color identity of non basic land cards
Asked by hollis0316 6 years ago
So, if a non basic land card, Blossoming Sands for instance which is G/W, is tapped for a certain land type, G, would Blossoming Sands be considered green for the rest of the time until that player untaps it again? Or does it not have a color identity after the turn is over?
hyperlocke says... Accepted answer #2
Hi, welcome to TappedOut!
Please remember to link the cards in your question, so we don't have to look them up.
[[Blossoming Sands]]
So, there are two different things: color and color identity. A permanent's color is defined by its mana cost and its color indicator. Lands have no mana cost, so they are colorless (except Dryad Arbor, which has a color indicator saying it's green).
Color identity is a concept used in the Commander format. In a Commander deck, you may only play cards that fit into your commander's color identity. A card's color identity is defined by any mana symbols on the cards, without reminder text.
For example: Shattergang Brothers are Jund (BRG), because it contains black, red, and green mana symbols. Memnarch is a colorless creature, but its color identity is blue, as it contains blue mana symbols in its rules text.
Color identity is established before the game begins. Tapping a land doesn't change its identity.
Blossoming Sands is a land and thus a colorless permanent. Its color identity, however, is GW, as it contains green and white mana symbols. These two statements are true for the entire game, no matter what color you tap it for.
903.4. The Commander variant uses color identity to determine what cards can be in a deck with a certain commander. The color identity of a card is the color or colors of any mana symbols in that cards mana cost or rules text, plus any colors defined by its characteristic-defining abilities (see rule 604.3) or color indicator (see rule 204).
903.4a Color identity is established before the game begins.
903.4b Reminder text is ignored when determining a cards color identity. See rule 207.2.
May 28, 2017 7:12 p.m. Edited.
hyperlocke says... #3
Also, "land type" refers to land (super) types (eg Basic Land). "Basic Land Type" refers to Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest, Wastes.
What you are referring to is "Type of mana", which can be white, blue, black, red, green or colorless.
May 28, 2017 7:25 p.m. Edited.
"Land type" refers to any land subtypes, not to the types or supertypes a land is:
205.3i Lands have their own unique set of subtypes; these subtypes are called land types. The land types are Desert, Forest, Gate, Island, Lair, Locus, Mine, Mountain, Plains, Power-Plant, Swamp, Tower, and Urza's.
Of that list, Forest, Island, Mountain, Plains, and Swamp are the basic land types. See rule 305.6.
Dreykon says... #1
"As you can see from this search of the complete database of Magic cards, no land has a mana cost, and only one land has a color indicator, so all lands arecolorlessexcept for that one land, Dryad Arbor. 202.2. An object is the color or colors of the mana symbols in its mana cost, regardless of the color of its frame."
This should help you.
May 28, 2017 6:16 p.m.