Colorless Commander Deck Lands
Asked by Kryogenyc 8 years ago
I need clarification on how lands work for a colorless commander deck Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Question 1: Can i use the Bligthed Lands from BFZ, just for mana generation not the abilities?
Question 2: Can i use basic lands or artifact mana color generating , but they will give me Colorless?
But the rules reads that if a permanent will generate mana of a color that it's not the commander's color it generates colorless instead.Basic lands have no color identity, or I'm wrong?
November 16, 2015 2:10 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #3
For reference if you are building a colorless Ulamog commander deck: Colorless Mana would be a good start.
As a note to your second question: Mana producing artifacts such as a Golgari Keyrune or Izzet Cluestone are not legal for colorless because of the mana symbols in their text, but artifacts like Darksteel Ingot or Meteorite are legal to be in a colorless deck because they don't actually have a mana symbol on the card. When they are tapped for mana, they will merely produce colorless instead.
Also note: Command Tower wouldn't tap for anything if you included it in a colorless deck because your commander would have no color in his identity for the land to produce. But lands like City of Brass and Mana Confluence would work fine due to the same reasoning about Darksteel Ingot.
November 16, 2015 2:14 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #4
The rules do indeed state that if an effect would add mana of a color outside your commander's color identity to your mana pool, it adds colorless mana instead. But they also state that you may not add cards to your deck if their color identity is outside of your commander's color identity.
Basic lands have the color identity corresponding to the color of mana they produce. This is because a card with a basic land type implicitly has he ability "
: Add C to your mana pool," where C is mana of the appropriate color.
November 16, 2015 2:14 p.m.
what about the Blighted lands, same then? NO, becasue of the color ability?
November 16, 2015 2:19 p.m.
Raging_Squiggle says... #6
The old basic lands used to actually have the text: "TAP: Add (this land's color symbol) to your mana pool."
Example: Forest
It's since been assumed that that is what the basic lands do, which is why they now look like this: Forest.
And for the blighted lands, it's because of their secondary ability, like Blighted Cataract which has blue in its color identity.
November 16, 2015 2:21 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #7
Correct. The blighted lands each have an ability with a colored mana symbol in its cost, so they have the color identity associated with that symbol.
November 16, 2015 2:22 p.m.
FancyTuesday says... #8
To elaborate on color identity and basic lands: As Epochalyptik and Raging_Squiggle point out basic lands implicitly have mana symbols in their rules text, and thus a color identity. The explicit rules text was removed after 5th Edition to streamline card design, but the text is still functionally there.
Oracle text is the "actual" text that game rules care about. Oracle text is the wording you find on Gatherer.Wizards.com, Wizard's official card database. It corrects and streamlines old cards for modern rules and covers issues like this one here with basic lands, where their function is so common that they omit the actual text for aesthetic reasons.
November 16, 2015 2:27 p.m. Edited.
can i use the Panoramas from Shards of Alara, since doesn't have a symbol, but they reference Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain or Forest
November 17, 2015 8:21 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #10
You can use those. The use of a basic land type word or a color word doesn't affect a card's color identity unless it's in a characteristic-defining ability, as it is in old versions of the Pact cards.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
No.
If your commander has a colorless color identity, then all cards in your deck must also have a colorless color identity. You can't use basic lands or any other cards that have any colors in their color identities.
Because commander is a social format, you may ask your playgroup if they will permit you to use a given card in the deck, but this is against the official format rules.
November 16, 2015 1:56 p.m.