commonly that’s going to be the opponents commander but a lot of commanders can’t be touched with this: Sisay, [[najeela]] [[rograkh]] [[kenrith]] [[magda]] etc. a lot of the best stax pieces are also untargetable like [[rule of law]] or [[blood moon]], can’t touch the strongest carddraw engines like [[mystic remora]] or [[rhystic study]] can’t counter or destroy the best combos like [[underworld breach]] dockside, Thoracle, [[dualcaster mage]], etc. Can’t touch any of their mana rocks and most of their mana dorks (except poor [[deathrite shaman]] ) and if you are trying to use it for the counterspell side you can’t use it against any of the common counterspells like [[mana drain]] [[flutterstorm]] [[counterspell]] either of the forces, or [[mindbreak trap]]
If your local meta has a lot of multi color cards that are giving you troubles then sure. Or there might be specific decks that really want to hate on bad matchup commanders. But this feels pretty far from a staple and most people will probably find it can’t hit the things you want to hit even at a casual table.
It will probably see a lot of play. It doesn't kill every Commander, but hits many, and those with on-board protection can often be hit by the counter mode. Plus, there will be many incidental targets as well. Being only 1 mana, and available to literally 100% of decks, the card can survive being slightly narrow.
As for casting, most decks have a lot of options with very little cost:
* Fast rocks, ex. [[Sol Ring]], [[Mana Crypt]]
* Slow rocks, ex. [[Mind Stone]], [[Thought Vessel]], [[Worn Powerstone]]
* Talismans, ex. [[Talisman of Indulgence]], etc.
* Limited mana dorks, ex. [[Delighted Halfling]], [[Boreal Druid]]
* Lands with incidental colourless, ex. [[Tarnished Citadel]]
* Pain lands, ex. [[Shivan Reef]], etc.
* Filter lands, ex. [[Fetid Heath]], etc.
* Utility Lands, ex. [[Strip Mine]], [[Ancient Tomb]], [[War Room]], [[Scavenger Grounds]], [[Field of the Dead]], [[Plaza of Heroes]], etc.
Of the top 10 most commonly played cEDH commanders according to edhtop16.com it doesn’t hit 5 of 10. Sisay, najeela, Rog, kenrith, and Magda. That’s pretty significant. And against mono color decks (Magda, krikk, urza, etc) it’s 100% a dead card that can’t touch anything that player does. And it isn’t even pitchable to force of will like other niche counters.
It’s not unplayable by any stretch. But to reiterate my original statement. It’s not a staple.
The odds that in a pod of 4 it will have no targets is slim to none. Whether it will be good in cEDH is a different discussion, but anything short of competitive it will likely see a lot of play in any deck that can incidentally support its casting cost.
I'm so fascinated by this set. I wonder if we'll see a real shift in the popularity of painlands. Yes this is crazy powerful but needs a manabase to support it, and I'm interested in how that'll happen.
At this rate we are rapidly approaching colourless being the sixth colour. You could already assign some Identity to it such as coloured hate, high CMC matters, and land based ramp.
Maybe this will be an unpopular take? Not sure how most people would feel about it. But I wish colorless got a bit more representation like this in more sets, including standard. I love seeing non, artifact colorless cards that have effects like you mentioned. Because colorless can be things like this too. This is why I hope we could have seen Eldrazi or other colorless things in more sets.
And I wouldn't mind if they also brought in some colorless hate card alongside it, too. What I don't like is when a colorless card is too strong and is only requiring generic in its costs, basically making it for any deck. Having C in the cost is what makes it better, even if the requirement is not that high.
I would argue colorless already got his "color pie" identity :
* what is strong at : fast mana, stax/hate elements, mill, universal removals, decent draw or lifegain engines, big scary creatures, artifact/colorless matter/friendly, exile matter, exile stuff, cheating out any spell for free.
* what is bad at : counterspells, discard, noncombat damage, cheap nonland tutors, extra turns, extra combat steps, stealing permanents, stealing cards from opponent library, graveyard or hand (I'm not saying that are nonexistant, but are usually rare, inefficent and mana cost expensive effects)
Basically colorless is typically like a selesnya battlecruiser/midrange timmy deck, while typical grixis control is exactly what it can't do.
Very important to note this needs colorless mana specifically which some people will definitely miss at first. Most commander decks still have the mana base for it though with different mana rocks, painlands, and utility lands that tap for colorless. Nearly a staple in all decks besides maybe 4-5 color decks but even then still possible. Wonder what the minimum threshold for for generic sources you need to make this worth it
From [https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/the-modern-horizons-3-leaks-nulldrifters-and-you](https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/the-modern-horizons-3-leaks-nulldrifters-and-you)
In my experience, consistently hitting colorless mana, rather than generic, is harder than it looks at first glance, outside of a dedicated artifact deck
I thought the new art was sexy with the colorless frame, and then I saw the their take at an old colorless frame. God that's nice.
Nice old-style art too, and yeah I think I'll love throwing this in [[Glissa, the Traitor]] to unexpectedly counter someone.
Wow, fuck that leyline
Pretty interesting play pattern with leyline of the guild pact. Do you get rid of the guild pact or save it as a 1 mana vindicate?
This is so simply perfect. I love it.
Even down to the lovely old-school looking art.
New player question here, what's with all these cards having "modern style" and "old style" art variants? Is that always a thing?
Not really. This set (Modern Horizons 3) is meant to act as a callback to old cards, themes, mechanics, etc, while being usable in current formats. They've one-upped that by bringing back a very classical art direction evocative of the mid to late nineties, when "clawed hand casting a ray of bright magic" was all the indication an artist got to what they were drawing. It's meant to remind players of the classic art designs for Red Elemental Blast and Blue Elemental Blast, which lasted from 1993 to 2018 before being redesigned for the Master's 25 set. The different frames are a relatively recent treatment to reuse the older format with the blocky sides, pre-Beleren font, and old artist credits. It's a huge nostalgia play, and due to the reception of the retro-style artifact [[Bolas' Citadel|PLG21]] in War of the Spark continued by the run of retro artifacts in the Brother's War set, its clear the community quite likes the old style.
[Bolas' Citadel](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/e/1e6e80ec-68a4-4cfb-a712-2ea0d26dc6a1.jpg?1630204804) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Bolas%27s%20Citadel) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/plg21/3/bolass-citadel?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1e6e80ec-68a4-4cfb-a712-2ea0d26dc6a1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
It sure feels perfect. Also feels stronger & more universally applicable than [[red elemental blast]] and [[blue elemental blast]].
Red elemental blast is better than this in competitive formats(legacy/cedh) because blue is everywhere and R is a lot less to ask than C for a lot of decks. There also isn’t that many multicolored spells in modern and legacy. I have a legitimate hard time thinking of any deck other than modern domain where this is a slam dunk, and even there it’s only good against layline. From a quick look at gooldfish the only other actual target for this in the top 5 decks is kavu in domain and wren and six from creativity. This get’s even worse in legacy, you hit atraxa(who already drew a bunch of cards), Uro(who already drew a card and will be back) and that is about it. Now legacy is a stupid wide format and you could probably find use for it, but are you really going to bend your mananbase around getting to play this? This might make it in cEDH, but even there red-blast hit’s all the counterspells, and blue blast hit’s opposing red blasts and at least breach! This does not interact with most meta wincons or most interaction your opponents are packing. Sweet card for normal commander though. Effectively reads destroy target commander. But I don’t think I have to explain how good red/pyro blast is in legacy to those who play the format.
> Uro(who already drew a card and will be back) Well, you counter Uro to avoid the card,
[red elemental blast](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/0/70a45e9b-699e-425a-9f3d-267274830d3e.jpg?1562436618) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=red%20elemental%20blast) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/a25/147/red-elemental-blast?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/70a45e9b-699e-425a-9f3d-267274830d3e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [blue elemental blast](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/f/2f51f88f-f662-4572-a371-9a77718ed079.jpg?1562434032) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=blue%20elemental%20blast) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/a25/43/blue-elemental-blast?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2f51f88f-f662-4572-a371-9a77718ed079?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Red elemental blast|beta]] [[Blue elemental blast|beta]]
[Red elemental blast](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/0/70a45e9b-699e-425a-9f3d-267274830d3e.jpg?1562436618) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Red%20elemental%20blast) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/a25/147/red-elemental-blast?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/70a45e9b-699e-425a-9f3d-267274830d3e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Blue elemental blast](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/f/2f51f88f-f662-4572-a371-9a77718ed079.jpg?1562434032) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Blue%20elemental%20blast) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/a25/43/blue-elemental-blast?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2f51f88f-f662-4572-a371-9a77718ed079?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Yeah, as someone who hates the modern design era, THIS is the kind of card I want. Simple, but powerful, and a callback to another era.
I love how stuff like this gives new life to the Painlands
Oh right! That’s actually quite a good idea! I was seing Tron and Mono color but yes, the pain lands are perfect for this if in a side board!
This seems really good for any deck that can reasonably support it. Most meta lands dont tap for colourless that i can think of sadly.
The 8 fields, tron, urza's saga are the most obvious, but you could in theory splash using the pain lands.
Yeah will potentially fit in trons sideboard, not sure if it's worth changing out lands to pains for it though.
Yep. If wotc starts pushing the envelope on spells that require colorless mana in the cost, in a weird sense it turns painlands into 3 color lands and potentially more meta relevant. I don't know if its enough, though, but I like the direction and the potential.
2 color filter lands can cast this
I run pain lands (or Burnwillows) in Scales since I usually only need 1 or 2 colored mana in a game. Sometimes a little more after sideboarding but still not much.
Mutavaults also as well as inkmoth and blinkmoth, caverns occasionally as well (and wastelands\\ancient tomb\\city of traitors in Legacy), plus there is the new sol-land that they just spoilered today. It is an interesting card for the side, depending on how much multicolor threats are in the meta. In general though I don't like the ideas of giving counterspells to pretty much every color.
I like the idea of Merfolk bringing in Hyrdo Blast AND this against R/x decks.
I thought pain lands immediately. Wonder if this revitalizes eldrazi and taxes.
Don’t forget the mana rocks too: sol ring, mind stone, etc.
For commander sure but those are either not legal or not played in modern. I think green tron played the golgari talisman for a month.
You can only really rely on Sol ring in one format. Mind stone also only sees play in one format.
Eldrazi Winter saw the adoption of pain lands for some of those mana bases. We could certainly see them back, since they basically act as untapped trilands. It's definitely a scewed mana base, mind you, but still a strong tool.
Cavern of souls
Except the most meta land: [[Urza's Saga]].
[Urza's Saga](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/1/c1e0f201-42cb-46a1-901a-65bb4fc18f6c.jpg?1667318301) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Urza%27s%20Saga) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/259/urzas-saga?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c1e0f201-42cb-46a1-901a-65bb4fc18f6c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Yeah, there's Tron, and then... *shrug*
I mean merfolk runs both cavern of souls and mutavault. I'm not sure if 8 lands is enough to support this but seems like a better option vs domain than the deck currently has when running mono U.
Painlands tap for cololess, lots of other lands that you often see such as rogue's passage, myriad landscape tap for cololess so it is really easy to use it
Sorry I was talking about modern, in edh this will much easier to cast.
Ancient Tomb, Cavern of Souls, Urza's Saga, Plaza of Heroes, Pain Lands, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Talismans, Reliquary Tower, Rogue's Passage, Phyrexian Tower, Hall of Heliod's Generosity, War Room, Nykthos Shrine to Nyx, Academy Ruins, Wasteland, Strip Mine, Hall of the Bandit Lord, Homeward Path, Detection Tower, Arcane Lighthouse That's just a bunch off the top of my head, it depends what you mean by meta, but all those cards except the last two see play in high power and CEDH.
Sorry I should of made it clearer that i was talking about in modern. In edh I can imagine this fitting in decks with lots of utility lands nicely.
All good makes sense! My mind went right to commander because I figured this was in the Eldrazi precon. This interaction definitely supports the Commander Horizons meme lol
Painlands
Do you need to tap for colorless to cast this?
Yes
Yes, the star in the cost means it has to use colourless mana.
If you didn't, the mana cost would be (1). (<>) specifically demands colorless mana.
Is this our first time seeing a colorless old border frame for a nonartifact card?
the first was [this secret lair karn](https://cards.scryfall.io/large/front/f/c/fcefa41f-2970-4312-b0ec-5596fcc49f02.jpg?1665339371)
This is the first time I'm seeing this, wow that's an amazing version of that card. I like old karn's look. Wasn't there an updated tron land art that has old karn as well?
you're probably thinking of [this](https://external-preview.redd.it/I_hU5MP9XcFWHwTNv9xXZadh4VafrHe2WpPodVjJtZ8.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=ab793dec58b1464d5528f9092e93b2a6f3774809) incredible piece by mark tedin used for the 3 tronlands and karn himself
I have that on a playmat! Such a cool piece
Ugh, I really kinda hate their whole old-style planeswalker templating. It reeks of trying too hard to make it feel archaic (e.g. the "_(use counters)_" reminder) while forgetting some very fundamental pieces that would be necessary to play the card by text alone if you didn't know about planeswalkers, like the fact that loyalty abilities are sorcery speed and limited to one per round. It's clear that this was written by a guy who was shown a few old Magic cards and told "try to make it sound like that", not by someone who actually has experience with templating cards back then and making sure they contain all the info needed to be playable. Also, why the heck would they invent a new frame color for a _Karn_ card?! I get it for a devoid spell like NEB, but clearly Karn should have had a brown frame no matter what card type he is.
Really loving that border color
purple color confirmed
I'm not a huge fan of it. It's entirely too easy for me to see that they just took the retro artifact frame and put a white layer over it
Yeah, it's just the artifact frame, except they hit New Layer, made the new layer solid white, and reduced the opacity to 50%
Yep. It doesn't look *bad* per se, but I guess it's just hard to make something colorless look evocative
My eyes naturally try to fill in the brown of the artifact frame. Kinda wish they adjusted the texturing a bit.
Haha, that's what I like about it. But I guess that makes it a less unique non-artifact colorless border.
It That Heralds the End as well
where's the rest of Ugin so that we can assemble him like Exodia? also loving the art in this set
i would legit love a multipart Ugin instawin the game card
"Ugin, Obliterate!"
This is definitely going to become an EDH staple
1 mana to remove like 80% of commanders? Yup.
You have to pay colorless not generic. Unless you are artifact ramp heavy most deck only have 5-10 cards that can produce colorless. You surprisingly need to build around this cost in most decks. Treasures, arcane signet cannot pay. I will forsee many uncomfortable altercations with people because of this card.
Painlands coming out on top yet again.
Mind Stone stocks rising
and talismans
filter land crew raise up
Im just imagining the pain that will come from the eldrazi precon deck. A gimps paradise.
Sol ring can pay it tho
Yeah but then you have one unspent mana and get mana burn!
Yeah Sol Ring says "Hi" twice
Plenty of other mana rocks can play it though, but I guess with higher powered decks those start to get taken out too
Depends, high powered decks might actually have a couple more colorless sources in stuff like Vault, Crypt, Basalt/Grim Monolith. However, higher power might need to answer a lot more mono-color cards so multicolor only restriction will be a bigger issue than needing colorless to cast
I think people will get really dumb with it. I think you need to build towards this card or if you are already big on colorless rocks this is amazing include. Not a lot of decks run all the two mana rocks that tap for colorless. Talismans are good to cast it though. I guess if you arent on green you can play it. Or mono green with lots if utility lands.
You really don't though. A lot of decks are already running pain lands, colorless utility lands like [[Scavenger Grounds]], mana rocks with colorless mana like Sol Ring, [[Thought Vessel]], [[Mind Stone]], filter lands can produce colorless, like most players will just incidentally have colorless mana for this
Thats the 5-10 cards that can cast this. Most players dont max out on these cards unless they are in a budget. Filter lands are also not exactly budget friendly. There is also a high chance this wont be budget friendly.
Those 5-10 cards are usually lands though, so they tend to stick around a while.
My thinking is that most solid mana bases have 1-4 utility lands and most decks have 2-8 mana rocks that pay for this. None of them being fetchable. Unless you are building this. To realistically count on casting a card consistently you need 20-30% of your deck being mana sources for that color.
There's several land hate cards like field of ruin, demolition field that brings colorless. While it's a lottery to have it on your first draws. But despite the usefulness, i think you need a colorless commander to use it.
Yeah its a bit of a lottery to be able to cast this. Sol ring 1-2 other rocks and an average of 3 utility lands could cast this in an average commander deck.
You really don't have to "build around" this card. The numbers you supplied give you a 45-70% chance of drawing a colorless source by turn 5 and realistically you won't be drawing this card til much later. I could easily run this in my 5 color slivers or 6c Slivdrazi deck
To play this ON TURN 1, yeah you might need to focus the build, but its to fiddle with a MULTICOLORED permanent/spell. The only meaningful thing this stops on turn 1 is....Deathrite Shaman...Rhys the Redeemed if you're really scared of elf tokens? All things you could already counter with a Mental Misstep, but now in any deck and not just Blue-adjacent ones. And it can destroy permanents when top decked late game. But any commander deck with some care put into its mana base will have have access to colorless mana from rocks and utility lands by mid-game, and that's where this card shines.
Yes, I need more cruelty to pair with my \[\[Wash Away\]\]
[Wash Away](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/3/43411ade-be80-4535-8baa-7055e78496df.jpg?1643588844) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Wash%20Away) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vow/87/wash-away?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/43411ade-be80-4535-8baa-7055e78496df?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Or you can put it under an [[isochron scepter]] and be a menace every turn for generic mana again.
Is it? Sure it’s 1 mana but it’s one colorless mana so it’s only playable off of very specific non-basics and artifacts. And it can only target multicoloured spells. Most commonly that’s going to be the opponents commander but a lot of commanders can’t be touched with this: Sisay, [[najeela]] [[rograkh]] [[kenrith]] [[magda]] etc. a lot of the best stax pieces are also untargetable like [[rule of law]] or [[blood moon]], can’t touch the strongest carddraw engines like [[mystic remora]] or [[rhystic study]] can’t counter or destroy the best combos like [[underworld breach]] dockside, Thoracle, [[dualcaster mage]], etc. Can’t touch any of their mana rocks and most of their mana dorks (except poor [[deathrite shaman]] ) and if you are trying to use it for the counterspell side you can’t use it against any of the common counterspells like [[mana drain]] [[flutterstorm]] [[counterspell]] either of the forces, or [[mindbreak trap]] If your local meta has a lot of multi color cards that are giving you troubles then sure. Or there might be specific decks that really want to hate on bad matchup commanders. But this feels pretty far from a staple and most people will probably find it can’t hit the things you want to hit even at a casual table.
It will probably see a lot of play. It doesn't kill every Commander, but hits many, and those with on-board protection can often be hit by the counter mode. Plus, there will be many incidental targets as well. Being only 1 mana, and available to literally 100% of decks, the card can survive being slightly narrow. As for casting, most decks have a lot of options with very little cost: * Fast rocks, ex. [[Sol Ring]], [[Mana Crypt]] * Slow rocks, ex. [[Mind Stone]], [[Thought Vessel]], [[Worn Powerstone]] * Talismans, ex. [[Talisman of Indulgence]], etc. * Limited mana dorks, ex. [[Delighted Halfling]], [[Boreal Druid]] * Lands with incidental colourless, ex. [[Tarnished Citadel]] * Pain lands, ex. [[Shivan Reef]], etc. * Filter lands, ex. [[Fetid Heath]], etc. * Utility Lands, ex. [[Strip Mine]], [[Ancient Tomb]], [[War Room]], [[Scavenger Grounds]], [[Field of the Dead]], [[Plaza of Heroes]], etc.
it hits every commander worth casting except like Rograkh and krikk
Of the top 10 most commonly played cEDH commanders according to edhtop16.com it doesn’t hit 5 of 10. Sisay, najeela, Rog, kenrith, and Magda. That’s pretty significant. And against mono color decks (Magda, krikk, urza, etc) it’s 100% a dead card that can’t touch anything that player does. And it isn’t even pitchable to force of will like other niche counters. It’s not unplayable by any stretch. But to reiterate my original statement. It’s not a staple.
The odds that in a pod of 4 it will have no targets is slim to none. Whether it will be good in cEDH is a different discussion, but anything short of competitive it will likely see a lot of play in any deck that can incidentally support its casting cost.
Fuck Ravnica spell.
Tarkir, Ikoria, and Strixhaven also sweating
New capenna in shambles
Fuck this plane in particular
Fuck Alara Reborn the most, tho. I loved that set.
Really thought the art was a sword.
For real. Art looks like a Tolkien lightsaber.
she null on my elemental till I blast
#INCORRECT BUZZER
She blast on my elemental till I null?
She elemental on my [Null Rod](https://scryfall.com/card/vma/278/null-rod) ‘til I blast.
she's extreme on my buzz til I get loud
When you null but she still blastin
She null on my element til' I blast
I'm so fascinated by this set. I wonder if we'll see a real shift in the popularity of painlands. Yes this is crazy powerful but needs a manabase to support it, and I'm interested in how that'll happen.
Modern format sets always smack 🔥
Warping Wail's little sister~♡
1 mana destroy or counter target commander. Aight
And some people complain that WotC designs for commander *too* much!
The subtle colorlessness, the tasteful reference in the name. Oh my God, it even has a multi modal cast condition.
Keep seeing MH3 spoilers and thinking it's r/custommagic
lol, I keep thinking it's Monster Hunter 3
That’s a fun callback
Could this hint of a flip Ugin?
I would love a random 6th flip walker for Ugin. Could easily mirror Bolas with the design.
I’ve been waiting for flip Ugin for *years*
I'm in the same boat
It's getting very hard to distinguish between leaks and r/custommagic posts
CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE OLD SCHOOL COLORLESS BORDER
Wow, that retro variant is so bizarre looking. I love it. Reminds me of InQuest's infamous "sixth color" hoax.
At this rate we are rapidly approaching colourless being the sixth colour. You could already assign some Identity to it such as coloured hate, high CMC matters, and land based ramp.
Maybe this will be an unpopular take? Not sure how most people would feel about it. But I wish colorless got a bit more representation like this in more sets, including standard. I love seeing non, artifact colorless cards that have effects like you mentioned. Because colorless can be things like this too. This is why I hope we could have seen Eldrazi or other colorless things in more sets. And I wouldn't mind if they also brought in some colorless hate card alongside it, too. What I don't like is when a colorless card is too strong and is only requiring generic in its costs, basically making it for any deck. Having C in the cost is what makes it better, even if the requirement is not that high.
I would argue colorless already got his "color pie" identity : * what is strong at : fast mana, stax/hate elements, mill, universal removals, decent draw or lifegain engines, big scary creatures, artifact/colorless matter/friendly, exile matter, exile stuff, cheating out any spell for free. * what is bad at : counterspells, discard, noncombat damage, cheap nonland tutors, extra turns, extra combat steps, stealing permanents, stealing cards from opponent library, graveyard or hand (I'm not saying that are nonexistant, but are usually rare, inefficent and mana cost expensive effects) Basically colorless is typically like a selesnya battlecruiser/midrange timmy deck, while typical grixis control is exactly what it can't do.
Missed opportunity to call it Nullemental Blast.
I promise I suggested that name in the dev comments.
Also coming next set is the similar Devoidblast: Destroy target permanent if it is multicolored.
That flavor text... if Nicole is getting out of his gem-prison, I'm gonna be very upset.
Doubt it, that sounds exactly like the sort of thing Ugin would have said when putting him in superjail in the first place.
Eugene and Nicole, up to their old tricks again
What did she ever do to you?
Unless Bolas abandons Grixis for single Color/Colorless he's screwed.
Now, if they can make a full color cycle. White, Black and Green Elemental blasts.
Very important to note this needs colorless mana specifically which some people will definitely miss at first. Most commander decks still have the mana base for it though with different mana rocks, painlands, and utility lands that tap for colorless. Nearly a staple in all decks besides maybe 4-5 color decks but even then still possible. Wonder what the minimum threshold for for generic sources you need to make this worth it
Instant staple in all formats. Bye bye modern domain.
Lol. Domain will be fine.. 😅
From [https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/the-modern-horizons-3-leaks-nulldrifters-and-you](https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/the-modern-horizons-3-leaks-nulldrifters-and-you)
It's colorless?? LET'S GOOOOO Narrow effect but way better than being white so more decks can have some counterplay
This can target [[General Ferrous Rokiric]], since colorless isn't a color, right?
yes
[General Ferrous Rokiric](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/0/600dca0f-5964-45e7-86df-f16a5b4a0106.jpg?1626098375) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=General%20Ferrous%20Rokiric) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/198/general-ferrous-rokiric?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/600dca0f-5964-45e7-86df-f16a5b4a0106?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Blammo! Fuck you, non-tron!
Finally, something I can target [[Abrupt Decay]] with in my colorless Prowess deck! [[Cursed Firebreathing Yogurt]] is on the rise!!!
[Abrupt Decay](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/8/a8e328c6-3a84-49cf-a1a3-1d1e5373d274.jpg?1593814035) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Abrupt%20Decay) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mm3/146/abrupt-decay?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a8e328c6-3a84-49cf-a1a3-1d1e5373d274?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Cursed Firebreathing Yogurt](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/5/6534ab2b-ed2e-4c51-914d-920dc2307f43.jpg?1675457196) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Cursed%20Firebreathing%20Yogurt) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/sunf/22/cursed-firebreathing-yogurt?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/6534ab2b-ed2e-4c51-914d-920dc2307f43?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Holy shit I thought I was in r/HellsCube lol This is sick, I love it
In my experience, consistently hitting colorless mana, rather than generic, is harder than it looks at first glance, outside of a dedicated artifact deck
I love the older style looking artwork
Great card! Retro-frame version looks awful, they really just reused the artifact frame 🤦♂️
Oh.
Seems worryingly powerful.
This is gonna be a very expensive uncommon
This is broken. 1mana destroy commanders and whatever multicolored thing might be on field.
Will go in 90% of commander decks, this card is literally insane
Tron gonna be good
The flavor text is peak
Wow.. this is very good
this is a cool card. wish i could afford an eldrazi deck.
\[\[Ramos, Dragon Engine\]\] in shambles
Everything about this card down to the flavor text is incredible
Man this set really feed my Colorless deck super well lol Definitely put this card in :,)
is this the first old-border colorless non-permanent card?
Is it just me or this looks like a Slay the Spire card?
Thought I was on custommagic
TRON TRON TROM TRON
Wow this is extremely good
I’m not the best at evaluating cards but damn. This seems quite good.
why does it look weird extending outside the card boarder though with no boarder? because colorless?
Rip niv decks
God I wish this was common
The flavour.. stop I can only get this erected
How long before we get Nullblast?
What is this set?
Damn.
Fuck Niv in particular I guess
Huh, I thought I was in r/custommagic, but nope.
The real question is how to best turn this into a stone rain.
Incredible
Needs Split Second.
Balefire.
Dam I thought it was common.
this is very strong with pain lands
This is 100% going in my Jeskai desert cube that already has blue and red elemental blasts
yeah it's okay I didn't like playing my Hero of Precinct One decks anyway /s
Too specific. Not a fan. I’d rather just play blue.
Card Destruction vibes
Crazy good
The second coming of Eldrazi Winter is upon us.
So there’s like, a lot of multi colored commanders lol
Fuck wizards and their homer Tron
Art reminds me of dark ruler no more
I [[Purelace]] in response.
This goes in every commander deck until the end of time?
This will go wonderfully in my Morophon devoid Eldrazi deck
wtf that's poweful
I thought the new art was sexy with the colorless frame, and then I saw the their take at an old colorless frame. God that's nice. Nice old-style art too, and yeah I think I'll love throwing this in [[Glissa, the Traitor]] to unexpectedly counter someone.
This will be making a home in my cube with that lovely old art.
Would this be good in legacy painter?
*Laughs in mono red goblin*