Does alloy myr draw mana from your deck or your hand
Asked by RatInABoat 9 years ago
Do cards like alloy myr/copper myr draw cards by its effect from your deck or your hand?
GreatSword says... #2
Please link your cards, formatting guide at the bottom.
I'm sorry but your question doesn't make sense. The cards you mention don't cause you to draw cards, they produce mana.
June 25, 2014 1:36 p.m.
nobu_the_bard says... #3
Copper Myr has a mana ability that is functionally equivalent to the mana ability on a Forest . If you look at older lands, they actually write it out the same way, even. However, as a creature rather than a land, you must pay the mana cost to bring it into play, and it suffers from "summoning sickness", so you must wait a turn to activate the ability.
The resource generated by lands (mana) is also generated by Copper Myr . So if you played Copper Myr on turn 2 by tapping a pair of forests, on your 3rd turn (before making any other plays) you would have 3 potential mana available. If you play another forest on your 3rd turn, you end up a mana "ahead" of a player who has only been playing lands each turn (he would have 3 mana on turn 3, but you now have 4 mana on turn 3).
There's lots and lots of cards that do this kind of stuff, Llanowar Elves and Birds of Paradise are among the more famous ones.
June 25, 2014 1:45 p.m.
RatInABoat says... #4
Ok I'm confused now and I have obviously been playing wrong!Does that mean that with Alloy Myr I would add one mana (let's say in the form of counters) into my pool and then use one forest land card and the one mana from my pool to summon Runeclaw Bear ?
June 25, 2014 1:59 p.m.
Counters are actually a decent way to look at it (though, you have to remember that in the game, it doesn't use actual counters like the ones on Rakdos Shred-Freak or Satyr Hoplite ), metaphor-wise.
Tapping a Forest adds a green mana (a green "counter") to your mana pool. So does Copper Myr . Alloy Myr adds one mana (one "counter) of any color (white, blue, black, red, or green). If you wanna cast a Runeclaw Bear , you need one green "counter" and one other "counter" of any kind. Once you use them, they're used up for the turn.
June 25, 2014 2:15 p.m.
And, just to reiterate: I used "counter" in quotes like that because it's not an actual counter. A lot of game effects refer to counters, and I want to be clear that they don't affect mana the same way.
June 25, 2014 2:16 p.m.
nobu_the_bard says... #7
That would work but your understanding is still slightly off. If it helps, I have seen new players use colored dice or a notepad to keep track of each color of mana; using counters is potentially misleading since those are a game mechanic. You can try to limit yourself to two color decks to help keep your head straight, too.
Note you don't have to tap things before you cast the spell. You can declare casting the spell, then tap mana. Some newbies find this easier.
So Forest taps for G (one green mana), and Alloy Myr taps for any color (you would name the color, "tapping Alloy Myr for one red mana" for example), which satisfies the requirement for Runeclaw Bear .
You can say for example, "I am casting Runeclaw Bear . He costs one green plus one mana. To satisfy his cost, I am tapping a Forest for one green and Alloy Myr for one red."
June 25, 2014 2:22 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #8
Actually, it's even simpler than that.
All mana abilities add mana to your mana pool. In this scenario, you can activate Alloy Myr 's ability to add one green mana to your mana pool, then activate Forest 's ability to add another green mana to your mana pool (remember that Forests have "T: Add G to your mana pool," even though it's not written on newer versions of Forest ). You can then use this mana to pay for a spell like Runeclaw Bear .
You don't use the land itself to pay for the cost; you use the mana the land's ability produces to pay for the cost.
June 25, 2014 2:24 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #9
And, as people said, mana is not really represented by counters. Counters are specific objects in Magic. Mana is just completely intangible, and represented only by amounts.
June 25, 2014 2:25 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #10
This is a common problem with new players since they took the rules text off of lands. People thinking they have to spend land to play cards. You don't spend the lands, you get to put 1 in play each turn and tap them to add mana to your mana pool (both mana and mana pool are abstract concepts) that you then use to cast spells. The lands untap on your next untap phase and can be used for mana again.
Here is a link to a deck I made that has lands with rules text on them: Old Lands. All basic lands have the rules text from those cards even though it isnt printed on them. The symbol on Copper Myr
means "green mana" not forest.
June 25, 2014 2:31 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #12
Please remember to select an answer to remove this question from the active queue.
Epochalyptik says... Accepted answer #1
First, link all cards in your question. There's a formatting guide at the bottom of the page.
Alloy Myr
Copper Myr
These cards don't have anything to do with draw effects. It sounds like you're confusing mana with lands.
Mana is an intangible resource used to pay for game actions - namely spells and abilities. Mana is represented by the five colored mana symbols, the colorless mana symbol, and phrases like "mana of any color."
Lands are cards that (usually) produce mana as permanents. Land and mana are separate things.
When an effect says to add mana to your mana pool, what you're doing is creating the specified amount of that intangible resource. You aren't generating lands or drawing cards from anywhere.
June 25, 2014 1:34 p.m.